My dear parishioners,
Peace! The Catechism of the Catholic Church highlights the “prayer of the rosary” as a popular substitute for the Liturgy of the Hours in the Western Church (§ 2678). In praying the rosary we “meditate on the mysteries of Christ” engaging our “thought, imagination, emotion, and desire” leading not only to “knowledge of the love of the Lord Jesus” but “union with Him” (§ 2708). In fact the rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary is an “epitome of the whole Gospel” and is also an expression of “devotion to the Virgin Mary” (§ 971). Here we consider the first Sorrowful Mystery, the Agony in the Garden.
The Sacred Liturgy observers the Agony in the Garden in the Gospel of Palm Sunday. There is no particular “feast day” of the Agony in the current ecclesial calendar, although, following the Mass of the Lord’s Supper on Holy Thursday evening, the Church shares in the prayer of the Lord in an especially quiet way. The “Feast of the Prayer of Christ” has been observed in some parts of the Church on the Tuesday after Septuagesima, the ninth Sunday before Easter or the third before Lent. Blessed Pius IX (+1878) enriched the Archconfraternity of the Holy Agony with indulgences
Sacred Scripture records the Agony in the Garden in Matthew 26:36-46; Luke 22:39-46. Only Luke records that it was with the sweat of blood that the Lord Jesus prayed in Gethsemane.
The fruit of the Mystery of the Agony in the Garden is contrition, sorrow for sin. The Lord Jesus sweat blood, so sorry was He for sins He never committed. Rather than have only His life pass before His eyes on the night before He died, your life and mine, and that of every human being who ever has been or will be passed before the eyes of the Lord Jesus. He was able to see in the eternity of God all our sins. The mystical writings attributed to Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich (+1824) include more than twenty pages on the time the Lord Jesus spent in the Garden of Gethsemane on the Mount of Olives (cf. The Dolorous Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ, 97-121). Pierre Barbet, M.D. (+1961) in his book A Doctor at Calvary: The Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ as Described by a Surgeon without having an entire section on the Agony does include the Agony as part of Jesus’ sufferings and hastening His saving death on the Cross.
In meditating on the Agony in the Garden we should ask ourselves: How sorry are we for our own sins? Do we repent them? Do we examine our conscience and confess our sins? In dealing with our neighbors do we encourage others to sin or to repent? Do we ever pray prayers of reparation? For our own sins? For those of our century? Praying the Holy Rosary and devotion to the Sacred Heart, including Holy Communion on First Fridays are excellent reparatory practices.
God bless you!
Father John Arthur Orr