Over the final 9 days of Lent and Easter 2022 Scoop will be publishing a serialisation of Katya Rivas’s “The Passion”. To order a video about Katya’s work visit “A plea to humanity”
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
God The
Father
Extract 24
I see My Son, trembling
in the shadows of Gethsemane, coming down from Heaven and
taking the shape and substance of My creature, who thought
and still thinks he can rebel against his Creator. The man,
that lonely and confused man, is the designated victim, and
as such, with His own Blood, has had to cleanse all of
humanity which He represents. He trembles and is horrified
at feeling Himself covered, even seeing Himself dominated,
by the inconceivable mass of sins that had to be taken from
the darkened consciences of millions and millions of dirty
creatures.
Poor Son of Mine, Love has taken You to this
and now you are frightened by it. Who should Glorify You in
Heaven when, radiantly, you come back to it? Can any
creature give You praise worthy of You, love worthy of You?
And what is the praise and love of man, of millions of men,
in comparison with the Love in which You have accepted the
most tremendous of tests that could ever exist on earth? No,
My beloved Son, nobody but Your Father could equal You in
Love, nobody but I, who in My Spirit of Love, can praise and
Love You for Your sacrifice that night.
You have reached,
beloved Son of Mine in whom I rest all My benevolence, the
spasm of death by surviving the very bitter agony in the
Garden. You have reached, in the sphere of Your humanity
real and whole, the height of the great passion that a human
heart can have: to suffer for the offences done to Me, but
to suffer for them with the purest and intense Love that
there is in You. Trembling, You have reached the limit
through which humanity should reach complete Redemption.
You, beloved Son, have conquered with a bloody sweat, not
only Your brothers’ souls, but even more, Your own
personal Glory that should elevate You, man, equal with Me,
God like You.
You have drawn in Me the most perfect
Justice, and the most perfect Love. At that time they
represented the human waste of the world, and You became it
through Your voluntary and free acceptance. You are now,
among all, My honor, glory, and joy. You were not My
offender, not You. You have always been My Beloved Son, in
whom I have placed My pleasures. You were not the human
waste because even then I saw You as You have always been:
My Light, My Word, that is, Myself. Son, You, who trembled
and succumbed for My honor, deserved that your Father make
You known to the world, to that blind world, which offends
Us and even then is so loved by Us!
O, Beloved Son, I see
You and will always see You in that night of Your
bitterness, and I have You always in mind! Because of Your
love I am reconciled to the creatures and with the
creatures. You could not raise Your face to Me; it was so
covered with their faults. Now, to please You, I make them
raise their faces to Us so that by a glimpse of Your Light,
they remain captives of Our Love.
Now, My Son, always so
beloved, I will do what I told You then in the shadow of
Gethsemane, and they will be great things to give You joy
and honor.
†
The Sorrows of the Virgin
Mary
Extract 25
Mary
Many prophets
spoke about me: they prophesied that it was necessary for me
to suffer to become worthy of being the Mother of God. On
earth they anticipated knowledge of me but it had to be in a
very guarded way. Later the Evangelists talked about me,
especially Luke, my beloved physician - more of souls than
of bodies. Afterwards some devotions were started that had
as a basis the sorrows and pains I suffered. And thus it is
commonly believed and thought that I experienced seven main
sorrows.
My children, your Mother has rewarded and will
reward the efforts and love that you have had for me. But as
Jesus did, I want to talk to you more extensively about my
sorrows. Then, you will talk to your brethren about them,
and at last everyone will imitate Me. Because of what I
suffered, I am continuously praising Jesus and seek nothing
but only that He be glorified in me.
See, little
children, it is sad to talk about these things to my own
children, because every mother keeps her sorrows to herself.
And this I dutifully did in the course of my mortal life;
therefore, my wish as a mother has been respected by God.
Now that I am here, where the smile is eternal, and having,
as all mothers, already concealed the sorrows that I
experienced, I should talk about them so that as my children
you may know something about my life.
I know the fruits
that you will gain from it and how they please Jesus, My
beloved Son. I will talk about them as soon as you can
understand me.
My Jesus said, “Whoever is first, make
yourself last”, and He truly did it because He is the
first in the House of God, but He came down to the last
step. Now, because of love, I will not take away from Him
this first and last place that belongs to Him. Rather, I
strive to make you understand this truth, and my joy will be
greater when you are convinced, not through the path of
simple knowledge but through means of a deep-rooted and
profound conviction. May He be first and we the last.
If
He was the first, there should be a second one in the ladder
of love and glory and; therefore, of lowliness and
humiliation. You have now understood: that being should be
me. Little children, praise God who having created an
enormous distance between Jesus and me, still wanted to
place me immediately next to Him.
My children, what
appears to the world is not what is most important before
God. Having been chosen Mother of God implied for me grave
sacrifices and resignations, and the first one was this:
knowing through Gabriel the election made in the intimacy of
God. I had wanted to remain in a state of humble knowledge
and concealment in God. I wanted this more than anything
else because it was my delight to know myself as last in
everything.
Upon knowing the choice of God, I answered,
as you know, but it was difficult to rise up to the dignity
for which I was called.
Little children, do you
understand my first sorrow of which I speak? Reflect on it,
give your Mother the great delight of esteeming that
humbleness which I so much esteemed above my virginity. Yes,
I was and am the slave to whom anything can be asked of, and
I accepted only because my surrender was the same degree as
my love.
You enjoyed, O God, elevating me to You, and I
enjoyed accepting because my obedience was pleasing to You.
But You know how sorrowful it was for me, and that same
sorrow is now before You in need of light for these
children, whom You love and whom I love. I am the slave, O
Children of mine, and as it was done unto me, let it now,
without doubt, be done to you all that God wants!
The
acceptance gave God the answer that will give men access to
the Redemption, and in this was verified that admirable
phrase: “Here is a Virgin who shall conceive and give
birth to a Son who shall be called Emmanuel.”
The
acceptance to become the Mother of Emmanuel, involved my
gift to the Son of God in such a way that His Mother would
bestow herself to Him, before the Humanity of Jesus would
form in me. That is why my gift was the result of the Grace,
and also the reason for the Grace. And the precedence should
be recognized that God is the foremost reason; nevertheless,
it should be affirmed that my acceptance acted in the plan
of Grace as an accompanying reason.
They call me
Co-Redemptrix for the sorrows I have suffered; but I was so,
even before, because of the gift I had made through Gabriel.
O, my divine Son! How much honor you have wanted to give
your Mother in compensation for the great sorrow I suffered
in rising to the dignity of your Mother!
You, little
children, are blind in the world, but when you see,
wonderful things will become incentives for your joy for me.
You will see what unity of glory and humility there is here
where my Jesus is the sun that is never hidden. You will see
how wise a design was carried out through my renouncement,
to the lowliness of hiding.
But now, hear me. As my
maternity was advancing, I had to talk to some of my loved
ones about the honor I had received and I did so concealing
as much as I could. I lamented the renounced triumph of the
secret in God because God Himself should be glorified in
me.
However, very soon I had the joy of knowing that I
was considered as a woman amongst many. My soul rejoiced
because the Slave of God, who wanted humiliations as only I
could, was being trampled on before the world. When Joseph
hid, I did not suffer, I truly rejoiced. Do not say that I
suffered then because that is not true.
That was how God
satisfied my desire for humiliations. This was the Lord’s
compensation for becoming the Mother of God: to be
considered as a fallen woman. Daughter, learn the knowledge
of love, learn to esteem holy humility, and do not fear
because it is a virtue that shines with sparkling
light.
When the marriage took place, I had no problems. I
knew how things would be and I feared nothing. Indeed, God
gives, to those who give themselves entirely to Him, a
perfect place in the most inconsistent situations, as was
mine: I was forced by human obligation to marry a man, even
when I knew that I could belong only to God.
I suffered
so many sorrows on earth! It is not easy being Mother of the
Highest, I assure you. But neither can it be called
difficult that which is done for the purest of ends and to
be pleasing to God. Remember it!
Have you ever thought
what it was that caused me the most sorrow on that Holy
Night in Bethlehem? You distract your mind with the stable,
with the manger, and with the poverty. I, on the other hand,
tell you that I spent that night in complete ecstasy of my
Son. And even though I had to do what every mother does with
her small child, I did not abandon my ecstasy, my bliss. And
so, the only thing that caused me sorrow that night of love
was seeing the affliction of my poor Joseph on looking for a
refuge, any place, for me. Conscious of what was to happen
and Who would come to earth, my beloved husband, on seeing
that I was confused, became anguished and I felt much
sympathy for him. Later, we were filled with joy and we
forgot every worry.
We fled to Egypt and all that is
possible has been said about this, even though some center
their imagination upon the fatigue of the journey more than
upon the fear of a mother who knew that she possessed the
greatest treasure in Heaven and Earth.
Later living in
Nazareth, little Jesus was growing up full of life and, at
that time, He caused us few and minimum worries. Every
mother knows what it is like to wish for the health of her
own child, and how a very simple thing looks like a great
dark cloud. My Boy went through all the epidemics and
childhood illnesses of those times. Like every mother, I
could not be immune to any of the anxieties that a
mother’s heart goes through.
But one day the very dark
cloud that darkened the festive light of the Mother of God
arrived. That cloud is called losing Jesus…. No poet or
master of the spirit could imagine Mary when she knew that
she had lost her adored Son and had no news of Him until
three days later… Little children, do not be amazed at my
words, I experienced the greatest confusion of my life. You
have not reflected enough on those words of mine: “Son,
your father and I have been looking for you for three days.
Why have You done this to us?” My God, now that I speak to
these beloved children, I cannot stop praising You. You who
hid to make us feel the delight of finding You. O! In what
other way could it be possible to know the sweetness that a
glass full of honey puts in the soul as when she embraces
her All?
You see, I also tell you about my joys; but not
without reason do I relate and join together the joys and
sorrows. Draw benefits, in the best way possible, from all
that happened. God hides in order to be found. Some know
this truth, others thinking about that terrible sorrow of
having lost Jesus, do everything to find Him. You should not
stay inert and overwhelmed.
Your Mother would like to
save you from dealing with so much that is still to be said.
First, there are things never announced and; therefore, not
yet appreciated. Secondly, by knowing them, you will have to
join me in suffering and painful considerations. Moreover,
everything that my Jesus wants, has been said without any
opposition whatsoever.
Do you think that I spent our
family life peacefully in Nazareth? It was peaceful in
virtue of the uniformity with the love of God. But from the
creatures, there was so much trouble!
Our unique way of
living was noticed, and as a result we were ridiculed
publicly. I was considered excessive because of the fact
that when Jesus left the house, I could not contain My
tears, and Jesus went out frequently. Joseph was harassed as
if he were a slave to Jesus and me. What could the world
understand? We left all the care to the One who lived
amongst us, adored in all His manifestations.
What a
beloved Son that young Boy was; more handsome than the sea,
wiser than Solomon, and stronger than Samson. All the
mothers would have taken Him away from me; such was the
charm that surrounded Him. The small minded covered me with
soothing judgments; however, they did not spare criticism
toward the never tiring father whom they thought was subject
to his faithful but jealous wife. Everyone was familiar with
my wholeness, but they all thought it to be a common and
selfish passion.
This, my little children, is what is not
known. This happened between a world that could not see nor
understand, and His purest Mother. Jesus kept quiet, without
encouraging me, because the Mother of God had to go through
the crucible, that is, as one woman amongst many from whom
opinions should not be spared.
Admire the Wisdom of God
in these things and find the Divine meaning, which joins the
greatest of sublimity to the tests that are more painful in
relation with such sublimity, because every abyss calls upon
another abyss and every depth calls upon its depth.
The
hour of separation has come, the hour for Jesus’ action.
With it, the feared day of the departure from Nazareth
arrived.
Jesus had spoken extensively to me of His
mission and of the fruits that it would give Him and
everyone; He had made me love it beforehand. It was
necessary, therefore, for us to separate, even if for a
short time… He said goodbye, kissed us, and went forward
to His mission as teacher of humanity. But His departure did
not go unnoticed in the small village where Jesus was so
loved.
There were gestures of affection, of blessings
and, since they did not know the good that Jesus was going
to do, a loss was foreseen by these people of small
intellect but generous at heart.
And I, amongst so many
manifestations, how did I feel? A thousand affections rushed
upon me, but He did not delay His departure by a minute. My
Jesus knew what awaited Him after His preaching. He had told
me so many times and so profusely of the treachery of the
Pharisees and the others. And now you see Him leaving, alone
without me to fulfill His mandate; without me who had made
Him grow with the warmth of my heart; without me who adored
Him like no one would ever adore Him!
Later I followed
Him. I found Him when he was surrounded by so many people
that it was not possible for me to see Him. And He, truly
the Son of God, gave His Mother a sublime answer as was His
wisdom, but it pierced this maternal heart from side to
side. Yes I understood Him completely, but that did not free
me from sorrows. To the human relationship, He countered the
Divine in which I was included, it is true; nevertheless,
the remarks of the others hurt Me.
The initial blow was
followed by the joy of seeing His greatness, of seeing Him
honored, venerated, and loved by the people; and quickly
this wound also healed.
I traveled the paths with Him,
enthralled with His knowledge, comforted with His teachings,
and I never tired of loving and admiring Him.
Then came
His first friction with the Sanhedrin. The miracle happened:
the miracle that raised so much ado in the minds of the
proud Jewish priests. He was hated, persecuted, spied upon,
and tempted. And I? I knew everything and from then on, with
open arms, I offered the holocaust of my Son, His surrender,
and His horrible and ignominious death into the hands of the
Father. I already knew about Judas; I knew the tree from
which the wood would be taken for my Son’s Cross.
You
cannot imagine the intimate tragedy that I lived together
with my Jesus, in order for the Redemption to be
fulfilled.
I had said before: Co-redemptrix. For this,
the usual sorrows were not enough. A more intimate union to
His great suffering was necessary, so that all men should be
redeemed. So, as I went from town to town with Him, I became
more and more informed about the heartbroken cries that My
Son poured out during so many sleepless nights that He spent
in prayer and meditation. Before me every state of mind of
His was revealed and truly my Calvary and my Cross began
then.
So many considerations increased my sorrows each
day that I was His Mother and yours! So many sins, all the
sins; so much sorrow, all the sorrows; so many thorns, all
the thorns; Jesus was not alone. He knew it, and felt it. He
saw His Mother in continuous union with Him. He was
afflicted by it, more so, because my suffering was for Him
the greatest suffering.
My Son, my adored Son, if only
these sons and daughters knew what happened then between You
and me!…
And the hour of the holocaust came after the
sweetness of the Paschal Supper. And after that, I had to
rejoin the people. I, who loved and adored Him in a unique
way, had to be far from Him. Do you understand, O my
children?
I knew that Judas was taking his treacherous
steps and there was nothing I could do; and I knew that
Jesus had sweated Blood in the Garden and there was nothing
I could do for Him. Then they arrested Him, insulted Him,
and wickedly condemned Him.
I cannot tell you everything.
I shall only say that my Heart was in turmoil with
continuous anxiety; a seat of continuous bitterness,
uncertainties, a place of desolation, tired and
disconsolate. And all the souls that later would be lost?
And all the simony and sacrilegious interchanges?
O
children of my sorrows! If today you were given the graces
of suffering for me, bless the One who gave them to you with
fervor, and sacrifice yourselves without doubt.
You think
about my greatness, my beloved children. It helps you to
think about it; but listen to me: do not think about me, but
about Him. I would like to be forgotten, if it were
possible! Give all your compassion to Him, to my Jesus, to
your Jesus, to Jesus, your love and mine.
Thus, little
children, the sorrow of my Heart was a continuous sword that
pierced my soul, my life. I felt it, while Jesus did not. He
comforted me with His Resurrection, when my immense joy
suddenly healed all the wounds that bled within me. “My
Son,“ I kept repeating. Why so much desolation? Your
Mother is near You. Is my love not enough? How many times
did I comfort You in Your afflictions? And now, can Your
Mother not give You some relief? O Father of my Jesus, I do
not want anything more than what You want. You know it; but
see if so many afflictions can have some relief. The Mother
of Your Son asks this from You.
And now on Calvary I
protested: “My God, return to those eyes that I adore the
light that you imprinted in them since the day that You gave
Him to me! Divine Father, see the horror of that holy face!
Can you not at least wipe away so much Blood? O Father of My
Son, O Spouse my love, O You Yourself, Word who wanted to
have humanity from me! May the prayer of those arms opened
up to Heaven and on earth be the supplication of His and my
acceptance!
Look, O God, to what that One whom You love
has been reduced to! It is His Mother who asks You to
alleviate so much sadness. After a short time, I will be
without Him. Thus my promise, which I offered from my Heart
when in the Temple, will be fulfilled entirely. Yes, I will
remain alone, but lighten His pain without attending to
mine…
†
(ends)
EDITOR’S NOTES: In Lent 2022 Scoop is publishing - , for the 23rd time - 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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