Dying Savior! Embracing Your cross, I feel the fire that consumes Your whole person. Your heart beats so strongly that it makes You endure terrible, even heart-breaking torments, that Your whole humanity undergoes a transformation and You have become unrecognizable. The fire of love that glows in Your heart sets You completely ablaze and dries You out. Since You cannot hold it back, You feel the torment of thirst strongly, certainly also as a result of the blood You have shed in torrents. But You are far more tormented by the spiritual thirst for the salvation of our souls. You want to drink us like water, so to speak, in order to keep us safe in You. So You gather Your exhausted strength and call out:

“I thirst!”

Oh, You repeat this call to every soul:

"I thirst for your will, for your inclinations, for your desires, for your love! You cannot give Me more quenching and refreshing water than when you give Me your soul. O do not let Me burn in this ardor. I am burning thirsty, not only do I feel My tongue and throat burning so that I can hardly utter a clear word, I also feel My heart and bowels withering. Have pity on My thirst!"

And mad with thirst, You surrender to the will of the Father.

Oh, my heart can hardly beat when I see the ruthlessness of Your enemies who give You a drink of vinegar and gall instead of water. You do not reject him. I understand that they want to give You the vinegar of untamed passions and the gall of our bitter guilt of sin. They only increase Your thirst instead of refreshing You.

My Jesus, here is my heart, here are my thoughts, my inclinations, my whole being, with which I want to quench Your thirst and refresh Your burning mouth filled with bitterness. All that I have, all that I am, is consecrated to You, my Jesus. If my sufferings were necessary to save even a single soul, I am ready to suffer everything. To You I offer myself completely as a sacrifice. Do with me what pleases You.

I would like to offer You compensation for the agonizing thirst You suffer for the sake of the souls that are lost. What suffering those souls who are in sadness and spiritual abandonment often inflict on You! Instead of offering You these sufferings as a refreshing drink for Your burning thirst, they rely on themselves and thus increase Your suffering.

Sixth Word:
“It is accomplished!”

My dying highest good! The boundless sea of Your sufferings, the fire of love that consumes You, and even more than everything else the supreme will of the Father, who wants You to suffer death, rob You of any hope of being able to continue Your earthly life. But how will I be able to live without you? Your strength is already exhausted, Your eyes are darkened, Your face is distorted and deathly pale, Your mouth is half open, Your breathing is sometimes accelerated, sometimes interrupted. There is no longer any hope of preserving your life. The glow that consumes You alternates with icy cold, Your holy forehead is bathed in sweat. Your muscles and nerves contract more and more convulsively as a result of the pain and the pierced hands and feet, the wounds widen more and more. I tremble and feel close to death. I look at You, my most precious possession, and see the last tear trickling from Your eyes, the harbinger of imminent death, and with difficulty You let the words be heard:

“It is accomplished!”

My Jesus! Your love has exhausted all means. There is nothing left for You, for it has reached the highest degree. May I also be completely consumed by Your love? And what thanks should I not repay You for it! My Jesus, I want to make reparation for all men, to make amends for those who do not correspond to Your love, and to console You for the shame You suffer from Your creatures while You are consumed with love on the cross.

Seventh Word:
“Father, into Your hands I commend My Spirit!”

My crucified, passing Savior! Your humanity is already frozen, Your heart no longer seems to beat. Soon you will breathe the last breath of your mortal life.

With Magdalena I embrace your feet. If it were possible, I would lay down my life to preserve Yours.

Now I see that You open Your dying eyes once more and look around the cross as if You wanted to give everyone Your last farewell. You look at your mother who, motionless and silent, seems to be dying with you, so great are Her sufferings. And you speak to Her:

"Farewell, My Mother, I am parting, but I will carry you in My heart. Take care of Your and My children!"

You look at the weeping Magdalene, at the faithful John, and with Your eyes You speak to them:

“Farewell!”

You look at even Your enemies with love, and Your eyes speak to them:

"Farewell! I forgive you, I give you the kiss of peace."

Nothing escapes Your gaze, You say goodbye to everyone, You forgive everyone. Once again You gather Your strength and call out in a loud, strong voice:

“Father, into Your hands I commend My spirit!” You bow Your head and die...

The Death of Jesus

My Jesus! At this cry, all of nature is shaken and mourns Your death, the death of its Creator. The earth trembles. It seems as if it also wants to shake the spirits so that they recognize You as the true God. The curtain in the temple is torn, the dead rise, the sun, which until then had beheld Your suffering, has shudderingly withdrawn its light. Some of Your enemies kneel down at Your last exclamation, beat their breasts and speak:

“Truly, this was the Son of God!”

Your mother, who stands petrified and looks like a dying woman, endures torments more bitter than death.

My deceased Savior! With this Your last call, You place us all in the hands of the Father so that He will not reject us. That is why You cry out so strongly and powerfully, not only with the voice of Your breast, but also with the voice of Your sufferings and Your blood:

“Father, into Your hands I commend My Spirit, (with Him also all souls)!”

My Jesus, I abandon myself to You. O give me the grace to die completely in Your love and in Your will. Do not allow me ever, whether in life or in death, to leave Your will.

Therefore I will atone for all those who do not surrender themselves completely to Your most holy will and thus diminish the precious fruit of Your redemption. How great is the pain of Your heart, O Jesus, when You see so many people fleeing from Your arms and relying on themselves! Mercy for all, mercy for me!

Jesus, I adore Your thorn-crowned head and ask Your forgiveness for my prideful, ambitious and self-indulgent thoughts. I promise You that every time a thought comes to me that is not for You, or when I find myself in occasions where I might offend You, I will immediately exclaim: “Jesus and Mary, I commend my soul to You!”

Jesus, I remember the insults and blasphemies You had to listen to until the last moment. I ask You for forgiveness if I have listened to or allowed myself to listen to speeches that distance us from You, for forgiveness also for all the slippery conversations that people have had. I promise You, as often as I find myself in situations where I hear improper speeches, to cry out immediately: “Jesus and Mary, I commend my soul to You!”.

My Jesus, I adore Your most holy Face, which is pale, sallow and wet with blood. I beg Your forgiveness for the disregard, for all the insults and defamations You have to suffer from us wretched, sinful creatures. I promise, as often as I am aware that I am lacking the glorification, love and adoration due to You, to proclaim immediately:

“Jesus and Mary, I commend my soul to You!”

Jesus, I can still see on Your neck the strands of the chains and ropes with which they bound You. I ask Your forgiveness for the disorderly inclinations and attachments of people, which are just as many chains and ropes that they put around Your neck. I promise You, as often as attachments, desires and inclinations stir in me that are not for You, to cry out without hesitation: “Jesus and Mary, I commend my soul to You!”

Jesus, I behold Your deep shoulder wound and ask forgiveness for so many illicit gratifications and all the sins we have committed with the five senses of our body. I promise You, as soon as the thought occurs to me to allow myself pleasures or satisfactions that are not for Your glorification, to cry out: “Jesus and Mary, I commend my soul to You!”

My Jesus, I also ask Your forgiveness for the coldness, indifference, lukewarmness and outrageous ingratitude that people have shown You. I promise You, as often as I feel my love for You grow cold, to exclaim without delay: “Jesus and Mary, I commend my soul to You!”

Jesus, I kiss Your holy hands and ask Your forgiveness for so many evil and indifferent works, for so many actions that are corrupted by self-love and self-indulgence. I promise You, every time I realize that I am not working out of love for You, to exclaim on the spot: “Jesus and Mary, I commend my soul to You!”

Jesus, I kiss Your holy feet and ask Your forgiveness for so many steps, for so many paths taken without the right opinion; also for those people without number who move away from You to pursue earthly pleasures. I promise You, as often as the thought comes to me to distance myself from You, to cry out: “Jesus and Mary, I commend my soul to You!”

Jesus, I adore Your most sacred Heart and I want to enclose in it all souls redeemed by You, including mine, so that none may be lost and all may be saved. Jesus, lock me up in Your heart and block the door so that I see nothing but You alone. I promise that as often as I feel the desire to go out of Your heart, I will immediately cry out:

“Jesus and Mary, I commend my soul to You!”

Reflections and Practices

by St. Fr. Annibale Di Francia

Jesus Burns with thirst. And do we burn with thirst for Jesus? Do our thoughts and affections always have the purpose of quenching His ardent thirst?

Unable to bear the thirst that consumes Him, thirsty Jesus adds, “All is Consummated!” So, Jesus consumed Himself completely for us. And we—do we strive, in each thing, to be a continuous consummation of love for Jesus? Each act, word and thought led Jesus toward His Consummation. And does each act, word and thought of ours move us to be consumed for love of Jesus?

O Jesus, Sweet Life of mine, may Your Consumed Breath always blow in my poor heart, that I may receive the mark of Your Consummation.

On the Cross Jesus fulfills the Will of the Father in everything, and He Breathes His last with a Perfect Act of Abandonment in His Most Holy Will. And do we fulfill the Will of God in everything? Do we abandon ourselves perfectly in His Volition without looking at whether it is advantageous for us or not—just being content to find ourselves abandoned in His Most Holy Arms? Is our dying to ourselves continuous for love of Jesus? Can we say that, although we live, we do not live; that we are dead to everything in order to live not from our own life, but only from the Life of Jesus? Does everything we do, think, desire and love call the Living of Jesus within us, so as to make our word, our step, our desire and our thought die completely in Jesus?¹

O my Jesus, may my death be a continuous death for love of You, and may each death I suffer be a life that I intend to give to all souls.

¹ Because Jesus lives and works in us, our work, insofar as it is determined by our own will, is as it were dead on our part.

Sacrifice and Thanksgiving

Sources:

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