Once again, for Lent 2021 Scoop will be publishing a
serialisation of Katya Rivas’s “The Passion”. To order
a video about Katya’s work visit 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 14
Jesus
Look at Me,
My dear ones. Letting Myself be led with the meekness of a
lamb to the terrible torture of the scourging. On My Body,
already covered with blows and overwhelmed with fatigue, the
executioners cruelly discharge terrible lashes with braided
rope, with rods. I am punished with so much violence that
that there was no part of Me which was not prey to the most
terrible pain. The blows and the kicks caused immeasurable
wounds… The rods tore away pieces of My skin and flesh.
Blood oozed from all My members. Time after time I fell
because of the pain caused by the blows to My manliness. My
Body was in such a state that I resembled a monster more
than a man. The features of My face had lost their shape; it
was all swollen.
The thought of so many souls, who later
were going to be inspired to follow My footsteps, consumed
Me with Love.
While in prison I saw the faithful
imitators learning from My meekness, patience, and serenity.
Not only to accept the suffering and scorns, but even loving
those who persecute them and, if necessary, sacrificing
themselves for them as I sacrificed Myself.
During those
hours of solitude in the midst of so much pain, I became
inflamed, more and more, in My desire of perfectly
completing My Father’s Will. How I offered Myself in
reparation of His deeply offended Glory! Thus you, religious
souls who find yourselves in the chosen prison for love, who
more than once pass in the eyes of others as useless and
possibly harmful creatures, do not be afraid. Let them shout
against you and, during those hours of pain and solitude,
unite your heart intimately with your God, the only object
of your love. Repair His Glory violated by so many
sins.
†
Extract 15
Jesus
At dawn
Caiaphas ordered them to take Me to Pilate so that he might
pronounce the sentence of death. Pilate questioned Me,
hoping to find a reason to condemn Me, but at the same time
his conscience tormented him and he felt great fear at the
injustice that he was going to commit. Finally he found a
way to ignore Me and had Me taken to Herod.
In Pilate are
faithfully represented the souls who feel the movement of
grace and at the same time their own passion, who are
dominated by human respect and blinded by self love, and who
allow the grace to pass for fear of being mocked.
I did
not answer any of Pilate’s questions. But when he asked:
“Are You the King of the Jews?”, then with seriousness
and integrity, I answered: “You have said so, I am the
King, but My kingdom is not of this world…” With these
words I wanted to teach many souls how, when they are
presented with the opportunity to endure suffering or a
humiliation that could easily be avoided, they should answer
with generosity: “My kingdom is not of this world…”.
That is, I am not searching to be praised by men. My Home is
not this one, yet I will rest where it really is. Now, be
encouraged to fulfill My duty without taking into account
the opinion of the world. What matters is not their esteem
but to follow the voice of grace that drowns the lures of
nature. If I am not able to conquer alone, I will ask for
strength and counsel since, on many occasions, passions and
excessive pride blind the soul and impel it to act
wrongly.
The executioners who destroy My Body are not ten
nor twenty. There are many hands that hurt My Body;
receiving Communion in the hands - the sacrilegious work of
Satan!
How can they contemplate Me in this sea of pain
and bitterness without their hearts being moved with
compassion? But it is not the executioners who have to
console but you, chosen souls, so that My pain may be
alleviated. Contemplate My wounds and see if there is anyone
who has suffered as much as I, to show you their
love.
Jesus Is Crowned with Thorns
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.
(continuing)
EDITOR’S NOTES: Once again for Lent 2021 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.. To order a video about Katya’s work visit… apleatohumanity.com
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