In order to excite in yourself, by these and other considerations of the same kind, the affection of love, strive to gain more and more deeply the knowledge of your Lord's Infinite Goodness, and Love towards you, Who for your sake willed to suffer such cruel torments; for the more you advance in this knowledge, the more will you increase in love.
This knowledge, too, of the Goodness and Infinite Love of your Lord, will excite in you contrition and regret for having so often and so ungratefully offended a God Who was for your sins in so many ways ill-treated and tortured.
To call out hope, consider, that into this state of misery your mighty Lord descended, that He might destroy sin, and rescue you from the snares of the devil, and from the faults which you have committed; that He might reconcile you to His Eternal Father, and give you boldness to draw near to Him in every need.
To call out joy, pass from the consideration of the Passion to the thought of its results; you will see how this Passion has the power of purifying the whole world from sin, and of satisfying Divine Justice; how it has confounded the Prince of darkness, vanquished death, and filled again the void places in the angelic ranks.
Joy will be heightened by the consideration of the joy of the Most Holy Trinity, of the Blessed
