FOURTH STATION: JESUS MEETS HIS MOTHER

I could not have given my life for you, could not have lived, do live for you had not My Mother, Your Mother too, Mary, said yes to the Father and become the Spouse of the Holy Spirit that I might have life as a human person [St. Luke 1:26-38]. Immediately like all expectant mothers Mary shared her joy with family, and went to help someone else [St. Luke 1:29-56]. When I was born she did not keep me to herself and Joseph, My foster-father and guardian, but presented me to everyone, as she does to you [St. Luke 2:15-20; St. Matthew 2:9-11]. My Mother was always so aware of those in need I performed my first miracle for her and everyone should follow her guidance when she says of Me to you: “Do whatever He tells you.” [St. John 2:5] 

Yes Jesus because Your Priest St. John at the foot of the Cross accepted on behalf of all human beings, of priests in particular, Mary as our Mother, I thank-You for this immense gift. Help me to be faithfully her priest-son and all priests to love her as You do.

It was painful for Me to see My Mother as I carried My Cross, but also a consolation for Her presence showed Me love and gave me strength.

In all your tribulations, when you are tired out, look to Her and she will give you the same love and strength.

For the grace of God has appeared, saving all, and training us to reject godless ways and worldly desires to live temperately, justly and devoutly in this age, as we await the blessed hope, the appearance of the glory of the great God of our Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us to deliver us from all lawlessness and to cleanse for Himself a people as His own, eager to do what is good. [ Titus 2:11/14 ]

Therefore, gird up the loins of your mind, live soberly, and set your hopes completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Like obedient children, do not act in compliance with the desires of your former ignorance but, as He who called you is holy, be holy yourselves in every aspect of your conduct, for it is written, ‘ Be holy because I am holy.’ [ 1 Pt. 1:13/16 ]

O Immaculate Heart of Mary, Mother of Priests – pray for me and all my brother priests that we might be filled with hope and lead lives that are truly holy.

Amen! Amen! Amen!

So they went and found Mary and Joseph and the Infant..Mary kept all these things.in her heart..and when the parents brought in the Child Jesus..he took Him into his arms and blessed God saying: Now, Master, You may let Your servant go in peace, according to Your word, for my eyes have seen Your salvation…[ Lk. 2:16,19,27,28/20 ]

O Jesus my Lord and my God – grant me to enter into Your pain and trustful surrender to the Holy Will of our Father.

Grant Jesus that I and all my brother priests always rest and dwell deep in the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Mother of Priests – grant O Jesus that through Her we always rest and dwell in Your Sacred Priestly Heart – grant O Jesus that we always decrease in others’ eyes and lives that You might always increase within them – grant O Jesus that we always go to the school of Nazareth and to the cave of Bethlehem and there, adoring You in the manger, contemplate You always in the hermitage of our hearts.

O Jesus my Lord and my God – grant me to enter into Your peace and Your trustful surrender to the Holy Will of our Father.

O Immaculate Heart of Mary, Mother of Priests – pray for me and all my brother priests that we be your faithful sons.

By this is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit and become My disciples. As the Father loves Me, so I also love you. Remain in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will remain in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and remain in His love. I have told you this so that My joy may be in you and your joy may be complete. This is My commandment, love one another as I love you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are My friends if you do what I command you. [ Jn. 15:8/13 ]

Introibo ad altare Dei!

O Jesus my Lord and my God – grant me to enter into Your pain and Your trustful surrender to the Holy Will of our Father.

O Jesus grant that every time I approach the Holy Altar for the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass I clearly know, understand, am aware that when I reverence the Altar I am kissing Your Most Sacred Body and grant me the full openness of my being to Your Passion.

Introibo ad altare Dei!

O Jesus my Lord and my God – grant me to enter into Your pain and Your trustful surrender to the Holy Will of our Father.

Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing. – Lk.23:34

O Jesus fill me with Your own spirit of forgiveness, especially of those who are my enemies and grant O Jesus that I never through sin make of myself an enemy to You.

Truly I say to you, this day you shall be with Me in paradise. – Lk.23:43

O Jesus grant that I come to believe, trust and understand that through the waters of Baptism, the gifts of Confirmation, the succor of Confession, the mystery of Holy Orders You my Christ are everything, paradise dwelling within me!

Woman, behold your son! – Jn.19:26

O Jesus let every heartbeat be a renewal of my consecration to You through the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

Behold, your Mother! – Jn. 19:27

O Jesus grant that with every breath I take I go to the school of Mary.

Intoribo ad altare Dei!

O Jesus my Lord and my God – grant me to enter into Your pain and Your trustful surrender to the Holy Will of our Father.

Eli, Eli, Lama Sabachthani..My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? – Mt. 27:46

O Jesus, You have taken into and upon Yourself all desolation and abandonment, all rejection and fear, and prayed Your Priestly prayer of this psalm of trust – grant that I and all my brother priests willing take within our hearts the desolation, abandonment, rejection, and fear, of all humanity in union with Your own Holy Sacrifice.

SITIO! – Jn. 19:28

O Jesus grant to me and all my brother priests a share in Your own thirst for souls and grant to us an insatiable thirst for You!

Introibo ad altare Dei!

O Jesus my Lord and my God – grant me to enter into Your pain and Your trustful surrender to the Holy Will of our Father.

It is finished. – Jn. 19:30

Ite, Missa est – this is the moment of our priestly missioning! O Jesus grant that I and all my brother priests bring You and only You to every one!

Father, into Your hands I commend My Spirit. – Lk. 23:46

O Immaculate Heart of Mary, Mother of Priests – pray for me and all my brother priests that each day we receive you ever more deeply into the home of our hearts.

Indeed, the word of God is living and effective, sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating even between soul and spirit, joints and marrow, and able to discern the secret thoughts of the heart. No creature is concealed from Him, but everything is naked and exposed to the eyes of Him to Whom we must render an account. Therefore, since we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast to our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has similarly been tested in every way, yet without sin. So let us confidently approach the throne of grace to receive mercy and to find grace for timely help. [ Hb. 4: 12/16 ]

Now glorify Me, Father, with You, with the glory that I had with You before the world began.Consecrate them in truth. Your word is truth. As You sent me into the world, so I sent them into the world. And I consecrate Myself for them, so that they also may be consecrated in truth.[ Jn. 17:5,17/18 ]…they crucified Him..[ Mk. 15:24 ]

We adore You O Christ and we praise You – because by Your Holy Cross You have redeemed the world.

O Jesus my Lord and my God – grant me to enter into Your pain and trustful surrender to the Holy Will of our Father.

I put my face to the ground Lord Jesus, for my eyes are shut with tears as I cannot bear to see what my sins have wrought.
I cover my ears, for the sound of hammer and nails is the drumbeat of my lack of trust fears – and yet – I must uncover my ears to hear the hammer sound of Love’s submission in trust being placed upon the Paten of the Cross – and yet – and yet I must open wide the eyes of my being, that I might adore You, our Eucharistic Lord as You are placed within the Monstrance of the Cross!

O Jesus my Lord and my God – grant me to enter into Your pain and trustful surrender to the Holy Will of our Father.

I am a poor ignorant man O Jesus – hesitant to truly envision and contemplate Your Crucifixion for I fear pain – yet know it is Your Kiss! I am a poor unworthy priest O Jesus – wanting to flee this place – yet my heart burns with a yearning desire to stay with You My Love, to concelebrate with You, to keep vigil with You. I am a poor celebrant of Your Sacred Mysteries O Jesus, my Priest and my God – yet how I yearn to enter fully into the Most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. O Jesus through Your Sacred Impaling upon the Paten of the Cross – make of me and all my brothers good and holy priests.

O Jesus my Lord and my God – grant me to enter into Your pain and
trustful surrender to the Holy Will of our Father.

Grant O Jesus that through fidelity to the sacrament of the duty of the moment I allow myself to be placed upon the Paten of the moment, always embracing the fullness of the sacerdotal mystery of being both priest-oblation and priest who offers, in You, with You, through You, by the power of the Holy Spirit, for the glory of the Father and the salvation of souls.

O Jesus my Lord and my God – grant me to enter into Your pain and trustful surrender to the Holy Will of our Father.

O Immaculate Heart of Mary, Mother of Priests – pray for me and my brother priests that we willingly be sacrificial victims for souls, that we believe what we celebrate, teach what we celebrate and live what we celebrate.

May the God of peace Himself make you perfectly holy and may you entirely, spirit, soul, and body, be preserved blameless for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The One who calls is faithful, and He will also accomplish it. Brothers, pray for us.[ 1 Thess. 5:23/24]

If there is any encouragement in Christ, any solace in love, any participation in the Spirit, any compassion and mercy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, with the same love, united in heart, thinking one thing. Do nothing out of selfishness or out of vainglory; rather, humbly regard others as more important than yourselves, each looking out not for his own interests, but everyone for those of others. Have among yourselves the same attitude that is also yours in Christ Jesus, Who, though He was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be grasped at. Rather He emptied Himself, took the form of a slave, being born in the likeness of men. He was known to be of human estate, and it was thus that He humbled Himself, obediently accepting even death, death on a cross! [ Ep. 2:1/8 ]
We adore You O Christ and we praise You – because by Your Holy Cross You have redeemed the world.

O Jesus my Lord and my God – grant me to enter into Your pain and trustful surrender to the Holy Will of our Father.

O Divine and Tremendous Lover, O Priest and Redeemer, how my heart aches contemplating You in this stripping, taking upon Yourself every experience of every person when we are completely vulnerable, powerless, overpowered, used, abused, exposed, dispossessed, naked, cold, embarrassed, terrified, alone.

O Jesus my Lord and my God – grant me to enter into Your pain and trustful surrender to the Holy Will of our Father.

O Pure and Modest One, taking upon Yourself the opprobrium of sin. O Chaste One offering Yourself to derision for every time anyone of us has given of our body and emotion to another in the darkness of sin.
O Silent One, devoid of anger and violence taking upon Yourself all silent screams, all torture!

O Jesus my Lord and my God – grant me to enter into Your pain and trustful surrender to the Holy Will of our Father.

O All-forgiving One standing there vested for the Holy Sacrifice by being de-vested, Lamb prepared for the slaughter, completely faithful to the rubrics of sacrifice – for my sins of immodesty, authoritarianism, ritual casualness, slothful preparation for Holy Mass, lack of interior silence, tendency to anger, stirrings of violence, hesitancy to protect the unborn, holy marriage and the family for fear of being exposed and labeled as conservative or uncaring, through the merits of Your Holy Vulnerability – grant me purity of heart and courage.

O Jesus my Lord and my God – grant me to enter into Your pain and trustful surrender to the Holy Will of our Father.

O Immaculate Heart of Mary, Mother of Priests – pray for me and my brother priests that we be chaste, poor, obedient, dispassionate, interiorly silent, courageous – indeed that we be converted anew each day.

But you, brothers, are not in darkness, for the day to overtake you like a thief. For all of you are children of the light and children of the day. We are not of the night or of darkness. Therefore, let us not sleep as the rest do, but let us stay alert and sober. Those who sleep go to sleep at night, and those who are drunk get drunk at night. But since we are of the day, let us be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love and the helmet that is hope for salvation. For God did not destine us for wrath, but to gain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep we may live together with Him. Therefore, encourage one another and build one another up, indeed as you do. [ 1 Thess. 5:4/11 ]