Morning Meditation: THE RESURRECTION OF JESUS CHRIST
Let us rejoice at seeing in His risen glory our Saviour, our Father, the best Friend we possess. Let us rejoice, too, for our own sakes, because the Resurrection of Jesus Christ is for us a sure pledge of our own resurrection and of the glory we hope one day to have in Heaven in our soul and body.
Meditation I:
Jesus came into the world not only to redeem us, but by His example to teach us all virtues, and especially humility, and holy poverty which is inseparably united with humility. For this is was, He chose to be born in a cave; to live as a poor man in a workshop for thirty years; and at last to die, poor and naked, on a Cross, seeing His garments divided amongst the soldiers before He breathed His last; while, after His death, He receives the winding-sheet for His burial as an alms from others.
Let the poor be consoled at seeing Jesus Christ, the King of Heaven and earth, thus living and dying in poverty in order to enrich us with His merits and gifts. For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that being rich he became poor for your sakes, that through his poverty you might be rich. — (2 Cor. viii., 9). For this cause the Saints, in order to become like unto Jesus in His poverty, despised all earthly riches and honours, so that one day they might go to enjoy with Jesus Christ the riches and honours prepared by God in Heaven for them that love Him. And speaking of these blessings the Apostle St. Paul says that eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor hath it entered into the heart of man what things God hath prepared for them that love him. — (1 Cor. ii., 9).
O my Jesus, I beseech Thee by Thy Resurrection, make me rise glorious with Thee on the last day, to be always united with Thee in Heaven, to praise Thee and to love Thee for ever.
Meditation II:
Spiritual Reading: THE HEAVEN GOD HAS WON FOR US
Evening Meditation: “YOUR SORROW SHALL BE TURNED INTO JOY”
Meditation I:
Oh, happy are we, if we suffer with patience on earth the troubles of this present life! Distress of circumstances, fears, bodily infirmities, persecutions, and crosses of every kind, will one day all come to an end; and if we be saved, they will all become for us subjects of joy and glory in Paradise: Your sorrow, says the Saviour to encourage us, shall be turned into joy. — (John xvi., 20). So great are the delights of Paradise that they can neither be explained nor understood by us mortals: Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man, what things God hath prepared for them that love him. — (1 Cor. ii., 9). Beauties like to the beauties of Paradise, eye hath never seen; harmonies like unto the harmonies of Paradise, ear hath never heard; nor hath ever human heart gained the comprehension of the joys God hath prepared for those that love Him. Beautiful is the sight of a landscape adorned with hills, plains, woods, and views of the sea. Beautiful is the sight of a garden abounding with fruits, flowers, and fountains. Oh, how much more beautiful is Paradise!
To understand how great the joys of Paradise are, it is enough to know that in that blessed realm resides a God omnipotent, Whose care it is to render happy His beloved souls. St. Bernard says that Paradise is a place where “there is nothing thou wouldst not, and everything thou wouldst.” There thou shalt not find any thing displeasing to thyself, and every thing thou dost desire thou shalt find.: “There is nothing thou wouldst not.” In Paradise there is no night; no seasons of winter and summer; but one perpetual day of unvaried serenity, and one perpetual spring of unvaried delight. No more persecutions of jealousies are there; for there all sincerely love one another, and each rejoices in each other’s good as if it were his own. No more bodily infirmities or pains are there, for the body is no longer subject to suffering; no poverty is there, for every one is rich to the full, not having anything more to desire; no more fears are there, for the soul being confirmed in grace can sin no more, nor lose that supreme good which it possesses.
Meditation II:
Morning Meditation: THE LOVE OF JESUS IN DYING FOR US
Jesus died for us that by His love for us He might gain the entire dominion of our hearts. For to this end, wrote St. Paul, Christ died and rose again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living. — (Rom. xiv., 9). Contemplating the death of Jesus Christ, and the love with which He died for men, the Saints esteemed it little to forfeit for His sake, property, honours, and life itself.
Meditation I:
Who could have conceived that the Son of God, the Lord of the Universe, to show His love for us, would suffer and die upon the Cross, if He had not really done so? With reason did Moses and Elias on Mount Tabor speak of the death of our Lord Jesus Christ as of an excess. — (Luke ix., 31). And what could be greater excess of love than for the Creator to die for His creatures?
To make Thee an adequate return for Thy love, my dear Redeemer, it would be necessary for another God to die for Thee. It would therefore be but little, it would be nothing, were we poor miserable worms of the earth to give up our whole lives for Thee, Who hast given Thine for us.
What should still more excite us to love Him is the ardent desire with which, through the course of His life, He longed for the hour of His death. By this desire He indeed proved how great His love was for us. I have a baptism, He said, wherewith I am to be baptized; and how am I straitened until it be accomplished. — (Luke xii., 50). I must be baptized with the Baptism of My own Blood, to wash away the sins of men, and how am I dying with the desire of My bitter Passion and Death! My soul, lift up your eyes, and behold your Lord hanging upon a disgraceful Cross; behold the Blood which trickles down from His Wounds. Behold His mangled body, all inviting you to love Him. Your Redeemer in His sufferings would have you love Him at least through compassion.
O Jesus, Thou didst not refuse me Thy life and precious Blood, and shall I refuse Thee anything that Thou requirest of me? No, Thou hast given Thyself to me without reserve. I will give myself to Thee without reserve.
Meditation II:
Spiritual Reading: THE HAPPY LIFE OF THOSE WHO LOVE GOD
Evening Meditation: THOU SHALT BE CROWNED
Meditation I:
Let us imagine to ourselves a soul which, on departing out of this world, enters into eternity in the grace of God. All full of humility and of confidence, it presents itself before Jesus, its Judge and Saviour. Jesus embraces it, gives it His benediction, and causes it to hear these words of sweetness: Come, my spouse, come! Thou salt be crowned! If the soul have need of being purified, He sends it to Purgatory, and, all resigned, it embraces the chastisement, because itself wishes not to enter into Heaven, that land of purity, if it is not wholly purified. The Guardian Angel comes to conduct it to Purgatory; it first returns him thanks for the assistance he has rendered it in its lifetime, and then obediently follows him. Ah, my God, when will that day arrive on which I shall see myself out of this world of perils, secure of never being able to lose Thee any more? Yes, willingly will I go to the Purgatory which shall be mine; joyfully will I embrace all its pains; sufficient will it be for me in that fire to love Thee with all my heart, since there I shall love none else but Thee.
Meditation II:
Morning Meditation: “YOU ARE BOUGHT WITH A GREAT PRICE”
We ought to set a higher value on the soul than on all the goods of the earth. To be convinced of this truth it is enough to know that God Himself condemned His Divine Son to death in order to save our souls. And the Eternal Word has not refused to purchase them with His own Blood. For God so loved the world as to give his only begotten son . . . that the world may be saved by him. — (John iii., 16, 17).
Meditation I:
The business of eternal salvation is for us the most important of all affairs; but it is also the most neglected by Christians. They are diligent, and lose no time in seeking to gain a lawsuit, or a situation of emolument. How many measures are taken to attain these objects! How many means adopted! They neither eat nor sleep. And what efforts do they make to secure their eternal salvation? How do they live? To save their souls the greater number of Christians do nothing; on the contrary, they do everything to bring their souls to perdition; they live as if Death, Judgment, Hell, Heaven, and Eternity were not Truths of Faith, but fables invented by the poets. If a person lose a lawsuit, or a harvest crop, how great is his pain and distress of mind! With what zeal does he labour to repair the loss! If worldlings lose a horse, or a dog, with what diligence do they seek after it? But if they lose the grace of God, they sleep, they jest, and laugh. All blush at being told that they neglect their worldly affairs, but how few are ashamed to neglect the business of eternity, which is the most important of all. The worldling says that the Saints were truly wise, because they sought only the salvation of their souls; and still he himself attends to all worldly business, and utterly neglects the concerns of the soul. But we entreat you, brethren, says St. Paul, that you do your own business. — (1 Thess. iv., 10, 11).
Ah, my God, how have I spent so many years, which Thou hast given me in order to secure my eternal salvation? Thou, my Redeemer, hast purchased my soul with Thy Blood, and hast consigned it to me that I may attend to its salvation; and I have laboured only for its perdition by offending Thee Who hast loved me so tenderly. I thank Thee for giving me time to be able to repair the great loss I have suffered. I have lost my soul and Thy grace. Lord, I am sorry with my whole heart for my past offences, and I resolve, henceforth, to lose everything, even my life, rather than forfeit Thy friendship.
Meditation II:
Spiritual Reading: CONFESSION
I. IMPORTANCE OF FREQUENT CONFESSION
Evening Meditation: SEEING AND ENJOYING GOD FOR EVER
Meditation I:
The beauty of the Saints, the heavenly music, and the other delights of Paradise, form but the lesser portion of its treasures. That which gives to the soul its fulness of bliss is seeing a loving God face to face. St. Augustine says that were God to let His beautiful Face be seen by the damned, hell, with all its torments, would become to them a paradise. Even in this world, when God gives a soul in prayer a taste of His sweet Presence, and by a ray of light discovers to it His goodness, and the love He bears it, so great is the contentment that the soul feels itself dissolve and melt away in love; and yet, in this life, it is not possible for us to see God as He is; we behold Him obscured, as if through a thick veil. What, then, will it be, when God will take away that veil from before us, and cause us to behold Him face to face, openly? O Lord, for having turned my back upon Thee no more should I be worthy to behold Thee; but, relying on Thy goodness, I hope to see Thee, and to love Thee in Paradise for ever. I speak thus, because I am speaking with a God Who has died in order to give Paradise to me.
Although the souls that love God are the happiest in this world, yet they cannot, here below, enjoy a happiness full and complete; that fear, which arises from not knowing whether they be deserving of the love or the hatred of their beloved Saviour, keeps them, as it were, in perpetual suffering. But in Paradise the soul is certain that it loves God, and is loved by God; and it sees that that sweet tie of love which holds it united with God will never be loosened throughout all eternity. The flames of its love will be increased by the clearer knowledge the soul will then possess of what the love of God has been in being made Man, and having willed to die for it; and in having, moreover, given Himself to it in the Sacrament of the Eucharist. Its love will be increased by then beholding, in all their distinctness, the graces He has given it, in order to lead it to Heaven; it will see that the crosses sent to it in lifetime have all been artifices of His love to render it happy. It will see, besides, the mercies He has granted it, the many lights and calls to penance. From the summit of that blessed Mount will it behold the many lost souls now in hell for sins less that its own, and it will behold itself now saved, possessed of God, and certain that it can never more lose Him throughout all eternity. My Jesus, my Jesus, when will that too happy day for me arrive?
Meditation II:
Morning Meditation: “THOU SHALT LOVE THE LORD THY GOD WITH THY WHOLE HEART”
For to this end Christ died and rose again, that he might be the Lord both of the dead and of the living. — (Rom. xiv., 9). The Saints, contemplating the death of Jesus Christ, thought it little to give their life and all things for the love of so loving a God. How many Martyrs have sacrificed their lives for Him! How many tender Virgins, renouncing the nuptials of the great, have gone with joy to death to make some return for the affection of a God Who died for their sake! And what have you done for Jesus’ sake?
Meditation I:
But one thing is necessary. — (Luke x., 42). What is this one thing necessary? It is not necessary to acquire riches, nor to obtain dignities, nor to gain a great name. The only thing necessary is to love God. Whatever is not done for the love of God is lost. This is the greatest and the First Commandment of the Divine Law. To the Pharisee who asked which was the great Commandment of the Law, Jesus Christ answered: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart . . . This is the greatest and the first commandment. — (Matt. xxii., 37. 38). But this, the greatest of the commandments, is the most despised by men: there are few who fulfil it. The greater part of men love relatives, friends, and even brute animals, but do not love God. Of these St. John says that they have not life – that they are dead. He that loveth not abideth in death. — (1 Jo. iii., 14). St. Bernard says that the reward of a soul is estimated by the measure of her love for God.
Let us consider, then, how dear to us should be this command to love God with our whole heart. What object more noble, more magnificent, more powerful, more rich, more beautiful, more bountiful, more merciful, more grateful, more amiable, or more loving than Himself could God give us to love?
Who more noble than God? Some boast of a family nobility of five hundred or a thousand years; but the nobility of God our Father is eternal. He is the Lord of all. Before God all the Angels in Heaven, and all the nobles on earth are but as a drop of water or a grain of dust. Behold the Gentiles are but as a drop of a bucket – behold the islands are as a little dust. — (Is. xl., 15).
Who more powerful than God? He can do whatsoever He wills. By an act of His will He created this world, and by another act He can destroy it when He pleases.
Who more wealthy? He possesses all the riches of Heaven and earth.
Who more beautiful? Before the beauty of God all the beauties of creatures fade away.
Who more bountiful? St. Augustine says that God has a greater desire to do good to us than we have to receive it.
Who more merciful? If the most impious sinner on earth humble himself before God, and repent of his sins, God instantly pardons and embraces him.
Who more grateful? He does not leave unrewarded the smallest act we perform for His sake.
Who more amiable? God is so amiable that, by barely seeing and loving Him in Heaven, the Saints feel a joy which makes them perfectly happy and content for all eternity. The greatest of the torments of the damned arises from knowing that this God is so amiable, and that they cannot love Him.
O Infinite Goodness! O Infinite Love! My enamoured Jesus, fill my heart with Thy love so that I may forget myself, and think of nothing but of loving and pleasing Thee. I now consecrate to Thee my body, my soul, my will, my liberty. Till now I have sought to gratify myself to Thy great displeasure. I am exceedingly sorry, my crucified Love. I will henceforth seek nothing by Thee, my God and my All.
Meditation II:
Spiritual Reading: CONFESSION
II. EXAMINATION OF CONSCIENCE
Evening Meditation: THE PRACTICE OF THE LOVE OF JESUS CHRIST
I. HOW DESERVING JESUS CHRIST IS OF OUR LOVE ON ACCOUNT OF THE LOVE HE HAS SHOWN US IN HIS PASSION
Meditation I:
The whole sanctity and perfection of a soul consists in loving Jesus Christ our God, our sovereign Good, and our Redeemer. Whoever loves Me, says Jesus Christ Himself, shall be loved by My Eternal Father: The Father himself loveth you, because you have loved me. — (John xvi., 27). Some, says St. Francis de Sales, make perfection consist in an austere life; others in prayer; others in frequenting the Sacraments; others in alms-deeds. But they deceive themselves: perfection consists in loving God with our whole heart. The Apostle wrote: Above all these things have charity, which is the bond of perfection. — (Col. iii., 14). It is charity which keeps united and preserves all the virtues that render a man perfect. Hence St. Augustine said: “Love God, and do whatever you please”; because a soul which loves God is taught by that same love never to do anything that will displease Him, and to leave nothing undone that may please Him.
But perhaps God does not deserve all our love? I have loved thee with an everlasting love. — (Jer. xxxi., 3). O man, says the Lord, behold I was the first to love thee. Thou wast not yet in the world, nay, the world itself was not, and I already loved thee. As long as I am God, I love thee; as long as I have loved Myself, I have also loved thee. With good reason, therefore, did St. Agnes, that young holy virgin, reply to those who wished to unite her to an earthly spouse: “I am engaged to another Lover.” “Go,” said she, “O lovers of this world, cease to ask my love; my God was the first to love me. He has loved me from all eternity: it is but just, then, for me to give Him all my affection, and to love none other but Him.”
Meditation II:
Morning Meditation: “SHE IS AN INFINITE TREASURE TO MEN”
The earth, the heavens, and all nature with astonishment beheld Jesus, the only-begotten Son of God, the Lord of the Universe, die of intense pain and anguish, on a disgraceful Cross – and why? He hath loved us and hath delivered himself for us. — (Eph. v., 2). And do men believe this and not love God?
Meditation I:
O inestimable value of Divine love which makes us rich before God! It is the treasure by which we gain His friendship. She is an infinite treasure to men, which they that use become the friends of God. — (Wis. vii., 14). The only thing we ought to fear, says St. Gregory of Nyssa, is the loss of God’s friendship; and the only object of our desires should be its attainment. It is love that obtains the friendship of God. Hence, according to St. Laurence Justinian, by love the poor become rich, and without love the rich are poor. “No greater riches than to have charity. With charity the poor man is rich, and without charity the rich man is poor.”
How great is the joy a person feels in thinking he is loved by a man of exalted rank! But how much greater must be the consolation a soul derives from the conviction that God loves her! I love them that love me. — (Prov. viii., 17). In a soul that loves God the Three Persons of the Adorable Trinity dwell. If any one love me he will keep my word; and my Father will love him; and we will come to him, and will make our abode with him. — (John xiv., 23). St. Bernard writes that among all the virtues charity is the one that unites us to God. St. Catharine of Bologna used to say that love is the golden chain that binds the soul to God. St. Augustine says that “love is a link connecting the lover with the beloved.” Hence were God not immense, where should He be found? Find a soul that loves God, and there God is certainly found. Of this St. John assures us. He that abideth in charity abideth in God, and God in him. — (1 Jo. iv., 16). A poor man loves riches, but he does not therefore enjoy them; he may love a throne, but he does not therefore possess a kingdom. But the man that loves God possesses God. He abideth in God and God in him.
It is true, O my Jesus, that I am so wretched as to have often offended Thee after so many special lights and graces. I am no longer worthy to be consumed in those blessed flames with which the Saints are inflamed. I ought rather to burn in hell fire. But Thou dost command me to love Thee, and I will obey Thee. I will love Thee, Jesus, with my whole heart.
Meditation II:
Spiritual Reading: CONFESSION
III. CONTRITION
Evening Meditation: THE PRACTICE OF THE LOVE OF JESUS CHRIST
II. HOW DESERVING JESUS CHRIST IS OF OUR LOVE ON ACCOUNT OF THE LOVE HE HAS SHOWN US IN HIS PASSION
Meditation I:
St. Mary Magdalene de Pazzi, when she held any beautiful flower in her hand, was enkindled by the sight of it with love for God, and would say: “And God, then, has thought from all eternity of creating this flower for love of me!” Thus did that flower become, as it were, a dart of love, which sweetly wounded her, and united her more and more to her God. On the other hand, St. Teresa, at the sight of trees, fountains, rivers, lakes, or meadows, declared that all these fair things upbraided her for her ingratitude in loving so coldly a God Who created them that they might draw her to His love. To the like purpose it is related of a pious hermit, that when walking through the country, it seemed to him the plants and flowers in his pathway reproached him for the cold return of love he made to God; so that he went along gently striking them with his staff, and saying to them: “Oh, be silent, be silent! You call me an ungrateful wretch; you tell me God has made you for love of me, and yet I do not love Him; but now I understand you, be silent, be silent; do not reproach me more.”
Meditation II:
(First Friday of April)
Morning Meditation: “THE CLEFTS OF THE ROCK”
Oh, what a safe place of refuge shall we not find in the sacred “clefts of the rock,” that is to say, in the Wounds of Jesus Christ? “The clefts of the rock,” says St. Peter Damian, “are the Redeemer’s Wounds; in these my soul has placed its hope.”
Meditation I:
There is no means which can more surely kindle in us Divine love than to consider the Passion of Jesus Christ. St. Bonaventure says that the Wounds of Jesus Christ, because they are Wounds of love, are darts which wound hearts the most hard, and flames which set on fire souls the most cold: “O Wounds, wounding stony hearts, and inflaming frozen minds!” It is impossible that a soul which believes and thinks on the Passion of the Lord should offend Him and not love Him, nay, rather that it should not run into a holy madness of love, at seeing a God as it were mad for love of us: “We have seen,” says St. Laurence Justinian, “Wisdom infatuated by too much love.” Hence it is that the Gentiles, as the Apostle says, when hearing him preach the Passion of Jesus crucified, thought it a folly: We preach Christ crucified, to the Jews indeed a scandal, but to the Gentiles foolishness. — (1 Cor. i., 23). How is it possible, said they, that a God, almighty and most happy, such as He Who is preached to us, could have been willing to die for His creatures?
Ah, my Jesus, if I gaze upon Thy body, without I see only Wounds and Blood. If within in Thy Heart, I find nothing but bitterness and anguish, which make Thee suffer the agonies of death. Ah, God enamoured of men, how is it possible that goodness so great, and such a love, should remain so badly corresponded to by men? It is wont to be said that love is repaid by love; but Thy love – with what manner of love can it be ever repaid? It would be necessary that a God should die for Thee to make recompense for the love which Thou hast borne towards us in dying for us. O Cross, O Wounds, O Death of Jesus, you bind me closely to love my loving Jesus!
Meditation II:
Spiritual Reading: CONFESSION
IV. PURPOSE OF AMENDMENT – FIRM, UNIVERSAL, EFFICACIOUS
Evening Meditation: THE PRACTICE OF THE LOVE OF JESUS CHRIST
III. HOW DESERVING JESUS CHRIST IS OF OUR LOVE ON ACCOUNT OF THE LOVE HE HAS SHOWN US IN HIS PASSION
Meditation I:
The Divine Son of God, through His love towards us, has given Himself wholly to us: Who loved me, and delivered himself for me. — (Gal. ii., 20). In order to redeem us from everlasting death, and to recover for us the Divine grace and Heaven which we had forfeited, He became Man, and assumed flesh like our own: Et verbum caro factum est; And the word was made flesh. Behold, then, a God reduced to nothingness: But emptied himself, taking the form of a servant . . . and in habit found as a man. — (Philipp. ii., 7). Behold the Sovereign Lord of the world humbling Himself so low as to subject Himself to all the miseries which the rest of men endure.
But what is more astonishing still is that He could very well have saved us without dying and without suffering at all; and yet He chose a life of sorrow and contempt, and a death of bitterness and ignominy even so far as to expire on a Cross – the gibbet of infamy, the award of vilest criminals: He humbled himself, becoming obedient unto death, even to the death of the cross. — (Philipp. ii., 8). But why, if He could have ransomed us without suffering, why should He choose to die, and to die on a Cross? To show us how He loved us. Who loved me, and delivered himself for me. He loved us, and because He loved us He delivered Himself up to sorrows, and ignominies, and to a death more cruel than ever any man endured in this world.
Meditation II:
Morning Meditation: THE LOVE OF MARY’S HEART FOR GOD
Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart. In Mary Divine love was so ardent that well might even the Seraphim have descended from Heaven to learn in the heart of Mary how to love God.
Meditation I:
St. Anselm says that “wherever there is the greatest purity, there is also the greatest charity.” The more a heart is pure, and empty of itself, the greater is the fullness of its love towards God. The most holy Mary, because she was all humility, and had nothing of self in her, was filled with Divine love, so that “her love towards God surpassed that of all men and Angels,” as St. Bernardine writes. Therefore St. Francis de Sales with good reason called her “the Queen of love.”
God has indeed given men the precept to love Him with their whole heart: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart. — (Matt. xxii., 37); but, as St. Thomas declares, “this commandment will be fully and perfectly fulfilled by men only in Heaven, and not on earth, where it is only fulfilled imperfectly.” On this subject Blessed Albert the Great remarks, that, in a certain sense, it would have been unbecoming had God given a precept that was never to have been perfectly fulfilled. But this would have been the case had not the Divine Mother perfectly fulfilled it. The Saint says: “Either some one fulfilled this precept, or no one; if any one, it must have been the most Blessed Virgin.” Richard of St. Victor confirms this opinion, saying: “The Mother of our Emmanuel practised virtues in their very highest perfection. Who has ever fulfilled as she did that first commandment, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart? In her Divine love was so ardent that no defect of any kind could have access to her.” “Divine love,” says St. Bernard, “so penetrated and filled the soul of Mary, that no part of her was left untouched; so that she loved with her whole heart, with her whole soul, with her whole strength, and was full of grace.” Therefore Mary could well say: My Beloved has given Himself all to me, and I have given myself all to Him: My Beloved to me, and I to him. — (Cant. ii., 16). “Ah! well might even the Seraphim,” says Richard, “have descended from Heaven to learn, in the heart of Mary, how to love God.”
O Mary, my Mother, thou desirest nothing else but to see Jesus loved; do thou obtain for me this grace above all others. I do not ask of thee for earthly goods, or honours, or riches. I ask for what thy own heart desires most for me. I wish to love my God.
Meditation II:
Spiritual Reading: CONFESSION
V. FALSE SHAME
Evening Meditation: THE PRACTICE OF THE LOVE OF JESUS CHRIST
IV. HOW DESERVING JESUS CHRIST IS OF OUR LOVE ON ACCOUNT OF THE LOVE HE HAS SHOWN US IN HIS PASSION
Meditation I:
The love of Jesus Christ towards men created in Him a longing desire for the moment of His death, when His love should be fully manifested to them; hence He was wont to say in His lifetime: I have a baptism wherewith I am to be baptized, and how am I straitened till it be accomplished! — (Luke xii., 50). I have to be baptized in My own Blood; and how do I feel Myself straitened with the desire that the hour of My Passion may soon arrive; for then man will know the love I bear him! Hence, St. John, speaking of that night in which Jesus began His Passion, writes: Jesus knowing that his hour was come, that he should pass out of this world to the Father; having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them unto the end. — (John xiii., 1). The Redeemer called that hour His own hour (hora ejus), because the time of His death was the time desired by Him, as it was then that He wished to give men the last proof of His love, by dying for them upon a Cross, overwhelmed by sorrows.
But what could have ever induced a God to die as a malefactor upon a Cross between two sinners with such insult to His Divine Majesty? “What did this?” asks St. Bernard. He answers: “It was love, careless of its dignity.” Ah, love indeed, when it tries to make itself known, does not seek what is becoming to the dignity of the lover, but what will serve best to declare itself to the object loved. St. Francis of Paula, therefore, had good reason to cry out at the sight of a Crucifix: “O charity! O charity! O charity!” And in like manner, when we look upon Jesus on the Cross, we should all exclaim: O love! O love! O love!
Meditation II:
