and of St.
James the Less; and I see that it is still preserved in that town--it will
reappear some day, in the same manner as before. Other Churches took
the little cups which surrounded it; one was taken to Antioch, and
another to Ephesus. They belonged to the patriarchs, who drank some
mysterious beverage out of them when they received or gave a
Benediction, as I have seen many times.

The great chalice had formerly been in the possession of Abraham;
Melchisedech brought it with him from the land of Semiramis to the land
of Canaan, when he was beginning to found some settlements on the spot
where Jerusalem was afterwards built; he made use of it then for
offering sacrifice, when he offered bread and wine in the presence of
Abraham, and he left it in the possession of that holy patriarch. This
same chalice had also been preserved in Noah's Ark.

MEDITATION V.

Jesus goes up to Jerusalem.

In the morning, while the Apostles were engaged at Jerusalem in
preparing for the Pasch, Jesus, who had remained at Bethania, took an
affecting leave of the holy women, of Lazarus, and of his Blessed
Mother, and gave them some final instructions. I saw our Lord
conversing apart with his Mother, and he told her, among other things,
that he had sent Peter, the apostle of faith, and John, the apostle of
love, to prepare for the Pasch at Jerusalem. He said, in speaking of
Magdalen, whose grief was excessive, that her love was great, but still
somewhat human, and that on this account her sorrow made her beside
herself. He spoke also of the schemes of the traitor Judas, and the
Blessed Virgin prayed for him. Judas had again left Bethania to go to
Jerusalem, under pretence of paying some debts that were due. He spent
his whole day in hurrying backwards and forwards from one Pharisee to
another, and making his final agreements with them. He was shown the
soldiers who had been engaged to seize the person of our Divine
Saviour, and he so arranged his journeys to and fro as to be able to
account for his absence. I beheld all his wicked schemes and all his
thoughts. He was naturally active and obliging, but these good
qualities were choked by avarice, ambition, and envy, which passions he
made no effort to control. In our Lord's absence he had even performed
miracles and healed the sick.

When our Lord announced to his Blessed Mother what was going to take
place, she besought him, in the most touching terms, to let her die
with him.