Page:PassionDeathOfJesusChristV5.djvu/31

 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  us;  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  has 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.