March Adoration: Before the cross

- My God, come to my aid

- Lord, make haste to help me

 - Glory be to the Father ...

 - As it was in the beginning ...

Introduction:

This happened on a certain Friday: the Son of God, equal to the Father, died on a cross. Having come to share our human condition, He did not want to be free from our death. But for him, death was not an absolute end. His death, voluntarily accepted, was the supreme expression of his love for the Father ("into your hands I commit my spirit” Lk 23:46) and of his love for humanity, including their sins ("Father, forgive them..." Lk 23:34). Thus, the death of God changes the death of every person. From the dead end that it was, death becomes a step, an Easter, towards the new life, the divine life in which the Risen One enters and in which he makes his own participate.

Poem: I am not Moved

“I am not moved, my God, to love you

By the heaven you have promised me.

Neither does hell, so feared, move me

To keep me from offending you.

You move me, Lord, and I am moved seeing you

Scoffed at and nailed on a cross.

I am moved seeing your body so wounded.

Your injuries and your death move me.

It is your love that moves me, and in such a way

that even though there were no heaven, I would love you,

and even though there were no hell I would fear you.

You do not have to give me anything so that I love you,

For even if I didn’t hope for what I hope,

As I love you now, so would I love you. Anonymous Spanish Poet    

Silence for Adoration

Psalm 22

The Psalmist prays for something that has happened or is about to happen. His prayer has something to do with life as history. It is something hard and difficult, but his pain does not raise a wall of silence between him and his God, his prayer becomes a complaint, a lament, a plea, a plea, a whys and wherefores, to that apparently distant God. It is not strange that Jesus took on his lips this psalm in the extreme of his suffering, of abandonment, of the triumph of his enemies, of the nearness of death.

My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?

Why so far from my call for help,

from my cries of anguish?

My God, I call by day, but you do not answer;

by night, but I have no relief.

Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One;

you are the glory of Israel.

But I am a worm, not a man,

scorned by men, despised by the people.

All who see me mock me;

they curl their lips and jeer;

they shake their heads at me:

“He relied on the LORD—let him deliver him;

if he loves him, let him rescue him.”

Like water my life drains away;

all my bones are disjointed.

My heart has become like wax,

it melts away within me.

As dry as a potsherd is my throat;

my tongue cleaves to my palate;

you lay me in the dust of death.

They divide my garments among them;

for my clothing they cast lots.

But you, LORD, do not stay far off;

my strength, come quickly to help me.

Then I will proclaim your name to my brethren;

in the assembly I will praise you:

For he has not spurned or disdained

the misery of this poor wretch,

Did not turn away from me,

but heard me when I cried out.

Silence for meditation.

Reading of the Word: Mark 15, 34

At three o’clock Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

Silence for reflection.

Notice the reproaches the speaker makes to God, but also in the praise a thanksgiving for one's own life.

Think of the people who at this moment are in extreme situations. And with Jesus, present their pain to God.

Petitions.

- For the dying of this day...

 - For the chronically ill...

 - For those who have lost a loved one...

- For those who suffer from hunger, loneliness, war...

- Add your own intentions...

Our Father ...

Prayer:

Look, O Lord of goodness, upon all your children, for whom Jesus Christ our Lord accepted the torment of the cross, giving himself to his own enemies. Through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

Final blessing.

Lord bless us, keep us from all evil and lead us to eternal life.

Amen.

Photo by Giu Vicente on Unsplash