My wife has been reading this book by Ann Catherine Emmerich throughout Lent, telling me one cannot imagine the pain and suffering Jesus went through to open Heaven up for us. This book, available from TAN, inspired Mel Gibson's film Passion Of The Christ. Given many of us are going to have time to read a bit more while our churches are closed, I can assure you this book will keep your faith foremost in your mind as we come closer to Easter.
This morning she read out a chapter on Calvary to me and I found it fascinating. I have always known that there are no coincidences when it comes to the life and times of Jesus Christ. I remember once saying to myself that it was no coincidence that there was a donkey there for Jesus on Psalm Sunday. Even that had been planned from eternity. Such was my interest and willingness to share a little of this book with you now, that I typed this little chapter out on Calvary, the place we know where Jesus was crucified. Here is that chapter:
On the Name of Calvary'While meditating on the name of Golgotha, Calvary, the place of skulls, borne by the rock upon which Jesus was crucified, I became deeply absorbed in contemplation, and beheld in spirit all ages from the time of Adam to that of Christ, and in this vision the knowledge of the name became known to me. I here give all that I remember on the subject.I saw Adam after his expulsion from Paradise, weeping in the grotto where Jesus sweated blood and water, on Mount Olivet. I saw how Seth was promised to Eve in the grotto of the manger at Bethlehem, and how she brought him forth in that same grotto. I also saw Eve living in the same caverns near Hebron, where the Essenian Monastery of Maspha was afterwards established. I then beheld the country where Jerusalem was built, as if it appeared after the Deluge, and the land was all unsettled black, stony, and very different from what it had been before. At an immense depth below the rock which constitutes Mount Calvary (which was formed in this spot by the rolling of the waters), I saw the tomb of Adam and Eve. The head and one rib were wanting to one of the skeletons, and the remaining head was placed within the same skeleton, to which it did not belong. The bones of Adam and Eve had not all been left in the grave, for Noah had some of them with him in the Arc, and they were transmitted from generation to generation by the Patriarchs. Noah and also Abraham, were in the habit, when offering sacrifice, of always laying some of Adam’s bones upon ther altar, to remind the Almighty of his promise. When Jacob gave Joseph his variegated robe, he at the same time gave him some bones of Adam, to be kept as relics. Joseph always wore them on his bosom, and they were placed with his own bones in the first reliquary which the children of Israel brought out of Egypt. Ihave seen many similar things, but some I have forgotten, and the others time fails me to describe.
As regards the origin of Calvary, I here give all I know. I beheld the mountain that bears this name as it was in the time of the Prophet Eliseus. It was not the same then as at the time of Our Lord’s Crucifixion, but was a hill, with many walls and caverns, resembling tombs, upon it. I saw the prophet Eliseus descend into these caverns. I cannot say in reality or only in a vision, and I saw him take out a skull from a stone sepulchre in which the bones were resting. Someone who was by his side – I think an angel – said to him, “this is the skull of Adam.” The prophet was desirous to take it away but his companion forbid him. I saw upon the skull a few hairs of fair colour.
I learned also that the prophet having related what had happened to him, the spot received the name of Calvary. Finally I saw that the cross of Jesus was placed vertically over the skull of Adam. I was informed that this spot was exactly the centre of the Earth; and at the same time I was shown the numbers and measures proper to every country, but I have forgotten them individually as well as in general. Yes, I have seen this centre from above, as it were from a birds-eye view. In that was a person sees far more clearly than on a map all the different countries, mountains, deserts, seas, rivers, towns and even the smallest places, whether distant or near at hand. As I was meditating on these words ot thoughts of Jesus when hanging on the Cross: “I am pleased like wine placed here under the press for the first time; my blood must continue to flow until water comes, but wine shall no more be made here.” Asn explanation weas given me by means of another vision relating to Calvary. I saw this rocky country at a period anterior to the Deluge; it was then less wild and less barren rthan it afterwards became, and was laid out in vineyards and fields.
Topic: The Dolorous Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ (Read 270 times)