GUIDED HOLY HOUR: Eastertide Mercy in Gethsemane

Yes, Lord. I will watch one hour with you. And not only on Holy Thursday.

Like Saint Mary who lovingly gave not a little bit… but lavishly poured out her entire jar of fragrant oil to anoint You before Your death… may I lavishly love You hour after hour. Not one hour only, Lord. Not a single spray of prayerful perfume… rather, I give you the whole bottle.

With Saints Martha and Mary who hosted you in Bethany, I want to give you loving hospitality. From the very same Mount of Olives, near the “vicinity of Bethany” (Lk 24: 50) you lift up your hands in blessing and ascend to heaven. And so, it is right and proper that I want to bring a part of Bethany to your Agony in Gethsemane, loving you there with the gracious hospitality of Martha, the lavish love of Mary and a foretaste of the Ascension. As I console you, my Lord, I am consoled.

With Saint Longinus, the Centurion, who pierced your side as you were hanging on the cross, I call with faith: “Truly, this (is) the Son of God!” May the blood and water which “gushed forth from the heart of our Saviour as a fountain of mercy for us” wash me as it did Saint Longinus, taking away any spot of spiritual blindness and enveloping me in mercy.

With Saint Faustina, Apostle of Divine Mercy, who wrote in her Spiritual Diary (#1394), “I spent the whole night with Jesus in Gethsemane,” I want to make more Holy Hours to watch and pray with You, Lord, because it consoles me to console You.

In the words of the famous Jesus Prayer: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, have Mercy on me, a sinner.”

Jesus, I trust in You.

Amen.

Read, Meditate, Pray, and Contemplate this passage of Scripture. Which verse 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?

The Parable of the Lost Sheep

Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near Jesus to listen to Him. And both the Pharisees and the scribes began to complain, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.”

And so He told them this parable, saying, “What man among you, if he has a hundred sheep and has lost one of them, does not leave the other ninety-nine in the open pasture and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it? And when he has found it, he puts it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, because I have found my sheep that was lost!’ I tell you that in the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who have no need of repentance. (Lk 15:1-7)

Make a brief examination of conscience. The Parable of the Lost Sheep is such a story of God’s Mercy! When have you been like the stray sheep and when have you been the one drawing close to the side of your Shepherd? Recognize that at this moment, awake with Christ in Gethsemane… You have left the 99 other things you could have been occupied with… to be with the only 1 that can best help you face those 99!

I think of the sheep you left the other ones to save, my Good Shepherd… and I know how many times I have been that stray sheep you have patiently pursued. “I am the Good Shepherd, and I know mine and mine know me.” (Jn 10:14) “My sheep hear my voice: and I know them, and they follow me” (Jn 10:27)

Like the sheep you mercifully saved, I lovingly present myself to you, Jesus, saying, “I am yours. I hear your voice, and I follow you.” Jesus is willing to leave the 99 sheep to find the 1 sheep who is alone and agonizing. But in Gethsemane, Jesus is alone. How can I more frequently choose to leave my 99 obligations, to go spend 1 hour with the Good Shepherd, with the One who would leave every other sheep just to pick me up, lovingly drape me over His shoulders and lead me to green pastures?

Let us pray the prayer of Saint Faustina, to Jesus of Gethsemane:

“O thorny life, in order to pass through You victoriously it is necessary to lean on You, O Christ, and to be always close to You. I would not know how to suffer without You, O Christ. Of myself I would not be able to brave adversities. Alone, I would not have the courage to drink from Your cup; But You, Lord, are always with me…”  (Diary, 1654)

Jesus told St. Faustina: “I thirst. I thirst for the salvation of souls. Help Me, My daughter, to save souls. Join your sufferings to My Passion and offer them to the heavenly Father for sinners.” ( Diary, 1032)

As we bring to prayer all those intentions we offer to the mercy of Our Lord. Together we pray with the chant:

Lord have mercy,

Christ have mercy,

Lord have mercy.

Amen.

We now bring to our Merciful Jesus all the people and intentions we wish to pray for.

If you wish to join in praying the Divine Mercy Chaplet tonight, here is a guided prayer companion below, with images curated for this Holy Hour. And so, in a spirit of reparation and great love to Jesus of Gethsemane… we join our sufferings to the Passion of Jesus that began in Gethsemane. We seek to keep Jesus company there and pray for the salvation of souls. The image of Divine Mercy teaches us that wounds and even the shedding of blood can lead to something beautiful. What an important remembrance in Gethsemane.

Let us pause for a moment to learn from Pope Benedict XVI. During this beautiful Eastertide, lest we be tempted to think “Maybe Gethsemane is too sad to think about in the season of Easter”… we should remember Pope Benedict XVI’s words treating Gethsemane as heaven on earth in many ways:

The Gospel accounts of Gethsemane regretfully show that the three disciples, chosen by Jesus to be close to him, were unable to watch with him, sharing in his prayer, in his adherence to the Father and they were overcome by sleep. Dear friends, let us ask the Lord to enable us to keep watch with him in prayer, to follow the will of God every day even if he speaks of the Cross, to live in ever greater intimacy with the Lord, in order to bring a little bit of God’s “heaven” to this “earth.”

Eternal God, in whom mercy is endless and the treasury of compassion inexhaustible, look kindly upon us and increase Your mercy in us, that in difficult moments we might not despair nor become despondent, but with great confidence submit ourselves to Your holy will, which is Love and Mercy itself.