A few years ago I began to hear people talking about “new evangelization” in the Church. At first I was perplexed. I was involved in a ministry of evangelization and I wondered what this “new evangelization” was all about.

Today I understand “new evangelization” to be the quest to find compelling ways to create an intimate personal encounter with Jesus Christ that results in spiritual conversion and personal transformation. “New evangelization” is all about “renewal” being “reborn” in the love of Jesus Christ. It’s not about preaching a “new gospel” because there is only one Gospel message.

Sometimes we search and search for a new approach when indeed the answer we are seeking requires not looking into the future, but rather looking into the past for the key.

The Key to a deep and intimate relationship with Jesus Christ involves meditation on the Passion of Christ!

I will be bold today and tell you that after almost a decade of meditating on the Passion of Christ that I am absolutely and totally convinced that meditating on the Passion of Our Lord Jesus is the key to spiritual conversion, repentance and personal transformation. It’s the key to Christian zeal, service, obedience and fidelity to Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

My Spiritual Journey

My faith journey, like the path of many people, involved deception, sin, confusion, depression and a search for truth, joy, peace and healing. I will confess to you that fifteen years ago I was a lost sheep that had never read the Bible, was not going to Church, was deeply immersed in my career and insufficiently focused on the things that were important to God.

I began searching for God with all my heart and God embraced me. The Bible says, “But if from there you seek the LORD your God, you will find him if you seek him with all your heart and with all your soul.” Deuteronomy 4:29 I wanted to find Jesus and He did not deny me.

My spiritual journey began with Jesus teaching me to Trust Him. I tell you the truth, I could hear the voice of Jesus in my heart saying “Trust me!” It was not an order, just a gentle, powerful, loving voice that wanted to save me, urging me to not be afraid.

Part of my searching for God involved me purchasing my first Bible and I began to slowly read some of the Scripture. I also discovered a book “The Diary of St. Faustina” In this book I read about the revelation Jesus gave to His Saint. I learned in this text that Jesus said, “I desire that you know more profoundly the love that burns in My Heart for souls and you will understand this when you meditate on My Passion.” (Words of Jesus, Diary of St. Faustina 186) I also learned in this book that Jesus had revealed to St. Faustina that He wanted to be remembered by His people at the time He died on the Cross for our salvation, 3pm: Jesus said, “At three o’clock, implore My mercy, especially for sinners; and, if only for a brief moment, immerse yourself in My Passion…This is the hour of great mercy for the whole world. I will allow you to enter into My mortal sorrow. In this hour, I will refuse nothing to the soul that makes a request of Me in virtue of My Passion.” (Words of Jesus, Diary of St. Faustina 1320)

So friends of Jesus that’s what I started doing, I started meditating on the Passion of Christ and I also started stopping at the time Jesus died for us, 3pm, to pray, to contemplate His great suffering for our salvation and there at the foot of the Cross I had an emotional breakdown that motivated a spiritual breakthrough!

I saw the price of my sins and I hated them. I hated that I had been so deceived and focused on worldly things – money, status, power, beauty, pleasure. I looked in my Saviour’s eyes and I became His! It was as though Jesus had opened up a portal enabling me to see into the eternal horizon and I saw my eternal future. I realized I was focusing on the wrong priorities. I resolved to make Jesus the center of my life. Jesus would become my focus, my all. The will of God would redefine my life. His Passion would be forever on my mind, circumcising my heart.

TRUTH: PASSION CREATES PASSION!

Has a lukewarm, uninspired person ever made you feel excited and passionate about any cause? Not likely to happen!

Jesus loved us so much that He willing embraced humiliation, torture and death to prove to us the depth of His love. “He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.” Isaiah 53:3

“He was harshly treated, yet He submitted and did not open His mouth. He was silent like a lamb led to the slaughter… “Isaiah 53:7

Jesus is crucified for love and with love He looks at you from the Cross suffering in agony: “My strength is trickling away like water, and all My bones are dislocated. My heart has turned to wax and melts within Me. My mouth is as dry as calyware, and my tongue sticks to My jaws. You have laid Me down in the dust of death.” (Psalm 2:15) “ They have pierced My hands and My feet; I can count all My bones.” (Psalm 22:17) “Father forgive them; they do not know what they are doing.”   Luke 23:34

There is no greater love than the love of Jesus Christ! And if you do not give yourself an opportunity to witness His Passion by meditating upon it, then you will deny yourself the opportunity to appreciate truly and deeply just how much Jesus loves you!

Let Prayer and Meditation hold hands!

Every day at 3pm, my mind goes back in time to the Friday when Our Lord suffered and died for us. I walk the Way to Calvary and in my contemplation I see Jesus suffering for our redemption and every day as I take this walk that culminates at the place of Christ’s crucifixion, I fall in love with Jesus all over again. His Passion renews my commitment to live for Him. I pray for His mercy upon all souls and I pray for the day when Christians all over the world, from all denominations, will bow their heads to remember Our Holy Lord Jesus Christ dying to open the gates of paradise to us at the solemn time 3pm.

What the World Needs Now – PRAYER and MEDITATION ON THE PASSION OF CHRIST!

I understand the lost sheep of our world because I once was one. But I am no longer lost and now I appreciate that spiritual conversion is only made possible through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. I cannot convert you with words even if they are the words of Jesus Himself.   But if Jesus blesses you so that the words penetrate your heart then you may be permanently changed. Pray for the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit of Our Lord Jesus to come upon you and help you to see His Passion as you have never before seen it.

It’s time for Christians that truly believe and love Jesus to pray more passionately than ever before! Don’t just pray with words, contemplate the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ and you will pray with your heart and with the Holy Spirit inspiring you, enlightening you and moving you as you have never been moved before!

JESUS IS CALLING HIS PEOPLE: COME BACK TO ME WITH ALL YOUR HEART AND DON’T LET FEAR KEEP US APART!

For those interested in finding new and compelling ways to spread the Gospel message I point to the key to our salvation – REMEMBER THE PASSION OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST!

What we need to motivate is not just a new personal encounter with Jesus but moreover a new personal relationship with Jesus that is intimate, passionate, reverent and obedient brimming with holy desire, with zeal, with thanksgiving, with honour for Jesus that gave up everything for us.

Will we deny Our Crucified Lord anything? We deny Him when we don’t see Him. We deny Him when we don’t know Him. We stop denying Him when we see Him suffering and dying for us, a death so brutal and so agonizing. How can we deny Our Crucified Lord who spared nothing for us?

We will step up to our responsibility to pray and bring other people into the saving grace of Jesus Christ once we have stood at the foot of the Cross and seen the tears in His Holy eyes, tears of love, tears of desire, tears of hope, tears filled with the promise of eternal peace, eternal joy, eternal life!

Jesus loves you so much!

“Never let a day go by without meditating on the Passion of Christ” St. Padre Pio

“We must not suppose that we have made any progress in the way that leads to God until we keep Jesus Crucified in our hearts.” Fr. Balthassar Alvarez

“Be courageous. Do not fear apparent obstacles, but fix your gaze upon the Passion of my Son and in this way you will be victorious.” The Virgin Mary to St. Faustina