#66 THE PASSION OF CHRIST (PART I)
"TAKE REFUGE IN THE SACRED WOUNDS of Christ, and there in the fervor of prayer, and in serious meditation on His passion, find a salutary remedy for all the wants of thy soul. "
-THOMAS A KEMPIS, Valley of the Lilies
YOUR PASSION
"You must meditate more on the Passion. Why, My children
Because you, too, as followers of Mine, shall go through your passion
upon earth.... Time shall bear out this message." -Jesus,
November 1, 1977
THE AGONY IN THE
GARDEN
I saw Jesus on His knees, bent over in anguish, praying.... There
was a great sadness in His face, great sorrow. He was talking to
His Father in Heaven: "Father, I will drink of this cup,
down to the last drop, if it be Your will. It is not I that should
seek that this cup be removed from Me. My strength is everlasting
in the light, and My heart a bleeding vessel for this cup."
-Veronica, March 8, 1971
THE SCOURGING
I cried out, "No! No! Stop that!" For there was our
beloved Jesus being pulled to and fro as His tormentors pulled
His upper garment from His back. They tied His wrists together
and drove a spike into an upright beam. Jesus' hands were bound
by strips of a brown, leather-like cord. Then the central part of
the cord that bound His hands was looped over the spike in the beam.
Poor Jesus was pinned by His hands. There were five people in
this cave-like room that appeared to be dug out of a hillside, a
sort of hole-room in the hillside. I screamed and winced as two
soldiers took turns hitting Jesus' bare back with a long brown,
leather-like strap. On this strap were metal hooks, laid
horizontally all along the strap These nail-like, claw-like fixtures
on the strap cut and scratched deeply into Jesus' flesh, causing
blood to pour out. It was a despicable game with the soldiers.
They laughed and joked. Jesus never said a word. I cried,
"Say something! Say something!" He could save Himself, but
Jesus remained silent as they spat and insulted Him. His back
became a mass of welts and torn flesh. Jesus was barefoot; His
sandals had fallen off as they banged a stake higher into the
pole and raised poor Jesus up so His toes barely touched the floor.
The floor was just dirt and blood. The soldier remarked,
"Maybe they cut out His lying tongue. Ha, ha!" Our poor
Jesus remained silent. -Veronica, March 8, 1971
THE CROWNING OF
THORNS
I then saw Jesus. He had been cut from the post and had fallen
over. A soldier roughly pulled Him over to a wicker-like stool and
plunked Jesus onto it. Poor Jesus hung forward, and a nasty
soldier put a 1ong stick in His hands to balance Him up, and
yelled, "Ha, ha! So this is the King of the Jews! Let's
dress Him as fitting!" The soldier went outside, to return
with an armful of brier bush. He used the metal tongs to make it
easier to handle. He made a sort of cap and stuffed a circlet of
briers into it. In that way he could handle it better and shove
it on poor Jesus' head. The thorns were too hard to weave, to
stay together, so the cap was thought of. It was so big, and he
kept batting it down with a stick. The sadist gloated as he
swung. Jesus, dearest Savior, said never a word. The pain was
excruciating. Tears coursed down the cheeks of our poor Jesus,
but they were of sorrow. The greatest pain was in His heart!
Jesus' hands were tied again with the brown, leatherlike
material; and He was dragged to His feet. The soldier draped His
top gown over His torn back. Oh, I could see it stick to his
oozing blood. Oh, it was horrible! -Veronica, May 8,, 1971
BASKET WEAVE CAP
And now He's tapping His forehead. Oh, He wants me to tell you,
as He told me this afternoon, that I must tell the world that when
He was crucified... they have a false notion about His crown of
thorns. The crown of thorns were placed in a basket weave cap and
then placed on His head, and He was pummeled and hammered with
sticks and a sledge hammer to get it down on His head; and that
drove the terrible spikes of the thorns into His head. It seems
that His murderers could not find gloves at the time to handle
the thorns. So they thought to take their implements and place
these terrible thorn weeds inside of the basket weave hat. And
that is what Jesus wore when He was crucified. -Veronica,
September 27, 1986
THE MASS
"The Eternal Father has set upon earth His rule. He has sent
My Son to you as a pure Sacrifice to open this Kingdom to you....
That Sacrifice was known by the Father and My Son, and was to be
perpetrated and continued unto eternity!"
-Our Lady, March 18, 1975