The Master called the hour of his Passion “His hour,” (Jn 12:27) the one for which He had come, the one He called for with all his desires! When faced with great suffering or a tiny sacrifice, oh, let’s think right away that “this is our hour”, the hour when we will prove our love to the One who has “loved us exceedingly,” (Cf. Eph 2:4) says Saint Paul.
Saint Elizabeth of the Trinity
Letter 308 to her mother (excerpt)
29 August 1906
Elizabeth of the Trinity, S 2003, The Complete Works of Elizabeth of the Trinity volume 2: Letters from Carmel, translated from the French by Nash, A, ICS Publications, Washington DC.
Featured image: This detail of the suffering Christ carrying his Cross comes from the National Gallery in London. The Italian painter Giampetrino executed this moving depiction of Christ’s passion in oil on poplar; art scholars estimate that it was completed between the years 1510 and 1530. Although this artwork is not on display, the gallery’s online description is evocative:
Christ turns to look at us as he carries the Cross on which he will be crucified. This type of painting, in which the viewer is put in the position of the holy women on whom Christ looked on the route to Calvary, was especially popular in North Italy in the sixteenth century. Christ’s eyes appeal to us in his pain to stir our emotions and arouse our compassion.
Giampietrino’s composition is based on a silver-point study of the same subject by Leonardo, which was also used by a range of artists working in Lombardy at the time.
The National Gallery’s panel is one of several more or less identical versions of the same picture by Giampietrino, which suggests that he kept reusing the same cartoon (full-scale drawing). Charcoal was rubbed through holes in the pricked cartoon to trace the outlines on the panel for painting.
Carmelite Quotes 
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