MEDITATION:
Written by Ruth Grendell.
I am fortunate that I had a faculty position at a Christian University for several years. We were encouraged to begin or end each class with a devotional message. A favorite poem that was given to me as a student nurse is one that I have read to my students and Navy Corpsmen every Lenten season. Although it was written for nurses, I trust that the readers can consider that it is meant for them as they care for others throughout their lives.
One Friday on Calvary, as in a hospital ward, three men lay dying—among them Our Lord.
It was the worst case of neglect ever recorded; these patients whose pain Pilate had ordered
On three hard beds in the shape of a Cross without pillow or blanket, none would endorse.
Now the One in the Center, Jesus of Nazareth, the chart gave His name & diagnosis:
Excessive love for the whole of mankind; unsterilized nails pierced His feet and His wrists.
Consider the cruel medication—vinegar and gall were His Lips ‘levitation.
His back men wounded by blows and welts; no soothing ointment relieved the hurts.
No cold compress was applied to His eyes. The world’s greatest lover just hangs there and dies.
Not a grain of morphine, not a tourniquet set, as God’s Son slowly bleeds to death.
The chart then concluded: “The sad Man from Nazareth died about three.”
Now don‘t blame the Jews for this frightful neglect. Our sins did it all; our sins do it yet!
This treatment of Christ demands reparation: It falls to all of you of this generation.
Whenever you see anyone in pain– Just make believe it is Calvary again.
And do for the person what you wish they had done–for the Man in the center:
The Innocent one.
Remember in caring for others you really cared/nursed HIM!
PRAYER:
From the Mozarabic Rite, a liturgical rite of the Latin Church once used generally in the Iberian Peninsula (Hispania), in what is now Spain and Portugal in the 500s AD.
Jesus, our Lord and our God,
you gave your cheek to those who struck you
and for our sake you endured much mockery.
Grant that following the example of your sufferings,
we may be courageous in bearing our own,
and learn from you,
for you are meek and lowly in heart;
you now reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit,
God for ever and ever.
MUSIC MEDITATION:
I Need Thee Every Hour: Fernando Ortega. Written by Annie Sherwood Hawks in 1872. The hymn reflects a feeling of nearness to God she experienced.
Pathways Press.com 
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