Writings from Dushna pasha - Pasture of the soul

Written by bishop baraga

Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament speaks to the soul:
Oh! Beloved soul, my bride! Look how I hang on the cross
before your eyes! I willingly extended my hands and feet to be
severely wounded and nailed to the cross. My head, crowned with
thorns, I bow humbly and sorrowfully! A trail of blood flows all
over my body; with a pierced heart, I am ashen, dead! – To serve
as an example to you, beloved soul! So you could also hang on the
cross with your bridegroom. Therefore willingly give your hands
and feet to my service, even when it still seems so difficult to you.
Suffer with me humbly and steadfastly, and do not mourn so much
over your suffering, but more over your sins, which are to blame
for my suffering and yours. And, my beloved soul! Whenever you
suffer so much that you don’t think you can endure it, take refuge
under my cross and at my pierced side, and consider how much I
suffered for you. All your suffering will then seem much easier. –
Dear soul! Whenever you receive me at God’s table, always
remember that I am present as the very Jesus who hung and died
on the cross for you. Always resolve to willingly endure everything
also for me, and, if necessary, also rather die than offend me.

The soul replies to Jesus:
O my crucified Jesus! O infinite love! Oh how much you
suffered for our salvation! What a martyr you became, what pains
you felt just to prepare us for eternal joy! How willingly you carried
out a bitter death only to obtain eternal life for us! – Oh! Crucified
Jesus! How unworthy we are of your endless love! How little we
resemble you, and how little we strive to come to you in your
likeness! – O Jesus, my dear bridegroom! How strongly this Most
Blessed Sacrament reminds me of everything that you did and
suffered for us! And precisely in this memory did you give it to us! –
Oh! How much you had to suffer beforehand, before you left us in
this most loving Sacrament! You had to come down from heaven
to this wretched earth, live many years in scorn and poverty, and
suffer horrific martyrdom and bitter death in order to leave us in
the Most Blessed Sacrament. – O compassionate Jesus! You are the
best example of love and patience! I want to carry my own cross
and follow you every day because I see how willingly you endured
your unspeakable suffering. O beloved Jesus in the Most Holy
Redeemed Body! Confirm in us true patience, which we need if we
wish to partake of your promises. – O Jesus, who died on the holy
cross for us! Give us also a happy final hour, and grant us
abundant grace to worthily receive you up to the end of our lives,
and to thus come before the judgment in union with you.