Exhaling

I love this feast.

I chose this for my Carmelite name: “of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.” It’s all there. Everything we need to know, all that draws us, is contained in that wounded Heart, poured out for us. It encompasses the Incarnation, Mercy, the Eucharist, the whole of salvation history. I won’t wax poetic, or I’ll destroy what good sentiments you might have (some things are so sublime, words only crush them).

I want to remind you that this day is also the World Day of Prayer for the Sanctification of Priests. That was John Paul II’s doing, and a profound doing it is.

Because St Therese is one of my patrons (have I already said how it seems I should be a lot smarter, having been named after the only three women to be designated Doctors of the Church?!), I will share her prayer for today:

‘O Holy Father, may the torrents of love flowing from the sacred wounds of Thy Divine Son bring forth priests like unto the beloved disciple John who stood at the foot of the Cross; priests: who as a pledge of Thine own most tender love will lovingly give Thy Divine Son to the souls of men.

May Thy priests be faithful guardians of Thy Church, as John was of Mary, whom he received into his house. Taught by this loving Mother who suffered so much on Calvary, may they display a mother’s care and thoughtfulness towards Thy children. May they teach souls to enter into close union with Thee through Mary who, as the Gate of Heaven, is specially the guardian of the treasures of Thy Divine Heart.

Give us priests who are on fire, and who are true children of Mary, priests who will give Jesus to souls with the same tenderness and care with which Mary carried the Little Child of Bethlehem.

Mother of sorrows and of love, out of compassion for Thy beloved Son, open in our hearts deep wells of love, so that we may console Him and give Him a generation of priests formed in thy school and having all the tender thoughtfulness of thine own spotless love.’

Amen, my sister in Carmel.

As I prayed the Divine Mercy Chaplet recently, kneeling before the crucifix, I seemed to recognize anew Christ’s total oblation, to see with fresh eyes the beauty of this complete Gift. I was filled with gratitude as I looked on this perfect Sacrifice, given for me. But then I saw something else - the gift of salvation, yes; the perpetual oblation, yes; but there is more:

You want us to be grateful for all You have given for our salvation (Yourself), but also to accept wholly what You continually give (Yourself). You eagerly give Yourself to us, desiring to be wholly ours and to be ONE with us – and this eagerness is so vehement, this love so passionate, this longing so uncontainable that it burns and overflows from Your gentle Heart and drives You (as it were) to continually pour Yourself out for us, to give Yourself as FOOD to be EATEN. Take and EAT; this is My Body, given up for you.  The force of these words is too often lost to us…

The Sacrament is inseparable from the Sacrifice. When we look on the Cross, we should also see the continuous Gift of the Eucharist. When we look on the Eucharist, we should  also see the Cross, where this Gift was given.

You long to become one with us, and we must long to become one with You, for others.

When it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea named Joseph, who was himself a disciple of Jesus. He went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus; then Pilate ordered it to be handed over. Taking the body, Joseph wrapped it [in] clean linen and laid it in his new tomb that he had hewn in the rock. Then he rolled a huge stone across the entrance to the tomb and departed.
Matthew 27: 57-60

We pray:
Lord Jesus, Your friends pull the iron from your mangled hands and feet and balance your stiffened body down from the cross. They must look on your closed eyes in bitter confusion, seeing their beloved friend, the one they have come to know as the Messiah, silenced by those who opposed him. Bitter grief and a kind of hopelessness is their only food now; they do not understand that they will soon see You alive again.Your lifeless body is anointed and wrapped in a sheet and then laid in a borrowed tomb, sealed from sight, from those who love You, in darkness. Your friends are grieving and Your enemies are celebrating uneasily. But the stone tomb is like a womb that will give birth to everlasting life. Because You accepted even death, death on a cross, death is never the end. Death is always a new beginning. 

All:

Lord, through the cross You have conquered death, and made it flow into life. You are placed alone in the tomb to show us that the grave’s utter aloneness is not the end for which we are created. You will soon rise, triumphant over death and sin, with the power to draw all of us to You in everlasting joy and unity. You are living eternally, and You created each of us to live forever with You. Help us to remember that only our bodies enter the tomb; our souls are always alive in You. Give us this deep knowledge of salvation, so that we will be moved to offer our lives as a sacrifice of praise and gratitude.

May we see past the cross and past the tomb to the light of the Resurrection, knowing that the silence and darkness of death is only the crossing ground to an eternal song of praise, and the Day that will never end.

[I]n order that the scripture might be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I thirst.” So they put a sponge soaked in wine on a sprig of hyssop and put it up to his mouth. When Jesus had taken the wine, he said, “It is finished.” And bowing his head, he handed over the spirit. Now since it was preparation day, in order that the bodies might not remain on the cross on the sabbath, …the Jews asked Pilate that they be taken down…[W]hen [the soldiers] came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs, but one soldier thrust his lance into his side, and immediately blood and water flowed out. John 19: 28-34

We pray:
Lord Jesus, we can only look with wonder at this moment that changes all of history and changes us, this moment of our salvation. At the sight of Your Body tortured and pierced for us, we see clearly that redemption is not a business transaction (sins in exchange for prayers and penance) but the result of love that, in immolating itself wholly, transforms darkness into light, hate to love, selfishness into gift. The altar of the Cross defines God for us, and redefines Love. In contemplating this moment, we come to understand that You will spare nothing to bring us to the radiance for which we are created. We begin to see more clearly that our own activity must be united to Your one saving action. At every Mass, we are here at this moment anew, and as the drop of water poured into the chalice is completely absorbed into the Blood of Christ and transformed, so our own ordinary offerings are transformed within the Chalice of Your heart by your immense love to become something worthy of the Father.  

All:

Lord, You are always reaching down to us, offering Yourself to us wholly, and these open arms, this love, is only revealed to most people through our own open arms. We must be Christ to others. This is our own inescapable role in the revelation of love. Your heart transformed acts of malice and hate into moments of grace and the victory of love; renew our hearts with Your love, so that we can continue this transformation in the world.

May we come to know through this apparent defeat, as the last drops of blood and water pour out from Your Heart onto the ground, that Love has the final victory. Love gives all.

Standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary of Magdala. When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple there whom he loved, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son.” Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother.” And from that hour the disciple took her into his home.
John 19: 25-27

We pray:
Lord Jesus, though You seem to have nothing now, you are still giving.You give mercy and forgiveness to all, You give Your promise of salvation to the Good Thief, and now you give Your Mother to us.Mary’s Heart, pierced with the sword of sorrow prophesied by Simeon so many years ago, is now open to the whole world. She stands at the foot of the Cross, consumed with grief, yet looking straight into the face of suffering, strong in hope. She accepts this as she has accepted every detail of her life: as the Father’s perfect will, which she need not understand. She must only trust. She does not waver, does not draw back from her fiat, “Be it done to me as you have said.” (Lk 1:38 ) She places no limits or conditions on her Yes, because she trusts fully that nothing is impossible for God.She is confident that You will reign, that this is necessary, and that Love will conquer all.  

All:

Lord, bring us beyond our woundedness to the place where we know that our peace and our joy are to be found only in doing the will of the Father wholeheartedly. Help us to remember, like Mary, that the Mystery of God does not require our understanding, but rather our trust; we must trust God’s loving plan for His creation, and do all we can to spread the Fire You came to enkindle on earth. 

May this entrusting of Your mother to the beloved disciple, and of Your beloved disciple to Mary, be a sign to us that You do not want us to walk alone, and inspire us to support one another as we journey toward You.

Now one of the criminals hanging there reviled Jesus, saying, “Are you not the Messiah? Save yourself and us.” The other, however, rebuking him, said in reply, “Have you no fear of God, for you are subject to the same condemnation? And indeed, we have been condemned justly, for the sentence we received corresponds to our crimes, but this man has done nothing criminal.” Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” He replied to him, “Amen, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”
Luke 23: 39-43

We pray:
Lord Jesus, Your love is freely given, but cannot be forced on us. Love must be freely accepted. Here, in Your extreme agony as You take Your last labored breaths, You are still reaching out with love to all who will open themselves to it, especially the least among us. The “Good Thief” is good because he acknowledges his helplessness and sinfulness and reaches toward You for hope; he knows that he is “not good” alone, and reaches out to You, because You are goodness, You are truth, You are love. He accepts Your love, and enters Heaven through the door of Your freely borne wounds.  It is Your great love for us that makes sin so offensive and which is the inexhaustible Source of Mercy, which desires to forget every offense, restore us to our original dignity, and fill us with every good thing.

Your goodness and mercy are like water or light, reaching into every space that is open to them, filling every space that is not sealed against them. 

All:

Lord, You never fail to repay our slightest efforts toward You, and You repay everything a hundredfold. Give us the grace to acknowledge our own powerlessness, so that we will keep ourselves open to Your healing touch, Your overflowing mercy, Your absolute goodness, and be re-created in your image. Help us to keep our hearts fully open to the glorious light of Your Truth, and the cleansing waters of Your merciful Love, so that we can be fully alive and walk in the freedom of the Spirit Who is Life and Love.

 May Your eager forgiveness and infinite mercy help us to acknowledge our weakness and open our hearts to Your Love.

When they came to the place called the Skull, they crucified him and the criminals there, one on his right, the other on his left. [Then Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, they know not what they do."] The people stood by and watched; the rulers, meanwhile, sneered at him and said, “He saved others, let him save himself if he is the chosen one, the Messiah of God.” Even the soldiers jeered at him. Above him there was an inscription that read, “This is the King of the Jews.”  Luke 23: 33-38

We pray:
Lord Jesus, You are stretched out on the wood of the cross, exposed to the ridicule of a pitiless crowd, and yet You give everything willingly. In total freedom, You open Your arms and accept every detail of this execution – the rough wood against torn skin, exposure to the cold stinging wind, the crudeness of the executioners, the blood in Your eyes, the raging pain of thorns in the skull, and the sickening violence of iron driven into flesh. Utter agony. A sign proclaims You “King of the Jews.” You reign from the cross. Earthly kings reign by making people subject to them; You reign by making yourself subject to us, by giving Yourself wholly to us. Raised on the throne of the cross, crowned with thorns, You reign; and Your gift to all of us is forgiveness and love. As You are raised on the cross and offer Yourself to the Father, You offer each one of us and all we suffer – within Your Heart, capable of transforming all things with love, we are present to You in this moment of salvation. 

All:

Lord, because You desire to share Your victory with us, the Cross is always open to love willing to suffer for others, and the Redemption is always being completed by our own self-giving. Help us to move beyond intellectual assent or commitment to action and to become oblation, pouring ourselves out for others in union with You, so that by carrying Your death in our bodies, Your life may also be manifest (2 Cor 4:10). In this way, we present our own bodies as a holy and living sacrifice, which is our spiritual worship (Rom 12:1), and all we do for love is transformed into glory.

May Your willingness to give all for each of us enable us to walk toward you in the shadow of the Cross, which fills every void and makes sense of every difficulty and every pain.