Patience - December 18

Patience
Thoughts on the Patient Endurance of Sorrows and Sufferings

THOUGHTS AND AFFECTIONS ON THE PASSION OF OUR LORD

O good and merciful Jesus! What a flood of bitterness deluged Thy soul, what a torrent of humiliation overwhelmed Thee in Thy passion, from Gethsemane to Calvary!

When I contemplate Thee in Thy bitter pas­sion, looking at my crucifix, and reflecting on all Thy sufferings of soul and body - on Thy mental anguish and dereliction; on Thy agony in the garden; Thy betrayal by Judas; the rudeness of the soldiers dragging and striking Thee and spit­ting in Thy face; Thy contemptuous treatment at the tribunal of the haughty priests Annas and Caiphas; Thy shameful mockery and humiliation at the court of Herod, where Thou wert treated as a fool; the cruel scourging and crowning with thorns, which made Thee so pitiable in appearance as to cause even the Roman governor to exclaim, "Ecce Homo!" and the Royal Psalmist to lament in prophetic vision, "I am a worm and no man, the reproach of men and the outcast of the people"; the derisive yells and the brutal cry of the frenzied and blood-thirsty rabble, "Cru­cify him!" the carrying of the heavy cross in Thy enfeebled condition; the painful meeting with Thy sorrowful Mother, and at length the dreadful crucifixion between two thieves, and the hours of suffering on Calvary, which ended in Thy death amid the awful gloom and convulsive desolation of nature - reflecting upon all these pains and torments, insults and outrages, to which Thou wert subjected in Thy passion, I bow my head in shame and sorrow on account of my many sins, and deeply regret my self-in­dulgence and pride, which have led me so often to abuse Thy graces, to forget Thy love, and to wound Thy Sacred Heart....
[Continued tomorrow]
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Compiled and Edited by Rev. F. X. Lasance
Author of "My Prayerbook," etc.
1937, Benziger Brothers
Printers to the Holy Apostolic See