Theotokos
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“How honored and magnified is mankind through the Holy Virgin Mother of God, for it has been made worthy of renewal and sonship by God; She herself was made worthy by her immeasurable humility and exceedingly great purity and holiness to be the Mother of the God-man!”
St. John of Kronstadt
Holy Face of Jesus
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“My soul is sorrowful even to death.”
Dear Lord, your disciple Peter wanted to know who would betray you. You pointed to Judas but a little later also to him. Judas betrayed, Peter denied you. Judas hanged himself, Peter became the apostle whom you made the first among equals. Lord, give me faith, faith in your endless mercy, your boundless forgiveness, your unfathomable goodness. Let me not be tempted to think that my sins are too great to be forgiven, too abominable to be touched by your mercy. Let me never run away from you but return to you again and again, asking you to be my Lord, my Shepherd, my Stronghold, and my Refuge. Take me under your wing, O Lord, and let me know that you do not reject me as long as I keep asking you to forgive me. Perhaps my doubt in your forgiveness is a greater sin than the sins I consider too great to be forgiven. Perhaps I make myself too important, too great when I think that I cannot be embraced by you anymore. Lord, look at me, accept my prayer as you accepted Peter’s prayer, and let me not run away from you in the night as Judas did.
Bless me, Lord, in this Holy Week, and give me the grace to know your loving presence more intimately. Amen.
-Prayer by Henri Nouwen
Sacred Heart of Jesus
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"Behold the Heart which has so loved men that it has spared nothing, even to exhausting and consuming Itself, in order to testify Its love.”
The Crucifixion
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“From the wounds of Christ flows glory, from the side of Christ flows blessing, from compassion nailed upon a cross may we become what we gaze upon.”
Words by Rufino Zaragoza, FM, inspired by the Second Letter of St. Clare to St. Agnes of Prague, ca. 1237
I am reminded of these words, which are set to the most beautiful music, often these days. A reminder to become humble, to let ourselves be broken for others as He was for us, to love unto death without counting a cost. Lord, make me more like You.
Our Lady of Sorrows
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/MATER DOLOROSA/
‘By the cross of our salvation
Mary stood in desolation
While the Saviour hung above
All her human powers failing,
Sorrow’s sword, at last prevailing,
Stabs and breaks her heart of love…
Virgin Mary, full of sorrow,
From your love I ask to borrow
Love enough to share your pain.
Make my heart to burn with fire,
Make Christ’s love my own desire,
Who for love of me was slain.’
-From the Stabat Mater
The seven sorrows of Mary, feast observed today, are meditations that invite the prayerful into the life and death of Christ by experiencing it through the eyes of His mother:
1. The Prophecy of Simeon, found in Luke 2
2. The Flight into Egypt from Matthew 2
3. The Loss of the Child Jesus in the Temple of Jerusalem, in Luke 2
4. Mary's meeting Jesus on the Via Dolorosa
5. The Crucifixion of Jesus on Mount Calvary
6. Jesus is Taken Down from the Cross
7. The Burial of Jesus by Joseph of Arimathea
“While other martyrs suffered by sacrificing their own lives, the Blessed Virgin suffered by sacrificing her Son’s life, a Life that she loved far more than her own; so that she not only suffered in her soul all that her Son endured in His Body but moreover, the sight of her Son’s torments,
brought more grief to her heart, than if she had endured them all in her own person.”
Our Lady of Sorrows, pray for us. 🙏🏽
St. Lucy
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Most of what we know about St. Lucy comes from legends that were born to fill in the blanks about an obscured history. We do know that a woman named Lucy was born in Syracuse (Sicily) in the late 3rd century and was martyred during the Christian persecutions of the early 4th century. The rest of her story is similar to the traditional accounts of other early Christian martyrs:
She was born into a wealthy family and pledged a vow of virginity, but her ailing mother was worried about her future so promised her in marriage to a pagan. After praying at the tomb of St. Agatha, her mother’s illness was cured and her dowry was instead given to the poor. Lucy was said to have walked the streets under cover of night, wearing candles on her head to light the way while carrying food for feeding Christians hiding in the catacombs during the Diocletianic persecution.
Her spurned suitor was so angered by her refusal of marriage he reported her to the governor, who tried to force het into defilement at a brothel. However, when the guards came to retrieve her she could not be moved despite tying an oxen to her. He subsequently arranged for a fire to burn her but the logs would not catch flame. She was ultimately beheaded and died in the year 304.
Some legends say in his anger the governor ordered her eyes to be torn out, others say she tore them out herself because her suitor admired them so much, and were discovered to be miraculously restored while her body was prepared for burial. For this reason she is recognized as the patron of the blind and eye disorders.
Her feast day, December 13, is celebrated by Catholics, Lutherans, and Anglicans, and is especially popular in Sweden, where devotees don white robes with a red sash (the symbol of martyrdom) and candles upon their head.