Simon embraces the cross

Just back from the Passion Drama/Stations of the Cross put on my Simon's 5th grade class for the entire school and all those able to attend.  It was so powerfully done, and the meditations read while we went through them really made you take it to heart this Wednesday of Holy Week.  I just read that it is called Spy Wednesday for how Judas secretly went and was paid to turn Jesus over to be tortured and killed on the Cross.  Simon was able to experience one of his namesakes- Simon of Cyrene helps Jesus carry his cross - the 5th station!  So true of all of our lives - we are called to embrace the crosses that come to us in life, and through them we find LIFE/LOVE/LIGHT eternal!

Bowing to the Cross and all that Christ suffered for us to receive LIFE eternal.  After the stations we all reverently crossed ourselves in the name of The Father, the Son and The Holy Spirit and then said 'The Our Father" together, and then crossed ourselves again.  The sign of the Cross held such meaning and power after watching the stations put on by Simon and his class!  We are to recall this each time we cross ourselves, and sadly it becomes a routine motion with little thought of the meaning of our signing ourselves with the Cross of our Lord, which we are asked to share with him.  As Simon the Cyrene answered the call to carry the cross with the suffering Jesus, we are also asked to carry our cross!

Jesus falls the second time - the 7th station.  Yes, the Cross can cause us to fall and makes us weak and humble - this is how we die to self so that we are more and more Christ's! 

1. Jesus is condemned to death
2. Jesus carries his cross
3. Jesus falls the first time
4. Jesus meets his mother
5. Simon of Cyrene helps Jesus carry the cross
6. Veronica wipes the face of Jesus
7. Jesus falls the second time
8. Jesus meets the women of Jerusalem
9. Jesus falls the third time
10. Jesus is stripped of his garments
11. Crucifixion: Jesus is nailed to the cross
12. Jesus dies on the cross
13. Jesus is taken down from the cross (Deposition or Lamentation)
14. Jesus is laid in the tomb.
15. Although not traditionally part of the Stations, the Resurrection of Jesus is sometimes included as a fifteenth station.^[11][12

A wonderful experience to have just as the Triddium is to begin tomorrow night!

The Easter tree starting to bud out lilacs while the snow flies outside.

Today in the first reading we are given what we need on our weary journey - The Lord God has given me a well-trained tongue, that I might know how to speak to the weary a word that will rouse them.  Morning after morning he opens my ear that I may hear; And I have not rebelled, have not turned back.  I gave my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who plucked my beard; my face I did not shield from buffets and spitting.  Isaiah 50  Life can knock us around a bit, and we need to be brave and strong armed with the armor of Christ and the gifts of the Holy Spirit will dwell in us.

A spring storm makes life challenging with our calves to care for.

Jesus, we long to love and serve you and we know that it calls for us to be humbled and made small by all that comes to us each day - reminding us that we are nothing without you and that Jesus is in control in the midst of the storms of life.  "Wounded, I will not cease to love."  is the motto we should embrace each day in our domestic Church/family.  Jesus, we trust in you.  Amen

I love this!  This requires the Holy Spirit alive and well within us!

wow! 

My friend, Scott Hahn, loves the Church as I do, and that makes us brother and sister in Christ!  The best!

Danielle Rose - True love - The Cross

Francesca Batistelli - Lead me to the Cross

"Oh, my God, through the

precious Blood of Jesus and His five wounds,  

grant me today five graces:  

the conversion of a sinner,

the conversion of an unbeliever,

the salvation of someone 

dying in peril of everlasting death; 

a vocation to the priesthood 

or to the religious life; 

and, for some new soul, the grace

of entering into and savoring the mystery of the Eucharist."

Prayer of Elisabeth Leseur (+1914)