Happy Easter!

"Resurrectio Domini, spes nostra! The resurrection of Christ is our hope! This the Church proclaims today with joy. She announces the hope that is now firm and invincible because God has raised Jesus Christ from the dead. She communicates the hope that she carries in her heart and wishes to share with all people in every place, especially where Christians suffer persecution because of their faith and their commitment to justice and peace. She invokes the hope that can call forth the courage to do good, even when it costs, especially when it costs. Today the Church sings 'the day that the Lord has made', and she summons people to joy. Today the Church calls in prayer upon Mary, Star of Hope, asking her to guide humanity towards the safe haven of salvation which is the heart of Christ, the paschal Victim, the Lamb who has 'redeemed the world', the Innocent one who has 'reconciled us sinners with the Father'. To him, our victorious King, to him who is crucified and risen, we sing out with joy our Alleluia!" (Urbi et Orbi Message- Easter 2009)


This Easter, we commemorate and renew the promises made at our baptism. Through Christ, we have been buried in the waters of baptism and raised up as the beloved sons and daughters of the Heavenly Father. Where is the Father's love leading you this Easter? How is He drawing you closer to His Heart?

Bishop Giaquinta teaches us: "The place the Father has in the life of Jesus is the place He must have in our lives. We must love the Father like Jesus loves Him. Conversely, we must recognize that the Father loves us like He loves Jesus. If only we would translate all this into life, our spiritual life would really be changed; the Father would enter totally into our existence – an existence that, as we know, is already rooted in His heart."

“You are my beloved Son, in You my favor rests,” (Lk 3:21).

"We see, therefore, the rapport Jesus has with the Father and the Father with Him. What trust and serenity we should find in the fact that we abide in the Father’s Son and that, as sons and daughters of the same Father, the words to Jesus are addressed to us as well: 'This is My beloved son in whom I am well pleased!' 'This is My beloved daughter in whom I am well pleased!'"

"Let us try to grasp the twofold dimension of the Father’s voice: His rapport with the Son and His rapport with us. Not only His rapport with me, but also His rapport with all who live around me. Thus, we should respect, love and, I’d say, even venerate one another. When we fall short in charity, we are lacking respect and kindness for the children of God. This is why this rapport of love is so often repeated in Scripture: we are children of God, and the Father loves us all." (Bishop William Giaquinta, Face of the Father)

We pray to grow in the hope and joy that comes from the awareness of our personal identity as beloved sons and daughters of the Heavenly Father. With Mary as our model, may the confidence in His love guide our lives as we strive to be authentic witnesses of holiness in the world!

Happy Easter!

Pro Sanctity Reflects on the Stations of the Cross

The Fourteenth Station: 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.

Let no one deceive you with empty words, for it is because of these things that the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore do not associate with them, for once you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord; walk as children of light (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), and try to learn what is pleasing to the Lord. Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. For it is a shame even to speak of the things that they do in secret; but when anything is exposed by the light it becomes visible, for anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it is said, "Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give you light. (Ephesians 5:6-14)

Jesus has died and Joseph of Arimathea has requested His body and the men with Mary climb up and pull out the nails holding Jesus up. There is much concern over this process. They do not want to hurt Jesus’s body anymore. They do not want to drop the body causing Mary more grief than she has already suffered. They are preparing Jesus for a hasty burial before the Sabbath begins. Important things happen in haste. The shepherds went to see the child Jesus in haste. The Holy Family fled in haste. Jesus life begins and ends in haste. These are all important faith moments. When Jesus was put in the tomb the people were filled with deep sorrow at never being able to see Jesus again. It is a disturbing moment that needs to be accomplished quickly. The future is unknown and seems hopeless. In sorrow, they place Jesus in the tomb and return to their homes. Mary will surely ponder all these things in her heart. I invite you to look at the hasty moments in your life and ponder these moments to see where Jesus was at.

Submitted by Anne Zugelder, Apostolic Oblate, Nebraska

As I watch Jesus laid in the tomb, I breath stillness, silence, dismay, wonder, suffering beyond words, a sense of deep gratitude, and much, much love.
I see Joseph of Arimathea taking the body, wrapping it in a clean linen shroud, and laying it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn in the rock. I see Mary, Mary Magdalene, remaining sitting there, facing the tomb.(Mt 27:57-61)

“Be still and know that I am God!" (Ps. 46:10). Yes, Lord; yes, Jesus, Son of God! You are the Lord! You, the Author of life, gave Yourself for me, for all! You are now laid in the tomb!
Words coming from Your Heart and Your lips to instruct the disciples, resound deep in my heart, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” (Jn 12:24) “The tomb does not contain an inert body, but the Risen Lord, our Eucharist.” (Our Prayer, pg 78)

You, Eucharistic Jesus, wanted to remain with us in a unique and marvelous way, You wanted to enter in the fabric of every age, every time and give newness of life to us, to all, making new all things, and leading all to the Father. May we use the talents You gave us, and do not bury them! May we look at ourselves, at today’s world with eyes of faith filled with hope and love may we arise from the tomb of hopelessness, indifference, injustice, restlessness… and be Eucharist for others, Bread of life, peace, joy. Not we, Lord, but You in us!

Submitted by Franca Salvo, Apostolic Oblate, Nebraska

Holy Mother, impress into my heart the wounds of your Son!

Pro Sanctity Reflects on the Stations of the Cross

Pro Sanctity Reflects on the Stations of the Cross

Thirteenth Station: Jesus is Taken Down From the Cross and
Received by His Mother

We adore You, O Christ and we praise You, because by Your holy cross You have redeemed the world.

Truly, truly, I say to you, you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; you will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy. When a woman is in travail she has sorrow, because her hour has come; but when she is delivered of the child, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a child is born into the world. So you have sorrow now, but I will see you again and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you. In that day you will ask nothing of me. Truly, truly, I say to you, if you ask anything of the Father, he will give it to you in my name. Hitherto you have asked nothing in my name; ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full. (John 16:20-24)

Like Jesus I am invited to give everything, and like Him to abandon myself into the loving arms of my Mother. Lying in her arms, having nothing more to give, feeling defeated, or not knowing where to turn, I have the comfort of Mary's loving me completely for who I am. Also, in her arms is where I find Jesus Who said with His life, "Zeal for your house will consume me." As a Baptized person I am the house of God, the dwelling place of the Trinity, and Jesus was completely consumed for love of me through each step of His Passion. I am invited to enter into this Station to receive Jesus' and Mary's love for me.

Submitted by Monica Hejkal, Aspirant Apostolic Oblate, Nebraska

The thirteenth station is something I struggle with daily. I judge my failures harshly. I demand perfection instead of holiness. My idea of success is for all to end well-according to My Liking. My prayer in this meditation. Let me accept praise or blame, or success or failure with equal serenity.

Submitted by Cynthia Urquides

Holy Mother, impress into my heart the wounds of your Son.

Pro Sanctity Reflects on the Stations of the Cross

Pro Sanctity Reflects on the Stations of the Cross

Twelfth Station: Jesus Dies on the Cross

We adore You, O Christ and we praise You, because by Your holy cross You have redeemed the world.

Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing; for whatever he does, that the Son does likewise. For the Father loves the Son, and shows him all that he himself is doing; and greater works than these will he show him, that you may marvel. For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will. The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son, even as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears my word and believes him who sent me, has eternal life; he does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life” (John 5:19-24).

Jesus’ desire is infinite and unchanging. His love compels (cf. 2 Cor. 5:14; Phil. 2:6-7) Him to offer Himself for the redemption of the world. Though the suffering was very real—“My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me” (Mt. 26:39)—Jesus’ desire to pour Himself out completely is infinite—“I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer (Lk. 22:15). We, too, are invited to make every moment a redemptive moment: “what must our most appropriate and ultimate response be? It will be total availability to the work of redemption … in full accord with the needs of the redemptive moment” (Bishop Giaquinta, Our Life as Apostolic Oblates).

Jesus infinitely desired to empty Himself completely because He sees the Father empty Himself completely (creation, sustaining creation, identity in the Trinity). Such an outpouring in love bears abundant fruit. Thus Jesus does what He sees the Father doing (cf. Jn. 5:19) as He offers Himself for love’s sake on the cross. We, too, are called to choose death for love, for redemption.

With Jesus, may we keep our attention fixed on the Father, so that we may say only what we hear the Father say and do only what we see the Father do. Let us ask for this grace as we journey toward the fullness of life in the infinite love of the Father with Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Submitted by Jessi Kary, Apostolic Oblate, Nebraska

Holy Mother, impress into my heart the wounds of your Son.

Pro Sanctity Reflects on the Stations of the Cross

Pro Sanctity Reflects on the Stations of the Cross

Eleventh Station: 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.

To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen. Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, every one who pierced him; and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so. Amen. (Revelation 1:5-7)

The station that most terrifies me is the eleventh station, Jesus getting nailed to the cross. This is unfathomable. It is repulsive. I can handle hardly a hangnail, let alone something that is used to keep railroads ties together. I don’t know how Jesus could sustain this for a moment, let alone three hours, and two more nails beyond the first.

After meditating on this horrific station, we understand that Jesus’ love of me is bigger than his pain. He gave me everything he had, and held nothing back. He hung on that cross beaten to shreds, fully exposed, with nowhere to hide, friendless, reviled. To the naked eye, there were no consolations for this man Jesus The King of The Jews.

Meditating further, perhaps there were some consolations, invisible ones. Maybe I was there, the brave me, the committed me. (The cowardly me already ran on home and was now quaking under the bed.) Maybe I was there, along with countless others, and when He couldn’t sustain himself any longer, our love held him up. Maybe we carried him for a while, us, the ones who have finally figured out that truly is the Son of God, and we’d be there no matter what it cost us, for what our presence was worth. Come to find out, our presence was worth the soul of the Son of God, because, truly, this is who He is.

Submitted by Barbara Gata, Pro Sanctity friend, New York

Through Baptism, we enter into the threefold mission of Christ: priest, prophet, king. “You shall be to me a kingdom of priests, a holy nation” (Exodus 19:6). Pope John Paul II explains that “it is participation in the priesthood of Christ which denotes the simplest and most complete” (Sources of Renewal) aspect of the mission of the faithful. At the heart of the priestly mission is sacrifice on behalf of the people. Bishop Giaquinta calls this dimension of our mission Redemptive Love: “Even after we adhered completely to God’s will, we will have done much, but not everything. We must spontaneously and generously wish to journey toward the Cross, choose it, and embrace it” (Bishop Giaquinta, Formation and Apostolate). St. Paul, too, desired to enter into the death of Jesus for the sake of the resurrection – for himself and those to whom he preached. Everyone must be holy!

Let us ask for Jesus’ desire to offer ourselves with Him in His redemptive act so that every moment is a redemptive moment, that we may be All Saints, All Brothers and Sisters.

Submitted by Jessi Kary, Apostolic Oblate, Nebraska

Holy Mother, impress into my heart the wounds of your Son.

Pro Sanctity Reflects on the Stations of the Cross

Pro Sanctity Reflects on the Stations of the Cross

Tenth Station: Jesus is Stripped of His Clothes

We adore You, O Christ and we praise You, because by Your holy cross You have redeemed the world.

They stare at me and gloat; they divide my garments among them; for my clothing they cast lots. But you, LORD, do not stay far off; my strength, come quickly to help me. Deliver me from the sword, my forlorn life from the teeth of the dog. Save me from the lion's mouth, my poor life from the horns of wild bulls. Then I will proclaim your name to the assembly; in the community I will praise you: "You who fear the LORD, give praise! All descendants of Jacob, give honor; show reverence, all descendants of Israel! For God has not spurned or disdained the misery of this poor wretch, Did not turn away from me, but heard me when I cried out. (Psalm 22:18-25)


My favorite station would be the 10th, when Christ is stripped of his garments. It is a constant reminder that all that I have and all that I am comes from God alone. He desires that I use this cross as a reminder that all that I need comes from him and just as he entered into our world with nothing, but the arms of his mother, so should I let go of all my desires for worldly things and grow in love and trust of his mother; Mary, Her total abandonment of self for God reveals a trust that I need to acquire, for it is in heavenly things that my life will grow ever eternal toward her son’s merciful love and not in the things of this world. Peace..

Submitted by Teresa Pauls, Apostolic Oblate, Witchita, Kansas

O JESUS, my heart breaks to see you stripped of your garments and to see the wounds inflicted upon your body. My eyes want to turn away, and my heart cries out, “No, not me. I couldn’t have inflicted those wounds.” Help me to avoid hurting my neighbor with words or actions, and when I fail, as I invariably will, fill my soul with the light of your mercy and forgiveness. Amen.

Submitted by Davi

O Jesus, I know how you felt when the soldiers stripped you of your garments. Help others to learn how to love you as we do. I love you Jesus.

Composed by Teresa, age 9

Holy Mother, impress into my heart the wounds of your Son.

Pro Sanctity Reflects on the Stations of the Cross

Pro Sanctity Reflects on the Stations of the Cross

Ninth Station: Jesus Falls the Third Time

We adore You, O Christ and we praise You, because by Your holy cross You have redeemed the world.

Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:5-11)

During the last four years I have treasured in my heart the Ninth Station. On Good Friday 2005, the then Card. Ratzinger, today Benedict XVI, led the Way of the Cross at Rome’s Colosseum. I followed it! The way Benedict XVI meditated on the third fall of the Lord revolutionized my life.

“What can the third fall of Jesus under the cross say to us? We have considered the fall of humanity in general, and the falling of many Christians away from Christ…Should we not also think of how much Christ suffers in His own Church? How often is the Holy Sacrament of His Presence abused, how often must He enter empty and evil Hearts! How often do we celebrate only ourselves, without even realizing that He is there! How often is His Word twisted and misused! What little faith is present behind so many theories, so many empty words! How much filth there in the Church…How much pride… What little respect we pay to the sacrament of Reconciliation…”

I resolved to continue to pray for daily conversion, to rise from the personal/Church fall as the Lord did, to love Mother Church as I “saw” and “see” the Lord loving her, to be a flame of love! I ask Mary, Mother of Trust, to make me holy, to make us holy, to hasten the Springtime of Mother Church, and the civilization of love, holiness, and brotherhood.

Submitted by Franca Salvo, Apostolic Oblate, Nebraska

We both agree that it is Jesus falling the third time. In Leonard’s words, “He got back up again.” That challenges us no matter what it is that gets us down. Is it the day-in and day-out schedule and list of responsibilities? Is it the current anti-life changes being poured upon us? Jesus got up. Our hope is Christ.

Submitted by Theresa and Leonard Gabriel, Pro Sanctity Members, Columbus, Nebraska

Holy Mother, impress into my heart the wounds of your Son.

Pro Sanctity Reflects on the Stations of the Cross

Pro Sanctity Reflects on the Stations of the Cross

Eighth Station: 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.

But when the time had fully come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!" So through God you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son then an heir. Formerly, when you did not know God, you were in bondage to beings that by nature are no gods; but now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and beggarly elemental spirits, whose slaves you want to be once more? (Galatians 4:4-9)

I considered your questions and the 8th station continued to come up. It is titled “comfort” [sometimes referred to as Jesus comforts the women of Jerusalem] but for me, as I reflected, it seemed more a challenge and warning than comfort. “Weep for yourselves and for your children”, does not sound very comforting to me. In fact, I find it somewhat ominous. It reveals to me how easily one can fall into bad choices and living and that we are visible examples to others; so much so that we must do our best to follow Jesus.

Following Jesus calls for great humility (Fr. Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalen, O.C.D. in Divine Intimacy calls it humiliations). I saw Jesus, God, who totally humiliated Himself by becoming human, like us! He was beaten, spit upon, crowned with thorns, ridiculed, forced to carry His own instrument of death, fell more than once, and killed. Not once do we hear Him cry out, whine, get angry, or fight back, and He could have won any match. In fact, He comforts many and quietly accepts help. He just keeps on towards one goal, doing His Father’s will.

I can relate to this as I often feel like I’m wading through arm-pit high water and the only way through is to keep my eyes straight ahead. Keep them on Jesus. His is the ultimate model of humility (humiliation) and love in order to do God’s will. How can I embrace that in my own life?! It’s scary; who wants to be humiliated? Jesus is calling me (all of us?) to come closer to Him so He can help. I know for sure I can’t do it myself!

Submitted by Cathy Ludwick, Pro Sanctity member, Wichita, Kansas

Christianity is never ending event of encounter with God. I have had the experience in the strangest of places of meeting someone who I have not seen in a long time and then for a period of time, I see that person ALL the time! Perhaps this is the experience of the pious women. They saw Jesus and observed his work everywhere and then one day they stumbled upon him along the way of Calvary. They “run into God” and their hearts are moved to deep tears, not aware yet of the full meaning of his presence in their lives. In reality he wants them on his side, to know and understand him deeply. He directs them to be concerned for the others who need their tears and their prayers. Their encounter with God, Jesus, is an invitation to maturity.

Dear Lord, How often my emotions are misplaced and I spin my wheels on things that are not important, and yet I cannot deny that you are there for me every step of the way. Lord, You are always greeting me with life, nature, beauty, wonder, truth and showing me how to grow in your full stature especially when I encounter you in suffering and failure. May I be attentive to your words and live always in your presence. Amen.

Submitted by Teresa Monaghen, Apostolic Oblate, Nebraska

Holy Mother, impress into my heart the wounds of your Son.

Pro Sanctity Reflects on the Stations of the Cross

Pro Sanctity Reflects on the Stations of the Cross

Seventh Station: Jesus Falls the Second Time

We adore You, O Christ and we praise You, because by Your holy cross You have redeemed the world.

Now is the judgment of this world, now shall the ruler of this world be cast out; and I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself." (Jn 12:31-32)

All of the Stations regarding the falls of Jesus have been a struggle for me. Pope Benedict XIV and others have helped me in this regard through reflections in which I am invited to enter into the Stations myself and to see Jesus as falling to raise me up. Through prayer I now see myself on the ground having gotten there in a different way each of the three times, and Jesus helps me up in a unique way every time. I invite others to do the same; pray with the Stations, picturing yourself in each one because the Lord has something beautiful to say to you as He gives you His life and His love unreservedly.

Submitted by Monica Hejkal

Lord Jesus Christ, you have borne all our burdens and you continue to carry us. Our weight has made you fall. Lift us up, for by ourselves we cannot rise from the dust. Free us from the bonds of lust. In place of a heart of stone, give us a heart of flesh, a heart capable of seeing. Lay low the power of ideologies, so that all may see that they are a web of lies. Do not let the wall of materialism become unsurmountable. Make us aware of your presence. Keep us sober and vigilant, capable of resisting the forces of evil. Help us to recognize the spiritual and material needs of others, and to give them the help they need. Lift us up, so that we may lift others up. Give us hope at every moment of darkness, so that we may bring your hope to the world. (Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, 2005, now Pope Benedict XVI)

Oh Jesus, I love you. I am sorry that you fell. Help me to be good. Amen.

Composed by Parker, age 8

Holy Mother, impress into my heart the wounds of your Son.

Pro Sanctity Reflects on the Stations of the Cross

Pro Sanctity Reflects on the Stations of the Cross

Sixth Station: 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.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer. Our hope for you is unshaken; for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort. (2 Corinthians 1:3-7)

I have always been partial to Veronica ministering to Jesus, wiping the blood from her Lord's brow that was no doubt running into His eyes. The moment they shared was probably so very deep, so intimate and probably profound in the love that flowed not only from His wounds in His blood, but the love that flowed from His gaze into her tear-filled eyes. She was consoling Him by being there on that last agonizing journey up the hill to Golgatha.

I want to console Jesus in and with my own life, by simply being "little" and trying my best every day to conform my will to His. Wiping His brow with prayers for peace in our world. Prayers for sinners to repent. Prayers for my loved ones who need His love and forgiveness. To aspire to the call to holiness, and make more conscious effort to stop myself when I'm tempted to complain, or grumble about this or that. To offer up any suffering, the greatest and the least, emotional/mental or physical for the conversion of sinners and deeper conversion of my own heart, so that finally one day I'll see Mary my Mother welcoming me, her little prodigal daughter, into her arms, holding me close to her Immaculate Heart, to be forever joined to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. With all the Saints who've gone on before us, I hope to attain heaven and than Veronica for her example. St. Veronica, please pray for us that we'll offer our lives to "wipe Jesus' brow" in others we meet, to minister to our priests in their loneliness and their burdens, as a sacrifice to console the wounded heart of Mary, and thereby consoling our Lord's own heart, forever meshed with the heart of His Mother.

Submitted by Susie Melkus, Nebraska

O JESUS, what a gracious gift you gave that courageous woman in the midst of your own suffering. Please help me, like Veronica, to aid those who are struggling with their crosses. Help me to gently wipe my neighbor’s brow and to offer whatever small comfort I can to aid him or her on the journey. Fill me with love and compassion. Amen.

The sixth station is the one that I relate to the most. My confirmation name is Veronica, and it still appeals to me as much as it did when I was confirmed thirty or forty years ago. That spirit of aiding someone who is struggling really speaks to me.

Submitted by Davi

Holy Mother, impress into my heart the wounds of your Son.

Pro Sanctity Reflects on the Stations of the Cross

Pro Sanctity Reflects on the Stations of the Cross

Fifth Station: Simon Helps Jesus Carry the Cross

We adore You, O Christ and we praise You, because by Your holy cross You have redeemed the world.

Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If a man does not abide in me, he is cast forth as a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you will, and it shall be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be my disciples. As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you; abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full. (John 15:4-11)

One of the greatest moments of grace in my life has occurred while praying with the fifth station. I never liked “doing the stations” and it became more and more of a struggle as I tried to comply with the spiritual disciplines and practices given to me, the Stations of the Cross being on of them. I noticed that at the fifth station, I felt absolutely rotten because I thought I wasn’t any better than Simon of Cyrene. I didn’t want to carry the cross either! As I spent lingered at the this station, I began to see that it was not Simon helping Jesus carry His cross, but Jesus who was helping Simon carry his! Engaging the “tools of prayer” that I have been immersed in, I began to tell Jesus how much I didn’t like carrying the cross in my life and how unhappy I was with myself because of this. I realized it wasn’t so much that I didn’t want to carry the cross, I just didn’t know how, and I was clumsily struggling to drag my cross up the hill by myself.

In the gospel of John, Jesus reminds us “for apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). We can’t even carry out our cross without His sustaining grace. He invites us to participate in His suffering and all of His disciples are to follow Him on the Way of the Cross, but we don’t do this alone. Jesus is with us in our joys and sufferings and He has already perfected the way of the cross. He shows us how to carry the cross through the example He gave us, especially the total abandonment to the Father’s will. In placing our trust and love in the Father, our fears and struggles disappear and we become available to not only carry the cross we have been given, but also to assist our brother and sisters on their journey. Let us carry our cross and let Jesus carry us.

Submitted by Joan Patten,
Aspirant Apostolic Oblate, Nebraska

Holy Mother, impress into my heart the wounds of your Son.

Pro Sanctity Reflects on the Stations of the Cross

Pro Sanctity Reflects on the Stations of the Cross

Fourth Station: Jesus Meets His Mother

We adore You, O Christ and we praise You, because by Your holy cross You have redeemed the world.

My steps have held fast to thy paths, my feet have not slipped. I call upon thee, for thou wilt answer me, O God; incline thy ear to me, hear my words. Wondrously show thy steadfast love, O savior of those who seek refuge from their adversaries at thy right hand. Keep me as the apple of the eye; hide me in the shadow of thy wings, from the wicked who despoil me, my deadly enemies who surround me. (Psalm 17:5-9)

The station that most intrigues me is the fourth station, Jesus meeting his Mother. I often think about what transpired in the brief moment in which their eyes locked. On her hot, stumbling, pushing way through the crowd, Mary had to have thought about, consciously or not, what she would transmit to her son when He finally distinguished her eye in the crowd. She was determined to lock eyes. Now, more that any other moment in his life, He needed to see her in this hostile, murderous, senseless crowd.
Earlier on in my life, when I contemplated what that moment was like for mother and son, I thought that Mary’s glance said to Him, "I remember you on my knee!" or "you are so precious to me!" or something else that reflected back on their life together. I used to think this before I knew about life, and how it is we humans really get along in this world.

Now I am sure that Mary made sure she transmitted something quite different. One glance, early on in his passion, said everything she needed to give Him at that moment…"You can do this. You were born for this. Hang on. Don’t give up. Any bit of strength I have left in me is yours…take it, all of it. I am here and I am yours. Do what you have to do. You will succeed."
Mary transmitted strength in that glance, born of her unflagging love of him, and her conviction, if not her full understanding, of His mission on the earth. She was there early on—it is but the fourth station—and she would be there with him throughout, no matter what the cost to her.
Surely, she was granted extraordinary sustenance by the power of God, or she would have expired herself.

Mary refused to reveal in that glance her broken heart. She refused to reveal her own wounds, her grief. She would not show pity, pathos, anger, revulsion, anything that would wear Him down. Mary only gave Him what He needed, and what He needed was strength. I know this to be true because I have lived enough of life by this point to know that this is how we get along in this life. We get along by love, and love will provide what is needed by the other person to sustain them in truth. The feeling that emerges in me at this station is a desire to by like Mary. I want to be there for the people in my life in their daily, small struggles, and the times when they are called to suffer in extraordinary ways. I want to show them that there is nothing we can’t accomplish together, even if that means me simply holding their hand and telling them everything is exactly how it should be, and nothing has escaped the eye of God.

Submitted by Barbara Gata, Pro Sanctity friend, New York

A Station that bring tears to my eyes every time is the Fourth Station. I almost see the sorrowful but fully surrendering look of Mary and the loving tender, look of Jesus. It helps me to surrender all into God’s loving hands. He knows, and He wants the best for me and for all of us. I just need to surrender as Mary has done at every step of her life.

Submitted by Agnes Rus, Apostolic Oblate, California

Holy Mother, impress into my heart the wounds of your Son.

Pro Sanctity Reflects on the Stations of the Cross