Christ's Passion for you: A Virtual Retreat provided by Good News Ministries Online Christ Jesus, though He was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. Rather, He emptied Himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness; and found human in appearance, He humbled himself, becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. (Philippians 2:6-8) You are about to enter into the timelessness of what Christ did for you, when the experiences of Jesus during the first Holy Week are also the now moment of your life. In this Virtual Retreat, you will be asked to personalize the Passion of Christ by answering questions that pop up in a message box. No one but you and the Lord will see your answers, and they will disappear as soon as you close the webpage. During the retreat, you will bring to mind some of your sins. If you have already received forgiveness and absolution for these sins and they control you no longer, this retreat will continue the process of growing in intimacy with Christ. If you name sins that still have a grip on you, this retreat will start the healing process. To complete it, call your parish office immediately afterward to set up an appointment with a priest to receive the gift of the Sacrament of Reconciliation. The power of this Sacrament will set you free to enjoy new life in the glory of Christ's resurrection. It was our infirmities that He bore, our sufferings that He endured.... He was pierced for our offenses, crushed for our sins, upon Him was the chastisement that makes us whole, by His stripes we were healed. We had all gone astray like sheep, each following our own way; but the Lord laid upon Him the guilt of us all. (Isaiah 53:3-6) In a meditation given to Pope John Paul II on March 15, 2002, Capuchin Father Raniero Cantalamessa, the preacher of the Papal Household, described what happened in the Garden of Gethsemane, which he called Jesus' dark night of the soul: "Jesus' anguish was not caused by simply foreseeing the torments; Jesus took sin upon Himself, the whole sin of the world. At that moment, the fact that He had not committed the sins made no difference; they were His because He freely assumed them: 'He bore our sins in His body.' " Let's meet Him as He descends the Mount of Olives toward Jerusalem, as He knowingly takes the final steps of His life and enters the dark night of His soul. The photos you will see were taken in the Holy Land (by Terry Modica of Good News Ministries). The story is paraphrased from Matthew 26:14--27:66, the Gospel reading for Passion Sunday. Whenever you arrive at the cross icon, click on it. > (Because of the multimedia nature of these pages, the retreat works best in Internet Explorer)

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© 2002 by Terry Ann Modica
See also the Lenten materials available at Catholic Digital Resources.

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