Composed by: Sr. Pier Giorgio Frassati
 
This past Holy Week, the reality of Christ’s sacrifice strikingly hit me…or should I say it kicked me, literally, right in a rib at three in the morning.  As I awoke once again to the foreign sensation of a person growing inside of me, I groaned with annoyance and considered waking up my husband to lament about the difficulties of pregnancy.  Fortunately for him, my moment of self-interest was abruptly interrupted with another jarring kick to my side.  With this second jab from my little one, my mind suddenly drifted to the Lord’s Passion.
 
Now since it was Preparation Day, so that the bodies might not remain on the cross on the Sabbath, for the Sabbath day of that week was a solemn one, the Jews asked Pilate that their legs be broken and they be taken down.  So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first and then of the other one who was crucified with Jesus.  But when they came to Jesus and saw that He was already dead, they did not break His legs, but one soldier thrust his lance into His side, and immediately blood and water flowed out (John 19:31-33).
 
“A lance was thrust into His side….”  Okay, who am I to complain about an innocent baby playfully greeting her mother?  In all seriousness, though, in the quiet hours of the morning, my daughter’s pestering kicks illumined the iconography veiled within my body.
 
“So the Lord cast a deep sleep on the man, and while he was asleep, He took out one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh.  The Lord God then built the rib that He had taken from the man into a woman” (Genesis 2:21-22).  In Chapter Two of Genesis, we read that Adam participates in creation by allowing God to open his side and take his rib.  This participation in creation satisfied the deep desire within man’s heart for companionship.  Likewise, Jesus’s side opens up for us on the cross exposing His heart’s desire for eternal union with us, His beloved sons and daughters.  As the blood and water flow freely from Jesus’s heart, He offers us a chance to become a new creation.  Jesus’s death and resurrection make us an Easter people.  Christ’s love for us is so overwhelming that He would offer up His own Body that we might share in eternal life with Him.
 
While the miniscule discomforts I experience during my pregnancy pale in comparison to Christ’s agony on the cross, they offer me an opportunity to enter into the mystery of suffering and resurrection.  Nausea, swollen feet, sleepless nights and the long-awaited labor present me with a unique chance to die to my vanity.  These sacrifices I make in anticipation of the baby’s arrival remind me of the cost of discipleship.  Embracing the new life inside of me requires me to shed my old way of life.  The carefree come-as-I-please lifestyle I once lived no longer remains.  During my pregnancy and throughout motherhood, I am called to put my husband’s and child’s needs before my own.  After a long workday when all I want is to nap or go shopping to let off steam, I must now consider how I can contribute to meeting my family’s needs.  I am not trying to classify myself as the stereotypical antiquated ’50s housewife.  I am also not saying that my husband does not help around the house or that I will never have time to do the things I enjoy; however, marriage and motherhood teach me about the beauty of redemptive suffering.  Jesus, an innocent victim, laid down His life for us without hesitation.  In my motherhood, I, too, can make a voluntary sacrifice in the way I spend my time, money and energy.  The suffering of the cross that we all participate in through our unique vocations is for a greater love.
 
As my husband and I await the arrival of our daughter, I can say that I have only experienced a fraction of the redemptive power of motherhood, the ability to give of myself freely without counting the cost.  I am challenged daily to consider how I can serve my husband and daughter more, how my spending habits will affect our daughter and future family, and how my choice of words, dress, and actions will teach her to become a woman of virtue.  I know that God will ask so much more of me over the years; however, as I feel her kick my side once again, I cannot help but to fall more deeply in love.  Just as Christ said to His disciples at the Last Supper, I now say to you, my dear daughter, “This is my body given up for you” (Luke 22:19).

​Composed by: Sr. Catherine of Siena

​We praise God for His love and marvelous work!  Through our Mother Mary, God sent His Son Jesus Christ to become a Man to free humanity from sin.  When Jesus began His journey, He preached and healed and asked people to pray to His Father but it was not all easy.  Toward the end of this journey as He was beginning His passion, His heart became sorrowful to the point that He went off to pray to His heavenly Father for strength to endure the cross but ended:  “My Father, if it is not possible that this cup pass without My drinking, Your will be done!” (Matthew 26:42).  In obedience to His Father’s will and for the sake of humanity, Jesus suffered His passion and then died on the cross. 
 
This brings to mind part of a hymn I once sang:  “He would not come down from the cross to save Himself.  He desired to stay there and die for me.”  Jesus wanted us to seek God through all His works—His ministry, the healing, miracles and yes, His suffering.  But then, on the third day, He rose from the dead.  By Jesus’s passion, death and resurrection, the door of heaven became open to everyone. 
 
Jesus always encourages us to pray, ask, seek and knock, and the door will be opened:  “For everyone that asks receives and he that seeks finds, and unto him that knocks it shall be opened” (Matthew 7:7-8).  We must be persistent in our asking.  My prayer is that people would see Jesus Christ in their life! 
 
Thanks be to God.

Image Source: The Triumph Of Christianity Over Paganism by Gustave Doré