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So, in contemplating the passion of our Lord, the horrors of his death must be visibly present; we must hear his last words; we must listen to the shoutings of the populace; we must watch the agony of the virgin-mother beholding the infamy of her blessed son; we must see his quivering limbs, his death-like paleness, his tottering weakness under the burden of the cross, his bleeding side and pierced extremities. Merely to see these things in contemplation is trivial and inessential; we must, with certain interior senses, actually see, hear, taste, and smell, not only the personages and scenes on which the mind is dwelling, but the emotions which the scenes are calculated to excite. So again, we must taste and relish the suavity and lusciousness of the pious soul, and by a like internal sense of touch we must actually feel and kiss the very garments, places, and footsteps of the personages whose acts our minds dwell upon.

This is justly called “the application of the senses” to the soul.