Dr. Wojciech Kosek
in collaboration with Beata Krochmal
Please click here to download the same text in format: a/. Word, b/. PDF
Meditations led by eight people:
A, B, D, J – women; L, P, W, Z – men.
This translation was published here on 7 Dec 2023.
To see the original Polish text ← click, please!
(Duration of meditations and songs: about 66 min.)
(Duration with recitation of the Rosary: about 96 min.)
Introduction to the Holy Rosary
(Duration of meditations with songs: about 12 min.)
A Beloved Jesus! Just now, during the Holy Mass, we received You in Holy Communion. You came to us as a community of people in love with You… You came to each of us personally… You came with Your love for me… with the heart burning with love for me. At the same time, You came also with a longing for the response of my love to Your love. You came, and You are, hidden under the species of those Most Holy Hosts that we all store under our hearts, in our bowels… (0:55)
Z Yes, under my heart, You are, O Beloved Jesus… You are near my heart, O Dearest… You are in my bowels. They, for a time, will serve as a holy tabernacle. Be glorified in Your – how close, how interior, how physical, how fully human and loving – presence… (0:33)
Z Song: The Hidden Jesus – 1st stanza (0:53)
J You are hidden, O Savior, in my depths… For a time, my entrails access the honor of storing the Sacred Host… How long does the Sacred Host last in me – a dozen, a few dozen minutes? I do not know… None of us is able to determine it. However, this one thing I know thanks to the teaching of the Church: until the species of the Sacred Host are entirely digested, You are certainly close to me, close with me, close physically, close as God Incarnate, close as God-Man loving me. Here in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, number 1377, we read, “The Eucharistic presence of Christ begins at the moment of the consecration and endures as long as the Eucharistic species subsist.” (1:15)
J Song: Your Heart, Jesus, is Burning with Love – 1st stanza (0:50)
P Most beloved Jesus! You are so close to me… so very close… You are, and You love me with your extraordinary closeness… Your wonderful, extraordinarily close presence assures me of your extraordinary love for me… Oh, Jesus, thank you for your love… Dearest, I love you… I love You; I am for You. In my heart poignantly resound the words of longing that You confided to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque. You confessed to her thus: “I desire that men should love Me in the Most Holy Sacrament but with a desire so ardent that it burns Me, and I find no one who attempts, according to My pleasure, to satisfy this desire by giving something in return for My love.” [1] (1:12)
P Song: The Hidden Jesus – 2nd stanza (0:53)
D Jesus! I desire to fulfill the longing of Your heart for my love. However, how often I receive You in Holy Communion without realizing that this extremely close (because sacramental) union with You is not extended throughout the entire day! I usually make plans to run various errands after the Eucharist or talk with the people I meet because it seems to me that it is inappropriate not to talk to someone I know who has just come out of the church and is right next to me… I usually fail to remember that You are physically next to me like they are. I usually can not favor You among them, You, who are as much or even more anxious to talk with me… (1:11)
D Song: Your Heart, Jesus, is Burning with Love – 2nd stanza (0:50)
L O Beloved! In such special moments after Holy Communion, how often do we still fail to focus our attention on You… on Your physical presence… How often we hurt You with lack of attention, that is, with coldness of heart! It humiliates You even more the more warmly we react to those we meet at the church’s door when we leave the Eucharist… We fail to remember that Your heart is as thirsty for love as our hearts, as thirsty for loving attention as ours… We fail to remember that Your love is the love of God, who revealed Himself as a jealous God – a God who loves and desires the utmost loving attention of those to whom He gives all of His love [2]… (1:12)
L Song: The Hidden Jesus – 3rd stanza (0:53)
B Dearest Jesus! St. Teresa of Avila instructs us that after Holy Communion, we do not need to go far to look for You, O Lord. It is because until our natural heat has consumed the accidents of the bread, You, O sweetest Jesus, are with us. Instructed by St. Teresa, we desire to abide in Your presence with the loving attention of hearts. We now desire to go with You on the way You passed after the Last Supper to the Hill of the Skull, to the death on its summit. (0:52)
W Beloved Savior! By the power of the Eucharistic union, we wish to abide close near You in the unique time when You need our heartfelt presence… We believe that thanks to the power of Your Divine right hand, we will not only reach back in memory to those dramatic events but also become their co-participants. Jesus, lead us in the sorrowful mysteries of the Holy Rosary upward toward union with You in sacrificial love… (0:47)
Meditations for the Sorrowful Mysteries of the Holy Rosary
(Duration of praying the Rosary with meditations: about 44 min)
Meditation 1.
Lord Jesus’ agony in Gethsemane
A Song: Garden of Olives – 1st stanza (0:40)
A Jesus! You are entering with full consciousness into the mystery of Passover – your passage through death. In Gethsemane comes upon you the final test of your inner struggle to fulfill God’s will to the end. Jesus, show us how prayer helps You persevere in this decisive hour. (0:29)
Z From the Gospel according to St. Luke, “Then going out he went, as was his custom, to the Mount of Olives, and the disciples followed him. When he arrived at the place he said to them, ‘Pray that you may not undergo the test.’ After withdrawing about a stone’s throw from them and kneeling, he prayed, saying, ‘Father, if you are willing, take this cup away from me; still, not my will but yours be done.’ And to strengthen him an angel from heaven appeared to him. He was in such agony and he prayed so fervently that his sweat became like drops of blood falling on the ground. When he rose from prayer and returned to his disciples, he found them sleeping from grief. He said to them, ‘Why are you sleeping? Get up and pray that you may not undergo the test.’” (Luke 22:39–46) (1:22)
J Thanks to prayer, we can open ourselves to this in which the Will of God is revealed and what is humanly difficult to accept. When we persevere in prayer like You, O Jesus, repeating “Father,” we will gradually understand that we are in the good hands of the Almighty. God will give us peace. O Lord, You know what we need. Help us to accept Your will. (0:36)
Meditation 2.
Scourging of the Lord Jesus
P Song: I Know in Whom I Believe – 1st stanza (0:48)
P Your submission to the oppressors, O Jesus, was beyond the comprehension of the disciples. They could not yet understand that You do not submit to evil but choose total obedience to the Father’s will. O Jesus, take away my terror and fear of evil and show me the right attitude toward it. (0:30)
D From the Book of the Prophet Isaiah, “Yet it was our infirmities that he bore, our sufferings that he endured, While we thought of him as stricken, as one smitten by God and afflicted. But he was pierced for our offenses, crushed for our sins, Upon him was the chastisement that makes us whole, by his stripes we were healed. We had all gone astray like sheep, each following his own way; But the Lord laid upon him the guilt of us all. Though he was harshly treated, he submitted and opened not his mouth; Like a lamb led to the slaughter or a sheep before the shearers, he was silent and opened not his mouth.” (Isa 53:4–7) (1:07)
L In the face of your enemies, O Jesus, You reveal the Divine love that is patient… that does not exult in anger… that endures everything… Jesus! You are like a lamb, led to be killed. Indeed, in the hour of the Passion, You became silent – but how eloquent is Your silence! O Lord, let us listen to this silence and hear the unspeakable love it hides. (0:37)
Meditation 3.
The crowning of the Lord Jesus with thorns
B Song: Jesus, Veiled in the Sacred Host – 1st stanza (0:41)
B Your kingship, O Jesus, is not of this world; it has become an object of derision. The King, who seems powerless, is rejected. The crown of thorns has painfully and permanently impaled Your head. Jesus, show us Your face crowned with suffering. (0:29)
W From the Gospel according to St. John, “And the soldiers wove a crown out of thorns and placed it on his head, and clothed him in a purple cloak, and they came to him and said, ‘Hail, King of the Jews!’ And they struck him repeatedly. Once more Pilate went out and said to them, ‘Look, I am bringing him out to you, so that you may know that I find no guilt in him.’ So Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple cloak. And he said to them, ‘Behold, the man!’” (John 19:2-5) (0:54)
A Here is the true man – this is the meaning of Pilate’s words. Jesus! In You, tormented and scorned by others, these words point to Your mysterious dignity, the power manifested in weakness. Lord, help us to understand this image of the true man, who is the embodiment of love – the deepest essence of God. (0:33)
Meditation 4.
The Way of the Cross of the Lord Jesus
Z Song: O Cross of Christ – 1st stanza (0:22)
Z Here is an extraordinary lamb – not only human but also Divine. At the same time, here is the image of the Divine Shepherd, leading on the way of the Passion to the green pastures of eternal life. Jesus, show us Your face of the Good Shepherd. (0:22)
J From Psalm 23 (Psa 23:1-6): “The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I lack. In green pastures you let me graze; to safe waters you lead me; you restore my strength. You guide me along the right path for the sake of your name. Even when I walk through a dark valley, I fear no harm for you are at my side; your rod and staff give me courage. You set a table before me as my enemies watch; You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Only goodness and love will pursue me all the days of my life; I will dwell in the house of the Lord for years to come.” (1:04)
P Jesus! You accepted the cross through an act of human freedom. Your seeming passivity in this hour of passion is, in fact, an activity – full consent to the Father’s action. Recognizing the meaning of the cross is only possible through prayer. Lord, I want to take up my cross so that Your power may embrace my weakness. (0:32)
Meditation 5.
The death of the Lord Jesus on the cross
D Song: I Greet You – 1st stanza (0:36)
D “My God, my God, why have You abandoned me?” – this expression of the immense pain and suffering of the crucified Jesus is the beginning of Psalm 22. Further on, however, the psalm becomes a prayer full of confidence and hope for the resurrection. Jesus, grant us to see in Your death on the cross no end, but the moment of transition… (0:34)
L We read in the Gospel according to St. Matthew (Matt 27:45-50): “From noon onward, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. And about three o’clock Jesus cried out in a loud voice, ‘Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?’ which means, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ Some of the bystanders who heard it said, ‘This one is calling for Elijah.’ Immediately one of them ran to get a sponge; he soaked it in wine, and putting it on a reed, gave it to him to drink. But the rest said, ‘Wait, let us see if Elijah comes to save him.’ But Jesus cried out again in a loud voice, and gave up his spirit.” (1:03)
B Speaking about the cross, Jesus foretold, “When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everyone to myself.” Although the image of Jesus dying on the cross is off-putting, by gazing at Him and listening to the words of the Crucified One, we will experience the attracting power of His love. Lord, teach me to abide in Your love at the foot of the cross with Mary, whom You have given me as Mother. (0:41)
Meditations after the Holy Rosary
(Duration of meditations and songs: about 39 min.)
W Beloved Jesus! The time of Your death on the cross – an extremely severe time. The judgment on You was passed by those to whom, out of love, You had been giving the words of exhortation so that they could repent and possess eternal life. You were killed by those whom You bestowed with Divine instruction about what is worth achieving in life… to which one should aim. You were thrown out of the city and out of temporality by those who, as Israel’s chosen representatives, thought that You were a threat to their entire holy community… You were despised by those who did not decide to despise people’s plaudits for them… You were rejected by those who sought greater glory for themselves than for God and His Messiah… (1:09)
W Song: Jesus Christ, Beloved Lord – 1st stanza (0:25)
A Jesus Christ! Departing from the height of the Cross into the depths of the Abyss, You leave us on Golgotha with Your Mother Mary. We look at her pain and, simultaneously, her complete, boundless trust in God the Father and His protection – unfailing, though demanding of her trust. We look shyly into the mystery of the Heart of the Mother, who does not flee, does not fear, and is not ashamed to abide by the Cross of the Condemned One – her beloved Son… For You, O Christ, descending into the Abyss, and for Your Mother, Mary, we sing with the choirs of angels a song of confession of faith… a song for Your consolation. (1:00)
A Song: Be Hail, Living Host – 1-2 stanza (1:26)
Z Jesus! We abide with Mary in a deep musing on the greatness of Your love for the Father and us. We abide in contrition of heart, ashamed of our attitude – how different from Your and Your Mother’s. Behold, we usually seek ourselves in life; behold, how often we do not take up the difficult cross of renouncing sinful or imperfect predilections… Behold, how often we do not choose to imitate You in admonishing sinners… A LONG MOMENT OF SILENCE (0:48)
Z Song: Be Hail, Living Host – 3-4 stanza (1:26)
J Beloved Jesus! We abide in contrition of heart, ashamed of our attitude – how different from Your and Your Mother’s. Behold, how often we prefer to indulge in the sweetness of the worthless applause of our neighbors… We do not expose ourselves to the bitterness of being thrown out of fellowship by those whose eternal life could be saved by a word of brotherly admonition… Jesus, in this hour of grace, transform our hearts into those similar to Your Heart… A LONG MOMENT OF SILENCE (0:47)
J Song: Be Hail, Living Host – 5-6 stanza (1:26)
P Beloved Jesus! We usually fail to imitate Mary – not only in our relationships with neighbors but also with You, O Christ. Behold, we prefer not to notice that this closest, most intimate, loving being with You in Holy Communion is very fleeting because it is related to the time of digestion of the Eucharistic species in our bowels…. Perhaps we are unable, or perhaps we are unwilling to make an effort to follow Mary, who in prayerful heartfelt closeness abides under the cross of her Son’s shame, abides with her Beloved, abides with the first-born and only Fruit of her immaculate womb… A LONG MOMENT OF SILENCE (1:08)
P Song: I Know in Whom I Believe – 1st stanza (0:48)
D Beloved Jesus! The time of Your visible departure from mortality is not connected with Your Death but Your Ascension. Behold, three days after the drama of Calvary, an extraordinary miracle took place – You rose from the dead! Now – when we abide by the power of the eaten Eucharistic Food in sacramental union with You, who are passing the Paschal way to the Father [3] – we open our hearts to Your return to us into Cenacle after You performed the miracle of going out of the Abyss, viz the miracle of Resurrection. With song, we glorify You, Messiah-Conqueror! (0:53)
D Song: Winner of Death – 1-2 stanza (1:42)
L Beloved Messiah! In the Gospel of St. Luke, we read the following words about Your coming to the Cenacle, “While they were still speaking about this, he stood in their midst and said to them, ‘Peace be with you.’ But they were startled and terrified and thought that they were seeing a ghost. Then he said to them, ‘Why are you troubled? And why do questions arise in your hearts? Look at my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me and see, because a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you can see I have.’ And as he said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. While they were still incredulous for joy and were amazed, he asked them, ‘Have you anything here to eat?’ They gave him a piece of baked fish; he took it and ate it in front of them.” (Luke 24:36-43). (1:15)
L Song: Wipe away your tears, weepers! – 1st stanza (1:07)
B Most beloved Jesus! How we rejoice in Your presence among us… We believe that now, together with the Apostles, we are truly witnesses of Your coming to the Cenacle… How we are amazed by this extraordinary possibility that You have hidden in Holy Communion, the possibility of participating in the gathering of the Apostles to whom You come in the evening on the day of Resurrection! … We sing a song to You. (0:43)
B Song: Wipe away your tears, weepers! – 2nd stanza (1:07)
W Jesus! We ask You to enlighten our minds now so that with the power of Your light, we will be able to love You as You Yourself want to be loved. We read at St. Luke a description of it in which we now desire to participate, “He said to them, ‘These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the law of Moses and in the prophets and psalms must be fulfilled.’ Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures.” (Luke 24:44–45). To You, O Christ, we sing a song. (0:56)
W Song: Wipe away your tears, weepers! – 3rd stanza (1:07)
A Beloved Savior! Now, when we open our hearts to Your presence among us and open ourselves to the breath of the Holy Spirit, which You now give us as the Messiah-Conqueror, we would like to return to reflections on the quality of our love for You in Holy Communion. Here we confess to You, O Christ – we confess with regret – that too often we are drawn to the world, even in moments that would logically be given to You. We ask You, Savior, to breathe Your Holy Spirit into us, just as You did in the Cenacle on the evening of the Resurrection, when You enlightened the minds of the Apostles gathered there. (1:06)
A Song: Come Holy Spirit – 1st stanza (0:32)
Z Beloved Jesus! We still seem not to notice that loving being with You in Holy Communion is fleeting because it depends on the time of digestion of Eucharistic species in our bowels… We usually do not want to notice that this fleeting time of the most intense loving encounter with You has no equal. Holy Spirit, we ask You to pour the wisdom and love for Jesus, the Divine Bridegroom, into our hearts. (0:46)
Z Song: Come Holy Spirit – 2nd stanza (0:32)
J Beloved Jesus! We seem not to believe that no other form of encounter with You brings us with the intensity of love into personal union with You as the encounter that takes place in the moments after receiving You in Holy Communion… Holy Spirit, we ask You to pour into our hearts the faith that knows how to perceive the time of spousal love – the time of the coming of Jesus, the Divine Bridegroom. (0:42)
J Song: Come Holy Spirit – 3rd stanza (0:32)
P Beloved Jesus! We seem not to believe that the time of Eucharistic love can be prolonged by You only if we are willing to abide immediately after the Eucharist in a prayer of loving gazing upon You, a prayer of loving awe of Your loving, supremely close presence… Forgive, O Beloved… Forgive and heal my heart, O Dearest… (0:40)
P Song: Come Holy Spirit – 4-5 stanza (1:04)
D Beloved Jesus! We usually live as if this most intense, Eucharistic encounter with You might as well continue a few hours after Communion – during prayer or work… And yet this is not the case. Here in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, in number 1377, we read: “The Eucharistic presence of Christ begins at the moment of the consecration and endures as long as the Eucharistic species subsist.” Jesus! Multiply our faith in the extraordinariness of the moments of being with You present under the Eucharistic forms… (0:57)
D Song: Fall to Your Knees – 1st stanza (0:26)
L You Yourself, O Divine Savior, willed that Your most privileged form of presence with us should depend on the scant permanence of sacramental species, which are subject to digestive processes and gradually fade after consumption. Still, O Beloved, we fail to remember that if we do not choose to continue our encounter with You immediately after the Eucharist, then Your presence with us will later be less intense, less abundant in gifts, and less happiness-giving. Jesus! Multiply our faith in the extraordinariness of the moments of being with You present under the Eucharistic species… (1:03)
L Song: I Want to Give You Everything – 1st stanza (0:47)
B Beloved Jesus! How wisely St. Teresa of Avila wrote in the 16th century about the transience of the time of the most intense loving union with You. Her testimony in our time was shown to the whole Church by the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments in 2004, on the occasion of the proclamation of the Year of the Eucharist by St. John Paul II. At the time, the Congregation instructed us in these words: (0:43)
W “The renewal brought about by this holy year will most certainly depend on the depth of our prayer. We are all invited to celebrate, receive and adore the Eucharist with the same faith of the saints. How could we forget the fervor of the great Spanish mystic, Saint Teresa of Avila, whose feast we celebrate today in the liturgy? In reference to Eucharistic communion, she writes, ‘It is not necessary to go far to look for the Lord. For until our natural heat has consumed the accidents of the bread, the good Jesus is in us. Let us draw near to Him!’ (Way of Perfection, 8).” [4] (1:02)
W Song: Adoro Te Devote – 1st stanza (0:42)
A Most beloved Jesus! St. Teresa of Avila taught her fellow Carmelite sisters about their encounter with You in Holy Communion: “: [5] “You may be in the habit of praying while looking at a picture of Christ, but at a time like this it seems foolish to me to turn away from the living image – the Person Himself – to look at His picture. Would it not be foolish if we had a portrait of someone whom we dearly loved and, when the person himself came to see us, we refused to talk with him and carried on our entire conversation with the portrait? Do you know when I find the use of a picture an excellent thing, and take great pleasure in it? When the person is absent and we are made to feel his loss by our great aridity, it is then that we find it a great comfort to look at the picture of Him Whom we have such reason to love.” (1:09)
A Song: O the Silent White Host – 1st stanza (0:42)
Z St. Teresa of Jesus also taught her sisters this way, [6] “12. When you have received the Lord, and are in His very presence, try to shut the bodily eyes and to open the eyes of the soul and to look into your own hearts. […] 13. But if we pay no heed to Him save when we have received Him, and go away from Him in search of other and baser things, what can He do? Will He have to drag us by force to look at Him and be with Him because He desires to reveal Himself to us? No; for when He revealed Himself to all men plainly, and told them clearly who He was, they did not treat Him at all well—very few of them, indeed, even believed Him. So He grants us an exceeding great favour when He is pleased to show us that it is He Who is in the Most Holy Sacrament.” (1:38)
Z Song: Jesus, Veiled in the Sacred Host – 1st stanza (0:41)
J Dearest Savior! Our hearts overflow with gratitude that we can be with You, gaze into Your loving eyes, and listen to the rhythm of Your heart, beating out of love for each of us. In our hearts, the Holy Spirit stirs the memory of a similar event that Mary, the sister of Lazarus, received. We read about it in the Gospel of St. Luke thus: (0:40)
P As they continued their journey he 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). (1:05)
P Song: The Hidden Jesus – 1st stanza (0:53)
B Beloved Jesus! Our abiding with You is the time of our mutual love. We sat at Your feet, like Mary, listening to Your love. Lord! From the bottom of our hearts, we thank You for the grace You have given us so abundantly. We thank You for the time You have given us and that we have time for You. Thank You for the Heart with which You love us and for our hearts with which we are able to love You more and more fervently, thanks to the gift of the Holy Spirit You give us… (0:50)
B Song: Here in this Sacrament – 1st stanza (0:53)
W We thank You, O Jesus, for all who abide on adoration in love for You today. We now desire, O Lord, to abide in prayerful silence until the Jasna Góra Appeal. Christ, Beloved Bridegroom, speak of Your expectations to our hearts. Speak of Your love… Speak, Dearest, all that You want us to hear and fulfill out of love for You… Speak to our hearts, O Jesus… Amen. (0:43)