Dr. Wojciech Kosek
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Meditations led by eight people:
A, B, D – women; J, P, W, Z, L – men.
This translation was published here on 27 Nov 2023.
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(Duration of meditations with songs: about 30 min.)
(Duration with praying the Holy Rosary: about 60 min.)
Meditation 1.
Lord Jesus’ agony in Gethsemane
(Duration of meditations in this decade: about 6 min.)
Z Song: Your Heart, Jesus, is Burning with Love – 1st stanza (0:50)
Z O beloved Savior! In the Church year, we are currently experiencing the time of Resurrection, the time of Easter, the time of Your victory. Until Your death, all the dead remained away from God, remained in the darkness of the Abyss. You entered through death like every dying man into the darkness of the Abyss so that there You could defeat with Your mighty right hand the evil spirit, the hitherto ruler of the Abyss – the one who kept all the dead away from the light of Eternal God. The time of Your victory now being experienced allows us to look back, allows us to descend to the source of that victory, which is the Passover Supper, celebrated by You on the night immediately preceding Your difficult, extremely painful but victorious passage from the Upper Room through the Gethsemane, the capture, the unjust judgments, through Golgotha, through the Abyss to new life in rising from the dead. (1:35)
J Dearest Jesus! A moment ago, we participated in the Holy Mass. Through it, in some mysterious but real means, we sat with You at the table of the Eucharistic banquet that You celebrated in the Upper Room among the Apostles about two thousand years ago. Now we wish to be with You in the successive stages of Your saving work, in the successive stages of Your passage from the Upper Room towards death and the Abyss, and towards victory over the evil spirit. We went out with You in the company of the Apostles from the Eucharistic Upper Room – the Paschal Banquet – and now we are with You in Gethsemane. We listen in prayerful concentration to Your dialogue with the Father. The trust You place in the Father is so absolutely perfect that the trepidation caused by the pain of the Passion that awaits You is unable to inhibit Your confession: “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; yet, not as I will, but as you will.” (1:31)
L In this hour of agony… in this hour of struggle for fidelity to the Father, we kneel close near You, O our Savior! How we desire to become more like You… How we long to win the struggle for fidelity to God in even the most difficult circumstances as You did… How we desire to win this battle for absolute trust in the wisdom and goodness of the Father. We beg You, O Beloved, to be willing in this hour of grace, in this hour of our presence with You, to transform our hearts to be like Your Heart, capable of total submission to the holy will of God. We are aware that the more fully we open ourselves to Your transforming divine power, the more perfectly we focus our hearts and minds on You, present with each of us so supremely intimately through Holy Communion, which we so recently received in faith and love during the Eucharist. (1:29)
D You are, O beloved Jesus… You are, and You love, how much You love… O Jesus… Jesus…, Jesus, hidden from the sight of the eyes of my flesh… You have hidden Yourself from the man who trusts in the senses, who has placed his trust in the flesh… You are beneath the whiteness of the Sacred Host, beneath the shape of the Sacred Host, beneath its fragrance and taste. There is no host; there is only its whiteness… There is no host; there is only its whiteness… and its taste… and its fragrance… There is no host, and You are – the wondrous God… the God of great wonders… You are, O Jesus, on Your knees in Gethsemane, surrendering Your loving will to the loving will of the Father. Amen. (1:03)
Meditation 2.
Scourging of the Lord Jesus
(Duration of meditations in this decade: about 6 min.)
W Song: The Hidden Jesus – 1st stanza (0:53)
W The second mystery of the Holy Rosary takes us out of the Garden of Gethsemane into the reality of the scourging to which Pilate’s soldiers subject You. Before coming to the place of this cruel act, we have passed with You through the unjust judgments exercised by Annas, Caiaphas, Pilate… We look in the spirit in our hearts to ask ourselves in this hour of our union with You, O Jesus, about our judgments. Are they just? Are they forgiving of others? Don’t we tire too quickly of someone else’s sin, perhaps repeatedly smiting us? Are we able to win by Your power against our tendency to turn away violently from those who inflict pain on us?… Do we acquire from You the power to withstand blows so that we can defend with this Divine strength a good more significant than our desire to remain in peace? When subjected to the assaults of someone else’s evil, are we able to abide with prayer and hope in our hearts that God will answer that prayer with His transforming power, a power capable of bringing new, happiness-giving relationships among God’s children? (1:54)
B Am I able, O Beloved Jesus, to risk my peace of mind in order to, with the patience of a loving heart, give a chance for improvement to those who repeatedly hurt me by scourging me with their behavior that is difficult for me? Can I conform myself to You, O Jesus, who are patiently enduring the anguish of scourging? Can I trust Your teaching, backed by Your life, especially its final hours? Can I risk each day another and another reconciliation in complete trust in the power of the Father, expecting from Him victory over the iniquity of the hearts of my wrong-doers? Can I risk the madness of reconciliation, believing in the God who expects such love from me? Am I able to be Your child, similar to You in forgiveness? (1:21)
P You are, O beloved Jesus, You are, and You love … How much You love … Jesus…., Jesus, hidden from the sight of the eyes of my flesh … My eyes are not able to perceive You … I see You, for all that, I see, O Beloved, I see with the eyes of the spirit. Only the soul, only spiritual sight can perceive You … You have hidden Yourself from the man who places his trust in the senses, who has placed his trust in the flesh … You have hidden Yourself so that I may choose to enter the space of Your Divine being, how different from the corporeal only visibility … You have hidden Yourself from the sight of our bodies, so that we may be able to see and love more and more with the spirit… to love You in Your presence unique, extraordinary, human, corporeal, though inaccessible to the senses of our bodies. (1:19)
A You are under the whiteness of the Sacred Host, under the shape of the Sacred Host, under its smell and taste. There is no host… there is only its whiteness… There is no host… there is only its whiteness and taste… There is no host… there is only its whiteness and taste and smell… There is no host… You are here but in a body that neither an eye, an ear, a smell, nor a touch… can see, touch, hear, taste, feel… There is no host, but You are – the wondrous God… the God of great wonders… You are, O Jesus, who are surrendering Your loving will to the loving will of the Father during the cruel scourging. Amen. (1:02)
Meditation 3.
The crowning of the Lord Jesus with thorns
(Duration of meditations in this decade: about 8 min.)
B Song: O the Silent White Host – 1st stanza (0:42)
Z Now is the desired time; now is the time of salvation. Pilate’s soldiers are inflicting on You an unspeakable pain that probably none of us could bear. What is the source of this strength that allows You to keep the peace in circumstances that are not conducive to peace? What is the source of such almost superhuman endurance? What is the cause of this extraordinary resilience to the harm inflicted on You by Your brothers? The source of this strength must be love, O Jesus! Yes, the source of this strength is the love of Your Heart. (0:54)
J You, O Beloved, love us all so much that You greatly desire that we be able to overcome in ourselves the effects of original sin… that we decide to overcome in ourselves the readily exploding irritability and anger of our hearts. Yes, we must confess this in this hour of our Eucharistic union with You, that we often explode and thus destroy relationships of love in circumstances that are incomparably easier than the situation of being crowned with thorns… (0:52)
L We believe, O Beloved Jesus, that You act most effectively in the hearts of those who choose to open themselves to Your transforming, though necessarily sometimes painful, intervention into the preferences of our hearts. You desire that we be pleased to give ourselves to our brothers and sisters, even in circumstances as difficult as Your crowning with thorns. You can wait patiently for us… You are not discouraged by our falls and departures; after all, You know that they are natural in a situation where, as just-born infants, we are trying to take our first, still clumsy steps in life according to the Divine nature, a nature capable, after all, of the greatest heroism. (1:12)
D Beloved Jesus! You now are overcoming the wrath of our hearts by Your extraordinary determination to remain silent while receiving on our behalf the crowning with thorns at Pilate. Now, in this hour of grace, as we unite ourselves with You, the One thorn-crowned, we beg You to transform our hearts to be like Your Heart so that we may become for our sisters and brothers sources of solace and transformation of their humaneness toward the longed-for fullness. (0:48)
W In this hour of crowning with thorns… in this hour of struggling for fidelity to the Father’s plan, we stand right next to You, our Savior, who are tied to the pillar of torture! Inaccessible to the eyes of our bodies, You longingly await from each of us the signs of Your loving presence… We are there with You… we are there thanks to the divine power of Your Eucharist… we are there thanks to the faith of the Church… we are truly there with You. We love You, O Jesus, O Lamb without blemish, O Spouse who loves so much, so much, so much… Amen. (0:58)
Meditation 4.
The Way of the Cross of the Lord Jesus
(Duration of meditations in this decade: about 4 min.)
A Song: Be Hail, Living Host – 1st stanza (0:43)
A O Lord Jesus! In the Old Testament, You addressed through the prophet Isaiah such a call to the Chosen People: “Seek the Lord while He may be found, call Him while He is near. … For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways, says the Lord. (Isa 55:6-8) A MOMENT OF SILENCE So now, O Dearest Jesus, as we have received You in Holy Communion, the prophet’s call is highly significant and timeliest. “Seek the Lord while He may be found, call Him while He is near.” … (1:07)
P Yes, it is right now that You are close, very close, as close as possible! Now, each of us is with You in an unimaginably close relationship thanks to the Holy Communion. Although none of our senses can convince us of this, the faith of the Church tells me: here, where the Sacred Host is by my heart, just here You are, Lord Jesus, my Bridegroom; here You are bodily, very close to me, by my heart, thirsty for my love, thirsty for my seeking You, thirsty for my conscious presence with You and for You… (1:02)
B Beloved Jesus! I am with You, who, step by step, are heading up the slope of the mountain to its summit. I am with You to be close to You genuinely… to show love to You truly, O Dearest One. If it were not Your incomprehensible love, if it were not Your extraordinary determination to free me from the bondage of sin, from the bondage of my limited views of life, I would have before me no prospect of happiness, no possibility of eternal life in total freedom. Furthermore, one more thing: without Your love, nothing could please me… nothing could satisfy my heart’s longing for the total surrender of myself in love to my beloved. Jesus, my Love, love me! Jesus, my Love, I love You! (1:15)
Meditation 5.
The death of the Lord Jesus on the cross
(Duration of meditations in this decade: about 8 min.)
D Song: I Greet You – 1st stanza (0:36)
Z Beloved Savior! We stand at Your feet, which were nailed to the tree of the cross. We stand here truly, moved into the time of Your agony by the power of Holy Communion. We are here, on Golgotha, to love, with our presence, You and Mary, Your Mother. We look with pain into our hearts as the cause of this drama. We remember how it was by the will of the Church in the consecutive days of the Holy Week just past that we repeatedly heard during the Eucharist about the betrayal of Judas. This drama of the disciple staying so close to You each day is a harrowing warning for each of us that even daily staying with You in Holy Communion may not lead us to eternal life. (1:12)
D We ask then with poignancy, O Lord: Why did Judas betray? What evil of his heart was the cause of this decision – a decision of great importance? St. John reveals in the Gospel (12:6) that in the heart of Judas, the love of money, which he used to steal from the money bag, brooded, and as a result, being with You was not directed toward You, toward love for You. Judas was with You not because of love for You but because of love for things – for what he could materially gain when he was staying with You… (0:53)
P Beloved Jesus! The same can also be in the heart of every other of Your disciples. Each of us is in danger of departing from our original delight in You and Your closeness in Holy Communion. Each of us is in danger of more or less consciously moving away from You toward delight in what can be “claimed” at Your expense. The Eucharist, the banquet of spousal love, may, due to the lust of man’s heart, fail to satisfy his deepest longing for a genuine exchange of love with You. Only a heart free from the tension of being oriented toward settling some affairs immediately after the Eucharist has the inner power to truly rest in You, in the delightful closeness of the Bridegroom – the One who came and is, because He loves and desires to love. (1:16)
J St. John Chrysostom, a Church Father who lived at the turn of the fourth and fifth centuries, noted that Judas and all his followers depart from You, O Jesus, almost immediately after receiving Holy Communion. He wrote thus, [1] “If you want, I can show you whose footsteps follow those who leave before the end of the Holy Banquet and do not pray thanksgivings after it. I must say something that may be unpleasant for you to hear, but I have to do so because of the negligence arising in the behavior of many of you. Judas walked away and went out just after participating in the Last Supper that night when all of them were still seated at the table. He is imitated by those who go out before the last thanksgiving.” (1:13)
W If he had not gone out, he would not have committed treason; if he had not left table companions, he would not have been killed; if he had not found himself outside the sheep-fold, the wolf would not devour him; if he had not gone away from the Shepherd, he would not have become the prey of wild beasts. Judas went to the Jews earlier, whereas apostles, together with the Lord, left after singing the psalms. You see, it is what happened then that happens every time here during the last prayer after the Holy Sacrifice.” (0:51)
A Finally, St. John Chrysostom encourages us, “Now, let us think about this; let us consider this for fear of punishment. Christ gives you His own Body, but you do not want to express Him your gratitude with any words? Don’t you thank Him for what you have received? When you have eaten the usual food, you pray thanksgiving, having got up from the table. However, when the spiritual food is given to you, which much surpasses all visible and invisible creations, though you are a man who is a poor creature, you do not want to express Him your gratitude with any words and act? It deserves a heavy penalty.” (0:58)
L Jesus! We are aware of the enormity of our weakness, of our tendency to seek more ourselves than You. In this hour of grace, in this hour of our abiding with You through the Divine power of sacramental communion, change our hearts to resemble the Immaculate Heart of Mary – the One who is the mother of our humaneness, the teacher of our total love for You, of our falling in love with You, of offering on the altar of our mutual love all that distracts us from You, that distances us from loving You. Amen. (0:58)