PRAY WHEN YOU CAN. The Holy Hour at home can be done of course at ANY time of day and any day of the week, because God cherishes all devout prayer.
BUT… there is a special day and time for this Holy Hour.
Thursday night… the hour of 11pm -12 am is special. It’s the hour Our Lord asked for. There’s a holy opportunity awaiting you, and it’s filled with graces.
KNEEL WHEN YOU CAN You don't have to kneel at all if your knees won't allow it, but if you are healthy and strong enough try to kneel for as much of the time as you can joyfully do so. A good way to start out is kneeling for at least a few moments at the beginning and your opening prayer and closing prayer: a few minutes at the beginning and end and maybe work your way to more as your health allows.
If you're infirm or have tricky knees, don't let that stop you from praying! Chair-bound or bed-bound, you bring Christ much consolation in the Garden that way, too! Just spend time with Him!
We’re so glad you’re here
Welcome to our Vigil Five of a 7-Thursday Lenten Retreat of guided Holy Hours to console and spend time watching and praying with Our Lord in Gethsemane. Each vigil is unique and independent from the others. ( Please note: if you’re just joining us on the journey now, it’s fine to just pick up from this point on. But if you want to catch up on what you’ve missed, you can find previous Vigils here. ) Our time will make every Thursday of Lent special by going to Gethsemane in prayer. These Thursdays with Our Lord will make for a more beautiful Lent, very meaningful Triduum, and yet more joyous Easter.
You are in a place set apart where you can console and make reparation to Our Lord, where He was most alone and specifically asked for company! You are not here by accident. He is waiting for you. You’ve been invited… thank you for saying YES!
We invite you to bring your special intentions along with you as you pray, and please leave any prayer intentions below in comments.
Opening Prayer, by Padre Pio
Eternal Father, I offer Thee all the past, present, and future Masses together with the Blood of Christ shed in Agony in the Garden of Sorrow at Gethsemane.
Amen”
A Crown for Jesus in the Garden
Sonnet V of a Crown of Sonnets
from Awake with Christ, by Annabelle Moseley
That I may wakefully, willfully stay
and offer the Host hospitality!
May I kneel here to whole-heartedly pray,
and watch, though trembling, with vitality!
The House of Bethany is on this Mount
of Olives—and it’s name, “Affliction’s House”
also means “House of Figs.” In each account
of Scripture, figs mean faith. So here, Faith’s Spouse,
in Your affliction, see my faith. And may
that fruit feed You and slake Your thirst. For now
I’ll pick the flowers near us—a bouquet
to give the Holy Gardener as I bow.
May I make for You here a Bethany
to comfort you in cold Gethsemane.
As part of Thursdays in the Garden, may we consider each Holy Hour we have prayed, and will pray…as a new flower to add to a spiritual bouquet we will present to Our Lord in the Garden of Gethsemane on Holy Thursday.
Our Garden Guide for the Fifth Week of Lent is: Saint Padre Pio
Padre Pio was born Francesco Forgione on May 25, 1887 and died September 23, 1968. He was a priest, Capuchin friar, mystic and stigmatist. Famous for spending hours in the Confessional giving thorough and miraculous Confessions, Padre Pio called this Sacrament “the soul’s bath.” His five rules for spiritual growth included
- weekly Confession
- daily Communion
- spiritual reading
- meditation (on Scripture, the mysteries of the Rosary etc)
- frequent examination of conscience
Padre Pio was spiritually in Gethsemane many times throughout his life, from suffering with the ill health that began in his boyhood to the pains of his stigmata. When the Vatican was skeptical of his stigmata and all the attention he received from those who loved him they released this statement:
Padre Pio is to be stripped of all the faculties of his priestly ministry except the faculty to celebrate the Holy Mass, which he may continue to do, provided that it is done in private, within the walls of the friary, in the inner chapel, and not publicly in church.”
Padre Pio was deeply anguished by this but submitted, saying, “God’s will be done.”
In his life, Padre Pio understood what it meant to be rejected, betrayed, misjudged, and highly disliked. Have you ever experienced any of these issues, even in the face of being kind to your enemies? Then, Padre Pio can be a spiritual father for you.
After this time of terrible trial, Padre Pio was reinstated and allowed to return to saying Mass publicly once more. His Masses deepened the faith of those privileged to attend. Fra Fucci, one of his brother Capuchins described it this way:
In those moments Padre Pio lived sensibly and really the Passion of the Lord. He was outside time! That was why his Mass lasted an hour and a half or probably more. At the Elevation his suffering reached its height. Watching his weeping, his sobbing, I was afraid his heart would burst, that he was about to faint from one moment to the next. God’s Spirit had by now penetrated his whole body. His soul was buried in God. He offered himself with Christ, victim for his brothers in exile… A spectacle of faith, love, suffering and emotion that reached the point of drama when the Padre raised the Host. The sleeves of the surplice came down and his torn, bleeding hands were in the sight of all, whereas his gaze was on God!
In 1965, at San Giovanni Rotundo, Our Lord gave Padre Pio prayers to Jesus of Gethsemane along with special promises of graces for devotees of Our Lord in Gethsemane. The prayers have been featured in these Holy Hours, and can be found all together in Awake with Christ. Padre Pio prayed that devotion to Our Lord in Gethsemane would grow. That’s why St. Padre Pio is one of our patron saints at CatholicHolyHour.com, and that’s why YOU being HERE is an answer to Padre Pio’s prayer.
Meditation on Jesus in the Garden, by Padre Pio
Jesus approaches the three Apostles. They are still sleeping. Strong emotion, the late hour of the night, that presentiment of something awful– irreparable– which seemed to be approaching, and fatigue, had put them to sleep, such a sleep that weighs down upon one and seems impossible to shake off, and trying to shake it off, one falls into it again without knowing how. Jesus has pity on them saying, “The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.”
Jesus has so felt this neglect from His own that He exclaims: “Sleep now and rest.” He pauses a moment. Suddenly, at the footsteps of Jesus, with an effort they open their eyes. Then Jesus continues: ‘It is enough. The hour is at hand. The Son of Man will be betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise, let us go. Behold, he who betrays me is at hand’ (MT 26:45-46)
Jesus beholds everything with His all-seeing glance. He seems to say: You who are My friends and disciples sleep, but My enemies are awake and are about to seize Me. You, Peter, who felt strong enough to follow Me unto death, you sleep! From the beginning you gave Me proofs of weakness. But be calm, I clothe Myself with weakness and I have prayed for you. And after you have recognized your mistake, I will be your strength and you will feed My lambs…
You, John, also sleep! You, who a few hours past in the ecstasy of My love, have felt the beat of this Heart, you also sleep? Rise, let us go, there is no more time to sleep, the enemy is at the gate; it is the hour of the power of darkness, yes let us go. I go spontaneously to meet death. Judas hurries to betray Me and I advance with firm and sure step. I will place no obstacle to the fulfillment of the prophecies. My hour has come; the hour of great mercy for humanity.
And in fact there is heard the sound of steps, a reddish light of torches penetrates the Garden and Jesus, followed by the three disciples, advances, intrepid and calm.
Let us pray with Padre Pio:
O Jesus, impart to me also that same strength, when my weak nature foreseeing future evils rebels, so that like Thou, I may accept with serene peace and tranquility all the pains and distress which I may meet on this earth of exile. I unite all to Thy merits, to Thy pains, Thy expiations, Thy tears, that I may cooperate with Thee for my salvation and flee from sin, which was the sole cause of making Thee sweat blood and which led Thee to death. Destroy in me everything that does not please Thee, and with the sacred fire of Thy love write Thy sufferings into my heart. Hold me so closely to Thee, with a bond so tight and sweet, that I shall never again abandon Thee in Thy sufferings.
May I be able to rest on Thy Heart to obtain comfort in the sufferings of life. May my spirit have no other desire but to live at Thy side in the Garden and unite itself to the pains of Thy Heart. May my soul be inebriated with Thy Blood and feed itself with the bread of Thy sufferings. Amen.
Reflection: A Bruised Thing with a Beautiful Soul
by Annabelle Moseley
I loved climbing the stairs to my father’s wonderful office. I was always poring over my Children’s Illustrated Bible long into the night when I should have turned out my light; and so I made a connection that climbing the stairs to my father’s office was like ascending Jacob’s Ladder.
The climb was symbolic—he was a tower of wisdom to me. And talking with him was pure joy.
One night, a few weeks after my grandfather’s passing, I climbed the stairs to my father’s office and his eyes shone as he handed me a surprise he had found. There was a story that went with the prize.He said he’d been driving when something bounced out of a truck in front of him and rolled to the side of the road. He pulled over to investigate. It was a beautiful, blown-glass paperweight with a yellow lily inside of it. There was a gouge where the paperweight had fallen, but not broken. When he saw the beautiful weight still intact despite its wound, he took it home.
He was smiling broadly as he handed it to me and said, “It’s like the good soul. The soul can be made even more beautiful through the difficult times we face.”
As I placed my thumb against the jagged gash, I felt like Thomas placing his finger against the wound of Christ.
I was reminded of the wounds of Jesus and the redeeming beauty that came from them. I felt that my broken heart, missing Grandpapa, was something Jesus understood. I realized my father, too, was hurting, and that he found comfort in finding and giving this gift to me.
My father was a good and wise dad and teacher. What a beautiful and simple way this was to bring healing to his child in mourning. The spirit may be willing and the flesh weak… but it is possible for our bruises to make us more beautiful. Whatever you are going through, think of your wounds becoming like that. Think of the wounds that still remain in the hands and feet and side of Our Resurrected Lord.
Our Lord left them there on purpose. Let us ask Him to resurrect and make beautiful our bruises, too. Our spirit is willing, and we offer our weak flesh to the Lord, reminding Him of what St. Paul teaches us in Second Corinthians:
“I was given a thorn in my flesh… Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But He said to me: ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.”— 2 Cor 12:8-9
For more of this story, read Our House of the Sacred Heart, by Annabelle Moseley
Lectio Divina
An important part of the Holy Hour Devotion is taking time for contemplation. And so, as a Lectio Divina reflection:
Read, Meditate, Pray, and Contemplate the following passage of Scripture. Which word or phrase moves you the most spiritually, or speaks to you about something you are going through at this time? Which word calls to you to take new action in your life?
Watch, and pray that you enter not into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh weak.” (MT 26:41)
Let us pause to make an examination of conscience
Ponder and pray: In what way is YOUR spirit willing but your flesh weak? Let us ask God to give us strength.
To strengthen not only our willing spirits but also our weak flesh, let us consider the Promises that Padre Pio teaches were given to him directly by Our Lord. These Promises are for all devotees of Gethsemane – this means YOU.
PROMISES
AS GIVEN TO ST. PIO – SAN GIOVANNI ROTONDO – 1965 + IMPRIMATUR: MARCARIO, BISHOP
FEBRUARY 23 – NOVEMBER – 1963
Our Lord Jesus Christ made these promises to devotees of The Agony of Jesus on the Mount of Olives:
To all those who remember My Agony, with love and devotion, at least once a day: forgiveness of all sins and the certainty of salvation for their souls in the hour of their death.
Total and everlasting repentance to those who will have a Mass celebrated in honour of My Agonising Suffering in the Garden of Gethsemane.
Success in spiritual matters to all those who impress on others a love and devotion to My Agonies on the Mount of Olives.
Finally, and in order to prove to you that I want to break open a dam of My Heart so as to let flow a flood of My Graces, I promise those who spread this devotion to My Agony in the Garden of Gethsemane, the following 3 graces:
Total and final victory over the worst temptation to which they are subjected;
Direct power to save poor souls from purgatory;
Great enlightenment and strength to fulfill My Will.
All of these, My precious gifts, I will definitely give to those who carry out what I have said, and who, therefore, remember and venerate with love and sympathy, My great, incomprehensible Agony on the Mount of Olives.
This are indeed such powerful promises from Our Lord to Padre Pio. Since there are beautiful graces for those who lead others to devotion to Our Lord in Gethsemane, consider using this link to invite a friend or family member to join you for these CatholicHolyHour vigils.
Click here to invite a friend or family to join you for these Vigils
The Sorrowful Mysteries of the Rosary [VIDEO – click on the play icon to start]
As you pray this Rosary bring your scars and wounds to Our Lord. Give Him your willing spirit. Ask Him to strengthen your flesh that you may better serve Him.
This Week’s Lenten Challenge: The Spirit is Willing but the Flesh is Weak
How to do this:
- Pay greater attention to your fast this week. Amp up your self-denial. For example: don’t turn off the morning alarm to go back to sleep. Get up at once, and pray.
- Perhaps deny yourself that favorite snack.
- Find other ways to strengthen the flesh through discpline. One great way to do this? Try praying the Angelus three times a day: at 6 am, 12 pm, and 6 pm. Or pick another time of day that works for you to pray that hour’s prayer such as The Chaplet of Divine Mercy at 3 pm… and whatever prayer and time you pick… STICK to it!
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