Thoughts on the Passion


When you prayed in the garden, Lord,
and the heaviness pressed all around you
as the full moon's light peaked through the olive trees,
and your apostles snored in the shadows,
and you sweated blood in the depths of your grief,
how heavy did today weigh on your shoulders,
with a war-torn world,
mad with bloodlust,
despising your peace,
hot with hatred and selfish fulfilment
sometimes done in the name of God,
or done in the name of self,
careless with all you have taught?



When they tied you to the pillar, Lord,
and scourged you in the Roman way,
a beating so severe that it alone could take a life,
as the weights at the ends of the whips,
and the heavy slap of the leather tore your flesh,
did you see the babies ripped for profit,
the innocents blown up to make a political statement,
the slaughtered millions killed
because they belonged to the wrong class,
or bloodline,
or culture
or faith
or country?
Which gave you the most pain,
the cruel leather,
or the knowlege how we would reject you?


When you walked that long walk
with the heavy crossbeam tied to your hands
as they paraded you and the others
to the Place of the Skull
amid a phalanx of proud and hard Roman soldiers
who hated the noise and the crowd and the foreignness
of it all,
and took out their spite by tugging your bonds
and watching you fall with arms extended,
and when you saw your Mother there,
and the aching pain passed between you,
did you see all the other mothers
aching in their pain for what evildoers would do
to their sons and daughters in the days to come,
mothers of the disapeared,
mothers of political prisoners,
mothers of those slain by bombers,
mothers of the beaten and kidnapped,
mothers looking for children buried in mass graves,
mothers who watch their children starve for others' gain?


When they nailed you to the cross,
and hung you up to die the slow death
reserved for slaves and foreign traitors,
gradual suffocation
in hot, aching, painful breaths,
did our evil make the pain that much harder?
Did our lack of mercy and love
echo down the centuries like a pressing weight
making your sacrifice all the more painful?

And yet, still you managed to love us,
and gave us all you had left,
your mother,
your compassion,
your heart's blood.

Dear Lord,
Forgive us!

Susan E. Stone

O Jesus, Who in Thy bitter Passion didst become "the most abject of men, a man of sorrows," I venerate Thy sacred Face whereon there once did shine the beauty and sweetness of the Godhead; but now It has become as it were the face of a leper! Nevertheless under those disfigured features, I recognize Thine infinite Love, and I am consumed with desire to love Thee and make Thee loved by all men. The tears which well up so abundantly in Thy sacred eyes appear to me as so many precious pearls that I love to gather up, in order to purchase the souls of poor sinners by means of their infinite value. O Jesus, whose adorable Face ravishes my heart, I implore Thee to fix deep within me Thy Divine image and to set me on fire with Thy love, that so I may be found worthy to come to the contemplation of Thy glorious Face in Heaven. Amen.

The Raccolta

It was no clean thing, this,
no easy walk into that dark night
filled with memorable soundbites
and photo op moments,
soldiers in their dress uniforms
and dignitaries in their solemn regalia.

No clean thing, this,
filled with the sweat of pain
and the taste of blood,
the dust of the road,
the tears of grief,
the reality of betrayal,
the weight of sin.

No calm thing, this,
filled instead with noise:
the noise of mockery, bitter and undeserved,
punctuated with spittle and blows.
the noise of pain:
the slap of the flagellum against bare skin,
the sound of hammers driving spikes into wood
through human flesh,
cries ripped unbidden from the depths of the gut,
as flesh protested the hot sudden agony
that would not go away.
The noise of expediency: "Crucify him yourselves."

No easy walk this,
rushed through the crowded streets
beneath a crushing weight,
stripped of everything that matters most to man,
standing naked in the light of day
bruised and bloody and battered,
with nothing left to give
except the acceptance of pain,
except the final acts of love,
surrender
death.

Help me see, O Jesus,
beyond the pretty pictures
and soundbites
and images
of how God descended to death
in the dirty, miserable realness of it,
of man's willingness to be inhuman,
and you did this knowing how dark we can be,
and how unloving we can be,
and how we cling to the dark in spite of your light,
and you still chose to go.

Alleluia!

Susan E. Stone

O sacred head, surrounded
by crown of piercing thorn!
O bleeding head, so wounded,
reviled and put to scorn!
Our sins have marred the glory
of thy most holy face,
yet angel hosts adore thee
and tremble as they gaze

I see thy strength and vigor
all fading in the strife,
and death with cruel rigor,
bereaving thee of life;
O agony and dying!
O love to sinners free!
Jesus, all grace supplying,
O turn thy face on me.

In this thy bitter passion,
Good Shepherd, think of me
with thy most sweet compassion,
unworthy though I be:
beneath thy cross abiding
for ever would I rest,
in thy dear love confiding,
and with thy presence blest.

Bernard of Clairvaux (1091-1153)

The Last Walk

Each step, that day, O my Jesus, how hard it was,
that last, painful walk through the crowded holiday streets
beneath a burden incredibly hard to bear,
one foot following another,
a countdown you were born for,
each step one less to the time when you would walk no more
before tasting the depths of death.

Watching you in mind's eye, O my Jesus,
so many years after,
when the reality of this moment is doubted by so many in the world,
in my heart, seeing your blood and sweat streaked face marred beneath your thorny crown,
I contemplate your words, "Come to me, you who are heavy burdened," and know,
that as I watch you walk that short but o so long march
from the place of condemnation to the place of execution,
what weighs more on your shoulders than the hundred pounds of wood strapped to your arms
is the weight of so many sins,
my sins,
the griefs of a sin-drenched world
the darkness gnawing at the center of untold hearts,
a load you carried willingly
so that we might find rest.

O my Jesus,
may I, in my remembering,
learn to follow in your footsteps,
walking the road beneath the cross you give me
with as much love and willingness as my wavering heart can muster
for the love of the walk you took,
this day and always.

Amen.

Susan E. Stone

"Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." [Luke 23: 34]

O loving tenderness of Jesus towards men! Saint Augustine says that when the Savior was injured by His enemies, He besought pardon for them; for He thought not so much of the injuries He received from them, and the death they inflicted upon Him, as upon the love which brought Him to die for them.

But some may say, Why did Jesus pray to the Father to pardon them, when He Himself could have forgiven their injuries? St. Bernard replies that He prayed to the Father, not because He could not Himself forgive them, but that He might teach us to pray for them that persecute us. The holy abbot says also in another place: "O wonderful thing! He cries, Forgive; they cry, crucify." Arnold of Chartres remarks that while Jesus was laboring to save the Jews, they were laboring to destroy themselves; but the love of the Son had more power with God than the blindness of this ungrateful people. St. Cyprian writes, "Even he who sheds the Blood of Christ is made to live by the blood of Christ." Jesus Christ, ill dying, had so great a desire to save all men, that He made even those enemies who shed His Blood with torments partakers of that Blood." Look, says St. Augustine, at thy God upon His Cross; see how He prays for them that crucify Him; and then deny pardon to thy brother who has offended thee!

St. Leo writes that it was through this prayer of Christ that so many thousands of Jews were converted at the preaching of St. Paul, as we read in the Acts of the Apostles; whilst [says St. Jerome] God did not will that the prayer of Jesus Christ should continue without effect, and therefore at the very time he caused many of the Jews to embrace the faith. But why were they not all converted? I reply that the prayer of Jesus Christ was conditional, and that they who were converted were not of the number of those of whom it was said, Ye have resisted the Holy Ghost. [Acts 7: 51]

In this prayer Jesus Christ further included all sinners; so that we all may say to God:

O Eternal Father, hear the prayer of Thy beloved Son, Who prayed to Thee to pardon us. We deserve not this pardon, but Jesus Christ has merited it, Who by His death has more than abundantly satisfied for our sins. No, my God, I would not be obstinate like the Jews; I repent, O my Father, with all my heart, for having offended Thee, and through the merits of Jesus Christ I ask for pardon. And Thou, O my Jesus, Thou dost know that I am poor and sick, and lost through my sins; but Thou hast come from Heaven on purpose to heal the sick, and to save the lost, when they repent of having offended Thee. Of Thee Isaiah said, He came to save that which had perished. [Isaiah 61: 1] And of Thee St. Matthew writes, The Son of Man is come to save that which was lost. [Matthew 18: 11]

St. Alphonsus Liguori

O Victim of Love, sent here by the Father,
O Victim of Love, who chose to give all,
O Thou Saving Victim who purchased our freedom,
Who calls me to follow - may I answer your call.

O Jesus I watched in the Garden of Olives,
As you wrestled with grief so hard and so deep,
You cried out in anguish your yes to the Father,
You sweat tears of blood while your men were asleep.

Was any night darker than the night in the Garden
As you cried out and waited for what was to be?
And yet though you prayed in your grief and in anguish,
You stayed out of love and thus set us all free.

O Victim of Love, sent here by the Father,
O Victim of Love, who chose to give all,
O Thou Saving Victim who purchased our freedom,
Who calls me to follow - may I answer your call.

And when they came and took you on that last road,
And when they beat you and mocked you and lied,
Your love was a torch that shone out in the darkness
A beacon of hope as you suffered and died.

Beneath the cross where they thought they could kill you
You gave your best gift to the world full of sin,
The wellspring of heaven broke through in your last cry,
The waters of life through your death flooded in.

O Victim of Love, sent here by the Father,
O Victim of Love, who chose to give all,
O Thou Saving Victim who purchased our freedom,
Who calls me to follow - may I answer your call

Your yes has unlocked all the glories of Heaven,
Your yes has undone our first parent's no
In blood you have broken the shackles they wrought us
In death you have triumphed and defeated the foe.

O Victim of Love, sent here by the Father,
O Victim of Love, who chose to give all,
O Thou Saving Victim who purchased our freedom,
Who calls me to follow - may I answer your call.

Susan E. Stone

Litany of the Passion

Lord, Have mercy on us.
Christ, Have mercy on us.
Lord, Have mercy on us.
Christ, Hear us.
Christ, Graciously hear us.
God, the Father of Heaven,
Have mercy on us.
God, the Son, Redeemer of the world,
Have mercy on us.
God, the Holy Ghost,
Have mercy on us.

Jesus, brought before Annas and Caiphas,
Have mercy on us.
Jesus, struck in the face by a servant,
Have mercy on us.
Jesus, accused by false witnesses,
Have mercy on us.
Jesus, declared guilty of death,
Have mercy on us.
Jesus, spat upon,
Have mercy on us.
Jesus, blindfolded,
Have mercy on us.
Jesus, smitten on the cheek,
Have mercy on us.
Jesus, thrice denied by Peter,
Have mercy on us.
Jesus, delivered up to Pilate,
Have mercy on us.
Jesus, despised and mocked by Herod,
Have mercy on us.
Jesus, clothed in a white garment,
Have mercy on us.
Jesus, rejected for Barabbas,
Have mercy on us.
Jesus, torn with scourges,
Have mercy on us.
Jesus, bruised for our sin,
Have mercy on us.
Jesus, esteemed a leper,
Have mercy on us.
Jesus, covered with a purple robe,
Have mercy on us.
Jesus, crowned with thorns,
Have mercy on us.
Jesus, struck with a reed upon the head,
Have mercy on us.
Jesus, demanded for crucifixion by the Jews,
Have mercy on us.
Jesus, condemned to an ignominious death,
Have mercy on us.
Jesus, given up to the will of Thine enemies,
Have mercy on us.
Jesus, loaded with the heavy weight of the Cross,
Have mercy on us.
Jesus, led like a sheep to the slaughter,
Have mercy on us.
Jesus, stripped of Thy garments,
Have mercy on us.
Jesus, fastened with nails to the cross,
Have mercy on us.
Jesus, reviled by the malefactors,
Have mercy on us.
Jesus, promising Paradise to the penitent thief,
Have mercy on us.
Jesus, commending St. John to Thy Mother as her son,
Have mercy on us.
Jesus, declaring Thyself forsaken by Thy Father,
Have mercy on us.
Jesus, in Thy thirst given gall and vinegar to drink,
Have mercy on us.
Jesus, testifying that all things written concerning
Thee were accomplished,
Have mercy on us.
Jesus, commending Thy Spirit into the hand of Thy Father,
Have mercy on us.
Jesus, obedient even to the death of the Cross,
Have mercy on us.
Jesus, pierced with a lace,
Have mercy on us.
Jesus, made a propitiation for us,
Have mercy on us.
Jesus, taken down from the Cross,
Have mercy on us.
Jesus, laid in the sepulcher,
Have mercy on us.
Jesus, rising gloriously from the dead,
Have mercy on us.
Jesus, ascending into Heaven,
Have mercy on us.
Jesus, our advocate with the Father, Have mercy on us.
Jesus, sending down on Thy disciples the Holy Ghost,
the Paraclete, Have mercy on us.
Jesus, Who shalt come to judge the living and the dead,
Have mercy on us.
Be merciful, Spare us, O Lord.
Be merciful, Graciously hear us, O Lord.

From all evil, Lord Jesus,
Deliver us.
From all sin, Lord Jesus,
Deliver us.
From anger, hatred, and every evil will, Lord Jesus,
Deliver us.
From war, famine, and pestilence, Lord Jesus,
Deliver us.
From all dangers of mind and body, Lord Jesus,
Deliver us.
From everlasting death, Lord Jesus,
Deliver us.
Through Thy most pure Conception, Lord Jesus,
Deliver us.
Through Thy miraculous Nativity, Lord Jesus,
Deliver us.
Through Thy humble Circumcision, Lord Jesus,
Deliver us.
Through Thy Baptism and holy fasting, Lord Jesus,
Deliver us.
Through Thy labors and watchings, Lord Jesus,
Deliver us.
Through Thy cruel scourging and crowning, Lord Jesus,
Deliver us.
Through Thy thirst, and tears, and nakedness, Lord Jesus,
Deliver us.
Through Thy precious death and Cross, Lord Jesus,
Deliver us.
Through Thy glorious Resurrection and Ascension,Lord Jesus,
Deliver us.
Through Thy sending forth the Holy Ghost,
the Paraclete, Lord Jesus,
Deliver us.
In the day of judgment, Lord Jesus,
Deliver us.
We sinners beseech Thee, hear us.

That Thou would spare us,
We beseech Thee, hear us.
That Thou would pardon us,
We beseech Thee, hear us.
That Thou would vouchsafe to bring us to true penance,
We beseech Thee, hear us.
That Thou would vouchsafe mercifully to pour
into our hearts the grace of the Holy Spirit,
We beseech Thee, hear us.
That Thou would vouchsafe to defend and propagate Thy holy Church,
We beseech Thee, hear us.
That Thou would vouchsafe to preserve and increase
all societies assembled in Thy Holy Name,
We beseech Thee, hear us.
That Thou would vouchsafe to bestow upon us true peace,
We beseech Thee, hear us.
That Thou would vouchsafe to give us perseverance
in grace and in Thy holy service,
We beseech Thee, hear us.
That Thou would vouchsafe to deliver us from unclean thoughts,
the temptations of the devil, and everlasting damnation,
We beseech Thee, hear us.
That Thou would vouchsafe to unite us to the company of Thy Saints,
We beseech Thee, hear us.
That Thou would vouchsafe graciously to hear us,

Lamb of God, Who takest away the sins of the world,
Spare us, O Lord.
Lamb of God, Who takes away the sins of the world,
Graciously hear us, O Lord.
Lamb of God, Who takes away the sins of the world,
Have mercy on us, O Lord.
Christ, hear us; Christ, graciously hear us.

V. We adore Thee, O Christ, and praise Thee:
R . Because by Thy Holy Cross Thou hast redeemed the world.

Let Us Pray.
Almighty and eternal God, Who hast appointed Thine only-begotten
Son the Savior of the world, and hast willed to be appeased with
His blood, grant that we may so venerate this price of our salvation,
and by its might be so defended upon earth from the evils of this
present life, that in Heaven we may rejoice in its everlasting fruit. Who lives and reigns with Thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, world without end. Amen.