Folks the reason I have not been posting recently is because I have been sick lately and going through lots and lots of tests, surgery and therapy. Thankfully the doctors have permitted me to work through the treatment and I am going about my regular routine as normal. I am battling a physical ailment which some of my closest friends and family have been praying earnestly about. If it be God's will, I will be much better soon and begin to post on a daily basis again. If you feel the urge to pray for me, it would be hugely appreciated. Please do not ask me for any details. If you want to help, just pray for me. 

Yet, I felt the need to post today, because of something terrible which took place between Sunday and yesterday. I accidentally blamed the wrong man, who I hardly knew, for something which happened on Sunday morning that normally should not have bothered me, but triggered some very deep emotional hurt from the past. 

Dear Lord,

I confess that I have sinned. I still have some lingering emotional wounds from my past. Wounds which trigger hurt. I unloaded my frustration and anger from something that happened on Sunday morning onto someone innocent --- Someone I didn't even know very well, yesterday. Lord, heal my wounds, both emotional and physical, as only you are able. Lord, your word says that "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness." 1 John 1:9. Father, please forgive me for my sin. I repent of it, and will try never to do it again.
In Jesus' Name,
Amen.

Remember what James says: "Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God." James 1:19-20

The evil one (Satan) is a deceiver. He deceives and confuses and obfuscates and messes with your head. He wants you to become jealous, angry, upset, and take away your joy. He is more powerful than you think. Beware the evil one. 

Read St. Luke 23:50–56


1. When Our Lady’s mournful task was finished, the body of Jesus was laid in the new tomb of Joseph of Arimathea, there to remain until the hour of its joyful resurrection. Let us contemplate it as it lies there: disfigured by countless wounds and scars; so apparently helpless, yet none the less the joy of God and worthy of our highest adoration. Passive and cold and motionless, but soon to be radiant with the most dazzling beauty; dead, but living with a divine life. Learn from this (a) the glory of suffering; (b) the power of apparent helplessness when God is with us; (c) the beauty of passive obedience; (d) the true life of those who are dead to the world.
2. What was Our Lord doing while thus apparently inactive in the silent tomb? He was beginning His work of triumph, delivering countless souls from purgatory and from limbo, consoling the patriarchs and prophets, fulfilling His promise of paradise to the good thief, trampling on Satan and changing the kingdoms of this world into the kingdoms of God and of His Christ. So it is with us. When we seem useless and doing nothing, we are often really doing the greatest things for God.
3. The tomb where Christ is laid is to be the model of my soul when I receive holy Communion: silent from all din of earthly things, cleansed from all stain of sin by a good confession and firm resolution to amend, dedicated to Him alone, His sacred body embalmed by my love, and wrapped in the clean winding-sheet of purity of intention. Thus will His presence there be the pledge of my resurrection with Him.


Source: Clarke, R. F. (1889). The Sacred Passion of Jesus Christ: Short Meditations for Every Day in Lent (p. 52). Benziger Brothers.

Read St. Mark 15:38–46


1. No sooner is the sacrifice consummated and the last drop of the precious blood shed from Our Lord’s Sacred Heart, than all is changed. That lifeless body is now treated with the utmost respect and veneration. See how gently and carefully Joseph and Nicodemus wind linen bands around the limbs and lower it to the ground, reverently adoring that body which had only a few hours before been a laughing-stock and object of contempt. Hence-forth no more ignominy, no more contempt, no more ill-usage, but the love and adoration of saints and angels to all eternity.
2. Our Lady receives the body of her Son. What were her thoughts as she gazes into the five wounds, and sees how from head to foot it is covered with gaping wounds and bruises, battered out of all shape by the cruelty of man? O Mother of Sorrows, great as an ocean is thy sorrow! What can be thy hatred of sin when thou seest what it has wrought in the divine beauty of thy spotless Son! What a mixture of agonized compassion and mournful sorrow, and hope and consolation, and gratitude and triumphant joy, fills thy sacred soul while thou lookest on the dead body of thy Son!
3. The day on which Jesus died is indeed well called Good Friday. It is the day when Jesus consummated His victory over sin and death. While we mourn over His sufferings and our sins which caused them, we must also rejoice exceedingly at the thought of Satan conquered and heaven opened, and millions of sinners cleansed from sin in His most precious Blood!


Source: Clarke, R. F. (1889). The Sacred Passion of Jesus Christ: Short Meditations for Every Day in Lent (p. 51). Benziger Brothers.

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Read St. John 19:34–37

1. Each time that holy Mass* is said, the sacrifice of our blessed Lord upon the cross is represented in the sacrifice that takes place upon the altar. Thus, the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, on the divine decree, continues to be slain mystically, and will continue as long as the world shall last. With such a sight before our eyes, how can we ever forget Him? how can we ever lose heart or despond with this abiding proof of His tender love before our eyes?
2. In the blood and water that flowed from Our Lord’s side when pierced by the centurion’s spear were represented the sacraments of the Church, the blood of Christ that extricates us in holy Communion, the water that cleanses our souls in baptism and penance. His Sacred Heart that was open then is open still; the rich stream of graces still continues; it has flowed even unto me. What countless graces I have received from the love that has been poured upon me from the Sacred Heart of Jesus!
3. The Sacred Host that we receive in holy Communion reminds us in many things of the dead body of Jesus as it hung upon the cross, all the glory hidden—no life to all appearance there; in the power of all to treat it as they choose; reduced to the lowest humiliation. Yet it is our God and our Lord, the object of the adoring love of angels and of men, He Whom the heaven of heavens cannot contain, Who condescends to be our Guest and the food of our souls. Meditate on the unspeakable love of Jesus sacrificed for us!


Source: Clarke, R. F. (1889). The Sacred Passion of Jesus Christ: Short Meditations for Every Day in Lent (p. 50). Benziger Brothers.
*Note for us Non-Catholics: Mass is Church Service. The writer is Catholic and therefore uses the term Mass and Latin words used during the course of Mass. His Theology is completely sound however. 

Read St. Luke 23:45–48


1. After Our Lord has hung in agony for three hours upon the cross, at last the time approaches when His deliverance is at hand. He has endured every possible form of suffering, bodily and mental. His body has been subjected to a physical torture far worse than the accumulated sufferings of the martyrs; His sacred soul has been rent asunder with an anguish and desolation more awful than any save the eternal anguish of hell. He has sacrificed His honor, His reputation; He has been esteemed a fool and a madman. Now there is only one sacrifice more that He can make to His Eternal Father for man—the sacrifice of His life. He is determined to give up all for us, to be obedient even to death.
2. What was it that caused the death of Our Lord? Not the executioners, not the Jews, not the agony of the cross; they were but instruments. It was sin. Sin had in it a malice sufficient even to rob of life God, Our Lord and King. What a strange mystery sin is! And how strange that we do not hate it more when we see its power to destroy!
3. The death of Jesus was no transient occurrence. He still mystically dies for us each day and each hour. When we receive holy Communion, we “show the death of the Lord till He come,” and, therefore, His sacred Passion and Death should be the chief subject of our thoughts whenever we approach the holy Table, and especially on the eve of the solemn day when He instituted the sacrament of His love.


Source: Clarke, R. F. (1889). The Sacred Passion of Jesus Christ: Short Meditations for Every Day in Lent (p. 49). Benziger Brothers.

Read St. John 19:28, 29


1. There is nothing that causes such agonizing thirst as loss of blood. The prayer of the wounded soldier upon the battle-field is always for a drink of water; he forgets all other pains in his burning thirst. What must have been the intolerable suffering of Our Lord, Whose sacred Body had been gradually drained of every droop of blood! All day long the blood had been flowing—at the scourging, on the way to Calvary, as He was dragged hither and thither, with the sharp cords cutting His wrists. And now upon the cross, as from hands and feet a stream bedewed the ground, fiercer and fiercer grew the burning, parching thirst which consumed Him. O my Jesus, was there none to quench that thirst endured for us?
2. Our Lord’s thirst was to atone especially for the sins of intemperance and self-indulgence in drink. Every sin of drunkenness and excess or self-indulgence in our food and drink added to that thirst and made it still more intolerable. My God, forgive me any such offences, and help me to deny myself some lawful indulgence, that so I may atone for my sins and assuage in some degree that sacred thirst Thou didst endure for me.
3. There was, however, a deeper meaning in Our Lord’s cry: “I thirst!” He was thirsting for the souls of sinners, thirsting for the love of ungrateful men, thirsting for my love. He thirsts for it still, that I may be more faithful to His grace. O my Jesus, help me to love Thee more!


Source: Clarke, R. F. (1889). The Sacred Passion of Jesus Christ: Short Meditations for Every Day in Lent (p. 48). Benziger Brothers.

Read St. Mark 15:33–36


1. Our Lord had for a long time been silent. A thick darkness had gathered; most of the spectators had departed in fear. The mocking Pharisees had been awed to silence. Few were left save the soldiers, St. John, and a faithful group of holy women. All at once a piercing cry from the Divine Sufferer breaks the silence, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” These words were an expression of the thick darkness which Our Lord had permitted to gather round His human soul, and to hide from Him as it were the face of His Eternal Father. This desolation was by far the greatest of all the unspeakable sufferings of the Son of God.
2. What was its cause? Nothing else but sin. He was made sin for us, and having thus identified Himself with the sins of men so far as was possible for the sinless Lamb of God, He allowed Himself to experience to the utmost degree that He could the awful misery which is the consequence of sin—the black, dark hopelessness (if the word is a lawful one) which results to the sinner whom God forsakes. This consequence of sin Jesus took upon Himself to save men from the eternal remorse and despair which otherwise would have been their lot.
3. This cry of Jesus is a model prayer for us in times of darkness and desolation. We sometimes feel as if God had forsaken us, and cry out in our misery and sore distress. We are always safe in echoing Jesus’ words, and He Who hears us use them will remember His own dereliction and help us in ours.


Source: Clarke, R. F. (1889). The Sacred Passion of Jesus Christ: Short Meditations for Every Day in Lent (p. 47). Benziger Brothers.

Read St. John 19:25–27


1. Our Divine Saviour did not depart from those He loved without providing them with a Mother who should be their Consoler, their Protector, their Advocate with God. In the person of St. John, He intrusted them all to Mary’s care. If He had simply been providing Mary with a home, He would first have addressed St. John and commended to him the pious task of sheltering the Mother of God. By speaking first to Mary, He showed that it was she who was to shelter all those who were desolate and in sorrow. St. John was the representative of all who love Jesus, when Jesus said to Mary respecting him, “Woman, behold thy son.”
2. This was the occasion when Our Lady for a second time became a mother. The birth of her first-begotten Jesus cost her no pang of travail; the birth of her spiritual children, the sinful sons of men, brought to her unspeakable anguish. The Queen of heaven became the Queen of Dolors before she could earn the right to exercise over each of us a mother’s fostering care. How we ought to value the privilege of being her children, when it cost Mary such unspeakable suffering!
3. When Jesus said to Mary, “Woman, behold thy son,” He asked Our Lady to regard us with a mother’s love for His sake. Her love for Him was to be transferred to us, without, however, becoming one whit the less. She was to love us for Jesus’ sake; to show her love for Him by loving us. With what perfect confidence can we go to Mary, who sees in each of us, in spite of our sins, the image of her Divine Son!


Source: Clarke, R. F. (1889). The Sacred Passion of Jesus Christ: Short Meditations for Every Day in Lent (p. 46). Benziger Brothers.

Read St. Luke 23:39–43


1. Among those who mocked and derided Jesus were the two thieves crucified with Him. But very soon His unspeakable gentleness and meekness touched the heart of one of the two. First he ceased his words of insult, then he boldly reproved his companion and bore testimony to the innocence of Jesus, and to His authority as King and Lord. What a divine power there is in weakness! The sight of the uncomplaining patience of Christ convinced this robber that He was King of all the earth, and that He Who now was dying on the cross would soon reign forever and ever. “Lord, remember me when Thou shalt come into Thy kingdom!”
2. Remember me! This was his simple prayer. But we know that it was enough. If Christ remembers us, all will be well. What we have to dread is lest He forget us by reason of our having forgotten Him. This prayer should often be on our lips: “O Lord, remember me! In the hour of temptation, remember me! When sorrow bears hard on me, remember me! In sickness and in my last agony, O Lord, remember me!”
3. Our Lord answers this prayer of the good thief with divine generosity. All his sins are forgiven him; and as soon as his agony is over, he is to be received into the company of the blest and to be with Christ in paradise. What a rich reward for his confession of Christ! What a glorious answer to his prayer that Christ will remember him!


Source: Clarke, R. F. (1889). The Sacred Passion of Jesus Christ: Short Meditations for Every Day in Lent (p. 45). Benziger Brothers.

Read St. Matthew 27:39–44


1. The sight of Jesus hanging on the cross, so far from melting the hearts of the Jews, only hardened them the more against Him. Instead of feeling pity, they rejoiced over their Victim, and insulted Him in His misery. When men deliberately refuse to listen to the voice of Jesus, they become quite insensible after a time to His claim on them. They think evil good, and good evil; they are given over to a reprobate mind. Even in little things those who do not obey the impulses of grace become deaf to its calls, or even feel a positive aversion for that which they once loved but have now rejected.
2. How apparently impotent to save Himself the King of Glory seems to be! But that weakness is true strength. It is by these outrages and insults, by this passive endurance of their jeers and gibes, that Christ Our Lord is doing the wondrous work of our Redemption, and earning graces for all those who suffer insult for Him, to rejoice in being counted worthy to suffer shame for His sake.
3. But He is doing more than this. He is also preparing for His sacred humanity a glory corresponding to all this ignominy. Of Him it is true beyond all others that he that humbleth himself shall be exalted. Each taunt, each mocking word, was to earn the praise of the angels and saints to all eternity. Here is an encouragement for us! What matters it, if men despise and insult us, if God approves? The just Judge will not forget in the day of account what we have suffered for Him.


Source: Clarke, R. F. (1889). The Sacred Passion of Jesus Christ: Short Meditations for Every Day in Lent (p. 44). Benziger Brothers.

Read St. Luke 23:32–34


1. Arrived at the summit of Calvary, our Divine Savior is roughly stripped of His garments and exposed to the rude gaze of the scoffing multitude. This shame He endured to atone for our most shameful deeds, for our human respect, for our glorying in our shame, for our boasting and love of display before the eyes of men. Yet when we see the King of Glory thus exposed to shame, will not shame be far dearer to us than the empty honors that men bestow?
2. The executioners then seize Jesus and lay Him down upon the cross. Holes have been bored in the wood at the extremities of the cross-piece and in the lower part of the stem, and Our Lord’s sacred limbs are almost dislocated by being dragged until the hands and feet reach the parts that have been pierced. Then the long, sharp nails are held by one of the soldiers, while another with a hammer drives them in through the hands and feet of Jesus. The blows are struck; the blood gushes forth; while the Divine Victim moans piteously under the exquisite pain. O Jesus, grant me a heartfelt compassion with Thee in Thy sufferings.
3. When Our Lord is nailed to the cross, the soldiers raise it on high, and let the base of it fall into a hole dug in the ground. The shock renews afresh the agony of Jesus. No word is heard from His mouth, save one which He repeats again and again: “Father, forgive them!” Even then He was thinking of others, not of Himself. Was ever love like His? Why do I not love Him more in return?


Source: Clarke, R. F. (1889). The Sacred Passion of Jesus Christ: Short Meditations for Every Day in Lent (p. 43). Benziger Brothers.

Read St. Mark 15:21


1. Our blessed Lord falls again and again beneath the weight of the cross, until it becomes evident to the soldiers that He will never be able to drag it to the place of execution. They accordingly lay hold of a heathen passing by, Simon the Cyrenian, and him they compel to carry the cross. How little Simon knew the happiness in store for him when those rough soldiers seize him and force him to the ignominious task of carrying for a public criminal the instrument of his punishment! How often we too fail to recognize in the sudden disagreeables and contradictions we encounter God’s wonderful designs of mercy to us!
2. Simon at first bore the cross surlily and reluctantly, chafing under the hardship inflicted on him. But as he carries it, somehow an unaccountable change comes over him. It has the virtue to change his heart, and to make of him a devoted follower of the Crucified, one of the pillars of the Apostolic Church. Thus many a cross that we carry reluctantly turns out to be really the means of our sanctification and salvation.
3. Before Simon arrives at the summit of Calvary, the cross has endeared itself to him. He has recognized that to carry it for Jesus was no hardship, but a privilege and a happiness. So too the saints learn to love the cross, to embrace it, to seek it, to carry it with all joy, to be almost discontented if they are without it. This is the very height of peace and felicity; for those who find their joy in the cross find everywhere around them cause for rejoicing.


Source: Clarke, R. F. (1889). The Sacred Passion of Jesus Christ: Short Meditations for Every Day in Lent (p. 42). Benziger Brothers.

Read St. Matthew 16:24–28


1. Our blessed Lady, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, goes forth to meet her Son as He drags Himself up the hill of Calvary. With what horror and dismay must she have been stricken through at the sight of her darling Son and her God, His divine beauty obliterated, mangled and torn, covered with blood and filth, unsightly and terrible to behold! Heart-broken anguish fills her soul, and we may well believe that she would have died of sorrow had she not been miraculously supported by the power of God. O Mother of God! obtain for me a share in Thy grief and Thy intercession!
2. What a fresh pang of sorrow to the gentle heart of Jesus to see His holy Mother, pale and haggard, come to share in His sacred Passion by her compassion! None so full of sympathy as He, none so full of acute feeling for the woes of others. If He compassionated the women on the way, how much more His own Mother, whom He loved far better than all the world beside! O Mary, obtain for me, a sinner, the sacred compassion of Jesus!
3. Our Lady shared in the Passion of Christ in a way in which none else could,—none even of the saints,—simply because she was sinless. She had not to suffer for herself. She had no sin to expiate. This it is which justifies us in giving her the title of co-Redemptorix. She too, who knew no sin, was made sin for us. This earned for her the privilege of sharing in all the agony of the sinless Lamb of God.


Source: Clarke, R. F. (1889). The Sacred Passion of Jesus Christ: Short Meditations for Every Day in Lent (p. 41). Benziger Brothers.

Read St. Luke 23:27–31


1. Torn and bleeding, scarcely able to sustain the heavy burden of the cross, with His long garment entangling His feet, dragged on by the brutal soldiery, Jesus treads the sacred way of the cross. After going a few steps He stumbles and falls; rising with difficulty, He totters on a short distance farther and falls again. O my Lord and my God, I beseech Thee by these Thy most painful falls, grant that I may never again fall into deliberate sin.
2. On the way some women express their grief and compassion with Jesus. His appearance is so pitiable that they cannot restrain their tears. Jesus turns to them, tells them to weep not for Him, but for themselves and for their children. If sin has wrought such a work of destruction in the Son of God, in Whom evil had nothing to lay hold of, in Whom the green wood could be blackened externally but not consumed by the flame, what would be its effects on sinners in whom the fire of sin rages as in the dry tinder? How ought I to fear the least spark of sin which may kindle in me the fire of passion and destroy me utterly!
3. One of those holy women, named Veronica, with a handkerchief wipes from His face the blood and sweat. On looking at the handkerchief she sees the impression of His sacred countenance stamped upon it. So upon the hearts of all who do acts of kindness for Christ’s sake there is imprinted His likeness. Each deed of charity tends to produce in our soul that likeness to Him in which all holiness consists.


Source: Clarke, R. F. (1889). The Sacred Passion of Jesus Christ: Short Meditations for Every Day in Lent (p. 40). Benziger Brothers.

Read St. Matthew 27:31


1. It was not really Pilate who condemned Jesus to death, says St. Bernard, it was His love for us. He had been longing all His life through for that moment when He was to carry out His Father’s will and redeem the world by dying for us. He knew that the divine mandate had gone forth that without shedding of blood there would be no remission. The voice of Pilate, sentencing Him to death, was but the expression of His own love for sinners, and of His joyful acceptance of the cross for their sake. O Jesus, may I love Thee in return for such love for me!
2. The cross has been prepared beforehand, and as soon as the sentence has been passed they bring it forward to be laid upon the shoulders of their Victim. Jesus takes the cross, and kisses the instrument of His Agony as a welcome friend. He did this not merely because He loved us and therefore loved the cross, but to teach us to love our crosses, to accept them as gifts from God to be welcomed, not to be rejected or regarded with aversion and dislike. How can we dislike them when they make us like to Jesus, and must be borne after Him if we are ever to share His joy in heaven?
3. On the shoulder of Jesus was a large, open wound, scarcely covered by the garments thrown upon Him. The weight of the cross rested on this wound, causing Him the most exquisite agony. It was by this that He was earning for us patience under our bodily sufferings. However keen, they are nothing compared to what the Son of God endured on His road to Calvary. Jesus, grant me patience under my sufferings.


Source: Clarke, R. F. (1889). The Sacred Passion of Jesus Christ: Short Meditations for Every Day in Lent (p. 39). Benziger Brothers.

Read St. Matthew 27:24–26


1. Pilate tries first one plan, then another, to avoid passing a sentence which he knew to be unjust. One plan after another fails, and now he is brought face to face with a choice on which the salvation of his soul may well depend. It was the turning-point in his life: the grace of God urging him on one side, and on the other the fear of man. So in the life of each there is some turning-point, some occasion when the choice made will decide his future both in life and in eternity. Unhappy those who in such a moment choose as Pilate chose!
2. The motive that led Pilate to condemn Jesus was the fear of man. He did not dare to face the consequences of doing his duty. He trembled before the opinion of others and the dread of losing his worldly position and honor. To how many has the same motive been a cause of eternal loss! Is it not one before which I have sometimes quailed, loving honor from men, and failing in what I knew was the will of God from a desire to please others?
3. Pilate ordered the sentence to be written out condemning Jesus to death, and then deliberately signed it. But first he washed his hands before the people, declaring himself guiltless of the blood of the just man that he condemned. O fruitless ceremony! He could not wash from his soul the black stain of cowardice and of treachery to his conscience. It is no use doing ill and saying we did not mean it. Such an evasion, like Pilate’s protest, rather adds to than diminishes the sin.


Source: Clarke, R. F. (1889). The Sacred Passion of Jesus Christ: Short Meditations for Every Day in Lent (p. 38). Benziger Brothers.

Read St. John 19:4–6


1. The scourging and crowning with thorns have brought the Son of God to a condition pitiable to contemplate. We have seen Him, and there is no sightliness in Him that we should desire Him. Pity, contempt, horror, disgust, indignation, are mingled in the hearts of those who behold Him. He is indeed a worm and not a man. He, the fairest among ten thousand! He, the sinless Lamb of God! Oh, how frightful must sin be if it can work such havoc even in the sacred person of the Son of God!
2. The sin that did this work, moreover, was the sin of others, not His own. It was something external to Him. He took it indeed upon Himself, He was made sin for us, but sin was never His own as it was ours. If it could so disfigure and degrade the sinless Lamb of God when laid upon Him from without, what must be the disfigurement and degradation sin works in us, springing up as it does out of ourselves, being a part of our sinful nature producing its natural fruits?
3. But was the Son of God really degraded by all these consequences of sin? On the contrary, His sacred humanity had never been so glorious or so worthy of honor as it was then. If He was unsightly before men, in the eyes of His Eternal Father He was crowned with honor and glory. There is nothing so pleasing to God as voluntary self-abasement and humiliation, nothing that brings so rich a recompense. How foolish then am I when I seek to avoid humiliation, and hate to be made like to the Son of God by suffering contempt and reproach from others!


Source: Clarke, R. F. (1889). The Sacred Passion of Jesus Christ: Short Meditations for Every Day in Lent (p. 37). Benziger Brothers.