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

† Thirteenth Hour: From 5 to 6 AM †

Jesus in Prison

Preparation before Each Hour

Jesus, after a short slumber I have woken up and cannot find You. My heart beats strongly, its love pines for You. Tell me, where are You? My angel, take me to the house of Caiaphas. I search and search, search everywhere and cannot find Jesus. My love, quickly, draw me close to You, so that I may take flight to You and flee into Your arms. Jesus, now they have locked You in the prison. While my heart rejoices because it has found You, it is wounded with pain when it sees the state they have put You in. Your hands, tied behind Your back, are still bound to a pillar, Your feet are also bound. Your face is bruised, swollen, bleeding from the blows they gave You. Your eyes have lost their sparkle. Your look is tired and sad, Your hair is tousled. How bruised is Your whole person! And You cannot help yourself because You are tied up. I burst into tears, clasp Your feet and speak with compassion: “How You are in such a state, my Jesus!”

You answer me: “Come, My soul, pay attention to everything you see Me do, so that you can do it with Me and continue My life in Me.”

I see with amazement that instead of being preoccupied with Your own sufferings, You think with indescribable love only of the glorification of the Father, to make reparation to Him for all that we owe Him. You call all souls to Yourself to take their evils upon Yourself and to give them all Your goods. As it is already beginning to dawn, it seems to me that Your sweet voice is speaking:

"Holy Father! I thank You for all that I have already suffered and all that still remains for Me to suffer. As the dawn calls the day and announces the rising of the sun, so let the dawn of grace shine in all hearts. Then, when it is day, I, the Sun of Righteousness, will rise in them and reign over all. Behold, Father, these souls! For all their thoughts, words, works and omissions I will answer at the cost of My Blood and Life."

Jesus, love without end! I unite myself to You and thank You for all that You have made me suffer and all that You will still make me suffer. I also ask You to let the dawn of grace shine in all hearts.

I see how You substitute for the thoughts, inclinations, impulses and words that are not offered up to Your glory at the beginning of the day. You call the thoughts, words and inclinations of creatures to You because they are due to You, and make them perfect through the good opinion to give the Father the honor due.

Jesus, divine Master! Since we are alone in this prison¹ for one hour, I approach Your holy head to put Your hair in order. In doing so, I want to atone for so many confused spirits who, completely immersed in the earthly, have no thought for You. By immersing myself in Your spirit, I want to worship all Your thoughts in order to be able to make due atonement through them for all evil thoughts and for so many unheeded and rejected illuminations and inspirations. I want to make all the thoughts of the children of men one with Yours in order to be able to offer You true satisfaction and perfect glorification.

My sorrowful Jesus! I kiss Your sad eyes, whose tears You cannot dry, and Your face, which You cannot cleanse from the defilement of the reprobates because You are bound to the pillar. Since Your posture is so extremely agonizing for You because of Your bondage², You cannot close Your tired eyes to find a little rest. Oh my dear, how I would like to take You in my arms to give You rest! I also want to dry Your tears, ask Your forgiveness and make up for what we have lacked when we did not intend to please You in our actions; when we did not look to You to find out what You wanted us to do and where we should direct our steps. I want to unite all my eyes and those of all people with Yours, in order to atone for all the sins we have committed through lust of the eyes.

My most gracious Jesus! I remember the insults Your ears had to hear all night long and all the sins committed by listening to evil speech. I ask for forgiveness and want to make reparation because we were deaf to Your voice when You called us or pretended not to hear it. I want to make constant and perfect atonement, to unite the hearing of all people with Yours, so that furthermore all, without exception, may hear Your divine words and carry them out.

My most loving Jesus! I adore Your most holy Face, which is completely disfigured by the cheek strokes. I ask forgiveness for all that we lacked when You called us to atonement and we did not follow Your voice and turned away. My Jesus! I want to hide my face in Yours to give You back Your natural beauty and to atone for all the contempt Your enemies have shown towards Your divine majesty.

My most sorrowful Jesus! How Your mouth is shattered by the fists of the executioner's servants! I want to atone for all the evil speeches of men. I want to unite the voices of all men with Yours to silence the sinful speeches and transform them into voices of divine praise and love.

My Savior beaten in chains! I see You weighed down by cords and ropes hanging from Your neck and shoulders, weighing down Your arms and tying You to the pillar; Your hands swollen, black and blue from the severe tightening of the shackles. The pillar is even wet with blood. Allow me, my Jesus, to untie You. But if You want to be bound, then I will bind You with the chains of love, because they are soothing and sweeten Your torment instead of making You suffer. While I untie You, I want to unite with You in order to make satisfaction for every sinful attachment and to put the chains of love on all people.

We will then fill the hearts of all men with the fire that glows so powerfully within You that You can hardly contain it; we will atone for all coldness of heart, all illicit pleasures and the love of comfort, in order to instill in all the spirit of sacrifice and love of suffering. I also want to pour myself into Your hands and make reparation for my evil works and those of all men, even for the good that has been done badly and with self-conceit. I want to make all people happy with the fragrance of Your holy works. I also want to walk with Your feet to atone for all evil steps, I want to close all the steps and footsteps of the children of men in Yours, so that they may enter the path of holiness.

My sweet life, allow me to immerse myself completely in Your Heart. I shut up in it the inclinations, desires and wishes of all men, in order to sanctify them and make reparation for all that they have lacked with them. Grant to all Your inclinations, Your desires, Your holy desires, that no one may offend You any more.

Now I hear the jingling of keys. It is Your enemies who want to take You away again. Jesus, I am dying, my blood turns to ice. Soon You will be in their hands again. What will happen to You?

I feel as if I can hear the clanging of tabernacle keys. Unworthy hands are coming to open the tabernacles and perhaps to let You descend into God-robbing hearts. How often You are carried out into the streets in processions or as a refreshment, and You encounter hostile people who disregard and revile You.

My Jesus, prisoner of love! I want to be in all the prisons where You are locked up out of love, so that I can watch Your servants give You freedom.³ I always want to keep You company and atone for the insults You suffer in the Sacrament of Love.

Jesus, Your enemies are near. You greet the sun on the last day of Your earthly life. They untie you. As You look at them with looks of love, they see that You are all majesty. Nevertheless, they strike You anew in the face so that it reddens with Your precious blood.

My love! Before You leave the prison, I ask You in my pain to bless me so that I may receive strength to follow You in the further course of Your Passion.

Reflections and Practices

by St. Fr. Annibale Di Francia

In prison, tied to a pillar and immobilized, Jesus is smeared with spittle and mud. He looks for our soul to keep Him company. And we—are we happy to be alone with Jesus, or do we look for the company of creatures? Is Jesus alone our only Breath and our only Heartbeat?

In order to make us become like Him, loving Jesus binds our souls with aridity, with oppressions, with sufferings, and with any other kind of mortification. And we, are we happy to be bound by Jesus in that prison in which His Love places us—that is, obscurity, oppressions and the like?

Jesus is in prison. Do we feel the firmness and the promptness to imprison ourselves in Jesus for love of Him? Afflicted Jesus longed for our soul in order to be untied and sustained in the painful position in which He found Himself. And we, do we long for Jesus alone to come and keep us company, to free us from the chains of every passion, and to bind us with the stronger chains of His Heart? And do we

place our pains as cortege around suffering Jesus in order to remove from Him the spit and the mud that sinners send to Him? Jesus prays in prison. Is our prayer constant with Jesus?

My chained Jesus, You made Yourself a Prisoner for Love of me, and I pray you to imprison my mind, my tongue, my heart and all of myself within You, that I may have no freedom, and You may have Absolute Lordship over me.

¹ After the first interrogation of Caiaphas, which had lasted until after midnight, had ended, Jesus was kept in a prison until daybreak. Maria von Agreda, “The Mystical City of God”, vol. II, BII, cl. 7, and Katharina Emmerich, op. cit. Jesus in the prison.

² “He was made to stand, but in such a position that He was bound and at the same time bent down, without being able to sit down, but also without being able to raise His body to a straight position to rest”.

³ The prisons refer to the tabernacles, the ministers refer to the priests who open the tabernacles so that the Eucharistic Savior can be exposed or communicate to the faithful in Holy Communion or be carried in procession through the streets.

Sacrifice and Thanksgiving