Dr. Wojciech Kosek
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Meditations led by six people:
A, B, D – women; P, W, Z – men.
This translation was published here on 28 Nov 2023.
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(Duration of meditations with songs: about 30 min.)
(Duration with praying the Holy Rosary: about 60 min.)
Introduction
(Duration of meditations in this part: about 3 min.)
B O Beloved Lord Jesus! In a moment, we will begin the prayer of the Rosary. We desire to go with You on the way that You passed in the company of the Apostles after the Last Supper. You left the Upper Room and began the way which led You to the Hill of the Skull. We believe that thanks to receiving You in Holy Communion at the Holy Mass, we also received from You the possibility to participate with the Apostles in Your way towards death after the Holy Mass. We believe, therefore, that when You were coming out of the Upper Room, You were doing it not only in the company of the Apostles but also all of us who remain in prayer after the Holy Mass. (0:54)
W We desire at the successive mysteries of the Rosary to pause with our thoughts and hearts with You, thirsting for the presence of those who are capable of showing You love and wisdom of heart in the midst of people who do not understand You, in the midst of people who elevate their wisdom above Yours. We wish to walk this path with St. John Paul II, pausing to reflect on his teaching from the encyclical “Fides et ratio” – “Faith and Reason”. We also wish to draw from what You said to Bl. Aniela Salawa, who lived as a servant in nearby Krakow and who reached the heights of mystical union with You. On the first page of her spiritual “Diary” [1] she recounted such a vision: (1:08)
B “It was as follows: A spacious hall, beautifully dressed with flowers. The door opens, and the Lord Jesus enters with a strange solemnity. Inconceivable beauty, something extraordinary. Surprised and frightened, I stood to the side, silent and strangely focused. Just then, the Lord Jesus begins to pronounce words as if of complaint. There were the following words, ‘I created man in My image and likeness, I redeemed him with My Blood, I feed him with My Body, and I dwell for him on earth. I have made all things! However, they… how do they deal with me?’ – And I asked: ‘And now what will become of them?’ And I heard these words: ‘I will punish the world with justice’” (1:01)
Meditation 1.
Lord Jesus’ agony in Gethsemane
(Duration of meditations in this decade: about 6 min.)
W Song: Garden of Olives – 1st stanza (0:60)
A We believe, O Beloved Jesus, that we genuinely are with You now in the Garden of Olives. We are with You to love You with our presence. We believe that thanks to Holy Communion, we are indeed participating in Your agony, which You are experiencing while praying to Father and waiting for the arrival of Your executioners. The realness of our participation in Your life states the fundamental element of the catholic faith; it is the reality of our mutual Eucharistic relation You have constituted at the Holy Mass. Admittedly, our eyes cannot see this reality of our being with You in the Garden of Olives, but we know that this is indeed the case because the faith of the Church tells us about it. (0:53)
P Dearest Jesus! We know that we are called and invited by You to transcend, by the power of faith, the dimension of reality experienced by our senses, the dimension of visual, auditory, tactile phenomena… or, as St. John Paul II puts it, a phenomenon. We have the real possibility to transcend – by the power of our human capacities, enhanced by Your Divine power granted to us with the Most Sacred Host during the Holy Mass – the phenomenal dimension of this space of our parish church, with which we are connected by our senses, viz our sight, hearing, touch, smell, taste… (0:58)
D Beloved Savior! You call us to enter the metaphysical dimension, viz the dimension beyond the senses… the dimension inaccessible to the senses. The Church teaches us that it is possible to enter there only with the help of Your grace, and even then, only if one accepts this grace in a spirit of humble and lovingly inflamed faith. Moreover, we must derive faith from the teaching of the Church and not from what someone thinks has been revealed to him. We are with You in the Garden of Olives; we are there to be with You and to love You… Jesus, I love You with all my heart! (0:56)
Z We believe, O Beloved Savior, that everyone who looks in light of the Church’s faith is given the opportunity to see this reality to which You are now taking us with Your mighty, divine right hand. Here we are in Your time of life, in the place of Your agony in the Garden of Gethsemane. We are right next to You in a time two thousand years distant from ours… The space experienced through our eyes or ears is not the only space we are now allowed to be. John Paul II helps us understand this by writing in the encyclical “Fides et ratio” (No. 83bc): (0:56)
B “Wherever men and women discover a call to the absolute and transcendent, the metaphysical dimension of reality opens up before them … We face a great challenge at the end of this millennium to move from phenomenon to foundation, a step as necessary as it is urgent. We cannot stop short at experience alone … The word of God refers constantly to things which transcend human experience and even human thought; but this “mystery” could not be revealed, nor could theology render it in some way intelligible, were human knowledge limited strictly to the world of sense experience.” (1:07)
W Dearest Jesus! With all the conviction of faith and love for You, we know that the space experienced with our eyes or ears is not the only space we are now given to stay. We are with You in Gethsemane. We are with You and for You. We are to love You and so respond to the love with which Your Heart burns… (0:34)
Meditation 2.
Scourging of the Lord Jesus
(Duration of meditations in this decade: about 5 min.)
B Song: Your Heart, Jesus, is Burning with Love – 1st stanza (0:43)
A Beloved Jesus! You have stood in the center of praetorium – here, where there is a stone pillar. You are tied to this pillar – like every man to whom they are about to inflict the cruel punishment of scourging. You silently receive this violence. You silently offer Your suffering for those who scourge You. I love You, Jesus (0:32).
P Here are the Roman soldiers, Your brothers, right now beginning their task. They are hitting, hitting, hitting with power… The first wound, the second wound, blood, wound, blood… More and more blood gushes out from the wounds inflicted by the hooks mounted at the ends of their scourges. The blood of the Savior flows… Here, at this stone pillar, the source of life begins to beat, the source of the river of Divine life… (0:35)
D I am close beside You, O Jesus; I am with You and for You. The blood of God, sentenced for love, stirs my heart to its depths… How do You endure this? From where does this poignant humility in You, which submits without complaint to unjust punishment? Are You not afraid that with these dozen hours of life that are now beginning, You will compromise what You, as a Teacher of Divine truth, have revealed in three years of preaching, often in searing heat days? Are You not troubled by the fear that when You are shown to the world as a convict, You will question the truth for which You came into the world and for which You lived? (1:00)
Z Jesus, cruelly scourged! I look at You… I look through the whiteness of the Most Holy Host. I know that You trust the Father implicitly… trust in the logic of His Divine Wisdom. You have confidence that He knows the meaning of what humanly seems a disgrace. God knows the truth about You. He will, in due time, testify to You, who have loved without limit, loved without limiting Yourself to what, according to human thinking, should gain You a multitude of followers. (0:45)
B Jesus, I admire Your determination to fulfill obediently what God the Father expects from You… I know that I also should trust God when the world tempts me not to respect God’s requirements when I want to recruit supporters for myself – supporters of cheap truth. Divine truth must cost. Divine truth must undergo the scourging test. Only Divine truth is capable of this. This ability is what distinguishes it from the cheap truths of the world. (0:41)
W Jesus! I love You! From the bottom of my heart, I thank You for this Divine teaching that the teacher of God’s truth is the one who, in the footsteps of You, does not hesitate to proclaim it even though He has to go through a time of disgrace, a time of being thrown outside the human community. Jesus, I trust You implicitly! I trust in You! Amen. (0:31)
Meditation 3.
The crowning of the Lord Jesus with thorns
(Duration of meditations in this decade: about 6 min.)
D Song: I Want to Give You Everything – 1st stanza (0:47)
A In the mystery of the crowning with thorns, when we unite with You, O Jesus, who are experiencing such a poignant headache, we wish to apologize to You for the fact that we often fail to make the mental effort to deepen our faith and thus ignite our love for You. St. John Paul II wrote about the necessity of making an effort to think in faith, that is, the necessity of exploring the truths of faith based on the achievements of philosophy recognized by the Church. He wrote thus in the encyclical “Fides et ratio” (No. 5): (0:49)
P “The Church considers philosophy an indispensable help for a deeper understanding of faith and for communicating the truth of the Gospel to those who do not yet know it. … Men and women are always called to direct their steps towards a truth which transcends them. Sundered from that truth, individuals are at the mercy of caprice” (No. 5) (0:32)
D Lord Jesus! The holy Pope encouraged us, believers, to enter into the mysteries of the faith by reading the Catechism of the Catholic Church or by exploring its teaching contained in encyclicals, exhortations, apostolic letters… He wanted us not to give up the effort of knowing more and more deeply this teaching about You, Lord, a teaching that the Holy Spirit has gradually revealed through the centuries of history and continues to reveal to the Church as Your Bride. (0:46)
Z Beloved Savior! The Pope taught that he who truly loves You desires to know as much as possible about You. This teaching is especially significant when it concerns the mystery of the Eucharist because we are most closely, most deeply united with You in it… However, do we know all the truths of faith regarding the Eucharist, truths with which You have endowed us, the believers, so that we may love You in the Eucharist as much as possible?… (0:40)
B Pope John Paul II bemoaned that most of us, the believers, have given up on making an effort to understand what can be understood if only one walks persistently along the path of learning the truth taught by the Church. The St. Pope noted that many of us have adopted the mentality of non-believers, who claim that man can not understand the truths of the faith but only unquestioningly believe in them. We apologize to You, Jesus, that many of us, influenced by the world’s mentality or false humility, have decided that we are incapable of comprehending any of the mysteries of the Eucharist, which make present God’s saving plan. (1:00)
W Dearest Jesus! We apologize to You that many of us have mistakenly assumed that we, humans, do not have the capacity of reason to fathom the mysteries of the Eucharist, making God’s salvific plan present. We apologize to You that, due to this attitude, we are still not consciously involved in this Divine plan of salvation, which must be fulfilled through our wise participation in the Eucharist… We apologize to You that we do not read the explanations that the Holy Spirit has given to the Church about the Eucharist… St. John Paul II, knowing the prevalence of such an attitude of doubt in the cognitive capacity of our human mind, wrote in his encyclical Fides et ratio (No. 6) thus: (1:01)
A “This is why I have felt both the need and the duty to address this theme so that, on the threshold of the third millennium of the Christian era, humanity may come to a clearer sense of the great resources with which it has been endowed and may commit itself with renewed courage to implement the plan of salvation of which its history is part.” (0:34)
Meditation 4.
The Way of the Cross of the Lord Jesus
(Duration of meditations in this decade: about 4 min.)
P Song: You Go Through the Ages – 1st stanza (0:48)
P Beloved Savior! You told us today during the Holy Mass through the prophet Isaiah thus, “…I am the Lord, your God, who grasp your right hand; It is I who say to you, “Fear not, I will help you. … I will help you … I will open up rivers on the bare heights, and fountains in the broad valleys … That all may see and know, observe and understand, That the hand of the Lord has done this, the Holy One of Israel has created it.” (Isa 41:13–14, 18, 20) (0:42)
D The words You speak through Isaiah, Dearest Jesus, apply primarily to this way that we now pass with You, the One carrying the beam of the Cross to the Hill of the Skull. For is it not true that here, on this very way, the streams of Your saving Blood gush forth, giving us the power to live God’s life?… For is it not here, on this way, that the source beats of our inner transformation into people strong thanks to God’s power, able to endure by Your example much in order to love much?… (0:48)
Z Jesus! We are with You to add strength to You with our presence close near You when You are bearing the cross of our guilt and enslavements. We are because we love You. We are because we believe that the power of the Blessed Sacrament, which You have given us during the Eucharist, that this Divine power enables us to be with You on this challenging way to Golgotha, to be truly with You in the historical time of Your life. We are, knowing at the same time that by giving love to You, we receive incomparably more – You, above all You, O Beloved, love… You make us drink the spring water of Divine power and transform us into people like You, capable of assisting our brothers and sisters on their way to the fullness of humanity. (1:06)
B Most beloved Jesus! It is on this way of the cross that we draw from the springs of Your Blood. In such a wonderful way, the prophecy of Isaiah from centuries ago is fulfilled. You, the Lord our God, have taken us all by the right hand, saying to us: “Fear not, I will help you… Fear not, I will help you.” Behold now, O Lord, at this time of our Eucharistic union, You have caused streams of grace to gush forth on the way that leads to the Hill of the Skull. You have done this so that we may all see and know, consider and comprehend that the hand of the Lord has done this… that the Holy One of Israel has done this. (0:58)
Meditation 5.
The death of the Lord Jesus on the cross
(Duration of meditations in this decade: about 5 min.)
W Song: I Greet You – 1st stanza (0:30)
W “When they came to the place called the Skull, they crucified him and the criminals there, one on his right, the other on his left. Then Jesus said, ‘Father, forgive them, they know not what they do.’ They divided his garments by casting lots. … It was now about noon and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon because of an eclipse of the sun. Then the veil of the temple was torn down the middle. Jesus cried out in a loud voice, ‘Father, into your hands I commend my spirit’; and when he had said this he breathed his last.” (Luke 23:33–34, 44–46) (0:44)
A Beloved Jesus! Bl. Aniela Salawa noted in her Diary [2] such words, “And again, in another time, the Crucified One appeared to me, and very suffering. In this means, He assured me that only this sight was to draw me to Him and that only He, so suffering, should be my goal. And the soul was strangely agreed and determined to go only this way. And this was to be its happiness and complete gratification.” (0:40)
P Then Bl. Aniela recorded thus, “Often, too, the Lord Jesus wakes the soul up and calls to Himself as if He were seeking some refuge and rest in it at the sight of insults and human ingratitude – as He has expressed or lamented or confided His suffering. Moreover, at the same time, he makes the soul feel what He Himself suffers and encourages her to compassion. [3] (0:34)
D Dearest Jesus! Here we are with You at the hour of Your dying on Golgotha. We stand truly at Your feet, which are nailed to the beam of the Cross. We stand full of love beside Your Immaculate Mother, Mary; we stand aware of the enormity of Your pain, the cause of which is also our sins. We are here to make true reparation for our sins and those of the whole world, to make reparation by the power of faith kindled by love for You, O Beloved Jesus, and by love for Mary, the Mother so pained by us. Receive, O Beloved Savior, our true presence with You and Mary. We desire to give You this presence with faith and love to You as a sip of reviving water in the hour of Your dying. (1:06)
Z Lord Jesus! During the Eucharist, we received You in Holy Communion so that we can participate by Your power in the most difficult hours of Your life… We are here indeed, gazing at You by the power of spiritual seeing. We are with hearts full of repentance for all in us that still needs to be changed… all that still is not conformed to Your desires… May Your Divine Blood, which flows down like vivifying streams from the height of the Cross to the earth, reach our hearts also. May now, in this hour of grace, our hearts awaken from sleep to life, from sluggishness in love to truly fervor in love for You and all our sisters and brothers – the love that can endure much to witness for many how to live humanly. Amen. (1:14)