Monthly Devotion: The Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ

"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..."
~ St. Paul of the Cross

Ecce Homo by Philippe de Champaigne

This year, the month of February, traditionally given to cultivating devotion to the Passion of Christ, provides us with a month to prepare for the liturgical season of Lent beginning on March 1st. It is said that none of the saints became saints without frequent and devout meditation on the Passion of Christ and many of the saints attribute this meditation to being the impetus to their surrendering their lives to God's holy will. This reflection ought to provide us with at least the desire to incorporate this admirable practice into our own lives!
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​"Ah, my Jesus, if I look on Thy body without, I see nothing but wounds and blood. If within, in Thy heart, I find nothing else but bitterness and anguish, which make Thee suffer the agonies of death. Ah, my God, who but infinite goodness, such as Thou art, could ever have humbled himself to suffer so much for his creatures ? — but creatures beloved of God, because Thou art God. These wounds which I see in Thee are all tokens of the love which Thou bearest to us. 

Oh, if all men could have contemplated Thee in the condition in which on that day Thou
wast a spectacle of sorrow and reproach to all Jerusalem, who would not have been seized by
love of Thee ? Lord, I love Thee, and give myself wholly to Thee. Behold, my blood, my life,
all I offer Thee. Behold me ready to suffer and die as it pleaseth Thee. And what can I deny to
Thee who hast not denied to me Thy blood and life? Deign to accept the sacrifice which a
miserable sinner makes of himself,who now loves Thee with all his heart."
~ From St. Alphonsus Liguori's Meditation on the Ecce Homo