given by Pilate, our Lord was dragged with scoffs and cries, by wicked men, to the place appointed for His Scourging.
Secondly, think how He was stripped by them with impatient fury of His garments, so that His most Pure Flesh was left naked and exposed.
Thirdly, consider how His innocent Hands were tightly bound with hard cords, and fastened to the pillar.
Fourthly, consider how His whole Body was torn and gashed with blows, so that His Divine Blood in streams ran down to the ground.
Fifthly, see repeated lashes fall upon the same place, exasperating the wounds already made.
Whilst you dwell upon these, or similar points of consideration, in order to gain patience, first apply your senses to feel, in the highest degree possible, the intense agony and acute suffering which your dear Lord endured in every part of His most Sacred Body, and throughout all of it at once.
Then pass to His interior Sufferings, and strive to enter into the meekness and patience with which He bore so great agonies in His most Holy Soul, and consider how, unsatisfied with these, He hungered to suffer even more excruciating sufferings for the glory of His Father and for our good.
