1. THE DEATH OF ST. JOSEPH
Let us consider the great trial which hovers one day over the little house of Nazareth. Joseph, the just man, whom Jesus, with respect and affection calls His "Father," is dying ... his failing body is sustained int he Arms of Jesus; ...his head reposes on the adorable Heart of Jesus.
Mary is in tears...She, the Queen, the loving, tender and faithful spouse, has her heart torn with grief...
But Mary is not alone in her grief...Jesus, the King Who received from this just man caresses and bread, earned by the sweat of his brow, also weeps bitterly, and He is a God!
Heart of Jesus have pity on the widows and orphans in great distress!
2. THE FAREWELL TO NAZARETH
Let us consider Jesus, in the blessed sanctuary of Nazareth, bidding farewell to Mary Immaculate whom He is about to leave in order to begin His public life...
Jesus knows what awaits Him in the life He is about to embrace...He knows that He leaves forever His peaceful home, where He had lived during thirty years in the most tender and the most marvelous intimacy with His incomparable Mother...
The Heavenly Father calls Jesus and He sets out! So it is also that children of a home, like the birds of the nest, must one day, with broken hearts, set out from the family sanctuary and leave the abode of their weeping parents who bless them as they set forth...
But the events of life, the painful duties to be performed are the expression of the Will of the Most High, and it is necessary to obey in faith.
Heart of Jesus have pity, have great pity, on children and parents who suffer this agony!
3. THE FAREWELLS OF BETHANY
Let us consider Jesus on Holy Thursday, bidding farewell to His intimate, faithful friends of Bethany, in order to go voluntarily to death.
Those who had given Him the repose of friendship and of intimacy, received His supreme confidence, the revelation of the Golgotha of tomorrow...What must have been the sorrow that overshadowed these souls during this supreme farewell of their unique Friend...the King Friend of Bethany. He left them, saying: "Until tomorrow on Calvary!"
This is also the farewell of the elect, predestined to a life of immolation, whether it be in the cloister, or in the world which must be redeemed in blood:
Heart of Jesus, have pity on families and souls, who must submit to this agony of the heart!
4. THE FAREWELLS OF CALVARY
Let us consider Jesus Crucified, making His last farewell to the Queen of Sorrows in the overpowering agony of Calvary!
Death has already received from the Father the permission to draw near, to stiffen the Body of the Savior, this same Body, thrice holy, that Mary warmed on Christmas night, when pressing Him close to her Virgin-Mother heart...
One more glance of infinite tenderness...and to His Mother He confides John, the Church, the world, and His own Heart...and then Jesus inclines His bleeding Head...and...He expires!
Heart of Jesus, have pity on mothers, on families in sorrow who have suffered or will suffer the pitiless blow of death.
Holy Hour by The Rev. Fr. Mateo Crawley-Boevey, SS.CC. Book Four
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