During Holy Week 2019 Scoop is publishing a serialisation of Katya Rivas’s “The Passion”. Readers can sign up to receive
the serial by email at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dailykatya/. To order a video about Katya’s work see… http://www.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 Is Crowned with Thorns
Extract 16
Jesus
In the Will of Father I have lived days of intense sadness without complaining but accepting what the Father wanted to
make Me feel. When I was apprehended in the Garden, My accusers were quick with every lie and I, without the least
resistance, allowed them to take Me to wherever they wanted to. And when they wanted to encircle My Head with the crown
of thorns, I bowed My Head without resistance, because I took everything from the hands of He who had sent Me into the
world.
When the arms of those cruel men were exhausted by the force of discharging blows against My Body, they placed over My
head the crown woven with branches of thorns, and parading before Me they said: “So you are King? We salute you!”
Some spat at Me; others insulted Me; others discharged new blows against My head, each one adding a new pain to My Body,
so hurt and destroyed.
I am tired; I have nowhere to rest. Lend Me your heart and your arms to cover Myself in your love. I am cold and
feverish; embrace Me for an instant before they continue destroying this temple of Love.
The soldiers and executioners, with their dirty hands, push My Body, and others with disgust for My Blood, push Me with
their lances and reopen My flesh. With a shove they seat Me on sharp stones; I cry in silence because of the pain. In a
grotesque way, they make fun of My tears. Finally they tear My temples, forcing down the crown woven of thorny branches.
Consider how with that crown, I wanted to make reparation for the sin of pride of so many souls who, wishing to be
excessively praised, let themselves be influenced by the false opinions of the world. Above all, I allowed them to crown
My Head with thorns. My Head suffered cruelly this way in order to make reparation through voluntary humility for the
loathing and proud pretense of so many souls. Souls who because they judge it unworthy of their condition and status,
refuse to follow the path set by My Providence.
No path is humiliating when it is planned by the Will of God… In vain you intend to fool yourselves, thinking of
following the Will of God and in full submission of whatever He asks of you.
There are people in the world who, when the moment of decision arrives (to undertake a new type of life), reflect and
examine the desires of their hearts. Maybe they will find, in him or her with whom they plan to unite, the solid
foundations for a Christian and pious life. Perhaps they will see that they will follow their family duties in a way
necessary to satisfy their wishes of happiness. But vanity and pride come to obscure their spirit and they let
themselves be pulled by the desire of being prominent and showing off. Then they do their best to look for someone, who
being richer or of high class, to satisfy their ambition. O! How stubbornly they blind themselves. No, I will tell them,
you will not find real happiness in this world and I hope that you will find it in the next. Watch out, you are putting
yourself in great danger!
I will also talk to the souls to whom I call to the path of perfection. How many illusions are in those who tell Me that
they are ready to do My Will and then they pierce My Head with the thorns of My Crown.
Respectively, there are souls whom I want for Myself. Knowing them and loving them, I want to place them where I live,
in My infinite wisdom, where they will find all that is necessary to reach sanctity. It is there where I will make
Myself known to them, and where they will give Me more comfort, more love, and more souls.
But, so many deceptions! So many souls are blinded with pride and arrogance for mere ambition. They fill their heads
with vain and useless thoughts; they refuse to follow the path that lays out My Love.
Souls whom I have chosen, do you think that you fulfill My Will by resisting the voice of the grace that calls you and
guides you along that path which your pride rejects?
My daughter, love of My sorrows, console Me. Make a throne in your small heart for your King and Savior and crown Me
with kisses.
Crowned with thorns and covered with a purple mantle, the soldiers presented Me again to Pilate. Not finding in Me a
crime for which to punish Me, Pilate asked Me several questions, asking Me why I did not answer him knowing that he had
all power over Me.
Then, breaking My silence I told him: ”You would not have that power if you had not received it from above, but it is
necessary that the Scriptures be carried out.” And, abandoning Myself to My Celestial Father, I was silent again.
†
Barrabas Is Set Free
Extract 17
Jesus
Pilate was looking for ways to free Me. He was worried because of his wife’s warning and confused between the guilt of
his conscience and the fear that the people would initiate a riot against him. In the pitiable state in which I found
Myself, he exposed Me to the sight of the mob proposing that he give Me liberty and condemn Barabbas, a famous thief and
murderer, in My place. The people answered in one voice: “Let him die and have Barabbas set free!”
Souls who love Me, see how they have compared Me to a criminal, how they have lowered Me more than the most perverse of
men. Listen to the furious shouts projected against Me. See with what fury they ask for My death. Did I refuse to go
through such shameful confrontation? No, on the contrary, I embraced it for My Love of souls and to show them that this
Love did not only take Me to death, but to the most ignominious death…
However, do not believe that My human nature did not feel revulsion nor pain. On the contrary, I wanted to feel all its
revulsion, and be subject to its same condition, giving you an example that will give you strength in every circumstance
in life and teach you to conquer the revulsion to what you are offered when it is a question of fulfilling the Divine
Will.
I return to the souls I was talking about yesterday… those souls called to the state of perfection, who discuss with
grace and retreat when faced with the humility of the path that I show them, fearing how they will be judged by the
world or as they assess their capabilities, convince themselves that they will be more useful somewhere else to My
service and for My Glory.
I will respond to those souls: Tell Me, did I refuse or even hesitate when I saw Myself being born at night to poor and
humble parents in a stable, far from My Home and Country in the harshest season of the year?
Afterwards I lived thirty years fulfilling the hidden and gloomy occupation in the workshop: I went through humiliations
and scorns from the people who requested work done by Joseph, My father. I did not detest helping My Mother in the most
menial of tasks in the house. Nonetheless, did I not have more talent than that required for the rough work of a
carpenter? I, who at the age of twelve, taught Doctors in the Temple… But it was the Will of My Celestial Father and,
thus, I glorified Him. When I left Nazareth and started My public life, I could have had Myself known as the Messiah and
Son of God, so that men would listen to My teachings with veneration, but I did not do it because My only wish was to do
My Father’s Will…
And when the time of My Passion came, through the cruelty of some and the insults of others, the abandonment of My own
and the ingratitude of the mob, through the unspeakable martyrdom of My Body and the revulsion of My soul, see how with
greater love, I was still revealing and embracing the Will of My Celestial Father.
Thus when overcoming difficulties and revulsion, the soul generously submits itself to the Will of God. There comes a
moment in which, intimately united to Him, the soul enjoys the most indescribable sweetness.
What I have said to the souls who loathe the humble and hidden life, I repeat to those who are called to a constant
contact with the world when, on the contrary, their preference would be toward complete solitude and humble and hidden
work.
Chosen souls, your happiness and perfection does not consist in following the taste of your preference and inclinations
of nature, in being known or unknown by creatures, in using or hiding the talent you have, but rather in uniting and
conforming yourselves through love and with total submission to God’s Will, to that which is asked of you for His Glory
and your own sanctification.
Enough for today, My little daughter, love and embrace My Will joyfully; you know that it is always done for love.
Meditate for a moment upon the unspeakable martyrdom of My Heart, upon seeing it put behind Barabbas. How I remembered
then My Mother’s tenderness when she embraced Me against her Heart! And how vivid were the anxieties and fatigue that My
adoptive father suffered to show Me his love. How I remembered the benefits I so freely poured over thankless people:
giving sight to the blind, giving the sick their health, the use of their limbs to those who had lost them, feeding the
crowds, and resurrecting the dead. Now to see Myself reduced to the most despicable state! I am the most hated of men,
and I am being condemned to death like an infamous thief.
†
Jesus Forgives The Greatest Sinners
Extract 18
Jesus
Pilate has pronounced sentence. My little children, consider attentively how My Heart suffered…
After Judas surrendered Me in the Garden of Olives, he wandered off and ran away as a fugitive without being able to
silence the shouts of his conscience, which accused him of the most horrible sacrilege. When the news of My death
sentence reached his ears, he gave in to the most terrible despair and hung himself.
Who will be able to understand the intense pain in My Heart when I saw that soul throw himself to eternal damnation? He
who had spent three years in the School of My Love learning My doctrine, receiving My teaching, and many times hearing
My lips forgive the greatest sinners.
Judas! Why do you not come and throw yourself at My feet so that I may forgive you? If you do not dare to come near Me
for fear of those who surround Me and treat Me so badly, at least look at Me and you will see how soon My eyes will look
at you.
Souls, who are entangled in the greatest sins… If at times you have lived wandering as fugitives because of your crimes,
if the sins of which you are guilty have blinded you and hardened your hearts, if by pursuing some passion you have
fallen into greater disorder, do not allow desperation to take possession of you when the accomplices of your sin
abandon you and your soul realizes its blame. As long as man has an instant of life, he still has time to appeal to My
Mercy and implore forgiveness.
If you are young and the scandals of your past life have left you in a state of degradation before men, do not be
afraid! Even when the world may despise you, treat you as evil people, insult you, and abandon you, be certain that your
God does not want your soul to be fodder for the flames of hell. He wants you to dare to speak to Him, to direct your
gaze and sighs of your heart at Him, and you will soon see that His kind and paternal hand leads you to the source of
forgiveness and of life.
If out of malice you have perhaps spent a greater part of your life in disorder and indifference, and now near eternity,
desperation wants to blindfold your eyes, do not let it deceive you. There is still time for forgiveness. Listen
carefully: if you have but a second of life, take advantage of it because you could gain eternal life during that
second.
If your existence has passed away in ignorance and in error, if you have been the cause of great harm to men, to
society, and even to religion, and for any reason you perceive your mistake, do not allow yourself to be brought down by
the weight of faults nor by the harm for which you have been an instrument. But, on the contrary, allow your soul to be
penetrated with the deepest sorrow, plunge yourself in trust and turn to the One who is always waiting to forgive you.
The same is true for a soul who has spent the first years of its life in faithful observance of My Commandments, but has
little by little fallen from fervor into a lukewarm and comfortable life…
Do not hide anything that I tell you, for it is all for the benefit of the whole of humanity. Repeat it in broad
daylight; preach it to those who truly want to hear it.
The soul who one day receives a strong jolt that wakes it up, all of a sudden sees its useless life, empty and without
merits for eternity. The Evil One, with infernal jealousy, attacks it in a thousand ways, exaggerating its faults. He
inspires in it sadness and loss of heart, and finally drives it to fear and despair.
Soul that belongs to Me, do not pay attention to the cruel enemy. As soon as you feel the movement of grace at the
beginning of your battle, come to My Heart. Feel and watch how it pours a drop of its Blood over your soul, and come to
Me. You know where I am, under the veil of faith…. Lift it and, with complete confidence, tell Me all your sorrows, your
miseries, your falls… Listen to My words with respect and do not fear for the past. My Heart has submerged it in the
endless depths of My Mercy and My Love.
Your past life will give you the humility that will fill you. And if you want to give Me the best proof of love, trust
Me and count on My forgiveness. Believe that your sins shall never be greater than My endless Mercy.
†
EDITOR’S NOTES: During Holy Week 2019 Scoop is 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 at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dailykatya/
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