During Holy Week 2019 Scoop is publishing a serialisation of Katya Rivas’s “The Passion”. Readers can sign up to receive the serial by email at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dailykatya/. To order a video about Katya’s work see… http://www.apleatohumanity.com/
The Medallion of the Apostolate of the New Evangelization
The Passion
Reflections that Jesus makes on the mystery of His suffering and the value it has on the Redemption.
Cochabamba — Bolivia
Spanish Editions: 1996 and 1998
English 1st Edition - November 1999
Extract 16
Jesus
In the
Will of Father I have lived days of intense sadness without
complaining but accepting what the Father wanted to make Me
feel. When I was apprehended in the Garden, My accusers were
quick with every lie and I, without the least resistance,
allowed them to take Me to wherever they wanted to. And when
they wanted to encircle My Head with the crown of thorns, I
bowed My Head without resistance, because I took everything
from the hands of He who had sent Me into the world.
When
the arms of those cruel men were exhausted by the force of
discharging blows against My Body, they placed over My head
the crown woven with branches of thorns, and parading before
Me they said: “So you are King? We salute you!”
Some
spat at Me; others insulted Me; others discharged new blows
against My head, each one adding a new pain to My Body, so
hurt and destroyed.
I am tired; I have nowhere to rest.
Lend Me your heart and your arms to cover Myself in your
love. I am cold and feverish; embrace Me for an instant
before they continue destroying this temple of Love.
The
soldiers and executioners, with their dirty hands, push My
Body, and others with disgust for My Blood, push Me with
their lances and reopen My flesh. With a shove they seat Me
on sharp stones; I cry in silence because of the pain. In a
grotesque way, they make fun of My tears. Finally they tear
My temples, forcing down the crown woven of thorny
branches.
Consider how with that crown, I wanted to make
reparation for the sin of pride of so many souls who,
wishing to be excessively praised, let themselves be
influenced by the false opinions of the world. Above all, I
allowed them to crown My Head with thorns. My Head suffered
cruelly this way in order to make reparation through
voluntary humility for the loathing and proud pretense of so
many souls. Souls who because they judge it unworthy of
their condition and status, refuse to follow the path set by
My Providence.
No path is humiliating when it is planned
by the Will of God… In vain you intend to fool yourselves,
thinking of following the Will of God and in full submission
of whatever He asks of you.
There are people in the world
who, when the moment of decision arrives (to undertake a new
type of life), reflect and examine the desires of their
hearts. Maybe they will find, in him or her with whom they
plan to unite, the solid foundations for a Christian and
pious life. Perhaps they will see that they will follow
their family duties in a way necessary to satisfy their
wishes of happiness. But vanity and pride come to obscure
their spirit and they let themselves be pulled by the desire
of being prominent and showing off. Then they do their best
to look for someone, who being richer or of high class, to
satisfy their ambition. O! How stubbornly they blind
themselves. No, I will tell them, you will not find real
happiness in this world and I hope that you will find it in
the next. Watch out, you are putting yourself in great
danger!
I will also talk to the souls to whom I call to
the path of perfection. How many illusions are in those who
tell Me that they are ready to do My Will and then they
pierce My Head with the thorns of My Crown.
Respectively,
there are souls whom I want for Myself. Knowing them and
loving them, I want to place them where I live, in My
infinite wisdom, where they will find all that is necessary
to reach sanctity. It is there where I will make Myself
known to them, and where they will give Me more comfort,
more love, and more souls.
But, so many deceptions! So
many souls are blinded with pride and arrogance for mere
ambition. They fill their heads with vain and useless
thoughts; they refuse to follow the path that lays out My
Love.
Souls whom I have chosen, do you think that you
fulfill My Will by resisting the voice of the grace that
calls you and guides you along that path which your pride
rejects?
My daughter, love of My sorrows, console Me.
Make a throne in your small heart for your King and Savior
and crown Me with kisses.
Crowned with thorns and covered
with a purple mantle, the soldiers presented Me again to
Pilate. Not finding in Me a crime for which to punish Me,
Pilate asked Me several questions, asking Me why I did not
answer him knowing that he had all power over Me.
Then,
breaking My silence I told him: ”You would not have that
power if you had not received it from above, but it is
necessary that the Scriptures be carried out.” And,
abandoning Myself to My Celestial Father, I was silent
again.
Barrabas Is Set
Free
Extract 17
Jesus
Pilate was
looking for ways to free Me. He was worried because of his
wife’s warning and confused between the guilt of his
conscience and the fear that the people would initiate a
riot against him. In the pitiable state in which I found
Myself, he exposed Me to the sight of the mob proposing that
he give Me liberty and condemn Barabbas, a famous thief and
murderer, in My place. The people answered in one voice:
“Let him die and have Barabbas set free!”
Souls who
love Me, see how they have compared Me to a criminal, how
they have lowered Me more than the most perverse of men.
Listen to the furious shouts projected against Me. See with
what fury they ask for My death. Did I refuse to go through
such shameful confrontation? No, on the contrary, I embraced
it for My Love of souls and to show them that this Love did
not only take Me to death, but to the most ignominious
death…
However, do not believe that My human nature did
not feel revulsion nor pain. On the contrary, I wanted to
feel all its revulsion, and be subject to its same
condition, giving you an example that will give you strength
in every circumstance in life and teach you to conquer the
revulsion to what you are offered when it is a question of
fulfilling the Divine Will.
I return to the souls I was
talking about yesterday… those souls called to the state
of perfection, who discuss with grace and retreat when faced
with the humility of the path that I show them, fearing how
they will be judged by the world or as they assess their
capabilities, convince themselves that they will be more
useful somewhere else to My service and for My Glory.
I
will respond to those souls: Tell Me, did I refuse or even
hesitate when I saw Myself being born at night to poor and
humble parents in a stable, far from My Home and Country in
the harshest season of the year?
Afterwards I lived
thirty years fulfilling the hidden and gloomy occupation in
the workshop: I went through humiliations and scorns from
the people who requested work done by Joseph, My father. I
did not detest helping My Mother in the most menial of tasks
in the house. Nonetheless, did I not have more talent than
that required for the rough work of a carpenter? I, who at
the age of twelve, taught Doctors in the Temple… But it
was the Will of My Celestial Father and, thus, I glorified
Him. When I left Nazareth and started My public life, I
could have had Myself known as the Messiah and Son of God,
so that men would listen to My teachings with veneration,
but I did not do it because My only wish was to do My
Father’s Will…
And when the time of My Passion came,
through the cruelty of some and the insults of others, the
abandonment of My own and the ingratitude of the mob,
through the unspeakable martyrdom of My Body and the
revulsion of My soul, see how with greater love, I was still
revealing and embracing the Will of My Celestial
Father.
Thus when overcoming difficulties and revulsion,
the soul generously submits itself to the Will of God. There
comes a moment in which, intimately united to Him, the soul
enjoys the most indescribable sweetness.
What I have said
to the souls who loathe the humble and hidden life, I repeat
to those who are called to a constant contact with the world
when, on the contrary, their preference would be toward
complete solitude and humble and hidden work.
Chosen
souls, your happiness and perfection does not consist in
following the taste of your preference and inclinations of
nature, in being known or unknown by creatures, in using or
hiding the talent you have, but rather in uniting and
conforming yourselves through love and with total submission
to God’s Will, to that which is asked of you for His Glory
and your own sanctification.
Enough for today, My little
daughter, love and embrace My Will joyfully; you know that
it is always done for love.
Meditate for a moment upon
the unspeakable martyrdom of My Heart, upon seeing it put
behind Barabbas. How I remembered then My Mother’s
tenderness when she embraced Me against her Heart! And how
vivid were the anxieties and fatigue that My adoptive father
suffered to show Me his love. How I remembered the benefits
I so freely poured over thankless people: giving sight to
the blind, giving the sick their health, the use of their
limbs to those who had lost them, feeding the crowds, and
resurrecting the dead. Now to see Myself reduced to the most
despicable state! I am the most hated of men, and I am being
condemned to death like an infamous
thief.
Jesus Forgives The Greatest
Sinners
Extract 18
Jesus
Pilate
has pronounced sentence. My little children, consider
attentively how My Heart suffered…
After Judas
surrendered Me in the Garden of Olives, he wandered off and
ran away as a fugitive without being able to silence the
shouts of his conscience, which accused him of the most
horrible sacrilege. When the news of My death sentence
reached his ears, he gave in to the most terrible despair
and hung himself.
Who will be able to understand the
intense pain in My Heart when I saw that soul throw himself
to eternal damnation? He who had spent three years in the
School of My Love learning My doctrine, receiving My
teaching, and many times hearing My lips forgive the
greatest sinners.
Judas! Why do you not come and throw
yourself at My feet so that I may forgive you? If you do not
dare to come near Me for fear of those who surround Me and
treat Me so badly, at least look at Me and you will see how
soon My eyes will look at you.
Souls, who are entangled
in the greatest sins… If at times you have lived wandering
as fugitives because of your crimes, if the sins of which
you are guilty have blinded you and hardened your hearts, if
by pursuing some passion you have fallen into greater
disorder, do not allow desperation to take possession of you
when the accomplices of your sin abandon you and your soul
realizes its blame. As long as man has an instant of life,
he still has time to appeal to My Mercy and implore
forgiveness.
If you are young and the scandals of your
past life have left you in a state of degradation before
men, do not be afraid! Even when the world may despise you,
treat you as evil people, insult you, and abandon you, be
certain that your God does not want your soul to be fodder
for the flames of hell. He wants you to dare to speak to
Him, to direct your gaze and sighs of your heart at Him, and
you will soon see that His kind and paternal hand leads you
to the source of forgiveness and of life.
If out of
malice you have perhaps spent a greater part of your life in
disorder and indifference, and now near eternity,
desperation wants to blindfold your eyes, do not let it
deceive you. There is still time for forgiveness. Listen
carefully: if you have but a second of life, take advantage
of it because you could gain eternal life during that
second.
If your existence has passed away in ignorance
and in error, if you have been the cause of great harm to
men, to society, and even to religion, and for any reason
you perceive your mistake, do not allow yourself to be
brought down by the weight of faults nor by the harm for
which you have been an instrument. But, on the contrary,
allow your soul to be penetrated with the deepest sorrow,
plunge yourself in trust and turn to the One who is always
waiting to forgive you.
The same is true for a soul who
has spent the first years of its life in faithful observance
of My Commandments, but has little by little fallen from
fervor into a lukewarm and comfortable life…
Do not
hide anything that I tell you, for it is all for the benefit
of the whole of humanity. Repeat it in broad daylight;
preach it to those who truly want to hear it.
The soul
who one day receives a strong jolt that wakes it up, all of
a sudden sees its useless life, empty and without merits for
eternity. The Evil One, with infernal jealousy, attacks it
in a thousand ways, exaggerating its faults. He inspires in
it sadness and loss of heart, and finally drives it to fear
and despair.
Soul that belongs to Me, do not pay
attention to the cruel enemy. As soon as you feel the
movement of grace at the beginning of your battle, come to
My Heart. Feel and watch how it pours a drop of its Blood
over your soul, and come to Me. You know where I am, under
the veil of faith…. Lift it and, with complete confidence,
tell Me all your sorrows, your miseries, your falls…
Listen to My words with respect and do not fear for the
past. My Heart has submerged it in the endless depths of My
Mercy and My Love.
Your past life will give you the
humility that will fill you. And if you want to give Me the
best proof of love, trust Me and count on My forgiveness.
Believe that your sins shall never be greater than My
endless Mercy.
EDITOR’S
NOTES: During Holy Week 2019 Scoop is publishing a
series of daily reflections on the Passion from Bolivian
author Katya Rivas. Rivas has received an official
imprimatur from the Catholic Church for several books..
Readers can sign up to receive daily extracts from Katya
Rivas’s writings by email at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dailykatya/
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