New authors I am reading

Every so often (once or twice a year), I finish a book and start a new one. Over the past couple of weeks, I have been reading a couple of books that I bought a while ago for my spiritual reading. One is entitled the Journal of a Soul. This is the autobiography of Blessed John XXIII. I am still reading a somewhat long introduction but it has been good so far. The other book is a compilation of meditations and prayers by Cardinal Newman. Both have provided spiritual insight for Holy Week. Here is an excerpt from Cardinal Newman's meditation on the tenth station (Jesus is stripped, and drenched with gall):

"O Thou who in Thy Passion wast stripped of all Thy clothes, and help up to the curiosity and mockery of the rabble, strip me of myself here an now, that in the Last Day I come not to shame before man and Angels. Thou didst endure the shame on Calvary that I might be spared the shame at the Judgment. Thou hadst nothing to be ashamed of personally, and the shame which Thou didst feel was because Thou hadst taken on Thee man's nature When they took from Thee Thy garments, those innocent limbs of Thine were but objects of humble and loving adoration to the highest Seraphim. They stood around in speechless awe, wondering at Thy beauty, and they trembled at Thy infinite self-abasement. But I, O Lord, how shall I appear if Thou shalt hold me up hereafter to be gazed upon, stripped of that robe of grace which is Thine, and seen in my own personal life and nature? O how hideous I am in myself, even in my best estate. Even when I am cleansed from my mortal sins, what disease and corruption is seen even in my venial sins. How shall I be fit for the society of Angels, how for Thy presence, until Thou burnest this foul leprosy away in the fire of Purgatory?"