God Loves Us! Don't Let Satan Rob You of the Truth!

What's a post about the crucifixion doing in Advent? Well...just think...God sent His Son to save us. That was His whole purpose in coming to earth. Even in that stable at Bethlehem, the crucifixion was symbolized. Jesus lay in a wooden manger, a place where animals eat. He died on a wooden cross in an area that served as a garbage dump. How many bones of dead animals cluttered the ground there? The joy of Christ's birth has in it the challenges and signs of future sorrow. Jesus was unwelcome in the town and the King of Kings and Lord of Lords had to find a borrowed stable to rest his head. Later He would be rejected by almost everyone and lie in a borrowed tomb. The love Jesus showed for us through His suffering and death and being pierced by a lance was mirrored in miniature in the piercing cold of the winter night in Bethlehem. Thank you to Fr. Collins for this reminder of what God did for us by sending His divine Son, the Word made Flesh. May we spend every day of Advent thanking and praising Him!

WHY JESUS HAD TO UNDERGO THE AGONIES OF HIS PASSION

by Fr. Tom Collins

Thought for the day from St. Louis de Montfort: Take up your cross and follow Me!

Editor's note: I recommend this beautiful little work of St. Louis de Montfort. We all have crosses in our lives. Will we use them to become holy or run from them to our loss? "Take up your cross and follow Me," says the Lord, "for my yoke is easy and my burden light."

You Know that you are living temples of the Holy Spirit and that, like living stones, you are to be set by the God of love into the building of the heavenly Jerusalem. And so you must expect to be shaped, cut and chiseled under the hammer of the cross; otherwise, you would remain rough stones, good for nothing but to be cast aside. Be careful that you do not cause the hammer to recoil when it strikes you; respect the chisel that is carving you and the hand that is shaping you. It may be that this skillfull and loving craftsmanwants you to have an important place in his eternal edifice, or to be one of the most beautiful works of art in his heavenly kingdom. So let him do what he pleases; he loves ou, he knows what he is doing, he has had experience. His strokes are skillful and directed by love, not one will miscarry unless your impatience makes it do so.                     From A Letter to the Friends of the Cross #28

Fr. Tom Collins: Why Jesus Had to Undergo the Crucifixion

One of the most harsh yet central teachings of Christianity is that, in order to save us, Jesus had to undergo all the torments of His Passion and Death (Lk 24:26).

Good Friday: Can You Embrace the Sufferings in Your Life?

Matthias Grünewald

St. Paul tells us in the Letter to the Hebrews:

"More Freedom, Not More Thugs Running Our Lives"

When I watched this video I thought of all the thugs of the Passion: the Pharisees plotting and clamoring for crucifixion, the false witnesses lying about Jesus, the name callers screaming "Blasphemer! Son of Beelzebub!," the temple guards with their clubs and torches, the betrayer with his poisonous kiss, the cowardly authority too afraid of the mob to defend the Truth. They were all there and they are with us today on this Good Friday. 

Take aways from the video:

Good Friday Silence

"But he was wounded for our iniquities, he was bruised for our sins: the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and by his bruises we are healed." Isaiah 53:5

Our Lord Suffered and Died for Us

Do any of us have any real comprehension of what it means when we say, "The Lord suffered and died for us?" Maybe those who have reflected deeply and often on the passion get a small glimmer. Mel Gibson certainly presented a graphic portrayal of it in his film, The Passion of the Christ. Pierre Barbet, a French surgeon who studied the shroud and wrote a book called Doctor at Calvary, reached the point he could no longer make the stations of the cross because of his understanding. But most of us look at the sanitized crucifixes over our altars and how much do they touch us?


The truth of Christ's suffering is bloody and awful. When I saw the photos of the sculpture by  Juan Manuel Miñarro based on the Shroud of Turin, I remembered all of Barbet's descriptions of Christ's wounds. Barbet offers a meditation on the passion as an appendix to his book. I usually read it on Good Friday between 12:00 and 3:00 to remind me of the great love God has for us -- that He sent His only Son to die a gruesome death, the death of a criminal, to save the REAL criminals -- US. Now Miñarro provides the illustrations to go with the words. They are a graphic reminder of the price Jesus paid for us. "By His stripes we are healed."