12th 13th 14th Station of the Cross

 12th, 13th, &14th Stations Jesus' Death, Jesus' Taken Down from Cross, & Burial

  I wanted to combine the Twelfth, Thirteenth and Fourteenth station because it is that transition from this life to the next. Jesus takes His last breath on the cross and dies, then He is taken down from the cross and placed in the arms of His Mother, Mary. After She holds Her Son, He is placed in the tomb. The end has come to Jesus’ mission here on earth but the mission continues on. 

   Jesus’ human side can no longer survive the pain and torture of this world and commends His spirit into His Father’s hands. It is His last act before taking His last breath.  Jesus may not be physically on earth but His spirit resides in all those who hears His voice and picks up their cross and follows after Him. 

   His Mother, Mary, watches as Her Son dies for all of our sins. The pain and suffering she felt is unimaginable. Mary waits by the cross and as Her son is taken down from the cross, so She may hold Her Son one last time before being placed in the tomb. We see Jesus as our Savior, yet Mary sees Him as Her only Son. 

    It is very difficult when we loss those who are close to us. We all suffer during those days that may lead up to their passing and suffer the days that follow the passing. There are no words to express the pain that is felt. We gather together to honor, remember and lay them in peace. We leave them but they never leave our hearts and minds. 

     We can turn to Mary when we are feeling that loss stronger then other days. She understands what it is to lose and feel pain. She watched Her Son suffer, die for things that He did not do and understood this was to be the path for both of Them. We focus on Jesus’ path to the cross but I always wondered how was that path for Mary. I know painful but what were Her stations of the cross? As Her son fell, did She as well? Who was there  to help Mary as Simon of Cyrene helped Jesus? Who wiped Her tears like Veronica did for Jesus? 

      Jesus is laid in the tomb and many thought that this may be the end of His mission. The mission was not only not over but was just the catalyst and start of the Catholic Church. Those who followed Jesus gathered and waited. What was to come has continued for 2000 years. This should give us all hope. That even though our loved ones are not with us here on earth, that we all will be reunited because Jesus saved us and gave us salvation. 

       I want to take this time to wish you all a blessed Triduum and the next few days I will only be posting pictures and not writing an official blog until Easter Sunday. May God bless you all and I ask that over the next few days to come closer to Jesus and Mary.

Until Easter Sunday, God Bless, and may your Lent have brought you closer to the Trinity, your Faith and the Church. 

Thursday of the Fourth Week of Lent
Lectionary: 247

Reading 1

EX 32:7-14

The LORD said to Moses,

“Go down at once to your people

whom you brought out of the land of Egypt,

for they have become depraved.

They have soon turned aside from the way I pointed out to them,

making for themselves a molten calf and worshiping it,

sacrificing to it and crying out,

‘This is your God, O Israel,

who brought you out of the land of Egypt!’

The LORD said to Moses,

“I see how stiff-necked this people is.

Let me alone, then,

that my wrath may blaze up against them to consume them.

Then I will make of you a great nation.”

But Moses implored the LORD, his God, saying,

“Why, O LORD, should your wrath blaze up against your own people,

whom you brought out of the land of Egypt

with such great power and with so strong a hand?

Why should the Egyptians say,

‘With evil intent he brought them out,

that he might kill them in the mountains

and exterminate them from the face of the earth’?

Let your blazing wrath die down;

relent in punishing your people. 

Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac and Israel,

and how you swore to them by your own self, saying,

‘I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky;

and all this land that I promised,

I will give your descendants as their perpetual heritage.’“

So the LORD relented in the punishment

he had threatened to inflict on his people.

Responsorial Psalm

PS 106:19-20, 21-22, 23

R. (4a) Remember us, O Lord, as you favor your people.

Our fathers made a calf in Horeb

and adored a molten image;

They exchanged their glory

for the image of a grass-eating bullock.

R. Remember us, O Lord, as you favor your people.

They forgot the God who had saved them,

who had done great deeds in Egypt,

Wondrous deeds in the land of Ham,

terrible things at the Red Sea.

R. Remember us, O Lord, as you favor your people.

Then he spoke of exterminating them,

but Moses, his chosen one,

Withstood him in the breach

to turn back his destructive wrath.

R. Remember us, O Lord, as you favor your people.

Gospel

JN 5:31-47

Jesus said to the Jews: 

“If I testify on my own behalf, my testimony is not true.

But there is another who testifies on my behalf,

and I know that the testimony he gives on my behalf is true.

You sent emissaries to John, and he testified to the truth.

I do not accept human testimony,

but I say this so that you may be saved.

He was a burning and shining lamp,

and for a while you were content to rejoice in his light.

But I have testimony greater than John’s.

The works that the Father gave me to accomplish,

these works that I perform testify on my behalf

that the Father has sent me.

Moreover, the Father who sent me has testified on my behalf.

But you have never heard his voice nor seen his form,

and you do not have his word remaining in you,

because you do not believe in the one whom he has sent.

You search the Scriptures,

because you think you have eternal life through them;

even they testify on my behalf.

But you do not want to come to me to have life.

“I do not accept human praise;

moreover, I know that you do not have the love of God in you. 

I came in the name of my Father,

but you do not accept me;

yet if another comes in his own name,

you will accept him.

How can you believe, when you accept praise from one another

and do not seek the praise that comes from the only God?

Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father:

the one who will accuse you is Moses,

in whom you have placed your hope.

For if you had believed Moses,

you would have believed me,

because he wrote about me. 

But if you do not believe his writings,

how will you believe my words?”