Second Sunday of the Passion

Continually we carry about in our bodies the dying of Jesus, so that in our bodies the life of Jesus may also be revealed.

2 Corinthians 4:10 (Office of Terce)

Why do we speak of Christ's passion, using the same word for love and for unimaginably intense suffering? We love in spite of pain and suffering that accompanies willing the good of another; Christ did not love despite torture, rejection, and suffering, but in the midst of it.

Love is proven by perseverance through struggle, and how much more when the suffering is borne willingly! And what greater love is there than that of him who suffered infinitely, bearing the sins of all? As we enter into the Lord's Passion, let us take time to contemplate deeply the suffering he endured that we may better understand the depths of his love.

Choir:

Glorioses playes
Glorious wounds

Et desiderabam videre vel saltem illud parum de carne Christi quod portaverant clavi in ligno.
And I longed to see at least that little bit of Christ's flesh that the nails had fixed to the wood.
(-Bl. Angela of Foligno)

Ostendit cor suum perforatum quasi ad modum portulae unius parvae laternae, quod ex ipso corde exiverunt radii solares. Immo solaribus radiis clariores!
He showed his heart, perforated like the openings in a small lantern. From his very heart issued forth rays of the sun. No indeed - brighter than the sun's rays!
(-Na Prous Boneta)

Non est aequum, velle solum de melle meo gustare, et non de felle. 
It is unjust to wish to taste only of my honey and not of the gall. 

Si perfecte vis mecum uniri, mente intenta recogita illusiones, opprobia, flagella, mortem, et tormenta, quae pro te sustinui.
If you wish to be perfectly united with me, contemplate deeply the mockery, insults, whippings, death and torments I endured for you.
(-Bl. Margarita, 14th century)