Steven and I arrived a whole hour before Saturday evening Mass and, thanks to the recent time (light) change, Our Lady of Guadalupe looked picture perfect in its palm greenery; so how could I ignore God’s impromptu invitation to bask in the windows and the stations that I’d last photographed in 2012?
And, I discovered something new!
God’s lovely gifts
Among the exquisite stained-glass windows are sixteen— not fourteen or fifteen, but sixteen— stations of the cross! Amazing.
I can understand the fifteenth station— the glorious resurrection— but to depict Jesus in the garden before his way of the cross? Extraordinary.
As for the Last Supper? When one glimpses the back altar from either side of the front altar, one can see the lit portion below the mantle. Stunning.
What lovely gifts God has in store when we make time for him!
We adore you, O Christ, and we praise you
because, by your holy cross, you have redeemed the world.
At the cross her station keeping,
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 passed.
Oh how sad and sore distressed
was that mother highly blessed
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,
o’rwhelmed 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?
For the sins of his own nation
saw him hang in desolation,
all with bloody scourges rent.
Bruised, derided, cursed, defiled,
she beheld her tender child
till his spirit forth he sent.
O, sweet mother, fount of love,
touch my spirit from above;
make my heart with yours accord.
Make me feel as you have felt;
make my soul to glow and melt
with the love of Christ, my Lord.
Holy mother, pierce me through;
in my heart each wound renew
of my savior crucified.
Let me share with you his pain,
who for all my sins was slain,
who for me in torments died.
Let me mingle tears with you,
mourning him who mourned for me,
all the days that I may live.
By the cross with you to stay,
there with you to weep and pray,
this I ask of you to give.
Virgin, of all virgins blest,
O refuse not my request:
let me share your grief divine.
Let me to my latest breath,
in my body bear the death
of that dying son of yours.
Wounded with his every wound
steep my soul till it has swooned
in his very blood away.
Be to me, O virgin, nigh
lest in flames I burn and die
in that awful judgment day.
Christ, when you shalt call me hence,
be your mother my defense,
be your cross my victory.
While my body here decays,
may my soul your goodness praise,
safe in paradise with you.
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Stabat Mater, a thirteenth century hymn that tells the story of Our Lady of Sorrows during the passion of Christ, was translated by Fr. Edward Caswall (1814-1878) from Liturgia Horarum. (See links below.) An abridged version accompanies the stations in Behold! The Way of the Cross (Gouin, Creative Communications for the Parish, 2001).
March 21, 2017
God of life, we are grateful for the many gifts that you have given to us. May we become prudent stewards of your many gifts and not thoughtlessly waste water, food, and other resources. May we respond to your Son’s cry of thirst with lives of peacemaking and just action. We make his prayer in your name. Amen (Daniel P. Horan, OFM, in The Last Words of Jesus).
April 8, 2017
Dear God, we ask that you hear our Lenten prayer of praise, surrender, and petition. We praise you for the many gifts that you have given us. We surrender our control, seeking to follow Jesus’s model of humility while striving to love as he loved us. We recognize that suffering comes with love, that great love and great suffering can transform us, but that neither experience is necessarily easy. We offer our petition to you, praying that we might have the strength of our convictions, the hope of our faith, and the joy of that hope when times are difficult. May we always place our trust in you and commend our whole selves to your care. In doing so, may we always proclaim, in word and deed: “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done!” (Horan, OFM).
April 9, 2017
The very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and strewed them on the road. The crowds preceding him and those following kept crying out and saying “Hosanna to the Son of David; blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord; hosanna in the highest” (Mt. 21:8-9).
June 5, 2017
“The will of God is not a fate which has to be endured, but a holy and meaningful act which ushers in a new creation” (Romano Guardini in The Art of Praying).
June 30, 2017
In the gospels, Jesus introduces us to God the Father and invites us into his heavenly realm right here on earth, the kingdom of God. He opens our eyes to see that there are two kingdoms: the kingdom of this world, which we can touch, taste, see, hear, and smell (our physical world), and God’s kingdom, which is unseen but just as real— in fact, even more so.
By getting to know Jesus Christ and learning how to connect with him spiritually, we can become “kingdom-of-God dwellers.” But because we have been given the gift of free will, each of us must decide, every minute of each day, in which kingdom we will choose to place our hope and trust (Melissa Overmyer in Born to Soar: Unleashing God’s Word in Your Life).
July 21, 2017
All Christians know that God became man for us. Not all, however, realize that he did more than this. Not only did he become one of us, he willed also to make each one of us a part of himself. In addition to the mystery of the incarnation, there is the mystery of incorporation. We are incorporated into the person of Christ (Raoul Plus, SJ, in How To Pray Well).
July 25, 2017
We hold this treasure in earthen vessels, that the surpassing power may be of God and not from us. We are afflicted in every way, but not constrained; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our body (2 Cor. 4:7-10).
Links of interest… Betrayal… Final hours & death… God’s great love for us… Holy Saturday: looking back & peering ahead… Incarnation & the Pietá… Mary & the intolerable gift of waiting… Our Lady of Guadalupe Church: facebook… Stabat Mater: Preces Latinae / video / Virtus Online… Sermons of St. Francis de Sales: On our Lady (preview)… St. Vianney sermon: Beware if you have no temptations… Trusting in God in uncertain times… Way of Holy Week… Where’s your Gethsemane… Who is the kingdom of God…
WP posts… Capuchin church stations… Christ’s passion… Full circle… Growing pains… Guadalupe Church… Lenten reflections… Lingering memory… Our Lady’s church… Prayerful ways… Quiet prayer time… Sioux chapel stations… Sorrowful redemption… Venerating St. Anthony
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