Ecce ascendimus Ierosolymam
Second Wednesday of Lent Jeremiah 18: 18-20 Psalm 30: 4-5, 13, 14-15 Matthew 20: 17-28 The Sorrowful Passion of the Lord “Behold, we are going...
Condemned
Monday of the Second Week of Lent Daniel 9:4b-10 Psalm 78: 8, 9, 11 & 13 Luke 6:36-38 Sin’s Slimy Trail Last Friday the Gospel...
Vultum Tuum, Domine, Requiram
The Second Sunday of Lent The Transfiguration of the Lord Genesis 15:5-12, 17-18 Psalm 26: 1, 7-9, 13-14 Philippians 3:17-4:1 Luke 9:28-36 The Transfigured Face...
Convertens Animas
Saturday of the First Week of Lent Entrance Antiphon The law of the Lord is unspotted, converting souls: the testimony of the Lord is faithful,...
Please Join Me in Prayer
I received two urgent requests for intercessory prayer today: From Massachusetts, Father Jim O’Driscoll asks for prayer for his sister–in–law Emily suffering from cancer. Her...
If You Would Know His Heart, Seek His Face
Just as one learns what is in the heart of one’s dearest friend by looking at his face, just as a wife can know what...
At the End of These My Twisting Paths
Didyme wrote this prayer. I took the liberty of translating it from the French. It is every sinner’s psalm. The last two lines are extraordinary....
Sackcloth and Gladness
Wednesday of the First Week of Lent Jonah 3: 1-10 Psalm 50: 3-4, 12-13, 18-19 (R. 19b) Luke 11:29-32 Nineveh Nineveh is in the news....
Saint Gabriel of the Addolorata
Saint Gabriel of the Addolorata died on February 27, 1862 at twenty-four years of age. Pope Benedict XV canonized him on May 13, 1920. A...
Draw Me to Thy Open Side
In response to the Holy Father’s invitation to contemplate the wounded Side of Christ, I offer my own translation of a prayer “Alla Piaga Del...
Ninth Day of the Novena
Yesterday in his Angelus address, Pope Benedict XVI returned to the subject of his Lenten message: the contemplation of the Sacred Side of Jesus, pierced...
Eighth Day of the Novena
Saint Gabriel of the Addolorata, even from his place in glory, makes friends easily. Like Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus and of the Holy...
Seventh Day of the Novena
The Merciful Christ wants us for Himself. “I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” (Lk 5:32). And should anyone out...
The Mercy of God in the Face of His Christ
Saturday After Ash Wednesday The Voice of Mercy While we are yet on the threshold of Lent, Christ Jesus, the incarnate Mercy of God, passes...
A Lenten Poem
Friday Stations Red-covered they were passed out one by one like a Lenten communion drawn out of the cavernous tabernacle of Mercy sleeves, and distributed...
First Friday of Lent
I heard a frightful amount of banging about outside my cell during the work period this morning. “The postulants are moving furniture again,” I thought,...
Sixth Day of the Novena
On December 30, 1861 Saint Gabriel of the Addolorata , who was twenty-three years old at the time, wrote these lines to his brother Michele....
Fasting
Friday After Ash Wednesday Isaiah 58:1-9a Psalm 50: 3-4, 5-6ab, 18-19 Matthew 9:14-15 Holy Fasting Today the prophet Isaiah puts a question to God: “Why...
Wondrous Hidden God
Yearning, I adore you, wondrous hidden God, Living Bread by bread concealed, speaking heart to heart. Give me now the faith that sees darkly through...
Fifth Day of the Novena
Following the same evocative rite used by Saint Gabriel of the Addolorata in 1857, young Indonesian Passionists making their First Profession are symbolically crowned with...