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Katya Rivas' Passion : Surrender, Trial & Conviction

Saturday, 11 April 2020, 9:10 pm
Column: Katya Rivas

For the final two weeks of Lent 2020 Scoop will be publishing a serialisation of Katya Rivas’s “The Passion”. Readers can sign up to receive the serial by email Here. To order a video about Katya’s work visit apleatohumanity.com

The Medallion of the Apostolate of the New Evangelization

The Passion

Reflections that Jesus makes on the mystery of His suffering and the value it has on the Redemption.

Cochabamba — Bolivia
Spanish Editions: 1996 and 1998 - English 1st Edition - November 1999

Jesus Does the Will of the Father
Extract 6
Jesus
Of My Passion I want you to consider above all, the bitterness that was caused by My knowing the sins, that darkening the mind of man, lead him to aberrations. Most of the time these sins are accepted as a fruit of natural inclinations that, it is said, cannot be opposed by one’s own will. Today, many live in grave sin, blaming others or fate, without the possibility of getting rid of them. I saw this in Gethsemane and I knew the great evil that My soul would absorb. So many are lost like that and how I suffered for them!
Thus by My example, by washing their feet and becoming their Food, I taught My Apostles to mutually support each other. The hour was approaching for which the Son of God had been made man and Redeemer of the human race; for which He was going to spill His Blood and give His Life for the world.
At that moment I wanted to be in prayer and give Myself to the Will of My Father… It was then that My Will as a man conquered the natural resistance to the great suffering prepared for Me by Our Father, who you see was hurting more than Myself. Then, among those lost souls, I surrendered My Own Soul in order to repair that which had already become corrupt. My Omnipotence can do all, but wants littleness upon which to add of the other, and this littleness, I Myself offer it with infinite Love.
My Passion… what a bottomless abyss of bitterness within which it enclosed itself!
How mistakenly remote is he who believes he comprehends it, yet only thinks of the terrible sufferings of My Body.
My daughter, I have reserved for you other scenes of the intimate tragedies that I lived and I wish to share them with you because you are one of those whom the Father gave Me in the Garden.
Dear souls, learn from your Model that the only necessary thing, even if your nature rebels, is to submit yourself with humility and to surrender yourself to fulfill the Will of God.
I also wanted to teach souls that all-important acts must be prepared and revitalized through prayer. In prayer the soul is fortified for the most difficult things and God communicates with the soul, gives it advice, and inspires it even when it (the soul) is not aware of it.
I withdrew to the Garden with three of My Disciples, in order to teach them that the three Powers of the soul should accompany and help them in prayer.
Remember, from memory, the divine benefits, the perfection of God: His Kindness, His Power, His Mercy, and the Love that He has for you. Afterwards, look with understanding on how to correspond to the marvels that He has done for you…. Through prayer, in your retreat and silence, allow your will to be moved to do more and the best for God, and to be consecrated for the salvation of souls, whether by means of your apostolic work or by your humble and hidden life.
Prostrate yourselves humbly as creatures in the presence of their Creator, and adore His designs over you, whatever they may be, committing your will to the Divine One.
In this way I offered Myself to fulfill the work of redeeming the world. Ah! What a moment it was when I felt all those torments come over Me, the torments I was to suffer in My Passion: the slander, the insults, the scourging, the kicks, the Crown of Thorns, the thirst, the Cross…
All that passed before My eyes at the same time that an intense pain hurt My Heart; the offenses, the sins, and the abominations that would be committed in the passing of time. And I not only saw them, but I felt reinvested with all those horrors, and in this way I presented Myself to My Celestial Father to implore Mercy.
My little daughter, I offered Myself as a lily to calm His anger and appease His wrath. Nevertheless, with so many crimes and so many sins, My human nature experienced a mortal agony to the point of sweating blood.
Is it possible for this anguish and this Blood to be useless for so many souls?… My Love was the origin of My Passion. If I had not wanted it, who would have been able to touch Me? I wanted it and to accomplish this, I used the cruelest amongst men.
Before suffering, I knew in Myself all suffering and I could evaluate it entirely. But then, when I wanted to suffer, in addition to full knowledge and appraisal, I had the human sensation of all sufferings. I took all of them.
Speaking of My Passion, I cannot go into so much detail. Other times I have done so and you cannot understand it. Because of your human nature, you could not begin to understand the enormous extent of the pains that I have suffered.
Yes, I illuminate you, but I stay within a limit beyond which you cannot advance. Only to My Mother did I make known all My pains, that is why she suffered them more than anyone.
But today the world will know more than I have allowed up to now, because My Father wants it this way. For that reason, a ray of love flourishes in My Church because of all the changing circumstances that took Me from the Garden to Calvary. More than to anyone else, I manifest My Passion to the loved ones I had in the Garden. They are able to mention something that adapts to the mind of present-day travelers. And if they can, they should do it. That is why you should write all that I tell you, little one, for you and for many others, in comfort for the souls and for the Glory of the Holy Trinity who desires that My suffering in Gethsemane be known.
My soul is sad until death. While the sadness of not being physically well could be the cause of death, I wanted to experience the sadness of the spirit, which consisted of the complete absence of the influence of the Divinity and the heartbreaking presence of the causes of My Passion.
In My Spirit, which was agonizing unto death, were present all the reasons that impelled Me to bring Love to earth. Foremost were the offenses made against My suffering Divinity as a man, yet with the consciousness of God. You cannot find anything like this type of suffering because the man who sins understands, with My light, the part that corresponds to him and many times, imperfectly, he does not see what sin is like in front of Me. For that reason, it is clear that only God can know the importance of an offense done to Him.
Nevertheless, humanity should be able to offer complete knowledge, true sorrow, and repentance to the Divinity, and I can let humanity do so whenever it wishes. I do this in fact by offering My knowledge that has worked within Me, a man, a human who bore the offenses against God.
This was My wish: that through Me, the repented sinner would have the way of presenting to his God the knowledge of the committed offense, and that I, in My Divinity, could also receive the full understanding of what he has done against Me.
Enough for today, you do not know how much you console Me when you give yourself to Me with entire abandonment… Not everyday can I talk to souls… Let Me tell you, for them, My secrets!… Let Me make use of your days and nights!
I was sad unto death because I could see everywhere the huge accumulation of the offenses committed. And if for one I experienced a death without comparison, what could I have experienced for the combination of all the offences? “Sad is My Soul unto death…” a sadness which produced in Me the abandonment of all strength; a sadness which had as a center in Me the Divinity towards which would converge the tide of the faults and the stench of the souls corroded by all types of vices. For that reason, I was at the same time target and arrow - as God, the target, and as man, the arrow. As soon as I had absorbed all sin, I appeared before My Father as the only offender. Greater sadness than this could not exist, and I wanted to take all of it, for the Love of the Father, and for Mercy to all of you.
If he does not pay attention to this matter, man ponders in vain over the meaning of these words, which include all My essence as God and Man. Look at Me in this gigantic prison of spirit. Do I not deserve love if I struggled and suffered so much? Do I not deserve for creatures to count on Me as their own, knowing that I give Myself entirely without reserve? Drink all of you from My inexhaustible fountain of goodness. Drink! I offer you My sadness in the Garden; give Me your sadness, all your sadness. I want to make of your sadness a bouquet of violets, whose perfume is constantly directed toward My Divinity.
“Father, if it is possible, take this Cup away from Me, but let not My Will but Yours be done.” I said this in the height of bitterness, when the load that weighed upon Me had become so bloody that My Soul found itself in the most unbelievable darkness. I said it to the Father because, upon assuming all the blame, I presented Myself before Him as the only sinner against whom all His Divine Justice was discharged. And feeling deprived of My Divinity, only humanity appeared before Me.
Take from Me, O Father, this extremely bitter Chalice that You present to Me, and that I accepted for Your Love when I came to this world. I have arrived at a point in which I do not even recognize Myself. You, O Father, who loves Me, have made sin My inheritance and this makes My presence before You unbearable. The ingratitude of human beings is known to Me but how will I endure seeing Myself alone? My God, have pity of the great solitude in which I find Myself. Why do even You want to abandon Me? What help shall I find then in such great desolation? Why do You also strike Me this way? Yes, You deprive Me of You. I feel like I am going down into such an abyss that I do not even recognize your hand in such a tragic situation. The Blood that oozes out of My Body gives You testimony of My annihilation under Your powerful hand.
Thus, I cried; I fell. But then I continued: It is just, Holy Father, that You do of Me what You want. My life is not Mine, it belongs totally to You. I do not want that My Will be done, but rather Yours. I have accepted a death on the Cross, I accept also the apparent death of My Divinity.
It is just. All this I should give You and, before everything, I should offer You the holocaust of My Divinity which unites Me to You. Yes, Father, with the Blood that You see, I confirm My donation and My acceptance: Your Will be done, not Mine…
†
Jesus Looks for His Disciples
Extract 7
Jesus
In spite of everything, the enormous weight and the terrible fatigue, together with the sweat of Blood, I had been hit in such a way that when I went to look for My Apostles, I felt tremendously exhausted.
Peter, John, James! Where are you that I do not see you alert? Wake up, look at My face, see how My Body trembles in this tribulation that I experience! Why do you sleep? Wake up and pray with Me; I have sweated Blood for you!
Peter, My chosen disciple, do you not care about My Passion?… James, to you I have given so much preference, look at Me and remember Me! And you John, why do you let yourself sink into sleep with the others? You can bear more than they… Do not sleep, keep watch and pray with Me!
This is what I obtained: seeking comfort, I found bitter affliction. Not even they are with Me. Where else shall I go?… It is true, My Father gave Me only that which I asked for, so that the judgment to all humanity would fall upon Me. My Father, help Me! You can do all; help Me!
I prayed again as a man for whom all hope has been destroyed and who seeks comprehension and comfort from on high. But what could My Father do if I had freely chosen to pay for everything? My election had not changed. Nevertheless, the natural resistance had come to such an excessive degree that My humanity was overwhelmed.
Again I fell to the ground on My face because of the shame of all your sins; again I asked My Father to take away that Chalice. But He answered that, if I did not drink from it, it would be as if I had not come to this world and for Me to console Myself because many creatures would take part in My agonies in the Garden.
I answered: Father, do not let My Will be done, but Yours. This Angel has assured Me of Your Love, and this brief joy that You have sent Me, has done a good deed even with My natural resistance. Give Me My creatures, those I have redeemed. You Yourself take them because for You I have accepted. I want to see You content. I offer You all My sufferings and My unchanging Will, that in truth is not in disagreement with Yours, because We have always been One… Father, I am destroyed but thus Our Love will be known. Your Will be done, not Mine!
Again I returned to wake My Disciples, but the rays of the Divine Justice had left Me in a permanent rut… They became filled with fright when they saw Me like a mad man, and the one who suffered the most was John. I, silent…they stunned… Only Peter had the courage to speak. Poor Peter, if he had only known that part of My agitation had been caused by him.
I had taken My three friends so that I could rest in them and in their love, so that they could help Me by sharing My anguish, and pray with Me… How do I describe what I felt when I saw them asleep?
How My Heart suffers even today and, wanting to find relief in My souls, I go to them and find them asleep. More than once, when I wanted to wake them and take them out of themselves, away from their worries. They answer Me, if not with words, with deeds: “Not now, I am too tired; I have too much to do; this is bad for My health; I need a little time; I want some peace.”
I insist and gently tell that soul: Do not fear. If for Me you leave your rest, I shall reward you. Come and pray with Me, only one hour! Look, this is the moment when I need you! If you stop, will you now be behind schedule? How many times I hear that same answer!
Poor soul, you have not been able to keep watch one hour with Me. Soon I will come and you shall not hear Me because you are asleep. I will want to give you the Grace but since you are asleep, you shall not be able to receive it. And who will make sure that later you will have the strength to wake up?… It is possible that deprived of food, your soul will be weak and you may not be able to come out from that lethargy.
Many souls have been surprised by death in the middle of a deep sleep and, where and how have they awakened?
Dear souls, I also want to teach you how useless and vain it is to look for relief in creatures. How often they are asleep and, instead of finding the relief that I look for in them, I leave with bitterness for they do not correspond to Our wishes nor to Our Love.
When I prayed to My Father and asked for help, My sad and abandoned soul was suffering the anguish of death. I felt overpowered with the weight of the worst ingratitude.
The Blood that poured out of all the pores of My Body and that in a short time would gush forth from all My wounds, would be useless for a great number of souls that would be lost. Many would offend Me and many would not know Me! Later I would spill My Blood for all and My merits would be applied to each one of them. Divine Blood! Infinite merits! And yet, useless for so many, many souls.
But by then I was already going to encounter other things, and My Will was bent to the fulfillment of My Passion.
Men, if I suffered, it has certainly not been without fruit nor without reason. The fruits that I have obtained have been Glory and Love. It is now up to you, with My help, to demonstrate to Me that you appreciate My work.
I never tire! Come to Me! Come to He who vibrates in Love for you and who only knows how to give you the real Love that reigns in Heaven and that transforms you now on earth.
Souls that taste My thirst, drink from My bitter and glorious Chalice, for I tell you that the Father wants to reserve some of the drops of this Chalice precisely for you. Think about these few drops taken from Me and then, if you believe, tell Me that you do not want them. I have not set limits and neither should you. I was destroyed without mercy. For love, you should allow Me to destroy your self-esteem.
I am He who works in you, just as My Father worked in Me when in the Garden.
I am He who gives you sufferings so that one day you may be happy. Be docile for a time; be docile in imitation of Me because this helps you greatly and it pleases Me a great deal. Do not lose anything, but rather acquire the love. How could I allow My beloved ones to suffer real losses while they try to show Me love?
I wait for you. I am always waiting and I shall not tire. Come to Me; come as you are, it does not matter as long as you come. Then you shall see that I will adorn your foreheads with jewels, with those drops of Blood that I spilled in Gethsemane - those drops are yours, if you want them. Come, soul, come to Jesus who calls you.
I said: My Father; I did not say: My God. This is what I want to teach you: when your heart suffers most, you should say “My Father” and ask Him for consolation. Show Him your sufferings, your fears, and with moans remind Him that you are His children. Tell Him that your soul can no longer bear it! Ask with a child’s trust and wait, for your Father will help you; He will give you and the souls who trust, the necessary strength to go through your tribulations…
This is the Chalice that I accepted and drained to its last drop. Everything to teach you, dear children, not to ever believe again that suffering is useless. If you do not see results always attained, yield your judgment and allow the Divine Will to be fulfilled within you.
I did not retreat. On the contrary, knowing that it was in the Garden where they had to apprehend Me, I stayed there. I did not want to flee from My enemies…
My daughter, tonight allow My Blood to irrigate and strengthen the roots of your littleness.
†
Judas Delivers Jesus
Extract 8
Jesus
After having been comforted by My Father’s messenger, I saw that Judas, followed by all those who would apprehend Me, was approaching Me. They had ropes, sticks, and stones… I stepped forward and told them: “Who are you looking for?” While Judas, with a hand on My shoulder, kissed Me…
So many souls have sold Me and will sell Me for the wretched price of a delight, for a momentary and passing pleasure… Poor souls, those that look for Jesus, as the soldiers did.
Souls whom I love; you, who come to Me and receive Me in your bosom, who tell Me so many times that you love Me…will you hand Me over after you receive Me? In the places that you visit there are stones that wound Me, there are conversations that offend Me, and you, who have received Me today lose the beautiful whiteness of Grace there.
Why do the souls who know Me, hand Me over this way when on more than one occasion they boast of being pious and practicing charity? All things that truly could help you acquire greater merits… What are they to you but a veil to cover your crime of treasuring goods on earth?
Be watchful and pray! Fight without rest and do not let your bad inclinations and defects become habitual.
Look, it is necessary to cut down the grass every year and possibly even during the four seasons. You have to work the land and clear it. You have to make it better and take care to pull out the weeds that sprout up in it.
You also have to take care of the soul with much diligence and you must straighten out the twisted tendencies.
Do not believe that the soul who sells Me and gave itself to grave sin, started with a grave sin. Usually the great fall started with something little: something the soul enjoyed, a weakness, an illicit consent, a pleasure that is not forbidden but that is not very convenient… In this way, the soul starts blinding itself, it diminishes in Grace, the passion strengthens, and lastly, it conquers.
Understand this: if it is sad to receive an offense and ingratitude from any soul, it is more so when it comes from My most beloved, chosen souls. However, others can do reparation and console Me.
Souls, you whom I have chosen to make My resting place, the garden of My delights, I expect from you greater tenderness, more gentleness, and a lot more love.
I expect you to be the balm that heals My wounds, to clean My face made ugly and dirty; to help Me give light to so many blind souls that in the darkness of night apprehend Me and bind Me to give Me death.
Do not leave Me alone… Wake up and come, for My enemies are arriving!
When the soldiers came close I said: “I am!” These same words I repeat to the soul who is about to fall into temptation: "I am,” there is still time and if you want, I shall forgive you. And instead of you tying Me up with the ropes of sin, I am He who shall tie you up with the bond of Love.
Come, I am He who loves you; the One who has so much compassion for your weaknesses; the One who is anxiously waiting to receive you in His arms.
The episode of My capture, well examined, has a lot of importance. If Peter had not given that blow to Malchus, I would not have had the opportunity to call to your attention the method I want you to use in fighting for Me.
Then I made use of a proverb to admonish Peter and I restored Malchus’ ear because I do not like violence, being that I am the Lord of liberty. But notice that apart from doing this, I expressed to Peter the firm desire that My Passion be completed and I made him contemplate the fact that if I wanted, the Father would defend Me with His Angels.
See how many things in just one episode? But the main thing is precisely the lesson that I had to give to all of you about fighting your enemies. Whoever is like Me does it thus: he allows himself to be taken where they want to take him, because he will have strength in the moments which are not those sought by the world (by man), by human experience, and by the astuteness of self-love.
No, whoever is like Me shall stay in the situation where he is placed and will receive unknown but vigorous strength to dominate his suppressors. My true disciple does the most improbable things without interrupting in the least My designs for him. The world pleases itself with singularities, in excelling, and showing its own superiority. This is the spirit that I have fought and conquered. That is why I told you all to take courage, because having conquered it, that world can now do nothing to cut its unity with Me provided that you do not unite with it. If you do, you would have to suffer the consequences with the added difficulty that since I Myself oppose its victory with the weapons of the world, many times you will have as adversaries the world and Me - the world because of its selfish love, and Me for pure Love, for Love of your true well- being.
Therefore, no blows like Peter’s to the ears of your enemies without full acceptance of the Chalice that I offer you. A Chalice in which you should see My Will as I saw that of My Father when I asked the beloved Peter: “Do you not want Me to drink from this Chalice that My Father gives Me?”
Always meditate on My Passion, but penetrate intimately into My Spirit and obtain the impressions that are wholesome and incite you to imitate Me. Naturally, I am He who works these things in you but you must apply yourselves and, later, you will attain what I say.
Ah! If man could only understand this aspect of My Passion! How much easier it would be to yield and relive My Life!
Go ahead, My children, everything is a question of love, not of anything else. Of love and My work that I want to accomplish in you, and of you always loving Me more. Stop reasoning in a human way; open your mind to My world, to the one that I have with you. This is important!
You are Mine for three reasons: because I created you from nothing; because I redeemed you; and because you shall receive part of My Crown of Glory. That is why you must remember that I care for you for these three reasons, and that I could never lose My interest in whom I have created, have saved, and in whom shall be My Glory.
You are driven to this path and you must travel it all. As it was for Me, it will not only be good for you but also for many of your brothers who should receive from Me, through you, Grace and Life.
Advance, because I delight Myself in it; learn, because Love wants to possess you completely.
I give you My Blessing, full of promise. I give it to all of you with the power that I enjoy as a man, power that is yours, and joy that I shall award with the prize, which shall confirm My infinite Love for you.
My hour had come; the hour in which I had to consummate the sacrifice, and I surrendered Myself to the soldiers with the meekness of a lamb.
†
Jesus Is Taken before Caiaphas
Extract 9
Jesus
I was taken before Caiaphas, where I was received with jeers and insults. One of his soldiers struck My cheek. It was the first blow I received and in it I saw the first mortal sin of many souls who, after having lived in grace, committed that first sin… So many other sins followed that first sin, serving as an example so that other souls would also commit them.
My Apostles abandoned Me and Peter remained hidden behind a fence, amongst the servants, spying, moved by curiosity.
With Me were men only trying to accumulate crimes against Me, accusations that could further incite the anger of such wicked judges. There I saw the faces of all the demons, of all the bad angels. They accused Me of disturbing the order, of being an instigator and a false prophet, of being blasphemous, and profaning the Sabbath. And the soldiers, overexcited by the slanders, shouted and threatened Me.
Then My silence cried out, shaking My whole Body. Where are you, Apostles and disciples who have been witnesses of My Life, of My teachings and of My miracles? Of all those from whom I was expecting some proof of love, there is no one left to defend Me. I am alone and surrounded by soldiers who want to devour Me like wolves.
Contemplate how they mistreated Me: one deals Me a blow against the face, another thrusts his dirty saliva at Me, another twists My face to make fun of Me; another pulls My beard; another wrings My arms between his fingers; another hits My genitals with his knee, and when I fall, two of them pull Me up by the hair.
†
Peter Denies Jesus
Extract 10
Jesus
While My Heart offers to suffer all these ordeals, Peter, whom I had named “Leader and Head of the Church” and who hours before had promised to follow Me unto My death, denies Me in response to a simple question that is asked of him and which could have served him in giving testimony of Me. And as fear seizes him even more, when the question is repeated, he swears that he has never known Me nor has he been My disciple. Questioned for the third time, he answered with terrible curses.
Little children, when the world protests against Me and, turning towards My chosen souls, I see Myself abandoned and denied, do you know how great is the sadness and bitterness in My Heart?
I shall tell them as I told Peter: Soul, whom I love so much, do you not remember the tests of love that I have given you? Have you forgotten that many times you have promised Me to be faithful and to defend Me?
You do not trust yourself because you are lost; but if you come to Me with humbleness and firm trust, fear nothing; you are well sustained.
Souls, you, who live surrounded by so many dangers, do not enter into occasions of sin through vain curiosity; be careful that you could fall like Peter.
And you souls who work in My vineyard, if you feel moved by curiosity or by some human satisfaction, I shall tell you to run away. But if you work for obedience and are propelled by zeal for souls and for My Glory, be not afraid. I will defend you and you shall depart victorious.
My beloved, I am educating you little by little and with much patience. I am consoled with the thought of having a pupil eager to learn. Thus, I forget your negligence and mistakes. If I look in creation for the most beautiful names to call you, be not afraid. Why do you suppress them? Love has no limits.
Jesus Is Taken to Prison
Extract 11
Jesus
Let us go on with this painful story, which you will manage to take to as many people as you can. I will enlighten you in the way in which it should be done.
When the soldiers took Me prisoner, Peter was half hidden in one of the patios amid the crowd. Our looks crossed; his eyes were disoriented, it was only for a fraction of a second and yet, I told him so much!… I saw him cry bitterly for his sin and with My Heart I told him: “The enemy has tried to possess you but I do not abandon you. I know that your heart has not denied Me. Be ready for the battle of the new day, for the renewed battles against spiritual darkness and ready yourself to take the good news. Goodbye, Peter."
How many times I look into the soul that has sinned, but does it look also? Not always do our eyes meet. How many times do I look at the soul and it does not look at Me; it does not see Me; it is blind…. I call it by its name and it does not answer Me. I send it a sorrow, a pain, so that it can come out of its sleep, but it does not want to wake up.
My beloved ones, if you do not look at Heaven, you shall live as beings deprived of motive. Raise your head and contemplate the Home that awaits you. Search for your God and you shall always find Him with His eyes fixed upon you, and in His look you shall find peace and life.
Contemplate Me in prison where I spent a great part of the night. The soldiers came to insult Me with words and deeds, pushing Me, hitting Me, making fun of My condition as a man.
Close to dawn, fed up with Me, they left Me alone tied up in a dark, humid and foul-smelling room, full of rats. I was tied in such a way that I had to be standing up or sitting on a pointed rock which was what they gave Me as a seat. My aching body was soon numbed with cold. I remembered the thousands of times that My Mother covered My Body, wrapping it up when I was cold… and I cried.
Now let us compare the Sanctuary with the prison and, above all, with the hearts of men. In prison I spent one night… how many nights do I spend in the Sanctuary?
In prison the soldiers, who were My enemies, injured Me; but in the Sanctuary I am badly treated and insulted by souls who call Me Father. In the prison I was cold, sleepy, hungry, ashamed, sad, aching, lonely, and abandoned. I could see, over the course of time, how in so many Sanctuaries I would not have the coat of love. So many frigid hearts would be for Me like the rock in the prison!
So many times I would be thirsty for love, thirsty for souls! So many days do I wait for such a soul to visit Me, to receive Me in its heart because I have spent the night alone and have thought about that soul in order to quench My thirst! So many times I hunger for My souls, for their fidelity, for their generosity!
Do they know how to calm this longing? When they have to undergo some suffering, will they know to tell Me: “this will help to ease Your sadness, to be with You in Your loneliness?” And, O! If at least united to Me and as long as you would console My Heart, you would endure it all with peace and be strengthened.
In prison I felt shame when I heard the horrible words that were said about Me, and that shame grew when I later saw that those same words would be repeated by beloved souls.
When those dirty and repugnant hands struck My face and hit Me, I saw how many times I would be hit and struck by so many souls who, without purifying themselves from sin, without cleaning their house with a good confession, would receive Me in their hearts. Those habitual sins would strike Me repeatedly.
When they would make Me get up by pushing Me, being without strength and because of the chains that bound Me, I would fall to the ground. I saw how so many souls, tying Me up with the chains of ingratitude, would let Me fall upon the stones renewing My shame and prolonging My loneliness.
Chosen souls, contemplate your Spouse in prison. Contemplate Me this night of such pain and consider that this pain is prolonged in the solitude of so many Sanctuaries, in the coldness of so many hearts.
If you want to give Me proof of your love, open your heart so I can make it My prison. Tie Me up with the chains of your love. Cover Me with your gentleness; feed Me with your kindness. Quench My thirst with your zeal. Console My sadness and abandonment with your faithful company. Make My shame disappear with your purity and honest intentions.
If you want Me to rest in you, avoid the tumult of your passions and in the silence of your soul, I shall sleep peacefully.
Now and then you will hear My voice that softly tells you: Spouse of Mine, now that you are My rest, I will be yours through eternity. To you, who provide Me the prison of your heart with so much dedication and love, I promise that My reward shall have no limits, and the sacrifices that you have made for Me during your life will not weigh you down.
†
Jesus Is Taken before Herod
Extract 12
Jesus
Pilate ordered that they take Me to the presence of Herod… He was a poor corrupt man who only searched for pleasure, allowing him to be driven to disorderly passions. He was glad to see Me come before his tribunal because he hoped to amuse himself with My words and miracles.
Consider, My children, the repulsion that I felt in the presence of the most repulsive of men, whose words, questions, and affected gestures covered Me with confusion. Pure and virginal souls, come to surround and defend your Spouse.
Herod expects Me to answer his sarcastic questions but I do not utter a word; I keep the most absolute silence before him. Not answering was the greatest proof of My dignity that I could give him. His obscene words were not worthy to cross with My pure ones. In the meantime, My Heart was infinitely united to My Heavenly Father. I was consumed with desire to give up even the last drop of My Blood for souls. The thought of every man, who later would follow Me, conquered by My example and generosity, ignited Me in love and, not only did I enjoy that terrible interrogation but I wanted to run to the torture of the Cross.
†
Jesus Is Taken Again before Pilate
Extract 13
Jesus
I allowed them to treat Me as a mad man and they covered Me with a white tunic as a sign of their ridicule and their making fun of Me. Later, in the middle of furious mocking shouts, they took Me again before Pilate.
Watch how this bewildered and very confused man does not know what to do with Me. And to quiet the fury of the mob, he commands that they have Me scourged.
Represented in Pilate, I saw the souls that lack the courage and generosity to break away once and for all from the demands of the world and from their own nature. Instead of nipping the dangers of what their conscience tells them about not being of the world and of nature, their conscious mind tells them not to be of the good spirit. Then they give in to a whim, enjoy themselves in a passing satisfaction, and surrender in part to what their passion demands. And to silence the guilty feelings, they tell themselves: “I have already deprived myself of this or that, and that is enough.”
I will only say to this soul: “You scourge Me as did Pilate.” You have already taken one step, tomorrow another. Do you plan to satisfy your passion in this way? No! It shall soon demand more.
As you have not had the courage to fight your own nature in this small thing, much less will you have it later when the occasion shall be greater.
†
The Scourging of Jesus
Extract 14
Jesus
Look at Me, My dear ones. Letting Myself be led with the meekness of a lamb to the terrible torture of the scourging. On My Body, already covered with blows and overwhelmed with fatigue, the executioners cruelly discharge terrible lashes with braided rope, with rods. I am punished with so much violence that that there was no part of Me which was not prey to the most terrible pain. The blows and the kicks caused immeasurable wounds… The rods tore away pieces of My skin and flesh. Blood oozed from all My members. Time after time I fell because of the pain caused by the blows to My manliness. My Body was in such a state that I resembled a monster more than a man. The features of My face had lost their shape; it was all swollen.
The thought of so many souls, who later were going to be inspired to follow My footsteps, consumed Me with Love.
While in prison I saw the faithful imitators learning from My meekness, patience, and serenity. Not only to accept the suffering and scorns, but even loving those who persecute them and, if necessary, sacrificing themselves for them as I sacrificed Myself.
During those hours of solitude in the midst of so much pain, I became inflamed, more and more, in My desire of perfectly completing My Father’s Will. How I offered Myself in reparation of His deeply offended Glory! Thus you, religious souls who find yourselves in the chosen prison for love, who more than once pass in the eyes of others as useless and possibly harmful creatures, do not be afraid. Let them shout against you and, during those hours of pain and solitude, unite your heart intimately with your God, the only object of your love. Repair His Glory violated by so many sins.
†
Jesus Is Sentenced to Death
Extract 15
Jesus
At dawn Caiaphas ordered them to take Me to Pilate so that he might pronounce the sentence of death. Pilate questioned Me, hoping to find a reason to condemn Me, but at the same time his conscience tormented him and he felt great fear at the injustice that he was going to commit. Finally he found a way to ignore Me and had Me taken to Herod.
In Pilate are faithfully represented the souls who feel the movement of grace and at the same time their own passion, who are dominated by human respect and blinded by self love, and who allow the grace to pass for fear of being mocked.
I did not answer any of Pilate’s questions. But when he asked: “Are You the King of the Jews?”, then with seriousness and integrity, I answered: “You have said so, I am the King, but My kingdom is not of this world…” With these words I wanted to teach many souls how, when they are presented with the opportunity to endure suffering or a humiliation that could easily be avoided, they should answer with generosity: “My kingdom is not of this world…”. That is, I am not searching to be praised by men. My Home is not this one, yet I will rest where it really is. Now, be encouraged to fulfill My duty without taking into account the opinion of the world. What matters is not their esteem but to follow the voice of grace that drowns the lures of nature. If I am not able to conquer alone, I will ask for strength and counsel since, on many occasions, passions and excessive pride blind the soul and impel it to act wrongly.
The executioners who destroy My Body are not ten nor twenty. There are many hands that hurt My Body; receiving Communion in the hands - the sacrilegious work of Satan!
How can they contemplate Me in this sea of pain and bitterness without their hearts being moved with compassion? But it is not the executioners who have to console but you, chosen souls, so that My pain may be alleviated. Contemplate My wounds and see if there is anyone who has suffered as much as I, to show you their love.

†

(continuing)

EDITOR’S NOTES: For the final two weeks of Lent 2020 Scoop will be publishing a series of daily reflections on the Passion from Bolivian author Katya Rivas. Rivas has received an official imprimatur from the Catholic Church for several books.. Readers can sign up to receive daily extracts from Katya Rivas’s writings by email HERE. To order a video about Katya’s work visit… apleatohumanity.com

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