My Thoughts on 02/04/2021

A few years ago I was asked to visit an elderly man who was dying. After giving him Holy Communion he asked me to get him, what is called, a “holding cross”. This is a cross that is rounded and shaped in such a way as to be held easily in one hand. This cross became a great comfort to him. Seeing him holding the cross, whenever I visited, reminded me of the words from the hymn “Abide with me.”

“Hold Thou Thy cross before my closing eyes
Shine through the gloom and point me to the skies
Heaven’s morning breaks, and earth’s vain shadows flee
In life, in death, o Lord, abide with me…”

On this Good Friday we focus on Jesus crucified. My dying friend was uniting himself in a death like Jesus. As St Paul says in his letter to the Romans “If we are united to him by dying a death like his , so shall we be united by a resurrection like him.”

Let us spend some quiet moments today at the foot of the cross, with Mary and John.

Look down upon me, good and gentle Jesus
while before Your face I humbly kneel and,
with burning soul,
pray and beseech You
to fix deep in my heart lively sentiments
of faith, hope, and charity;
true contrition for my sins,
and a firm purpose of amendment.

While I contemplate,
with great love and tender pity,
Your five most precious wounds,
pondering over them within me
and calling to mind the words which David,
Your prophet, said to You, my Jesus:

“They have pierced My hands and My feet,
they have numbered all My bones.”

Amen.