The School of Jesus Crucified

The Lessons of Calvary in Daily Catholic Life

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• Publisher: TAN Books
• Year: 2002
• eBook ISBN: 9781618909121
• Topic: Théologie et religion
• Subtopic: Dénominations chrétiennes

A famous book based on the theme of founding one's whole spiritual life on the lessons we learn from the Passion and Death of Jesus. Includes 31 meditations on different aspects of the Passion. Each meditation has 3 points, followed by a holy resolution to be taken and an example from the life of a Saint. The book also has many extras -- the Five Holy Wounds, visits to a crucifix, Mary Queen of Dolors, How to assist well at Mass, and more! Impr. 403 pgs,

EXERCISES OF DEVOTION

EXERCISE 1

Incentives to Devotion toward The Five Adorable Wounds of Our Saviour Jesus Christ

1. The Wounds of Jesus Christ bear eternal testimony to His infinite love for us, and are fountains of Charity, according to the expression of St. Bernard. And, in fact, what stronger proofs could we have of the infinite love of Jesus than those five Wounds, which He permitted to be made in His hands, feet, and side, that in them, as in so many written words, we might read the immensity of His love? One single drop of His most precious Blood would have been sufficient, and a thousand times more than sufficient, for our Redemption, but not for His love. It was His Will that His Blood should flow from five copious fountains, that so He might shed every drop of it for our salvation. Yet more; no sooner had our loving Redeemer breathed His last, than, in order to make us understand that His love was stronger than death, He permitted His side to be opened with a spear, and His sacred Heart pierced with a deep wound, that so He might bestow upon us the few remaining drops of Blood which the scourges and nails had failed to draw forth from His veins. “It was not so much the lance,” says St. Cyprian, “which inflicted the Wound upon the side of Jesus, as His love for us.” The lance was but the instrument of His love, which was desirous of thus bestowing His Heart upon us. Oh, how loudly do these Wounds proclaim to us that great, or rather, infinite, has been the love of Jesus for us! How strongly do they remind us of all He has suffered for our salvation! It has been the will of Jesus to preserve in His glorified Body the marks of His Wounds as a perpetual remembrance of the great love He has borne us, and of all He has done for our sakes, and as incentives to urge Him to do yet more, and preserve and increase in us the gifts of His grace. Now, how is it possible that with so many incentives to love, our hearts should still remain cold, and unwilling even sometimes to remember, reflect upon, venerate, honor, and love the adorable Wounds of so loving a Redeemer? Jesus has purchased our hearts and affections at the exorbitant price of His Wounds and Blood, and shall we refuse to give them to Him, shall we refuse to employ our hearts in loving Him, and our affections in honoring and venerating His most holy Wounds? Such fearful ingratitude on the part of a Christian would indeed be most painful to the sweet and adorable Heart of Jesus! And, in fact, the most acute and bitter anguish endured by that sacred Heart, was, says St. Bernard, caused by the thought of the ingratitude of man, who would so seldom call to mind His Wounds and His Passion. Dedicate your heart, then, with the tenderest feelings of devotion, to the Wounds of your Redeemer, which are the everlasting pledges of His love for you. Imitate the example of St. Augustine, who used to beseech Jesus Crucified to inscribe His sacred Wounds in his heart with one of His blood-stained nails, that he might thus have these marks of the love of his God continually present to his mind.

2. The Wounds of Jesus are fountains of Grace, Mercy, and Salvation. From them did the price of our Redemption flow, to satisfy Divine Justice for our sins. From them flowed forth the plenitude of the Divine benedictions and mercies, by which our souls were to be enriched, and their salvation rendered an infinitely less arduous task. From them did the Sacraments derive their thrice-blessed origin—the Sacraments which cleanse, purify, and sanctify us, and the celestial waters of which irrigate our hearts with their precious streams, and impart fecundity to the vineyard of Holy Church. These Wounds constitute an asylum, in which we may take refuge, lest we perish with the reprobate, and lose our souls. They are the dearest, and at the same time the most secure pledges of our eternal salvation, which Jesus has bestowed upon us. Whoever desires to know how great was, and is, the anxiety of Jesus for our salvation, need but look at His most sacred Wounds. What deep emotions of gratitude ought not such reflections to awaken in the hearts of all Christians? What affection, what tender devotion, ought they not to feel towards these most holy Wounds? How earnestly should they strive to love and adore them with the utmost reverence, and thus give expression to their unbounded gratitude. Blessed James of Bevagna, being disturbed by fears concerning his salvation, implored Jesus to bestow upon him a pledge of Heaven, the sole object of his desires. His loving Lord, to console him, gave him a paper signed with the Blood that flowed from His Wounds, saying, “Let this Blood be to thee a pledge of thy salvation.”

3. The Wounds of Jesus furnish us with powerful motives for hope. Our divine Redeemer has been pleased to retain the marks of His Wounds in His glorified Body, in order to inspire sinners with confidence. His office in Heaven, says St. Paul, is to make continual intercession for us to His Eternal Father. His Wounds are so many tongues ever speaking in our favor. He offers them to His Father, imploring His clemency in our behalf, with powerful efficacy. If our sins demand vengeance, the Wounds of Jesus cry out still more loudly for pity and mercy, and the voice of His Wounds drowns the voice of our sins. They make reparation for those offenses which would otherwise call down the just anger of God upon sinners. They fulfill the merciful office of perpetual advocates and intercessors in our behalf, and implore grace and mercy for us. Let us, then, unite our supplications to their powerful voices, and when we pray and ask favors through the merits of these Wounds, we may be sure of obtaining all that we ask. Let us, then, unite ourselves closely to the most holy Wounds of our Saviour; let us have recourse to them with lively hope and entire confidence, and doubt not that our prayers will be heard. For us have these Wounds been made, and for our sakes has Jesus retained them as marks of glory, to make known to us that our names being thus inscribed in characters of blood, He will never forget us. “No,” says St. Augustine, “our Lord willeth not the eternal loss of those souls which He has purchased at so dear a rate.” “Jesus,” adds St. Bernard, “was pleased to ascend into Heaven with His arms and hands extended, that all might see His sacred Wounds, and seeing, might adore them, and adoring, might place all their hopes in them.”

4. Through the Wounds of Jesus Christ we have been reconciled to God, our sins have been pardoned, and we have been released from those bonds which detained our souls in a state of servitude to the Devil. By the Blood that flowed from these adorable Wounds were our sins remitted, our souls purified from their stains, and the life of grace bestowed on penitent sinners. Through these precious Wounds the decree of our condemnation has been cancelled, and the merciful sentence of our pardon and absolution written in its stead.

However great may be our debts, we may find in the Wounds of our Crucified Jesus wherewith to pay to the full all that may be owing by sinful men to Divine justice. The sacred bank is open, the ransom-money ready, and whoever refuses to profit by it must be resolved to die in his sins. Does your conscience reproach you with the enormity of your sins, and the slightness of the penance you have done for them? Take courage, fear not, hasten to the Wounds of Jesus, and there you will find wherewith to make atonement. Draw nigh to those Wounds with faith and love, bury your sins in them with feelings of heartfelt contrition, wash yourself in the Divine Blood flowing from them, and you will be cleansed from all your stains. But whoever, on the other hand, is obstinate in sin, or refuses to have recourse to the Wounds of his Redeemer, will close to himself those fountains of pardon and reconciliation, and be lost for all eternity. At the hour of death, he will hear these severe words of reproof from the lips of his wounded Lord: “These Wounds were the work of thy hands—for thy sake were they made—and yet thou wouldst not even so much as look at them, much less approach, and hide thyself within them.” And what could we, wretched creatures, answer at that awful moment? Let us then at once provide against so fearful a misfortune, and devote all the love and affection of our hearts to the most holy Wounds of Jesus Christ.

5. The Wounds of Jesus invite us to repentance, inspire us with horror for sin, and produce in us a change of life. Even the hard-hearted crucifiers of Jesus, on beholding Him dead and covered with wounds, were touched at the sight, repented, and shed tears of compunction. And is there a man to be found, who, on contemplating the Wounds of his Crucified Lord, recognizing in them the work of his hands, the effect of his malice, and the malignity of his sins, which, like cruel executioners, inflicted such Wounds—is there a man, I say, who will not be moved to repentance? Can any one behold the excruciating torments endured by his mangled Lord, see such copious streams of Blood flowing from His lacerated limbs and pierced Heart, and not bitterly bewail his sins with tears of sorrow? Can anyone have the heart to renew by sin those Wounds which Jesus was pleased to receive in His blessed Body, on account of sin? Are you really anxious to amend? Do you sincerely desire to bewail your ill-spent life? Never allow a day to pass without a few moments’ contemplation of the Wounds of your Redeemer, and you will there behold how great an evil sin is, which inflicted on your soul wounds that could not be healed but with the salutary balm distilled from the Wounds of the Son of God. These Wounds will also show you how great is the hatred God bears to sin, since He visited it with such severity upon the humanity of His only begotten Son. How would it be possible for any Christian, who often contemplates Jesus fastened with nails to the Cross, and pierced with the lance, to take pleasure in those sins which inflicted such Wounds upon the Son of God? Could such a man commit sin, and not rather be filled with the deepest abhorrence for it? But we must contemplate Him attentively, and for a due space of time, not hurriedly and with a mere passing glance, as was done on Mount Calvary by the Pharisees, who yet remained as hardened and obstinate as ever. Earthly goods allure, our passions seduce us, and sin tyrannizes over us, only because we do not fix the eyes of our mind upon the Wounds of our Crucified Jesus. Penance alarms us, and we regard it almost with horror, solely because we do not consider how much suffering, and how many wounds were inflicted upon Jesus for sins not His own. Frequently read the enormity of your sins in the Wounds of your Crucified Lord, and you will detest and do penance for them.

6. The Wounds of Jesus make known the infinite value of Heaven, which they have opened to us. Heaven is the price of the Wounds and Blood of the Son of God. Jesus Christ did not think the sovereign beatitude and glory of Heaven too dearly purchased at the price of unspeakable tortures, and by suffering His sacred flesh to be mangled by nails, thorns, and scourges. Great indeed must be the value of that which cost the Son of God so dear! And yet we esteem it so little, as to be even ready to renounce our claim to it, as, in fact, so many of us do, for th...

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• About the Author
• Preface to the 1895 Edition
• Contents
• Address to the Devout Reader
• Jesus Crucified to the Heart of the Christian
• A Practical Rule of Christian Life for Daily Observance
• A Practical Method of Meditating on the Most Sacred Passion of Jesus Christ
• 31 Days in the School of Jesus Crucified
• Exercises of Devotion
• Back Cover
• A Collection of Classic Artwork
• A BRIEF LIFE OF CHRIST
• Tan Classics
• Become a Tan Missionary!
• Share the Faith with Tan Books!
• Tan Books