Chapter IV. Of the seven other meditations on the Sacred Passion, and of the way in which we have to meditate

After these, there follow the seven other Meditations on the Sacred Passion, the Resurrection and the Ascension of Christ; to which may be added the other principal passages in His ‘most Holy Life. Observe here, there are six points in the Passion of Christ on which to meditate :— (1) The greatness of His sorrows, that we may grieve with Him in them.

(2) The gravity of our sin, which is the motive of our abhorrence of it.

(3) The greatness of our blessing from the Passion, that we may render thanks for it.

(4) The excellence of the Divine goodness manifested to us therein, that we may love Him.

(5) The fitness of the~Passion for the Divine purpose, that we may marvel at it.

(6) The manifold abundance of the 46 A Golden Trea tise virtues of Christ, which shine forth in this Mystery for our imitation.

Agreeably, then, with this, when we are going to meditate, we should go turning our hearts, at one time, to suffer with Christ in His sufferings; because, considering the tenderness of His Sacred Body, and the greatness~of His love, and His suffering, too, without any kind of consolation, these sufferings were the greatest the world could ever know.

At another time, we should seek to draw from it new motives of sorrow for our sins, considering that they were the cause of His enduring so many and so grave sufferings. Another time, we should draw from our Meditation motives of love and thankfulness, considering the greatness of the love which He, in His Passion, discovered to us, and the greatness of the blessing which Pietcontene! upon us, redeeming us so plenteously—with so much cost to Himself, and so much benefit to ourselves. Another time, let us lift up our eyes to Him and think upon the fitness of the means which God chose for the remedy of our misery ; that is, to make satisfaction for our sins, to succour our necessities, to obtain for us His grace, to humble our pride, and lead us to the contempt of worldly things, and to the love of the Cross, of poverty, austerity and afflictions, and of all other virtues and honourable labours. Another time, we should fix our eyes on the examples of virtue, which are so clearly to be seen in His most Sacred Life and Death, in His meekness, patience, obedience, pity, poverty, austerity, charity, humility, loving-kindness, and gentleness, and in all the other virtues, which shine forth in His Words and Works more than the stars in heaven. In this way we may imitate some of those virtues which we see in Him, and keep ourselves in a zealous frame of mind, and use the grace which we receive from Him as means of drawing nearer to Himself. This is the best and most profitable way of meditating upon the Passion of Christ—the way of imitation— for by imitation we come to transformation, and so we are enabled to say with the Apostle, “I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.” Moreover, in each one of these steps of our Meditation, we should have our Lord present before our eyes, not merely as setting before us the incidents in the story of His Passion, but as actually Gal. ii, 20.

suffering, and with all the circumstances of that suffering; especially in these four points, viz. :— Who is it that suffers? For whom does He suffer? How does He suffer ?

For what cause does He suffer? Who is He? It is God the Almighty, Everlasting, Incomprehensible.

For whom does He suffer? For the most ungrateful, unworthy creature in the world.

How does He suffer? With the utmost humility, charity, loving-kindness, meekness, pity, patience, gentleness.

For what cause does He suffer ẹ? Not for any interest of His own, nor for our deserving, but only for the infinite depths of His mercy and pity. .

Lastly, let us not content ourselves with marvelling at His outer sufferings, but much more at the inner sufferings ; for there is far more to contemplate in the Soul of Christ, than in His Body, both as to our feelings in respect of His sorrows, and as to other effects and considerations which come from them.

With this short preface we proceed now to repeat, and set forth in order, the Mysteries of this Sacred Passion.

THE SEVEN MEDITATIONS ON THE SACRED PASSION.