Dr. Wojciech Kosek
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Meditations led by three people:
D, J – women; W – man.
This translation was published here on 7 Nov 2023.
To see the original Polish text ← click, please!
(Duration of meditations with songs: about 57 min.; with Rosary: about 87 min.)
I. Prayer before the beginning of the Holy Rosary
(Duration of meditations here: about 32 min.)
W Dearest Lord Jesus! You have sought us, and here we are… We are the faithful of the Parish of Divine Providence. We have heard Your voice, Your invitation to a Forty Hours Devotion, to a prayer meeting with You before Lent, which begins tomorrow. We are here to love You, O eternal God, who became man as the Son of Immaculate Mary and who is physically here with us just as we are physically here. We believe that this is how You are here, even though we cannot experience this with our eyes, nor with our hearing, nor with any of our senses. However, the certainty of faith alone is enough for us: You are here as present as any of us humans. We believe and adore this mystery of Your loving presence. (1:05)
D Jesus, how good it is to be with You, present in different ways in the world! I believe that when I support a sick person, I am also spiritually with You who are co-suffering in our neighbor. I believe that when I read the Holy Bible, You are spiritually with me and help me understand it and put it into practice. I believe that when I pray in the community at home, then You are also there spiritually with us and make us united with each other. I believe that when a priest celebrates the Holy Mass, You, O Jesus, are especially closely united to him: he lends his humanity to You so that You may celebrate the Holy Mass through him. (0:56)
J Dearest Jesus! I gratefully receive from the Church this astonishing truth of faith that among the various ways of Your presence in the world, there is one unique way, incomparably more perfect than all others. Namely, in the Most Holy Host, You are uniquely present. You are present here in a different way than in a neighbor in need, in a different way than in the reading of Scripture, in a different way than in prayer in community, in a different way than in the celebrant… (0:40)
W Here, in the Most Holy Host, in Your preternatural mystery of Eucharistic presence, You are not only spiritually, but – though imperceptibly to my eyes or ears – You are as I am here now; You are as each of us is here… You are here in Your human body! (0:25)
W Song: Jesus, Veiled in the Sacred Host – 1st stanza (1:00)
D You are here now in Your body, and therefore just as You were two thousand years ago in Nazareth, Bethlehem, Egypt, Jerusalem…. You are here now as God, who truly became man a moment after the Immaculate Mary said with faith the loving words, “May it be done to me according to Your word.” You are here now as You were with men from Your Incarnation a moment after the Annunciation until the cloud veiled You at the Ascension. (0:40)
J You are here now just as You were among men for approximately thirty-three years of Your mortal life. Even though neither my eyes can perceive Your figure, nor my ears can hear Your voice, nor in any other way can I physically convince myself that You are really here as I am, in the body, yet I know and confess with poignancy that You are, God Incarnate, in Your human body here. (0:43)
W How fortunate, Jesus, that I can be with You now not only in a spiritual way but in the way that friends are with each other: present in the same place, physically present close to each other… I gaze lovingly at the Most Holy Host, and I know that our gazes here meet: You look at me, I look at You… Our being together is love… is contemplation… (0:31)
W Song: I bow to You – 1st stanza (1:00)
D I am at Your feet, abiding in listening to Your voice… I am at Your feet, consciously losing, as it were, time…. giving time up to loving You… I use my earthly time, Your gift to me… I use it like Mary, the sister of Lazarus and Martha, about whose encounter with You St. Luke wrote in the Gospel: (0:40)
J Jesus “entered a village where a woman whose name was Martha welcomed him. She had a sister named Mary who sat beside the Lord at his feet listening to him speak. Martha, burdened with much serving, came to him and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me by myself to do the serving? Tell her to help me.” The Lord said to her in reply, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things. There is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part and it will not be taken from her.” (Luke 10:38–42) (0:57)
W Jesus! My heart is moved by the praise given to Mary sitting at Your feet. I juxtapose Your reaction in her defense with the event described a little further by St. Luke thus: (0:19)
D Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to share the inheritance with me.” He replied to him, “Friend, who appointed me as your judge and arbitrator?” (Luke 12:13–14) (0:18)
J Mary has chosen the better part… O Jesus, why did You not stand up for the busy Martha, who wanted the best possible welcome to You with a wonderfully prepared meal? Why do You compliment Mary, who left her sister in the kitchen and was content to sit at Your feet? Is that fair? (0:29)
W Moreover, is it fair that, on the one hand, You did not want to settle the brothers’ dispute over the division of the inheritance, and, on the other hand, You wanted to take a stand on Martha’s claims against Mary? How should we understand the difference in Your attitudes in these two situations? Could it be that the defense of Mary, who was listening to Your words, is more important than the defense of the wronged heir? (0:37)
D Mary has chosen the better part… Mary has recognized that the culinary arts are not worth pursuing now. Mary is deeply convinced that You care more about listening to You than satisfying Your hunger with exquisite dishes. Mary recognized the time of Your visitation, recognized that now, when You came to their home, it is worth serving the most straightforward meal, bread and wine, and, having abandoned everything else, to sit at Your feet and listen to the words of Your teaching, to look into Your loving eyes, to contemplate You…, to be close to You, so close to respond to Your love with the love of presence. (1:05)
J Mary knows that the time when You, Divine Teacher, are especially for her does not happen often enough for her to devote it to other activities. Mary knows that we, her sisters and brothers, are often overly preoccupied with daily affairs, and thus lack time for You, Jesus, for sitting at Your feet when You are physically with us. (0:35)
W Mary has chosen the better part… O Jesus, You confirm with Your response to the voice of complaint of this brother and sister that we often overly concern ourselves with everyday things, grieve over the loss of material things, and do not grieve over the passing of the unique time of Your visitation. Mary, who has the time to sit at Your feet then, when You physically, “in the flesh,” bodily entered her home, has chosen the better part… Will I, then, following her example, perceive today in a new way the time of this extraordinary visitation, when You enter “in the flesh” into the thresholds of my heart in Holy Communion? (1:02)
D Song: The Hidden Jesus – 1st stanza (1:43)
D Will I not run out of time and strength when it is worthwhile to sit at Your feet, look into Your loving eyes, lay my head on Your Heart, and love You with my presence…? Will I choose to make an effort to plan the temporal days of my life so that I only exceptionally run immediately after the Holy Supper to really urgent tasks? Will I not lack the strength to love You, O God and Bridegroom, in the way for which You are longed? (0:46)
J I believe, Lord, that our love reaches its peak in the Eucharistic union. I believe, Jesus, that the time that begins with the reception of Holy Communion is among the moments You desire. I believe this time could not be replaced by any other moment of my gazing at Heaven or treading the earth, of my loving You in prayer or service to our beloved sisters and brothers. I believe that You have a special right to my time of love when You come to me in the Sacred Host. (0:47)
W I believe that my relation with You, O Jesus, must be understood in analogy to the relation between man and wife. I notice that the spouses in the family devote their time and their entire lives with joy and great commitment to their children; simultaneously, they consider it a special privilege also to devote time to be solely with each other as husband and wife, gazing lovingly at each other in sacramental union. In the same way, I, while repeatedly giving my time to serve Your Kingdom, have the right at the same time to devote time to our exclusive mutual love and contemplation, and You, O Jesus, have the same right to expect from me this special time when You are present sacramentally, i.e., bodily with me and in me. Jesus, I thank You that I am learning such a relationship of love with You from Your Immaculate Mother, Mary. Amen.(0:56)
D Be glorified, Dearest Jesus, true God, our Creator and Lord! Be glorified in the mystery of Your love for us – Your sisters and brothers. Be glorified in the gift of the Blessed Sacrament with which You have fed us at the Holy Mass – the sacrament of Your love. (0:32)
J Song: Your Heart, Jesus, is Burning with Love – 1st stanza (1:40)
J Behold, the Holy Mass has just been completed, behold, the mystery of the Last Supper has just been completed, when You, O beloved Jesus, accomplished the transubstantiation of unleavened bread into Your body giving itself up to death on Golgotha, the transubstantiation of wine into Your Blood flowing from the height of the cross to us sinners. (0:32)
W How deeply do I believe in the wondrous miracle that the Holy Mass is? Am I aware of being present with You and the Apostles there, in the Upper Room, as I partake of the Holy Feast with them during the distribution of the Holy Communion? Yes, I am conscious that I am receiving Divine Food so that I may be carried with them to Golgotha and stand at Your nailed feet on the cross – right next to the Immaculate Mary. (0:37)
D What is my faith in this miracle of truly moving us all from the time of our lives into Your time, O Jesus, into the time of salvific events? Do I believe? Do I love? Am I there with You? During Transubstantiation and Holy Communion, am I consciously with You and Your Mother Mary on Golgotha in the hours of Your greatest trial and tribulation? (0:36)
D Song: I Know in Whom I Believe – 1st stanza (1:13)
J Dearest Lord Jesus! As a community of the parish of Divine Providence, today we have come again for the Holy Mass and adoration. We have arrived to love You with our presence. From the bottom of our hearts, we thank You for this incomprehensible grace of participation in the Holy Mass. It is, in a mysterious way, always a participation in that Last Supper, which You celebrated two thousand years ago on the night before Your Passion. (0:39)
W Behold, the Holy Mass – or the Last Supper – has ended. Behold, You, in the company of the Apostles, come out of the Upper Room to begin that shedding of Blood in which, thanks to Holy Communion, they have already participated sacramentally. You go out determinedly after the Last Supper to the people of violence to realize among them in a natural way for us humans what was already given to the Apostles in a sacramental way: You go to offer the saving sacrifice of Your own life. (0:49)
D Dearest Jesus! As the Apostles, we also wish to accompany You on this way of shedding Blood. A moment ago, we also received Holy Communion with them in the Upper Room. So now, having been fed by the Blessed Sacrament, we have the power from You to participate after the Holy Mass in the events that took place after the Last Supper two thousand years ago. (0:34)
J Dearest Jesus! In the depths of my heart, I ask the question today: how is my faith in this astonishing Eucharistic miracle that consists in Your truly moving me and all of us from the time of our life into Your time, O Jesus, into the time of salvific events? Do I believe? Do I love? Can I consciously be there with You, with Your Mother Mary, with John the Apostle, with the women…? (0:48)
J Song: Adoro Te Devote – 1st stanza (0:39)
W Dearest Jesus! I ask my heart today: Can I consciously be during the Transubstantiation and Holy Communion with You and Mary on Golgotha to abide there lovingly with You – in the hours of Your greatest trial? Am I acutely aware that thanks to the Holy Communion, it is not only during the Holy Mass but also after it when the minutes of God’s time of grace – the time of union with You in those events – continue to tick away? Do I believe that in praying after the Holy Mass, I am a true friend to You – a friend who has not forsaken You but faithfully follows You along the path from the Upper Room to the Hill of the Skull, with the three crosses on top of it? (1:13)
D Beloved Jesus! How fervently we desire that the presence of our prayerful community after Mass by Your side – after receiving You in Holy Communion – become from this day forward the most beautiful and complete response to the desire for love of Your Divine Heart, the desire You entrusted to Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque. Behold, You confessed to Saint Margaret one day thus: [1] (0:37)
J “I thirst with such a terrible thirst to be loved by men in the Blessed Sacrament that this thirst consumes Me. Yet I find no one trying to quench it according to My desire by some return of My love.” (0:30)
W Is my heart capable of loving You, Dearest Jesus? Am I capable of loving You as You thirst for it? Am I not content today to love You only as my weakness allows? Therefore, I beseech You, O beloved Jesus, assist my weak heart with Your grace so that today, during this adoration, it may beat for You with poignancy. (0:39)
W Song: Adoro Te Devote – 2nd stanza (0:39)
II. Meditations for the Sorrowful Mysteries of the Holy Rosary
(Duration of meditations here: about 27 min.)
Meditation 1.
Lord Jesus’ agony in Gethsemane
(Duration of meditations in this decade: about 5 min.)
D Song: Garden of Olives – 1st stanza (1:20)
D I look at You, Jesus, hidden under the white robe of the Most Holy Host. I look with a desire to participate in Your saving pain. I want to be with You in the hour of Your agony in Gethsemane. I desire to persevere here in prayer with You… I desire to persevere to gain inner strength and, thanks to it, not to flee in the hour when the force of violence will be aimed at You… and at me. (0:43)
J O Jesus, I believe that although, from my point of view, the time of this ‘hour’ belongs to the distant past, I am with You here in the Gethsemane. Yes, I believe that together with all the participants in the Eucharist, by the power of the received Holy Communion, I have been carried above the centuries into Your time – into the time of Your agony in the Gethsemane… (0:35)
W So here we are together, Jesus, to where we came with You among the Twelve after the Holy Mass – after the Last Supper. I desire not to flee under fear before Judas, leading the armed troops. I look at You and learn the confidence of Your heart in the meaningfulness of everything that takes place from the Father’s Will, fulfilling step by step His Divine design. I believe that now, in this hour of grace, the Father, by the power of Your Blood oozing to earth during Your trepidation in Gethsemane, frees us from entanglement in friendship with the devil… (0:50)
D May Your Will be done, Father! May Jesus have a true friend in me – the one who, in the time of His greatest trial in life, will persevere to the end with Him… O Jesus, You give Yourself with admirable calmness into the hands of brothers hostile to You. In the hour of Your trial, I resolve for the future to restrain more than before my angry reactions to the wrongs that must also come upon me. (0:37)
J I entrust this decision to You with confidence that right now, in this hour of grace, You, by the power of Your Heart – the Heart full of peace – will bring the leaven of Your Divine inner strength into my heart as well… You will enable me to love even in such a difficult situation, to love those who wish to harm me. I love You, Jesus, my love, I love You, hidden in the whiteness of the Immaculate Host… (0:37)
W I apologize to You, Jesus, and ask humbly in this hour of grace for the gift of a new heart for me and all of us. I trust that this will happen, that I will be able to love like You those whom God will place on my path of a spiritual becoming the fully redeemed man… I love You, Jesus. Amen. (0:32)
Meditation 2.
Scourging of the Lord Jesus
(Duration of meditations in this decade: about 6 min.)
W Song: Let us Love the Lord – 1st stanza (0:40)
W Jesus, cruelly scourged, I am with You and love You. I sympathize with You with all my heart in this hour when You are struck with words of derision and physical violence. O Love full of patience! With admirable constancy of feeling, You endure this violent attack of those guarding You. O Jesus, God Incarnate! In this moment of adoration, I am now with You during the scourging at Pilate. Yes, I am with You, the real Man, hidden under the species of the Blessed Sacrament. I am there to love You with my presence. (0:58)
D Lord Jesus! I confess with faith this astonishing truth that this hour of mockery aimed at You by Pilate’s soldiers in Jerusalem does not belong only to the distant past. No! You are opening that hour now for all of us gathered in prayer after the Eucharist. (0:31)
J Yes, You open for us the gates of time and lead us with Your Divine right hand into the hour of scourging. How do I respond to Your gift? Do I consciously abide with You? Am I grateful for Holy Communion, by the power of which I enter into such distant time? – into a time two thousand years distant, into the time of Your love for me during the scourging… (0:41)
W Into this hour, O Lord of time and eternity, You have now allowed me to enter – so that I may have the opportunity to love You in this hard trial of the mockery… I know and believe that by adoring You in the Blessed Sacrament, in the Sacrament of Communion, which means union, I bring relief to You, O Jesus, who are subjected to the malice of Pilate’s soldiers surrounding You. (0:37)
D Jesus! I know that deep faith is necessary to unite with You in sacramental love. I give thanks to You for Your Holy Catholic Church and its priests! I owe to the Church the Divine Faith in the Blessed Sacrament. In this hour of presence with You, O scourged Savior, accept my gratitude for Your sacrifice. It is it – Your sacrifice out of love for the Father and us – that brings us into the womb of the Church… It is it who causes our birth into a life of love…. (0:47)
J Jesus, I am with You to relieve Your suffering. In this difficult hour, I am here with You at Pilate’s. I am there to love You with my presence. I know it is because of the Holy Communion I have received that now I, a man of a different historical time than Yours, can genuinely be with You in Your time. So I am, and I love… I love You, Jesus, hidden under the whiteness of the Most Holy Host in my heart. Thank You so much for this good which You have given to all of us abiding here with You…(0:54)
W Jesus, I marvel at Your extraordinary patience with people who mock You. I contemplate with amazement the power of Your Heart, and I humbly ask You now, in the hour of union with You, so loving to mockers, to enable my soul to have the same patience with brothers and sisters who will similarly mock me. May I now receive this longed-for ability to love and bear witness to the spiritual power hidden in You, O God present in the Most Holy Sacrament…. (0:45)
Meditation 3.
The crowning of the Lord Jesus with thorns
(Duration of meditations in this decade: about 6 min.)
J Song: I Want to Give You Everything – 1st stanza (0:47)
J O Jesus, hidden under the covering of the Holy Host! On my knees, I adore You… Here, before Your Majesty, the angels cover their faces … I look at You, O Jesus … And although my eyes will not perceive that You are here physically, in the body – as every man is – I know with the absolute certainty of faith that You are truly here now as Man – as God, who took on human nature to save us. (0:43)
W Lord Jesus! I want to be united with You now when You are at a difficult time when Pilate’s soldiers insult You, scourge You, and crown You with thorns. Jesus, Dearest Friend, I want to be with You in this hour… I want to be a source of consolation for You, a counterbalance to the vehemence of the malicious words that the soldiers surrounding You are hurling from their hearts. (0:25)
D What a heartbreaking experience is Pilate’s judgment and the self-judgment of his soldiers over You, Eternal Truth and Love! Who are they who perform the judgment over You, God Incarnate? They are those who, under the eternal law of love inscribed in the heart of every human being, should serve God daily. Why do not they recognize the goodness in You? Why do not they see the goodness of Your miracles and teachings leading to acquiring God’s wisdom? It is the wall of hostility they have erected in their hearts that prevents them from interpreting in Your favor everything related to You. (0:55)
J Jesus, standing in the crown of thorns before Your tormentors! Grant it, I ask, that in this hour of Eucharistic union with You – union in the mystery of Your Heart, which so humbly and calmly endures the violence of the blows – that I may just now receive from You the gift of the transformation of my heart, the gift of conforming my heart to Your Heart. I love You and desire to become like You because, after all, those who love one another always become like one another. (0:50)
W Jesus! You know I love You, but I lack the strength to become like You, O Beloved! I love You, and I am sure that You, in Your love for me, can and want to give me this coveted likeness… Do it now… now… now… in this hour of grace… do it by the power of Your preternatural presence in the Blessed Sacrament. Make it, please, by the power of our union, by the power of my participation in those minutes of Your silence in the face of the hostility of the soldiers crowning You with thorns…. (0:45)
D Jesus! I trust that You will now transform me and not only me but also many of our sisters and brothers. May our new hearts be for You, O Jesus, who are silent in the face of the aggression of scoffers, a source of consolation, which You, after all, need and expect – need as much as every person who has been harmed… (0:28)
J Let our hearts resurrected for love be for You, O Jesus aching in this hour of mockery, the reason for the rebirth of Your human strength. Let the new life of our hearts be like a source from which flows in Your Heart the sense of the reasonableness of this enormous suffering that You accept by the Father’s Will while waiting for love for You, beloved Jesus, O Supreme Good, O my only Love! (0:38)
Meditation 4.
The Way of the Cross of the Lord Jesus
(Duration of meditations in this decade: about 5 min.)
D Song: You go Through the Ages – 1st stanza (0:48)
D By the power of the received Blessed Sacrament, You take me, O Jesus, into Your time, into the time of carrying the cross. With deep emotion and poignancy, I thank You from the bottom of my heart for this opportunity! I can be with You; I can relieve You with my presence at least a little, together with Simon carrying Your cross. (0:28)
J The cross is Yours…, though it should be a mine cross. You have nothing to repent for, whereas I have. You carry my entanglement in evil. It, at the end of this way, will be nailed to Your cross along with You, with Your body. I will be free from this evil. (0:24)
W I will be free if I now gratefully accept the grace of the transformation of my heart, if I accept from You, O Savior, the grace that You desire to give me right now. I will be free insofar as I am with You now, in this hour of grace… insofar as I believe that the Blessed Sacrament unites me with You being in that difficult hour of Your emaciating out of love for me. (0:37)
D Jesus, help me to believe and love You through deep faith… to love You, who are marking successive spans of the earth with the bloody footprints of Your feet… to love You, who are going on the way towards death on the Hill of the Skull – here in the Holy Land, just outside the walls of Jerusalem. (0:28)
J Out of love for me, You took up this path of the Man scorned, the Man cast outside the community, outside the walls of the human family. You, Eternal Holiness, go out outside the walls of the holy city of Jerusalem with the verdict “not fit for the holy people of God.” I go with You – I do not have to be fit either… I must remain faithful to You. It is enough for me! (0:40)
W Jesus! May You be strengthened on the way to Golgotha by the awareness of my heart’s gratitude for the gift of Your ministry that I receive in this hour of grace from You – the ministry of freeing me from the iniquity of my heart, from the fear that leads me to utter a lie in defense of my weakness. (0:25)
D I weep and huddle with You, O Jesus, walking so close… right next to You…, walking so thanks to the Sacred Host, whose reception at the Holy Mass brought me into Your time and made me Your sister on the way to the death, a sister on our way of dying to sin in order to live for God – always out of love for God… (0:37)
Meditation 5.
The death of the Lord Jesus on the cross
(Duration of meditations in this decade: about 4 min.)
W Song: I Greet You – 1st stanza (0:30)
W Golgotha, the Hill of the Skull… You were nailed, O Jesus, to a cross firmly fixed in the ground, nailed between two other crosses – two other of our brothers are hung on them. You are dying to give life – the Father will respond to Your Sacrifice with the gift of new life for You and us, Your sisters and brothers. (0:49)
D I am here with You, O Jesus, hung between heaven and earth as payment for my sins… I am here with You, O Mary, so pained by my guilt… The Divine power of Holy Communion carries me above time and space and brings me into the most challenging and painful hour of all the hours of Your life… It carries me to You, to make me near to You now… (0:38)
J Yes! The Divine power of Holy Communion carries me over time and space and brings me into this hour, the most difficult and painful of the hours of your lives… It carries me to be with You… to repent with tears in my eyes for my evil… to console Your hearts with my humble presence… to love You with our mutual closeness of hearts – here, at the nailed feet of Jesus. (0:41)
W Jesus! Behold, now, thanks to our union with You in Holy Communion, it is striking the hour of our union with You in death, in the sacrifice of love to the Father. We believe that right now, Your mercy with the immense power of Divine love is transforming the heart of each of us. Jesus! You desire love from us; You desire that we always abide in adoration filled with prayer after the Holy Mass. You desire us during and after the Eucharist because our presence sustains Your human strength on the way from the Upper Room to Death. (0:55)
D You desire us, O Dear Jesus, because You desire above all to give us the gift of new life during this going – a life that is the loving of God above everything. Be glorified in Your desire to love us and in Your longing for the love of our hearts! Amen. (0:25)
Completion of the Holy Rosary
(Duration of meditations here: about 2 min.)
J Beloved Jesus! Behold, we have come with You to the end of the way You passed from the Upper Room to Golgotha two thousand years ago. We believe that the Blessed Sacrament, which we received at the Holy Mass, genuinely takes us back to the historical time of Your life, to the Cenacle. For we believe, following St. John Paul II, that when You celebrated the Last Supper in the Upper Room, You simultaneously [2] celebrated in some mysterious way every Holy Mass that Your priests celebrate during their earthly life. (0:48)
W Today, once again in our life, we received from You the grace to participate in that celebration because every Holy Mass is always that Last Supper, which You celebrated on the last night before the way towards death. In our adoration after the Holy Mass today, we received the grace to accompany You in that salvific way also. We have reached Golgotha. From the height of the Cross, You now descend, O our Savior, into the Abyss, into the land of the dead, to come out from among the dead after three days on the morning of the Resurrection. (0:40)
D We believe, O Jesus descending into the Abyss, that You descend in this hour of grace also into the Abyss of our souls. With profound devotion, we will now abide in prayerful silence until the end of this adoration in order to open ourselves to Your voice – the voice of the Good Shepherd (cf. John 10:1-18; Heb 13:20), who calls His sheep by name, lovingly addresses each of us, and leads us out of the shackles of the Abyss, and leads us towards the Resurrection. Jesus, the Beloved Shepherd, we now await Your word in the depths of our souls. We await for the Holy Spirit. Amen. (0:45)