Harpa Dei

 V. Adoramus te Christe et benedicimus tibi (We adore Thee, O Christ, and we bless Thee) R. Quia per Crucem tuam redemisti mundum (For by Thy holy cross Thou hast redeemed the world.) Everything has to be consummated. From this perspective we can also understand the threefold fall of Jesus. The imperfect and sinful world […]

 V. Adoramus te Christe et benedicimus tibi (We adore Thee, O Christ, and we bless Thee) R. Quia per Crucem tuam redemisti mundum (For by Thy holy cross Thou hast redeemed the world.) Jesus meets the women of Jerusalem. They remained faithful to Him. Their hearts are aching, because they see the Son of God

Once again we see how difficult the way is. How many burdens does the Lord carry on His shoulders: the physical burden, the spiritual burden, all that is happening around Him, the cruelty of so many? But what weighs most on Him is the burden of sin, which brings separation from God, and which Jesus

In Veronica, Jesus finds a kind soul, a soul that has compassion for Him. She does not mock Him, she does not turn her back on Him, nor is she indifferent to Him. With this gesture of love and compassion, she shows Him her heart by offering Him a handkerchief. Jesus understands the gesture and

If the Lord had just been comforted by the encounter with His Mother, who loved Him with all her heart, He now experiences Simon’s forced help. The Scriptures do not reveal to us what the Cyrenian must have felt when he suddenly found himself so closely bound to the Lord’s destiny. Did he simply do

In Roman times, criminals were punished by crucifixion. It was a death of dishonour and shame. The condemned died by suffocation. Jesus is not only condemned to crucifixion; He has to carry His own cross. They want to make a spectacle of Him for the people. Jesus carries the cross, but not because His executioners

Jesus, the innocent One, stands before Pilate. An earthly judge, the representative of Rome, is to judge the Son of God. The leaders of His own people are His accusers. Those who were to lead the chosen people and prepare them for the coming of the Messiah did not recognise Him because they did not

Since it was the day of Preparation, in order to prevent the bodies from remaining on the cross on the sabbath (for that sabbath was a high day), the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away. So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the

Then he handed him over to them to be crucified. So they took Jesus, and he went out, bearing his own cross, to the place called the place of a skull, which is called in Hebrew Gol′gotha. There they crucified him, and with him two others, one on either side, and Jesus between them. Pilate

With today’s meditation I conclude this series which I began after the systematic reflections on the Gospel of St John in preparation for the great solemnity of Easter. A brief recapitulation is in order to highlight the essentials. After this meditation, we will return to the accounts of the Lord’s death and burial in the