Quarantine

Suffering with Jesus Christ

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“Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow in His footsteps.” (1 Peter 2:21) 

The Divine Prisoner, Holy Face of Manoppello
photo: Patricia Enk

Suffering– it is part of the human condition, and it also human nature to avoid it whenever possible. Even among those rare souls who “suffer well” by following Christ’s example, suffering can be a seemingly unending trial that wears one down. Illness and suffering “can lead to anguish, self-absorption, sometimes even despair and revolt against God.” (CCC 1501)  In times of suffering people could turn to distractions, inward on themselves, or turn their eyes to the Face of Jesus Christ.  It is He who suffers, and no one has suffered more than Him. When He took our human flesh at the Incarnation, He accepted all the suffering of humanity, though completely innocent, to redeem us from our sin.

How do we follow in Christ’s footsteps when we are faced with suffering?

“‘He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in His mouth.’ 

When He was insulted, He returned no insult, when He suffered, He did not threaten; instead, He handed Himself over to the One who judges justly. He Himself bore our sins in His body on the Cross, so that, free from sin, we might live for righteousness. By His wounds you have been healed. For you had gone astray like sheep, but you have now returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls.” (1 Peter 2: 22-25)

For many though, their suffering may not be a physical one. There is another terrible suffering, experienced worldwide: the separation from our loved ones. And even more painful, the suffering of being separated from “The Loved One,” Jesus, in the sacraments. Again, it is Christ who suffers most, in the Eucharist, isolated in every tabernacle throughout the world.

Perhaps this isolation from loved ones is a warning from Our Loving God of what happens when we turn away from the Face of God by unrepented mortal sin. The result is a painful separation from the love of God for all eternity, which is the suffering of Hell.

What can one do “to suffer with Christ” by staying alone at home? As a Discalced Carmelite nun, St. Edith Stein, contemplated a life of separation from the rest of the world in the cloister. She wrote, “Whoever enters Carmel is not lost to their own, but is theirs fully for the first time; It is our vocation to stand before God for all.”  In quarantine each of us may suffer with Jesus by seeking His Christ’s Face with hearts of prayer, as the Blessed Virgin Mary did at the foot of the Cross – “to stand before God for all.”

“For whoever would love life and see good days must keep his tongue from evil lips,  from speaking deceit, must turn from evil and do good, seek peace and follow after it. For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and His ears turned to their prayer, but the Face of the Lord is against evildoers.”  (1 Peter 3:10-12)

Sr. Petra-Maria gazes at the Holy Face Veil of Manoppello (Photo: Patricia Enk)

Prayer to the Holy Face for the liberation from the coronavirus

Lord Jesus, Savior of the world, hope that will never disappoint us, have mercy on us and deliver us from all evil! Please overcome the scourge of this virus which is spreading, heal the sick, preserve the healthy, support those who work for the health of all. Show us your face of mercy and save us in your great love. We ask you through the intercession of Mary, Your Mother and ours, who faithfully accompanies us. You who live and reign forever and ever. Amen. 
+ Bruno Forte
Archbishop of Chieti – Vasto (Italy)

We Have No Wine

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UPDATE: March 27 –  Pope Francis’s Urbi et Orbi blessing in the pouring rain, before a dark, empty St. Peter’s Square.  May the Lord hear our prayers and turn these tears from Heaven into the wine of love, faith and hope for the people of the world! (Blessing is at 54:45)

In solidarity -The Cloistered “Advocata” Photo: Paul Badde/EWTN

“On the third day there was a wedding in Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus and His disciples were also invited to the wedding. When the wine ran short, the mother of Jesus said to Him, ‘They have no wine.'” (John 2:1-3)

We have no wine. Our priests are offering Mass privately, but the faithful must learn to do without the Eucharist due to the pandemic. Catholics now find themselves at the beginning of a sacramental drought, and thus having to dig deeper in search of the “Living Water” by more frequent prayer and by turning to the Mother of Jesus, our advocate. She knows already what humanity is suffering. Mary immediately presents our need to her Son, “They have no wine.” She tells us, as she told the servers at the Wedding at Cana, “Do whatever He tells you.” Mary always points to Jesus. She desires that we look at the Face of her Son, listen, and act, then Jesus will turn our water into wine.

Rather than turn to media and the endless drumbeats of despair, turn to Mary, our advocate, by saying more rosaries  contemplating the Face of Christ with Mary in the rosary.

“To contemplate the Face of Christ, and to contemplate it with Mary, is the ‘program’ which I have set before the Church at the dawn of the third millennium…It is the Church’s task to reflect the light of Christ in every historical period, to make His Face shine also before new generations of the new millennium. Our witness, however, would be hopelessly inadequate if we ourselves had not first contemplated His Face.” –Pope St. John Paul II

Making the Stations of the Cross, together with the Sorrowful Mother is another powerful means to contemplate the Face of Jesus in His Passion, together with Mary.

The Way of the Cross by Archbishop Georg Gänswein – Sophia Press

I can recommend The Way of the Cross, with beautiful meditations by Archbishop Georg Gänswein, which has just been released and may be ordered here from the Sophia Press website.

 

Advocata Nostra with golden hands and cross
Photo: Paul Badde/EWTN

Salve Regina – Hail, Holy Queen

Hail, holy Queen, Mother of mercy, our life, our sweetness and our hope. To thee do we cry, poor banished children of Eve. To thee to we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in this valley of tears. Turn, then, most gracious advocate, thine eyes of mercy toward us, and after this, our exile, show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus. O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary.

V. Pray for us, O holy Mother of God.
R. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to Thee!


Advocata Nostra sul Monte Mario – Photo: Paul Badde/EWTN

Listen to Pope St.John Paul II in the video below — This is what it is to have WINE!!!

 

Prayer to the Holy Face for the liberation from the coronavirus
Padre Pio called the Holy Veil of Manoppello the “greatest relic of the Church” photo: Patricia Enk

Lord Jesus, Savior of the world, hope that will never disappoint us, have mercy on us and deliver us from all evil! Please overcome the scourge of this virus which is spreading, heal the sick, preserve the healthy, support those who work for the health of all. Show us your face of mercy and save us in your great love. We ask you through the intercession of Mary, Your Mother and ours, who faithfully accompanies us. You who live and reign forever and ever. Amen.

+ Bruno Forte
Archbishop of Chieti – Vasto (Italy)
Lord, God of Hosts, bring us back, let Your Face shine upon us and we shall be saved!
The “Living Face” of Jesus as it appears on the Veil of Manoppello. Photo: Paul Badde/EWTN