on thee such pain, and led thee to submit to ignominies so great? Oh, virginal and sacred flesh to what a miserable state the impurities of men have reduced thee! Alas! thou dost expiate in thy body the criminal pleasures of ours; it is to make satisfaction for the sins of our flesh, that thine is torn and covered with ghastly wounds. Let my body, then, be chastised, since it is that which has caused the evil. I desire to cut off all sinful pleasures, since they have caused thee so much grief. I wish to suffer stripes and wounds, in order to be like thee.

Miserable wretch that I am! I sin, and do no penance; I am guilty, and practise no mortification! Oh, my God, I confess my baseness, I have not courage to chastise myself. Take, then, the scourge in thy hand, and spare not thy chastisements. I am prepared to suffer all thou mayest be pleased to inflict on me. Chastise me, if thou judgest it necessary, but let it be through love, and not in anger. Chastise me in time, but not in eternity.

WORDS OF SCRIPTURE.

"Then, therefore, Pilate took Jesus, and scourged him."-St. John, xix.

"So Pilate delivered up Jesus, when he had scourged him."-St. Mark, xv.

"For I am ready for scourges: and my sorrow is continually before me."-Psalm xxxvii. "For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth; and he scourgeth every son whom he receiveth." -Hebrews, xii.

MEDITATION FOR FOURTH WEDNESDAY IN LENT.

JESUS IS CROWNED WITH THORNS.

1ST POINT. Jesus came into the world to expiate our offences, and bear the pain thereof. Man's head is the source of all sin. It is here that he conceives thoughts of ambition, impurity, injustice, and revenge. It was to make satisfaction for these sins that Jesus desired to be crowned with thorns, that is to say, with ignominies and sufferings.

2ND POINT. Jesus is a victim who desires to offer himself a holocaust to the Father, and be consumed in the fire of sufferings. His body is covered with wounds; from the crown of his head to the sole of his foot, there is not a sound place in him. He was crowned with thorns,

that there might remain no part of his body that was not penetrated by severe sufferings, and to verify what he had said: That his kingdom was not of this world.

Christian, behold your King! Do you recognize this crown, this sceptre, and this purple robe? The Jews renounced him; do you, also, renounce him? If you are a child of God, you must be mocked, torn, and crucified with his divine Son. It is necessary to wear two crowns, one of gold, the other of thorns. If you wear the crown of gold in this life, in the life to come you will be crowned with thorns. If your crown is of thorns in this world, you will be crowned with glory in the world to come.

3RD POINT. The crowns of the world produce thorns; the thorns of Jesus produce the flowers of unfading and eternal joys. Who would wish to be crowned with glory and pleasures, seeing their King crowned with sorrows and ignominies? How can a member of a thorn-crowned head be exempt from suffering?

There are three sorts of thorns on earth, which grieve and afflict souls-thorns of sin, thorns of temptation, and thorns of penance. Sin is a thorn that pierces and kills the soul; temptation is a thorn that troubles and tor

ments the spirit; penance is a thorn that afflicts the body. The thorn of sin is cruel, bloody, and mortal; the thorn of temptation is dangerous; the thorn of penance is salutary, and produces the flowers of peace and joy at all

seasons.

MEDITATION FOR FOURTH THURSDAY IN LENT.

SENTIMENTS OF GRIEF AND COMPASSION FOR THE SUFFERINGS OF JESUS.

1ST POINT. Daughters of Jerusalem, come forth and see King Solomon with the diadem with which his mother, the Synagogue, has crowned him. Alas! it is not a mother, but a cruel and inhuman tyrant, who crowns himself with roses, and his God with thorns. Daughters of Jerusalem, Christian souls, observe this MAN OF SORROWS! Behold the MAN who has saved you, the MAN whom you have crucified! behold the MAN who loves you infinitely, the MAN whom you cease not to persecute !

2ND POINT. Oh, most holy God! thou hast sought a MAN to appease thy anger, and one who would

submit himself to thy vengeance; behold him whom we present to thee! Look on the face of thy Christ, the sight of whose sorrows will subdue the hearts of sinners, and whose intercession will render thee favourable to their

prayers. Behold the Man for whom thou hast created all men, and through whom thou lovest all men. Behold the robe of thy Son Joseph, torn and bloody; dost thou not recognize it? Behold the King of martyrs, crowned with grief and ignominy! Behold the High Priest of the New Law, who offers thee his blood for the salvation of men! Will not this blood efface thy anger? Is not this blood sufficient to cancel all our debts?

3RD POINT. Daughter of Zion, holy and sorrowful Virgin Mother, come and see the diadem that has been placed upon the head of thy divine Son. Behold the Son whom thou didst conceive by the Holy Ghost, and bring forth without pain or sorrow, whom thou didst watch over with so much anxiety, and sacrifice with so much love! Behold this glorious and magnificent King, who ought to sit on the throne of David, and reign over all the earth! Behold this High Priest, whose office it is to appease the anger of God! What a Priest ! what a King! what a Child! what a MAN! What a spectacle