Music, prayer, contemplation – The Holy Week of the Gesù scholastics
The time of the pandemic and its restrictions can offer opportunities for creativity. The community of the Collegio Internazionale del Gesù, in Rome, formed mainly by Jesuit scholastics studying theology, is living Holy Week intensively. They offer us to accompany them through short videos.
Each day, from Holy Thursday to Easter Monday, you will find the links to these AV presentations. One will be added at the bottom of this article each day.
First of all, a time of meditation with a Kyrie, accompanied by artwork of the Gesù church.
Fr Rosario Taormina, spiritual guide and prefect
of the historical rooms of St Ignatius, introduces us to these works.
We begin in the “Chapel of the Crucifix”, a work by an unknown author, which inspires merciful love since it was placed above the altar of St. Ignatius between the end of the 16th and the middle of the 17th century. Members of the choir, through prayer and song, express their feelings of praise to the Lord’s mercy, as they are accustomed to do at the beginning of the Eucharistic liturgies and in the dialogue of personal prayer.
Then we find ourselves in the “Chapel of the Passion” where the contemporary Bosnian painter Safet Zec has created “The Descent of the Lord from the Cross,” with a vibrant participation of the Society of Jesus represented at the top by St. Joseph Pignatelli, who restored the Society after its suppression, in the centre by Father Jan Roothaan, who brought spiritual renewal and stability, and at the foot by Father Pedro Arrupe, a charismatic and missionary figure of the post-Vatican Council II period.
Finally, we see above us the interior of the
Dome, painted by G.B. Gaulli, known as Baciccia, which expresses in a vision of
glory the presence of Saints Ignatius and Francis Xavier at the top of their
respective altars, surrounded by people and angels glorifying the Risen and
Glorious Christ with his cross, all looking up to the Father of Mercy and
Glory, inspired and transformed from above by the presence of the Holy Spirit
in the form of a dove.
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O Holy Spirit, Paraclete and advocate,
we gather in your presence on this Pentecost day,
to honor your eternal flame
that fills us with courage, zeal and love.
As tongues of fire rested on the head of the disciples...
Lord Jesus,
when You ascended into heaven
the angels said to the Eleven:
“Don’t just stand there looking up to heaven”.
Let us pray that men and women religious, and seminarians, grow in their own vocational journey through human, pastoral, spiritual and community formation, that leads them to be credible witnesses of the Gospel.
