12. On the memory of our lords passion, as a remedy against dissipation or distraction of mind

" Beati qui lugent, quoniam ipsi consolabuntur.^^'* " Blessed are those who weep, for they shall be cum for ted.'''' 1 . By whom shall they be comforted? most surely by Christ— in the secret of the heart, and not by the world with its vain consolations and idle frivolities.

Light and trifling discourses, pleasant jests, and frequent laughter, have no agreement with the sacred passion and bitter sufferings of Christ o o Were my head or my back wounded, even by one of those sharp thorns which formed the crown of Jesus Christ, would I laugh and be merry? no, surely, but rather weep and cry aloud through pain.

Were my foot pierced by one of the nails which fastened Jesus to the cross, whither could I go, or whither could I run ? Doubtless I could neither go nor run anywhere : I would lay me down in sorrow, and learn by the experience of pain, to mourn over the sufferings of my divine Saviour.

Happy should I be, if the abundance and bitterness of my tears could then efface my sins.

Oh ! how holy is the grief we feel, and how sweet the tears we shed, when we weep over the sacred wounds of our Saviour Jesus Christ ! o o 2. Whenever, then, thou art in distress, or assailed by any temptation, or on the point of yielding to some concealed weakness, arm thyself forthwith with the shield of prayer, and the standard of the Holy Crpss ; take refuge in ihe sacred wounds of Christ, and there in the fervour of prayer, and in serious meditation on His passion, find a salutary remedy for all the wants of thy soul.

Consider well the ponderous, high, and heavy. cross, on which Jesus Christ hung naked ; — fastened and transpierced with nails ) for the love of thee.

Behold his crown ; — count there the numerous thorns, which pierced so sadly his sacred head, and bedewed it abundantly with his sacred blood.

Place these, as well as the other instruments used in the passion of Jesus Christ, beside thee as a safeguard by day and night : lest thy malignant enemy, the devil, finding thy mind stripped of these sacred representations, enter in and pollute thy heart with vain thoughts and danoerous suo-o-estions.

3. Let not therefore thy bed be aid in softness : — in memory of he holy nativity of our Lord Jesus y 'hrist, think of that crib, poor and r, irrow but replete with all virtues, where Jesus was born, and where Were heard His infant cries. He had no ornament for His cradle but a little straw, and no nourishment but a little milk from His Virgin Mother. Let the hardness and poverty of thy couch, recal in some sort, the hard and stony sepulchre of our Lord Jesus Christ ; crucified for thy sake, truly dead and buried in the bosom of the earth, and covered with a great stone. c o There then, seek repose, in the peace of the Lord, forgetting the world and all its vanities ; despising all that is reckoned great and pleasing in the eyes of men ; that rising with Him from thy slumber thou mayest come forth refreshed in virtue and grace, and at the last day be raised again to share in the eternal glory of the elect. Amen.