The final exhortation of today’s Gospel burns with urgency:
“Yet a little while the light is among you. Walk whilst you have the light, that the darkness overtake you not.”
As Passiontide darkens the sanctuary, the Gospel speaks plainly: the Light is departing. It is not extinguished, but it enters the tomb. The faithful must press close to that Light—no longer in triumph, but in trust.
St. Leo the Great warns us not to become spectators of the Passion but participants in it: “The Cross of Christ is the ladder of ascent to heaven. But we must climb it with Him.”
Passiontide Prayer
O Christ, the grain of wheat who fell to the earth and died,
teach us to die to self, to be hidden in the furrows of humility,
so that we too may bear fruit for Your Kingdom.
In Your Passion is our redemption,
in Your silence, our wisdom,
in Your Cross, our glory.
Amen.
Suggested Devotions for the Day:
- Pray the Litany of the Passion (found in traditional prayerbooks)
- Read Isaiah 53 in prayerful contemplation
- Make a spiritual offering of a hidden suffering, uniting it to the suffering Christ
- Cover a crucifix at home with a violet cloth if not yet veiled, entering more deeply into the liturgical rhythm
Patristic References:
- St. Jerome, Commentarii in Jeremiam Prophetam
- St. Augustine, Tractatus in Iohannem
- St. Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on the Gospel of John
- St. Gregory the Great, Homilies on the Gospels
- St. Leo the Great, Sermons on the Passion
May the rest of this Passiontide be for you a sacred descent into the holy darkness of Calvary, where the seed dies, and Life is reborn.