Catholic during the Great Apostasy

How great was your grief and sorrow, O most holy Mother of God, during the bitter Passion of your Son, when you heard the voice of the chosen people crying: crucify him, crucify him! Crucify him who was proclaimed by the prophets, the awaited Saviour of the world, he who did no harm to anyone, who did good to all, who healed the sicknesses of soul and body, crucify him, and let his blood fall on us and on our children!

Mary hears even today these words, repeated by the mouths of Christ’s new crusaders! and we, perhaps, if not in word then in deed, have called forth this blood upon our souls, we have called forth curses and calamities upon us and our brethren!

O Mary! what sorrow can be equalled with Thy sorrow, when Thou sawest in the midst of this crowd, the blood-thirsty people, Thy Son falling under the painful weight of the cross! and this bloody sight how many times Thy heart is renewed! How many times have you seen, in the midst of this crowd of the enemies of the Church, Jesus bearing the cross! And this cross is more painful than the cross which the Jews prepared for him!

Oh Mary can see us among this crowd preparing the instruments for the crucifixion of God on our hearts, as St. Paul says! Today the whole world has become Golgotha, for there is no place, no hour in which people do not crucify their God with their sins! – And crucifying Him with abuse of others, detraction, hatred, crucifying Him with debauchery of thought, heart and deed; crucifying Him with scorn, blasphemy, unbelief, sacrilege, we cry out: do a miracle, come down from the cross and I will be believed!

Oh Jesus, no; do not come down from the cross, for if you do, what will become of us? As long as I see your hands stretched out on the cross, your head bowed towards me, your blood flowing from your open heart as a wellspring of life, I do not lose hope! And as long as I see you on the cross, I see Your Mother beneath the cross; and if I go to her beneath the cross, I know that she will obtain forgiveness and mercy from her Son for the wretchedness of my soul.

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From the manuscripts of Father Karol Antoniewicz