Victim Soul
See also The Simple Path's chapter on Victim soul.
Saint Pope John Paul II, apostolic letter Salvifici Doloris (1984):
The Redeemer suffered in place of man and for man.
Every man has his own share in the Redemption. Each one is also called to
share in that suffering through which the Redemption was accomplished. He is
called to share in that suffering through which all human suffering has also
been redeemed.
In bringing about the Redemption through suffering, Christ has also raised
human suffering to the level of the Redemption. Thus each man, in his
suffering, can also become a sharer in the redemptive suffering of Christ
(No. 19).
St. Paul of the Cross writes:
The present state is a beginning of a martyrdom of most pure love... You must immerse yourself ever more in pure love and in this divine fire you must be a true victim sacrificed as a holocaust to the Supreme Good. Love, love, suffer and be silent, love allows one to speak little, and if it be much enkindled, it does not allow one to say anything because [the soul] attends to pure love and allows itself to be burnt to ashes in the divine fire in which, with a glance of charity, it embraces the needs of all creatures and without expressing it, cries out for all.
Ah, that His most Sacred Suffering
Could always be in my heart!
Ever praying,
Burning love my only part!
In my meditation a fire has come forth,
It has made my heart as unquenchable fire!
Abandon yourself in the deep sea of divine love, entering in through the door of the most pure Heart of Jesus, in pure faith, without images. Hide yourself totally in that great Holy of Holies, and there lose yourself completely in the bottomless sea of the infinite love of God. Rise to the contemplation of the divine wonders, beauties, and riches of the Sovereign Good; take pleasure in him; melt into the great fire like a small piece of wax; put yourself on the bundles of spices which are the sufferings of Jesus. And there burn everything, reduce the whole holocaustal victim to ashes.
