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A Rosary Meditation … The First Sorrowful Mystery, the Agony in the Garden. “Then He said to them, ‘My soul is sad, even unto death. Wait here and watch with me.’ ” Where is Jesus now, right now? In Heaven? Yes. God being everywhere , where else is He? Well, everywhere. But is there one place in particular? Yes, the Tabernacle in your parish church. Body, blood, soul, and divinity. All of Christ is right there, right now. And what else is there? When Mary lived in Ephesus she desired to be with, to follow her Son. And so, with a mother’s heart, she set up stones and such in a certain pattern so that she could walk from one to the other and remember the various places, stages of her last walk with Jesus. The one that led to the cross. Over time this practice spread. Lots of folks went to Jerusalem to trace these same steps but not everyone could do that then or now. And so we set up “stations” in the church, so that we can walk the path that Jesus walked to Calvary, the one His mother shared with Him. We can share it too, right there in church, right there with Him. It’s a way to wait and watch with Him. We can’t be there with Him 2,000 years ago but we can be there with Him today, Good Friday. The Rosary is a Marian devotion. So is the Way of the Cross. We can pray our Rosary with our Mother. We can walk beside her as she walks beside Him. We can wait upon the Lord. And God knows that not everyone can be in church today for the Stations. But wherever we are we can mentally walk that Way. If He wanted His friends to be with Him then, in the garden, no doubt He wants us with Him now. When He prayed that night we were in His heart. Today of all days let Him be in our hearts. Hopefully it’ll be habit-forming.
Today … St. Eustace. Abbot and the favorite disciple of St. Columbanus. He succeeded the great saint as the second abbot of Luxeuil, France. Many saints emerged from that venerable abbey of more than six hundred monks. All those saints? St. Eustace? St. Columbanus? There are different ways of phrasing it, but when push comes to shove there’s only one way of doing it, one path to being a saint. Its called the Way of the Cross.
“We adore you and we bless you, Lord Jesus Christ, here and in all the churches which are in the whole world, because by your holy cross you have redeemed the world.” (St. Francis of Assisi, Deacon)
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