I looked for sympathy, but there was none. (Psalm 69:20)

Come and be with Him.

Just as there were many who were appalled at him ^– his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any human being and his form marred beyond human likeness. (Isaiah 52:14)

He asks you not to avert your gaze from Him. Not to escape. Not to be horrified at your helplessness because there is no more good advice to give, and it’s a hopeless case.

In the abyss of His loneliness, He is waiting for you. Crushed, made defenseless, He desires your presence with all who you are.

He can’t stretch His arms more to show that He’s ready for this meeting. In case you doubted His good intentions, he let His heart be pierced open, so that you can look inside and chcek.

So He wants you to be with Him. And He will tell you very quietly – but if you come closer, you’ll hear – “I knew you would come.”

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me.

My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me.” (John 14:1-3)

So even though You went Your most difficult way without me, You are coming back to pick me up. You know I won’t manage on my own, even though I sometimes tend to think that “perfect” means “self-sufficient”. But You meant perfection otherwise: it’s being in a relation, dependent on others, loving.

So when You take me to be with You – when You help me with this toughest removal in my life – You will ask me with childlike simplicity: “That’s what My place is like. Do you like the room I’ve prepared for you?”

Just please, do watch over me, so that I wouldn’t get lost somewhere on the way.

Małgosia

“Will you really lay down your life for me? Very truly I tell you, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times” (John 13:38)

Even though He had known in advance Peter’s faults, Jesus did not write him off. Even though He knows our weaknesses – He never writes us off.

In His presence we don’t have to – and we shouldn’t – pretend to be anybody else than we are.

Dosia

“I will turn their mourning into gladness; I will give them comfort and joy instead of sorrow.” (Jeremiah 31:13)

The Lord is the one who comforts and turns sorrow into joy. He is the one who changes things. He changes my thinking, my feelings, my heart and my life.  How good it is to experience that!

Basia

„…As the soldiers led him away, they seized Simon from Cyrene, who was on his way in from the country, and put the cross on him and made him carry it behind Jesus.” (Luke 23:26)

Even though he acted under constraint, we remember him each time we reflect upon the Stations of the Cross. Because whether he liked it or not, he carried the cross – as long as it was needed. His effort became the part of our Lord’s Way of the Cross.

My little son’s weeping in the middle of the night, a sudden phone call with a request for help, illness of a relative or a child’s problem that demands a quick response. Sometimes I am also compelled by the situation to do something urgently, at this very moment. It is most difficult when I’m just “on my way in from the country” – when I’m dead tired and all I dream of is to take a rest.

It is not always easy to make a gift of myself. Sometimes I even have to force myself to manage the task with love. And it doesn’t always feel great to do so. What helps in that case is the consciousness that the gift of myself which costs me much, when I offer it to the Lord, becomes the parable “talent” that He may use as He wishes, thus multiplying its initial value. Doesn’t it please Him – also this effort which I force myself to make – out of love? There are the days when you have the opportunity collect a lot of such “talents” for Him.

Basia

“If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:31-32)

Jesus offers the truth that liberates.

Every day, from the morning on, I learn to use the gift of freedom. And this is not easy at all, since the impulse to dominate and to fulfill my selfish needs makes me try to subordinate my husband and children and thus abuse this gift.

And yet Jesus wants me to see HIM in the other person, so in my closest family as well. He wants me to renounce myself and to change – not the others, but myself.

Then I’ll really be free.

Dosia

…the faithful will abide with Him in love… (Book of Wisdom 3:9)

Mother of God – present from the beginning to the very end of the way of the cross.

Faithful in love. Courageous and unswerving in suffering. She shows us how important it is to be there for the one in pain – to be there even without saying a word, to offer kindness, to support them with prayer.

Let’s not forget that the Mother is there for us in all our hard times and sorrow. And let’s learn how to support the others in suffering from Her.

Basia

“You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life.” (John 5:39)

Not only is studying the Scriptures difficult – as it takes quite some time and effort – but accepting their message is even more demanding. Mere “study” at the level of the intellect is not enough: you have to let the Word touch you and guide you.

Your lifelong love affair with the Bible may start with reading the excerpts selected for everyday Mass. They are God’s personal letter to you, they shed light on your life situation and they give this unusual sense of being united with the members of the Church in the whole world, because we all listen to the same Word.

Reading the Bible is like sitting at the feet of Jesus – close to a Friend, who speaks directly to you. To you and to me. There are times you may not understand a friend of yours, and so it may happen here. If you spend enough time with Him day by day, you’ll eventually find the explanation of things that are beyond grasp today.

Dosia

Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she hasn borne?
Though she may forget, I will not forget you!
See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands.

(Isaiah 49:15-16)

When my husband needs to make sure he won’t forget something important, he writes it with the ballpoint pen on his palm. Sometimes, when he comes back from work he asks me: “Look, it’s all blurred, what did I mean?” It might be a phone number, time of the meeting with his employees or a request from me: buy dishwasher tablets.

I like to hear how very important I am. Sometimes I worry when I don’t hear it for a couple of days in a row, because I start to suspect something might have changed. I could ask God about it every day, to make quite sure that He’s carrying me somewhere close to His heart, that He hasn’t taken offense and He’s not keeping me at an arm’s length.

So He wrote it down. He wrote it down with the wounds piercing His palms right through. He let people hurt Him just to convince me that He’s not interested in keeping anybody at a distance.

I may also write down on the palms of my hands: “I am loved.” In order not to forget.

Małgosia

He was despised and rejected by mankind (Isaiah 51:3)

Judgment. Being judged. That is what Jesus experienced when he was numbered wit the transgressors. The sentence: death punishment! Even before He embraced the cross, His heart was crucified – by evil words.

What a disastrous mistake one can make while judging! How easy it is to cast an unjust accusation right in the middle of the other person’s heart!

It amazes me what words can work. The same tongue that may create the realm of love and peace, can also become the instrument of destruction, dealing blows; of making unfair and hurtful judgments.

So now I understand why Jesus so often warned: “Do not judge…” Because we’re so easily swayed by emotions and prone to assuming that the appearance – or the shadow deformed by mere interpretation of things – actually is „the” truth.

While contemplating the First Station of the Cross, I feel how immensely important it is to cultivate the habit of defending my spouse from accusations in my own heart!*

When my heart gains more freedom from judging, I find it easier not to join in the company of accusers whenever I become unintentionally a part of somebody else’s “trial”.

Basia

*One of the follow-up e-learning tasks after the “You and I = We” Program.