from 10 to 11 at night
SIX O'CLOCK
The second hour of agony in the Garden of Gethsemane
Preparation for each HOUR
And for those hours that I cannot reflect on, I offer you my willingness to remember them, and I intend to consciously reflect on them whenever I have to devote time to pfulfilling their duties or sleeping.
Accept, O merciful Lord, my loving intention and make it beneficial for me and for all, as if I had effectively and sanctimoniously accomplished what I wish to do.Meanwhile, I thank You, my Jesus, that through prayer You call me to unite myself with You. And to please You even more, I take Your thoughts, Your language, Your Heart, and I intend to pray with them, merging my whole self into Your Will and Your Love. I stretch out my arms to embrace You, I lay my head on Your Heart, and I begin...
My beloved Jesus, it has already been an hour since You have been in this garden. Love has taken precedence over everything, causing You to suffer all at once what Your tormentors will make You suffer throughout Your painful Passion. What is more, Love makes up for it and makes You suffer what they are unable to do to You in the deepest recesses of Your Divine Person. O my Jesus, I see that You are staggering on Your feet, and yet You want to go somewhere... Tell me, O my Goodness, where You want to go. Ah, I understand. You want to find your beloved disciples. I also want to accompany You to support You when You stagger.
But, oh my Jesus, another bitterness for Your Heart. They are already asleep. And You, always merciful, call them, wake them up, and with all Your fatherly love, admonish them and urge them to watch and pray. You return to the Garden, but You carry another wound in Your Heart... In this wound, O my Love, I see all the wounds inflicted on You by the souls consecrated to You. These souls, whether because of temptation, their state of mind, or lack of mortification, instead of clinging to You, watching and praying, close themselves off. Instead of making progress in love and union with You, they sluggishly move backward... How I sympathize with You, O ardent Love, and I make reparation to You for all the ingratitude of Your most faithful ones. It is these insults that sadden Your adored Heart the most, and their bitterness is so great that they drive You to madness...
But, O boundless Love, Your Love, which already boils in Your veins, overcomes everything and forgets everything... I see how You lie humbly on the ground, pray, offer Yourself, make reparation, and in everything try to give glory to the Father for the insults inflicted on Him by His creatures. I too, my Jesus, fall to the ground with You and together with You I intend to do what You do.
But, O Jesus, joy of my heart, I see that the flood of all sins, our misfortunes, our weaknesses, the most terrible crimes, the cruelest ingratitude appear before You, throw themselves at You, overwhelm You, hurt You, and torment You. And what do You do? The blood that boils in Your veins confronts all these insults, bursts Your veins and pours out in a wide stream, flooding You completely and flowing down to the ground. So You give Your blood for insults and Your Life for death... Ah, Love, to what a state I see You brought! You are breathing your last breath. Oh, my Goodness, my sweet Life, do not die! Lift your Face from this earth, which you have flooded with your Most Holy Blood! Come into my arms! Let me die instead of you...!
But I hear the trembling and dying voice of my beloved Jesus saying: Father, if it is possible, take this cup away from me, but not my will, but yours be done...
This is the second time I have heard this from my beloved Jesus. But what do you want me to understand by this „Father, if it is possible, take this cup away from me”? O Jesus, all the rebellion of creatures is revealed before you. You see that Fiat Voluntas Tua, Thy Will Be Done, which was to be the life of every creature, is rejected by almost all of them. And instead of finding life, they find death. And You, wanting to give life to all and solemnly make amends to the Father for the rebellion of creatures, repeat three times: Father, if it is possible, take this cup away from Me, meaning that souls, by departing from our Will, are going to perdition... This cup is very bitter for Me, but NOT MY WILL, BUT YOURS BE DONE.
But when you say this, your bitterness is so great that you bring yourself to the point of no return, you die and breathe your last breath. O my Jesus, my Goodness, since you are in my arms, I also want to join you. I want to sympathize with You and make amends for all the transgressions and sins that are committed against Your Most Holy Will, and at the same time pray to You that I may always and in everything do Your Most Holy Will. Let Your Will be my breath and my air. May Your Will be the beating of my heart, my heart, my thought, my life, and my death... But please, do not die! Where will I go without You? To whom will I turn? Who will help me? Everything will end for me! Oh, do not leave me, keep me as You want me, according to Your liking, but keep me with You, always with You! May I never be separated from you, even for a moment! Let me rather, on behalf of everyone, comfort you, make amends to you, and sympathize with you, for I see that you feel the weight of all sins, whatever they may be.
Therefore, my Love, I kiss Your Most Holy Head... But what do I see? All evil thoughts. You feel disgust for them. For your Most Holy Head, every evil thought is a thorn that pricks you cruelly... Ah, this has nothing to do with the crown of thorns that the Jews will place on you! How many crowns of thorns are placed on your glorified Head by the evil thoughts of creatures! This causes Your Blood to flow from everywhere — from Your forehead and from Your hair. Jesus, I sympathize with You and I would like to place as many crowns of glory on You. I offer You all the angelic minds and Your own Mind to relieve You and, on behalf of everyone, to show compassion and give You satisfaction.
Oh Jesus, I kiss Your merciful eyes, and in them I see all the evil glances of creatures, glances that cause bloody tears to flow down Your face... I sympathize with You and would like to comfort Your gaze by showing You all the joy that can be found in Heaven and on earth.
Jesus, my Goodness, I kiss Your Most Holy ears... But what do I hear? I hear in them the echo of terrible blasphemies, cries of vengeance and slander... There is no voice that does not resound in Your purest ears. O insatiable Love, I sympathize with You and want to comfort You by resounding in Your ears all the harmonies of Heaven, the sweetest voice of our beloved Mother, the fiery voice of Magdalene, and the voices of all loving souls.
Jesus, my Life, I want to press a fervent kiss on Your Face, whose beauty is unmatched... Ah, this is the Face from which the angels dare not lift their gaze—such is the beauty that enchants them. Yet creatures spit on it and defile it, strike it and trample it underfoot... My love, what audacity! I would like to scream so loudly that they would flee! I sympathize with you, and to make amends for all these insults, I go to the Most Holy Trinity to ask for a kiss from the Father and the Holy Spirit and for the extraordinary caresses of Their creative hands. I also go to Heavenly Mother to give me her kisses, the caresses of her motherly hands, and her deep adoration. Then I go to all the souls consecrated to you and offer you all this to make up for the insults that are being made against your Most Holy Face.
My sweet Goodness, I kiss Your Most Holy lips, embittered by terrible blasphemies, by the distastefulness of drunkenness and gluttony, by indecent conversations, by poorly recited prayers, by evil teachings, and by all the evil that man does with his tongue... Jesus, I sympathize with You and want to sweeten Your lips by offering You all the angelic hymns of praise and the good use of language by so many of Your children.
My oppressed Love, I kiss your neck and see that it is burdened with ropes and chains because of the addictions and sins committed by creatures... I sympathize with you and, to relieve you, I offer you the unbreakable unity between the Divine Persons. And myself, merging into this Unity, I stretch out my arms to you and, forming a sweet chain of love around your neck, I want to remove all the bonds of attachment that are almost suffocating you. And to soothe you, I hold you close to my heart...
Divine Fortress, I kiss Your Most Holy Arms... I see that they are torn, and Your body is almost torn to pieces by scandals and bad examples given by creatures... I sympathize with You, and to relieve You, I offer You Your Most Holy examples, the example of the Queen Mother and the examples of Your saints. O my Jesus, by placing my kisses on each of these wounds, I want to enclose in them the souls that have been torn from Your Heart because of scandals. In this way, I want to heal the wounds of Your Most Holy Humanity.
My sorrowful Jesus, I kiss Your breast, which I see wounded by the coldness, indifference, lack of reciprocity, and ingratitude of creatures... I sympathize with You, and to bring You relief, I offer You the mutual Love of the Father, Yours, and the Holy Spirit, the perfect reciprocation of the love of the Three Divine Persons. O my Jesus, immersing myself in Your Love, I want to shield You to prevent the wounds that creatures inflict on You with their sins. I take Your Love and want to wound creatures with it so that they will no longer dare to offend You. I want to pour it out on Your chest to soothe and heal You. My Jesus, I kiss Your creative hands... I see all the evil deeds of creatures. These deeds pierce Your Most Holy hands like nails. Therefore, You are not pierced by three nails as on the Cross, but by as many nails as there are evil deeds committed by creatures. I sympathize with You, and to bring You relief, I offer You all the holy deeds and courage of the martyrs who shed their blood and gave their lives out of love for You... In a word, my Jesus, I would like to offer You all good deeds to remove from You the many nails of evil deeds.
Oh Jesus, I kiss Your Most Holy feet, always tireless in Your search for souls. You enclose in them all the steps of creatures, but You feel that many of them are running away from You when You would like to keep them... With every wrong step they take, You feel a nail being driven into You. You want to use their own nails to nail them to Your Love. And the pain you feel and the effort you put into nailing them to your Love is so great that you tremble all over... My Everything and my Joy, I sympathize with you, and to comfort you, I offer you the steps of all the faithful souls who risk their lives to save souls.
Oh Jesus, I kiss Your Heart... You continue to die, but not because of what the Jews will do to You, but because of the pain caused by all the insults of creatures. During these hours, You want to give priority to Love, placing all the sins for which You are doing penance, making reparation, praising the Father, and appeasing God's justice in second place, and the Jews in third place. This means that the torment to which the Jews will subject you will be nothing more than an image of the double painful torment inflicted on you by Love and sin. That is why I see everything concentrated in your Heart — the spear of Love, the spear of sin, and you await the third, the spear of the Jews. And your Heart, suffocating with Love, suffers from violent blows, from impatient feelings of Love, from desires that consume you, and from fiery blows that would like to give life to every heart.
It is precisely here, in the Heart, that you feel all the pain inflicted on you by creatures who, with their evil desires, disordered feelings, and blasphemous heartbeats, seek other loves instead of desiring your Love... Jesus, how much You suffer! I see You fainting, flooded by waves of our wickedness... I sympathize with You and want to sweeten the bitterness of Your thrice-pierced Heart by offering You the eternal sweetness of paradise and the sweetest Love of Your beloved Mother.
And now, O my Jesus, let my poor heart draw life from Your Heart, so that it may live only by Your Heart. And with every insult You receive, may my heart always be ready to bring You relief, consolation, and an act of unceasing love.
Thanksgiving after every HOUR
My beloved Jesus, You called me in this HOUR of Your Passion to keep You company, and I came. It seemed to me that I could hear You praying in agony and pain, making reparation, suffering, and you ask for the salvation of souls with the most moving and convincing voice. I have tried to accompany you in everything. And since I must now leave you to attend to my work, I feel obliged to to say thank you and bless you.
Yes, Jesus, I thank You a thousand times over and bless You for everything You have done and suffered for me and for everyone. I thank You and bless You for every drop of blood You shed, for every breath, for every heartbeat, for every step, word, glance, bitterness, and insult You suffered. Everything, O my Jesus, I intend to mark with my thank You and bless You. O my Jesus, make a continuous stream of thanksgiving and blessings flow to You from my whole being, so that I may draw upon myself and upon everyone the stream of Your blessings and Your graces. Oh, Jesus, hold me close to Your Heart and mark every part of my being with Your most holy hands with Your blessing, so that nothing but a constant hymn of praise to You may flow from me.