Meditations on the Life and Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ

ALL holy men agree in teaching that devout meditation on the sacred Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ is one of the most efficacious ways of kindling the fire of divine love in our hearts. "Very often," writes the holy abbot Blosius, "hath our Lord revealed to his beloved spouses Gertrude, Bridget, Mechtilde and Catherine, how pleasing it is to him and how fruitful to the soul, when the Passion of Jesus Christ is recalled to mind with loving and humble attention and sincere devotion. These holy women meditated on the Passion with unflagging diligence. The sacred Passion, though so sharp and bitter in itself, is full to the brim of the sweetest essence of charity. These holy women, therefore, so fixed the thought of it in the very centre of their souls, and contemplated it with such burning love and with such sweet affections of charity, that it became to them like honey in the mouth, melody in the ear and joy in the heart." Therefore all who desire to love our Lord Jesus Christ with sincerity should diligently meditate on the sacred Passion according to the grace bestowed on each one by God. In this we can always find delight. By this practice, within the reach of everyone, we can always increase our love and go on apace to God. In this exercise shall we find rest in the midst of labour, comfort in the darkest anxiety, support in the most dangerous temptations and joy amidst humiliation and contempt. In his clear and succinct way, St Thomas Aquinas gives us four reasons for meditating on the Passion: I. By it we learn how much God loves man. 2. From it we learn humility, obedience, self sacrifice and all virtues. 3. By means of this exercise the soul is moved to hate sin. 4. We become convinced that no kind of death should be feared by a man living a good life, since the Son of God embraced the Cross.