MEDITATION FOR THURSDAY AFTER ASH-WEDNESDAY.

ON THE SAME SUBJECT.

1ST POINT. Make a free offering of your body to God, and he will impart to you his Spirit. Be watchful and careful in the discipline of your exterior, and he will guard and provide for the interior. Do all that you can, and that which you cannot accomplish he will do for you. Walk while you can, and when your strength fails you he will bear you in his arms. Fast with Jesus, that you may eat the Pasch with him.

2ND POINT. Fasting is salutary for both soul and body; it is an efficacious remedy for their diseases. Nothing is impossible to him who has faith; nothing is difficult to him who loves; all is possible to him who reposes his trust in God. Fast if you can, and persuade yourself that you can do more than you imagine yourself capable of. Fasting is blessed by God, consecrated by his Son, and observed by all the faithful. God imparts strength to those who fast, and deprives of strength those who do not. Good cheer and luxurious ease are destructive

to the health and life of all men; fasting and abstinence are safe remedies which restore the health and prolong the lives of all who practise them. He who shall have lost his health and strength for Jesus Christ, shall recover all that he thinks he has lost. He who desires to preserve his body and health, to the prejudice of the interests of Jesus Christ, shall lose all that he hopes to gain.

3RD POINT. I will therefore chastise my body as the Apostles did, for fear of being found among the reprobates. I desire, with all my heart, to follow the example and imitate the life of Jesus Christ, that I may be of the number of the predestined. I will mortify my body, in order to remedy the maladies of my soul; I will deprive it of the power of revolting, by fasting, which will impair its strength. I will mortify my senses, that I may live a spiritual life. I wish to die with Jesus, that I may rise with Jesus. I wish for stripes and wounds, that I may become a true member of his thorncrowned head; and if I have not courage to inflict them on myself, I will at least suffer with thankfulness whatever afflictions God may see fit, in his divine providence, to send

me.

WORDS OF SCRIPTURE.

"The flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh; for these are contrary one to another."-Galatians, v.

"And they that are Christ's have crucified their flesh, with its vices and concupiscences." -Ibid.

"If you live according to the flesh, you shall die."-Romans, viii.

"For the wisdom of the flesh is death; but the wisdom of the spirit is life and peace."Ibid.

"Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord."-Jeremias, xvii.

MEDITATION FOR FRIDAY AFTER
ASH-WEDNESDAY.

ON THE EXCELLENCE OF MORTIFICATION.

1ST POINT. What is mortification? It is a death of love which destroys the criminal life, detaches the mind from the senses, separates the soul from the body, and makes it live in the spirit.

It is a sacrifice of love, in which the Holy

Ghost is the priest, the body is the victim, the heart is the altar, pain the knife, love the fire, glory the fruit.

2ND POINT.

What is mortification? It is a martyrdom of love, less bloody than a martyrdom of faith, but longer and more wearisome, more free, and (in one sense) more voluntary.

What is mortification? It is a continuation of the sacrifice of the passion of Jesus, which supplies all that is wanting in his sufferings; which transforms our bodies into members of his, and animates them with his divine spirit; which makes us participate in his sorrows, merit his graces, and finally exalts us to the throne of his glory.

3RD POINT. Why is it that I mortify myself so little? Alas! it is because I do not love Jesus Christ, and am not one of his members animated by his spirit; it is because I lead a sensual and carnal life, and despise and shrink from his sufferings; it is that I am the slave of my body, and seek only the pleasures of the flesh, and relish not those of the spirit, being worldly, sensual, voluptuous, and the enemy of God. Oh! in order that I may die the death of the just, I will henceforth live the life of the just; I will, from this moment, become a

victim of love, that I may die in the arms of divine love.

WORDS OF SCRIPTURE.

"I beseech you, brethren, by the mercy of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing unto God."-Romans, xii.

"I die daily."-1 Corinthians, xv.

"With Christ I am nailed to the cross.". Galatians, ii.

"Who now rejoice in my sufferings, and fill up those things that are wanting of the sufferings of Christ, in my flesh for his body, which is the Church."-Colossians, i.

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Unhappy man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? The grace of God, by Jesus Christ our Lord."-Romans, vii.

MEDITATION FOR SATURDAY AFTER ASH-WEDNESDAY.

ON THE OBLIGATIONS WE ARE UNDER TO MEDITATE ON THE PASSION OF JESUS CHRIST.

1ST POINT. The Son of God is well pleased when we reflect on the sorrows of his bitter