🧀The Cheese & Crackers = Quotes by St. Robert Bellarmine, Fr. Edward Leen, and St. Charles Borromeo
🌽The Veggies = My 2💰
🍟The Potatoes = “Spirit is present in the paschal mystery”, by St. John Paul II at a Wednesday General Audience
🍤The Seafood = “The Seven Last Words of Our Lord Jesus Christ, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit”, by St. Robert Bellarmine
🍰The Dessert = YouTube Video: “Spiritual Warfare and Communism, The Accuser, By Fr. Chad Ripperger (Part 02 Segment 03)
The Meditation: “Spotless Lamb of God, You who take away the sins of the world, have mercy on us.
Why is Christ's beauty not marred by any sign of violence in this picture? His Passion is underway yet his face is untouched, no spittle, nor open wound. The crown of thorns does not puncture his skin, instead it sits upon his head like the crown of a king, rather than the tortuous instrument it was. Jesus is without blemish of any kind. Correggio’s painting is emphasizing the Divinity of Christ. He is the purest offering of perfect love, innocence in the midst of voluminous raging, venomous hatred.
His right side is in full light, his hair and beard are neat and trim. His skin is smooth. His left side is partially shadowed, which creates a subtly, gaunt appearance. Two natures, divine and human, are in harmonious balance, united in the Father's perfect will. God's will is to save us by means of sacrificing His only beloved Son.
There is nothing about this face to distract us from the overwhelming sadness and horror expressed through Jesus' eyes. If his eyes were masked the remainder of his face would be the face of the tranquil Jesus who slept peacefully in the boat while the seas roared.
Here the Divine Jesus looks down upon lost humanity, each eye focusing in a different direction. The Almighty Lord, depicted In icons of Christ Pantokrator, has asymmetric eyes too, one bespeaks of God's mercy, the other of His justice. In sympathy with this tradition we also see the triumphant, Risen Christ.
We who have wandered from your presence have grown accustomed to darkness. In your eternal compassion, you call us back. You, who have always loved us, long for our return to your friendship and grace, but sin has blinded us. We cannot find our way on our own nor are we able to return to your presence unless our sins are expiated.
🌂Father God, your suffering was inseparable from Jesus' suffering. Your justice is mercy itself.
🌂Beloved Savior help us to walk in your presence that we may not falter, as you have never faltered in your love for our Father.
My addition is acknowledging the Holy Spirt:
🌂Most Holy Spirit, your empowerment and comfort was so vital to the accomplishment of the Divine Mission by the God made Man, just as it would be needed for all human kind.
🌺 “Saint Catherine of Siena in her dialogue returns on this point more than once, namely, that sanctity is the outcome of the actions and reactions that follow relations with one's fellow-creatures. When these actions and reactions are governed by the principle of divine charity and follow the lines traced by Jesus Christ in His life, then sanctity is attained”. By Fr. Edward Leen
🍊 “If a tiny spark of God’s love already burns within you, do not expose it to the wind, for it may get blown out… Stay quiet with God. Do not spend your time in useless chatter… Do not give yourself to others so completely that you have nothing left for yourself." By St. Charles Borromeo
St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori ~tmm
🎚SAML= Hail, Jesus, our Love, and Mary, our hope !
🧖🏽♀️tmm=Help us hang on tight to you Jesus, Blessed Mary and Holy St. Joseph, a strong three ply cord rope
🧖🏽♀️tmm= Hasten Divine assistance to help us cope
🎚SAML= “O riven Heart! O Love for me now crucified!
🎚SAML= Give to my soul repose within Thy wounded side.”
🧖🏽♀️tmm= As I must loving choose abide
🧖🏽♀️tmm= Forever my resting place to reside
Now here comes the prayer/poem collaboration: The Crucifixion and Death of Jesus
🧖🏽♀️tmm= Where Jesus gave up His life ever so freely
🎚SAML= made the theatre of divine love,
🧖🏽♀️tmm= Come, enter in for a second hand experience, do you need a push or a shove?
🎚SAML= where a God dies for us in a sea of sorrows.
🧖🏽♀️tmm= So that we might have much better tomorrows
🎚SAML= When Jesus had arrived there,
🧖🏽♀️tmm= You could be sure that all in love would certainly not be fair
🎚SAML= they violently strip off his garments cleaving to his torn flesh,
🧖🏽♀️tmm= Yes, before one’s eyes they begin to mesh
🎚SAML= and cast him on the cross.
🧖🏽♀️tmm= To be looked upon and considered to be as dross
🎚SAML= The Divine Lamb stretches himself out on this bed of death,
🧖🏽♀️tmm= My goodness, with what hatred He is met
🎚SAML= presents his hands to the executioners,
🧖🏽♀️tmm= No. one or nothing standing in the way that deters
🎚SAML= and offers to the Eternal Father the great sacrifice of his life for the salvation of men.
🧖🏽♀️tmm= A remedy to bridge the great chasm caused by sin, no costlier a way could there have been
🎚SAML= Behold, now they nail him to the cross and raise him on it.
🧖🏽♀️tmm= Life ebbs out of Him bit by bit
🎚SAML= Look, my soul,
🧖🏽♀️tmm= Sin is serious, it wields on our dear Lord a grievous toll
🎚SAML= on thy Saviour,
🧖🏽♀️tmm= See the intense sufferings under which He minute by minute have to atrociously labor
🎚SAML= who, fastened by three hard nails,
🧖🏽♀️tmm= Even a whole life of suffering for us, in comparison, exceedingly pales
🎚SAML= hangs from the cross,
🧖🏽♀️tmm= Tightly bound, unable to even twist or toss
🎚SAML= where he can find neither room nor rest.
🧖🏽♀️tmm= Mightily put to the test
🎚SAML= At one time he leans on his hands,
🧖🏽♀️tmm= But all over His body excruciating pains together bands
🎚SAML= at another on his feet;
🧖🏽♀️tmm= Shooting pains are felt, radiating merciless in a heartbeat
🎚SAML= but where he leans,
🧖🏽♀️tmm= No relief possible anywhere, it seems
🎚SAML= there the pain is increased.
🧖🏽♀️tmm= All, so that one day we might, whomsoever wills, be able to rejoice and enjoy the heavenly banquet feast
🎚SAML= O my Jesus! and what a bitter death is this which Thou diest?
🧖🏽♀️tmm= But cometh on it’s heel will be the Resurrection, when thou thus riseth
🎚SAML= I see written over the cross,
🧖🏽♀️tmm= And surely it’s a big gain for us from His great loss
🎚SAML= Jesus of Nazareth,
🧖🏽♀️tmm= About to undergo pain and suffering, culminating in a very cruel death
🎚SAML=King of the Jews.
🧖🏽♀️tmm= Ushering in what comes as Good News
🎚SAML= But except this title of scorn,
🧖🏽♀️tmm= Not so in time, as it’ll be one of comfort for those who may cry or mourn
🎚SAML= what token dost Thou show of being a king?
🧖🏽♀️tmm=For those who aren’t blind but can see, your hidden Divine royalty is shown in everything
🎚SAML= Ah, indeed,
🧖🏽♀️tmm- The Martyr of martyrs whose Precious Blood will become the Great Seed
🎚SAML= this throne of tortures,
🧖🏽♀️tmm= Liken to body scorchers
🎚SAML= these hands pierced with nails,
🧖🏽♀️tmm= Where pain miserably trails
🎚SAML= this head transfixed,
🧖🏽♀️tmm= Cowering ideas are nixed
🎚SAML= this flesh all torn,
🧖🏽♀️tmm= Feeling quite worn
🎚SAML= may well make Thee known for a king,
🧖🏽♀️tmm= Absolutely for all, those in truth, peaceful consenting
🎚SAML= but a king of love.
🧖🏽♀️tmm= Drawing down many graces from above
🎚SAML= I draw near,
🧖🏽♀️tmm= As love removes the barrier of fear
🎚SAML= then,
🧖🏽♀️tmm= Kisses to thee I send
🎚SAML= with tenderness,
🧖🏽♀️tmm= And sheer loveliness
🎚SAML= to kiss these wounded feet.
🧖🏽♀️tmm= As afterwards, our glances so lovingly meet
🎚SAML= I embrace this cross,
🧖🏽♀️tmm= Wrapped up in love, so much to be gained from thy loss
🎚SAML= where Thou, made a victim of love,
🧖🏽♀️tmm= No proof of what You were ever guilty of
🎚SAML= wouldst die a sacrifice for me.
🧖🏽♀️tmm= Ever so willingly
🎚SAML= Ah, my Jesus,
🧖🏽♀️tmm= What a great price you paid, not throwing us under the bus
🎚SAML= what would have become of me if Thou hadst not satisfied the divine justice ?
🧖🏽♀️tmm= Sinking and plunging without end into the everlasting dark abyss.
🎚SAML= I thank Thee,
🧖🏽♀️tmm= Wholeheartedly
🎚SAML= and I love Thee.
🧖🏽♀️tmm= Sweet Jesus, my all in all, oh so profoundly
Now for the complete MEDITATIONS ON THE PASSION OF JESUS CHRIST”: The Crucifixion and Death of Jesus.
I.Lo, we are on Calvary! made the theatre of divine love, where a God dies for us in a sea of sorrows. When Jesus had arrived there, they violently strip off his garments cleaving to his torn flesh, and cast him on the cross. The divine Lamb stretches himself out on this bed of death, presents his hands to the executioners, and offers to the Eternal Father the great sacrifice of his life for the salvation of men. Behold, now they nail him to the cross and raise him on it. Look, my soul, on thy Saviour, who, fastened by three hard nails, hangs from the cross, where he can find neither room nor rest. At one time he leans on his hands, at another on his feet; but where he leans, there the pain is increased.
O my Jesus! and what a bitter death is this which Thou diest ? I see written over the cross, Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews. But except this title of scorn, what token dost Thou show of being a king ? Ah, indeed, this throne of tortures, these hands pierced with nails, this head transfixed, this flesh all torn, may well make Thee known for a king, but a king of love. I draw near, then, with tenderness, to kiss these wounded feet. I embrace this cross, where Thou, made a victim of love, wouldst die a sacrifice for me. Ah, my Jesus, what would have become of me if Thou hadst not satisfied the divine justice ? I thank Thee, and I love Thee.
Info from this
site: http://www.vatican.va/jubilee_2000/magazine/documents/ju_mag_01061998_p-12_en.html
“Jesus offered himself 'through the eternal Spirit', and in the power of the Spirit he rises from the dead, giving that same Spirit to his disciples
🗡1. Christ's whole life was lived in the Holy Spirit. St Basil states that the Spirit was his "inseparable companion in everything" (De Spir. S., 16) and offers us this marvellous summary of Christ's history: "Christ's coming: the Holy Spirit precedes; the Incarnation: the Holy Spirit is present; miraculous works, graces and hearings: through the Holy Spirit; demons are expelled, the devil is chained: through the Holy Spirit; forgiveness of sins, union with God: through the Holy Spirit; resurrection of the dead: by the power of Holy Spirit" (ibid., 19). After meditating on Jesus' baptism and his mission carried out in the power of the Holy Spirit, we now wish to reflect on the revelation of the Spirit in Jesus' supreme "hour", the hour of his death and resurrection.
🗡2. The Holy Spirit's presence at the moment of Jesus' death is already presupposed by the simple fact that on the cross it is the Son of God who dies in his human nature. If "unus de Trinitate passus est" (DS 401), that is, if "one Person of the Trinity suffered", the whole Trinity is present in his passion; thus the Father and the Holy Spirit are present as well.
However, we have to ask ourselves: what was the Holy Spirit's precise role in Jesus' supreme hour? This question can only be answered if the mystery of redemption is understood as a mystery of love. Sin, which is the creature's rebellion against the Creator, had interrupted the dialogue of love between God and his children.
Passion and death are ineffable mystery of love: In the Incarnation of the Only-begotten Son, God expresses his faithful and passionate love for sinful humanity, to the point of making himself vulnerable in Jesus. Sin, for its part, reveals on Golgotha its nature as an "attack on God", so that whenever human beings fall back into serious sin, as the Letter to the Hebrews says, "they crucify the Son of God on their own account and hold him up to contempt".
📖 Hebrews 6:6 “and then have fallen away, to bring them to repentance again, since they are recrucifying the Son of God for themselves and holding him up to contempt”
In handing his Son over for our sins, God reveals to us that his loving plan precedes our every merit and abundantly surpasses all our infidelities. "In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the expiation for our sins"
📖 1 John 4:10 “In this is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as expiation for our sins”
🗡3. The passion and death of Jesus is an ineffable mystery of love in which the three divine Persons are involved. The Father takes the free and absolute initiative: it is he who loves first and, in delivering the Son into our murderous hands, exposes his dearest possession. As St Paul says, he "did not spare his own Son", that is, he did not keep him for himself as a jealously held treasure, but "gave him up for us all".
📖 Romans 8:32 “He who did not spare his own Son but handed him over for us all, how will he not also give us everything else along with him?”
The Son fully shares the Father's love and his plan of salvation: "He gave himself for our sins ... according to the will of our God and Father"
📖 Galatians 1:4 “who gave himself for our sins that he might rescue us from the present evil age in accord with the will of our God and Father”
And the Holy Spirit? As in the intimacy of Trinitarian life, so too in this exchange of love which takes place between the Father and the Son in the mystery of Golgotha, the Holy Spirit is the Person-Love in whom the love of the Father and the Son converge. The Letter to the Hebrews develops the image of sacrifice, stating that Jesus offered himself "through the eternal Spirit".
📖 Hebrews 9:14 “how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from dead works to worship the living God”
In the Encyclical Dominum et Vivificantem, I showed that in this passage "eternal Spirit" means precisely the Holy Spirit: as fire consumed the sacrificial victims of the old ritual sacrifices, so "the Holy Spirit acted in a special way in this absolute self-giving of the Son of Man in order to transform this suffering into redemptive love" (n. 40). "The Holy Spirit as Love and Gift comes down, in a certain sense, into the very heart of the sacrifice which is offered on the Cross. Referring here to the biblical tradition we can say: he consumes this sacrifice with the fire of the love which unites the Son with the Father in Trinitarian communion. And since the sacrifice of the Cross is an act proper to Christ, also in this sacrifice he "receives' the Holy Spirit" (ibid., n. 41).
In the Roman liturgy, the priest rightly prays before Communion in these significant words: "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, by the will of the Father and the work of the Holy Spirit your death brought life to the world".
🗡4. Jesus' history does not end in death but leads to the glorious life of Easter. "By his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord' was "designated Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness".
📖 Romans 1:4 “but established as Son of God in power according to the spirit of holiness through resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord”
The resurrection is the fulfilment of the Incarnation and it too takes place, like the Son's birth in the world, "by the work of the Holy Spirit". St Paul says at Antioch in Pisidia: "We bring you" the good news that what God promised to the fathers, this he has fulfilled to us their children by raising Jesus; as is also written in the second psalm, "You are my Son, today I have begotten you"
📖 Acts of the Apostles 13:33 “he has brought to fulfillment for us, [their] children, by raising up Jesus, as it is written in the second psalm, ‘You are my son; this day I have begotten you”
The gift of the Holy Spirit, which the Son received in its fullness on Easter morning, is poured out in abundance by him on the Church. Jesus says to his disciples gathered in the Upper Room: "Receive the Holy Spirit"
📖 John 20:22 “And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit”
and he gives this Spirit to them "as it were through the wounds of his crucifixion: "He showed them his hands and his side" (Dominum et Vivificantem, n. 24). Jesus' saving mission is summed up and fulfilled in communicating the Spirit to human beings, to lead them back to the Father. Through the Spirit Christ now lives in us.
🗡5. If the Holy Spirit's "masterpiece" is the paschal mystery of the Lord Jesus, a mystery of suffering and glory, through the gift of the Spirit Christ's disciples can also suffer and make the cross the path to light: "per crucem ad lucem". The Spirit of the Son gives us the grace to have the same sentiments as Christ and to love as He loved, to the point of offering our life for the brethren: "He laid down his life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren"
📖 1 John 3:16 “The way we came to know love was that he laid down his life for us; so we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers”
By communicating his Spirit to us, Christ enters our life, so that each of us can say, like Paul: "It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me"
📖 Galatians 2:20 “yet I live, no longer I, but Christ lives in me; insofar as I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who has loved me and given himself up for me”
Our whole life thus becomes a continual Passover, a constant passing from death to life, until the final Passover, when we too will pass with Jesus and like Jesus "from this world to the Father"
📖 John 13:1 “Before the feast of Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to pass from this world to the Father. He loved his own in the world and he loved them to the end”
In fact, St. Irenacus of Lyons says, "those who have received and bear the Spirit of God are led to the Word, that is, to the Son, and the Son welcomes them and presents them to the Father, and the Father gives them incorruptibility" (Demonst. Apost., 7)”
📖 LUKE XXIII, 46 “Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit”; and when he had said this he breathed his last”
“Our Lord was now at the point of death, and He cried out with a loud voice: “Father, into Thy hands I commend My Spirit” “Father,” Well might He call God His Father, for He had ever been an obedient Son, obedient even unto death. “Into Thy Hands.” Holy Scripture tells us that the hands of God are His intelligence and His will, or His wisdom and His power. “I commend.” I hand over to Thee My Spirit, to be kept for Me, knowing that Thou wilt restore it to Me again at the time appointed by Thy unalterable decree. If we understand “spirit” as meaning the soul of Our Lord, we must guard against imagining that the holy soul incurred any danger at the moment of its leaving His Body. For men, at the hour of death, are wont to recommend their souls to the earnest prayers of their friends, as they are anxious to secure all possible assistance at that passage. But Our Saviour had no need of anxiety about His soul; He merely placed it under the protection of the Father until such time as it should re-occupy His body. However, to me it seems more likely that Our Lord’s “spirit” refers here to the life of His Body. His prayer would thus mean: “Father, I hand over to Thee the life of My Body. I am dying for men; but do Thou, My Father, soon restore to Me the life of My Body in the hour of My Resurrection.” He desired to die for us, but He wished, too, to be soon restored to life.
In this last word of Our Saviour I see made manifest in a marvellous manner His power, His wisdom, and His charity. His power was shown by the fact that, at the moment of death, He “cried out with a loud voice.” From this we gather that it was in His power not to die and that it was only at His own bidding that death came to Him. Ordinarily, men are in a state of great weakness at the hour of death, so as to be quite unable to utter a word. But Our Lord “cried out with a loud voice.” This explains why the centurion was converted on the spot; and why he returned from Calvary proclaiming “indeed this was the Son of God.” Here, too, Christ's wisdom shines forth. The rocks burst open, the earth quaked, the veil of the temple was rent. So would the Wisdom of the Cross soften hearts long hardened in sin, and the Holy of Holies, until now hidden from view. be opened wide for all who would enter to behold the face to face vision of the splendors of the Godhead.
Christ’s wisdom was also shown by His causing the Cross which has been despised to become an object, not only of honour, but of tender affection. When St. Andrew saw the Cross to which he was about to be nailed, he cried out: “Hail, precious Cross, which hast had the honour of bearing the Body of my Saviour. How long have I sought thee! So eagerly desired thee!.... See, I am ready for thee. My heart burns with the desire to possess thee. Deign to receive me, and let thy receiving be in gladness, for now I am become His disciple Who hung on thee, Jesus Christ, My Saviour.”
And now what shall I say of Our Lord’s charity? “Greater love than this no man hath, that a man lay down his life for his friend.” “In how many ways, O Jesus, didst Thou, while dying on the Cross, show Thy love for me! Thou didst surrender Thy most precious life for Thine enemies, thankless sinners. Thou didst surrender it that Thou mightest rescue these same ungrateful men from the flames of hell. Thou didst die, that Thou mightest make them Thy brethren and Thy friends. Who would not love Thee? Who would not be ready to undergo any suffering for love of Thee?” “Into Thy Hands I commend My Spirit.” Holy Church suggests three occasions on which this prayer may very suitably be used. We say it every evening in Compline, because “at the first approach of darkness, when night is coming on, death might more easily take us by surprise. So we commend our soul to God that death may not find us unprepared.” We say it also before we receive Holy Communion. For “he that eateth the body of the Lord unworthily eateth judgment to himself.” Hence, we commend our spirit to Our Father, that, while we comply with the invitation to His Banquet, we come at the same time clothed with the virtues this most sacred act demands.
And the third occasion when we should repeat this prayer of Our Lord is the moment of death, when our spirit is passing from our body. For if, at that moment, our soul happens to fall into the hands of Satan, we have lost all chance of salvation. And, “what doth it profit a man if he gain the whole world, and suffer the loss of his own soul?” Our Lord's prayer was fully answered. For not only was life given back to His Body, but He remained dead only for time sufficient to prove beyond dispute that He really was dead. Jonas, who had been three days in the fish’s belly, was a figure of Christ. But God so ordained that, in the case of Our Lord, these three days should be shortened to one complete day and two parts of two other days. Again the Father answered His Son’s prayer, by giving Him back, not only His living Body, but by giving it back glorious and immortal. “Christ, rising from the dead, dieth now no more; death shall no more have dominion over Him.”
How can we sum up better all we have been saying about these seven words than by pointing to the source whence issued the entire Passion and Death of Our Saviour-- not only His Passion, but His whole life? That life was one continuous act of obedience to the Will of His Father. “In the head of the book,” wrote David, “it is written of Me that I should do Thy Will; O My God, I have desired it, and Thy Law is in the midst of My Heart.” Thus, obedience is the structure on which was raised His life in all its details. Because the Father wills it He lives for many years in the silence and obscurity of Nazareth; at the bidding of His Father, He comes forth, and His wisdom and eloquence and miracles astonish the world. Throughout, as well in His retirement as in His publicity, the ruling factor is the Will of the Father. “The things that are pleasing to Him I always do.” And now, as we kneel with Him on Calvary, we try to imbibe this lesson. For here is the culmination of obedience. “He humbled Himself, becoming obedient unto death, even unto the death of the Cross.”
Video link: https://youtu.be/CC1q7ETF2Wo