Thursdays in the Garden: Vigil Seven: “The Hour is Near”

Guided Holy Hour: In Honor of Holy Thursday, Feast of Jesus of Gethsemane

Dear Friend and Prayer-Gardener of Gethsemane,

We are grateful to God for each one of you whom God has surely called to join Him in the Garden. Holy Thursday is the Feast of Jesus of Gethsemane. That is why this feast is so special to all of us here. Holy Thursday is a feast of sublime importance. Why do we hear Holy Thursday called Maundy Thursday? Maundy is an abbreviated form of the word mandatum, from the Latin, meaning “command” (think mandate). While He was washing their feet He said, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another” (John 13:34)

Grant, O Jesus, that all who look lovingly at You on the Cross, will also remember Your immense suffering on the Mount of Olives, that they will follow your example, learn to pray devoutly, and fight victoriously, so that, one day, they may be able to glorify you eternally in Heaven.”
Amen.

This Holy Thursday marks the liturgical anniversary of the founding of Catholic Holy Hour. On this special day, we have a message from Catholic Holy Hour Chaplain, Fr. Joseph. How blessed we are to have him praying for us!

This is the feast day that recalls when Our Lord gave us the Eucharist. The Catechism of the Catholic Church calls the Eucharist the “source and ‘summit’ of the Christian life.” And the USCCB says the “summit” of the liturgical year is the Triduum. Both those summits meet in a special way on Holy Thursday, on the summit of the Mount of Olives!

Let us pause now, at this great summit… to thank Our Lord in the Garden for what He has literally just given the world, mere minutes prior… in the Upper Room. He gave us the Eucharist. As we thank Our Lord for this pearl of great price, we contemplate the following poetic reflection.

Mirror Sonnet: Mary Describes the Institution of the Eucharist
by Annabelle Moseley

I hoped that when he washed your feet you’d know
how humble he would make himself for love.
How much more will he leave you as he goes?
Food meant to join the earth to God above.
He withholds nothing from you. Take his soul,
his body, blood, divinity within.
Let nothing separate you. He is whole
within you, nourishing—forgiving sin.
He has transfigured, shone his outer view.
He has transformed mere water into wine.
What better wedding gift will he give you?
To transubstantiate fruit of the vine,
make work of human hands into what lasts.
He feeds you. But the world would have you fast.

He feeds you. But the world would have you fast.
Make work of human hands into what lasts—
He transubstantiates fruit of the vine.
What better wedding gift could he give you?
He has transformed mere water into wine;
He has transfigured, shone his outer view.
Within you, nourishing—forgiving sin,
let nothing separate you. He is whole.
His body, blood, divinity within,
He withholds nothing from you. Take his soul—
food meant to join the earth to God above.
How much more will he leave you as he goes?
How humble would he make himself for love?
I hoped that when he washed your feet you’d know.

There in Gethsemane where His friends fall asleep, the words of Our Lord, spoken to them, are also addressed to each of us: “Could you not watch with me one hour?” (MT 26:40) And so, on Holy Thursday, as we thank Our Lord for the gift of the Eucharist, we must also set aside time to console Him, to “watch and pray” with Him in Gethsemane, as He requests.

On this Holy Thursday, let us remember that our love for Our Lord in the Garden is a Eucharistic love. He has just entered the Garden on the heels of instituting the Eucharist in the Upper Room. Our Church honors Our Lord’s Agony in the Garden of Gethsemane by offering an Altar of Repose at the end of Holy Thursday Mass. The Eucharist is brought to this Altar of Repose, and Adoration begins.

Each Altar of Repose is a little Gethsemane. In fact, in the island of Malta, there is a famous devotion to the Altars of Repose. Their altars are famously elaborate and beautiful, as befits honoring our Lord in Gethsemane.

After the weeks many of us have spent together, praying these Thursdays in the Garden, each of our hearts might bear a resemblance to these altars, these places set apart for Jesus.

Together we pray:
Lord, may each and every one of our hearts be Your altar of repose.

We pause to reflect upon this brief but beautiful meditation in song, “Go to Dark Gethsemane.”

“Go to dark Gethsemane, you who feel the tempter’s power, Your Redeemer’s conflict see. Watch with Him one bitter hour.”

What a privilege to watch and pray where even His apostles fell asleep. May we watch and pray with Him with all of our hearts on this incredible Feast of Our Lord’s Agony, this Holy Thursday.

As found in “The Sacred Heart in Gethsemane” by Fr. Albert Tesniere (1847-1909)

The “Master of Prayer” (Jesus) gave in the Garden the ideal model of every prayer. Though under different conditions, He continues this example in the Eucharist.

Instituted to be the perfect and perpetual memorial of the Passion of the Saviour, the Eucharist carries down through the centuries the remembrance of the prayer and the Agony of Gethsemane.

…But desirous to perpetuate as much of His Passion as is possible, He continues His prayer in the lowliness of a state of inertia, which abases Him before His Father even below that of Gethsemane.

There (in Gethsemane), the pallor of His divine countenance, the Agony and the blood, without doubt, disfigured Him; but here (in the Eucharist)… He dwells alone, abandoned by indifferent, ungrateful, or hostile men, an abandonment far more displeasing to Him than was the sleep of the Apostles; and there He will remain night and day until the consummation of ages.

Every morning at the Consecration, He descends, perseveringly overcoming all repugnance, into the Gethsemane of the Sacrament, there to resume His prayer, in the humility of His attitude and the ardor of His desires for the redemption of the world and the coming of His kingdom.

But remaining truly man in His Heart and affections, seeking a return of love from us, still feeling the need of our presence and fidelity, of our sympathy and compassion, in which He finds consolation for His past sufferings and present humiliations, He calls upon us, He supplicates us to keep Him company, to stay with Him, to unite with Him in prayer as much for His sake as for our own.

It was this desire that He earnestly expressed at the moment He instituted the Eucharist, when He said: “Manete in me, manete in dilectione mea—Remain in me, remain in my love.” He did this in a manner still more precise when He deigned to throw off the sacramental veils and reveal the mystery of His existence, the love and the needs of His Heart in the Eucharist.

—Fr. Albert Tesniere

“Then he came to his disciples, and said to them: Sleep now and take your rest; behold the hour is at hand, and the Son of man shall be betrayed into the hands of sinners.”(Mk 14:41)

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?

Samuel was sleeping in the temple of the LORD where the ark of God was. The LORD called to Samuel, who answered, “Here I am.” Samuel ran to Eli and said, “Here I am. You called me.”

“I did not call you, “ Eli said. “Go back to sleep.”
So he went back to sleep.

Again the LORD called Samuel, who rose and went to Eli. “Here I am, “ he said. “You called me.”
But Eli answered, “I did not call you, my son. Go back to sleep.”

At that time Samuel was not familiar with the LORD, because the LORD had not revealed anything to him as yet. The LORD called Samuel again, for the third time. Getting up and going to Eli, he said, “Here I am. You called me.”

Then Eli understood that the LORD was calling the youth. So he said to Samuel, “Go to sleep, and if you are called, reply, ‘Speak, LORD, for your servant is listening.’”

When Samuel went to sleep in his place, the LORD came and revealed his presence, calling out as before, “Samuel, Samuel!”

Samuel answered, “Speak, for your servant is listening.”

Samuel grew up, and the LORD was with him, not permitting any word of his to be without effect.” —(1 Samuel 3:3-10, 19)

Ponder and Pray: In Gethsemane, we see Peter, James, and John fall asleep three times. And in our own lives, we have sometimes spiritually fallen asleep when Jesus called us to be awake. In the Book of Samuel, however… God’s servant, the child Samuel, shows how ready and eager he is to wake up at a moment’s notice… the moment God summons him!

When have you been like the sleeping apostles and when have you been like Samuel? Recognize that at this moment… awake with Christ in Gethsemane… you are like Samuel. You were called. And you answered: “Here I am!”

The angels pointed out to Jesus the multitudes of future saints who, joining their labors to the merits of His Passion, would through Him be united to the Heavenly Father… It was the army of future saints that passed before the soul of the Lord. Thus stood the Lord and Saviour between the ardent desires of the patriarchs and the triumphant host of future saints, which reciprocally filling up and completing one another, so to say, surrounded the loving heart of the Redeemer like an immense crown of victory. This unspeakably touching spectacle afforded the soul of the Lord, who had allowed all kinds of human suffering to pass over Him, some strength and consolation. Ah, he so dearly loved His brethren, His creatures, that willingly He would have suffered all for the purchase of one soul! As these visions referred to the future, they appeared hovering above the earth.”

Hopefully you find these words of the holy woman, Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich, consoling, to consider that we mere humans can bring comfort to Jesus. Hopefully you rejoice that you, in your time here… are bringing Him consolation there in the Garden. Because YOU are called to be a future saint. Our Lord, beyond time and space, sees YOU, loves you and is heartened by your time with Him.

In the words of Saint Elizabeth of the Trinity:

O Lord…
“Make my soul… your cherished dwelling place, your home of rest. Let me never leave you there alone, but keep me there all absorbed in you, in living faith, adoring you.”

Reflection: Running the Race
by Annabelle Moseley (from Our House of the Sacred Heart and Awake with Christ)

My Father died at 3:00 pm on a Friday, the day of the week devoted to the Passion of Jesus, Divine Mercy, and the Sacred Heart of Jesus. When my mom and I returned to our home, we saw that all the clocks had stopped at 3:00. It was as if the house knew its dome was absent.

Three o’clock, the hour marking the end of a teacher’s school day (my father had been a beloved high school teacher. My mother was also a teacher… of elementary students. So three o’clock was a familiar time in our family). Three o’clock was also, and most importantly the hour marking Christ’s death on Good Friday; three o’clock, the Hour of Divine Mercy. “For the sake of His Sorrowful Passion…”

I hadn’t been able to speak to my father in his last days. We had only been able to pray for him, and not with him. My father ended every work week as a teacher at 3:00 on a Friday, and his life culminated, by the grace of God, in an unforgettable lesson spotlighting God’s Mercy surrounding us, even in the face of unthinkable pain. The Lord gave even as He took away; “blessed be the name of the Lord” (Job…) and the Lord gave my father the very day of the week and the very hour of Christ’s death to comfort us all.

We chose for my father’s funeral the reading from 2 Timothy 4:7-8:
“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day– and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.” We chose this because my father himself was a marathon runner.

Amazingly, one of my mother’s students had a parent who entered my mother’s classroom one day to offer their sympathy. That parent asked my mother if it would be permissible to run the race my father had entered FOR HIM. Let me explain. This parent, also a marathon runner, would wear my father’s number… to honor him in this way, saying, “I’ll run him through!” To this day, when we see a man jogging, it often calls to mind a memory of my dad.

Many years later, on the anniversary of my Father’s death (which happened that year to fall on a Friday) my mother and I were sitting at the front window of my home with my young sons. We had gathered together to pray the Divine Mercy Chaplet. We were offering that prayer for my father’s soul. At 3:00 on the dot, as we prayed the chaplet, we suddenly all saw THREE RUNNERS jog by our home. It was a frigid day in February. All three joggers were young men, all three were in perfect unison, lined up and moving as though these athletes were of one mind.

In closing, we give “Pie Jesu”, a hymn of love to Jesus the Lamb of God. May Christ bring you the peace and comfort that you showered upon him in this Holy Hour.

And so, fellow Prayer-Gardeners of Gethsemane, we hope this Holy Hour has been fruitful for you.

What better time to spend an hour watching and praying with Our Lord than Holy Thursday? May God reward you for the time you have given Him out of love. Let this be the year we make each of our homes and hearts His Altar of Repose, each and every month!

And where do we go from here? Here at Catholic Holy Hour, we know that the call from Gethsemane to “watch and pray for one hour” that we “might not be put to the test,” is a year-round call.

That is the Mission of Catholic Holy Hour… to touch as many hearts as possible with the call of Our Lord from Gethsemane; to bring more souls to watch and pray with Him, so as to increase the consolation the angel brought Him in the Garden; and to make the at-home Holy Hour more accessible to as many people as possible.

We will continue to support you in your commitment to keep Thursdays holy in the Garden through inspiring Holy Hours, so that loving sons and daughters of God can respond to the Garden’s Call. In future, we hope to offer more guided retreats and even classes to inspire and nourish.

We hope you will support us (and encourage us to keep going!) through the Buy me a Coffee donation page.

God bless you!

See you in the Garden!