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"O blessed light,
 O Trinity and
 first Unity!"


The Passion and The Death of Jesus Christ
By - St. Alphonsus de Liguori

"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 of the sufferings of Jesus Christ."

St. Augustine also said...
           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. Yes, because it was for this end that our Savior suffered so much, in order that we should think of his sufferings; because if we think on them, it is impossible not to be inflamed with divine love:.

The charity of Christ presseth us says St. Paul.
           Jesus is loved by few because few consider the pains he has suffered for us but he that frequently considers them cannot live without loving Jesus. "The charity of Christ presseth us." He will feel himself so constrained by his love that he will not find it possible to refrain from loving a God so full of love, who has suffered so much to make us love him. Therefore the Apostle said that he desired to know nothing but Jesus, and Jesus crucified: that is, the love that he has shown us on the cross: I judged not myself to know anything among you but Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. And, in truth, from what books 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 Corlione,...
           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 mayst 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 the love of us! a God dead for the love of us! O wonderful subject!

 St. Thomas Aquinas was one day paying a visit...
           to 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." In short, all the saints have learned the art of loving God from the study of the crucifix.

Brother John of Alvernia, every time...
           that he beheld Jesus wounded, could not restrain his tears.

Brother James of Tuderto, 
           when he heard the Passion of our Redeemer read, not only wept bitterly, but broke out into loud sobs, overcome with the love with which he was inflamed toward his beloved Lord

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. On one occasion, being found crying out and weeping, he was asked what was the matter with him. "What ails me?" answered the saint. "I weep over the sorrows and ;insults inflicted on my Lord; and my sorrow is increased when I think of those ungrateful men who do not love him, but live without any thought on him." Every time that he heard the bleating of a lamb, he felt himself touched with compassion at the thought of the death of Jesus, the Immaculate Lamb, drained of every drop of blood upon the cross for the sins of the world. And therefore this loving saint could find no subject on which he exhorted his brethren with greater eagerness than the constant remembrance of the Passion of Jesus. This, then is the book-Jesus crucified-which, if we constantly read it, will teach us, on the one hand, to have a lively fear of sin, and, on the other hand, will inflame us with love for a God so full of love for while we read in these wounds the great malice of sin, which reduced a God to suffer so bitter a death in order to satisfy the divine justice, and the love which our Saviour had shown us in choosing to suffer so much in order to prove to us how much he loved us. Let us beseech the divine Mother Mary to obtain for us from her Son the grace that we also may enter into these furnaces of love, in which so many loving hearts are consumed, in order that , our earthly affections being there burned away, we also may burn with those blessed flames, which render souls holy on earth and blessed in heaven. Amen

Sincerely in Christ,
Our Lady of the Rosary Library
"Pray and work for souls."
http://olrl.org