The 24 Hours of the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ
From 1 p.m. to 2 p.m.
Second Hour of Agony on the Cross. Second, third and fourth word.
The second word:
« Today you will be with me in paradise! »
My crucified love, while I am praying with you, the enrapturing force of your love and of your pains keeps my gaze fixed on you; but my heart breaks to see you suffer so. You suffer agonies of love and of pain, and the flames that burn your heart rise up so high that they are in the act of reducing you to ashes. Your love contained is stronger than death itself; and wanting to pour it out, you look at the thief on your right and snatch him from hell. You touch his heart with your grace, and that thief is completely changed. He recognizes you and acknowledges you as God; and thoroughly repentant, he says:
“Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”
You do not hesitate to answer:
“Today you will be with me in paradise.”
With this, you make the first triumph of your love. But I see that, in your love, it is not only the heart of the thief you steal, but also that of many of the dying. Yes, you put your blood, your love and your merits at their disposal. You use all the divine strategies and devices to touch their hearts and to rob them all for you. But even here your love meets with resistance. How many refusals, how much distrust, how much despair! The pain is so intense that it reduces you to silence again. O my Jesus, I intend to make reparation for those who despair of the divine mercy at the moment of death. My sweet love, inspire in everyone unlimited trust and confidence in you, especially in those who find themselves in the distress of their agony. And in virtue of your agony, give them light, strength and help to be able to die a holy death, and take flight from this earth to heaven. Your most holy body, your blood, your wounds you contain all souls, O Jesus. So, by the merits of this most precious blood, do not let even one soul be lost. May your blood, together with your voice, cry out again to everyone:
“Today you will be with me in paradise!”
The third word:
To Mary Most Holy: « Woman, here is your son ».
And to John: « Here is your mother ».
My crucified, tormented Jesus, your pains increase ever more. Yes, on this cross, you are the true king of sorrows. In the midst of so many pains no soul escapes you. Indeed, you give your very life to each. But your love sees that it is opposed, despised and ignored by creatures. Unable to vent itself, it becomes more intense, giving you unspeakable torments. In these torments, it goes about looking for something else to give man to conquer him; and it makes you say:
“See, O soul, how much I have loved you! If you don't want to have pity on yourself, have pity, at least, on my love!”
Meanwhile, seeing that you have nothing more to give him, having given him everything, you turn your fading gaze to your mother. She too is more than dying, for your pains. The love that tortures her is so intense that it crucifies her as much as you. Mother and Son understand each other. You give a sigh of satisfaction, and are comforted to see that you can give your mother to the creature. Considering the whole human race in John, with a voice so tender as to melt all hearts, you say:
“Woman, here is your son.”
And to John: “Here is your mother.”
Your voice descends into her maternal heart, and united to the voices of your blood, continues to say:
“My mother, I entrust all my children to you. Let all the love you feel for me be for them. Let all your maternal cares and tenderness be for my children. You will save them all for me.”
Your mother accepts. Meanwhile, the pains are so severe that they reduce you to silence again. O my Jesus, I intend to make reparation for the offenses committed against the Blessed Virgin Mary, for the blasphemies and the ingratitude of so many who do not want to recognize the benefits you have given to everyone by giving her to us as our mother. How can we thank you for such an immense benefit? O Jesus, we turn to your own source, and offer you your blood, your wounds and the infinite love of your heart.
O Blessed Mother, how moved you are to hear the voice of good Jesus who leaves you to all of us as our mother! We thank you, O Blessed Virgin. And to thank you as you deserve, we offer you the same thanks that Jesus gave you. O sweet mother, you be our mother. Take care of us and never permit us to offend you even in the least. Always keep us close to Jesus. With your own hands bind us totally, completely to him, in such a way that we can never slip away from him. With your own intentions, I intend to make reparation for everyone, for the offenses committed against your Jesus and against you, my sweet mother.
O my Jesus, while you are immersed in so many pains, you plead the cause of the salvation of souls even more. For my part though, I will not remain indifferent. Like a dove, I want to take flight to your wounds to kiss them and soothe them; and I want to cast myself into your blood so that I can say with you, Souls! Souls! I want to hold your pierced and sorrowful head to make reparation to you, and to ask your mercy, love and forgiveness for everyone. Reign in my mind, O my Jesus, and heal it in virtue of the thorns that pierce your head, and never permit any agitation to enter me. Majestic forehead of my Jesus, I kiss you. Draw all my thoughts to contemplate you and to understand you. Gentle eyes of my good Jesus, though covered with blood, look at me. Look at my misery, look at my weakness, look at my poor heart, and make me feel the wonderful effects of your divine gaze.
Ears of my Jesus, though deafened by the insults and the blasphemies of the impious, but also intent on listening to us, please hear my prayers and do not despise my reparations. Yes, O Jesus, hear the cry of my heart. It will calm down only when you will have filled it with our love. Beautiful face of my Jesus, show yourself. Let me see you, so that I can detach my poor heart from everyone and everything. May your beauty enchant me continually and keep me always absorbed in you. Delightful mouth of my Jesus, speak to me. Let your voice always echo in me. Let the power of your word destroy everything in me that is not Will of God, everything that is not love.
O Jesus, I put my arms around your neck to embrace you; and you, extend yours to embrace me. Yes, my good Jesus, make this embrace of love be so close that no human force can separate us., even if You and I should want to unbind each other: so may you and I remain forever embraced. Thus clasping each other, I will rest my face upon your Heart. With confidence, I will kiss your lips dripping with honey. Give me your kiss of Love. You will make my breath one with your most sweet breath and infuse in me ever new and growing love for You as I breathe your Love, your Will, your pains and your whole Divine Life.
Most holy shoulders of my Jesus, always strong and constant in suffering for love of me, give me strength, constancy and heroism to suffer for love of him. O Jesus, do not permit me to be inconstant in love; on the contrary, let me share in your immutability. Inflamed breast of my Jesus, give me your flames. You cannot contain them any longer, and my heart anxiously seeks them through this blood and these wounds. It is the flames of your love, O Jesus, that torment you the most. O My good Jesus, share them with me. Doesn't a soul so cold and so poor in your love move you to compassion?
Most holy hands of my Jesus, that created heaven and earth, you are now motionless. O my Jesus, continue your creation, the creation of love. Create new life, divine life in all my being. Pronounce your words over my poor heart and transform it all into yours.
Most holy feet of my Jesus, never leave me alone! Make me always run with you, and don't let me take a single step away from you. Jesus, with my love and my reparations, I intend to ease the pains you suffer in your most holy feet. O my crucified Jesus, I adore your most precious blood. I kiss your wounds one by one, with the intention of lavishing on them all my love, my adoration and the most heartfelt reparations. I want to cover them with my love, adoration and most heartfelt reparation. I take these drops one by one, I adore them, kiss them and give them to all souls as a pledge of their salvation. For all souls, let your blood be light in darkness, comfort in pains, strength in weakness, forgiveness in sin, help in temptations, defense in danger, reassurance in death, and wings to carry them from this earth to heaven. My Jesus, do You not also search for comfort and love to soothe your pains? The Blood enclosed inside your Heart and not yet spilled gives you unspeakable torment and agony. Unfortunately, O Jesus, it is love that makes you suffer.
O Jesus, I come to you, and I make my nest and my dwelling in your heart. From within your heart, O my dear love, I will call everyone to you. And if someone should want to come near to offend you, I will present myself and will not let him wound you. What is more, I will enclose him in your heart, speak to him of your love, and change the offenses into love. Jesus, never let me go out of your heart. Nourish me with your flames, and give me life with your life so I can love you as you yourself long to be loved.
The fourth word:
« My God, my God, why have you abandoned me? »
Suffering Jesus, while pressed to your heart and abandoned in you, as I number your pains I see that a convulsive tremor comes over your most holy humanity. Your members are struggling as if they were going to separate from each other. In the midst of the contortions for the atrocious spasms, you cry out:
“My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?”
At this cry, everyone trembles, the darkness becomes thicker, and your petrified mother turns pale and faints. My life, my all, my Jesus: What do I see? Oh, you are close to death. The pains themselves, so faithful to you, are about to leave you. Meanwhile, after so much suffering, you see with immense sorrow that not all souls are incorporated into you. On the contrary, you perceive that many will be lost, and you feel the painful separation of those that separate themselves from your members. Having to satisfy the divine justice for them as well, you feel the death of each one and the pains they will suffer in hell. So, you cry out to all hearts:
“Do not abandon me! If you want more pains, I am ready, but do not separate from my humanity. This is the pain of pains. This is the death of deaths. All the rest would be nothing for me, if I did not suffer your separation from me. Please, have pity on my blood, on my wounds, on my death! This cry will continually ring in your hearts: Please do not abandon me!”
My love, how I suffer together with you! You are gasping, your sacred head now falls to your chest, life is abandoning you. My love, I feel myself dying. I too want to cry out with you, “Souls! Souls!”
I will never separate from this cross or from these wounds, so I can ask for souls for you. If you please, I will enter into the hearts of creatures and surround them with your pains so that they may not escape from you. If it were possible, I would like to put myself before the gates of hell, to make the souls that are headed there retreat, and to bring them to your heart. You are agonizing in silence, and I am weeping over your imminent death. O my Jesus, I sympathize with you. Pressing your heart close to mine, I kiss it and I look at it with all the tenderness of which I am able. And to give you a greater comfort, I make the divine tenderness mine. With this, I intend to sympathize with you, and change my heart into rivers of sweetness, to pour it into yours to sweeten the bitterness you suffer for the loss of souls. Unfortunately, O my Jesus, this cry of your is painful. More than the abandonment of the Father, it is the loss of the souls that separate from you, which makes this sorrowful lament escape from your heart. O my Jesus, increase grace in everyone, so that no one will be lost. And let my reparation be applied to those souls that would be lost so that they will not.
O my Jesus, I also pray you by this extreme abandonment, to give help to so many loving souls, which, in order to have them as companions in your abandonment, it seems you deprive them of yourself, leaving them in darkness. May their pains, O Jesus, be like prayers that call souls close to you, and that comfort you in your sorrow.
Reflections and Practices.
Jesus forgives the thief with so much Love that He promptly takes him to Paradise. Do we always pray for the many dying souls in need of prayer, to close the gates of Hell and open for them the gates of Heaven? Jesus’ pains on the Cross increase, yet, forgetting Himself, He always prays for us. He leaves nothing for Himself but gives everything to us, even his Most Holy Mother, the most precious gift of his Heart. Do I forgive everything, remembering only what Jesus wants from me? Do I give everything to Him, or do I hold something back, albeit holy, for myself? In all that I do —prayers, acts and so forth— do I always make the intention of absorbing new love within myself, so that I, in turn, can give everything back to Him?
We must absorb love to give love so that everything we do may bear the imprint of Jesus’ work, for Jesus gave everything for the love of all; we must totally forget about ourselves and have as our only goal to constantly lead all souls to the Heart of Jesus. Do we use the fervor, light, and love that the Lord gives us for the good of others? Do we try to enclose souls in this light and fervor to solicit Jesus’ Heart so that He converts them, or do we egotistically keep his graces to ourselves?
My Jesus, may every small spark of love I feel in my heart grow into a consuming flame that burns the hearts of all creatures, and as it burns them I enclose them in your Heart, that I may see even more souls enclosed there.
How do I respond to the great gift that Jesus gave me in giving me his Mother? Do I stand by his sweet Mother, taking into myself Jesus’ Love, his tenderness, and all that He did to please his Mother? Can I say that my divine Mother finds in me the contentment She found in Jesus? That is, do I stand between Jesus and his Mother, now lifting one up, now pleasing the other, so that in looking at me Jesus may find a replacement for Himself as Son? Am I always close to Her as a faithful child, obeying Her and imitating her virtues? Do I try in every way possible to remain within her motherly gaze so that She can always keep me pressed close to Jesus? In everything I do, do I call on my heavenly Mother to watch over me, to help me act in a holy manner, as her true child, and under her compassionate care? To content Her as her Son did, do I enter into Jesus and take all the Love that He gave his Most Holy Mother, for the glory that He constantly gave Her, and for all the tenderness and delicacy of his Love? Do I make these qualities my own, saying to the Heavenly Mother, “I have Jesus in me to make You happy—and to let You find in me what You found in Him; I give You everything. What is more, beautiful Mother, I too wish to give Jesus all the joy that He found in You. So, I want to enter your Heart and take all your Love, all your joys, and all your maternal tenderness and concern to give them all to Jesus and tell Him: “See, I have in me everything that your Mother did for you, and I want to give it to you, that you may find in me all the contentment of a second mother.”
Jesus, Mother, let us be bound together always, let us all exchange our love with each other. In this way I shall always be a true daughter to you, and a true mother to Jesus, always doing his Will. Mother, may your motherly hands be the sweet chains that keep me bound to You and Jesus.
Jesus does not spare Himself in anything. By loving us with inexhaustible Love, He desires to save everyone and, if possible, He would like to uproot all souls from Hell, even if He had to take on all their pains. But despite all his love, He sees souls that want to tear themselves out of his arms. No longer able to contain his sorrow, He cries out, My God, my God, why have You abandoned Me? Can I say that my love toward souls is like the love of Jesus? Can I say that my prayers, my pains, and all my smallest acts are united to the prayers, pains and acts of Jesus, to snatch souls from Hell—so that, as they detach themselves from Jesus, with my small acts I bind them to Him thus saving his Divine Heart from at least one death? How do I comfort Jesus in the immense sorrow He endures? If I were to offer up my life to be consumed as a continual holocaust, it would still not be enough to commiserate with Him in this sorrow. I want to do more than commiserate with Him. I want to save Jesus from suffering. And to that end, I will stand between Him and each sinner, taking upon myself the suffering that sinners give to his Divine Heart, and the rage of Divine Justice to which the Son of God offered Himself when He took our sins upon Himself. And I shall bind the sinner to Jesus, that Jesus may be set free and the sinner saved.
Every small act, pain, and thought that I experience while united to Jesus can serve to rescue souls from falling into Hell. United to Jesus, I will hold his very power in my own hands. But, if my acts are not united to Him, they will not even prevent one soul from going to Hell.
My Love and my all, keep me pressed close to your Heart so that I may immediately feel just how much sorrow the sinner causes You when he turns away from You. In this way, I will immediately be able to do my part.
My Jesus, may your Love bind my heart so that—consumed by your fire—it may feel the Love that You nurture for souls. And when I experience sorrow, pain, and affliction, may You then, O Jesus, unleash your Justice upon me and find the satisfaction You so desire—but allow the sinner, O Jesus, to be saved. May my pain be the chain that binds sinners to You, and may my soul receive the seal that Justice has been satisfied.
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