Tag: john18:18

One Minute Reflection – Friday of the Passion of the Lord – 10 April, Readings:  Isaiah 52:13–53:12, Psalm 31:2, 6, 12-13, 15-17, 25, Hebrews 4:14-16; 5:7-9, John 18:1-19:42

There they crucified him and with him two others, one on either side and Jesus between them … John 18:18

REFLECTION – “Truly, you are a hidden God!” (Is 45:15).   Why hidden?   Because He had neither form nor beauty, yet power was in His hands.   It was there His fortitude was hidden.

Was He not hidden when he submitted His hands to brutes and His palms received the nails?   The print of the nails gleamed on His hands and His innocent side received the wound.   They shackled His feet in fetters, the iron pierced His soles and His feet were fastened to the tree.   These wounds did God suffer on our behalf at the hands of His own people, in His own home.   O how marvellous are His wounds by which the wounds of the world were healed!   How victorious His wounds, by which He slew death and stung hell! (…) Therefore, O Church, O dove, you have coverts in the rock and a hollow in the wall in which to rest (cf. Sg 2:14). (…)

And what will you do (…) when He comes in the clouds with great power and majesty? (cf. Mt 24:30)   He will come down with heaven and earth ablaze and by the terror of His coming He will dissolve the elements.   When He has come, the Sign of the Cross will be seen in the sky and the beloved one will show the scars of His wounds and the prints of the nails by which He was transfixed in His own home.” … St Amadeus of Lausanne (1108-1159) – Cistercian Monk, Bishop

PRAYER – The Angel of the Agony
Saint John Henry Newman (1801-1890)

Jesu! by that shuddering dread which fell on Thee.
Jesu! by that cold dismay which sicken’d Thee.
Jesu! by that pang of heart which thrill’d in Thee.
Jesu! by that mount of sins which crippled Thee.
Jesu! by that sense of guilt which stifled Thee.
Jesu! by that innocence that girded Thee.
Jesu! by that sanctity that reign’d in Thee.
Jesu! by that Godhead which was one with Thee.
Jesu! spare those souls which are so dear to Thee.
Who in prison, calm and patient, wait for Thee.
Hasten, Lord, their hour and bid them come to Thee.
To that glorious Home, where they shall ever gaze on Thee.
Amen