CATHOLIC FAITHLINK: “Pope Francis at Easter vigil: the Lord is alive!”
“Pope Francis celebrated the Easter Vigil Mass on Saturday evening in St. Peter’s Basilica …”
Category: Christ
CATHOLIC MUSIC VIDEO: Stabat Mater (At the Cross Her Station Keeping)
Stabat Mater dolorosa
Juxta Crucem lacrimosa,
Dum pendebat Filius.Cujus animam gementem,
Contristatam et dolentem,
Pertransivit gladius.
FAITHLINK: Catholic Prayer: Stabat Mater (At the Cross Her Station Keeping) – CatholicCulture
Stabat Mater dolorosa
Juxta Crucem lacrimosa,
Dum pendebat Filius.
Juxta Crucem lacrimosa,
Dum pendebat Filius.
Cujus animam gementem,
Contristatam et dolentem,
Pertransivit gladius.
O quam tristis et afflicta
Fuit illa benedicta
Mater Unigeniti!
Quem maerebat, et dolebat,
Pia Mater, dum videbat
Nati paenas inclyti.
Quis est homo, qui non fleret,
Matrem Christi si videret
In tanto supplicio?
Quis non posset contristari,
Christi Matrem contemplari
Dolentem cum Filio?
Pro peccatis suae gentis
Vidit Jesum in tormentis,
Et flagellis subditum.
Vidit suum dulcem natum
Moriendo desolatum,
Dum emisit spiritum.
Eia Mater, fons amoris,
Me sentire vim doloris
Fac, ut tecum lugeam.
Fac, ut ardeat cor meum
In amando Christum Deum,
Ut sibi complaceam.
Sancta Mater, istud agas,
Crucifixi fige plagas
Cordi meo valide.
Tui nati vulnerati,
Tam dignati pro me pati,
Paenas rnecum divide.
Fac me tecum pie flere,
Crucifixo condolere,
Donec ego vixero.
Juxta Crucem tecum stare,
Et me tibi sociare
In planctu desidero.
Virgo virginum praeclara,
Mihi jam non sis amara:
Fac me tecum plangere.
Fac, ut portem Christi mortem
Passionis fac consortum,
Et plagas recolere.
Fac me plagis vulnerari
Fac me cruce inebriari,
Et cruore Filii.
Flammis ne urar succensus
Per te, Virgo, sim defensus
In die judicii.
Christe, cum sit hinc exire,
Da per Matrem me venire,
Ad palmam victoriae.
Quando corpus morietur,
Fac, ut animae donetur
Paradisi gloria.
At the cross her station keeping,
Stood the mournful Mother weeping,
Close to Jesus to the last.
Stood the mournful Mother weeping,
Close to Jesus to the last.
Through her heart, His sorrow sharing,
All His bitter anguish bearing,
Now at length the sword had pass’d.
Oh, how sad and sore distress’d
Was that Mother highly blest
Of the sole-begotten One!
Christ above in torment hangs;
She beneath beholds the pangs
Of her dying glorious Son.
Is there one who would not weep,
Whelm’d in miseries so deep
Christ’s dear Mother to behold?
Can the human heart refrain
From partaking in her pain,
In that Mother’s pain untold?
Bruis’d, derided, curs’d, defil’d,
She beheld her tender child
All with bloody scourges rent.
For the sins of His own nation,
Saw Him hang in desolation,
Till His spirit forth He sent.
O thou Mother! fount of love!
Touch my spirit from above;
Make my heart with thine accord.
Make me feel as thou hast felt;
Make my soul to glow and melt
With the love of Christ our Lord.
Holy Mother! pierce me through;
In my heart each wound renew
Of my Saviour crucified.
Let me share with thee His pain,
Who for all my sins was slain,
Who for me in torments died.
Let me mingle tears with thee,
Mourning Him who mourn’d for me,
All the days that I may live.
By the cross with thee to stay,
There with thee to weep and pray,
Is all I ask of thee to give.
Virgin of all virgins best,
Listen to my fond request
Let me share thy grief divine.
Let me, to my latest breath,
In my body bear the death
Of that dying Son of thine.
Wounded with His every wound,
Steep my soul till it hath swoon’d
In His very blood away.
Be to me, O Virgin, nigh,
Lest in flames I burn and die,
In His awful Judgment day.
Christ, when Thou shalt call me hence,
Be Thy Mother my defence,
Be Thy cross my victory.
While my body here decays,
May my soul Thy goodness praise,
Safe in Paradise with Thee.
CATHOLIC MUSIC VIDEO: “Were You There”
From a Negro Spiritual, performed by the Choir from the Old Cardiff Arms Park in Wales
Were you there when they crucified my Lord?
Were you there when they crucified my Lord?
Oh, sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble.
Were you there when they crucified my Lord?
Were you there when they nailed him to the tree?
Were you there when they nailed him to the tree?
Oh, sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble.
Were you there when they nailed him to the tree?
Were you there when they laid him in the tomb?
Were you there when they laid him in the tomb?
Oh, sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble.
Were you there when they laid him in the tomb?
Were you there when the sun refused to shine?
Were you there when the sun refused to shine?
Oh, sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble.
Were you there when the sun refused to shine?
Were you there when they rolled the stone away?
Were you there when they rolled the stone away?
Oh, sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble.
Were you there when they rolled the stone away?
Were you there when God raised him from the tomb?
Were you there when God raised him from the tomb?
Oh, sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble.
Were you there when God raised him from the tomb?
CATHOLIC MUSIC VIDEO: “O Sacred Head Surrounded”
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
[lyrics continue below video]
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.
From a medieval Latin hymn attributed to St. Bernard of Clairvaux of the 12th century.
CATHOLIC FAITHWATCH: Stations of the Cross
[embedded facebook post from Saint Michael’s Catholic Church in Stillwater, Minnesota, should load below, depicting Stations of the Cross with text captions]
I. Jesus is Condemned to Death
We adore you, O Christ, and we praise you, because by Your Holy Cross You have Redeemed the world. [genuflect]
II. Jesus Takes Up His Cross
We adore you, O Christ, and we praise you, because by Your Holy Cross You have Redeemed the world. [genuflect]
III. Jesus Falls the First Time
We adore you, O Christ, and we praise you, because by Your Holy Cross You have Redeemed the world. [genuflect]
IV. Jesus Meets His Afflicted Mother
We adore you, O Christ, and we praise you, because by Your Holy Cross You have Redeemed the world. [genuflect]
V. Simon of Cyrene Helps Jesus Carry the Cross
We adore you, O Christ, and we praise you, because by Your Holy Cross You have Redeemed the world. [genuflect]
VI. Veronica Wipes the Face of Jesus
We adore you, O Christ, and we praise you, because by Your Holy Cross You have Redeemed the world. [genuflect]
VII. Jesus Falls the Second Time
We adore you, O Christ, and we praise you, because by Your Holy Cross You have Redeemed the world. [genuflect]
VIII. Jesus Meets the Women of Jerusalem
We adore you, O Christ, and we praise you, because by Your Holy Cross You have Redeemed the world. [genuflect]
IX. Jesus Falls the Third Time
We adore you, O Christ, and we praise you, because by Your Holy Cross You have Redeemed the world. [genuflect]
X. Jesus Is Stripped of His Garments
We adore you, O Christ, and we praise you, because by Your Holy Cross You have Redeemed the world. [genuflect]
XI. Jesus Is Nailed to the Cross
We adore you, O Christ, and we praise you, because by Your Holy Cross You have Redeemed the world. [genuflect]
XII. Jesus Dies on the Cross
We adore you, O Christ, and we praise you, because by Your Holy Cross You have Redeemed the world. [genuflect]
XIII. Jesus Is Taken Down From the Cross
We adore you, O Christ, and we praise you, because by Your Holy Cross You have Redeemed the world. [genuflect]
XII. Jesus Is Laid in the Tomb
We adore you, O Christ, and we praise you, because by Your Holy Cross You have Redeemed the world. [genuflect]
CATHOLIC VIDEO: Pope Francis Way of the Cross in Rome
The Holy Father #PopeFrancis presides over the Way of the #Cross on Good Friday, at the Coliseum in Rome.
CATHOLIC FAITHLINK: “Sermon 3 on the Passion [Excerpt]” – Saint Leo the Great
“The Lord put on our weakness to clothe our inconstancy with the firmness of His strength. He came from Heaven to this world like a wealthy and generous merchant and, through a marvelous exchange, concluded a deal: taking what belonged to us, He granted us what belonged to Him. In exchange for what was cause of our shame He gave us honor, for pain, Healing, for death, Life … “
CATHOLIC FAITHLINK: “Sermon for Palm Sunday”/”Blessed is he who comes in the Name of the Lord” – Blessed Guerric of Igny (c.1080-1157), Cistercian abbot
“… If we consider today’s procession and the Passion together, we see Jesus sublime and glorious on one hand, and humiliated and suffering on the other. For in the procession he receives royal honors and in the Passion he is mortified as a criminal. … Lord Jesus, whether your face be glorious or humiliated, we always see wisdom shining in it. On your face shines the refulgence of eternal light …. O Lord, may your light, the light of your face (Ps 4:7), always shine upon us, in sorrow as in happiness… You are joy and salvation for all, both when you ride on a donkey and when you hang from a cross.”
CATHOLIC FAITHLINK: “See What the End Shall Be – Palm Sunday” – Archdiocese of Washington/ Msgr. Charles Pope
“… The usual villains (the Temple leaders, Judas, and the recruited crowd shouting, ‘Crucify him!’) are unambiguously wicked and display their sinfulness openly; but there are others involved whose struggles and neglectfulness, though more subtle, are no less real. It is in examining these figures that we can learn a great deal about ourselves. Although we may not openly shout, ‘Crucify him,’ we are often not as unambiguously holy and heroic as Jesus’ persecutors are wicked and bold. As we read the Passion, we must understand that this is not merely an account of the behavior of people long gone. This is a portrait of you and me; we do these things. …”
“Come, Let Us Worship Christ the Lord, Who, For Our Sake, Endured Temptation and Suffering” – Catholic Divine Office
[The Divine Office begins the Liturgical Day with the Invitatory Psalm, usually Psalm 95, broken up into stanzas, with an antiphon repeated with each stanza, often varying by day. The entire combination is listed out below, using the Antiphon for Sundays and weekdays of Lent into Holy Thursday. Prior to the Invitatory Psalm is an introductory phrase from Psalm 51.]
Lord, open my lips.
— And my mouth will proclaim Your Praise.
Encourage each other daily, while it is still today (Hebrews 3:13)
Come, let us worship Christ the Lord, Who for our sake endured temptation and suffering.
Come, let us sing to the Lord
and shout with joy to the Rock Who Saves us.
Let us approach Him with Praise and Thanksgiving
and sing joyful songs to the Lord.
Come, let us worship Christ the Lord, Who for our sake endured temptation and suffering.
The Lord is God, the Mighty God,
the Great King over all the gods,
He holds in His Hands the depths of the earth
and the highest mountains as well.
He made the sea; it belongs to Him,
the dry land, too, for it was formed by His Hands.
Come, let us worship Christ the Lord, Who for our sake endured temptation and suffering.
Come then, let us bow down and worship,
bending the knee before the Lord, our Maker.
For He is our God, and we are His People,
the Flock He Shepherds.
Come, let us worship Christ the Lord, Who for our sake endured temptation and suffering.
Today, listen to the Voice of the Lord:
Do not grow stubborn, as your fathers did
in the wilderness,
when at Meribah and Massah
they challenged me and provoked me,
Although they had seen all of my works.
Come, let us worship Christ the Lord, Who for our sake endured temptation and suffering.
Forty years I endured that generation.
I said, “They are a People whose hearts go astray
and they do not know My Ways.”
So I swore in my anger,
“The shall not enter into my rest.”
Come, let us worship Christ the Lord, Who for our sake endured temptation and suffering.
Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever.
Amen.
Come, let us worship Christ the Lord, Who for our sake endured temptation and suffering.
The Divine Office also indicates that Psalm 100, Psalm 67 or Psalm 24 may be used, providing translations for those psalms as well.
It also indicates that the psalm may be omitted when the Invitatory precedes Morning Prayer.
Note that, appended to the psalm is a version of the Glory Be slightly different than what many laity are familiar with.
Note also that this Psalm helps us begin a day by contemplating, with a focus on God’s Greatness, a grand sweep of God the Father’s Relationship with us. It calls us to encounter Him with Praise and Joy, yet reminds us of our human frailty and need to guard against going astray from Him.
We are, indeed, invited, with an invitation to Come to God, Praising and singing in a spirit of joy. We give thanks.
Giving thanks, we contemplate God’s All-Powerful Role of Creator, above all, Who Created all, including the physical universe that seems to dwarf our own physical existence.
So, while in joy, we also bow before God in reverence as well as thanks.
And we encounter Him in a personal relationship. We are His Flock and He Shepherds us. We are His People. We are a People, we form a People, joined together as a People, and what makes us a People is that we are God’s People. We are His People.
Our identity, in part, comes from our shared identity as a People, that is defined by, and draws Meaning from, God and our Being God’s People.
At the same time, mindful of our human frailty, and need for steadfast effort to sustain a proper life and good relationship with God, Psalm 95 then recalls the pitfalls and failings that we can encounter if we are not careful, by recalling the weaknesses and failings of those going before us. Specifically it recalls the long exodus in the desert, and the weakness of those who lost heart and started straying from God, testing God’s patience, and even challenging God. They were given a Promise by God, were coaxed to say yes, were being led on a Journey by God towards that Greater Promise, yet weakened in the face of unknowns.
We show time and again that we are needful of God’s Help and Mercy, including in our weakness straying from God, even while following a Journey He marks out for us.
The psalm also reminds us that God is willing to hold us to account, including if we persist in going astray and never come back. So let us be exhorted to constantly ask God’s Help, and constantly strive to take joy in coming to God and persevering joyfully in efforts to follow Him.
We then give Glory to God, after the Psalm, giving Glory to All Three Persons of the Most Holy Trinity, with the Glory Be, also Confessing Testimony to the fact that God is Eternal and His Glory is Eternal, from the beginning, to the present, and for all time. (God, of course, is even Greater beyond that, Infinitely Great, and Existing beyond and outside time itself. Eternity extends well beyond time, with the realm of time, the temporal realm being yet another part of Creation that God brought into existence.)