Toward Easter - Daily Readings & Meditations for Lent 2025 - Day 43 / Spy Wednesday

What does true fortitude look like? As we stand at the threshold of the Sacred Triduum, this meditation on Spy Wednesday explores the profound strength demonstrated by Christ during His Passion—not through resistance or escape, but through patient endurance.

Drawing from Isaiah's prophecy and St. Luke's Passion account, we contemplate how Jesus maintained remarkable self-mastery amid excruciating suffering. "There is no movement of revolt in Jesus. He does not try to escape. We find in Him no word of hatred toward his persecutors." This challenges our modern understanding of strength, especially for those of us conditioned to equate fortitude with fighting back.

The reflection wrestles with a crucial spiritual question: When should we patiently bear our crosses like Christ, and when should we actively resist injustice? This tension becomes particularly relevant within the Church, where obedience to spiritual authorities must sometimes be balanced against other responsibilities. As St. Teresa of Avila reminds us, "If one would attain to liberty of spirit and not be always in trouble, let him begin by not being afraid of the cross and he will see how our Lord will help him to carry it."

Through examining Christ's perfect example—facing the most unjust punishment in history without revolt—we're invited to reconsider what spiritual strength truly means. Perhaps real fortitude lies not just in knowing when to fight, but in having the wisdom to discern when patient endurance transforms suffering into redemption. Join us as we prepare our hearts for the sacred days ahead, learning to pray with sincerity: "Help me not to recoil when faced with the cross, and teach me to carry it with generosity."

Chapters

• 0:00 Wednesday in Holy Week Introduction
• 2:49 Meditation on Christ's Fortitude
• 5:02 Thoughts from Saints and Resolutions
• 7:19 Reflecting on True Fortitude
• 11:17 When to Endure vs When to Fight
• 14:15 Looking Toward the Sacred Triduum

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:50

Sancte. Sancte, amare morti. Decadast nos In teis per a verum. Good morning everyone on this Spy.

Speaker 1: 1:21

Wednesday in Holy Week. We're on the last day before the beginning of the Sacred Triduum, the beginning of the the sacred uh triduum. Today we will be talking about the virtue of fortitude, and the reading and meditation is from port easter by father patrick trodek. You can find it in the description below and you can find these meditations on youtube, rumble and all the audio podcast apps. So we're going to get started. I'm going to throw up an image on screen so you just listen. There won't be anything to watch. And here we go.

Speaker 1: 2:02

Wednesday and Holy Week the Virtue of Fortitude From the book of Isaiah 53, verses 3-5. Despised in the most abject of men a man of sorrows. Surely, he hath borne our infirmities. He was wounded for our iniquities and by his bruises we are healed. The Church has us read today, for the third time since Sunday, the account of the Passion. Today that, according to St Luke, she also gives us large extracts from the Passion described in advance by the prophet Isaiah.

Speaker 1: 2:58

In this beginning of Holy Week, the Church wants to touch our heart in placing before our eyes all that Jesus endured in order to save us. The account of the Passion makes us know not only the intensity of the sufferings of our Lord, but also the mastery over Himself that he maintained in the midst of the most painful and the most humiliating outrages. There is no movement of revolt in Jesus. He does not try to escape. We find in Him no word of hatred toward his persecutors. He displays heroic fortitude, particularly in rising up after each one of his falls, in spite of his state of total exhaustion, or again in pronouncing his seven words on the cross, although each time he has to pull himself up to take his breath, which sets off unspeakable suffering in him. Lord Jesus, by thine endurance amidst so many sufferings, thou hast merited for me the grace of resignation and patience in each one of my own trials. Help me not to recoil either one faced with the cross, and teach me to carry it with generosity and confidence every day of my life, in order to share one day in thy glory in heaven. In our prayer from Father Gabriel, st Mary Magdalene, divine Intimacy, volume 2, page 139. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, amen. I come to thee, jesus, to seek in thy divine strength a support for my weakness, for my infirmity, divine strength, a support for my weakness, for my infirmity, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, amen.

Speaker 1: 5:05

Our first thought for the day comes from St Teresa of Avila. If one would attain to liberty of spirit and not be always in trouble, let him begin by not being afraid of the cross and he will see how our Lord will help him to carry it, how joyfully he will advance and what profit he will derive from it all. And our second thought of the day comes from St John Vianney. Our good God reaches out his hand and gives his grace to those who ask for it. We can triumph with the grace of God, which is never refused to us. And we have two resolutions for the day the first to draw strength in prayer so as to keep our patience in trials, and the second to work particularly on self-mastery in every domain. And that is the reading for today.

Speaker 1: 6:31

Like I said, tomorrow begins the, the triduum, with Maundy Thursday, holy Thursday, um. So tomorrow we will be concentrating on the mass, the Eucharist and the priesthood, since they're all instituted, um, on Maundy Thursday. Instituted on Maundy Thursday, friday, good Friday. We'll be talking about the price that Christ paid for our salvation, and Holy Saturday we'll be talking about hope.

Speaker 1: 7:13

But today was about fortitude and this um, this meditation, I think, is difficult for a lot of us. Not that we don't have um, um, you know, I think a lot of us think of fortitude as as kind of courage, right, um, the strength to, you know, endure hardship, which it is, of course. But I think when we think of we, especially as those of us who are american, um, we don't often see it as enduring hardship with like patience and resignation. Um, you know, in our world, and, like I said, especially as Americans, I think a large part of our nature as a people is a spirit of resistance, spirit almost of revolution. You know, when we have to endure hard things, we often initially, at least immediately, think of how do we fight against this right. And this happens both inside and outside of issues, you know, in the church.

Speaker 1: 9:10

And it's really hard to tell when something is a trial that we should endure with just patience and resignation and fortitude, and when something is a trial, you know, which we should fight against. And I think this is especially true within the church because, you know, because we do have a real duty of, of obedience. That that you know. Know that duty is there, uh, in regard to you, know the hierarchy, but at the same time, you know that duty does only go so far, and I don't think it goes as far as many claim it does, but also it goes farther than others claim it doesn't, if you understand what I mean. And I don't know where that middle ground is and we've talked about that before in these meditations, but that also applies to then.

Speaker 1: 10:26

How do we deal with trials and challenges and sufferings, and challenges and sufferings, once again, especially within the church? When should we just face something with patience and resignation, and when should we fight against an injustice? Like Father says here help me not to recoil either one face with the cross and teach me to carry it with generosity. You know so. So when do we do that and when do we? When do we fight against something I don't know? I don't know, I don't know. It's something I struggle with a lot.

Speaker 1: 11:20

Actually, I don't know what the answer is. I don't know where the middle ground is. You know, I'm not sure. I mean, there is nothing. The most unjust thing that could have ever ever happened happened to Christ, a God, you know, god himself being killed by the very people he was saving. You cannot get more unjust than that was saving. You cannot get more unjust than that. And yet, as the meditation says, there was no movement of revolt in Jesus, no, trying to escape, no word of hatred.

Speaker 1: 12:12

So when do we, when should we emulate christ and when should we, like I say, fight, you know, fight against an injustice happening to us or others, especially when the person or persons committing that injustice are are spiritual fathers, are shepherds? I don't know, I don't have the answer, um, but it's something that I'm going to think about and pray about a lot this week, I think you know it's something that I'm going to think about and pray about a lot this week, I think you know, especially when you have, uh, a new Bishop coming down on, you know, the entire archdiocese of Detroit and their, their Latin masses. Um, you know, do you fight against that? If so, how do you even fight against that? Or do you endure with the, the patience and fortitude of Christ? I don't know what the right answer is there. I wish I did, but.

Speaker 1: 13:28

But yeah, so today is by Wednesday. Tomorrow begins the Triduum, but yeah, so today is by Wednesday. Um, tomorrow begins the triduum, so I hope you have a good, good day here. I hope you prepare for the triduum and tomorrow we will come back and we will discuss the mass, the Eucharist and the priesthood. So have a good day, everyone, and I'll see you again tomorrow, thank you.