The above Sorrowful of "Worried" Christ is found on many roadside shrines that dot the Polish countryside.  Jesus, crowned with thorns before the scourging, is looking at what human beings, today, have done to the world he died for.

No Easter without death,

No joy without bitter sorrow,

No Resurrection without Lament (Gorzkie Żale)

Rev. Czeslaw M Krysa, SLD

Rector, The Church of St. Casimir, Buffalo, NY

Have you ever felt bitter sorrow, the kind that rips your heart out of your chest at a loss of a loving relationship?   The kind that keeps you up for nights, many sleepless nights, and seems endless?  Have you ever felt a sorrow that borders on despair? A sharp pain, deep in your stomach or a listlessness that makes you want to give up?

This is the pain that Jesus suffered: that God suffered.  And why?  He suffered it for you, to become your healer and hope-bringer.  This is the pain which the devotion, Bitter Lamentations, celebrates.  Yes, celebrates. 

This mystical devotion, called Bitter Cries or Laments, celebrates Jesus’ suffering for you.  Coming close to his suffering in prayer is healing in itself.  This devotion heals in its bitterness, because the human comes to know a God who, though not guilty, tasted gruesome pain to heal us.  By his wounds we are healed, Isaiah the prophet reminds us.

Don’t cheat yourself this Easter thinking you can run from left-over Christmas cookies, frozen pierogi, a Mardi Gras beer, chocolate hearts, to Pączki Day, fish with fries, and marshmallow vernal rodents, sausage, placki and then, have a “Happy Easter”.  Don’t fool yourself. This vicious cycle fills you up with favorites, but can leave you empty inside.

If your Easters, Christmases, anniversaries, valentines, family parties, etc. have become hum-drum, and have lost their luster, and soon tarnish, quickly becoming drab, old-hat, even a bore… you need a shock-treatment. Yes, a shock treatment of Jesus’ hard love for you celebrated in the Bitter Lamentations which affirm:

      Wake me Jesus from complacence,
           Cure the wounds of my indifference2x. 
      Cleanse and heal my shattered soul. 
           In Your blood, O, make me whole2x. 
      One short step into Your Passion. 
          Cools the flame of desperation.2x.

Come and experience how this uniquely Polish, bi-lingually chanted, Lenten devotion can heal your most bitter sorrow.  Allow Jesus and his Sorrowful Mother to embrace you in their pain.  It was born out of the crucible of the suffering of the Catholic Nation of our heritage, in the church where Chopin was organist. There is no English counterpart to this experience. It’s not found in the burbs.  Once you experience this Lenten devotion, then the Easter Resurrection is on the horizon for you, like it has never been before.  You’ll be surprised into hope.

 

[Pic: Statue of Christ carrying his Cross survived the intense and systematic bombing of Warsaw. After the Germans completed leveling 95% of Poland’s capital, the extended arm of Jesus rose from the street above the rubble. Proclaiming the Eucharistic salutation,  SursumCorda  or “Lift up your hearts,” it inspired the undefeated nation with resilience that comes from faith. In this decimated Church of the Holy Cross, about 200 years earlier, as the Russians occupied and ravaged Poland, the devotion, Bitter Lamentations was born.  Yet another reason these melodies and words bring healing grace.]