The Dolorous Passion of
Our Lord Jesus Christ
From the Meditations of
Anne Catherine Emmerich
Copyright Notice: This ebook was prepared from the 20th edition ofthis book, which was published in 1904 by Benziger Brothers in NewYork. The copyright for that edition is expired and the text is in thepublic domain. This ebook is not copyrighted and is also in the publicdomain.
The writer of this Preface was travelling in Germany, when hechanced to meet with a book, entitled, The History of the Passion ofour Lord Jesus Christ, from the Meditations of Anne Catherine Emmerich,which appeared to him both interesting and edifying. Its style wasunpretending, its ideas simple, its tone unassuming, its sentimentsunexaggerated, and its every sentence expressive of the most completeand entire submission to the Church. Yet, at the same time, it wouldhave been difficult anywhere to meet with a more touching and lifelikeparaphrase of the Gospel narrative. He thought that a book possessingsuch qualities deserved to be known on this side the Rhine, and thatthere could be no reason why it should not be valued for its own sake,independent of the somewhat singular source whence it emanated.
Still, the translator has by no means disguised to himself that thiswork is written, in the first place, for Christians; that is to say,for men who have the right to be very diffident in giving credence toparticulars concerning facts which are articles of faith; and althoughhe is aware that St. Bonaventure and many others, in their paraphrasesof the Gospel history, have mixed up traditional details with thosegiven in the sacred text, even these examples have not wholly reassuredhim. St. Bonaventure professed only to give a paraphrase, whereas theserevelations appear to be something more. It is certain that the holymaiden herself gave them no higher title than that of dreams, and thatthe transcriber of her narratives treats as blasphemous the idea ofregarding them in any degree as equivalent to a fifth Gospel; still itis evident that the confessors who exhorted Sister Emmerich to relatewhat she saw, the celebrated poet who passed four years near her couch,eagerly transcribing all he heard her say, and the German Bishops, whoencouraged the publication of his book, considered it as something morethan a paraphrase. Some explanations are needful on this head.
The writings of many Saints introduce us into a new, and, if I maybe allowed the expression, a miraculous world. In all ages there havebeen revelations about the past, the present, the future, and evenconcerning things absolutely inaccessible to the human intellect. Inthe present day men are inclined to regard these revelations as simplehallucinations, or as caused by a sickly condition of body.
The Church, according to the testimony of her most approved writers,recognises three descriptions of ecstasy; of which the first is simplynatural, and entirely brought about by certain physical tendencies anda highly imaginative mind; the second divine or angelic, arising fromintercourse held with the supernatural world; and the third produced byinfernal agency. (See, on this head, the work of Cardinal Bona, DeDiscretione Spirituum.) Lest we should here write a book instead of apreface, we will not enter into any development of this doctrine, whichappears to us highly philosophical, and without which no satisfactoryexplanation can be given on the subject of the soul of man and itsvarious states.
The Church directs certain means to be employed to ascerta