Garden of Gethsemane

Section Thirty-three is a complex of four columbaria. The centerpiece of this area is the beautiful mosaic of Christ’s Agony in the Garden. This powerful mosaic reminds us of Christ’s unwavering love for all of us as he prepares to sacrifice himself for us and to conquer sin. The four buildings that make up this complex are named after the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, with each building having a verse that memorializes that gospel’s illustration of Christ’s Agony in the Garden.

“My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as You will.” Luke 22:39

This garden captures quite movingly the spirit of the the first sorrowful mystery of the rosary, the Agony in the Garden, in its references to our Lord’s struggle to keep His composure at Gethsemane. That night His Humanity was sorely tested to fulfill his mission in His Divinity to die on a cross so that we might have Eternal Life. Yet His quite natural fear of death, and despair at betrayal, could not keep him from carrying out His Father’s Will.

This area of the Gethsemane brings peace and tranquility to all as they step up the stone steps, listening to the waterfalls and walk along the path to view the beautiful mosaic of Jesus praying in the garden for us as we should pray for Him and our love.

O Jesus, Who in the excess of Your love to win hearts, do give abundant graces to those who meditate on your holy passion in Gethsemane, I pray You to lead my heart and soul to think often of the most bitter agony You suffered in the Garden, to pity You and to join with You completely.

O most Holy Jesus, Who bore during that night the weight of all our sins and paid for them, please grant me the great gift of contrition for my many sins which caused You to sweat blood.

Most Holy Jesus, by virtue of the terrible struggle You endured in Gethsemane, give me the power of complete and final victory in the temptations that beset me, especially those to which I am most often subject.

O my Jesus, by virtue of the anxieties, fears and the unknown but intense pain which You suffered on the night in which You suffered on the night in which You were betrayed, give me the light to follow Your holy will and to think upon and to understand the enormous effort and formidable struggle You endured victoriously in fulfilling not your will, but the will of the Father.

Praise to You, O Jesus, for the agony and the tears poured out during the Holy Night, for the sweat of blood and the deadly distress You endured, that solitude more frightful than man can imagine.

Praise to You, most sweet but vastly sorrowful Jesus, for the prayer at once human and divine which poured forth from Your agonized heart during that night of ingratitude and of treason.

Eternal Father, I offer to You all the Holy Masses of this moment, of the past, and of the future, united with Jesus in agony in the Garden of Olives.

O Most Holy Trinity, cause the knowledge and love of the Sacred Passion of Gethsemane to be diffused in the world.

And, O my Jesus, may those who love You and look upon the crucifix remember Your incredible pain in the Garden, and may they follow Your example, learn to pray well, to fight and overcome so they may eternally glorify You in heaven. Amen.

– Our Catholic Prayers