487 part iv: meditations for weekly retreats 2. Consider the benefit of Redemption, how the Son of God, equal in all things to the Father, was willing to assume human nature in order to bring you, a rebellious man, back to the Fatherly abode and to free you from the prison of everlasting limbo or hell. Being infinite, He was enclosed in the Virgin’s womb; being impervious to suffering, He suffered all His life various persecutions, hardships and misfortunes: the cold at His birth, the knife at His circumcision, the inclement weather and many difficulties during the flight to Egypt; in teaching, He had to bear the evil tongues of the godless, to avoid being pelted with stones, to endure the temptations of hell, and to receive the very worst in return for all His goodness. Then, when you come to the mystery of the Passion, you will be astounded, realizing that your mind is unable to grasp the torments, tortures, and sufferings of the God-Man. May it suffice for you to comprehend that He endured countless tortures in order to atone for countless sins. Consider with devotion that in order to redeem human kind from hell and eternal death He bore more torments, or at least as many, as are born by the condemned in hell. Revealing His sufferings, He exclaimed: “Whoever loves Me, see if there is any sorrow like My sorrow” (cf. Lam 1:12). 3. Consider your twofold vocation by which you have been called to the Catholic faith and to the religious life. Think of the countless unbelievers condemned because they were not perfected by the benefice of a vocation to faith, [f.161v] many of whom still remain in the darkness of faithlessness and find themselves in the same danger of eternal condemnation. You, on the other hand, have been richly endowed by the grace of the Holy Spirit with such a great gift and light. As to the religious life, consider attentively that it is a haven towards which one makes his way from the very dangerous sea of the world and in which he evades the insurmountable waves of great storms. It is the holy city of Jerusalem; it is the gate of Ezekiel (cf. Ez 44:2; 46:1), through which the access is open to the abode of eternal life. Then remind yourself that many have
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