The Book of Divine Consolation of the Blessed Angela of Foligno

[Stone]

Third Consolation of the Passion of Christ


I was meditating one time upon the great sufferings borne by our Lord Jesus Christ upon the Cross, and more especially upon the nails, which I did hear were of such a sort that they had driven the flesh of the hands and feet into the wood; and I desired to behold those little pieces of flesh which the nails had so violently driven into the wood.

Then did I feel such great pain because of Christ's pain that I could not stand upon my feet, but I bent mine head and sat me down on the ground; and I beheld Christ, who inclined His head upon mine arms which I had stretched out upon the ground. Then He showed unto me His throat and His arms, whereupon my grief was instantly changed into joy so great and so different from all other joys that I neither saw nor felt aught else; for the beauty of that throat was a thing most great and ineffable. Then I understood that His beauty proceeded from His divinity.

Naught else did He show me saving that most comely and gracious throat, the beauty whereof cannot be likened unto any thing or any colour in the world, save only unto the clearness of Christ's body, which I do sometimes behold when it is raised on high at the elevation.