St. Catherine of Siena
"The wound in the side of Christ, the Precious Blood and the Pierced Heart were a constant preoccupation of St. Catherine of Siena. In a beautiful passage in one of her letters, she summarizes the inner meaning of these devotions:
'Place your lips to the side of the Son of God, for it is an opening which emits the fires of charity and pours forth its Blood to wash us from our iniquities. The soul which reposes there and looks with eyes of its soul on the Heart opened and consumed by love will be made comformable to Him, for seeing itself so much loved it cannot fail to love in return. That soul becomes perfect because what it loves it loves for God and it loves nothing outside of Him. In desire it becomes to Him another self, since is has no other will but that of God'."
(From Dominican Spirituality - Principles and Practice by William A. Hinnebusch, O.P.)
John Tauler, O.P.
"...it has been decreed, that there should be placed in all the churches the mirror of truth, that is, the image of the Holy Cross of Christ Jesus; so that as often as [one] crosses the threshold of the temple, man may contemplate the figure of his Maker hanging upon the Cross; and that straightaway there may come into his mind that wonderful love, which his God then declared to him; that he may so exercise and occupy himself therein, as to forget all strange and outward images, and may imagine that his crucified Lord is addressing him in these words: 'Ecce homo: 'Behold the man'. Behold how I hang here, despised, mocked, wracked, fastened with nails, wounded, deprive of all comfort. My arms naked and stretched out towards you, to take you back into My grace. Behold how I hang there, with My Head bowed down, that I may give you the kiss of peace and reconciliation with My side and Heart open, that I may bring you, My chosen bride, into the pleasant chamber of My Heart, and there embrace you with love everlasting.
Then man, in his turn, as if accepting Christ's loving invitation to approach His sweet Wounds, turns himself, full of confidence, to God, and to Christ's nailed and pierced feet, and throwing himself down with as lowly submission as he can, thinks how he himself has inflicted, by his foul sins, all this bitter sorrow on his Lord and God, and at the same time confesses all his sins with bitter sorrow and burning tears, saying: 'Enter not now, O most merciful God, into judgment with your useless and sinful servant, for in Your sight shall no man living be justified.' If in your angels evil was found, how much more unclean will man be, who was conceived in concupiscence, and born in sin?"
(From 40 Day Meditations On the Life and Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ)
Father Jacques Phillipe
"The Christian life is a combat a war without mercy." It [Christian life] can not be viewed "as the quiet unfolding of an inconsequential life without any problems; rather it must be viewed as the scene of a constant and sometimes painful battle, which will not end until death - a struggle against evil, temptation, and the sin that is in [us]."
(From March 2024 issue of Magnificat, excerpting from Searching for and Maintaining Peace)
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