FIRST HOUR (From 5 to 6 PM) Jesus takes leave of His Most Holy Mother

O Celestial Mama, the hour of the separation is approaching, and I come to
You. O Mother, give me your love and your reparations; give me your
sorrow, because together with You I want to follow, step by step, adored
Jesus.

And now Jesus comes to You, and You, with heart overflowing with love,
run toward Him and in seeing Him so pale and sad, your Heart aches with
pain, your strengths leave You and You are about to fall at His feet.
O my sweet Mama, do You know why adorable Jesus has come to You?
Ah, He has come to say the last good-bye, to tell You the last word, to
receive the last embrace!

O Mother, I cling to You with all the tenderness of which my poor heart is
capable, so that clinging and bound to You, I too may receive the embraces
of adored Jesus. Will You perhaps disdain me? Isn’t it rather a comfort for
your Heart to have a soul near You, who would share its pains, affections
and reparations?

O Jesus, in such a harrowing hour for your most tender Heart, what a
lesson of filial and loving obedience to your Mama You give us! What a
sweet harmony passes between You and Mary! What a sweet enchantment
of love rises up to the throne of the Eternal One and extends for the
salvation of all creatures of the earth!

O my Celestial Mama, do You know what adored Jesus wants from You?
Nothing but your last blessing. It is true that from every particle of your
being nothing but blessings and praises come out for your Creator; but
Jesus, in taking leave of You, wants to hear the sweet word: “I bless You,
O Son”. And that “I bless You” removes all the blasphemies from His
hearing, and descends, sweet and gentle, into His Heart. Jesus wants your “I
bless You”, almost to place it as a shelter from all the offenses of creatures.
I too unite myself to You, O sweet Mama. Upon the wings of the winds I
want to go around the heavens to ask the Father, the Holy Spirit and all the
Angels, for an “I bless You” for Jesus, so that, as I go to Him, I may bring
Him their blessings. And here on earth, I want to go to all creatures and ask,
from every lip, from every heartbeat, from every step, from every breath,
from every gaze, from every thought - blessings and praises for Jesus. And
if no one wants to give them to me, I intend to give them for them.
O sweet Mama, after going round and round, to ask the Sacrosanct Trinity,
the Angels, all creatures, the light of the sun, the fragrance of the flowers,
the waves of the sea, every breath of wind, every spark of fire, every
moving leaf, the twinkling of the stars, every movement of nature, for an “I
bless You”, I come to You and I place all my blessings together with
yours.

My sweet Mama, I see that You receive comfort and relief, and that You
offer Jesus all my blessings in reparation for the blasphemies and the
maledictions which He receives from creatures. But as I offer You
everything, I hear your trembling voice saying: “Son, bless me too!”
O my sweet Love, Jesus, bless me also, together with your Mama; bless my
thoughts, my heart, my hands, my works, my steps, and with your Mother,
all creatures.

O my Mother, in looking at the face of sorrowful Jesus, pale, sad, harrowing,
the memory of the pains which He is about to suffer awakens in You. You
foresee His face covered with spit and You bless it, His head pierced by the
thorns, His eyes blinded, His body tortured by the scourges, His hands and
feet pierced by the nails; and wherever He is about to go, You follow Him
with your blessings. And I too will follow Him together with You. When
Jesus is struck by the scourges, crowned with thorns, slapped, pierced by the
nails, everywhere He will find my “I bless You” together with yours.

O Jesus, O Mother, I compassionate You. Immense is your pain in these last
moments. The Heart of one seems to tear the Heart of the other.

O Mother, snatch my heart from the earth and bind it tightly to Jesus, so that,
clinging to Him, I may share in His pains, and as You cling to each other, as
You embrace, as You exchange the last glances, the last kisses, being in-
between your two Hearts, may I receive your last kisses, your last embraces.
LUISA PICCARRETA | 3 3Don’t You see that I cannot be without You, in spite of my misery and my
coldness?

Jesus, Mama, keep me close to You; give me your love, your Will. Dart
through my poor heart, hold me tightly in your arms; and together with
You, O sweet Mother, I want to follow, step by step, adored Jesus, with the
intention of giving Him comfort, relief, love and reparation for all.
O Jesus, together with your Mama, I kiss your left foot, asking You to
forgive me and all creatures, for all the times we have not walked toward
God.

I kiss your right foot: forgive me and all for all the times we have not
followed the perfection You wanted from us.

I kiss your left hand: communicate to us your purity.

I kiss your right hand: bless all of my heartbeats, thoughts, affections, so
that, given value by your blessing, they all may be sanctified. And with me,
bless all creatures, and seal the salvation of their souls with your blessing.
O Jesus, I embrace You together with your Mama, and kissing your Heart, I
pray You to place my heart between your two Hearts, that it may be
nourished continuously by your love, by your sorrows, by your very
affections and desires, and by your own Life. Amen.

Reflections and Practices

Before giving start to His Passion, Jesus goes to His Mother to ask for Her
blessing. In this act Jesus teaches us obedience, not only external but also
interior, which we must have in order to reciprocate the inspirations of
grace. Sometimes we are not ready to put into practice a good inspiration,
either because we are held back by love of self-united to temptation, or
because of human respect, or in order not to use holy violence on
ourselves.

But rejecting the good inspiration of exercising a virtue, of accomplishing a
virtuous act, of doing a good work, or of practicing a devotion, makes the
Lord withdraw, depriving us of new inspirations.

On the other hand, the prompt correspondence, pious and prudent, to holy
inspirations attracts more lights and graces upon us.
In the cases of doubt, one should turn promptly and with righteous
intention to the great means of prayer and to upright and experienced
advice. In this way, the good God will enlighten the soul to execute the
healthy inspiration, increasing it for her greater benefit.

We must do our actions, our acts, our prayers, the Hours of the Passion,
with the same intentions of Jesus, in His Will, sacrificing ourselves as He
did, for the glory of the Father and for the good of souls.

We must place ourselves in the disposition of sacrificing ourselves in
everything for love of our lovable Jesus, conforming to His spirit,
operating with His own sentiments, and abandoning ourselves in Him, not
only in all the external sufferings and adversities, but much more in all that
He will dispose in our interior. In this way, at any time, we will find
ourselves ready to accept any suffering. By doing this, we will give sweet
sips to our Jesus. Then, if we do all this in the Will of God which contains
all sweetnesses and all contentments in immense proportion, we will give
to Jesus large sweet sips, so as to mitigate the poisoning which other
creatures cause Him, and to console His Divine Heart.

Before starting any action, let us always invoke the blessing of God, so that
our actions may have the touch of the Divinity, and may attract His
blessings not only on us, but upon all creatures.

My Jesus, may your blessing precede me, accompany me and follow me, so
that everything I do may carry the seal of your ‘I bless you.’