Let us consider this on meditation on the Passion: “THERE is no subject of meditation more pleasing to God and more profitable to the soul than the Passion of Jesus Christ. It contains in itself all sweetness. It is the remedy for every evil; the food that nourishes the sou 1. It is continued still in the Blessed Eucharist, and every Mass is a representation and renewal of the Sacred Passion. It is a subject always in season, but especially during the holy time of Lent.“These Meditations deal with some of the main incidents of Our Lord's Sacred Passion. They are intended to be begun on Ash Wednesday, and to end on Holy Saturday. A few verses of Scripture are suggested to be read before each meditation, as furnishing the subject-matter of which it treats.“St. Bonaventure tells us that if we desire to meditate with fruit on the Passion of Jesus Christ, three conditions are necessary. Our meditation must be:“1. Humble,. for the Passion is unlike anything else in the world, it is unfathomable to human reason-a bottomless ocean of mystery. Reason must bow its head and confess its inability to grasp the mysteries that even Faith sees only darkly and through a glass. The story of Christ's humiliation is to the proud a sealed book; they see nothing attractive in it. Christ suffering has no beauty that they should admire Him. I must therefore begin by praying for humility.“2. Full of confidence; since the Passion is the source of all our confidence. I t is the proof of the exceeding love wherewith Christ loved us. How can I fear with the sight before me of Christ suffering for love of me? It is, too,"a medicine for every possible evil, for every temptation, for every sin; whatever the malady of my soul, the Passion of Christ can cure it. At the foot of the cross each mortal wound will be made whole.“3. Persevering: the beauty of the Passion does not appear all at once. The world considers it a degradation, the careless and the indifferent pass it by unmoved; even the faithful Christian scarcely penetrates beneath the surface of that Divine Mystery, unless he prays earnestly and continually to appreciate it. Only gradually and by degrees are we drawn by the sacred attractiveness of the cross.“Before I begin my meditations I must ask God for this spirit of humility, confidence, persistency.”

Quadragesima is the Latin word for Lent or the forty days of preparation for Easter observed with fasting and prayer by Catholics. This work opens with an overview or a harmony of the Passion, followed by a chapter by chapter consideration of our Lord Jesus Christ's Passion. Let us consider the Last Supper: “Our Lord knew that this was to be the last gathering. At the beginning of the Last Supper He had said: "With desire I have desired (i.e., I have desired with great longing) to eat this Pasch with you before 1 suffer." All through that Supper how keen was His affection for His own; how much He felt for them; how all His words and actions had been directed with a view to giving them comfort and courage! He had bid farewell to His Mother; of that scene, as of all other similar scenes, Scripture tells us not a word, as though the Evangelists felt it to be too sacred for description. But it is not too sacred for meditation, and we may look on. and say and think what we will. He bade farewell to Judas in unmistakable terms; but with how much affection it had been preceded, how much affection was shown even at the parting itself. And He bade farewell to all the rest; we can take them one by one, with their different characters and different shortcomings, and know that He had a special love for each.”And the Agony in the Garden: “Undoubtedly the first ingredient of Our Lord's cup of sorrow was the sense of the sin of the world, the sense that in some way it was His own, the sense that in Him it was to be expiated. But this was intensified by many others. There was the intensity of His love. The more we care for others, the more we suffer for them and with them: what, then, must have been the measure of the suffering of Our Lord for us? Again, there was the determination that He would not be out-done in generosity; safely, then, we may say that the greatest sufferer in the world does but approach to the suffering of Our Lord. Again, there was the fact of His refined and perfect nature. The more perfect the creature, the more keenly does it feel; what, then, was the suffering of the nature of Our Lord?”Behold thy Mother; behold thy son. Let us consider this scene a moment: “Of all die scenes in the Passion, there is none more familiar to every one of us than this. The crowd has dwindled away; even its noisy exultation has not been able to keep up its false courage for long. There remain doubt, are not those who have been mostviolent; they are the partially sympathetic, the more or less faithful remnant, the curious. There remains, too, the guard, mainly of Roman soldiers, divided between contempt for the Victim and contempt for the people who have made such a display of their Eastern ferocity. It is true these soldiers have played their part in the cruelty; but they are Western souls, they are more easily sated in their lust for blood, and they stand there sullen and disgusted. Instinctively, without themselves noticing it, the true mourners have crept closer and closer; the guard does not trouble to prevent them; they find some comfort for themselves in this act of mercy. So three women stand there-Mary Immaculate, Mary the Penitent, Mary the mother of Apostles.”

Excerpt from The Sacred Passion of Jesus Christ: Short Meditations for Every Day in Lent These Meditations deal with some of the main incidents of Our Lord's Sacred Passion. They are intended to be begun on Ash Wednesday, and to end on Holy Saturday. A few verses of Scripture are suggested to be read before each meditation, as furnishing the subject-matter of which it treats. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.