How, then, can we have any fear, says St. Paul, that God will refuse us His graces? “He that spared not even His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all.” Considerations and Prayers for Every Day. First Day. Before Our Lord’s suffering took place, He disclosed to His disciples the story of the cross. It was good for them to understand and to remember what the sufferings of Jesus were to be. The prophets of the Old Testament had declared that the Son of man must suffer. Daniel, especially, describes the Passion of Our Lord very minutely. This was the future that was before Our Lord, and it was well that the disciples should know it and think of it. So it should be with ourselves. We, too, are the disciples and followers of Christ, and we, too, must make the Passion a subject of serious thought. The Church has chosen the Lenten time as the most appropriate for this exercise. She joins penance with this meditation, as being the most efficacious means of stirring ourselves up to a pious life. Let us approach these meditations with a conviction that we are really unworthy to be admitted to the graces of this holy contemplation; but Jesus will help us. Prayer. Look down upon me, good and gentle Jesus, whilst before Thy face I humbly kneel, and with burning soul pray and beseech Thee to fix deep in my heart lively sentiments of faith, hope, and charity, true contrition for my sins, and a firm purpose of amendment; the while I contemplate with great love and tender pity Thy five wounds, pondering over them within me, whilst I call to mind the words which David, Thy prophet, said of Thee, my Jesus: “They pierced My hands and My feet; they numbered all My bones.”—Ps. xxi. 17, 18. Second Day. It is not hard to understand why the Lord desires us to think of His Passion. St. Francis Xavier is said to have gone over the Passion once every month; but we know, too, with what love he was attached to the Lord, with what wonderful patience and perseverance he continued to labor. It was the effect of the meditation on the Passion. We, too, should grow in the love of Our Lord. But how will we grow, unless by contemplating all that Jesus has done for us in His Passion, until He died on the cross? As the Apostle says, “He loved me, and delivered Himself up for me.” In this way the Lord wants us to study His Passion, so that we may learn how intensely He loved us; that although He was God, and we poor miserable creatures, still He did not hesitate to sacrifice His life in order to redeem us from eternal perdition. Prayer. Look down upon me, good and gentle Jesus, etc., etc. Third Day.