The Dolorous Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ. - documenta ...

More documents

Recommendations

Info

The Dolorous Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ.Anne Catherine Emmerich301The procession stopped at the entrance of Joseph’s garden, which was opened by the removal ofsome stakes, afterwards used as levers to roll the stone to the door of the sepulchre. When oppositethe rock, they placed the Sacred Body on a long board covered with a sheet. The grotto, which hadbeen newly excavated, had been lately cleaned by the servants of Nicodemus, so that the interiorwas neat and pleasing to the eye. The holy women sat down in front of the grotto, while the fourmen carried in the body of our Lord, partially filled the hollow couch destined for its reception witharomatic spices, and spread over them a cloth, upon which they reverently deposited the sacredbody. After having once more given expression to their love by tears and fond embraces, they leftthe grotto. Then the Blessed Virgin entered, seated herself close to the head of her dear Son, andbent over his body with many tears. When she left the grotto, Magdalen hastily and eagerly cameforward, and flung on the body some flowers and branches which she had gathered in the garden.Then she clasped her hands together, and with sobs kissed the feet of Jesus; but the men havinginformed her that they must close the sepulchre, she returned to the other women. They coveredthe sacred body with the extremities of the sheet on which it was lying, placed on the top of all thebrown coverlet, and closed the folding-doors, which were made of a bronze-coloured metal, andhad on their front two sticks, one straight down and the other across, so as to form a perfect cross.The large stone with which they intended to close the sepulchre, and which was still lying in frontof the grotto, was in shape very like a chest 21 or tomb; its length was such that a man might havelaid himself down upon it, and it was so heavy that it was only by means of levers that the mencould roll it before the door of the sepulchre. The entrance of the grotto was closed by a gate madeof branches twined together. Everything that was done within the grotto had to be accomplishedby torchlight, for daylight never penetrated there.302CHAPTER LIII.The Return from the Sepulchre.—Joseph of Arimathea is put in Prison.THE Sabbath was close at hand, and Nicodemus and Joseph returned to Jerusalem by a small doornot far from the garden, and which Joseph had been allowed by special favour to have made in thecity wall. They told the Blessed Virgin, Magdalen, John, and some of the women, who were returningto Calvary to pray there, that this door, as well as that of the supper-room, would be opened to themwhenever they knocked. The elder sister of the Blessed Virgin, Mary of Heli, returned to the townwith Mary the mother of Mark, and some other women. The servants of Nicodemus and Josephwent to Calvary to fetch several things which had been left there.21 Apparently Sister Emmerich here spoke of the ancient eases in which her poor countrymen keep their clothes. The lower partof these cases is smaller than the upper, and this gives them some likeness to a tomb. She had one of these cases, which shecalled her chest. She often described the stone by this comparison, but her descriptions have not, nevertheless, given us a veryclear idea of its shape.174
The Dolorous Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ.Anne Catherine EmmerichThe soldiers joined those who were guarding the city gate near Calvary; and Cassius went to Pilatewith the lance, related all that he had seen, and promised to give him an exact account of everythingthat should happen, if he would put under his command the guards whom the Jews would not failto ask to have put round the tomb. Pilate listened to his words with secret terror, but only told himin reply that his superstition amounted to madness.303Joseph and Nicodemus met Peter and the two Jameses in the town. They all shed many tears, butPeter was perfectly overwhelmed by the violence of his grief. He embraced them, reproachedhimself for not having been present at the death of our Saviour, and thanked them for havingbestowed the rites of sepulture upon his sacred body. It was agreed that the door of the supper-roomshould be opened to them whenever they knocked, and then they went away to seek some otherdisciples who were dispersed in various directions. Later I saw the Blessed Virgin and hercompanions enter the supper-room; Abenadar next came and was admitted; and by degrees thegreatest part of the Apostles and disciples assembled there. The holy women retired to that part ofthe building where the Blessed Virgin was living. They took some food, and spent a few minutesmore in tears, and in relating to one another what each had seen. The men changed their dresses,and I saw them standing under the lamp, and keeping the Sabbath. They ate some lambs in thesupper-room, but without observing any ceremony, for they had eaten the Paschal lamb the eveningbefore. They were all perturbed in spirit, and filled with grief. The holy women also passed theirtime in praying with the Blessed Virgin under the lamp. Later, when night had quite fallen, Lazarus,the widow of Naïm, Dina the Samaritan woman, and Mara of Suphan, 22 came from Bethania, andthen, once more, descriptions were given of all that had taken place, and many tears shed.30422 According to the visions of Sister Emmerich, the three women named in the text had been living for some time at Bethania,in a sort of community established by Martha for the purpose of providing for the maintenance of the disciples when our Lordwag moving about, and for the division and distribution of the alms which were collected. The widow of NaÃ¯m, whose sonMartial was raised from the dead by Jesus, according to Sister Emmerich, on the 28th Marcheswan (the 18th of November), wasnamed Maroni. She was the daughter of an uncle, on the father’s side, of St. Peter. Her first husband was the son of a sister ofElizabeth, who herself was the daughter of a sister of the mother of St. Anne. Maroni’s first husband having died without children,she had married Elind, a relation of St. Anne, and had left Chasaluth, near Tabor, to take up her abode at Naïm, which was notfar off, and where she soon lost her second husband.Dina, the Samaritan woman, was the same who conversed with Jesus by Jacob’s well. She was born near Damascus, ofparents who were half Jewish and half Pagan. They died while she was yet very young, and she being brought up by a womanof bad character, the seeds of the most evil passions were early sown in her heart. She had had several husbands, who supplantedone another in turn, and the last lived at Sichar, whither she had followed him and changed her name from Dina to Salome. Shehad three grown-up daughters and two sons, who afterwards joined the disciples. Sister Emmerich used to say that the life ofthis Samaritan woman was prophetic—that Jesus had spoken to the entire sect of Samaritans in her person, and that they wereattached to their errors by as many ties as she had committed adulteries.Mara of Suphan was a Moabitess, came from the neighbourhood of Suphan, and was a descendant of Orpha, the widow ofChélion, Noëmi’s son. Orpha had married again in Moab. By Orpha, the sister-in-law of Ruth, Mara was connected with thefamily of David, from whom our Lord was descended. Sister Emmerich saw Jesus deliver Mara from four devils and grant herforgiveness of her sins on the 17th Elud (9th September) of the second year of his public life. She was living at Ainon, havingbeen repudiated by her husband, a rich Jew, who had kept the children he had had by her with him. She had with her three others,the offspring of her adulteries.‘I saw,’ Sister Emmerich would say,—‘I saw how the stray branch of the stock of David was purified within her by thegrace of Jesus, and admitted into the bosom of the Church. I cannot express how many of these roots and offshoots I see becomeentwined with each other, lost to view, and then once more brought to light.’175
Page 1 and 2:
The Dolorous Passion of Our Lord Je
Page 3 and 4:
Page 5 and 6:
Page 7 and 8:
Page 9 and 10:
Page 11 and 12:
Page 13 and 14:
Page 15 and 16:
Page 17 and 18:
Page 19 and 20:
Page 21 and 22:
Page 23 and 24:
Page 25 and 26:
Page 27 and 28:
Page 29 and 30:
Page 31 and 32:
Page 33 and 34:
Page 35 and 36:
Page 37 and 38:
Page 39 and 40:
Page 41 and 42:
Page 43 and 44:
Page 45 and 46:
Page 47 and 48:
Page 49 and 50:
Page 51 and 52:
Page 53 and 54:
Page 55 and 56:
Page 57 and 58:
Page 59 and 60:
Page 61 and 62:
Page 63 and 64:
Page 65 and 66:
Page 67 and 68:
Page 69 and 70:
Page 71 and 72:
Page 73 and 74:
Page 75 and 76:
Page 77 and 78:
Page 79 and 80:
Page 81 and 82:
Page 83 and 84:
Page 85 and 86:
Page 87 and 88:
Page 89 and 90:
Page 91 and 92:
Page 93 and 94:
Page 95 and 96:
Page 97 and 98:
Page 99 and 100:
Page 101 and 102:
Page 103 and 104:
Page 105 and 106:
Page 107 and 108:
Page 109 and 110:
Page 111 and 112:
Page 113 and 114:
Page 115 and 116:
Page 117 and 118:
Page 119 and 120:
Page 121 and 122:
Page 123 and 124:
Page 125 and 126:
Page 127 and 128:
Page 129 and 130: The Dolorous Passion of Our Lord Je
Page 179: The Dolorous Passion of Our Lord Je
show all

The Dolorous Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ. - documenta ...

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?