355 part ii: meditations for more solemn feasts 3. “[M]y own know [M]e” (Jn 10:14). Consider carefully that you are a true sheep of God only if you know Jesus, your Shepherd. On the contrary, you do not belong to His sheepfold if you do not have any knowledge of Him. But how could you know God if you still do not know yourself? How could you understand the power, the eminence, and the dignity of this Sacrament that you approach, if you do not perceive, acknowledge, and eliminate the vices, which greatly hinder your mind from knowing God? Therefore, if you want to know God then acquire first the knowledge of yourself. Acquire the knowledge of your passions and imperfections if you have the intention of knowing divine powers and perfections. After you have toiled enough in getting this knowledge of yourself, then you will easily know God. You take your pains in vain, really, when you want to attain to the notion of divine things without self-knowledge. If you will not strive to get knowledge of yourself, you will not know God. Woe to you, who do not know your Shepherd, for neither will He know you as His sheep. [f.111r] After Holy Communion 1. “I lay down My soul167 for My sheep” (cf. Jn 10:15). O what love! O what generosity! O what an incredible and unheard of grace! Do you hear, my soul, what your Savior says, and says from His Heart? “I lay down My soul for the sheep,” He says. Something great and inexplicable is concealed in these words. It is not the matter of the body to be crucified, but of the soul of the Good Shepherd to be tormented for the sake of His sheep. It is as if He were saying: “For you, my sheep, I surrender not only the limbs of My body up to unimaginable torments, but also all the parts and powers of My soul.” 167 In Latin: “Animam meam pono pro ovibus meis.” The word anima can be translated as soul or life, but St. Stanislaus bases his commentary here on the meaning soul.
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