PART V
ON THE PASSION OF OUR LORD.
TEN PRAYERS OF DEVOUT AFFECTIONS,
In which our Lord's Passion is pleaded with him.
It was revealed to St. Gertrude that reading and meditations on the Passion are far more useful and efficacious than all other spiritual exercises. As those who handle flour cannot avoid contracting some whiteness, so no one, however imperfect his devotion may be, can occupy his mind with the Passion of our Lord without receiving some benefit therefrom. And, however cold and lukewarm our devotion, our Lord will look upon us with greater long-suffering and mercy if we never omit the memory of his Passion.
FIRST PRAYER.
O Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal Sweetness and Jubilee of those who love thee, remember all the presentiment of grief thou didst endure from the moment of thy conception, and especially at thy entrance into thy Passion, when thou didst say: My soul is sorrowful, even unto death; and when, by reason of overwhelming dread and anguish and grief, thou didst sweat as it were drops of blood trickling down upon the ground. Remember all the bitterness of thy sorrow when thou wast seized upon by the
