Totus Tuus - Totus 2us

_{Thirteenth Station of the Cross}
Jesus is taken down from the Cross and given to his Mother

with Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger
_{(Pope Benedict XVI) Good Friday 2005, at the Colosseum in Rome}

_{From the Gospel according to John (19: 19-20)
Pilate also wrote a title and put it on the Cross; it read, “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews”. Many of the Jews read this title, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city; and it was written in Hebrew, in Latin, and in Greek.}

_{From the Gospel according to Matthew (27: 54-55)
When the centurion and those who were with him, keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were filled with awe, and said, “Truly this was the Son of God!” There were also many women there, looking on from afar, who had followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering to him.}

_{Meditation
Jesus is dead. From his heart, pierced by the lance of the Roman soldier, flow blood and water: a mysterious image of the stream of the sacraments, Baptism and the Eucharist, by which the Church is constantly reborn from the opened heart of the Lord. Jesus’ legs are not broken, like those of the two men crucified with him. He is thus revealed as the true Paschal lamb, not one of whose bones must be broken (cf. Es 12:46). And now, at the end of his sufferings, it is clear that, for all the dismay which filled men’s hearts, for all the power of hatred and cowardice, he was never alone. There are faithful ones who remain with him. Under the Cross stand Mary, his Mother, the sister of his Mother, Mary, Mary Magdalen and the disciple whom he loved. A wealthy man, Joseph of Arimathea, appears on the scene: a rich man is able to pass through the eye of a needle, for God has given him the grace. He buries Jesus in his own empty tomb, in a garden. At Jesus’s burial, the cemetery becomes a garden, the garden from which Adam was cast out when he abandoned the fullness of life, his Creator. The garden tomb symbolizes that the dominion of death is about to end. A member of the Sanhedrin also comes along, Nicodemus, to whom Jesus had proclaimed the mystery of rebirth by water and the Spirit. Even in the Sanhedrin, which decreed his death, there is a believer, someone who knows and recognizes Jesus after his death. In this hour of immense grief, of darkness and despair, the light of hope is mysteriously present. The hidden God continues to be the God of life, ever near. Even in the night of death, the Lord continues to be our Lord and Saviour. The Church of Jesus Christ, his new family, begins to take shape.}

_{Prayer
Lord, you descended into the darkness of death. But your body is placed in good hands and wrapped in a white shroud (Mt 27:59). Faith has not completely died; the sun has not completely set. How often does it appear that you are asleep? How easy it is for us to step back and say to ourselves: “God is dead”. In the hour of darkness, help us to know that you are still there. Do not abandon us when we are tempted to lose heart. Help us not to leave you alone. Give us the fidelity to withstand moments of confusion and a love ready to embrace you in your utter helplessness, like your Mother, who once more holds you to her breast. Help us, the poor and rich, simple and learned, to look beyond all our fears and prejudices, and to offer you our abilities, our hearts and our time, and thus to prepare a garden for the Resurrection.}

_{Our Father ... She looked upon her sweet Son, saw him hang in desolation, till his spirit forth he sent.}

13ª estación - Jesús es bajado de la cruz y entregado a su Madre      
_{Meditaciones y Oraciones del Cardenal Joseph Ratzinger (Papa Benedicto XVI)}

13ème station - Jésus est descendu de la Croix et remis à sa Mère       
_{Méditations et prières du Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (Pape Benoît XVI) au Colisée}

13. Station - Jesus wird vom Kreuz abgenommen und in den Schoß seiner jungfräulichen Mutter gelegt      
_{Meditationen und Gebete von Kardinal Joseph Ratzinger (Papst Benedikt XVI) am Kolosseum}

with Pope St John Paul II in the Jubilee Year
<sub>Good Friday, 21 April 2000, at the Colosseum in Rome
- also in French, German, Italian, Portuguese & Spanish</sub>

_{In the arms of his Mother they have placed the lifeless body of the Son. The Gospels say nothing of what she felt at that moment.
It is as though by their silence the Evangelists wished to respect her sorrow, her feelings and her memories. Or that they simply felt incapable of expressing them.}

_{It is only the devotion of the centuries that has preserved the figure of the “Pietà”, providing Christian memory with the most sorrowful image of the ineffable bond of love which blossomed in the Mother’s heart on the day of the Annunciation and ripened as she waited for the birth of her divine Son.}

_{That love was revealed in the cave at Bethlehem
and was tested already during the Presentation in the Temple.
It grew deeper as Mary stored and pondered in her heart all that was happening.
Now this intimate bond of love must be transformed into a union which transcends the boundary between life and death.
And thus it will be across the span of the centuries:
people pause at Michelangelo’s statue of the Pietà, they kneel before the image of the loving and sorrowful Mother (Smetna Dobrodziejka) in the Church of the Franciscans in Kraków,
before the Mother of the Seven Sorrows, Patroness of Slovakia,
they venerate Our Lady of Sorrows in countless shrines in every part of the world.
And so they learn the difficult love which does not flee from suffering, but surrenders trustingly to the tenderness of God, for whom nothing is impossible.}

_{Then Jesus adds: “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?” (Mt 27:46). These words of the Psalm are his prayer. Despite their tone, these words reveal the depths of his union with the Father.
In the last moments of his life on earth, Jesus thinks of the Father. From this moment on, the dialogue will only be between the dying Son and the Father who accepts his sacrifice of love.
When the ninth hour comes, Jesus cries out: “It is accomplished!” (Jn 19:30).
Now the work of the redemption is complete.
The mission, for which he came on earth, has reached its goal.
The rest belongs to the Father:
“Father, into your hands I commit my spirit” (Lk 23:46).
And having said this, he breathed his last.
“The curtain of the temple was torn in two...” (Mt 27:51).
The “Holy of Holies” of the Jerusalem Temple is opened at the moment when it is entered by the Priest of the New and Eternal Covenant.}

_{Prayer
Salve, Regina, Mater misericordiæ; vita dulcedo et spes nostra, salve.
Ad te clamamus... illos tuos misericordes oculos ad nos converte
et Iesum, benedictum fructum ventris tui, nobis post hoc exilium ostende.}

_{Implore for us the grace of faith, hope and charity, so that we, like you,
may stand without flinching beneath the Cross until our last breath.
To your Son, Jesus, our Saviour, with the Father and the Holy Spirit,
all honour and glory for ever and ever.}

with Papa San Giovanni Paolo II
_{- also in French, German, Italian, Portuguese & Spanish}

_{From the Gospel according to Mark (15: 42-43, 46)
And when evening had come, Joseph of Arimathea, a respected member of the council, who was also himself looking for the kingdom of God, bought a linen shroud, and took the body of Jesus down from the Cross.}

_{Meditation
When the body of Jesus is taken down from the Cross and laid in his Mother's arms, in our mind's eye we glimpse again the moment when Mary accepted the message brought by the angel Gabriel: "And behold you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus; the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and of his kingdom there will be no end" (Lk 1:31-33). Mary had replied simply: "Let it be to me according to your word", as though even then she wanted to give expression to what she now experiences.
In the mystery of the Redemption, grace - the gift of God himself - is interwoven with a "price" paid by the human heart. In this mystery we are enriched by a gift from on high (Jas 1:17) and at the same time "bought" by the ransom paid by the Son of God. And Mary, who more than anyone was enriched by gifts, pays all the more. With her heart.
Inseparable from this mystery is the extraordinary promise spoken of by Simeon during the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple: "And a sword will pierce through your heart, so that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed" (Lk 2:35).
This promise has also been fulfilled. How many human hearts bleed for the heart of this Mother who has paid so dearly!
Once again Jesus lies in her arms, as he did in the stable in Bethlehem, during the flight into Egypt and at Nazareth. Pietà.}

_{Acclamation
Holy Mary, Mother of inexpressible sorrow, with you we open our arms to Life himself, and humbly beseech him:
R. Kyrie, eleison.
Holy Mary, Mother and associate of the Redeemer, in communion with you we open our arms to Christ, and filled with hope we call upon him.
R. Kyrie, eleison.}