'Love of the Saints for the Passion'

The following article is taken from 'Meditation on the Passion' compiled from Various Sources by Rev. Reginal Walsh O.P., published by Burns, Oates, and Washbourne Ltd., London,. 1922.

                    Jesus Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane 
                        - Heinrich Hofmann1886 (Wikipedia)


In the Introduction to this book Fr Walsh has this to say:-

‘Among the many subjects proposed by the Church to us for mental prayer, there is none more  profitable than the sublime mystery of Calvary. For even where everything is supremely holy – namely, in the actions of Him Who is the way, and the truth, and the life – the Passion is the culmination of sanctity, the highest exercise of virtue, the greatest cause of merit.  Hence devout meditation on it produces most abundant fruit in souls. And for this reason, Saints and Doctors of the Church – those who are specially enlightened, those who spoke from experience, those who are our best guides in the spiritual life – with one accord praise and glorify it.

                For instance, St. Jerome says: “In the Passion all the other mysteries are contained.”  St. Augustine speaks as follows: “There is nothing more advantageous , nothing better adapted to ensure our eternal salvation, than daily to contemplate the sufferings which Jesus Christ bore for our sake.”  And St. Leo the Great expresses himself thus: “The cross of Christ is the source of every blessing, the fountain of all merit: to the faithful it gives strength from His weakness, glory from His shame, and life from His death.”

                If at the present day countless human beings live as thoughtlessly and carelessly as if their souls had not been redeemed, as if they had not been bought at a great price, surely it becomes our duty to make reparation for their indifference and ingratitude.  In proportion to the world’s forgetfulness should be our remembrance.  This solemn obligation rests on us all as Catholics.  We must not be heedless, we who are familiar with the words: “In the cross is salvation; in the cross is life; in the cross is protection from thy enemies.  In the cross is the infusion of heavenly sweetness; in the cross is strength of mind; in the cross is joy of spirit.”

                It is hoped that they who love to contemplate and consider what the Word Incarnate suffered for their salvation will find this work useful. Here, in passing, we may say that the Meditation now presented to all was in its first shape designed and destined for private circulation only.

                A Member of the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary, who, as Mistress of Novices for about thirty years, had gained great experience in the formation of religious as well as in the varied requirements of conventual life, proposed by means of this book to impart to her Sisters the fruit of her own reflections on the Passion, which one so spiritual and enlightened ws exceptionally fitted to compile.

                As might have been anticipated, the excellence of the work, which she had intended for the use of her Sisters, in course of time became known to several persons, in one or other way connected with the Institute of the Blessed Virgin.  And among them, some are of opinion that this treasure should no longer be allowed to remain almost hidden in the cloister.  They have represented that outside the convents of the Institute there are many devout souls to whom the Meditation would be most acceptable. In accordance with their suggestion, and in compliance with their wish, it is now reprinted.

                But in order to increase its utility, so far as persons living in the world are concerned, many passages in the work, as it appeared at first, have been omitted – those, namely, which were addressed to nuns as such; also some other incidental clauses have been either omitted or else slightly c hanged.  This remark will suffice to explain the difference which, as any person who compares them cannot fail to observe, exists here and there between the original and the revised edition.

                That the book may continue to be a help to advancement in the spiritual life, and become an abundant source of blessings to a still wider circle of readers, is the earnest desire of those who have had to do with its reissue.

                                                                                                                                                         Reginald Walsh, O.P.

         Way to Calvary  -  Andrea di Bartolo 1400 (Wikipedia)

Love of the Saints for the Passion

A certain devout solitary prayed to God to teach him what he could do in order to love Him perfectly.  Our Lord revealed to him that there was no more efficient way to arrive at the perfect love of Him than to meditate constantly on His Passion.  St. Teresa lamented and complained of certain books which had taught her to leave off meditating on the Passion of Our Lord,  because this might be an impediment to the contemplation of His Divinity; and the Saint exclaimed;  “O Lord of my soul, O my Jesus Crucified, my treasure, I never remember this opinion without thinking that I have been guilty of very great treachery . And is it possible, Thou my Lord, couldst be an obstacle to me in the way of a greater good?  Whence, then, do all good things come to me, but from Thee?”  And she added: “I have seen that in order to please God, and to induce Him to grant us great graces, He wills that they should all pass through the hands of this most sacred Humanity, in which His Divine Majesty declared He took pleasure”.

                For this reason, Father Balthazar Alvarez said, that ignorance of the treasures we possess in Jesus was the ruin of Christianity; and therefore his most favourite and usual meditation was on the Passion of Jesus Christ.  He meditated especially on three of the sufferings of Jesus – in poverty, in contempt, and pain; he exhorted his penitents to meditate often on the Passion of Our Redeemer, telling them that they should not consider that they had done anything at all, until they had arrived at retaining Jesus Crucified continually present in their hearts.  “He who desires,” says St. Bonaventure,  “to go on advancing from virtue to virtue, from grace to grace, should meditate continually on the Passion of Jesus.  And,” he adds, “that there is no practice more profitable for the entire sanctification of the soul than the frequent meditation on the sufferings of Jesus Christ.”

                St. Augustine tells us that a single tear shed at the remembrance of the Passion of Jesus is worth more than a Pilgrimage to Jerusalem, or a year of fasting on bread and water. Because it was for this end that Our Lord suffered so much, in order that we should think of His sufferings; for, if we think on them, it is impossible not to be inflamed with divine love: “The charity of Christ presseth us,” says St. Paul. Our Lord is loved by so few, because few consider the pains He has suffered;  but he that frequently considers them cannot live without loving Jesus.  “The charity of Christ presseth us” – we shall find ourselves so constrained by His love that we shall not find it possible to refrain from loving a God so full of love, who has suffered so much to win our love.

                Therefore St Paul said that he desired nothing but Jesus, and Jesus Crucified – that is, the love that Our Lord has shown us on the Cross: “I judged not myself to know anything among you but Jesus Christ, and Him crucified”(1Cor.11.2). And, in truth, from what book can we better learn the Science of the Saints – that is the Science of loving God – than from Jesus Crucified! That great servant of God, Brother Bernard of Corleone, the Capuchin, not being able to read, his brother religious wanted to teach him, upon which he went to consult his crucifix; but Jesus answered him from the Cross: “What is reading?  What are books?  Behold I am the book wherein thou mayest continually read the love I have borne thee.”  O great subject to be considered during our whole life; and during all eternity.  A God dead for love of me!  A God dead for love of me!  A wonderful subject!

                St. Thomas Aquinas was one day visiting St. Bonaventure, and asked him from what book he had drawn all the beautiful lessons he had written. St. Bonaventure showed him the image of the Crucified, which was completely blackened by all the kisses that he had given it, and said: “This is my book whence I receive everything that I write; and it has taught me whatever little I know.”  It was this sweet study of the crucifix which made St.Francis become a great seraph.  He wept so continually  in meditating on the sufferings of Jesus Christ, that he almost entirely lost his sight.  We fancy sometimes as we read the Lives of the Saints, that it was easy enough for them to have an intense devotion to the Passion, since they were, at least many of them, favoured with such sensible graces and miraculous favours. Take, for example, Blessed James of Bevagna, from whose crucifix flowed a stream of miraculous blood, as he knelt before it, while a voice issued from it, giving him the assurance of his salvation. How could he ever again have looked upon his crucifix without realizing the love of his Divine Master in pouring out that Precious Blood for the salvation of the human race?   Or again, when the crucifix spoke to St Peter Martyr, in his hour of trial, and said:  “And I, Peter, what had I done?” How easy for him to draw the lesson of patience and resignation under calumny!  But we forget that these and other similar favours were but exterior signs of God’s grace and love; and that, before the Saints received them, they had long practised devotion.  Look at the life of any Saint you like, and you will find an extraordinary devotion to the Passion.  It was the distinguishing mark of the Saints; they would not have been Saints without it.

                But apart from the miraculous graces vouchsafed to the chosen servants of God, something of the same kind has happened to ourselves hundreds of times in the course of our lives.  Who can say that the crucifix has never spoken to him? – spoken in times of trial, of temptation, of difficulty? – I will not say calumny, but when a breath has risen up against us, and we have been tempted to maintain our dignity, stand up for our rights and what we thought was due to us? – as we cast our eyes upon the crucifix, has it not spoken to our hearts; has it not reproved us;  and said in an almost audible voice: I did not act thus!  Does it not teach us the same lessons it taught the Saints, only not in the same sensible way?  Oh, how many times the crucifix has spoken to us and given us courage and grace which have enabled us to bear the trials that surround us. It is not necessary for us to see, and hear, and feel these things as the Saints did. We need not desire to see with St. Catherine and many of the Saints the scenes of the Passion in a sensible form in our imagination, or wish to go in spirit with the venerable Anne Emerich to the spot where our Divine Lord suffered and died; for we have all these things and more than this. Though they were miraculous graces, they were but representations; we have the reality. Every morning at Mass, we assist, not at the representation, but at the renewal of the tremendous sacrifice on Calvary  and the mystic outpouring of that Most Precious Blood. The blood which flowed from Bl. James’s crucifix was only miraculous blood; but in the Mass we have the same Precious Blood poured out anew as on Calvary itself; the Sacred Body is broken again for us, and in Holy Communion which we receive so often, is given into our very hearts, while our lips are dyed with the most Precious Blood of the Crucified.
             

                                                   

         Christ on the Cross  -  Carl Heinrich Bloc 1870 (Wikipedia)


 In order, then, that we may understand and reverence and love the 

Sacred Passion of Our Lord, let us, with an ever-increasing love, 

fervour and attention, apply ourselves to the study and 

contemplation of each mystery of His suffering life- strive to attain 

closer union with our Lord through His Passion.  Let us make our 

hearing of Holy Mass an act of special devotion to the Passion – 

such as it would have been actually on Mount Calvary with Mary, 

the Mother of Sorrows.  When receiving Holy Communion let us 

approach with greatest love the Sacrament of love, that, becoming 

more and more united with Jesus, our dear Lord, we may be able 

share also in His sufferings. St. Gertrude says beautifully, that, “as 

no-one can handle flour without carrying some of it about with her, 

so no one can meditate devoutly and assiduously on the Passion 

without deriving great fruit therefrom.”  As Gertrude was on one 

occasion occupied in considering the Passion of our Lord  it was 

made known to her that there is infinitely more merit in meditating 

on the Passion of Jesus than in any other exercise.  And when 

anyone reads anything concerning the Passion they at least dispose 

their souls to receive the fruits of it, as it is more meritorious to 

meditate on it than on any other subject. Let us therefore 

endeavour  to reflect on it constantly that it may be honey to our 

lips, music to our ears, and joy to our hearts.