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.