Integrity

Drink Deep From This Spring Of Consolation

Commenting on that moment during the Passion where an angel was sent to Christ to comfort him, St. Thomas More writes in the Sadness of Christ:

"But whoever is utterly crushed by feelings of anxiety and fear and is tortured by the fear that he may yield to despair, let him consider this agony of Christ, let him meditate on it constantly and turn it over in his mind, let him drink deep and health-giving draughts of consolation from this spring.  For here he will see the loving Shepherd lifting the weak lamb on His shoulders playing the same role as he himself does, expressing his very own feelings, and for this reason:  so that anyone who later feels himself disturbed by similar feelings might take courage and not think that he must despair. ... Let us beg Him with all our strength that He may deign to comfort us in our anguish by an insight into His; and when we urgently beseech Him, let us nevertheless follow His own most wholesome example by concluding our prayer with His own addition: 'Yet not as I will but as you will.'  If we do these things diligently, I have no doubt at all that just as an angel brought Him consolation in answer to His prayer, so too each of our angels will bring us from His Spirit consolation that will give us the strength to persevere in those deeds that will lift us up to heaven."

St. Fisher And The Penitential Psalms

Although not a reflection directly on the Lord's Passion, I thought it worth looking at some thoughts of the saintly bishop, John Fisher, and his Exposition Of The Seven Penitential Psalms.  Lent, and the Passion, provokes us to contemplate our sinfulness and to be sorrowful for the sufferings that the Lord had to endure on our behalf as a result.  Now our modern minds tend to stop there, almost treating such contemplations as a masochistic act.  But as Anne Barbeau Gardiner makes clear in her introduction to St. Fisher's work, St. Fisher saw the penitential psalms as "medicine of proven efficacy for healing souls."  And so, too, should we view our meditations on the Passion.

So let's share some of St. Fisher's thoughts on the first penitential psalm, Psalm Six:

Thomas More On The Lord's Passion

Fridays are a traditional day to devote time in prayer to meditating on the Passion of our Lord.  Especially since it is Lent, for the coming weeks Integrity will offer some reflections on the sufferings of Jesus Christ during the final hours before His Crucifixion.

Why meditate on the Lord's Passion?  Well, for starters most saints of the Church had a devotion to the Lord's Passion.  If your goal is Heaven, copying this pious practice of the saints can't hurt.  But I take my cue from a great lay saint, Sir Thomas More, and his extraordinary meditation, The Sadness of Christ:

Wisdom Of A Church Doctor

Think an appreciation for the vocation of the Catholic laity is purely a twenty-first century concern?  Consider this: