San Pedro de Alcantara

 

 

The Saints and

the Passion of

Our Lord Jesus Christ

 

 

 

 

It is extremely important to know that there is no saint who has ever reached the heights of the spiritual life without having meditated frequently on the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Many of them attributed to the meditation of the Passion of Our Lord, the beginning of that stage in the spiritual life in which they decided to give themselves entirely to God, to His Most Holy Will. Over and over again we find in their writings that they move faster toward holiness with the help of this meditation than through any other. Obviously, we cannot say that they surpass the great means provided by the Sacraments, but we can say that the sacraments alone cannot reach all their effectiveness without the help of the meditation of the Passion of Our lord. That is because the Sacraments are the most precious fruits of the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

We would like to add a few remarks made by some of the saints that refer to the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ and we hope that they be useful to your soul.

 

Saint Alphonsus de Liguori,
MEDITATIONS ON THE PASSION OF JESUS CHRIST,
Introduction.

"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.

 
St. Josemaría Escrivá
Furrow, Penance 993

In our meditation, the Passion of Christ comes out of its cold historical frame and stops being a pious consideration, presenting itself before our eyes, as terrible, brutal, savage, bloody... yet full of Love.
—And we feel that sin cannot be regarded as just a trivial error: to sin is to crucify the Son of God, to tear his hands and feet with hammer blows, and to make his heart break.
St Paul of Cross,
Spiritual diary.

"The remembrance of the most holy Passion of Jesus Christ is the door through which the soul enters into intimate union with God, interior recollection and most sublime contemplation..."

"The Passion of Christ is the greatest and most stupendous work of Divine Love. "The greatest and most overwhelming work of God's love."

"The most holy Passion of Jesus Christ is the most efficacious means to convert obstinate sinners."

"The holy sufferings of Jesus is a sea of sorrows, but it is also a sea of love. Ask the Lord to teach you to fish in this sea. Immerse yourself in it, and, no matter how deeply you go, you will never reach the bottom. Allow yourself to be penetrated with love and sorrow. In this way you will make the sufferings of the gentle Jesus your own. Fish for the pearls of the virtues of Jesus. This holy fishing is done without words." 8th April, 1758

St. Peter of Alcantara,
Seven other meditations of the Passion of Our Lord,
and the manner how it ought to be meditated upon.
A golden treatise of mental prayer. Chapter IV.

In the passion of our blessed Saviour, six things chiefly are to be meditated upon. First, the bitterness of his sorrow, that we may compassionate with him.  Secondly, the greatness of our sins, which were the cause of his torments, that we may abhor
them. Thirdly, the greatness of the benefit, that we may be grateful for it. Fourthly, the excellency of the divine charity and bounty therein manifested, that we may love him more fervently. Fifthly, the conveniency of the mystery, that we may be drawn to admiration of it. Lastly, the multiplicity of virtues of our blessed Saviour which did shine in this stupendous mystery, that we may partly imitate and
partly admire them; wherefore, in the midst of these meditations, let us sometimes compassionate with our blessed Saviour in the extremity of his sorrows; extreme indeed, both by reason of the tenderness of his body, as also, for the great affection he bore unto our souls.
He did suffer them without any manner of consolation, as we shall speak hereafter in its proper place. Sometimes let us stir up in ourselves compunction for our sins, which were the cause of his great sufferings. Sometimes let us kindle in our souls an ardent affection, considering his great affection towards us, which upon the cross he declared and manifested to the whole world. And the benefit which he bestowed upon us in his passion, because he bought us with the inestimable price of his precious blood, of which only, we reap the benefit and commodity.

 
St Francis of Sales,
Treatise on the Love of God,
Chapter XIII -That mount calvary is the academy of Love-

The death and passion of Our Lord is the sweetest and most constraining motive that can animate our hearts in this mortal life... so, in the glory of heaven above, next to the Divine goodness known and considered in itself, Our Saviour's death shall most powerfully ravish the blessed spirits in the loving of God.

Thomas À Kempis
Imitation of Christ;
The Twenty-Fifth Chapter, Zeal in amending our lives

The religious who concerns himself intently and devoutly with our Lord's most holy life and passion will find there an abundance of all things useful and necessary for him. He need not seek for anything better than Jesus.

Saint Alphonsus de Liguori,
Practice of the Love of Jesus Christ, Introduction,
I., How Deserving Jesus Christ is of our Love,
on Account of the Love He has Shown Us in His Passion.

He (St. Francis of Assisi ) was one day found by a gentleman shedding tears, and crying out with a loud voice: being asked the cause "I weep," he answered, "over the sorrows and disgraces of my Lord: and what causes me the greatest sorrow is, that men, for whom he suffered so much, live in forgetfulness of him." And on saying this he wept the more, so that this gentleman began also himself to weep.
St John of the Cross

As to the Passion of our Lord, ...never in anything follow your own will and your own inclination, for that was the cause of His death and passion
Beata Angela of Foligno,
Book of life, #18, p. 272.

if your soul is not elevated, go back to yourself, start from the beginning and review from head to foot all the ways in which this suffering God-man was afflicted and crucified. If you cannot regain and rediscover these ways in your heart, repeat them vocally, attentively and frequently; because what the lips say and repeat grants fervor and warmth to the heart
St. Maximus of Turin,
Sermons 53, 1-2. 4

Our Savior's passion raises men and women from the depths, lifts them up from the earth, and sets them in the heights.

St. Bonaventure.

One day,” writes Bonaventure, “while Francis was praying... Jesus Christ appeared to him fastened to the cross"  “And the memory of Christ’s passion was so impressed on the innermost recesses of his heart that from that hour, whenever Christ’s crucifixion came to mind, he could scarcely contain his tears and sighs.”

St Francis of Sales,
Introduction to the Devout Life,
Part II, Chapter I. The Necessiy of Prayer, N.2

But especially I commend earnest mental prayer to you, more particularly such as bears upon the Life and Passion of our Lord. If you contemplate Him frequently in meditation, your whole soul will be filled with Him, you will grow in His Likeness, and your actions will be moulded on His. He is the Light of the world; therefore in Him, by Him, and for Him we shall be enlightened and illuminated__

 

The Magisterium of the Church and the Passion of Our Lord of Jesus Christ. . .

The Pope and the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ. . .