But, O my Jesus, we are now at the Cedron Stream, and the perfidious Jews prepare to throw You into it. They make You bump against a rock that is there, with such violence as to make You shed Your Most Precious Blood from Your mouth, with which You mark that rock! Then, pulling You, they cast You down into those putrid waters, in such a way that these enter into Your ears, into Your mouth, into Your nostrils. O, Unreachable Love, You remain inundated and as though wrapped by those putrid, nauseating and cold waters. And in this way, You represent, vividly, the heart-rending state of creatures when they commit sin!

O, how they remain covered, inside and out, by a mantle of filth, such as to be disgusting to Heaven and to whoever can see them, therefore attracting the lightnings of Divine Justice upon themselves! O, Life of my life, can there ever be greater love? In order to remove from us this mantle of filth, You allow Your enemies to throw You into this stream, and You suffer everything to repair for the sacrileges and the coldness of the souls who receive You sacrilegiously, and who, more than the stream, force You to enter into their hearts, and to make You feel all of their nausea! You also permit that these waters penetrate deep into Your bowels; so much so, that the enemies, fearing that You may be drowned, in order to spare You for greater torments, lift You up. But You are so disgusting that they themselves, feel nauseated to touch You. My Tender Jesus, You are now out of the stream. My heart cannot bear seeing You so wet by those nauseating waters. I see You shivering from head to foot because of the cold. You look around, searching with Your eyes, what You cannot do with Your voice, for one at least who would dry You, clean You and warm You. But, in vain—no one is moved to pity for You. The enemies mock You and deride You; Your own have abandoned You; Your Sweet Mama is far away, because the Father so disposes! Here I am, O Jesus—come into my arms. I want to cry so much as to form a bath for You in order to wash You, clean You, and with my hands, fix Your hair, which is all dishevelled. My Love, I want to enclose You in my heart to warm You with the warmth of my affections; I want to perfume You with my holy desires; I want to repair for all these offenses, and place my life together with Yours, in order to save all souls. I want to offer You my heart as a place of rest, to be able to somehow relieve You from the pains You have suffered up to now; and then, we will continue together the way of Your Passion.

 

Reflection

In reading the above excerpt from the 1 am hour of the Passion, Luisa says that Jesus represents vividly the state of souls when they commit sin.

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Our role in these hours is mainly reparation and to console Jesus, and one way that stands out for me especially in this hour is what we can identify in our lives that links with how He suffered in his.

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Take for instance our colds and flu that we go through every so often. I don’t think there is anything as common as these which puts the focus on the self, and it can take a real dying to self to suffer a cold for the sake of Jesus. But by doing so we allow him to take up his rest in us.

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Jesus, in being thrown into the Cedron stream suffered in many of the physical ways we suffer from colds. He experienced the cold waters in his ears, mouth and nostrils. Similarly, we suffer ear-aches, migraines, sore throats and a stuffy / running nose. He suffered cold and nausea and shivered from head to toe, just like us. He is abandoned by those close to him. We too may feel abandoned by people when we have a cold, in case they catch it. In another hour Jesus says his pains competed with one another so as to cause him more torment. As our cold or flu progresses do not our aches and pains seem to compete with one another as we relapse from time to time?

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When we feel a cold coming on, we naturally try to avoid it but it can quickly take hold and we, like Jesus can feel miserable, especially in the early stages. We may not feel like praying nor be able to.

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We can however make reparation and console Jesus by fusing in Divine Will and by placing the intention as soon as we feel the cold coming on. Then as it progresses, our sufferings become opportunities of rest and consolation for Jesus. We unite and offer our aches with his, sharing in his pain in the name of all, and in reparation for all the ways souls make him feel nausea because of our sins.

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Dear Jesus, you have suffered too much. Take up your rest and we will suffer in your place. 10 pm Reflections

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