I. Jesus is given gall to drink and stripped of His garments. Jesus reaches the Calvary, that is called also Golgotha, viz skull place, and execrable, vile, and despicable place, smelling of corpses, and bones; and they do not let Him rest a little! In what a hurry they get ready whatever is necessary to crucify Him, for they wish to take away, as soon as possible, this life that had become hateful and irksome to all.

     My soul, hear the cries, remark how quick they are to take off his chains and strip Him of His garments that were sticking to His wounds, and how His pains are renewed another time: look at that bloody and bruised body. Advance as far as His heart; thou shalt find it thinking of thy miseries, or His eyes fixed on heaven to implore thy reconcilement. Out of the heavy burden of the Cross, Jesus is exhausted with fatigue and pain, and they give Him vinegar mixed with myrrh and gall. The Prophet had foretold this gall. Jesus then commences by expiating the sins of our first fathers, that was the disobedience of the forbidden fruit. Only this part of His body, His throat, had been untouched, and He wished to suffer in this also for us.

     Alas! how great the number of those, whose God is their belly, and who change the temple of the Holy Ghost into an abode of the devil, losing their soul and body to satisfy their sensual wishes! We must show our obedience even with our throat, especially when the Church joins our penance to that of all the faithful, by shunning sensualness, and by accepting all the dishes that are prepared for us, although they be not agreeable to our taste.

     Consider, my soul, thy Savior stripped, sat on a stone, while they are preparing death for Him, covered with blood, disfigured, so miserably rent and torn, that He is only extraordinarily wound. His heart painful, He lifts up His eyes to Heaven, shedding bitter tears, and offer himself again for us to the Everlasting father. And He was heard for His reverence, says St. Paul the Apostle. Here exposed to the wind, to the cold, one His strength exhausted and blood, and almost frozen, the meek Lamb suffers this horrible torture silently and willingly.

     They put the crown of thorns on His head again, for it had been taken off in order to strip Him. His blessed head is therefore again afflicted and deranged, and new blood wets the mountain. My soul, harder than stone, why dost thou not kneel down at His feet to bathe them with tears and to receive the precious dew of blood flowing on every side? How many graces thou shalt find therein! How many lights, how many consolations!

     My Jesus, my Savior, my Love, let me embrace thy sacred feet. I will lay down my heart on them before they are nailed to the Cross; and I will be consumed by thy love before death takes thee away from my eyes. With these divine hands, before they a are perforated by nails, embrace my sinful soul, for which Thou sufferest horrible tortures; destroy all her wickedness, press her on thy Heart, so that she may never be separated from thee.

     I see thee here, O Lord, deprived of all, thy garments, of the company of thy disciples, and friends, of the sweetness of thy Mother, of thy reputation, and even of thy own skin. When, O Lamb of God, wilt Thou grant me this grace, that I wean myself from all that separates me from thee? Thy Apostle Bartholomew imitated thee by getting rid of his very skin; and Peter wished to be not only crucified, but with his head downwards. St .Augustine, wholly to wean himself from what had been for him an occasion of offending thee, admitted no longer any woman into his house, nor touched money anymore, for fear of staining his soul. Some retired into desert and cloisters; others gave up their bodies to torments; and others who were obliged to live in the world, used it as if they used it not. O Love, that deprivest thyself of all, O love that transformest all, change my heart, make it like thine, poor and void of all, weaned from creatures and intimately united to thee. Crucify my heart with thee, and consume me with thy love, O my hope, rest and glory.

    Jesus always obeys with meekness and readiness, because He considers His executioners as keepers of His Father's orders; to teach us to keep submission and inward peace in the most disagreeable and painful events of our lives. When we suffer violence, injustice, treason and other pains, we must look on them as ordered by God, who sends them by means of the ministers of his adorable will, and we must sincerely submit to them. But as nature always looks with aversion on him who torments her, the man crucified with Jesus has always inwardly to struggle, to prevent his own heart from looking with aversion on him who offends and torments him; and from being dejected.  We must then be near God, accept with submission and abandonment what befalls us, dilate our hearts by faith and by a sure trust that we shall not be tempted above that which we are able to bear.

     Consider, my soul, with great sorrow thy sweet Redeemer: He wished to be born naked, he lived poor, and suffered at last to become so naked, that He had not a garment left to cover His most holy body, nor anything to rest His sacred head upon. He says: The Prince of this world cometh, and in me he hath not any thing, viz that belongs to Him. And to His greater derision and shame, as if He were execrable, He suffered to be exposed so naked to the sight of His most bitter enemies and mockers, and in the presence of His most pure Mother. Thus the King of Glory who dresses and covers everything: the sky with clouds, trees with leaves, the earth with herbs, and flowers; has not even any tattered clothes that preserve Him from this dishonor and shame! 

     O Mary, the coat without a seam, woven by thy hands, shall be cast lots upon. Who can value the great sorrow, that oppressed thy pure Heart? Adam, for having lost innocence, hastened to cover and dress himself; but thy Jesus is naked, because He preserved wholly unspotted the purity of innocence, and the cover of His wounds and His holy poverty suffice Him, to teach us entirely to wean ourselves from earthly objects. O Mary, bitter sea of sorrows, pour them into my unthankful heart, that it may pity thee, and satisfy divine justice for my numerous sins. 

  

     II. Jesus is crucified. My soul, the Cross is ready: here is the Altar, on which this divine Lamb is going to be sacrificed for thee. Here is the nuptial bed on which Jesus expects His elect souls. Why, my sweet Jesus, dost Thou not suffer me to be crucified for thee? It behoves me, not thee, this gibbet.

     Consider, my soul, with what meekness and submission He stretches Himself on this death-bed, having no other pillow but the thorns with which He was crowned. He soon lifts up His eyes to Heaven, to open its gate that has been shut down till then: and as He is at the same time the Priest who reconciles us, and the victim of our reconciliation, without uttering one word, with the tenderest beatings of His heart, He offers himself to the Everlasting Father, opening His arms with an ardent wish to save all sinners. My father, says He to Him, now glorify thou me. In fact He had his arms open to invite them, to embrace them, and to present them to His Everlasting Father. He leads sinners to God again, unites earth to Haven again, and forms one house and one society of them, of whom God is the Father and sovereign master. There never was, nor after will a Priest be more agreeable to God, nor a more sacred Altar, nor a more perfect Oblation, nor a Holier Victim, for He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

     Behold how the executioners seize His left hand, and transpierce it with an enormous nail,  that breaks and tears His nerves. These having shrunk through the violent pain, His right hand is contracted and shrunk towards the body, and does not reach the place prepared for it on the other piece of the cross. Then those furious men tie that blessed hand and draw it with ropes till it reaches the hole already pierced through the timber. They do the same with the feet, so that his whole body is dislocated. And He is silent, and no lamentation escapes Him: but on that face, where the most bitter pain may be seen, we read the most ardent love, the deepest resignation, and a superhuman patience.

      O my soul! endeavor to understand His pains, and if thou canst not, ask Jesus Christ for the grace that He stamp on thy heart what He feels in His most sacred body. 

     O my God, mollify with thy nails the hardness of my heart, that it may be sensible to thy pains, to thy love and to the hatred of sin, that has reduced thee to such a state. Do not refuse me, O Lord, what I demand, because I cannot feel thy sufferings, unless Thou, trough thy mercy, grantest me thyself the feeling of them. On this bed of the Cross, thy ardent Heart cries to all me: "come to me, all you who are guilty, and I will forgive you: come to me, all you who are afflicted, and I will comfort you: come into my arms open to receive you, all you who are erring, and I will welcome you". Learn of me, because I am meek, and humble of heart, and you shall find rest for your souls.

     O divine Jesus, merciful Shepherd of this sinful soul, I come to thee. I obey thy voice. Here is a stray sheep going back to the fold: receive me into thy arms, for Thou wishest me to throw myself into them. Grant me that love, meekness, and humility Thou desirest me to possess. Wholly submit me to thy will. Stamp on my soul these divine virtues, that Thou wishest me to imitate, that I may follow thee near, and never go far from thee. Too long have I been deaf to thy voice, which inwardly invited me to come to thee. Open today my ears, that I may listen to thee and follow thee: and incessantly hold me with thy almighty hand, for Thou knowest how easily I abandon thee. Receive me in the number of those who carry the Cross after thee, and tie me to it, that I may draw from it the fruits of salvation and everlasting love. 

 

     III. Jesus dies _When the Cross, on which our Savior was nailed, had to be dragged as far as the hole on which it was necessary to set it, when it was raised by means of ropes, when it was suddenly let fall into that hole, when on every side the foot of the Cross was wedged by means of blows with a hammer; who can understand the sufferings caused to him by all these movements, by all these shakes, while the nerves of His body were stretched and His limbs so much dislocated, that He himself attests y his Prophet, that all his bones could be numbered! They have dug my hands and feet;  they have numbered all my bones.

     Furious shouts of joy and derision were set up at that sight by his enemies, that were satisfied; while our Savior, lifted up between heaven and earth, stretched His arms to receive all sinners, reconcile the world, and give them the possession of Paradise, thus fulfilling His prophecy: If I be lifted up from the earth, I will draw all things to myself.

     It was the sixth hour: utter darkness covered then the whole earth: the moon is dyed with blood: men had achieved God's death!

     Cursing under the Cross, they derided the Son of God in the midst of the imprecations of a thief, the contempts of the vilest soldiers, and the outrageous challenges of the chief priest and scribes.

     And Jesus, who had been silent till then, opens His most holy mouth and utters the word of forgiveness, not only for his executioners, but also for all those who had been, by their sins, the cause of his death, provided the former and the latter should not persist in their wickedness, but should be converted to Him. And He said with love and moans: Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.

     Thus He excused the voluntary blindness of sinners, although this sin is not less worthy of punishment than the others. What love, what mercy! Ah, why cannot my eyes be changed into a source of tears, and my heart into a furnace of everlasting love? Communicate, O Lord, the sentiment of thy pains to my soul.

     I adore thee, O Son of the living God, lifted up on the Cross, exposed to the eyes of the world: I kneel down before thee, praise, bless, love and thank thee instead of the treacherous Jews, and I recognize thee as the God of my heart and the love of my soul. Here, under this Cross, Thou gatherest all thy sons scattered in the world; here Thou blottest out the sentence of eternal death pronounced against mankind; here Thou sanctifiest suffering; here Thou art accessible to souls. O excess of love! Thou wast born in the secret and silence of night, visited and adored by only a few shepherds and three Wise men; recognized in the Temple by only two just souls, Thou livedst in obscurity thirty years, and passedst only three years among men. After thy resurrection Thou shewedst thyself to a few chosen persons, for a short time and in lonely places; thy disciples were the only witnesses of thy Ascension, because matters of faith are revealed by superiors to inferiors, and a cloud soon took away from them the sight of thy glory. But at the time of thy Crucifixion, Thou hast wished it to happen publicly on a mountain at noon, at the time of Passover (when a great crowd of Jews had come to Jerusalem from all sides) in the midst of two thieves, with open arms and thy heart full of sorrow and love! He spread forth his hands to a people that beliveth not, and contradicteth him. Be Thou, O Lord, blessed, praised and glorified by all creatures.

     Here Thou art, my Jesus, at the end of thy career out Redemption is accomplished. All is consummated: and art Thou not yet taken down from the Cross? Thou speakest neither about last will, nor about burial: thy only thought is to suffer and love. There is what Thou wishest us to learn of thee, the model of all men, not miracles, not glory, but sufferings and love.

     The only treasure Thou bequeathest us is thy divine Mother. Woman, behold thy son; son, behold thy Mother.... Blessed be Thou! this is the greatest treasure Thou bequeathest us when dying, Mary, thy own Mother.

     O Mary, thou hast seen the cruel and ignominious instruments that were being prepared for thy Son; thou hast heard the blows with a hammer that transpierced the feet and hands of thy Beloved; thou hast seen him crucified: what art thou doing now, most afflicted Mother?

     She stopped to consider those excessive pains, that were all orderly represented to her by her motherly love. She was weak after the painful night she had passed, having taken no food and shed many tears; and then she was a woman, a mother, even God's Mother, and therefore exceedingly sensible. Unable to hold out, at the enormous pain, she did not faint away, like every other woman; but she was petrified with grief, and continued wholly to resign herself to the will of the Eternal Father. Her tears had dried up, and she remained some time pale and trembling, till, by a secret virtue communicated to her by her Son, that she might suffer more, she mustered up her strength, rose, forced her way among the crowds, with St. John and the women who had followed her, and advanced as far as the Cross. Here standing, and fixing her eyes on the Savior, she became our Advocate; inwardly offering to the Everlasting Father the pains and Blood of their common Son with an ardent wish of saving all mankind. She feared to see him dying, and was sorry to see him living in the midst of tortures, that were tho finish only at the point of death. She wished the Eternal Father to be less rigorous, yet she wished that the orders of Heaven should be fulfilled to their full extent.

     That divine Lamb and this innocent sheep looked at each other and understood each other: one was tormented by the other's sufferings. Only the two most holy Hearts of the Mother and Son can conceive all that they have suffered; because their sorrow is in proportion to their love, and it would be necessary to know how much they have loved, in order to understand how much they have suffered. And who can measure the extent of such love?

     She is holy, innocent, unspotted, the faithful companion of her Son's pains. What cross can be harder than that of a mother, who is obliged to see her own son give up the ghost in the midst of torments, without being able to relieve him, or address him one comforting word?... Such a heavy cross was to be only Mary's lot, because she alone was able to carry it. Her love for Jesus harrowed her more than all hangmen could.

     And the Savior saw from his Cross that his pains transpierced his most Holy Mother's Heart; and this sight was new torture for his tender Heart. But his Everlasting Father had decreed it, and this was the height of sacrifice and obedience to his divine Parent: so that He did not either comfort her by the sweet name of mother; but He said: Woman, behold thy son!...

 

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A Prayer to Mournful Mary

 

     What sword pierced thy motherly Heart, O our disconsolate Mother, when thou heardest thy Son calling thee by the name of Woman? Alas! thou art no longer a Mother!... Mary, thou hast no more a son!... Dost thou not hear him complaining of his being abandoned by all creatures, quite comfortless? My Father, why hast thou forsaken me? And when thou heardest his ardent thirst, that thou wishedst to quench even with thy blood, and that thou couldst not relieve even with a drop of water?... And when thou sawest gall and vinegar presented to him; and when thou heardest that loud cry with which He expired; when thou sawest his heart opened with a spear; when, having been taken down from the Cross, thou receivedst him dead in thy arms, and laid him in the sepulchre, and left thy Heart enclosed with him there?... And when, in the evening going down the mountain covered with thy Son's innocent Blood, thou went home again without him, and the whole night longedst for him in vain?... Ah, Mary, thou obeyedst thy Son's will, then; thou acceptedst men as thy sons, so that nobody can return to him without thee; for thou art the Mediatress and Treasurer of all graces.

     Here I am at thy feet: I have killed thy Son: have pity on me, O my distressed Mother; I will return to his Heart, broken by my sins: present me and accompany me, till I have received Him in my arms, till I have breathed my last for thee and him. O Mother transpierced by seven swords, pierce my heart, and imprint on it thy sufferings and those of the Lord Crucified. So be it. 

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