Showing posts with label Good Friday Meditation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Good Friday Meditation. Show all posts

Good Friday - Gazing Upon The Face of Christ



It is only with much perseverance and undeserved grace that our meditation and contemplation will bear fruit - fruit which we should share with those around us. On those occasions when we are so blessed, most of us will resort to sharing our experience with written or spoken words.

A rare few who ponder persistently the mysteries of our Faith and the life of our Savior Jesus Christ, and who have been blessed with artistic gifts, will receive a greater grace - the ability to share the fruits of their meditation and contemplation through the creation of penetrating, piercing, and powerful images of He Whom they have contemplated.

Take time this Good Friday (and from time to time thereafter) to gaze upon and ponder the drawing posted below. Let your eyes, heart, mind and soul take in every painstakingly created feature of this compelling representation of our Lord.

Ponder the depth of God's love for you as He suffered such a savage, barbaric and painful death in order that we might all have an opportunity of spending eternity in His loving arms. Are you satisfied with how you have loved Him in return?

No doubt the creator of this sketch - a man who spent time in prison - meditated and contemplated much before he put lead pencil to a blank sheet of copy paper. This visual gift - the fruit of this soul's contemplation - has remained in my home office for many years.  Others deserve to see it. May God use it to touch and stir the hearts and souls of all who visit here as He had so obviously penetrated that of the artist.

May the image's creator be comforted and encouraged this day knowing that God will use the fruit of his contemplation to draw others to Him. 

We owe this gifted artist our gratitude and unending prayerful support.

Unforgettable



[What follows is a slightly revised poem I posted some time ago. May it provide some fruit for your contemplation on this most sorrowful of days]

For far too many of us, today will likely pass much like any other Friday - a mad rush to get to the weekend. with little thought of He Who made us and whose sacrificial and brutal death redeemed us. Where is our gratitude?


Unforgettable

This the day so long foretold
The day of justice lacking
The day of man's ingratitude

This the day of cowardice and fear
The day of torture and sorrow
The day of darkness and death

This the day of horror and pain
The day of weeping women
The day of uncaring masses

This the day sin prevailed
The day of little light
The day that mirrored night

This the day so profound and tragic
The day of death and new life
The day with kiss betrayed

(Image Source: Wikimedia Commons)

This the day Your apostles fled
The day Peter knew You not
The day the cock crowed twice

This the day of whips and chains
The day of piercing thorns
The day of spittle, stones and splintered wood

This the day Your cross bearing
The day of multiple falls
The day of Simon's helping hand

This the day of Veronica's veil
The day of human slaughter
The day your mother sobbed

This the day Your limbs dislocated
The day hammers struck the nail
The day of severed nerves

This the day hands and feet fastened to a tree
The day my sins held You there
The day You gasped for air

This the day You hung in writhing pain
The day of unquenchable thirst
The day your Sacred Heart pierced

This the day blood and water flowed from Your side
The day even You felt forsaken
The day Your blood watered the soil

This the day one thief entered paradise
The day another rejected Your offer
The day Your killers forgiven

This the day You reopened the gates
The day You died for me
The day our sins forgiven

This the day of transforming grace
The day we must always remember



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