From Nazareth to Calvary
June 30, 2026
Hello! How is each and every one? This week had so many things going. Last Friday, June 26, we celebrated with the Church the Feastday of St. Josemaria, The Saint of the Ordinary. I listened to the homily of the His Excellency, The Most Reverend Dennis C. Villarojo, Bishop of Malolos during the Mass he officiated in Manila Cathedral at 6:00 p.m. He said he did not meet the saint himself but he did encounter members of Opus Dei in Cebu where he attended activities and joined excursions. Later on during his years in the seminary his professors were members of the Priestly Society of the Holy Cross. He mentioned his impressions during those years. He appreciates the legacy of the Saint Josemaria on work and holiness.
I personally had a chance, an opportunity to pay my respects to the family of a member priest of the Prelature. A window for visiting days and hours was opened and I had a car service available so I was able to go. Fortunately the relatives I wished to see were present at the time and I had a chance to express my deep sympathies, prayers and thoughts for them. What I wanted to be able to do was really to have a chance to sit down and pray the Rosary as I have been used to doing. I am happy there was another person who wanted to do the same and we did it together. There was literally a throng of women who gathered and as the place was rather limited I was lucky to have done all the above in thirty minutes? I meant business and did not stay longer than needed.
I was overall happy and grateful the day turned out well with several other good yet little things that made it so.
Thank you for allowing me to share with you the above episodes which for certain you also experience.
Let us now start with the third word of Christ (From The Cries of Jesus from the Cross, A Fulton J. Sheen’s Anthology).
Third Word
Woman, behold thy
son; behold thy mother.
1 Woman, Behold Thy Son
An angel of light went out from the great white Throne of Light and descended over the plains of Esdraelon, past the daughters of the great kingdoms and empires, and came to where a humble virgin of Nazareth knelt in prayer, and said, “Hail, full of grace!” These were not words; they were the Word. “And the Word became flesh.” This was the first Annunciation.
Nine months passed, and once more an angel from that great white Throne of Light came down to shepherds on Judean hills, teaching them the joy of a “Gloria in Excelsis,” and bidding them worship Him whom the world could not contain, a “Babe wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger.” Eternity became time, Divinity incarnate, God a man; Omnipotence was discovered in bonds. In the language of St. Luke, Mary “brought forth her firstborn Son . . . and laid Him in a manger.” This was the first Nativity.
Then came Nazareth and the carpenter shop, where one can imagine the Divine Boy, straitened until baptized with a baptism of blood, fashioning a little cross in anticipation of a great Cross that would one day be His on Calvary. One can also imagine Him in the evening of a day of labor at the bench, stretching out His arms in exhausted relaxation, whilst the setting sun traced on the opposite wall the shadow of a man on a cross. One can, too, imagine His Mother seeing in each nail the prophecy and the telltale of a day when men would carpenter to a Cross the One who carpentered the universe.
Nazareth passed into Calvary and the nails of the shop into the nails of human malignity. From the Cross, He completed His last will and testament. He had already committed His blood to the Church, His garments to His enemies, a thief to Paradise, and would soon commend His body to the grave and His soul to His Heavenly Father. To whom, then, could He give the two treasures which He loved above all others, Mary and John? He would bequeath them to one another, giving at once a son to His Mother and a Mother to His friend. “Woman!” It was the second Annunciation! The midnight hour, the silent room, the ecstatic prayer had given way to the mount of Calvary, the darkened sky, and a Son hanging on a Cross. Yet, what consolation! It was only an angel who made the first Annunciation, but it is God’s own sweet voice that makes the second.
“Behold thy son!” It was the second Nativity! Mary had brought forth her firstborn without labor, in the cave of Bethlehem; she now brings forth her second-born, John, in the labors of the Cross. At this moment Mary is undergoing the pains of childbirth, not only for her second-born, who is John, but also for the millions who will be born to her in Christian ages as “Children of Mary.” Now we can understand why Christ was called her firstborn. It was not because she was to have other children by the blood of flesh, but because she was to have other children by the blood of her heart. Truly, indeed, the divine condemnation against Eve is now renewed against the new Eve, Mary, for she is bringing forth her children in sorrow.
Mary, then, is not only the Mother of Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, but she is also our Mother, and this not by a title of courtesy, not by legal fiction, not by a mere figure of speech, but by the right of bringing us forth in sorrow at the foot of the Cross. It was by weakness and disobedience at the foot of the Tree of Good and Evil that Eve lost the title “Mother of the Living”; it is at the foot of the tree of the Cross that Mary, by sacrifice and obedience, regained for us the title “Mother of Men.” What a destiny to have the Mother of God as my Mother and Jesus as my Brother!
O Mary! as Jesus was born to thee in thy first Nativity of the flesh, so we have been born of thee in thy second Nativity of the spirit. Thus, thou didst beget us into a new world of spiritual relationship with God as our Father, Jesus as our Brother, and thou as our Mother! If a mother can never forget the child of her womb, then, Mary, thou shalt never forget us. As thou wert Co-Redemptrix in the acquisition of the graces of eternal life, be thou also our Co-Mediatrix in their dispensation. Nothing is impossible for thee because thou art the Mother of Him who can do all things. If thy Son did not refuse thy request at the banquet of Cana, He will not refuse it at the celestial banquet, where thou art crowned as Queen of the Angels and Saints. Intercede, therefore, with thy Divine Son, that He may change the waters of my weakness into the wine of thy strength. Mary, thou art the Refuge of Sinners! Pray for us, now prostrate at the foot of the Cross. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.
— The Seven Last Words
This post is relatively short but with deep considerations. I am sure the Holy Spirit in your quiet moments of conversation with Him will open up horizons for you. Listen closely to what He tells you and heed it.
Let us continue praying for peace in the hearts and minds of each and every one in the world. Keep this intention very much in your conversation with God every moment of the day and trust in Jesus at all times.
See you in the next post, “May tomorrow be a perfect day; may you find love and laughter along the way; may God keep you in his tender care; ‘til He brings us together again.”
Affectionately,
Guadalupinky
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