Meditations for the Holy Hour after the Holy Mass
on the second Thursday, 11 Feb 2017,
at the Church of the Divine Providence

Dr. Wojciech Kosek

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Meditations led by nine people:

B, D, E, G, M – women; J, P, W, Z – men.

This translation was published here on 3 Nov 2023.

To see the original Polish text ← click, please!

(Duration with recitation of the Chaplet of Divine Mercy: about 60 min.)

Full text of St. Faustina’s Diary ← click, please!

Prayer before the Chaplet of Divine Mercy

(Duration of this prayer with songs: about 10 min.)

G O Merciful Jesus, Jesus – our Spouse! We are now in an extraordinary, unfathomable, incomprehensible union with You… Behold, after receiving You in Holy Communion, it has been opened and continues a time of Eucharistic union, a privileged time, a time of unique intimacy with You… It has been during the Holy Mass that has just ended that You came to the heart of each of us – You came with the love thirsting for reciprocation. A LONG MOMENT OF SILENCE It is not easy to love You according You expect of us… However, You know that You created us to love… You know that we will not be happy unless we discover that it is love towards You that is most important… This very love – love towards You – is the source of love for people… (1:20)

G Song: Fall to Your Knees – 1st stanza (0:26)

P Jesus, our Jesus! We have come today with love for You, and we wish to be with You in the hour of Your most painful experiences, the hour called “the holy hour.” Although on the clock of the world’s history, the time of that holy hour has passed irretrievably, it is opened each time, thanks to Your Divine power contained in Holy Communion, for the man who enters this extraordinary Sacrament… We realize, O Lord, that many times we do not take advantage of this opportunity to love You because we are more attracted to what is visible, perceivable by the senses… (1:04)

P Song: Fall to Your Knees – 2nd stanza (0:26)

B Dear Jesus! St. Sister Faustina gave us in her Diary (No. 1385) the words You spoke to her after Holy Communion: Today after Holy Communion, Jesus told me how much He wants to come to human hearts, “I want to unite with human souls; it is my delight to unite with souls. Know this, My daughter, that whenever I come into a human heart in Holy Communion, My arms are full of all manner of graces and I want to give them to the soul, but some souls do not even pay any attention to Me, they leave Me on My own and are busy with other things. Oh, how sad I am that souls have not recognised Love. They treat Me like an inanimate object.” (1:09)

B Song: Fall to Your Knees – 3rd stanza (0:26)

Z Jesus! Sister Faustina also recorded in her Diary (No. 1228) such poignant words spoken by You on the ninth day of the Divine Mercy novena: “Today bring to Me the lukewarm souls that have gone cold and immerse them in the depths of My mercy. These are the souls that inflict the most painful wounds on My Heart. The greatest abhorrence My soul suffered in the Garden of Gethsemane was due to the lukewarm souls. They made me utter the words, ‘Father, remove this cup from Me, if it is Your will’ For them, appealing to My mercy is the last resort.” (0:56)

Z Song: Fall to Your Knees – 4th stanza (0:26)

M O Jesus, my Jesus! The frigidity of the soul is a severe spiritual condition of man – a man incapable of responding with the heat of love to the fire of love of the Heart of God! Such frigidity, O Lord, You often experience in the moments after Holy Communion. Many saints have ached over the attitude of frigidity of believers towards You… We do not want to treat You as frigid people do. However, are we capable of truly assessing the state of our souls? Without Your help, O Jesus, we are not capable. In this hour of grace, therefore, we cry out for Your help, for the light of the knowledge of the truth, for the power to decide following the truth known… (1:06)

M Song: Your Heart, Jesus, is Burning with Love – 1st stanza (0:50)

J Along with St. Faustina, we pray for love to You – we pray for ourselves, for our community, for our parish: “O Most Merciful Jesus, You are mercy itself; I am bringing the lukewarm souls into the mansion of Your most merciful Heart; may these frozen souls as cold as corpses that fill You with such abhorrence be warmed up in the fire of Your pure love. O Most Merciful Jesus, apply the omnipotence of Your mercy, draw them into the very core of Your love, and bestow Your sacred love upon them, for You can do all things.” (Faustina’s Diary, No. 1229) (1:01)

J Song: Your Heart, Jesus, is Burning with Love – 2nd stanza (0:50)

Meditations for the Chaplet of Divine Mercy

(Duration of meditations with songs and the Chaplet: about 28 min.)

Meditation 1.
Lord Jesus’ agony in Gethsemane

W Song: Garden of Olives – 1-2 stanza (1:20)

W The time of Gethsemane… the time of bloody sweat on the Face of Jesus… the time of deciding on just this way and not another way to save the human race… the time of asking, “Why just this way?”… A MOMENT OF SILENCE . The bloody sweat… The bloody sweat reveals the enormity of the inner effort You are making now… You must fully discern the Will of the Father now … You know that You need here the fullness of the ability to be not egoistic in discerning what You must undertake… No, no…, here You can not make a mistake, here You need to discern with absolute certainty what the Father expects from the Son whom He sent into the world to save the world… (1:01)

D The sweat, the bloody sweat on Your Face, reveals the inner struggle of the God-Man in discerning the truth of what He should do in order to do it effectively – so that the devil will not be able to destroy this way of salvation… Oh, how difficult a task, how beyond the abilities inherent in the human capacity: not to succumb to delusion because of being internally determined not to expose oneself to failure… Yes, yes… how difficult it is to discover based on the forces of human nature what the Father has planned to be fulfilled by the Son… How close to each one of us is this strained search for an answer to the question, “What shall I do, Father? “ (1:07)

P I look at You, O Jesus, struggling with the uncertainty of choosing a salvific path… I am with You during this struggle… I abide in prayer; I abide in adoration community; I abide together with Your friends / our friends… O Jesus, my Jesus! We are together with You… together in the community… together in love towards You in the Blessed Sacrament… Together, together, together – because it is so much easier; because it is so much more perfect; because it will be so in eternity… Our proximity gives Your struggle its true meaning – it is for its arousal in us, O Almighty, that You wished to experience a time of uncertainty, a time of longing for the proximity of Your loved ones – a time of waiting for us precisely… (1:14)

G Jesus, O Jesus, kneeling in the Garden of Gethsemane! As God, You could have discerned the Father’s Will without this immense suffering. However, the Father willed that Your uncertainty should find an answer in my / our presence with You… Jesus, our Beloved God! This immensity of struggle, revealed by the bloody sweat of Your Face, moves me to the depths… You care about the love we learn by remaining in solidarity with You in Gethsemane… You care about the love capable of seeing also You among others – You who love and desire my love. You want me to discover to the end this possibility of our union which You has contained in the Blessed Sacrament… (1:11)

Z A MOMENT OF SILENCE Beloved Jesus! As we recite the first decade of the Chaplet of Divine Mercy, we unite ourselves with You, kneeling in the Garden of Gethsemane before the Face of the Father. (0:19)

Meditation 2.
Scourging of the Lord Jesus

B We look at the Sacred Host – it is under its cover that You hid both Yourself and this time of giving life in the successive stages of this way… Yes, yes,… it is amazing that You willed that the reception of the Blessed Sacrament was an entrance into a time two thousand years ago – Your time… This truth is made clear to us by St. Thomas Aquinas – he recorded it in the Eucharistic hymn: (0:41)

B Song: Adoro Te Devote – 1st stanza (0:42)

B Song: Adoro Te Devote – 5th stanza (0:42)

M Sister Faustina noted in her Diary: On one of the last days of carnival time, when I was making a Holy Hour, I saw Jesus being scourged. O, how unimaginable that torture was! How terribly Jesus suffered when He was being scourged! O, poor sinners, how will you face Jesus on the Day of Judgement, the Jesus whom you are now scourging? His blood was flowing down to the ground, and His flesh had started to be torn off in places. And on His back I saw a few bones bared of flesh… Jesus was quiet, He was just groaning and sighing. (Faustina’s Diary, No. 188) (0:55)

W Scourging – these are the many times repeated blows of the whips, on the ends of which are mounted hooks that tear the skin… Oh, how painful is this experience, which is Your part in the way of salvation of the human race by Your passage from the Upper Room to Calvary! We are with You, O Lord, in this time of trial – a trial immensely demanding… (0:36)

E How to console You, O Christ? What will bring relief to You, O Dearest One? I know that the refreshment for You, undergoing this incomprehensible torment, is the proximity of people with hearts capable of imitating You in patiently enduring the wrongs inflicted by their neighbors. I must confess with regret, O Beloved Jesus, that I am not always able to meet the demands of such perfection. So, in this time of grace, I humbly ask for a transformation of my heart… May its resemblance to Your Divine Heart become a spring of consolation for You, O Lord! (0:58)

P A MOMENT OF SILENCE Beloved Jesus! As we recite the second decade of the Chaplet of Divine Mercy, we unite ourselves with You, who, with humble obedience to the Father’s Will, accept the punishment of scourging for our intentions. (0:23)

Meditation 3.
The crowning of the Lord Jesus with thorns

D Song: Garden of Olives – 6-7 stanza (1:20)

D Sister Faustina noted in her Diary: Lent. During Adoration, when I immerse myself in the Lord’s Passion, I often see Jesus after He has been scourged. The torturers have taken off His robe, which had already stuck to His wounds; when it was removed, His wounds were opened up again. They put a red cloak on Him; it was dirty and ragged, and they put it on His fresh wounds; in places the cloak barely reached down to His knees. The Lord was told to sit down on a wooden beam; then a crown of thorns was plaited and put on His sacred head, and a reed was put into His hand. (1:00)

Z And they mocked Him, bowing down to Him as to a king, they spat on His face, while others took a reed and hit Him on the head with it; others hurt Him by administering punches; and still others covered up His face and struck Him with their fists. Jesus bore it quietly. Who can comprehend Him – His pain? Jesus cast His eyes to the ground; I felt what must have been going on in the sweetest Heart of Jesus at that time. Let every soul meditate on what Jesus was suffering at that moment. They raced each other in offending the Lord. I wondered where all that malice came from in humans, but of course it’s sin that causes it – it was an encounter between Love and sin. (Faustina’s Diary, No. 408) (1:01)

G I look at You, O Beloved, imbrued with blood due to my guilt. Perhaps, as a result of the weakness of my will, I do not give up what is painfully hurting You… Or perhaps, as a result of my ignorance, I do not realize which of my actions is the cause of this suffering… You, however, want my progress on the path of perfection, so You prompt me now so eloquently through the record of the Diary: “In the morning, during meditation, on the left side of my head I felt a pain caused by the thorn. The suffering lasted the whole day, all the time I was meditating, wondering how Jesus could have endured the pain of all those thorns in the crown. (1:05)

J I united my suffering with what Jesus had suffered and offered it up for sinners. At four o’clock, when I came to Adoration, I saw one of our charges who was offending God terribly with unchaste thoughts. I also saw the person due to whom she was committing these sins. My soul became anxious and I begged God for the sake of Jesus’ Passion to wrest her free from that terrible misery. Jesus told me that He would grant her that grace thanks to my entreaty, not on her own account. Now I understood how much we should pray for sinners, especially for our charges. (Faustina’s Diary, No. 349) (1:03)

B A MOMENT OF SILENCE Beloved Jesus! As we recite the third decade of the Chaplet of Divine Mercy, we unite ourselves with You, who accept with humble obedience to the Father’s Will the cruelty of crowning with thorns for our intentions. (0:25)

Meditation 4.
The Way of the Cross of the Lord Jesus

W Song: You go Through the Ages – 1st stanza (0:48)

W Beloved Jesus! With love, I look at You, hidden under the whiteness of the Most Holy Host… The time of the crossing toward the Hill of the Skull is very demanding… You carry the beam of the cross… You carry it as a man whom the religious authorities of Israel perceive as a blasphemer against God and a deceiver of the multitudes… Yes, yes… You go with a cross of shame, burdened with the judgment of this highest religious authority… You go in humility to fulfill what has been decided about You… You go to death even though this judgment has its source not in you, Supreme Judge, but in the iniquity of those who judged You so … (1:02)

M You surrender to the consequences born by the hearts far from God, although representing God… You are not bitter, and You do not complain but save… This judgment, so humbly accepted by You, will soon bring the life-giving breath of the Spirit to those who have become entangled in great spiritual impotence…, whose eyes cannot see now the truth about You…, whose ears were incapable of listening to the wisdom of Your word…, whose hands were capable only of clenching into a fist in angry reaction to the miracles performed by You… A MOMENT OF SILENCE And me? Am I, O Jesus, able to imitate You in such great humility? (1:06)

P Sister Faustina noted in her Diary: One day I saw two roads: one was wide and had sand and flowers scattered over it; it was full of joy and music, and all kinds of pleasure. People were walking along it, dancing and having fun – they got to the end without realizing that it was the end. But at the end of that road there was a terrible precipice, the pit of hell. Souls were falling down into that pit, walking straight into it and tumbling down purblind. And there were so many of them you could not count them all. (0:53)

E And I saw another road, more like a path, as it was narrow, stony and covered with thorns, and the people on it walked with tears in their eyes and were going through various torments. Some fell down onto the stones, but straightaway got up and went on their way. And at the end of that road there was a beautiful garden, full of every kind of happiness, and all those souls went in. As soon as they got there they forgot their suffering. (Faustina’s Diary, No. 153) (0:45)

Z A MOMENT OF SILENCE. Beloved Jesus! As we recite the fourth decade of the Chaplet of Divine Mercy, we unite with You, who, humbly obedient to the Father’s Will, undertakes the immense effort of carrying the cross to Calvary for our intention. (0:26)

Meditation 5.
The death of the Lord Jesus on the cross

D Song: I Greet You – 1st stanza (0:56)

D Jesus, my Jesus! Behold the end of the way to the Hill of the Skull… Oh, how near, how touchable is the end of Your mortal pilgrimage… Your last hour has struck… The world is slowly sinking into darkness… Everything is beginning to be engulfed by a deathly darkness… The eclipse of the sun heralds the solemnity of what is to take place on the Hill of the Skull… The fading shadows of the noon hour herald the newness of what is about to happen just outside the walls of the holy city of Jerusalem… Behold the Man being hung on the cross… Behold the One who was cast outside the city walls – outside the holy community… Why so? – He was considered unworthy… (1:05)

J Behold, stretched between heaven and earth hangs the One of whom the false witness was given… Behold, nailed to the tree of shame, the One who, as God’s messenger, is to erase the shameful stain of original guilt from the hearts of men … A MOMENT OF SILENCE Original guilt… and subsequent sinful choices… Adam’s, Eve’s, mine… We read in Genesis (2:15-17), “The Lord God then took the man and settled him in the garden of Eden to cultivate and care for it. The Lord God gave man this order: ‘You are free to eat from any of the garden’s trees except the tree of knowledge of good and bad. From that tree, you shall not eat; the moment you eat from it, you are surely doomed to die.’” (1:09)

G Jesus, my Jesus! Why did the Sanhedrin, when considering the advisability of sentencing You to death, fail to stand in the truth about You? Why? Yes, yes… these people refused to let themselves be convinced that the evil they perceive with their eyes in You is solely the fruit of their malicious way of looking – looking with a perverse heart… It is the secret of the iniquity of the hearts of many… The secret of those who call evil good, and good evil… (0:46)

W Behold, on the Cross, the victory of Truth is accomplished… Behold, on the Cross, the mysterious power of Your saving Death overcomes the mysterious iniquity of the hearts of many… Behold, on the Hill of the Skull, the mystery of those who pluck fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is unclothed… the mystery of those who walk in the throes of death… the mystery of those who delight in plucking the forbidden fruit, calling evil good and good evil… (0:45)

B Jesus, my Jesus! Of the mystery of one’s heart, each of us will give a personal account to God… In this hour of grace, I humbly ask You, O Beloved: What is the mystery of my heart? What is my future beyond the walls of mortality? Will I be with You there, on the other side of life?…. Will I live with You forever? In what mystery does my heart live? Does my heart live in humbly clinging to the truth or, on the contrary, in self-important clinging to sweet lies? … in a humble listening to the voice of those who admonish me or, on the contrary, in a carefree feeding on the words of flatterers? In what mystery do I live, O Lord? (1:03)

P A MOMENT OF SILENCE Beloved Jesus! As we recite the fifth decade of the Chaplet of Divine Mercy, we unite with You, with humble obedience to the Will of the Father, giving Your life to save us from eternal death. (0:24)

Meditations after the Chaplet of Divine Mercy

(Duration of meditations with songs: about 17 min.)

M O Jesus, my Jesus! On the Hill of the Skull, the salvation of the world was accomplished. God-Man showed by accepting death from the hands of a brother-man how much He cares about the unforced adherence of man’s heart to His Heart… O Jesus, my Jesus! On the Hill of the Skull, You say to my heart: look, dear brother, look, dear sister, look at the greatness of My determination not to impose you My own will. Look at the greatness of My love for you… Look at Me, who can give up even the mortal life for your sake, that you may believe, that I seek only happiness for you… (1:06)

M Song: Your Heart, Jesus, is Burning with Love – 2-3 stanza (1:40)

Z O Jesus! Behold, we have passed with You the way You crossed two thousand years ago from the Cenacle of the Last Supper to Calvary. From the height of the Cross, You descend to the depths of the Abyss. We are there with You to give You praise, to worship and adore You… We are there to intercede for all those who have already departed from us and are now suffering from longing for God, suffering and gradually reaching the fullness of life in love… For the intentions of all those suffering in the fires of Purgatory, we sing a song to You. (0:55)

Z Song: Your Heart, Jesus, is Burning with Love – 5-6 stanza (1:40)

E In this hour of grace, we unite with our brothers and sisters in the Purgatorial Abyss. We ask for them and simultaneously ask through their intercession for ourselves. We believe that they, although they cannot help themselves, for us, still pilgrims in mortality, can intercede for growth in loving God and people. We believe that our exchange of love is pleasing to You, O our Divine Lover… For their intentions, we sing a song. (0:47)

E Song: Your Heart, Jesus, is Burning with Love – 7-8 stanza (1:40)

J O Lord Jesus! You are the victor over the bonds of the Abyss! You conquered Death; You came out of the darkness of the Land of Death. We believe that now, in this hour of grace, You are conquering the darkness of our hearts, breaking the fetters in which we have become entangled by choosing evil… To You, O Beloved, we sing the song of victory. (0:33)

J Song: Winner of Death – 1st stanza (0:42)

D O Lord Jesus! You are the victor over the bonds of the Abyss! We believe that now, in this hour of grace, You are conquering the darkness of our hearts, filling our hearts with the power to do good, the power to overcome evil with good, the power to strive for unity among us humbly… To You, O Lord of history, to You, O beloved Savior, we sing a song of praise. (0:37)

D Song: Winner of Death – 2nd stanza (0:42)

W O Lord Jesus! You are the victor over the bonds of the Abyss! You are the power to defeat the evil spirit. You are the power of love. You make us one… You arouse brotherly love in our hearts. You arouse sisterly love in our hearts. You bestow upon us the Holy Spirit. With You, O Christ the Conqueror, we invoke the Holy Spirit. With You, O our Beloved, we ask for the filling of our adoring community with the Holy Spirit. With You, O Son of God, and with You, O Mary, the Bride of the Holy Spirit, we humbly ask God in the Trinity for the grace to fill our hearts with the presence of the Holy Spirit of Love. (1:09)

W Song: Come Holy Spirit – 1-2 stanza (0:42)

G How not to thank You, O God, for the gift of the Eucharist? How not to thank You, O God, for the gift of unity? How can we not thank You, O God, for the gift of community? To You, O our Father, we sing a heart-flowing song of gratitude for the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of reconciliation and mutual unity. (0:31)

G Song: Come Holy Spirit – 3rd stanza (0:42)

P How good it is to worship You, O God the Father! How wonderful it is to worship You, O Christ! With what happiness You fill our hearts, O Holy Spirit! How wonderful God is, who created us without our participation! How wonderful God is, who allows us to participate in the process of our growth toward the fullness of life! How loving God is that He allows us to co-determine the shape of our humanity for all eternity. To You, O Most Holy Trinity, we sing a song. (0:52)

P Song: Come Holy Spirit – 4th stanza (0:42)

B In this hour of grace, we open our hearts to Your Divine gifts, O Holy Spirit of God! In this hour of Eucharistic union with Christ, we are interceding for one another and asking You to enrich us with new powers to love one another. In this hour of adoration, we ask for these graces for the priests and faithful of our parish. In this hour of Eucharistic mercy, we glorify the Most Holy Trinity for the Divine gifts of God’s Spirit. (0:49)

B Song: Come Holy Spirit – 5th stanza (0:42)

The prayer community will meditate now one by one on the texts
prepared by the adoration participants,
interspersed with successive stanzas of the song.

At the end of the adoration:

Z Dear Lord Jesus! How good it is that we are with You! It is good that we can abide and persevere in Your presence despite various obstacles… This beautiful time, however, is slowly coming to an end… We will now remain in silence until the Jasna Góra Appeal. We will remain in the silence of our hearts in order to open them even more fully to Your spousal presence… Speak, Lord, speak, O Beloved, for my heart is listening… Amen. (0:43)