The Resurrection

The Resurrection of Jesus Christ

 "And looking up, they saw that the stone had been rolled back— it was very large.  And entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe, and they were alarmed.  And he said to them, “Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen; he is not here. See the place where they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you to Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.”" (St.Mark 16.4-7)

I couldn't just leave it there could I? Of course not. Although not an official station, the resurrection is sometimes included. So I am including it.

Wow. So lent comes to an end and the time of Easter celebration begins. I have to admit that this blog has been hard for me. I've struggled to put in the effort and to reflect thoroughly on my day but even so I feel it has brought forth fruit in my own life. And that's just how God works, even though I fail at what I start, it's really Him who does it all if I just give Him a little bit of space to do what He does! What a lent it has been. The irony is, that through my lack of commitment, I've still learnt a lot and feel I have drawn closer to God. It's reinforced my reliance on Him and I feel like I have learnt something new about His love. I can't put it into words but Holy Week has been so powerful for me.

Last night a good friend of mine was received into full communion with the Church and it was such an awesome privileged to be there with him as his sponsor. To see him receive Holy Communion for the first time reminded me of just how special it is. 

Easter Sunday was spent with friends in celebration and great to remember that we were all there, together, because of Christ. I think back on the day and how joy filled it was and compare it to the joy the disciples must have felt once the reality of the resurrection dawned on them. We have hope and joy because of that day. 

The Resurrection is a mystery beyond comprehension and I find myself struggling to grasp its reality. But it did happen. It is a reality. It is STILL a reality as Christ IS risen and IS seated at the right hand of the Father and He IS present, as the risen Lord, in the Holy Eucharist.

These are mysteries I will never understand in this life but I pray that God will grant me the humbleness of faith to accept that which I cannot understand.

What I have seen about myself through this blog is that what I need to live out is Christ's love for me. I've discovered His love in new ways, I've reminded myself of it each day and I know that He has given me all I need but now He asks me to "go out and do the same". I set a challenge for myself this lent: to volunteer at an old age home or homeless shelter. It's taken this lent to get me to a place where I realise just how much I must do that. I waste a lot of time, being lazy, not being productive  and there is so much to be done. I think I will keep this blog going, sporadically, when I get to it, but I feel I need it to make myself feel accountable. And after all, everyday we walk the Way of the Cross, even in the smallest things we do.

My Lord and God, I thank you for everything that You are and that You have done. In rising, Lord Jesus, you changed man's relationship with God forever. The graves were torn open and the dead have new life! I pray that I may have that hope in me, to always trust in You and Your mercy and that I may need no other sign but the resurrection. 

Praise be to you Lord Jesus, for ever and ever, alleluia, alleluia! 

Amen!

Thanks all for reading and drop in from time to time as I keep on trying, with God's grace, to walk the path of Christ.

Jesus is Laid in the Tomb

The Fourteenth Station

Jesus is Laid in the Tomb

"And Joseph took the body, and wrapped it in a clean linen shroud, and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn in the rock; and he rolled a great stone to the door of the tomb, and departed. Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were there, sitting opposite the sepulcher."   (St. Matthew 27.59-61)

As my posts come to an end, I have to back track a little as I have just celebrated a wondrous Easter vigil which was truly beautiful! 

Christ being laid in the tomb. For the disciples it was all over. They couldn't understand it. But they were soon to be even more perplexed when they encountered the risen Christ!

Lord, I ask that I may lay my sinful nature in the tomb. That I may die with you and rise to new life in your resurrection.

Let us pray:

In the depths of this mirror a dim light is flickering, it is a light that will soon burst into a flame ...

O my Jesus, you are, as it were, the dead seed being laid in the ground.

This icon proclaims that all is finished ... "consummatem est" ...

On the heights of Mount Tabor, in your Transfiguration, we glimpsed the truth that has pursued us since: how much is concealed from us, both in light and darkness ... things are never quite what they seem and from this moment forth, nothing will be the same again.

I shall continue to gaze into this mirror Lord until I experience your risen presence in my life.

O Jesus, I believe in you, I love you – I wait for your return! Darkness or light, life or death, it matters not ... I will always find you there ... when all else tells me that you have left, I will always find you there. Always!

The birth of a song is stirring in my heart on the edge of this night, on the brink of this darkness, and I know that I shall soon sing, the song of everlasting songs:

Alleluia! Sanctus! Sanctus! Sanctus! Dominus Deus Sabaoth ... Qui erat, Qui est, et Qui venturus est! Alleluia!^*

  

By: A Poor Clare Colettine Nun

^*Alleluia! Holy! Holy! Holy! The Lord, God of Hosts, Who was, Who is, and Who is to come  (Apocalypse 1.8)

 

Jesus is Taken Down from the Cross

Good Friday

The Thirteenth Station

Jesus is Taken Down from the Cross

"But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water. He who saw it has borne witness -- his testimony is true, and he knows that he tells the truth -- that you also may believe. For these things took place that the scripture might be fulfilled, "Not a bone of him shall be broken." And again another scripture says, "They shall look on him whom they have pierced."   (St. John 19.34-37)

 It is Good Friday. And what a sombre and holy day it is. It has been a Christ filled day with stations of the cross in the morning after which I watched the Passion of Christ with some friends. The 3:00pm Mass straight after watching the Passion was really powerful. As the Passion was read from the Gospel according to John, I couldn't help but bring up the images of the film. 

As I reflect on the station, I contrast the brutality of the crucifixion to the loving tender way Jesus was taken down from the cross by Mary and the disciples. His mission is accomplished and now everyone waits in hope of the resurrection. 

Today I feel that hopeful weight (intentional homophone!). The weight is one of sorrow as I remember Christ's suffering and the hope lies in His resurrection. 

Now is the silence, the quiet and calm before the outburst of celebration and Easter begins.

Lord, I pray for all those being received into the Church tomorrow at the vigil. May you bless them with peace and the fullness of Your love and find a special dwelling place in their hearts as they receive Holy Communion for the first time. I ask this in your most precious name, Lord Jesus,  Amen.

O, most Sacred Heart of Jesus, we place all our trust in you.

Jesus, Lord, I ask for mercy

Let me not implore in vain

All my sins I now detest them

Never will I sin again

Let us pray:

O, my Mother, in this picture, in this mirror I see the dead body of your Son.

Looking at his lifeless body, I see my own death.

Death is a reality that we must all face, but I need the grace, the grace you possessed, Mary, to look beyond the passing reality of death to the greater reality of life everlasting; life forever beyond that pale shadow that has dogged us all our days and which, in an instant of unquenchable light, will vanish forever and with this valley of tears be remembered no more. This blighted presence of  the scandal of death is a shade, the flight of darkness itself from cruciform Light –  for "Dying, You destroyed our death"!

Mary, pray for me that I may cling to the promises of Christ and believe that they will be fulfilled within me, body and soul!

"Ego resuscitabo eum in novissimo die – I will raise him up on the last day." Your Son promised.

I believe.

Jesus Dies on the Cross

Holy Thursday

The Twelfth Station

Jesus Dies on the Cross

"When Jesus saw his mother, and the disciple whom he loved standing near, he said to his mother, "Woman, behold, your son!" Then he said to the disciple, "Behold, your mother!" And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home. After this Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the scripture), "I thirst." (St. John 19.26-28.)

Holy Thursday marks the beginning of the Easter Triduum. What a special Holy day it is as a memorial of the institution of the Blessed Sacrament by Jesus at the Last Supper. Mass today was beautiful and the sermon was on the Triduum. I love the connections between the passover, the blood of the lamb smeared on the doorposts that saved the Jews from slavery in Egypt, and Christ's passion, the blood of the lamb which saves humanity from the slavery of sin. The Jews were instructed to eat the sacrifice. Jesus commanded us to eat His Body and Blood in remembrance of Him. I love the complexities and the beauty of it all.

Jesus dies on the cross.

God died.

We killed Him.

Yet it was for US that He died.

And by dying He destroyed death.

And by rising He restored our life.

I don't think there is anything I can really say for this station. It is just so powerful to think about that it makes me want to go and kneel in front of the tabernacle and give thanks.

How does it relate to my day? It relates to my LIFE! because without His sacrifice I would have no life. No life eternal. God became man and died for us because He loved us so much He would rather He suffer and die for our sins then see us suffer and die for them even though it was what we deserved. If we could only experience a brief instant of God's full love for us, our unworthiness and ingratitude would be so blatantly clear that we would wonder how He ever put up with us. It blows my mind sometimes but most of the day I waltz around, lost in my own world of trivial problems and completely taking for granted the miracle of God becoming incarnate and dying for me. Lord, I pray for a stronger faith and deeper love and appreciation of all You have done for me.

Let us pray:

O, my Jesus, in this mirror I see reflected the incomprehensible icon of your great love for me. Through the Incarnation you emptied yourself of your Divinity to assume the flesh and blood of man – and as though this outpouring were not enough, that life you assumed now pours forth from you, a libation in blood, as you empty yourself once again ... now surrendering your humanity in blood to the darkness of death.

You have given all. Your Divinity and your humanity – and both, that we may share in your life as God! Surrendering both, you were poured out utterly – that we may come to the fullness of life through your death. Utter desolation. Utter abandonment. The total dereliction of God and Man in the God made Man.

It is not taken from you. You surrender it. It is yours to surrender, and it is yours to take up again! For all our evil devices we have taken nothing from you but what you willingly surrender, and because it was not in our power to take, it is not in our power to restore. We are not gods after all ... not by us, but for our sake, all has now been accomplished. By our malice, our sin, have we brought you to this death –- but not by our power. Your meekness has vanquished the might of all men!

In dying you overthrew death itself!

It is no more.

O, Jesus, grant me the grace to give myself totally to you for the sake of your love.

Behold, my Lord and my God, from this moment hence I surrender to you all that I am, all that I have! Beyond the scandal of the Cross on this hill of the skull, even now I behold a gathering light and it reveals endless fields that are yet white to harvest! You have come in your going. I go, too, with you ... so now, Lord ... send me ...!

Jesus is Nailed to the Cross

The Eleventh Station

Jesus is Nailed to the Cross

"And when they came to the place which is called The Skull, there they crucified him, and the criminals, one on the right and one on the left. And Jesus said, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do." (St. Luke 23.33-34)

I am a procrastinator. I am lazy. I noticed that very much today. I have work to do, things to finish, things I have been putting off for long time because I don't feel like doing them. I know that I can do them because when something does interest me, I don't stop working until what I am doing is finished. So I have no one to blame but myself. I managed to tick one thing off my to do list today and it wasn't a very hard thing to do.

I think of Christ, in that position of total surrender, giving himself up into the hands of men for them to do what they pleased. In my own little way, I hope I can learn to surrender myself to the things I don't want to do or don't enjoy doing and to do those things without complaint.

Tomorrow is Holy Thursday and the Easter Triduum begins. I am looking forward to it!

Let us pray:
 
You opened your hands so many times before, my beloved Jesus. To bless, to heal, to raise the maimed, the ill – even to raise the dead; to caress the face of lepers, to hold the children who gathered so gleefully around you, to lift up from shame those brought down in disgrace.

And now you open them once more in an act of love and compassion greater than any other. The same love that opened them to the blind, opens them to the blind once again ... who do not see, do not understand, what they do. Willingly you open them to be transfixed by my sin – it was not the force of soldiers' calloused fists, but the force of  love that unfolded your hands beneath the shattering blow in the towering hatred and hammer.

You did not resist what in a word you could have vanquished!

Teach me, my Jesus, to be like unto thee: meek before hatred, returning love for spite, and blessing for malediction! ... to suffer evil without reproach, to immolate myself in my suffering – beneath the hands of men more evil than me – in an offering to Thee, O, God ... my God ... Who has not forsaken me! Into Whose Hands I commend my cause ... and commit my spirit!

Responsory

O, my Jesus, in this mirror of suffering I see your wounded hands and feet.

Though your wounds are bleeding freely, yet on your face is peace.

Your mission is almost accomplished; you have done what was yours to do.

O Jesus, teach me now to do what is mine.

Your arms are open in total surrender to the will of the Father –

I ask for the grace to abandon myself totally to your will, and through you to the Father.

Jesus is Stripped of His Garments

The Tenth Station

Jesus is Stripped of His Garments

"When the soldiers had crucified Jesus they took his garments and made four parts, one for each soldier; also his tunic. But the tunic was without seam, woven from top to bottom" (St. John 19.23)

I took a deeper look at myself today. I went to confession having missed the penetential service and the Saturday slots.

One of my greatest fears as a Christian is that I am not being authentic. I want to be real. I want to be a real person who believes in Christ and His Grace and Mercy. I don't want to pretend that everything is hunky-dory now that I living my faith or now that I am a “committed Christian”. Because it isn't. And reality hits hard. Things are never simple. Things are never black and white. And the only way through any of it, if you want to come out intact on the other side, is to have God in your life.

When I pray I want to pray earnestly and honestly, as I am, stripped of my false pretenses and of the platitudes that I am used to spouting when praying. When I talk to others, I want to be stripped of falseness and dishonesty. I want to be stripped of fake conversation. I just want to be me: Seb. Who I am. And I want to be who I am with Christ at my centre. No more, no less.

I have heard stories of people meeting friends who have converted to Christianity who say, “He's changed.” or “He's not the same.” They are right. He has changed and he isn't the same but I feel that at a persons core, the person they are is truly good and that is what his “friends” were attracted to in the first place. Being Christian isn't about covering up... It's about stripping down. Down to who I am at my very core. Down to who God created me to be. My true self.

Christ, you were stripped of Your garments and we mocked and laughed at You. I pray that I can be stripped too, Lord and that I can, with Your help, bear the torment and mockery that may come from being truly and honestly myself with you at my centre.

Amen.

Jesus Falls the Third Time

The Ninth Station

Jesus Falls a Third Time

"Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by? Look and see if there is any sorrow like my sorrow which was brought upon me, which the LORD inflicted on the day of his fierce anger. "From on high he sent fire; into my bones he made it descend; he spread a net for my feet; he turned me back; he has left me stunned, faint all the day long. "My transgressions were bound into a yoke; by his hand they were fastened together; they were set upon my neck; he caused my strength to fail; the Lord gave me into the hands of those whom I cannot withstand." (Lamentations 1.12-14)

I sat and prayed properly this morning for the first time in a long time. I focused and tried my best to pray earnestly and honestly. Today was a good day spiritually, from what I could tell. I definitely felt a renewal of sorts, a strengthening of faith, an answer to my prayers (and anyone else who has been praying for me (thank you!)). I went for a long walk with friends in Kalk Bay which was really beautiful and just what I needed, then we talked about the Easter Triduum in RCIA tonight which was also really amazing.

As Holy Week starts, what has been coming to light for me (through this blog and through the Mass' leading up to Easter), is the love behind Christ's sacrifice. Just HOW MUCH God loves us.

Also His command to “go out and do the same” Luke 10 vs 37. I read the parable of The Good Samaritan this morning and that is what struck me. The teacher of the law inquires how he can attain eternal life, Jesus poses the question back to him to which the teacher of the law responds, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.”

“You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”

(Luke 10:25-37)

Amazing. Really powerful. Christ's commands are clear and He witnessed to His teachings best by His giving His life for all mankind.

Christ fell a third time. But He also got up a third time and began His final push toward fulfilling His mission. As Christ begins His final steps toward the cross, this week I feel a renewal as I begin my final preparations for the Easter Triduum. I pray that I may be able to appreciate the magnitude of the events that transpired and that God will fill me with humility and reverence over the Easter period. Already the joy and excitement of Easter is bubbling over into Holy Week and how can it not as we all prepare to celebrate the salvation of mankind!

Praise be to God.

Let us pray:
O, my Jesus, in this mirror of suffering I see you, the Lord of Lord, the King of Kings, prostrate on the ground, exhausted, weighed down by your pain, collapsing under our sins.

In this icon I see your poverty, I see you, the great Shepherd of the sheep, crushed as a sacrificial lamb ...

This is the way in which we, too, must walk before we come to good pastures.

We are all called to walk to our own Calvary; called by our Shepherd into the light of the Resurrection ... beyond the Cross; beyond all tears, all suffering, all sorrow – to the home you have prepared for us from before all time ...