The Seventh Station: Jesus Falls A Second Time
My Jesus, one of the beautiful qualities the people admired in You was Your strength in time of ridicule - Your ability to rise above the occasion. But now, You fall a second time - apparently conquered by the pain of the Cross. People who judged You by appearances made a terrible mistake. What looked like weakness was unparalleled strength!I often judge by appearances and how wrong I am most of the time. The world judges entirely by this fraudulent method of discerning. It looks down upon those who apparently have given their best and are now in need. It judges the poor as failures, the sick as useless and the aged as a burden. How wrong that kind of judgment is in the light of your second fall! Your greatest moment wasYour weakest one. Your greatest triumph was in failure. Your greatest act of love was in desolation. Your greatest show of power was in that utter lack of strength that threw You to the ground.Weak and powerful Jesus, give me the grace to see beyond what is visible and be more aware of Your Wisdom in the midst of weakness. Give the aged, sick, handicapped, retarded, deaf and blind the fruit of joy so they may ever be aware of the Father's gift and the vast difference between what the world sees and what the Father sees that they may glory in their weakness so the power of God may be manifest.Amen
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Let us prayerfully reflect
on
Qualities of Prayer
It is not we ourselves who pray but the Holy Spirit
who prays in us (Rom 8:26).
Our prayer is good in so far as the Holy Spirit informs it.
1) Our prayer has to be attentive…
2) Our prayer has to be humble…
3) Our prayer has to be reverent…
4) Our prayer has to be loving…
5) Our prayer has to be confident…
6) Our prayer has to be persevering….
What is meant by Continual Prayer?
“Men ought always to pray, and not faint” (Lk 18:1)
St. Paul instructs us to pray without ceasing (1 Thess 5:17)…
It is the prayer of the heart… Actual prayer is charity in practice…
Habitual prayer is the disposition prepared for the practice…
It is as easy and natural to the heart to pray always as to love always…
A person can love God always, without always thinking of him and telling him of one’s love. It is enough if he is determined not only to do nothing contrary to the love of God at any time, but also to take every opportunity of proving one’s love and to make acts of love, whenever grace prompts one to do so.
Surely it is in this way that mother loves her children, a wife her husband, and friend love friend.
It would be to misunderstand the whole matter if we supposed that the occupations of life are a hindrance to this sort of prayer… Every action performed in the sight of God because it is the will of God, and in the manner that God wills, is a prayer. Nor is it necessary that the action should be good and holy in itself; it may be quite indifferent and yet one the less a prayer, in virtue of the intention with which it is performed.
“Whatsoever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him” (Col 3:17)
“whether therefore you eat or drink, or whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God”
(1Cor 10: 31)
If there is a prayer of action, there is also a prayer of suffering… Let your suffering be borne for God; suffer with submission and patience and suffer in union with Jesus Christ and you will be offering a most excellent prayer.
Cfr. Jean-Nicholas Grou, How to Pray?
(Cambridge, James Clarke & Co, 1982)
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HAPPY FEAST OF THE ANNUNCIATION OF THE LORD!
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