Revelations of St. Bridget/Chapter 1. Prayer of Praise and Thanksgiving, on the Life and Passion of our Lord
Revelations of St. Bridget.
CHAPTER I.
PRAYER OF PRAISE AND THANKSGIVING, ON THE LIFE AND PASSION OF OUR LORD.
Blessed art thou, my Lord, my God, and most beloved lover of my soul, who art one God in three persons. Glory and praise be to thee, O my Lord Jesus Christ, who wast sent by thy Father into the body of a Virgin, yet ever remainest with thy Father in heaven, the Father with his divinity remaining inseparably with thee in thy humanity in the world.
Honor and glory be to thee, O my Lord Jesus Christ, who, conceived of the Holy Ghost in the Virgin’s womb, didst corporally increase, and humbly dwell therein, to the time of thy birth, and, after thy joyful nativity, didst deign to be handled by thy mother’s most pure hands, be wrapped in swaddling-clothes, and laid in a manger.
Blessed art thou, my Lord Jesus Christ, who didst wish thy immaculate flesh to be circumcised, and thy name called Jesus, and also to be offered in the temple by thy Mother.
Blessed art thou, my Lord Jesus Christ, who caused thyself to be baptized in the Jordan, by thy servant John.
Blessed be thou, my Lord Jesus Christ, who didst preach with thy blessed lips the words of life to men ; and didst work many miracles personally before them.
Blessed be thou, my Lord Jesus Christ, who, fulfilling the Scriptures of the prophets, didst reasonably show thyself to the world to be true God.
Benediction and glory be to thee, my Lord Jesus Christ, who didst wonderfully fast for forty days in the desert, and didst permit thyself to be tempted by thy enemy the devil, whom thou didst drive off by a single word, when so it pleased thee.
Blessed be thou, my Lord Jesus Christ, who didst foretell thy death before the time, and in the last supper didst wonderfully consecrate thy precious body of material bread, and also charitably gave it to thy Apostles, in memory of thy most worthy passion, and by washing their feet with thy sacred and precious hands, didst humbly show thy very great humility.
Honor be to thee, my Lord Jesus Christ, who through the fear of thy passion and death, didst send forth blood from thy body, and nevertheless didst perfect our redemption as thou didst wish to do, and thus didst more manifestly show the charity which thou didst bear the human race.
Glory be to thee, my Lord Jesus Christ, who, sold by thy disciple, and bought by the Jews, was seized for us, and who didst cast thy enemies to the ground by a single word, and didst afterwards, of thy free will, give thyself up a captive to their unclean, rapacious hands.
Blessed be thou, my Lord Jesus Christ, who wast led to Caiphas, and who, though judge of all, didst humbly permit thyself to be given up to the judgment of Pilate.
Blessed be thou, my Lord Jesus Christ, who wast sent by Pilate the judge, to Herod, and didst suffer thyself to be derided and despised by him, and didst consent to be sent back. again to Pilate as judge.
Glory be to thee, my Lord Jesus Christ, for the derision which thou didst undergo, when, clothed in purple, thou didst stand, crowned with most acute thorns; and, because thou didst most patiently bear to be spit upon, in thy glorious face, thy eyes bound, and to be most violently beaten on the cheeks and neck, by the malignant hands of the wicked.
Peace be to thee, my Lord Jesus Christ, who didst most patiently suffer thyself to be bound to a pillar, inhumanly scourged, led, streaming with blood, to Pilate’s tribunal, and to be seen like an innocent lamb.
Blessed be thou, my Lord Jesus Christ, who didst most patiently submit to hear, with thy blessed ears, insults and lies vomited against thee, and the voices of the people asking that a guilty robber should be absolved, and thou, innocent, condemned.
Honor be to thee, my Lord Jesus Christ, who, with thy whole glorious body bathed in blood, was condemned to die on the cross, and didst painfully bear thy cross on thy sacred shoulders, and wast furiously led to the place of thy passion, and despoiled of thy garments, and didst thus wish to be fastened to the cross.
Immense glory be to thee, my Lord Jesus Christ, who didst humbly bear for us, that the Jews should extend thy venerable hands and feet with a robe, and cruelly fasten thee to the wood of the cross with iron nails, and should call thee a betrayer; and writing a title of confusion above thee, should in manifold ways deride thee with their horrid words.
Eternal praise and thanksgiving be to thee, my Lord Jesus Christ, who didst so meekly endure such cruel pains for us; for when thy blessed body lost all its strength on the cross, thy blessed eyes were darkened, thy beautiful face, from loss of blood, was all overspread with pallor, thy blessed tongue was parched and dried up, and thy mouth was moistened by a most bitter draught. Thy hair and beard were filled with blood, from the wounds of thy most sacred head. The bones of thy hands and feet, and of all thy precious body, were rent from their places, not without great and intense grief to thee, the veins and nerves of all thy blessed body were cruelly broken. And thus thou wast inhumanly scourged and wounded with grievous wounds, that thy most innocent skin and flesh were intolerably torn. And thus afflicted and tortured, thou didst hang on the cross, O my most sweet Jesus, and in excessive pain, didst patiently and humbly await the hour of death.
Perpetual honor be to thee, my Lord Jesus Christ, who, in such agony, didst humbly look with benign eyes of charity on thy most worthy Mother, who never sinned, nor consented to even the slightest sin, and consoling her, didst faithfully commit her to the guardianship of thy disciple.
Eternal benediction be to thee, my Lord Jesus Christ, for each hour in which thou didst endure the most intense bitterness and agony on the cross, for us sinners. For the acute pain of thy wounds keenly penetrated thy happy soul, and cruelly pierced thy most sacred heart, till thy heart breaking, thou didst happily give up the ghost, and bowing down thy head, didst humbly commend thyself into the hands of God, thy Father, and then thy dead body remained all cold.
Blessed be thou, my Lord Jesus Christ, who, for our salvation, didst permit thy side and heart to be pierced with a lance, and didst send forth copiously from the same side thy precious blood and water to redeem us; and didst not wish thy most sacred body to be taken down from the cross, till permission was given by the judge.
Glory be to thee, my Lord Jesus Christ, because thou didst wish thy blessed body to be taken down from the cross by thy friends, and to be laid in the arms of thy most afflicted mother, and didst permit it to be wrapped by her in winding-sheets, and laid in the sepulchre, and there to be guarded by soldiers.
Eternal honor be to thee, my Lord Jesus Christ, who didst rise from the dead on the third day, and didst manifest thyself alive to such as thou didst wish; and after forty days, didst ascend in the sight of many to heaven, and didst there honorably place thy friends whom thou hadst delivered from limbo.
Eternal praise and jubilee be to thee, my Lord Jesus Christ, who didst send down thy Holy Spirit into the hearts of thy disciples, and didst augment in their spirits immense divine love.
Blessed be thou, and pleased and glorious forever, my Lord Jesus, who sittest on the throne in thy kingdom of heaven, in the glory of thy divinity, living corporally with all thy most holy members, which thou didst assume of the flesh of a Virgin. And thus thou wilt come on the day of judgment to judge the souls of all, living and dead. Who livest and reignest with the Father and Holy Ghost, for ever and ever. Amen.