“O my soul, wilt thou be one of those who look with indifference on thy God torn with scourges? Reflect on his sufferings, but still more on the love with which thy sweet Lord submits to such excruciating torture for thy sake. In his scourging, Jesus certainly thought on thee. O God! had he borne but a single stripe for thy sake, thou shouldst burn with love for him, and say: A God has suffered to be struck for my sake. But for the atonement of thy sins he has, as Isaias foretold, permitted all his flesh to be mangled. ‘He was wounded for our iniquities, he was bruised for our sins’ —Isa. liii. 5.”   —St. Alphonsus de Liguori