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Celebration of the Passion of our Lord. On Good Friday, Pope Francis presides over the Celebration of the Passion of our Lord, St. Peter's Basilica.More
Celebration of the Passion of our Lord.
On Good Friday, Pope Francis presides over the Celebration of the Passion of our Lord, St. Peter's Basilica.
Esperanza Matinal
St. John Chrysostom: The shame and power of the cross
"In themselves death and imprisonment and chains cause shame and reproach. But when ...the mystery is viewed aright, they will appear full of dignity and the matter for boasting. For it was that death on the cross that saved the world when it was perishing". Like St. Paul, St. John Chrysostom teaches that if we treasure Christ's death for us at …More
St. John Chrysostom: The shame and power of the cross
"In themselves death and imprisonment and chains cause shame and reproach. But when ...the mystery is viewed aright, they will appear full of dignity and the matter for boasting. For it was that death on the cross that saved the world when it was perishing". Like St. Paul, St. John Chrysostom teaches that if we treasure Christ's death for us at the cross, then we will appreciate the value of our own crosses.
Leticia María
Saint Rose of Lima: "Apart from the cross there is no other ladder by which we may get to heaven" 👏 👏
Celeste Bonaluz
-Saint John Vianney: "Can the life of a good Christian be anything other than that of a man nailed to the Cross with Jesus Christ?"
-Saint Rose of Lima: "Apart from the cross there is no other ladder by which we may get to heaven" 🙏 🙏More
-Saint John Vianney: "Can the life of a good Christian be anything other than that of a man nailed to the Cross with Jesus Christ?"

-Saint Rose of Lima: "Apart from the cross there is no other ladder by which we may get to heaven" 🙏 🙏
Celeste Bonaluz
St. Rose of Lima
"If only mortals would learn how great it is to possess divine grace, how beautiful, how noble, how precious. How many riches it hides within itself, how many joys and delights! Without doubt they would devote all their care and concern to winning for themselves pains and afflictions. All men throughout the world would seek trouble, infirmities and torments, instead of good fortune …More
St. Rose of Lima
"If only mortals would learn how great it is to possess divine grace, how beautiful, how noble, how precious. How many riches it hides within itself, how many joys and delights! Without doubt they would devote all their care and concern to winning for themselves pains and afflictions. All men throughout the world would seek trouble, infirmities and torments, instead of good fortune, in order to attain the unfathomable treasure of grace. This is the reward and the final gain of patience. No one would complain about his cross or about troubles that may happen to him, if he would come to know the scales on which they are weighed when they are distributed to men."
Sagrario Mariángeles
Pope Francis:
"I would like for us all, after these days of grace, to have courage, precisely the courage, to walk in the Lord’s presence, with the cross of the Lord; to build the Church upon the blood of the Lord, which was poured out on the cross; and to confess the only glory there is: Christ crucified. And in this way the Church will go forward." - Homily during the "Pro Ecclessia" Mass, March …More
Pope Francis:
"I would like for us all, after these days of grace, to have courage, precisely the courage, to walk in the Lord’s presence, with the cross of the Lord; to build the Church upon the blood of the Lord, which was poured out on the cross; and to confess the only glory there is: Christ crucified. And in this way the Church will go forward." - Homily during the "Pro Ecclessia" Mass, March 15, 2013.
Sagrario Mariángeles
"For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God" -1 Corinthians 1:18
"Faced with this abyss of evil, I can only respond with an abyss of love" -Blessed John Paul II
"There is no other response than the Cross of Christ: Love descended to the very depths of the abyss of evil to save man in his core." Pope Benedict on his visit to …More
"For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God" -1 Corinthians 1:18

"Faced with this abyss of evil, I can only respond with an abyss of love" -Blessed John Paul II
"There is no other response than the Cross of Christ: Love descended to the very depths of the abyss of evil to save man in his core." Pope Benedict on his visit to the Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz.

"If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me." This is the "Christian way," because it was first put into practice by Jesus: "We can’t think of the Christian life apart from this path. -Pope Francis
Luzmaría
Isaiah 52:13—53:12
13 Behold, my servant shall prosper, he shall be exalted and lifted up, and shall be very high.
14 As many were astonished at him -- his appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance, and his form beyond that of the sons of men --
15 so shall he startle many nations; kings shall shut their mouths because of him; for that which has not been told them they shall see, and that …More
Isaiah 52:13—53:12
13 Behold, my servant shall prosper, he shall be exalted and lifted up, and shall be very high.
14 As many were astonished at him -- his appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance, and his form beyond that of the sons of men --
15 so shall he startle many nations; kings shall shut their mouths because of him; for that which has not been told them they shall see, and that which they have not heard they shall understand.
1 Who has believed what we have heard? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?
2 For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or comeliness that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him.
3 He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
4 Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.
5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that made us whole, and with his stripes we are healed.
6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth.
8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people?
Luzmaría
9 And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth.
10 Yet it was the will of the LORD to bruise him; he has put him to grief; when he makes himself an offering for sin, he shall see his offspring, he shall prolong his days; the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand;
11 he shall see the fruit of the …More
9 And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth.
10 Yet it was the will of the LORD to bruise him; he has put him to grief; when he makes himself an offering for sin, he shall see his offspring, he shall prolong his days; the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand;
11 he shall see the fruit of the travail of his soul and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous; and he shall bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore I will divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he poured out his soul to death, and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
3 more comments from Luzmaría
Luzmaría
10 Yet it was the will of the LORD to bruise him; he has put him to grief; when he makes himself an offering for sin, he shall see his offspring, he shall prolong his days; the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand;
11 he shall see the fruit of the travail of his soul and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous; and he shall bear …More
10 Yet it was the will of the LORD to bruise him; he has put him to grief; when he makes himself an offering for sin, he shall see his offspring, he shall prolong his days; the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand;
11 he shall see the fruit of the travail of his soul and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous; and he shall bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore I will divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he poured out his soul to death, and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
Luzmaría
La barbarie suprema
Y más aún: era costumbre de los romanos que los cuerpos de los crucificados permaneciesen horas en la cruz e incluso una operación bárbara llamada «crurifragium», que era rematar a los ajusticiados,quebrándoles las piernas. Cuando llegaron a Jesús, renunciaron al golpe en las extremidades pero no al de gracia, atravesándole el pecho con una lanza. Salió sangre y agua del …More
La barbarie suprema
Y más aún: era costumbre de los romanos que los cuerpos de los crucificados permaneciesen horas en la cruz e incluso una operación bárbara llamada «crurifragium», que era rematar a los ajusticiados,quebrándoles las piernas. Cuando llegaron a Jesús, renunciaron al golpe en las extremidades pero no al de gracia, atravesándole el pecho con una lanza. Salió sangre y agua del costado, por lo que los médicos han determinado aplicando el rigor científico que el pericardio que envuelve el corazón fue traspasado y perforado. El profesor Balaguer recupera a San Pedro: «Israelitas… le matasteis clavándole en la cruz por mano de los impíos. Pero Dios le resucitó rompiendo las ataduras de la muerte, porque no era posible que éste lo retuviera bajo su dominio» (2, 22-24). A partir de su muerte y resurrección, los apóstoles entendieron que en Jesús se habían cumplido aquellos oráculos sobre el Siervo del Señor. San Mateo lo dice expresamente y cita a Isaías 42, 1-4 al recordar cómo actuaba Jesús curando a todos y ocultando su gloria. En el mismo sentido, al narrar la pasión del Señor los evangelistas parece que tienen delante los poemas del Siervo sufriente para mostrar el valor expiatorio de la muerte de Cristo (Mt 26,63; 27, 13-14; e Is 53,7; Mt 27,38 e Is 53,12). En el salmo 22, se relata cómo Jesús entiende su misión y acaba fijando una nota de esperanza: la salvación de todas las naciones. «El grito de Jesús no es pues de desesperación», rescata el director del departamento de Sagrada Escritura de la Universidad de Navarra.
Luzmaría
Al ser colgado en la cruz, con clavos de doce centímetros de largo en los talones y muñecas que le sujetaban al patíbulo, «Jesús sufrió los dolores más terribles que conoce la humanidad –remacha Zugibe-, ya que con el más mínimo movimiento en la cruz, el dolor se extendía por todo el cuerpo como un golpe de corriente» y fuertes contracciones. Pese a todo, en la intensidad de la narración de …More
Al ser colgado en la cruz, con clavos de doce centímetros de largo en los talones y muñecas que le sujetaban al patíbulo, «Jesús sufrió los dolores más terribles que conoce la humanidad –remacha Zugibe-, ya que con el más mínimo movimiento en la cruz, el dolor se extendía por todo el cuerpo como un golpe de corriente» y fuertes contracciones. Pese a todo, en la intensidad de la narración de los cuatro evangelios y en los discursos de los apóstoles se percibe la grandeza de Jesús. Así la pone de relieve por ejemplo San Mateo ante la perfidia de sus acusadores, recuerda con sus escritos el profesor Balaguer. Y San Juan como si tuviese plena consciencia y control de su situación. «Los autores sagrados no están interesados tanto en el sufrimiento de Jesús como en su sentido. Por eso, no se encuentran en los textos “valoraciones” del sufrimiento o del dolor. La descripción es muy “sobria”, el material es narrativo, más que descriptivo», avala Vicente Balaguer. Con todo, «el evangelio ofrece suficientes datos para que el lector conozca el sufrimiento de Jesús: habla de la oración, del llevar a Jesús arrestado, de la noche sin dormir, del escarnio, la flagelación, la corona de espinas y así hasta la muerte». Santidrián recoge: «El evangelio no ofrece ningún dato de alteraciones neurológicas ni psíquicas de Jesús; más bien, todo lo contrario: la capacidad de sufrir, perdonar y aceptar la pasión revelan una integridad espiritual, psíquica y neurológica» sin igual. Y eso que «es difícil imaginar más sufrimientro físico y moral», colige.
Magda Mares
Sí, Cristo sigue en agonía. Y su agonía continuará mientras en este mundo persista la apatía y frialdad de tantos hombres, de tantos cristianos, de tantos de nosotros que ante su amor infinito, permanecemos impasibles, sin mover ni un dedo para corresponderle.
Magda Mares
Thanks, Peregrina de la fe... 👏 👏
Peregrina de la fe
I share this beautiful homily 👍 🤗
Peregrina de la fe
Homily for Good Friday
18FridayApr 2014
Posted by Fr James Bradley in Homily
There is perhaps no single day when the Church’s rites and ceremonies speak more profoundly and clearly of the faith she professes, than this. In every solemn gesture and action, she expresses in ritual form today the very essence of her life in a sacramental way: an exterior sign of an interior reality. The purpose of …More
Homily for Good Friday

18FridayApr 2014

Posted by Fr James Bradley in Homily
There is perhaps no single day when the Church’s rites and ceremonies speak more profoundly and clearly of the faith she professes, than this. In every solemn gesture and action, she expresses in ritual form today the very essence of her life in a sacramental way: an exterior sign of an interior reality. The purpose of the sacred liturgy is never to teach the Christian faithful, but to shape them by their participation in the very life of the Blessed Trinity. By the worship that we offer here we are formed and conformed in a physical way to the via crucis, the way of the cross, along which we tentatively tread. We are united to the passion of Our Lord so intimately and so completely, that we share in his sufferings in a more than merely figurative way.

In fact the events of the passion and resurrection of the Lord which unfold before us in all the liturgies of Holy Week and Easter enable us to see in minute detail the mystery which we behold each and every time we come to the Eucharistic sacrifice, that banquet of divine charity which is the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. The triumphal entrance of the Lord into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, the institution of the Eucharist and the sacred priesthood on Maundy Thursday, the passion and death of the Lord on Good Friday, and the resurrection we commemorate in the days of Easter, albeit separate in time, are now one single event in the economy of salvation. Each of these intensely beautiful acts of Christian worship relies on the other, each making sense only in the context of the integrated Christian life.
Though it encompasses more than simply the events we are gathered to celebrate today, that integrated Christian life nevertheless finds here something so essential that all else hinges on its existence. In our ritual commemoration of the acts of the Lord’s passion and death, we find ourselves today at a vital and essential point – a crossroads, if you like – which determines every other aspect of our life in Christ. In common parlance we call the central point of a discussion or argument, the ‘crux’; because it is the very point on which any outcome pivots. What we mark today, though, it is not a merely figurative crux but a literal one, one that is the centrepiece and essence of our life in Christ.
If a newcomer were to be sitting in the pews today (and perhaps they are), they may well wonder what on earth all our strange goings-on are about. ‘Why are these people lying on the floor?’, they might ask. ‘Why, on such an important day, does the church look so bare and empty?’ We could forgive their questions, even understand the raising of their metaphorical eyebrow. What that person could not avoid, though, even lacking an elementary theological understanding, is recognising that amidst these alien and seemingly obscure rituals, is the unsettling and indisputable fact that the cross plays a central role. The cross – the life-giving cross – is at the very heart of what we are here to honour, and it is at the very heart of what it is to be a follower of Christ, a Christian, one who seeks to follow the way.
The cross is rightly a fundamental element of Christian worship. When we baptize a baby, or bless a marriage, or ask for eternal rest for a loved one who has died, it is the cross that expresses in ritual form our faith and hope in God’s action. Every celebration of the Mass begins with the sign of the cross, and in the sacred liturgy the cross is front and centre in our worship of God, honoured with sweet-smelling incense and even, today, with the bending of the knee. It is relics of the True Cross that, above all others, are venerated with a singular devotion. It is the cross that, from Constantine to the World Trade Centre in New York, has been at once a sign of Christianity’s triumph and a threat to the philosophies and beliefs of the world. That sign, which in baptism is printed indelibly on the soul of every Christian, is what marks us out from the world and secures us in the vocation of missionary discipleship: a life led for the salvation of the world.
And yet the distinctiveness given us by the cross is not as the advertising and marketing campaigns that adorn (or litter) our streets and television sets. They seek custom by appealing to man’s innate desire for comfort and pleasure. The cross, on the other hand, conjures up images of torture and agony. It is at once objectionable and strangely alluring, and it is that contradiction and paradox which means that the cross is more than simply a sign or symbol – an inconsequential adornment on an altar or a wall – but a mystery into which, by its representation, we enter.
3 more comments from Peregrina de la fe
Peregrina de la fe
That mystery is writ large for us in these three great days of the sacred triduum. As the great canvas of an artist, both broad and detailed brushstrokes show us in these days the beauty and splendour of the mystery we celebrate. And yet every time we gather at the altar to offer the simple gifts of bread and wine in thanksgiving to the Father, that mystery is once more re-presented for us. For it …More
That mystery is writ large for us in these three great days of the sacred triduum. As the great canvas of an artist, both broad and detailed brushstrokes show us in these days the beauty and splendour of the mystery we celebrate. And yet every time we gather at the altar to offer the simple gifts of bread and wine in thanksgiving to the Father, that mystery is once more re-presented for us. For it is in the Eucharistic offering, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, that the passion, death, and resurrection of the Lord is made tangible, as we participate in time in the worship of eternity. What we see spread out in these days is found at every Mass as we rehearse the saving works of God in the midst of his people.
What does all this mean for us? First, that the cross we will shortly hold aloft and venerate in this sacred ceremony, that will be held as gently as the Christ child in the arms of his mother, is a non-negotiable part of the Christian life. We cannot live without the cross, because we cannot hope to find salvation without the sacrifice it represents. As the people of Israel, in the course of their exodus from slavery in Egypt to the promised land, gazed at the bronze serpent lifted high in the wilderness and were restored to health, so we come before the cross of Christ by which our souls – sick with sin – are not simply healed of mere physical ailments, but of death itself.
Peregrina de la fe
It is through the offering of the Lord’s own life for our sake on the cross that the sacrificial tokens of the old world are trumped by the true sacrifice that cleanses us of sin and restores us to the relationship with God, forfeited in Eden’s garden. It is for this reason that tradition holds the location of Calvary to be the burial site of Adam and, as Cardinal Newman puts it, ‘a second Adam …More
It is through the offering of the Lord’s own life for our sake on the cross that the sacrificial tokens of the old world are trumped by the true sacrifice that cleanses us of sin and restores us to the relationship with God, forfeited in Eden’s garden. It is for this reason that tradition holds the location of Calvary to be the burial site of Adam and, as Cardinal Newman puts it, ‘a second Adam to the fight and to the rescue came’.
The cross is at once a weapon of extreme violence and the gateway to the peace of God’s kingdom. It is the means by which man’s nature is restored to the dignity it enjoyed before the fall, and by which we are united once more with our God and Father in the fullness of life. The ancient paschal office hymn reminds us of this as we sing, ‘Upon the altar of the cross / his Body hath redeemed our loss; / and tasting of his roseate Blood, / our life is hid with him in God’.
Peregrina de la fe
Secondly, the physical cross which we rightly honour today disguises the spiritual reality it portrays. Just as the violet veils of passiontide have hidden from our sight the sign of the cross, in order that we might enter more fully into the reality it represents, so our veneration of the cross today reveals our adoration of the mystery of the cross itself. When we hear that ritualised lament in …More
Secondly, the physical cross which we rightly honour today disguises the spiritual reality it portrays. Just as the violet veils of passiontide have hidden from our sight the sign of the cross, in order that we might enter more fully into the reality it represents, so our veneration of the cross today reveals our adoration of the mystery of the cross itself. When we hear that ritualised lament in the chant that heralds its coming, and our eyes are drawn to the crucifix held up for our veneration, when we come before the cross and honour it with a kiss, we do not simply kneel before the wood, but the mystery it signifies: a mystery that turns death to life. It is for this reason that we can say that this solemn drama is more than mere performance. We are not here for a passion play or an historical reenactment, but a cultic action in which we participate not as spectators but as ourselves, and are so drawn more fully toward the perfection of who we are called to be in Christ.
May this become so for us through these sacred rites. May we acknowledge the power and majesty of the cross, and embrace all that it signifies and means for us—those who wish to live the life of Christ now and for all eternity. May that cross be impressed inwardly upon our lives and revealed outwardly in our work, that others may come to know the love and truth that is the person of Jesus Christ, for he is our salvation, our life and our resurrection, through him we are saved and made free.
Discipulus
What’s that all about? When we heard the dying Jesus calling Mary ‘Woman’ today it might have sounded a rather harsh way to address your Mum; but He was in fact calling her the second Eve. The first Eve was called ‘the Woman’ because she came from the Man and was Mother of All the Living; now Mary is called the Woman because the Son of Man came from her and she is to be Mother of All the Ever-…More
What’s that all about? When we heard the dying Jesus calling Mary ‘Woman’ today it might have sounded a rather harsh way to address your Mum; but He was in fact calling her the second Eve. The first Eve was called ‘the Woman’ because she came from the Man and was Mother of All the Living; now Mary is called the Woman because the Son of Man came from her and she is to be Mother of All the Ever-living. But because the New Eve was conceived without the Sin of the first Eve and all the damage that caused, we might think she had it easy. If so, she’s not really much of a model for us. The seven daggers in her heart say otherwise. Three were associated with the troubles of Jesus’ childhood and therefore of her early parenting: Simeon warning her at the Presentation that her Son’s doom would break her own heart; then her flight with the Boy into Egypt as a refugee; then His being lost and found in the Temple as a youth which she described as ‘agony’ for Joseph and her (Lk 2:34-5; 43-5; Mt 2:13). We chanted of the other four dolours in St John’s Passion today (Jn chs 18 & 19): following Jesus as He bore the cross along His Via Dolorosa; standing faithfully by as He hung dying; receiving His lifeless body into her arms; and finally witnessing His entombment. Life was no bed of roses for the Pietà!
Discipulus
There’s a lesson here for us. Though Christian life promises Easter it comes via Good Friday. The world tells us that with enough money, law, education and technology there’s quick fix for everything. But some problems are more intractable. And even for the Virgin there were times of darkness. Sure, she’d had a glimpse of Resurrection glory when she was enveloped in divine light at the Annunciation …More
There’s a lesson here for us. Though Christian life promises Easter it comes via Good Friday. The world tells us that with enough money, law, education and technology there’s quick fix for everything. But some problems are more intractable. And even for the Virgin there were times of darkness. Sure, she’d had a glimpse of Resurrection glory when she was enveloped in divine light at the Annunciation; but then came those seven dolours. She stood amongst suffering and confused humanity, abandoning herself entirely to God’s providence. Only when the Spirit descended a second time upon her – at Pentecost – would all be clear. Till then she cherished in her heart what little she could know and love. Her unconditional fiat to God was sorely tested. Yet it was precisely then that her yes meant so much.