Thought for the Day – 30 March 2018 – Good Friday of the Passion of the Lord
“Behold the Man”
Part two
By Blessed John Henry Cardinal Newman (1801-1890)
“I see the figure of a man, whether young or old I cannot tell. He may be fifty, or he may be thirty. …..CONTINUED HERE – 20 February 2018, Tuesday of the First Week of Lent) https://anastpaul.wordpress.com/2018/02/20/thought-for-the-day-20-february-2018-tuesday-of-the-first-week-of-lent/
Continued:
“O injured Lord, what can I say? I am very guilty concerning You, my brother; and I shall sink in sullen despair if You do not raise me. I cannot look on You; I shrink from You; I throw my arms round my face; I crouch to the earth. Satan will pull me down if You do not take pity. It is terrible to turn to You; but oh, turn me and so shall I be turned.
It is a purgatory to endure the sight of You, the sight of myself – I most vile, You most holy. Yet make me look once more on You whom I have so incomprehensibly affronted, for Your countenance is my only life, my only hope and health lies in looking on You whom I have pierced. So I put myself before You; I look on You again; I endure the pain in order to receive the purification.
O my God, how can I look You in the face when I think of my ingratitude, so deeply seated, so habitual, so immovable – or rather so awfully increasing!
You load me day by day with Your favours and feed me with Yourself, as You did Judas, yet not only do I not profit thereby but I do not even make any acknowledgement at the time.
Lord, how long? When shall I be free of this real, this fatal captivity? He who made Judas his prey has got foothold of me in my old age and I cannot get loose. It is the same day after day. When will You give me a still greater grace than You have given, the grace to profit by the graces that You give? When will You give me Your effectual grace, which alone can give life and vigour to this effete, miserable, dying soul of mine?
My God, I know not in what sense I can pain You in Your glorified state but I know that every fresh sin, every fresh ingratitude I now commit, was among the blows and stripes that once fell on You in Your Passion. Oh, let me have as little share in those past sufferings as possible. Day by day goes and I find I have been more and more, by the new sins of each day, the cause of them. I know that at best I have a real share of them all but still it is shocking to find myself having a greater and greater share. Let others wound You – let not me. Let me not have to think that You would have had this or that pang of soul or body the less, except for me.
O my God, I am so fast in prison that I cannot get out. O Mary, pray for me.”
AnaStpaul 