Just Another Day In Paradise

The Mystery of the Cross

"Good Friday is the day which invites us more than any other to 'enter into the thicket of the trials and pains...of the Son of God' and not only with the abstract consideration of the mind, but also with the practical disposition of the will to accept suffering voluntarily, in order to unite and assimilate ourselves to the Crucified. By suffering with Him, we shall understand His sufferings better and have a better comprehension of His love for us, for 'the purest suffering brings with it the most intimate and the purest understanding" and "no one feels more deeply in his heart of the Passion of Christ than one who has suffered something similar.' With these dispositions let us accompany our Lord during His last day on earth."Divine Intimacy

The Gift of Love

"Having loved his own...He loved them unto the end" (Jn 13, 1-15), and in those last intimate hours spent in their midst, He wished to wish to give them the greatest proof of His love. Those were hours of sweet intimacy, but also of most painful anguish. Judas had already set the rice of the infamous sale; Peter was about to deny his Master; all of them within a short time would abandon Him. The institution of the Eucharist appeared then as the answer of Jesus to the treachery of men, as the greatest gift of His infinite love in return for the blackest ingratitude." Divine Intimacy