The Twenty-Four Hours of the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ

The 24 Hours of the Bitter Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ by Luisa Piccarreta, the Little Daughter of the Divine Will

†First Hour: From 5 to 6 PM†

Jesus Says Goodbye to His Most Holy Mother

Preparation before Each Hour

O heavenly Mother! The hour of separation is approaching; so I come to You. Give me Your love and Your acts of atonement, give me Your pain and let me follow Your adorable Son step by step with You. - Now Jesus is coming. You hasten to meet Him with your great love. Seeing Him so pale and sorrowful, your heart squeezes with pain, your strength fails. You almost seem to faint at His feet.

Gracious Mother! Do You know why Your Son has come to You? Oh, He wants to bid You farewell, to say His last word to You, to receive the last embrace from You. O Mother, I cling to You with all the tenderness of which my poor heart is capable, so that I too, embraced by You, may receive the embrace of Your adorable Son. Do you disregard me? Or should it not rather be a consolation for You to know a soul so close to You who shares Your sufferings, Your feelings, Your acts of reparation?

Jesus, what a lesson You give us through Your childlike and loving obedience to Your Mother in this hour which is so heartbreaking for Your tenderness! What a delightful harmony between You and Your Mother Mary! What enchanting love that rises as incense to the throne of the Eternal and works for the salvation of all people on earth!

Heavenly Mother! Do you know what Your Jesus wants from You? Nothing other than Your final blessing. Truly, Your whole being emanates nothing other than wishes of blessing, praise and glory for Your Creator. That is why Jesus also wants to hear the sweet word when He says goodbye to You: “I bless You, My Son!” And this word of blessing makes all blasphemy inaudible to Him, as it were, descending into His heart with its sweet and pleasant sound. In order to build a wall against all insults from the creatures, Jesus wants your blessing. I too unite myself with You, My gracious Mother. On the wings of the wind I want to fly through the heavenly spaces to ask the Father, the Holy Spirit and the angels to bless Jesus, so that when I come to Him, I can carry Your blessing to Him. Here on earth I will go to all the children of men and ask for blessings and praise for Jesus from every lip, from every heartbeat, from every breath, from every look, from every thought, from every step and footstep, and if no one wants to give them to me, then I will give them in their place.

My sweet Mother! When I have wandered through heaven to receive a word of blessing from the Most Holy Trinity, from the angels, from all creatures on earth, from the light of the sun, from the fragrance of the flowers, from the waves of the sea, from every breath of the wind, from every spark of the fire, from every leaf of the tree, from every shining star, from everything that moves and stirs in nature, then I come to You and unite all these blessings of mine with Yours. I know that they will bring you comfort and refreshment and that you will offer my blessings to Jesus as atonement for all the blasphemies and curses with which He is treated by men. But while I, my Mother, am offering all this to You, I hear Your trembling voice saying: “Bless Me too, My Son!” - Jesus, my love, bless me too with Your Mother. Bless my thoughts, my heart, my hands, my feet, my works and with me all people!

My mother! When You look into Jesus' pale and sorrowful face, the thought of all the suffering to come awakens in You. You already see His face covered with spittle and bless Him; His head pierced with thorns, His eyes covered, His body torn by scourging blows, hands and feet pierced with nails. Wherever He may go, You follow Him with Your blessings. In union with You, I also follow. If Jesus is beaten with scourges, pierced with nails, crowned with thorns, struck in the face, everywhere you will find with your "I bless you!" also mine.

Jesus and Mary, I have compassion for you! Your pain in these last moments is immeasurable. It seems that the heart of one wants to take the heart of the other with it. - O Mother, tear my heart away from the earth and bind it to Jesus so that it may share in Your pain. While You embrace each other for the last time, look each other in the eye for the last time, receive Your tenderness and embraces for the last time. Do you not see that I cannot live without you because of my misery and the coldness of my heart? Jesus and Mary, hold me close to You! Give me Your will and Your love, send the arrows of love to my heart and embrace me in Your arms. With You, dear Mother, I want to follow my beloved Jesus step by step with the good intention of giving Him comfort and refreshment, love and reparation for all.

Jesus, in union with Your Mother, I kiss Your left foot and ask You to forgive me and all people as often as we have lost the way to God. Glory be to the Father...

I kiss Your right foot and ask You to forgive me and all people, as often as we have not striven for the perfection You have asked of us. Glory be to the Father...

I kiss Your left hand and ask You to share Your purity with us. Glory be to the Father...

I kiss Your right hand and ask You to bless every beat of our heart, every thought, every inclination, so that, strengthened by Your blessing, they may all be holy. Bless all people with me and bless the salvation of their souls with Your blessing. Glory be to the Father...

Jesus and Mary! I embrace You, I caress You and I ask You to make a place for my heart between Yours, so that it may constantly receive nourishment from Your love, from Your sufferings, from Your feelings and Your desires, yes, from Your life. Glory be to the Father...

Reflections and Practices

by St. Fr. Annibale Di Francia

Before beginning His Passion, Jesus goes to His Mother to ask for Her Blessing. In this act Jesus teaches us the obedience, not only external but also internal, which we must have in order to reciprocate the inspirations of grace. Sometimes we are not ready to put into practice a good inspiration, either because we are held back by love of self united to temptation, or because of human respect, or in order not to use holy violence on ourselves.

But rejecting the good inspiration of exercising a virtue, of accomplishing a virtuous act, of doing a good work, or of practicing a devotion, makes the Lord withdraw, depriving us of new inspirations.

On the other hand, the prompt correspondence, pious and prudent, to Holy Inspirations attracts more lights and graces upon us.

In the cases of doubt, one should turn promptly and with righteous intention to the great means of prayer and to upright and experienced advice. In this way, the good God will enlighten the soul to execute the healthy inspiration, increasing it for her greater benefit.

We must do our actions, our acts, our prayers, The Hours of the Passion, with the same intentions of Jesus, in His Will, sacrificing ourselves as He did, for the glory of the Father and for the good of souls.

We must place ourselves in the disposition of sacrificing ourselves in everything for love of our Lovable Jesus, conforming to His Spirit, operating with His own Sentiments, and abandoning ourselves in Him, not only in all the external sufferings and adversities, but much more in all that He will dispose in our interior. In this way, at any time, we will find ourselves ready to accept any suffering. By doing this, we will give sweet sips to our Jesus. Then, if we do all this in the Will of God which contains all Sweetnesses and all Contentments in Immense proportion, we will give to Jesus large sweet sips, so as to mitigate the poisoning which other creatures cause Him, and to console His Divine Heart.

Before starting any action, let us always invoke the Blessing of God, so that our actions may have the touch of the Divinity, and may attract His Blessings not only on us, but upon all creatures.

My Jesus, may Your Blessing precede me, accompany me and follow me, so that everything I do may carry the seal of Your “I Bless you.”

Sacrifice and Thanksgiving