cause thou hast, by the holy Cross, so wonderfully and lovingly redeemed me and the whole world. Oh, how excellent, precious. and efficacious a victim hast thou immolated for us on the altar of the Cross! Oh, how greatly hast thou toiled, how much wast thou straitened, until thou hadst accomplished the sacrifice which thou hadst begun![1] By a tree Satan seduced and ruined us of old; but by a Tree again thou hast overcome our enemy, redeemed us graciously, and obtained for us eternal salvation!
O precious wood! O potent sign! O glorious mystery, worthy of all veneration! O excellent Tree, that hast borne the fruit of life!
But alas! most loving Jesus, with what toil, what weariness hast thou carried on thy shoulders that heavy burden of the Cross along that steep and tedious road to Mount Calvary! With what pain and torture were thy most holy Hands and Feet pierced through with nails, and fastened to the Cross! How cruelly hast thou endured to have thy whole body stretched out upon it, so that the joints and ligatures of thy limbs were loosened, and all thy bones could be numbered! And why all this, but to blot out the handwriting of the decree that was against us, and take it out of the way, fastening it to the Cross? To wash away, I say, our sins with thy own innocent Blood, and rescind the sentence of condemnation passed upon us, and so reconcile all things, making peace, by the Blood of the Cross, both as to the things on earth, and the things that are in heaven.[2]
Henceforth, O most sweet Saviour Jesus Christ, most faithful Pastor of my soul, receive me, thy unworthy creature, and silly, wandering sheep! Open to me thy Heart and thy Wounds, that in them I may hide myself, with my miseries and sins, and be protected and purified. Crucify in me my flesh, with its vices and concupiscences. Extinguish all my pride, and tear out of me my vanity, with all my evil affections. Renew also a right spirit within my bowels. Awaken in me an earnest and effectual will towards every good work, with sincerity of love, unweariedness of service, and constancy of obedience to thee alone; that so it may be far from me to glory, save in the Cross of my Lord Jesus Christ, by whom may the world be crucified to me, and I to the world.[3] Thou hast said, If I be lifted up from the earth, I will draw all things to myself.[4] Now there
