These are pictures taken last November 3, 2007 during the blessing and enthronement of the second station of the cross at the 1st floor of the Luminous Cross of Grace Sanctuary at Agdangan, Quezon.

This is the first station that was built in the sanctuary.

“The Agony in the Garden”

And then we go out to the garden and He is overcome by sadness. He tells the eight to sit down while He goes on farther to pray. He takes Peter, James, and me aside. “I am plunged in sorrow, enough to break my heart!” He tells us. “Stay here and keep awake.”

Why does he take us three, asking us to watch with Him? Is it because He looks to us for pity and comfort? If so, how we failed him!

Going a little way off, but still within our sight, He falls to His knees, and then upon His face, praying.

“Father, you can do all things! Spare me this cup! No, not what I will, but what you will!”mThus He prays for some time.

Rising after a while and coming back to us, He finds us sleeping. We did not want to sleep. We tried to watch with Him, but a deep sadness and foreboding overcame us with such fatigue that we could not resist.

He speaks to Peter in His gentle way, “Simon, are you sleeping? Were you not able to stay awake one hour? Keep awake and pray, all of you, that you may not succumb to temptation.” And then He adds these words to show how well He knows our human frailty. “The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” And that is true. We slept not because we wanted to, but because we were so frail.

Again He goes back to pray, falling on His face. “My father, if this cup cannot be cpared me, and I must drink it, may your will be done.”

And after a while He returns a second time; we awaken to find Him gazing upon us, and we know not what to say. Without a word of complaint, He resumes His prayer.

An angel from heaven comes to gives Him strength, for now He falls into an agony. As he prays even more ardently, His sweat falls to the ground as thick drops of blood. And this we see in the full light of the spring moon.

Why does He keep coming back to us between His prayers? It is partly because the sins of the world have laid a crushing burden upon His great Heart. He looks for one to pity and comfort Him. But there is no one; and hence He goes back again, alone, to wrestle with dread.

He comes back because, even in His own bitter distress, He is keenly aware of our coming temptation, our need for strength Peter will soon deny Him, yet He urges him to pray. What a lesson this is for us to cling in our future years. Knowing that Peter will fall, but that Peter does not have to fall, knowing that Peter can find courage through prayer, yet all the time aware that Peter will sleep instead, He urges him to pray.

How sublime that He can think of us, even in His own agony!

How touching that He makes excuse for us: “The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

How human He was in His sorrow; how divine in His love.

—taken from the book My Other Self by Clarence Enzler pp 116-117

If you want to help build other stations, please email admin@luminouscrossofgrace.com

or contact Dr.Paz Carandang at 09209541475

Thank you…