At the Foot of
the Cross
From The Passion of Jesus Christ, by St. Alphonsus de Liguori
The sorrowful Mother stood at the foot of the cross with some pious
women: There stood by the cross of Jesus
His mother. O God! Who would not pity a mother standing beside the cross on
which a son dies before her eyes? Consider Mary, standing beneath the cross,
contemplating the pains in the midst of which her well-beloved Son was
expiring: She desired to give him some alleviation, and she saw, on the other
hand, that her presence increased the grief of this same Son, who was full of
compassion for his tender Mother. This was a terrible affliction for Mary, a
torture that made her the Queen of Martyrs.
Seeing himself, then, abandoned by everyone, all men trying to
make his death more painful, Jesus raised his eyes to his eternal Father to
obtain some consolation. But seeing him laden with all our sins, for which he wished
to satisfy the divine justice, his Father also abandoned him. Then it was that
our Savior, crying out with a loud voice, said: My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?
But our Savior, so full of love, is on the point of expiring.
Christians, look at the cross. Behold those dying eyes, that face so pale, the
sacred body which is abandoned to death. Before expiring, Jesus uttered these
words: It is finished. It is as if he
had said: O men, love me; I have done all that I can do in order to save your
souls and gain your love. See the painful life that I have led during
thirty-three years for love of you. I wished then on your account to be
scourged, to be crowned with thorns, to be struck, to be covered with wounds
from head to foot. What more was needed? Should I die for love of you? Well,
then! I wish to die. Come, O death! I permit you to come; take away my life, in
order that my sheep may live. And Jesus,
crying with a loud voice, said, Father, into Your hands I commend My spirit.
My Father, he then said, I die for Your glory and for the salvation of men; I
commend my soul into Your hands. Behold, then, Jesus dies. O angels of heaven,
come, come to be present at the death of your God. And you, O sorrowful Mother!
Approach nearer to the cross; look at him more steadfastly, for he is about to
expire.
And you Christians, behold him in his agony; see him amid the last
respirations of life. Behold his dying eyes, that face so pale, that feebly
palpitating heart, that body already wrapped in the arms of death, and that
beautiful soul now on the point of leaving that wounded body.
The sky shrouds itself in darkness; the earth quakes; the graves
open. Alas, what portentous signs are these! They are signs that the Maker of
the world is now dying.
Behold, in the last place, how our Lord, after having commended
his blessed soul to his eternal Father, first breathing forth from his
afflicted heart a deep sigh, and then bowing down his head in token of his
obedience, and offering up his death for the salvation of men, at last through
the violence of the pain expires, and delivers up his spirit into the hands of
his beloved Father: And crying out with a
loud voice, He said 'Father into Your hands I commend My spirit'; and saying this He gave up his spirit.
All those that were present looking at him with attention see him
expire, and observing that he is motionless, they exclaim, 'He is dead he is
dead!' Mary hears this from all the bystanders, and she also says, 'Ah, my Son,
You are dead!' He is dead! Ah, who is dead? It is the King of heaven; the
Creator of the world, a God, who wished to die for us poor sinners.
Act of Contrition
while showing the Crucifix
Come sinners; here is Jesus Christ who has stretched forth his
arms to embrace you. Can you fear that he will not pardon you, when he gave
himself up to death in order to pardon you?
Do you perhaps fear that you will not obtain pardon because you
find yourselves unable to perform the penance that your sins deserve? Console
yourselves; for you here see the penance that Jesus Christ has himself
performed for you on the cross; it is sufficient if you sincerely repent of
having offended him.
Look at him; see where you can find any one that has loved you
more than Jesus Christ has loved you. Love him then, since he died in order to
be loved by you. Say to him: Ah, my sweet Savior! Whom should I love if I do
not love a God who has died for me?
O sorrowful Mother! Through the sorrow that you did experience in
seeing your divine Son expire, obtain for me holy perseverance and a true love
of my divine Redeemer.
Prayer
My Jesus, by the pain You did endure when
Your left hand was pierced with the nail,
give me a true sorrow for my sins.
My Jesus, by the pain You did endure when
Your right hand was pierced with the nail,
give me perseverance in Your grace.
My Jesus, by the pain You did endure when
Your left foot was pierced with the nail,
deliver me from the pains of hell.
My Jesus, by the pain You did endure when
Your right foot was pierced with the nail,
give me the grace to love You eternally in heaven.
My Jesus, by the wound that was made in
Your Sacred Heart, give me the grace to love You always
in this life and in the next.
Have mercy on us, Jesus, our Love.
Pray for us, Mary, our
Hope.
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