Cenacle - Chapter 13 - On Christ's heart

Jn 13:21-33.36-38.
Reclining at table with his disciples, Jesus was deeply troubled and
testified, «Amen, amen, I say to you, one of you will betray me.»
The disciples looked at one another, at a loss as to whom he meant.
One of his disciples, the one whom Jesus loved, was reclining at Jesus'
side. So Simon Peter nodded to him to find out whom he meant.
He leaned back against Jesus' chest and said to him, "Master, who is it?"

 

 

How often I have had the experience of looking into a person’s face and seeing something that perhaps they did not even know was showing: their feelings, their pain, their worries and even their deepest desires. I don’t mean to pry or to assume, but at times it is like a marquee revealing their deepest secrets. It is then confirmed in the manner with which they then share with me. In the passage from the Gospel of John, our founder highlights the moment when John is leaning on the chest of Jesus.  John was so close to Jesus that it seems he read the Lord’s heart as I sometimes read faces. John “heard” with the ears of his heart the love that flowed through the heart of Jesus. He “heard” love that suffered for the other and he “heard” compassion and mercy; suffering would pass and that the Lord’s joy would be ours and that our joy would be full….

 

Oh John, I read your Gospel and I “hear” the heart of the Master. Thank you for transmitting that love to us and not omitting to communicate to us even a heart beat of love that flowed through Jesus and gave us the Church and his body and blood in the Eucharist. Thank you, John. You are our beloved brother and apostle. May all our priests know the heart beats of Jesus heart as you experienced them. Amen.

 

Teresa Monaghen reflecting on Bishop Giaquinta’s book, The Cenacle

Cenacle - Chapter 13 - On Christ's heart

Sitio: Prayers on Jesus' Thirst by Bishop Giaquinta

“Stay with Us, Lord!” Lk 24:29

Bishop Giaquinta

“Stay with us, Lord,”
the disciples begged
as they felt their hearts reassured and burning with love
at the sound of Your word. 

Today we, too, beg You, “Stay with us, Lord,”
not so much because our hearts wish to taste Your love,
but because the heaviness of life oppresses us unbearably. 

Weighed down by fatigue and worries, O Divine Master,
we come to You, Who alone have words of life.
We come to You Who, hidden under the appearance of bread,
fill us with hope and peace. 

O Jesus, Our Lord, Eucharist, Immanuel, God-with-Us:
in the midst of our suffering, we beg You for help.
Come among us, come within us, and whisper the word
that You alone can say: My Father’s peace I give you. 

Thus we will experience our hearts being at peace
in the rest that You alone can give,
in the strength that You alone can provide,
in the faith that You alone can grant.  

Then we will be more docile to Your grace
and will taste
the joy of being children of the Church,
the certainty of living the tomorrow in the eternal, never-passing vision,
the profound value of our self-giving to our brothers and sisters in You. 

We will go back to our work and to our suffering,
but we will bear in our hearts the living desire for You.
Grant that this desire grows and becomes a burning love that,
after consuming the ashes of our humanity and sin,
transforms us into You
so we may journey together
towards the holiness of the Father.  
 Amen

Sitio: Prayers on Jesus' Thirst by Bishop Giaquinta

Holy Week at the Pro Sanctity Center, Elkhorn

Join us at the Pro Sanctity Center in Elkhorn for the Stations! Tonight was absolutely breathtaking!

7:00 pm Tuesday and Wednesday. Personal time with the stations any time during the week.

7:15 pm on Good Friday!

Kite Flying and Potluck on Sunday!

Holy Week at the Pro Sanctity Center, Elkhorn

Sitio: Prayers on Jesus' Thirst by Bishop Giaquinta

From the Height of the Cross
Bishop Giaquinta 

Enflamed by the Spirit,
we come to You, Father,
to receive Your love
and the love of the Word made flesh and crucified. 

Lord Jesus, from the height of the Cross,
may Your thirst reach us,
who  - thirsty for love - wish to quench Your thirst. 

Few loved enough to share with You
the sorrowful tragedy of Calvary.
Few are those who,
docile to the action of the Spirit,
remain with You now, Source of love. 

Father, we come here today
to make up for such human senselessness
and to give to You
our love without reserve. 

Lord, that alone is not enough for us. 

We pray that our number increase evermore
until it becomes a chorus of love
lifted up from all parts of the world
in response
to Your thirst on the Cross,
to the invitation of the Spirit,
to Your call, O God-Love. 

Heavenly Father, this is our desire that we offer You
as a commitment,
trusting that Mary, mother of holiness,
will help us to generously live it.
Amen.

Sitio: Prayers on Jesus' Thirst by Bishop Giaquinta

If they did not praise him the stones would cry out

I have been reflecting on Fr Jindra's wonderful talk on Palm Sunday and the Passion that he gave at our membership gathering yesterday.  What has stayed with me most, and I pray it will always stay with me is his question:  What is your heart crying out?  He said with all the complexity of emotions and actions during the passion it has to cry out in some way, either with the sadness of the passion or the joy of the ressurection or some combination of both.  What the Holy Spirit has been asking me since I heard the talk yesterday, because of my tendency of inaction and laziness, is:  If your heart is not crying out, why not?  If stones would cry out, either non living or barely alive as parts of the earth, how much more should you (we) as an immortal soul made in the image and likeness of God, cry out with everyting that is in you.  May everyone have a prayerful Holy Week and Easter, thank you Fr Frank for your gifts to us and letting the Holy Spirit speak through you

If they did not praise him the stones would cry out

Sitio: Prayers on Jesus' Thirst by Bishop Giaquinta

“I Thirst”
Bishop Giaquinta 

Crucified Lord,
from Your parched mouth
a humble request for water
is addressed to those who are present.
Your “I thirst”
expresses a nameless suffering
that pervades Your gaunt body. 

The soldier heard Your plea,
and wanting to help You,
offered the fire of vinegar
to Your bleeding lips. 

Mary listened to Your lament
which penetrated
the depths of her broken heart.
How she longed to come closer to the wood
and quench Your thirst
with her sorrowful tears. 

I, too, listen to Your lament
“I thirst.”
I, sick as I am,
understand more than some
the dryness of Your mouth,
the suffering of Your thirst. 

What can I do to alleviate Your pangs
except offer You my little suffering? 

Lord, I do know that Your thirst
was not only a physical need,
but a need for souls. 

Just as at the Well of Sicar,
You ask again for water.
You address Yourself to us
who are far from You,
inviting us to come back to You
to quench our thirst. 

You thirst for us who do not thirst for You,
the only Source of living water. 

Lord, I could not alleviate
Your physical suffering,
but I wish to quench
Your keen thirst for souls. 

Feeble and sick as I am,
neither exhausting travels
nor lengthy discourses or discussions
are for me. 

O Lord, I do offer You in response
to Your thirst
all my love,
my suffering,
my sickness,
my weakness. 

May our sorrowful Mother,
the co-redeemer Virgin,
unite my small offering
to the immense torment of her soul.
May she obtain for me and all my brothers and sisters
ardent thirst for Your love
and humble acceptance
of the adorable will of God.
Amen.

Sitio: Prayers on Jesus' Thirst by Bishop Giaquinta

Reflections on the Cenacle - Chapter 12

Friday, March 26, 2010
Cenacle reflection.Be Brothers and Sisters
Teresa Monaghen

"There is no other love than to lay down one's life for one's friends."

What does this mean? Or how would I know if my love was indeed full, to overflowing?"
What keeps me from being brother or sister to the other? Where am I called
to be the first to take down the barriers?
I first and foremost must stay connected - Priest to Jesus; Jesus (through
the hands of the priest) to the people.

This is such a difficult area, precisely because it is so clear and the command of the Lord so precise that we spend most of our time trying to avoid its truth and live in the shadows of love rather than wholeheartedly embracing it. The Apostle must be filled with the love of the Father and of Christ and as a consequence can only love the others; there is no excuse, no option, nor any other way! Our actions as followers of Jesus, priest and people, must prove that we understand the commandment of fraternal love. "There is NO other love than to LAY down one's life for one's friends" NO other love.whew! In our hearts we are called to listen to the other, thank the other, notice the other, pray for the other and lay down our lives for the other. Not only love in proximity of each other, sitting around a table, in the home, at a meeting, in the office, in the Church, but more. We are asked even more. We are called to be of one mind and heart.

Our Founder boldly invites us to reclaim true fraternal and priestly love. Mediocrity is to live a life of love according to my likes and avoid what and whom I dislike.this is not acceptable. Only by loving unconditionally which requires me to lay down my life for the other, will I know the love of Christ's love. I cannot do it, but I can give permission to the Lord to love in me, through me, and thus love the other when I cannot. This is the grace of our union with Jesus. This is the intimacy and oneness with the Lord that will allow us to be Christ for and to the other.

I cannot love you - the other, but Christ living in me loves you and he loves you all the way.

May this love of Christ overflow in my life to ALL. Amen.

Reflections on the Cenacle - Chapter 12

Sitio: Prayers on Jesus' Thirst by Bishop Giaquinta

Let Me Quench Your Thirst
Bishop Giaquinta 

O Jesus Who, agonizing on the cross,
left Your faithful people
Your “I thirst” of love and sorrow,
grant that I, too, may quench Your tormented thirst. 

I understand that Your thirst is for all people,
and that for each one You, Eternal Word,
became flesh in the womb of the Immaculate Virgin
and cried in the cave at Bethlehem. 

For people, for their salvation and holiness,
You spent many years laboring and in silence
to teach them the way of work, silence, and humility. 

And in the villages of Judea and Galilee
You preached,
You taught,
You prayed and worked miracles
so that they could understand that You
alone
are the true source of the living water,
and that only in You is there hope of peaceful rest. 

Many did not understand You,
some abandoned You,
and You,
betrayed,
began Your suffering way
that ended on the cross.
But from it, in a loud voice,
You told all people of Your love and Your thirst for souls. 

The Immaculate Virgin listened to Your voice;
John and the pious women stood with her.
Many others, throughout the centuries,
have listened to it and have experienced
torment for the salvation of others. 

Grant such a torment to me,
not only for their salvation but for their holiness.
Let this be my great ideal, the only ideal of my life.
Neither suffering nor work, neither death nor life,
neither joy nor sorrow constitute my reason
for choosing or desiring something
but only the good of others. 

I am and want to remain
in a state of complete availability to Your redemptive love.
What I ask of You, Heart of Christ the Redeemer,
is that I may be Your docile instrument in the work of redemption.
I am certain that through the intercession
of the Immaculate Heart of Mary,
You will accept my prayer,
the prayer of a humble creature. 

Anything that I think or feel is mine,
I give to You, O Lord;
but give me the grace
to enter into Your Heart,
Furnace of Redemptive Love,
in order to consume myself in it
out of love for You and my brothers and sisters.
Amen.
 

Sitio: Prayers on Jesus' Thirst by Bishop Giaquinta

Pausing with Mary under the Father's Loving Gaze

"Imagine how tender Mary’s prayer was to the Father, whenever she looked at the Son with her heart filled with gratitude: 'Thank you, Father, for you have given me the gift of Your Son.'  The joy she must have experienced because she could repeat the words of the Father: 'You are my Son; today I have begotten you.'  The difference is that the 'today' of Mary is in time and space, while the 'today' of the Father is from eternity.  How did Mary live this marvelous reality?  Mary’s canticle, the Magnificat, helps us understand.  Faced with these marvelous realities which begin with the Annunciation and Incarnation, we wonder at the light that must have pervaded Mary’s soul, so that she can say: 'He who is mighty has done great things for me' (Luke 1:49).  And if Mary is says this from the beginning, that is, during her visit to Elizabeth, who knows how many more times she repeated her Magnificat to the Father?  And who knows the love that united her to Jesus in His prayer to the Father during His deepest suffering: 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?' (Mark 16:34)." (Bishop Giaquinta, Face of the Father)

Pausing with Mary under the Father's Loving Gaze

Sitio: Prayers on Jesus' Thirst by Bishop Giaquinta

Stay by Them, Lord
Bishop William Giaquinta

Jesus our Lord, from the height of the Cross
You called us to contemplate Your love;
here we are, docile to Your invitation.

O Eucharistic Jesus, while we are here before You
how can we forget
our struggling and suffering brothers and sisters,
far and near,
who ask for help through our prayers?

We present to You, Lord, their desires
and their unspoken invocation for help
in all their needs. 

Stay by them, Lord, and give them interior certainty
that Your love does not abandon any child
born from the suffering of the Cross.

We make this prayer trusting that
Mary -- Your mother and our mother --
will beg from You what we are asking today.

Lord, we have yet another request.
As suffering and need are common to all the world
and make us one,
so may we be one in brotherhood.
May we cultivate an ever-growing love
for You until we reach You in Heaven.

Grant this to us, O Lord. Amen

Sitio: Prayers on Jesus' Thirst by Bishop Giaquinta

Sitio: Prayers on Jesus' Thirst by Bishop Giaquinta

The Smiling Christ
Bishop William Giaquinta

Surrounded by darkness,
The Lord’s frail, dying body
Was throbbing with pain.
He emitted a feeble sigh and moaned:
“Lord, my Father,
Why have you abandoned me?”

An invisible ray of light
Pierced the darkness
and rested on the Heart of Christ:
The response of love from the Father.

On the face of the Lord
A smile radiated
As life stirred with his memories
Of the children he had caressed and
who, in their innocence gazed on him,
the smiling Christ,
with their mothers nearby
lost in reverie . . .
Of the sick who received
not only health but the gift of his smile . . .
Of the adulterous woman who was saved
by the smile of Christ . . .
Of his mother smiling at him,
his smile to her . . .
And there Mary was, standing by him.

He slowly turned and,
Smiling through his pain,
Murmured:
“Mother, behold your son;”
And to John:
“Behold your mother.”

Then his face
Became radiant with eternity.
He uttered a loud cry,
Throngs surrounded him:
He breathed on them the Spirit of love.
He smiled again . . .
Then he bowed his head.
It was finished.

Let us pray.
To be able to smile always,
     in joy and in pain,
     to friends and to foes,   
     to the indifferent,
is the grace that we ask of you,
Smiling Lord of Calvary,
through the intercession
of your Mother, our Smiling Mother. Amen.

Sitio: Prayers on Jesus' Thirst by Bishop Giaquinta