Apr 08

4/9 Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord

April 8, 2017

4/9 Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord

Posted on April 8, 2017 by DW Site

In today’s liturgy is the Blessing and Procession of the Palms, in which everything overflows with a holy joy which enables us, after twenty centuries, to revive the spirit of the magnificent scene of Our Lord’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem.

At Jerusalem, in the fourth century, on the very spot where the event took place, there was read the Gospel narrative in which we see Christ, hailed as King of Israel and taking possession of His capital, Jerusalem, which is really no more than the type of Jerusalem above. After this, a bishop mounted on an donkey, rode up to the Church of the Resurrection on the summit of the Mount of Olives, surrounded by a multitude carrying palms and singing anthems and hymns. This ceremony was preceded by the solemn reading of the passage from the Exodus in which the Flight from Egypt is related. God’s people were encamped under the shadow of palm trees, near the twelve fountains where Moses promised them the manna of the Eucharist. The Church of Rome adopted this practice about the ninth century and added to it the rite for the Blessing of the Palms, which has given to to this Sunday the name of Palm Sunday.

Volume 4; March 31, 1901
Inconstancy and volubility.

This morning, feeling all embittered, I saw myself still so bad, that I almost did not dare to go in search of my highest and only Good. But the Lord, looking not at my miseries, still deigned to come, telling me: “My daughter, is it Me that you want? Well then, I have come to cheer you – let us be together, but let us remain in silence.”

After staying for some time, He transported me outside of myself, and I saw that the Church was celebrating the Day of the Palms; and Jesus, breaking the silence, told me: “How much volubility, how much inconstancy! Just as today they cried out ‘Hosanna!’, proclaiming Me as their King, another day they cried out ‘Crucify Him! Crucify Him!’ My daughter, the thing that displeases Me the most is inconstancy and volubility, because this is the sign that the truth has not taken possession of these souls. Even in things of Religion, it may be that they find their satisfaction, their own convenience and interest, or that they just find themselves in that party; but tomorrow these things may be missing, or they may find themselves involved in other parties – and here is how they deviate from Religion, and with no regret they give themselves to other sects. Indeed, when the True Light of Truth enters a soul and takes possession of a heart, she is not subject to inconstancy. On the contrary, she sacrifices everything for Love of It and to let herself be mastered by It alone; and with unconquered heart she despises everything else which does not belong to the Truth.” And while saying this, He cried over the condition of the present generation, worse than in those times, subject to inconstancy according to wherever the winds blow.

Volume 6; April 16, 1905
Suffering is reigning.

Continuing in my usual state, my lovable Jesus made Himself seen for a little, with a nail inside His Heart; and drawing near my heart He would touch it with that nail, and I would feel mortal pains. Then He said to me: “My daughter, it is the world that drives this nail deep inside My Heart, giving Me a continuous death. So, by Justice, just as they give Me continuous death, I will allow that they give death among themselves, killing one another like many dogs.” And while saying this, He made me hear the screams of the rioters, to the point that I remained deafened for four or five days. Then, as I was very much in suffering, He came back a little later and told me: “Today is the Day of the Palms in which I was proclaimed King. All must aspire to a kingdom, but in order to acquire the eternal kingdom it is necessary for the creature to acquire the regimen of herself through the dominion of her passions. The only means is suffering, because suffering is Reigning; that is, through patience, man puts himself in his place, becoming king of himself and of the Eternal Kingdom.”

4/8 Passiontide begins tomorrow!

Posted on April 7, 2017 by DW Site

Lent forms a proximate preparation for Easter. Its last two weeks, known as Passiontide, are an immediate preparation for the Feast of Easter.

During this time we reflect on how the hatred of Christ’s enemies grows day by day. That hatred is about to break out, and on Good Friday we will be reminded of the most frightful of all crimes, the bloody drama of Calvary, foretold by the prophets and by Our Lord Himself.

As the fatal end approaches the Church’s accents of grief become more and more penetrated with feeling. The thunderbolt of Divine Justice is about to strike the Redeemer who has become man for love of His Father and for us. By reason of the mysterious solidarity existing between all the members of the great human family, Jesus offers Himself as a substitute for His guilty brethren. As the prophet says: “He clothes Himself with our sins as with a garment,” and He was “made sin for us.” (2 Cor. 5:21) that He might bear our sins in His body upon the tree (1 Peter 2:24) and destroy it by His Death. In the Garden of Gethesmane the sins of every age and of all mankind flowed horrible and repulsive into the most pure soul of Jesus. Further, His Father doing violence to the love He bore Him is to treat HIm as being accursed, according to the scripture: “Cursed is He that hangeth upon a tree.” (Galatians 3:13).

For “the work of our Redemption required” (former hymn at morning service Good Friday) that Our Lord should be set as the salvation of the world upon the cross, so that “whence came death, thence might life be restored, and that he who overcame by a tree, might also on a tree be overcome”. (Preface of the Cross). It is an unequal struggle between the Prince of Life and that of death, but Christ triumphs in the very act of His self-immolation. Already on Palm Sunday (next Sunday, April 1st) He advances like a conquerer, sure of Himself, greeted with acclamations and already crowned with palms and laurels.

The purpose of Passiontide, through its close connection with Easter, is to recall to us the memory of our Baptism, when our souls were washed in Our Lord’s Blood, and of our First Communion, when they drank of its healing stream. By the Easter Communion and Confession, survivals of the ancient discipline connected with Baptism and Penance, we are led at this liturgical season to die and rise again once more with Christ.

Posted in The Divine Will of God

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