Posts: 12,955
Threads: 6,814
Joined: Nov 2020
Meditation 27. Jesus Proves on the Cross His Love for His Enemies
Preparatory Prayer as on page x
Composition of Place — Envision Jesus nailed to the Cross and enduring His greatest pains. You hear Him pray to His Father on behalf of those who crucify Him.
Prayer of Petition — O my Jesus and my Master! I beg of Thee the grace not only to forgive my enemies, but to love them and do good to them.
First Point
Jesus showed an astonishingly great love for His enemies. Go back in your thoughts, my soul, to Calvary, and ponder with attention Jesus' Love for His enemies. See Him suspended from three nails on an infamous gibbet. He is wounded all over, dripping with blood, plunged in a sea of pain, and is close to breathing His last. See, also, the throng of people of every age, condition, and state — young and old, lords and ladies and common people, Hebrews and Gentiles, scribes and pharisees, elders of the people and high priests — and these people, instead of having pity (which only a few show at the sight of pain), are all burning with an implacable mortal hatred for Him. As we ponder the more noteworthy circumstances of this hatred, consider whether it should have been hard and difficult for Him to love a people so savage and inhuman.
The first circumstance was the triumphant glee of His enemies — Here, my soul, you should not consider Jesus as a mere man, but as both God and Man (as indeed He was), to Whose gaze everyone's heart lay bare, as He saw even their most secret thoughts. As He hung suffering on the Cross, what evil did He not find in the hearts of those cruel people? He perceived some who rejoiced at the sight of Him nailed to the Cross, who were congratulating themselves on the arrival, at last, of the hour they had hoped for — the hour of seeing the One they accused of being a seducer, an impostor, a deceiver, hanging from a Cross. He perceived that others were approving the sentence passed against Him, and were judging that it was quite just (because they thought He was a scoundrel and blasphemer) to be assigned no other execution than one on a cross. He saw that these men took great delight and danced, as it were, with glee at seeing Him suffer, at seeing Him refused the smallest relief for His thirst, at seeing men rather increase His thirst and add to His torments by giving Him gall and vinegar to drink. He perceived others impatiently awaiting His death and wanting His Name blotted out from everyone's memory. All of this Jesus saw, and saw it in the hearts of the very ones for whom He came down from Heaven to earth, leaving an immensely happy condition and submitting to human miseries. Yes, He saw these things in the hearts of those on whose behalf He had worked so many miracles and for whom He was dying. At the sight of all this, what must have been the quality of His love for such people?
The second circumstance was the jeers and insults of His enemies — When someone is in his death agony, having been turned over to an executioner to be put to death, it is an act of compassion to show him sympathy . . . something that is not refused even the most wayward criminal. When a criminal is presented on the gallows, no matter how deserving of death he may be, a great silence is observed by everyone, and even the hardest hearts show him some indications of pity and compassion; and the more painful the execution to which the man is condemned, the more apparent is this sympathy. But Jesus was not counted worthy of this much. The more cruel His pains were and the more savage the execution procedures, so much the more bitter were the jeers, so much the more cutting was the mockery with which He was insulted by His enemies.
"Bah!" some were saying, "If You boasted that You would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, show Your Power now and rescue Yourself from the Cross!" Others argued, "If You made such a boast of being the Son of God and of always trusting in Him, why does He not come now to deliver You?"
The third circumstance was His enemies' stubbornness — It would not have been difficult for Jesus to love His enemies if in the end they had recognized and detested their sin; but the obstinacy of these wicked people was too great. The elements, even though they were lifeless, bore witness to Jesus' innocence. The sky shrouded itself with mourning. The sun grew dark. Boulders cracked in pieces. The veil of the temple ripped into two parts. The earth trembled and quaked. The people were eyewitnesses of these astounding events; but in spite of them, they did not stop abusing Him. Rather, becoming even more furious against the Lord, they kept mocking Him, cursing Him and blaspheming Him. They did not cease tormenting Him until they saw that He was dead. And yet Jesus bore it all with an heroic patience. And even forgetting His Pains and the many abuses they were vomiting forth against Him into His very Face in His agonizing condition, turning to His Eternal Father He pleaded with Him and took up their defense, so that He might obtain pardon for their wicked behavior . . .
Could a love be found that resembles this? It would not have been hard for Jesus to love His enemies if He had foreseen that they would stop hating Him, at least after His death. But He could not even have this consolation. He foresaw that most of them would make a joke of all those miracles which would be worked on His behalf after His Resurrection. He foresaw that they would persecute even to death His Apostles, who were to proclaim His Name. He foresaw that they would continue in their obstinacy until death and that they would blaspheme forever in hell even more than the demons do. It surely must have been a very hard thing for Jesus to love a people so unjust and evil. But in spite of all this, instead of giving Himself over to anger and seeking vengeance for His extremely painful, degrading death, He ceased not from loving even the most sinful ones, nor from wishing that His Divine Blood might give life to those who had shed it so brutally . . .
My soul, enter within yourself here, and see who those persons are whom you find it difficult to love. Are they, by any chance, false witnesses who have falsely accused you in court? Are they cruel characters who have sometimes made you drink the gall and vinegar of pain, hardship, privation and injustice? Are they assassins who are thirsty for your blood and want to nail you, like Jesus, to a cross?
Ah! There may be someone perhaps who gives you an unpleasant look. There may be someone who lets a thoughtless word escape from his mouth. And will you have difficulty loving these persons, after seeing Jesus love even His unmerciful persecutors? Compare well your enemies with those of Jesus.
Affective Acts
(1) Shame — O Jesus! O most lovable Jesus! I marvel at Thy generous charity, and at the sight of it I know how weak mine is. In Thy Heart Thou preserved a love that remained steadfast in the midst of every outrage. With Thy vision Thou dost perceive those who harbor for many years in their hearts a hatred for Thee that is more than diabolical. Thou dost recognize those who curse and blaspheme Thee as if Thou were the greatest criminal in the world. Thou knowest those who make a boast of reducing Thee to this condition in which Thou become unrecognizable, and those who jeer at Thee and mock Thee when Thou art in the throes of the most horrible torment.
With Thy Own eyes Thou seest them; with Thy Own Ears Thou hearest them; and all the hate and raving of their hearts is quite known to Thee. But all this is not enough to cool off Thy Love, nor does Thy Heart yield to a shadow of irritation, nor do Thy lips utter one word of grumbling, nor do Thy hands make any move to take revenge. Instead, Thou lovest them all. Thou dost press them all to Thy bosom. Thou didst shed Thy Precious Blood for them all. Not one dost Thou shut out from Thy Heart. This is how strong and generous Thy love is, O my Jesus. And mine? Ah, it is a love that does not deserve to be called love, because any petty injury is enough to cripple it, and sometimes it manages to extinguish it and perhaps to change it into hatred.
(2) Repentance — In this light, I am a man truly lacking love! Oh, what a sad, distressing thought! — That I am a man who is poor and needy as regards love! And yet, who am I? I am a soul chosen from among thousands and thousands to follow Jesus. I am a Christian soul who spends so much time daily meditating on the example of Jesus Christ, Who even loved those who crucified Him. In spite of all this, I am a creature poor and needy with regard to love! This is so, after so many years of my life as a Christian have passed, after so many insights, graces, and interior inspirations, after so many aids and opportunities! Ah! What reason I have to detest my sluggishness!
Second Point
In view of the circumstances in which He loved His enemies, Jesus' love was something astonishing. Up to now the circumstances we have considered have been the hate, the rabidness and the unheard of savagery that His enemies displayed against Jesus. Now, my soul, ponder the circumstances of that love Jesus showed them at the very time of their rage. I do not doubt that a consideration of these two points will supply the weightiest motives for admiring a love so immense.
The first circumstance was the time in which He prayed for those who were crucifying Him — Jesus needed to say a number of things from the Cross: to His Eternal Father, to commend His Spirit to Him; to His beloved Mother, to entrust Her to His Disciple John; to John, to charge him with the care of His afflicted Mother; to bystanders, to ask relief in His extreme thirst. But for whom did He give first attention when He spoke? Ah! His sorrowful Mother would wait, the faithful disciple would hold off; Jesus' personal affairs would be forgotten; and the first words would be directed to His Eternal Father in favor of His enemies, begging pardon for them: "Father, forgive them." (Lk. 23:34). What love! What wonderful love!
The second circumstance was His enemies' malice — This was growing more and more on each occasion, the more ardent Jesus' love appeared to be. One might think that, before setting about to obtain the pardon of His enemies, Jesus would wait until they first recognized the enormous misdeed they had committed and with humility and regret begged for pity and mercy. But His Charity was of another quality, which did not allow Him to wait until they recognized their great fault; but He at once became their Mediator with the Eternal Father to obtain their forgiveness. I love them, Jesus said; and because I love, I intercede. I love and I intercede at the very moment in which I hear their ridicule and blasphemy, and I see their hate and experience all the effects of their rage and fury. I love them and I intercede for them and I offer all My Blood for them . . .
What do you say, my soul, at the sight of a love of this fine quality?
The third circumstance was the reason which Jesus presented in His prayer — It is undeniable that the Jews had committed against Jesus an injustice of the most horrible, abominable kind, choosing for Him the most cruel kind of death. The miracles that He had worked and which they had seen with their own eyes, the blamelessness of His life, known even to the Gentile prefect (Pontius Pilate), the very accusations which they had invented and had produced at the trial — all in an evident way proved their bad will. In spite of this, Jesus prayed for them, and to excuse them He pointed to their ignorance, saying, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." (Lk. 23:34). It was as if He wanted to say, "Father, I do not say that they have not sinned. I only say that their impiety can be pardoned, that ignorance plays a great part in it. Otherwise they would never have treated Me this way. Therefore I beg Thee, My Father, to forgive them as I forgive them, and that Thou love them as I love them. . ."
Oh, the wonderful love of Jesus for His enemies, which moved Him to love them with such love! My soul, you, too, learn to love the person that has offended you, and, if you please, look at your enemies with those eyes with which Jesus looked at His enemies from the Cross and it will become very easy for you. What did Jesus find in His enemies that could incline His Heart to love them? Ah! He saw in them the weakness of fallen nature that is prone to evil from birth. He saw in them precious souls fashioned to His Own Image and Likeness and called to share His Glory. He saw in them the most profound designs of His Heavenly Father, Who, by the very hands of His enemies, offered Jesus the chalice which He, the Father, had prepared. Finally, He saw that very great number of sins for which He had freely obliged Himself to make due payment to Divine Justice and which that Justice was punishing in Him by means of His enemies. These reasons were the strongest ones that persuaded Him to earnestly plead and intercede with His Eternal Father, to win for them the forgiveness of the great crimes that they had committed.
Affective Acts
(1) Repentance — Ah, my Jesus! Now I understand the true cause of the difficulty I have always experienced in loving people by whom I have been offended. The cause is that I have never looked at them with those eyes with which Thou looked at Thy enemies; and this is also the true cause of my bad state. If only I had always regarded people who offended me as persons by whose hands my Heavenly Father was offering me the chalice He had prepared for me; if only I had always regarded them as persons whom Divine Justice was using to punish my sins — ah! — how many perfect acts of love might I not have made up to now, and how closely my heart would come to resemble Thy loving Heart! But now — what is the state of my heart? What kind of charity do I have? Ah, my beloved Redeemer, let me be silent and hide myself from Thy eyes, because the great shame I feel restrains me from talking to Thee and looking at Thee. But what would be the benefit of being silent and hiding from Thee? It is better that I sincerely confess my folly and humbly beg the forgiveness of Thy Mercy. Ah, my Jesus! I have certainly reflected on the outstanding ways in which Thou hast been an example of love. I have admired this and have praised it. But when have I taken up the task of imitating it?
(2) Resolution and Prayer of Petition — Then, will I always behave as I have, O my Jesus? No, please! For the attitude I now feel is, by Thy Grace, different, and my heart feels changed. What I propose is to love those who have offended me with all my heart, to bear meekly and silently the injuries that are done to me, and I will make it a special endeavor to return good for evil. This is the way Jesus loved. It is the way I, too, should love, and indeed, choose to love. But how will I do it without a light to clear up my mind and a powerful impulse, a help, to give strength to my courage? I turn to Thee, my Beloved, my Crucified, my only Teacher of Love. I call upon Thee by that wonderful meekness with which Thou forgave Thy enemies, by that affectionate prayer Thou made on their behalf, by that Precious Blood which Thou shed for them. Grant me a charity that extends to all men, a charity that gives me strength to patiently suffer and bear everything, a charity that is always moving me to react to the evil done to me, by rendering some good turn that matches it. Amen.
Now pray the Our Father and the Hail Mary and the Concluding Prayers as on page xi.
"So let us be confident, let us not be unprepared, let us not be outflanked, let us be wise, vigilant, fighting against those who are trying to tear the faith out of our souls and morality out of our hearts, so that we may remain Catholics, remain united to the Blessed Virgin Mary, remain united to the Roman Catholic Church, remain faithful children of the Church."- Abp. Lefebvre
Posts: 12,955
Threads: 6,814
Joined: Nov 2020
Meditation 28. Conclusion of the Fourth Section on the Illuminative Way, and the Step Preparing for the Unitive Way
Preparatory Prayer as on page x
Composition of Place — Imagine you see Jesus on Calvary, nailed to the Cross, and on Mount Tabor transfigured, and you hear the Eternal Father's Voice saying, ". . . This is My beloved Son in Whom I am well pleased: hear ye Him." (Mt. 17:5).
Prayer of Petition — O my Jesus, I beg to fulfill all that Thou art teaching me by word and example.
First Point
Truths one must keep before oneself — Now, my soul, we have already reached the most important point on which depends your whole welfare in the spiritual life. This point is that one must tread in the footsteps which Jesus Christ left before us, and keeping Him faithful company, patiently bear the desolation and affliction in one's spirit, pain and hardships in one's body, outrages, injuries, ill-will and persecution from whatever source they come. One who has no willingness to walk this road will never find God, and much less will he come to a pure and perfect love for Him — which is the object of these spiritual exercises and for which we must adjust our whole life. Consider the following truths; then, with attentive reflection and determination, resolve once and for all to enter with generous heart on this road with your Crucified Redeemer and to continue on it as long as it pleases Him.
First Truth — The road of suffering is the noblest road that a soul can take. There were two purposes for which the only-begotten Son of God came down from Heaven. The first was to offer His Heavenly Father a sacrifice whereby He would be paid a supreme honor, and which would both be worthy of His Father's Infinite Greatness and serve as a just satisfaction for the sins of the world. In this way Christ fulfilled the role of Redeemer.
The second purpose was to give man an example of that perfect holiness for which one should strive. What was the road Jesus picked to carry out these two purposes? No other than the road of suffering — a suffering that started from the first instant of His Incarnation within His Mother, and did not end until His death. One rightly says, then, that either this is the noblest road, or that Jesus Christ has not given men an example of the most perfect holiness.
Second Truth — The road of suffering is the most profitable one a soul can walk. One cannot explain in a few words the very precious fruits one gains on the road of suffering. I will mention only two. Whenever God wants to admit a soul to union with Him and make it share the sweetness of His holy love, He requires chiefly two things of it. These are perfect purity of heart and perfect possession of the virtues. Now, for gaining these two things, no other way better suited can be found than that of suffering. As for the purity of heart, it appears impossible to doubt that by this road one may obtain it; for as the soul finds on it nothing to satisfy itself but God alone and His Divine good pleasure, little by little it learns detachment from creatures, it learns to disesteem all creatural satisfaction and consolation, and to turn all the affections of the heart to the Supreme Good in Whom alone it can find all that can content one's desires . . .
By this same road one also arrives at perfect possession of the virtues; for as the soul cannot fulfill all its duty in time of suffering without exerting extraordinary and heroic effort, thereby overcoming all the perverse inclinations opposing the virtues, these virtues become more deeply rooted in the heart and gain new luster and perfection. Thus souls which are led along the road of suffering, more quickly reach an intimate union and familiarity with God.
Third Truth — The road of suffering is the most secure one that a soul can walk. There have been persons favored by God with very sublime lights imparted to their minds and lofty consolations given their spirit, who seemed to touch the summit of holiness, and who led a life more angelic than human; but as they were not well enough proved and established in virtue, especially in humility, they became puffed up over their favors, and fell headlong from the heights where they stood, into the depths of total ruin.
One should fear none of this for a soul that travels the road of suffering. It is always profitable, always safe. For on it the most perfect virtue is practised — humility, submission, meekness, charity, resignation to the Divine good pleasure; and with these a solid foundation is laid upon which can then be built the greatest graces and most sublime holiness.
This is the true imitation of Jesus Christ, and the way He has taught us by His doctrine and example; and it never fails.
Second Point
Practices
After you have reflected well on these truths, my soul, learn the practices you must observe along the road of suffering.
First Practice — Using the power of prayer, impress deeply upon your mind certain maxims and truths which can lift up our hearts in time of suffering . . . These, for example, can be:
(1) I can never suffer enough to pay a fair price for gaining God; for though I suffered all imaginable pains for a thousand years, this would be nothing in comparison with that Good.
(2) I can never suffer as much as I deserve for my sins; and no matter how much I suffer, it will never be a hell of suffering, though that is what my guilt deserves.
It is good to meditate on these truths very often and with enough attention for them to be thoroughly familiar to us and so that we may keep them before us on all occasions that come up.
Second Practice — Suffer in silence little day by day troubles, and in this way gather courage and be prepared to endure other greater things. On these occasions it is well to do the following:
(1) Call to mind one or other of the maxims given here.
(2) Keep perfect silence. Do no grumbling, no matter what the trouble is.
Third Practice — During your greater and lengthier misfortunes, offer yourself to God as a victim. To carry this out, you need to do these things:
(1) Start off in the morning submitting perfectly to God's Will and to all that God provides, and confirm this submission during the day.
(2) Every hour offer to God with the pure intention of pleasing Him and with earnest love, the sufferings you are undergoing.
(3) Never grumble about God's arrangements nor about anyone.
(4) As you practise these acts with humble patience and childlike confidence in God, patiently await the time He has appointed to deliver you.
These practices, O my soul, amount to the eminent virtues in which lie the true imitation of Jesus Christ and which open the way to intimate union with God. If you choose to practise them without delay, offer yourself humbly to your Lord and tell Him earnestly:
Resolution — O Jesus! O my dear Jesus! What a scene is presented to me when I see Thee hanging on the Cross! One Who is by nature Joy and Blessedness, is afflicted unto death! One Who is Innocence and Infinite Holiness is condemned to die! One Who is Infinite Majesty, is placed on a cross in company with two notorious criminals! . . . He Who is Immense Love, is hated! . . . And Thou didst suffer all this for me!
For my sake there is that Blood that flows in torrents from Thy Innocent Body! For my sake are all those aches, torments, and insults which Thou suffered . . . I believe all this, O my Jesus.
And yet — alas! oh, the detestable mischief in my heart! — and yet I still fail to love Thee. Ah, I know quite well the tragic cause of this. It all comes from my great self-love, my unwillingness to do any violence to myself, my unwillingness to suffer. When I love myself this way, no room remains in my heart to love Thee.
O my soul, will you forever persist in this condition? Will you not ever die to your selfishness? Will you not, O my soul, resolve to bear your sufferings for your Crucified Lover? O my God, how tragic and shameful my life would be for me if I did not so resolve!
I have deserved to burn in eternal fire; and am unwilling to suffer a small hardship; I have deserved to live in eternal despair down in hell, and I am unwilling to bear a little desolation of spirit. I have deserved to be forever hated by creatures, and I am unwilling to suffer a little contempt.
I have deserved to dwell forever in company with demons and damned souls, and I am unwilling to put up with frailty in my neighbor, even when perhaps he is blameless. How shameful this is of me! At the same time, what ingratitude this is toward Thee, O my Jesus! But may Thou be blessed!
For now, enlightened by Thy Grace, I know the evil of my ways up to now. I call on Heaven to witness my sorrow for my lukewarm past and the resolution I now take to faithfully follow in Thy Footsteps, O my Jesus! Do Thou strengthen me.
Now pray the Our Father and the Hail Mary and the Concluding Prayers as on page xi.
"So let us be confident, let us not be unprepared, let us not be outflanked, let us be wise, vigilant, fighting against those who are trying to tear the faith out of our souls and morality out of our hearts, so that we may remain Catholics, remain united to the Blessed Virgin Mary, remain united to the Roman Catholic Church, remain faithful children of the Church."- Abp. Lefebvre
Posts: 12,955
Threads: 6,814
Joined: Nov 2020
Meditation 28. Conclusion of the Fourth Section on the Illuminative Way, and the Step Preparing for the Unitive Way
Preparatory Prayer as on page x
Composition of Place — Imagine you see Jesus on Calvary, nailed to the Cross, and on Mount Tabor transfigured, and you hear the Eternal Father's Voice saying, ". . . This is My beloved Son in Whom I am well pleased: hear ye Him." (Mt. 17:5).
Prayer of Petition — O my Jesus, I beg to fulfill all that Thou art teaching me by word and example.
First Point
Truths one must keep before oneself — Now, my soul, we have already reached the most important point on which depends your whole welfare in the spiritual life. This point is that one must tread in the footsteps which Jesus Christ left before us, and keeping Him faithful company, patiently bear the desolation and affliction in one's spirit, pain and hardships in one's body, outrages, injuries, ill-will and persecution from whatever source they come. One who has no willingness to walk this road will never find God, and much less will he come to a pure and perfect love for Him — which is the object of these spiritual exercises and for which we must adjust our whole life. Consider the following truths; then, with attentive reflection and determination, resolve once and for all to enter with generous heart on this road with your Crucified Redeemer and to continue on it as long as it pleases Him.
First Truth — The road of suffering is the noblest road that a soul can take. There were two purposes for which the only-begotten Son of God came down from Heaven. The first was to offer His Heavenly Father a sacrifice whereby He would be paid a supreme honor, and which would both be worthy of His Father's Infinite Greatness and serve as a just satisfaction for the sins of the world. In this way Christ fulfilled the role of Redeemer.
The second purpose was to give man an example of that perfect holiness for which one should strive. What was the road Jesus picked to carry out these two purposes? No other than the road of suffering — a suffering that started from the first instant of His Incarnation within His Mother, and did not end until His death. One rightly says, then, that either this is the noblest road, or that Jesus Christ has not given men an example of the most perfect holiness.
Second Truth — The road of suffering is the most profitable one a soul can walk. One cannot explain in a few words the very precious fruits one gains on the road of suffering. I will mention only two. Whenever God wants to admit a soul to union with Him and make it share the sweetness of His holy love, He requires chiefly two things of it. These are perfect purity of heart and perfect possession of the virtues. Now, for gaining these two things, no other way better suited can be found than that of suffering. As for the purity of heart, it appears impossible to doubt that by this road one may obtain it; for as the soul finds on it nothing to satisfy itself but God alone and His Divine good pleasure, little by little it learns detachment from creatures, it learns to disesteem all creatural satisfaction and consolation, and to turn all the affections of the heart to the Supreme Good in Whom alone it can find all that can content one's desires . . .
By this same road one also arrives at perfect possession of the virtues; for as the soul cannot fulfill all its duty in time of suffering without exerting extraordinary and heroic effort, thereby overcoming all the perverse inclinations opposing the virtues, these virtues become more deeply rooted in the heart and gain new luster and perfection. Thus souls which are led along the road of suffering, more quickly reach an intimate union and familiarity with God.
Third Truth — The road of suffering is the most secure one that a soul can walk. There have been persons favored by God with very sublime lights imparted to their minds and lofty consolations given their spirit, who seemed to touch the summit of holiness, and who led a life more angelic than human; but as they were not well enough proved and established in virtue, especially in humility, they became puffed up over their favors, and fell headlong from the heights where they stood, into the depths of total ruin.
One should fear none of this for a soul that travels the road of suffering. It is always profitable, always safe. For on it the most perfect virtue is practised — humility, submission, meekness, charity, resignation to the Divine good pleasure; and with these a solid foundation is laid upon which can then be built the greatest graces and most sublime holiness.
This is the true imitation of Jesus Christ, and the way He has taught us by His doctrine and example; and it never fails.
Second Point
Practices
After you have reflected well on these truths, my soul, learn the practices you must observe along the road of suffering.
First Practice — Using the power of prayer, impress deeply upon your mind certain maxims and truths which can lift up our hearts in time of suffering . . . These, for example, can be:
(1) I can never suffer enough to pay a fair price for gaining God; for though I suffered all imaginable pains for a thousand years, this would be nothing in comparison with that Good.
(2) I can never suffer as much as I deserve for my sins; and no matter how much I suffer, it will never be a hell of suffering, though that is what my guilt deserves.
It is good to meditate on these truths very often and with enough attention for them to be thoroughly familiar to us and so that we may keep them before us on all occasions that come up.
Second Practice — Suffer in silence little day by day troubles, and in this way gather courage and be prepared to endure other greater things. On these occasions it is well to do the following:
(1) Call to mind one or other of the maxims given here.
(2) Keep perfect silence. Do no grumbling, no matter what the trouble is.
Third Practice — During your greater and lengthier misfortunes, offer yourself to God as a victim. To carry this out, you need to do these things:
(1) Start off in the morning submitting perfectly to God's Will and to all that God provides, and confirm this submission during the day.
(2) Every hour offer to God with the pure intention of pleasing Him and with earnest love, the sufferings you are undergoing.
(3) Never grumble about God's arrangements nor about anyone.
(4) As you practise these acts with humble patience and childlike confidence in God, patiently await the time He has appointed to deliver you.
These practices, O my soul, amount to the eminent virtues in which lie the true imitation of Jesus Christ and which open the way to intimate union with God. If you choose to practise them without delay, offer yourself humbly to your Lord and tell Him earnestly:
Resolution — O Jesus! O my dear Jesus! What a scene is presented to me when I see Thee hanging on the Cross! One Who is by nature Joy and Blessedness, is afflicted unto death! One Who is Innocence and Infinite Holiness is condemned to die! One Who is Infinite Majesty, is placed on a cross in company with two notorious criminals! . . . He Who is Immense Love, is hated! . . . And Thou didst suffer all this for me!
For my sake there is that Blood that flows in torrents from Thy Innocent Body! For my sake are all those aches, torments, and insults which Thou suffered . . . I believe all this, O my Jesus.
And yet — alas! oh, the detestable mischief in my heart! — and yet I still fail to love Thee. Ah, I know quite well the tragic cause of this. It all comes from my great self-love, my unwillingness to do any violence to myself, my unwillingness to suffer. When I love myself this way, no room remains in my heart to love Thee.
O my soul, will you forever persist in this condition? Will you not ever die to your selfishness? Will you not, O my soul, resolve to bear your sufferings for your Crucified Lover? O my God, how tragic and shameful my life would be for me if I did not so resolve!
I have deserved to burn in eternal fire; and am unwilling to suffer a small hardship; I have deserved to live in eternal despair down in hell, and I am unwilling to bear a little desolation of spirit. I have deserved to be forever hated by creatures, and I am unwilling to suffer a little contempt.
I have deserved to dwell forever in company with demons and damned souls, and I am unwilling to put up with frailty in my neighbor, even when perhaps he is blameless. How shameful this is of me! At the same time, what ingratitude this is toward Thee, O my Jesus! But may Thou be blessed!
For now, enlightened by Thy Grace, I know the evil of my ways up to now. I call on Heaven to witness my sorrow for my lukewarm past and the resolution I now take to faithfully follow in Thy Footsteps, O my Jesus! Do Thou strengthen me.
Now pray the Our Father and the Hail Mary and the Concluding Prayers as on page xi.
"So let us be confident, let us not be unprepared, let us not be outflanked, let us be wise, vigilant, fighting against those who are trying to tear the faith out of our souls and morality out of our hearts, so that we may remain Catholics, remain united to the Blessed Virgin Mary, remain united to the Roman Catholic Church, remain faithful children of the Church."- Abp. Lefebvre
Posts: 12,955
Threads: 6,814
Joined: Nov 2020
Section V
Meditation 29. The Resurrection of Jesus Christ
Commentary — In order to understand the purpose of this, the fifth section (Meditations 29 through 35), it is well to consider the sequence of these exercises. In the beginning we made our meditation on our Last End, which is to love God perfectly in this life and to enjoy Him hereafter in the next; and we resolved to seek this End at any cost.
To achieve this, we must first weep for our sins, uproot our evil inclinations, and keep our hearts free from stain. This is something one is to accomplish in the meditations of the first and second sections (Meditations 1 through 15).
Then we must imitate Our Lord Jesus Christ and adorn our souls with the virtues which He taught us by His Doctrine and example. This we do with the meditations of the third section (Meditations 16 through 20).
However, as we cannot put this into practice without great difficulty and without dying to self, we set forth in the fourth section (Meditations 21 through 28) the consideration of Our Divine Savior's Passion and Death in order to make the task easier.
After the soul has done all this and reached the stage of completely dying to self, it will then enter into perfect love for God, in which our last end here on earth consists. This perfect love for God will be the matter for the meditations that will be made in this fifth section.
The meditation on Our Lord Jesus Christ's Resurrection will make up the introduction to this, so that, with a reflection on this tremendous benefit, we will make light of earthly things, will have a love for suffering, will strengthen the resolves we have made, and enable ourselves to enter into perfect friendship and communion with God.
Preparatory Prayer as on page x
Composition of Place — Picture to yourself the risen Christ — beautiful, glorious, triumphant — and consider that you hear Saint Paul's voice saying, "We suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified with Him." (Rom. 8:17).
Prayer of Petition — Grant me, O Lord, the joy and gladness of keeping Thee company, and the strength to imitate Thee in the patience with which Thou suffered Thy pains and hardships, so that I will share in Thy Glory.
First Point
As great and horrifying was the bitterness of Christ's Passion, likewise great was the gladness and glory of the victory of His Resurrection. Four principal things that Jesus experienced in His Passion were bitter. They are: terrible bodily pain; extreme affliction in His Soul; unheard of abuse to His Honor; the unbelievable ill will of His enemies. Now we will consider, my soul, the blessings into which these bitter elements turned.
(1) Jesus arose with wonderful bodily beauty. In order to form an idea of this beauty, my soul, consider first that if the glorified body of any one of the saints were to replace the sun in the sky, it would give such light that all the world would be illuminated with a brightness greater beyond comparison than that of the present sun, bright as it is.
Second, consider that if God gathered into one body the combined beauty of all the saints, this beauty would fade away to a pin point beside the beauty of the single Body of Jesus Christ. Yet this is that Body which, three days previously, was the target of cruelty and barbarity, and appeared as the body of a leper, made into one wound.
(2) The Risen Jesus had immense joy in His Soul. To understand this joy, reflect, my soul, that just as the bitter pain which Jesus' Soul experienced in the garden of Gethsemane was such that, were it distributed among all human hearts, it would be enough to cause their death, likewise the joy which He experienced in His Resurrection was such that, if it were parcelled out to everyone in the world, it would be enough to take their lives away, so powerfully delightful would be the sweetness with which these hearts would be flooded. Such was the joy that penetrated the Soul of Christ.
(3) Jesus Christ arose infinitely exalted in dignity. Ah! What a difference now, my soul! Jesus is the Glory of the angels who came down from Heaven to take delight in the Glory of His Resurrection. He is the joy of the ancient Fathers, who all kneel to honor and praise Him as their Redeemer. He is Judge of the living and the dead; and so the saints and the damned alike will reverently adore Him on that day of General Judgment.
He is the crown of those who will reach Heaven. Everyone among them will ceaselessly bless Him for all eternity. Yes, this is the glorious sight that Jesus presents for those who see Him on that day — that Jesus who three days previously was treated like a fool by Herod, ridiculed as a mock king by soldiers, nailed to a cross like a criminal by the Hebrews.
(4) As He rose again, Jesus achieved the happy status of Someone universally loved. I am not speaking of that love with which all the blessed angels burned for Jesus on that day; nor do I speak of the love of the Fathers in limbo, who had access to His most Sacred Heart and took their delight in it. I speak only of the love with which everyone in Heaven was penetrated.
There, for all eternity, there will not be a single moment in which they fail to consider Jesus, nor an instant in which they fail to praise and bless Him; nor will they ever cease to tenderly love Him.
Affective Acts
(1) The joy of the glory of Jesus — Now Thy Suffering has ended, O my Jesus! At last, the day of Thy Glory has dawned and Thy Most Holy Body, now the jewel of all paradise, shines forth more than all heavenly bodies. Thy Soul has been plunged into joy, Thy Most Sacred Heart is a sea of delight. We see Thy Name adored by Heaven and earth. Thou art the joy of all the saints, are fondly desired by all of us pilgrims on earth and by those beholding the glory of Heaven.
I rejoice at Thy Glory and Blessedness and take my delight in it more than if it were my own. I am glad for Thee with all my heart. Let gladness and joy crown Thee forever. It is Thy due to be rewarded with such great glory, Thou Who, with great longsuffering, chose to die for the glory of Thy Eternal Father.
(2) Desire for a similar blessedness — Oh, what happiness would be mine if I should have the fortune some day to also rise again gloriously! Who could ever express my joy at seeing the beauty of Jesus' Face with my own eyes, of hearing His kind voice, of loving Him and being loved by Him, of embracing Him and being embraced, of being forever in His company, and of never being separated from it for all eternity! Oh, what good fortune! It is Thou that shall be the object of all my desires and the goal of all the affections of my heart!
Second Point
Holy considerations and resolutions that should be drawn from this meditation — After having reflected well on Jesus Christ's Resurrection, turn your gaze, O my soul, on yourself and apply yourself to making these considerations:
First Consideration — Just as it is certain that Jesus Christ rose glorious from the grave, it is also certain that one day you will rise glorious if you imitate His example. After Jesus suffered so much in the flesh, it is your place, says the Apostle, to arm yourself with like sentiments, realizing that He Who raised up Jesus Christ will also raise you up with Jesus Christ.
Oh how full of consolation is this doctrine! How well able it is to banish all sadness from the heart! The eyes with which you see on earth, you will open one day to paradise! With those hands of yours you will one day embrace Jesus! With those ears of yours you will one day hear the melodies of the angels! With that mouth you now have you will one day taste the heavenly sweetness! With those feet of yours you will one day walk above the stars!
Second Consideration — As it is certain that by His Cross and Passion Jesus obtained the glory of His Resurrection, it is likewise certain that there is no better way to reach the same glory than by the Cross and by tribulation. This is what the Apostle teaches us also. These are his words: "If we be dead with Him . . . if we suffer, we shall also reign with Him . . ." (2 Tim. 2:11-12).
O my God, what then will I think of my past afflictions and reverses? "O blessed sorrows!" I will say; "O blessed afflictions! which have earned for me such great glory!"
Third Consideration — The more we resemble Jesus in His Sufferings, the more we will be like Him in the glory of His Resurrection. Listen again to the Apostle to the Gentiles when he says, "If we be dead with Him . . . if we suffer, we shall also reign with Him."
Note carefully, my soul, these two words, if . . . also; for they mean that the more one suffers with Jesus on earth, the more he will rejoice with Him in Heaven in the Resurrection; the heavier are the hardships borne in company with Jesus on earth, the more splendid will be the glory one reaches in the Resurrection. (cf. Rom. 8:17).
In view of this truth, in what way, my soul, do our troubles, our humiliations under contempt, our desolations and pains, appear to us? Are they not some of the most loving designs of God, the most effective means for reaching holiness, the most beautiful inheritance of Jesus Christ, the surest pledge of our resurrection and of our eternal and immortal glory?
Yes, it is truly so; for Jesus Christ has taught this to us. And you will afflict yourself and call yourself unfortunate if these things come upon you? Oh, how blind you would be! You should rather raise your hands to Heaven and bless the Divine Mercy if God is so generous with you. If men rose up against you and heaped insult and injury upon you and mistreated you in other more outrageous ways, then know, O my soul, that these are just the means whereby God would fulfill in you His loving designs.
They would be putting in your hands the most beautiful means for your sanctification. They would be the means that would make you like your crucified Lord, would increase your glory in Heaven, and would fashion for you the crown that you would wear forever on your head.
Yes, without the slightest doubt that is what they would be. Jesus Christ teaches us so. And — I have regarded them as loathsome? Alas! O evil self-love! How many beautiful and excellent truths you have hidden from me until now! How far you have pushed me aside and have taken me off the road of holiness, the road that follows Jesus Christ!
Affective Acts
(1) Faith — It is true, Jesus is alive. He has risen from the dead. He has entered into His Glory, and now, in His Body and His Soul He is enjoying a sea of delight. Indeed there can be no doubt, and I believe it, O my Jesus. I believe it because Thou hast told it, Who are the Truth by Thy very nature. Furthermore, I will also live forever if I follow Jesus. I will be victorious over death and will enter into the heavenly Jerusalem, and these eyes of mine will see Jesus my Redeemer.
Yes, I am sure of it and I believe it, O my Jesus; for Thou, Who art the eternal Truth, hast revealed it. Furthermore, I will then receive the reward for all the pains I will have suffered. For a momentary grief I will have eternal blessings. For having borne insult, I will receive an eternal glory. For a brief bit of sorrow, I will gain eternal joy. Indeed there is no doubt, and I believe this because Thou, the Infallible Truth, have declared it. O Holy Faith, what stupendous truths you show me and what consolation you give to my heart!
(2) Repentance — O brilliant light of Faith, how I must reproach myself in what I see! If it is true that God grants a special reward for every mortification, hardship, and pain that we suffer, how many of these rewards have I not forfeited by my impatience and self-love? If it is true that all the humiliations, injuries and insults which we have patiently borne for love of Him, God will reward in the Resurrection with a crown of special glory, how many crowns have I not forfeited by my pride and vanity?
If it is true that for every act of resignation during trials and interior desolations, God will grant a special blessedness, of how many such blessings have I not deprived myself by my faintheartedness and laziness? Yes, I have forfeited all these benefits! And why? Oh! How this loss should fill me with bitterness! What abundant, bitter tears I ought to shed! But console yourself, O my soul, because, knowing how Jesus entered into His Glory, you too can enter with Him by following, and you can repair this loss. Kneeling at Thy feet, O my Jesus, I resolve to do this.
Now pray the Our Father and the Hail Mary and the Concluding Prayers as on page xi.
"So let us be confident, let us not be unprepared, let us not be outflanked, let us be wise, vigilant, fighting against those who are trying to tear the faith out of our souls and morality out of our hearts, so that we may remain Catholics, remain united to the Blessed Virgin Mary, remain united to the Roman Catholic Church, remain faithful children of the Church."- Abp. Lefebvre
Posts: 12,955
Threads: 6,814
Joined: Nov 2020
Meditation 30. On the Love of God
Preparatory Prayer as on page x
Composition of Place — Imagine that you are in God's Presence and that all angels and saints are interceding for you.
Prayer of Petition — My God and Lord, grant me a clear knowledge of the Divine benefits, so that, knowing them and being grateful for them, I may love and serve Thy Divine Majesty in all things.
First Point
God deserves to be loved for the infinite goodness and affection with which He has loved and favored us until now. In order to understand the depths of this goodness and affection, consider their circumstances. Collect your thoughts, my soul, and pay attention as much as you can in order to consider well three things:
(1) God's kindness and affection toward you is eternal — Just as God never had a beginning, but always existed, likewise His kindness and love for you, my soul, had no beginning and is as ancient as God Himself; that is, it is eternal. In Holy Scripture God tells us: "I have loved thee with an everlasting love; therefore have I drawn thee." Jer. 31:3.
Bring to your mind another age of two thousand years ago and tell me, What were you then? You were simply nothing. And what was God doing then? Ah, He was loving you, and with the very love that moved Him then to shed all His Blood for you.
Go back with your mind to a time just before the creation of the world and again tell me, my soul: What was there then? There was absolutely nothing, neither Heaven nor earth nor angels nor men — nothing. And God at that time, what was He doing? He was engaged in loving you. He loved you so much that for love of you He created Heaven and earth — earth, to serve as your dwelling place in this short life; Heaven, so that you might rule in a kingdom there for all eternity in the next life.
Go back further with your thoughts, my soul, and plunge into that beginningless period as far back as you can, and tell me: What was there then? There was nothing but God alone, infinitely glorious and infinitely happy in Himself and all by Himself (Father, Son, and Holy Ghost). And what was He doing during all that immense eternity?
He was — if you do not know — He was occupied in loving you, and there was never a moment in which He was not thinking about you, and in which He was not settled in His choice to die for your sake and in His wish to have you share all His goods, all His riches, all His happiness for ever and ever. Is this not a wonderful, amazing instance of kindness and love?
(2) God's kindness and affection for you is generous — In order to convince you of this truth it is not necessary to list one by one the favors God has granted you. Just the mystery of the Incarnation, which you might bring to mind, would be enough to make this well understood.
Suppose that an official in the service of a prince has by trickery robbed him and taken a large sum of gold which had been entrusted to him. Suppose that the man has been convicted for this and has been condemned to prison, to continue his life in tears and grief until he has paid back all of the theft.
Imagine that a rich, highly respected man, in order to put this unfortunate one at liberty, sells all of his own property and makes full payment to the prince, and then, finding himself extremely poor, he is forced into the unpleasant lot of going to work in a shop in order to earn by the sweat of his brow what is necessary so that he will not die of hunger.
Would this not be a wonderful, amazing example of love? Now do you know, my soul, to whom this illustration refers? Who was the unfortunate prisoner? Who was his merciful rescuer? Think about it, my soul, and consider it attentively . . . Mankind is the prisoner, and the Word, the Son of God, is the rescuer.
(3) God's kindness toward you is patient and constant — Turn your gaze, my soul, into the prison of hell and see a sight that you have never seen! What do you see? You see a numberless throng of condemned souls who burn in the flames of a devouring fire. Then, behold, Jesus comes down from Heaven, and out of the many souls that are suffering He picks just one, and drawing it out of hell He joins it again to its body and gives it a period of time for repentance.
What do you say, my soul, at seeing this? Do you not admit that Jesus' love for that soul is incomprehensible? Perhaps you will remark, "That soul deserved hell just as much as the others. It deserved it even more than a thousand others who were less sinful." Yet all the others remained imprisoned down in hell for all eternity.
Only this one was drawn out; or, what is even greater, just this one has been kept from falling into hell. To this soul alone is the favor done; to this one alone is a period given for repentance. Oh, how great, how special, must be the affection with which Jesus loves this soul!
Now will you, perhaps, have a fear of deceiving yourself, my soul, if you recognize yourself in that chosen soul? And what fear should there be? Is it not certain that thousands of souls who have sinned less than you, are in hell, who have not made bad use of as many aids as you have, who have not treated lightly as many graces as you have treated lightly and have disregarded, who have not grown as hard in lukewarm dispositions as you have, and who have yet been condemned for all eternity, whereas you are still alive, plentifully supplied with all kinds of grace and with Divine favors?
You have been indeed favored, but not with the favoritism some might presume; for Christ admonishes us: "And unto whomsoever much is given, of him much shall be required: and to whom they have committed much, of him they will demand the more." (Lk. 12:48)¹ Should not one say of you what the Jews said when they watched Jesus weep over Lazarus — "See, see how much He loved him?"
Affective Acts
(1) Confession and admiration for the love of God — Everything belonging to Thee, my God — Thy very Being as well as Thy deeds — all deserves our admiring praise. But yet nothing seems to me as much to deserve it as the special love Thou hast for me. Ah, and what is this love? Thou art an Infinite Being Who has had no beginning and will have no end. The history of Thy Life covers no less than an entire eternity into the past; and during that immense time there was never a moment in which I was not the object of Thy love.
Thou loved me with an eternal love. Thou loved me with a love more energetic, more powerful, than can be described. For where has Thy love for me not led Thee? Thou camest down from Heaven to earth and were born a poor Babe in a stable for beasts. Thou didst live a life of hard labor and earned Thy bread by the sweat of Thy brow, and Thou finally finished Thy days fastened to a cross like a criminal. What was it that moved Thee to do all this for me, if it was not love?
Thou hast loved me with a most patient love; and even though I had committed a countless number of sins and had made bad use of limitless means of salvation that Thou had prepared for me, and had treated lightly Thy numberless mercies — yet all these outrages of mine had not the power to extinguish Thy love nor even chill it.
And Thou lovest me even now, and lovest me with the fondness with which Thou hast loved me through all eternity. Oh how wonderful God is! O God of immense love and mercy! How truly dost Thou deserve my love — and deserve that I love Thee with all my powers! And if I could choose to love Thee with an infinite love, Thou would certainly deserve that I do so!
(2) Repentance and love — How ungrateful I have been toward God when I should have loved Him with all my heart! I recognize it. I admit it. O my loyal Lover and my God, my ingratitude is very great and I supremely detest it. I have loved those who have shown me a so-called generosity. I have not loved God, to Whom I am in debt for all that I am and all that I possess.
I have loved those who have done nothing for me, and I have not loved God, Who has gone so far as to die on the Cross for me. Yes, I recognize my ingratitude. I detest it and repent of it. I now have other sentiments and other desires.
Thou hast conquered, O Divine Lover, Thou hast conquered! My heart will no longer be mine. I give it irrevocably to Thee for always and for eternity. I will love Thee from this moment on. I will love Thee alone. And as I have been neglectful in loving Thee in the past, I will love Thee with all the more zeal and devotion in the future.
Second Point
God deserves to be loved because of what He stands ready to do for you in the future out of infinite goodness and love. What is it that God is ready to do for you, my soul? Ah! He would give Himself entirely to you. If you do not understand the greatness of this gift, of this marvel of love, then put to use all your intellectual powers and put what effort you can to the task of looking into the depths of a mystery which is the most comforting of the mysteries of our holy religion.
(1) To possess God is to gain the fulfillment of all our desires — At the moment when the soul separates from the body (at death), a supernatural light, a sudden clear perception, makes the soul recognize that God is the Supreme and Only Good and is its supreme and only real source of happiness and well-being.
Following immediately upon this light, there is such a strong desire to enjoy this Only and Supreme Good, this Only and Supreme Happiness, that being without It causes the greatest pain that damned souls suffer in hell . . .
In fact, to satisfy this powerful desire, God joins the worthy soul closely to Himself, and as He makes it enjoy all the vastness of His Divinity, He causes it to feel in an instant a boundless satisfaction and to remain plunged deep in an ocean of delight.
(2) To possess God is to contemplate God and love Him — There will not be a moment in all eternity in which this soul does not see God and does not discover as it sees Him, the infinite treasures of His Almighty Power, of His Goodness, His Beauty, and His other perfections which charm it with a boundless delight. Throughout all eternity there will not be an instant in which it does not feel continually on fire with new flames of love which raise it to Divine heights of infinite joy.
(3) To possess God is to possess an infinite happiness — The happiness with which you will be blessed in Heaven, my soul, will be the very happiness with which God Himself is blessed. Understand this fact well. You will enjoy the very pleasures, the very sweetness, the very contentment that God enjoys. But to what extent will this be so?
Listen, my soul, to something amazing, which is yet an undeniable truth. Just a faint ray from that eternal happiness would be enough to fully delight all the condemned souls with a joy greater beyond comparison, than all the painful punishments which they now suffer. Just a tiny sample of that boundless bliss would be enough to fill all those who are chosen for salvation, with gladness to an overflowing degree.
Just a little drop from that measureless ocean of joys would be capable of giving an eternal blessedness to all creatures together, even if a greater number were newly created than there are grains of sand on all seashores. In short, these joys are of such a nature and so great that they are enough to satisfy God Himself, Who is capable of experiencing infinite happiness.
(4) To possess God is to be loved by God with an infinite loving kindness — God never looks upon the good soul except as His tenderly beloved child, whom He wants to enrich with all the treasures of His goodness, like a bride in whom He finds all His delight and satisfaction.
There is no tenderness, no loving kindness on earth that can be compared with the tenderness of God's loving kindness. For, as God is an Infinite Power which infinitely surpasses all human powers, it is equally true that He is an Infinite Love which goes infinitely beyond all degrees of human tenderness and kindness. Yes, it is He alone Who can receive a soul into His Heart and give it a drink from the stream of those sweet delights which no creature can give and which the human mind hopes in vain to comprehend.
(5) To possess God means to live as long as God lives and to be happy as long as God is happy — God's Happiness is a happiness that has no end and undergoes no interruption nor does it ever grow less. O my soul, your happiness will possess these same properties.
(1) Your happiness will be without end. As many years will pass as there are grains of sand on all seashores, atoms in the air, drops in all waters of springs, rivers, and oceans. But in all that long time not even half, not even the smallest fraction of this happiness will have passed away, for it will be eternal and without end.
(2) It will be a happiness without interruption; for in each moment you will always find in God new perfections. As God is Infinite Beauty, there will remain in Him an endless expanse to see which you will not yet have seen. As He is Infinite Goodness, always some other benefit will remain which you are yet to gain, and in each instant you will feel yourself burning with new flames of love for Him. As He is Infinite Delightfulness, always some other endless expanse will remain which you will not yet have enjoyed, and every moment you will meet new streams of joy and pleasure.
(3) It will be a bliss that never grows less. You will truly have very ardent desires to taste more of God, and it will be apparent to you that you are not overfed with Him; but you will always have the satisfaction of tasting Him fully and will always enjoy Him with total possession.
Affective Acts
(1) Love — O my Supreme and Only Good, how blind I have been until now! I have not known Thee nor Thy love. Now I know Thee and I know Thy love. What can I do but try to duly respond to a love so wonderful and immense, and return another love which is small indeed, but more sincere than up to now? My God, look at me kneeling to pay Divine Honor to Thee, to offer the sacrifice of my whole heart. It is a sacrifice I owe to Thy boundless Goodness and Love. I love Thee, and I love Thee with all my affections, with all my soul, with all my mind, and with all my strength.
I hate and detest all those affections and inclinations which are not directed to Thee . . . I love Thee alone, my Sovereign Good. Only Thee do I want to love as long as I live; and I will prefer Thy Honor, Thy Will, Thy Good Pleasure, to all creatures, even those that I hold as dearest in the world.
(2) Desire to love God perfectly — But no matter how much I love Thee, no matter how much I do as I have resolved to do, what is such a love of mine in comparison with the love with which Thou hast loved me? It is really nothing. Ah! I wish I could squeeze into my heart all the love which all the saints have for Thee. I would wish, yes, I would wish singly to make the acts of love of all Angelic Spirits, so as to love Thee with their acts of love, O my Sovereign Good and Loyal Lover.
But of what use will these desires of mine be unless Thou, Who art the Supreme Good and thus deserve infinite love, enkindle in my heart a truly perfect flame of love? O God of Love, have pity on me and make me experience Thy Almighty Power today in my favor; for I crave nothing else and desire no more than to love Thee with all my being.
Now pray the Our Father and the Hail Mary and the Concluding Prayers as on page xi.
Footnote
¹ Translator's Note — This very traditional doctrine of inequality of God's mercy and bounty is explained and defended on Scriptural and Patristic authority by Saint Alphonsus de Liguori (Sermoni Compendiati, serm. XV, which is translated on page 123 and following of Sermons of Saint Alphonsus de Liguori, published by Tan Books, Rockford, Ill., 1982).
"So let us be confident, let us not be unprepared, let us not be outflanked, let us be wise, vigilant, fighting against those who are trying to tear the faith out of our souls and morality out of our hearts, so that we may remain Catholics, remain united to the Blessed Virgin Mary, remain united to the Roman Catholic Church, remain faithful children of the Church."- Abp. Lefebvre
Posts: 12,955
Threads: 6,814
Joined: Nov 2020
Meditation 31. On the Lovableness of God in Himself
Preparatory Prayer as on page x
Composition of Place — Picture yourself in God's presence, and all angels and saints praising His Goodness and interceding for you.
Prayer of Petition — My God and my Lord, grant me a clear knowledge, as far as possible, of Thy Infinite Goodness, so that I may love and serve Thee with greater perfection.
"The more perfectly God is known, the more perfectly is He loved." — Saint Thomas Aquinas.
First Point
God deserves to be loved because He is the Supreme Good. Here we have, my soul, the foundation and basis upon which the perfect love for God is built. One rightly loves God because He is the Supreme Good Who, for His own sake, deserves to be loved with infinite love. Now do you understand what it means to be the Supreme Good?
It means that God is a Being which contains infinite perfections and contains and possesses them in Himself, by Himself, in the supreme degree, without being debtor for them to anyone. In order to conceive a faint idea of all this, my soul, merely consider some of these perfections of His.
(1) God is Infinite Beauty — Here it is suitable to use merely illustrations which, because of their greater vividness and expressiveness, will somehow resemble a child's ideas which he uses for considering the circuits of the sun and planets that shine in the sky.
Let this be the first illustration — The Blessed Virgin Mary perceives far more of God's Beauty than all the angels and elect together who are in Heaven. Now suppose God were to elevate Her understanding and enable Her to see as much more of His Beauty as She has perceived up to now; and that, a moment later, He gives Her a new enlightenment and She perceives twice what She had perceived in the earlier moment; and suppose this continued thus for a million years.
Would the Blessed Virgin ever perceive all that there is of God's Beauty? Ah! After the passage of so many years, as much of God's Beauty would yet remain to behold as would be left of water in the ocean after you had withdrawn what your hand would hold.
Let this be the second illustration — The number of angels is almost countless, and each of them is endowed with such rare beauty that no man could fix his gaze on him without fainting from the abundant joy that this sight would cause. Now suppose God created an angel who possessed by himself the beauty of all the other angels combined. Oh, what beauty would he not possess!
Yet this would be infinitely inferior to God's Beauty. Suppose furthermore, that God created at each moment in the course of a thousand years one million angels, each of whom surpassed in beauty all the others combined, as much as the highest Seraphim at present surpasses a man. Suppose that after that thousand years God again extended the arm of His might and drew out of nothing an angel who alone possessed the beauty of all the other angels combined. Could the human mind picture a beauty like that?
Yet all this would be nothing in comparison with God's Beauty and would be infinitely inferior to it. Proceed as much as you will, my soul, with these comparisons, for days, for years, for all eternity, and it will never be possible for you to envision a beauty so excellent, but that God's Beauty infinitely surpasses it.
(2) God is Infinite Power — Here again one needs to use the imagination in order to grasp something of this Divine perfection.
Let this be the first illustration — Suppose the number of men who, from the beginning until Judgment Day, have lived on earth and will live on it, amounts to two hundred thousand million. What a stupendous figure! Some of these men's souls are in Paradise, others are in Purgatory, others are in hell. Their bodies are reduced to dust. Now the final day is approaching and the angel's trumpet sounds in all parts of the universe. What will happen?
In the blinking of an eye, in a single instant those bodies will rise again, the souls will re-enter them, and two hundred thousand million men will again become alive. What a stupendous prodigy! To accomplish this, what will have been necessary? Nothing but these three words from an all-powerful Divinity: "Arise ye dead."
Let this be the second illustration — Suppose God, coming down from Heaven, paused on the bank of the sea, just as He tarried in the countryside of Damascus when He created the first man. Suppose that with His voice of authority He says: Let there be here as many men as there are grains of sand on the seashore.
At this utterance of Almighty Power, would there not appear, then and there, in an instant, as many men as there are grains of sand on the shores? Make, then, as many illustrations as you like. Increase, multiply them as much as anyone may wish. One can never find an example which God's almighty Power will not infinitely surpass.
(3) God is Infinite Goodness — There are three effects, my soul, by which you can know the greatness of God's Goodness.
The first effect is His patience in bearing with sinners. From Heaven God sees countless men who, letting themselves be dragged on by their disordered passions, surrender to all kinds of vice and daily outrage Him as they trample on His Holy Law and profane His Most Holy Name. God sees them continue this kind of life for twenty, thirty, forty years and longer.
In an instant He could rid Himself of them and punish all the wicked things they do against Him. Yet He remains silent as though He did not know of their evil behavior. Rather, He prolongs their lives, and as if they were faithfully serving Him He provides new benefits for them each day and speaks to their hearts, inviting them to His friendship as though He, the Lord, needed them and they did not need His Divine support. Oh what patience! What goodness!
The second effect is His lovable way of receiving sinners. Suppose, my soul, a man who has lived a hundred years continually offending God and who has never in his life done the least penance. If he were in a death agony and only a single moment of life remained, do you believe he could receive pardon from God for so many sins? Ah! Marvellous is the Divine Kindness! Realize that if this wicked man sent to Heaven a single interior act of perfect contrition, God would forgive all the iniquities of his bad life, would forget them forever, and would let him share in His glory. (This does not, of course, exclude some possible time in Purgatory.)
The third effect is the reward of the just. Picture, my soul, a man who, in the whole course of his life, had not done any other good but make with a contrite and humbled heart this single act, namely, "O my God, I love Thee above all things because Thou art the Supreme Good!"
And after this single good act, suppose he were to die and enter into eternity. What reward do you think God would give Him? Nothing less than the full possession of Heaven, the vision and enjoyment of all His Beauty, and both of these for all eternity. So wonderful, so infinitely grand, is God in His rewards.
Affective Acts
(1) Shame — O my God, I know well, and faith teaches me, that Thou art the supreme Good which has infinite perfections and combines them in Thyself to an eminent degree; that Thou art a God worthy of being loved with infinite love. But of what use is it, O my God, that a heart created by Thee only to love Thee and possess Thee, be with all this knowledge and with this faith, if it remains yet so insensible, so indifferent, so cold? I do not feel drawn to intimacy with Thee. Silence and recollection are distasteful to me.
I do not see in myself those effects which true love would be expected to produce in one who possesses it. And what does this mean? Ah! My God, I know my misery, and I must rot in it until the fire of Divine Love is enkindled in my heart. Oh, deliver me forever from my coldness and grant that for once I will begin to love perfectly Thy Divine Goodness and never cease loving it.
(2) Resolution and Repentance — But when will I begin to do this, O my soul? Do you wish to know? You will begin doing it when you die perfectly to yourself and to all creatures. Then your God will use His mercy with you and enkindle your heart with that holy fire . . . if that is so, my God, I hereby wish to strip myself completely of selfishness, to give Thee my whole heart and to love Thee with all my powers. I detest all the thoughts and affections that were directed to creatures exclusively and I repent whatever I have done in my life that has not been done out of love for Thee.
Henceforth Thy supreme good pleasure alone and Thy Love alone will be the object of all my thoughts, the aim of all my desires, the goal of all my undertakings . . . But, O my God, no matter how sincere I might be in this resolve of mine, I can never carry it out unless Thou stoop down to strengthen my weakness with Thy Grace.
Turn, then, Thine Eyes kindly toward me. Remember that Thou hast shed all Thy Precious Blood for this one purpose, namely, that I might love Thee. By that Blood I beg Thee to work in me one of Thy accustomed wonders of mercy, destroying in my heart all that is contrary to love for Thee and enkindling therein so great a flame that it will never go out for all eternity.
Second Point
God deserves to be loved because He is the only God — This is a very important truth, O my soul, and once it is well reflected upon, it has the full power to draw our whole heart to God. It consists in this:
(1) Neither in Heaven nor on earth nor in any other creature is any good to be found, no matter how little, that does not come from God. Look about the whole world: consider all the creatures to be found in it: note the great variety of trees, of fruit, of flowers and other plants, the variety of land animals, of the birds of the air, of the fish in the waters. From earth turn your eyes to Heaven and consider the marvels it displays.
Note the sun, whose brilliance brightens the world. Note the stars which shine in the firmament. Realize how incomprehensibly ample and lovely paradise is, the dwelling-place of those who are saved. From lifeless creatures turn your attention to the rational ones and ponder in man the many qualities that adorn him — his beauty, his wisdom, his love, his gallantry, his friendliness, and the like — natural qualities and supernatural ones.
Consider the angels and all the blessed who see God — their virtues, their merits, their holiness, the various things in which they excel . . . consider the glory wherein they are totally happy. And then, my soul, in entering within yourself, ponder as follows: Before the world was created, where were those noble creatures?
Ah! They were buried in the bosom of their nothingness, and would still be there if God, by His Almighty Power and by the bounty of His infinite goodness, had not drawn them into existence, as faith teaches. If, then, they have being, and have a being so lovely, they have it not from themselves; they have it from God.
(2) Everything that can be called good in creatures, is nothing else than a pure mercy that God has communicated to them — All the beauty of creatures is nothing more than a ray of this Divine sunshine. All their holiness is no more than a drop from the immense sea of God's Holiness. God alone is good, and the good that is found in creatures is only a merciful share of His Infinite Goodness. This is an Article of Faith and one must believe it.
But does our life agree with this Faith? Alas! How poorly we employ the noble affections of our heart! And consider well, my soul, the necessary consequences that follow from these stupendous truths. Penetrate them so well that they will not slip from your memory.
First Consequence — God deserves to be infinitely loved. Our reason teaches this. Everything good deserves love, and an Infinite Good deserves an infinite love. God, being infinitely Good, deserves then, to be infinitely loved.
Second Consequence — If God is an infinitely lovable Good, I, then, do not love Him as much as I ought if I do not love Him as much as I can.
Third Consequence — I, then, do not fulfill the obligation I have of loving Him with all my powers, if I admit into my heart any affection, even a fleeting one, which is not directed to Him; if I do anything that disagrees with His Divine good pleasure; if I only once oppose the designs His Sovereign Majesty has formed concerning me.
Affective Acts
(1) Shame — O God, Who alone are Good and are Supremely Good! I know too well what Thou deserves and what true love ought to be. A soul burning with love for Thee cuts off every attachment and does not tolerate any inclination which does not come from Thee and return to Thee. It does nothing but what is pleasing to Thee and does everything only to fulfill Thy Divine good pleasure.
It suffers all and does not oppose anything which Thou dost arrange concerning it. Wholly surrendering itself to Thee, it rests without fear in the bosom of Thy most loving Providence. Happy indeed is the state of this soul! O holy love, how beautiful, how desirable you are! How much of you is there in my heart?
How many hours can I count of my life during which I have loved in this way? How many deeds have I done, how many troubles have I borne, in the spirit of this love? How poor my condition is! Who will give me fountains of tears to weep day and night over this lack of love? . . .
(2) Love and consecration — But why do I afflict myself? All can still be done, all can be repaired with fervor. Away, then, with faintheartedness! Why can I, too, not do what so many youths, so many tender maidens, have done in the flower of their manhood and maidenhood? "I can do all things," said one of the greatest saints, "not of myself, but by Him Who strengthens me."
I say the same; and with this confidence in Thee, my God, my Strength, my All, I begin to love Thee and surrender myself entirely to Thee. Take, then, O Sovereign Good, my liberty, take my memory, my mind and my will. Whatever I have and possess, all is Thy gift, and I return it all to Thee. I desire and crave nothing else than Thy love. With that alone my desires are satisfied, and with that I am rich enough.
(3) Prayer of Petition — Come, then, Most Holy and Divine Spirit. Thou art Love by Thy Nature and are the Source of that Divine fire which burned in the hearts of the saints. Thou art holiness by Thy Nature and the Source of those effective graces which penetrate human hearts, captivating them to turn to God with all their affections.
Ah! Deign to come to my heart and to purify it of all imperfections and to enkindle it with Thy fire. I am ready to do and to suffer. Dispose of me, then, as Thou dost wish. I will offer no opposition in anything. I only ask Thee for Thy Love, with the purpose that It be the rule of all my conduct.
Now pray the Our Father and the Hail Mary and the Concluding Prayers as on page xi.
"So let us be confident, let us not be unprepared, let us not be outflanked, let us be wise, vigilant, fighting against those who are trying to tear the faith out of our souls and morality out of our hearts, so that we may remain Catholics, remain united to the Blessed Virgin Mary, remain united to the Roman Catholic Church, remain faithful children of the Church."- Abp. Lefebvre
Posts: 12,955
Threads: 6,814
Joined: Nov 2020
Meditation 32. Proper Devotion to the Blessed Virgin
Preparatory Prayer as on page x
Composition of Place — Picture with Jesus, the Blessed Virgin Mary in Her Chaste Virginal Motherhood. You see Her with Jesus in Bethlehem, in Egypt, at Nazareth, at Jerusalem, at the wedding in Cana, at Calvary and in Heaven.
Prayer of Petition — God bless Thee, O Mary! Thou art full of Grace. The Lord is with Thee. Blessed art Thou among all women, and blessed is the Fruit of Thy womb, Jesus! Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen, O Jesus!
First Point
One of the most powerful means which God our Lord has given us to gain and to increase grace and Divine love is, without doubt, devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary. The reason for this is obvious. By Jesus we have everything, and as Mary is His Mother, She obtains everything She wants.
Jesus is, as it were, the reservoir of all Graces, and Mary is the conduit whereby they are brought to us. This precious conduit is always joined to the reservoir; that is, Mary is always with Jesus — in Bethlehem, in Egypt, at Nazareth, at Jerusalem, at the wedding feast in Cana, on Calvary, and in Heaven at Her Son's right hand, Who is King of kings and Lord of lords.
To make sure that devotion to Mary is true, you need to consider three things; namely: Who is this Lady? What blessings are there that She has received and for which we should look to Her? In what does true devotion to Her consist?
Who is the Blessed Virgin Mary? Ah! A difficult question. Only God knows well Who Mary is, says Saint Bernardine. Yet you ought to know that Mary is a great Lady conceived without stain of original sin, full of grace and virtue, Virgin and Mother of God, Queen of Heaven and Earth, and One Who pleads for sinners.
(1) Mary is a great Lady, conceived without stain of original sin — She is a Lady indeed. The very word Mary means lady, and by this name the angel calls Her when he says, "Fear not, Mary, for Thou hast found grace with God." (Lk 1:30)
Thus it seems Her name comes not from a whim of Her parents, but is something decreed by the design of God, as the Holy Trinity, creating Her, imposed the name of Mary with a view of Her being Daughter of the Eternal Father, Mother of the Eternal Son, Spouse of the Holy Spirit, and Queen of all creation.
The dignity of Mother of God is an almost infinite dignity, says Saint Thomas; for this is to be Mother of an Infinite Being, Who is God. This is why, in creating Her, the Lord preserved Her from original sin, adorned Her with all graces possible for a creature to have, enriched Her with virtues and merits, confided to Her the treasury of His mercies and made Her dispenser of them.
(2) Mary is distinguished by God with all privileges and given all prerogatives — She is a Mother without ceasing to be a Virgin, a singular Virgin . . . and, as the Gospel says, the Virgin's name is Mary. She is Queen of Heaven and earth, Queen of Angels, Queen of Patriarchs, Queen of Prophets, Queen of Apostles, Queen of Martyrs, Queen of Bishops and Confessors, Queen of Virgins and of all the saints.
If someone presented to us here below a lady who was queen of all kingdoms and empires in the world, Ah! how she would be admired and honored! Even more you ought to honor the Most Holy Mary, Who is Queen of Heaven and earth. In Heaven, on earth, and in hell, knees are bent at the sweet name of Mary, inasmuch as She is Mother of Jesus; and what is owed to Jesus by nature and merits, the same is given (as much as any holy creature can receive) to Mary Most Holy by grace.
(3) Mary's role is to be a Mother to sinners and to plead for them — The Eternal Word took on flesh, became Man, became our Brother, and, as Brother, He wants us to have the same Father He has and the same Mother. He had already given us the Father. He had already said to us, "When you pray, you will say: Our Father Who art in Heaven." Later He gave us His Mother to be our Mother: "Behold thy Mother." (Jn. 19:27)
Yes, in Bethlehem Mary gave birth to Her firstborn Son, and on Calvary to the second born, which we — all of us Jesus Christ's disciples — are, being represented by the disciple whom Jesus loved. He desires that His own Mother be our immediate advocate — be the One to whom we entrust our wants, and She shall present them to Jesus, Who is the One Who pleads for us before God the Father. Oh, what great confidence we ought to have!
Affective Acts
(1) Thanksgiving — May infinite thanks be given Thee, O Most Blessed Trinity, for having created Blessed Mary without sin, for having honored Her with so many graces and privileges, and for having given Her to be our Mother and advocate. We cannot, my God, give Thee the thanks we owe Thee for this great and wonderful favor, and we beg Thee, O Most Holy Virgin, our Mother and Advocate, to give thanks for us.
(2) Praise and Prayer of Petition — Hail Holy Queen, Mother of Mercy, Our Life, Our Sweetness and Our Hope. To Thee do we cry, poor banished children of Eve. To Thee do we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in this valley of tears. Turn then most gracious Advocate Thine eyes of Mercy towards us and after this our exile, show unto us the Blessed Fruit of Thy womb, Jesus. Oh clement! Oh Loving! Oh sweet Virgin Mary!
Pray for us O Holy Mother of God, that we may be made worthy of the promises of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Second Point
Gratitude is, without doubt, one of the virtues most pleasing to God and to the Most Holy Virgin and most useful for men. We see this truth demonstrated in the Old and New Testaments and by nature itself. When God used to deliver the Hebrews from evils and bestow blessings on them, He would demand a tribute of thanksgiving from them; and so that they would not easily forget, He made them keep the twelve stones which they collected in the Jordan (cf. Josue 4:1-7), and a portion of the manna was preserved within the Ark (cf. Ex. 16:34).
In the New Testament, we see that Jesus Christ showed Himself pleased with the foreigner who, finding himself cured of his leprosy, came to Him to thank Him, and He complained of the nine men who were likewise cured but were not grateful. We see that even in nature animals are grateful to one who does good to them. Trees bear fruit to one who plants them, and soil gives a generous response to the one who cultivates it.
Gratitude is so well appreciated that not only does one see a benefactor rewarding one for it, but we also see him feeling moved to grant new favors. Here we present reasons why we should all be very devoted to Mary:
(1) Be thankful and devoted to Mary for the many and great blessings we have received — Saint Bernard says that God has decreed that whatever we have, be through Mary. Saint Germaine adds that no one is saved except through Mary, Who intercedes for us and obtains for us the merits of Jesus Christ Her Son and our Redeemer and Savior. No one is delivered from evil except by Mary and no one obtains favors except through Mary.
Reflect that the lights and inspirations that you so often receive are benefits that come to you by Mary's intercession. If you have not fallen into mortal sin, or have not committed more and greater faults, this grace is from Mary.
If you have not died in sin and are not presently in hell, this grace is from Mary. If God is preserving your health and your life, if in every instant He is giving you new favors, realize that it is by Mary's intercession. There is no mother so watchful and careful about protecting her children as Mary is to protect those devoted to Her from all evil and misfortune.
(2) O my soul, it is not only the many benefits you have received from Mary that should induce you to be thankful and devoted to Her, but also the many favors you ought to look for and which the Virgin Mary will give you if you are faithfully and honestly devoted to Her. You cannot doubt Her power nor Her kindness nor Her willingness.
As Mother of God She is most powerful, and as your Mother, She wants everything good for you. Therefore rightly and truly, is She the Refuge of Sinners, the Consolation of the Afflicted, the Health of the Sick, the Mother of Mercy and of Divine Grace. She prays for you now and always, and She will especially pray for you at the hour of your death, and on every occasion She will obtain for you and grant you whatever you need.
With a special Providence Jesus Christ arranged that the first one whom He sanctified in the Law of Grace, the first one to whom He gave grace in the new order — namely, John the Baptist — as well as the first miracle He worked, was through the intercession of Mary, His Mother. These things happened when She visited Her cousin Saint Elizabeth, and when They assisted at the marriage feast of Cana where Jesus changed water into wine.
This was in order that the disciples and all men might know the compassionate Heart of Mary and might learn how powerful Her intercession is for gaining all graces for the soul, for the body, for time and for eternity. Let us go, then, with confidence, to our Mother Mary, as to a Throne of Grace, that we may obtain mercy.
Affective Acts
(1) Confidence — You have three reasons, my soul, to rely on the Blessed Virgin Mary: First, She is your Mother. The Creator has strongly instilled in every mother's heart the law of loving one's offspring. Now the greater the needs of her children, so much greater, so much more solicitous, is a mother's love and care for them. This we see by experience in all human mothers, and even among brutes.
Therefore what child of Mary, what devotee of Hers, will not trust in his Mother, Mary, inasmuch as She is such a good Mother and we Her children are so much in need, with needs so pressing, of such surpassing importance; for it is a matter of eternal salvation or damnation.
Second, Mary, even if She were not our Mother, possesses a very good compassionate heart, and merely this would be enough for Her to come to our rescue, just as we see certain good ladies relieving everyone by their kind corporal works of mercy. Third, She has a command from Jesus, a solemn charge He gave Her just before dying on the Cross. Even if She were not our Mother, even if She did not possess a heart so kind, it is enough that She have Jesus' command to be our unfailing rescuer and take care of us as very dear children.
(2) Resolution — My Mother, remember that Thou art my Mother, and make me mindful that I am Thy child. Yes, I will be mindful of this and will call upon Thee. I will run to Thee in all my wants and necessities of body and soul, and I put my hope in Thee to assuredly provide for me in all situations. Amen.
Third Point
True devotion to Blessed Mary is one of the surest signs of predestination. But the devotion must be true; for if it is false, it will serve no purpose. One can compare it with money which, if not genuine, if counterfeit, is worth nothing. To prevent any misunderstanding or deception in an affair of such surpassing importance, you should reflect very carefully to see if your devotion to Mary has all the requirements needed in order for it to be worthy.
Devotion to Mary consists, first, in avoiding all sin — Love either finds or produces a likeness. If you, my soul, love Mary, you ought to make yourself like Mary. She was conceived without sin and never consented to any sin. After your Baptism, in which original sin was removed, in order for you to be like Mary you must have a great horror for personal — or actual — sin; you must never consent to it; and if at any time you have the misfortune — which God forbid — to fall into mortal sin, you must have no rest until you rouse yourself and make a good confession.
You must not do as certain ones do who say they are devotees of Mary, and have settled down in mortal sin. They are not devoted to Mary. They are Her greatest enemies; because, according to Saint Paul, they are crucifying Jesus anew. If they are crucifying Jesus, how can they love Mary His Mother and be Her devoted clients? It is not possible.
True devotion to Mary consists, second, in imitating Her virtues — Saint Bonaventure said, "If we want to have devotion to Mary, let us imitate Her by charity, by modesty, by humility, by purity, by patience, and by love for God."
As a mother desires to have her children dress according to their status, likewise this Mother of ours wants to have Her children dress as She does — clothed in all virtues. And as a mother blushes with shame if her children go about in tattered clothes, dirty, unsightly, and in rags, likewise it shames Mary for Her children to go about soiled with vices, with bad habits and sins.
True devotion to Mary, third, endeavors to pay Her some homage and to receive the Sacraments often — It is impossible to keep free from sin in this life if one does not receive Holy Communion. Jesus Himself assures us of this, saying, "Unless you eat My Flesh and drink My Blood, you will not have life in You."
Where there is no life, even less can there be solid virtue. But if we frequent the Sacraments, then, receiving life from the Bread of the strong, our soul has strength and valor to conquer its enemies; we overcome difficulties, rise above self, perform the most heroic acts and even suffer martyrdom if need be.
True devotion to Mary, fourthly, takes care to perform well, with promptness, cheerfulness and perseverance, one's prayers and other duties belonging to Her service — Linger, my soul, on these words to perform well these duties. If, when one does something for a person of high rank, he is careful to do it well; how much more care should one take in what he does in the service of Mary, Who is so holy and is also Queen of Heaven and earth.
Oh, how blameworthy you would be if you did your works and prayers with lukewarmness, laziness, and with little care! You should also do what belongs to Her service with promptness and as soon as you can. Imitate Abel and Abraham, who promptly offered God what they knew to be the Divine Will and good pleasure.
Do not imitate Cain, whose offering was of bad quality and tardy, and therefore God despised it and counted it worthless. Oh my soul, whatever you offer Mary, let it be the best you have to give, the best you can do, and do it promptly. Imitate Abel and Abraham, and carefully beware of imitating Cain and those bad Christians who offer Her what is of bad quality and who make the offering late and poorly.
They hear Mass but as something to do last; they pray the Rosary and other prayers and devotions, but as something put in last place and late at night, and they are performed badly because, having become drowsy, they do them with displeasure — and finally they neglect them altogether.
These are not children of Mary; they are deserters. Alas for them! Do not imitate them. On the contrary, make use of all the means that prudence dictates to you and experience teaches you to be best suited for making your heart zealous and fervent in devotion to Mary.
Affective Acts
(1) Means and Resolution — I know that the means I must make use of are:
(a) to keep a picture or image of Mary within sight to always remind me of Her. Likewise, I also propose that all that I shall do I will direct to God through Her most holy hands, and whatever gives me pain, I will suffer, remembering Her sorrows and the Passion of Jesus.
(b) Every day I will pray with attention and devotion at least one part (5 decades) of the Rosary without dozing or being distracted.
© I will pray my morning prayers, Noon Angelus and night prayers; also every time the clock strikes the hour, I will pray a Hail Mary.
(d) I will enroll in one or other of Her Confraternities (or a pious society approved by the Church and devoted to Her); I will wear the Scapular; I will go to Confession regularly and to Holy Communion frequently, even every day if possible, and at least once a month; I will read books that treat of devotion to Her and will get other people to read them too, and will exhort them to have devotion to Mary. Finally, I will do for me and for everyone what I know is more to the liking of my holy and sweet Mother, Mary.
(2) O my Mother, the fact that Thou art my Mother is enough for me. As a good mother, I know Thou wilt look after me. Sometimes a natural mother knows what her child needs and has no way to help him. But Thou art well acquainted with what I need, Thou hast a way to help me, and a good heart as well as a charge from Jesus to take care of me. Therefore I have certainty and confidence that Thou wilt take care of me and give me what I need.
Now pray the Our Father and the Hail Mary and the Concluding Prayers as on page xi.
"So let us be confident, let us not be unprepared, let us not be outflanked, let us be wise, vigilant, fighting against those who are trying to tear the faith out of our souls and morality out of our hearts, so that we may remain Catholics, remain united to the Blessed Virgin Mary, remain united to the Roman Catholic Church, remain faithful children of the Church."- Abp. Lefebvre
Posts: 12,955
Threads: 6,814
Joined: Nov 2020
Meditation 33. Love for Neighbor
Preparatory Prayer as on page x
Composition of Place — Imagine you see Jesus Christ in the company of His Apostles and disciples and saying to them: "Love one another as I have loved you . . . By this shall all men know that you are My disciples, if you have love one for another." (John 13:34,35). "As long as you did it to one of these . . . brethren, you did it to Me." (Mt. 25:40).
Prayer of Petition — Grant me, Lord, that spirit of charity whereby I would love my neighbor as myself — more than myself — that I may love him as Thou loved him, even to the extent of Thou giving Thy life for him.
First Point
You should know, my soul, that God is Love itself; God is Charity. This virtue is the greatest of virtues. It is greater than faith and hope. It is like the sun among the stars, like gold among the metals. It gives life to all the virtues. Without it no act has value for reaching Heaven — no, not even the most heroic works.
This Love, or Charity, is like the center from which rays emerge. It is like a vertex from which two lines originate, one of which leads to God and the other to one's neighbor. These two lines and these two Commandments contain whatever the Prophets and the Law have said.
If one truly loves God, that is proof that there is love for neighbor, and the love one has for his neighbor discloses the love one has for God. He who says he loves God and does not love his neighbor, does not tell the truth, because it is impossible to love one whom we do not see, who is God, if we do not love one whom we see, namely, our brother.
Concerning this love, or charity, for your neighbor, my soul, you need to consider unhurriedly three things:
(1) What this charity is — Charity is an all-extensive virtue which embraces everyone; fellow-countrymen and foreigners, friends and enemies. It extends to everyone, embraces all, and does good to all. Therefore people who limit their love to those of their own area or those of their own nation, to those of their own sentiments, or to their friends or relatives, and are not careful to love the rest of men — such people do not have true charity.
(2) What the quality of this virtue is — The Apostle explains charity thus: "Charity is patient, is kind." (1 Cor. 13:4). It rejoices in another's good fortune as though it were one's own. It is resentful toward no one and speaks ill of no one. It does good to all and has sympathy for everyone. As much as is possible, it remedies the needs of all. It achieves and promotes what is good, and with all its power it hinders evil. In a word, charity encourages and cheerfully practices all the works of mercy — corporal and spiritual.
(3) By what spirit are you animated when you love your neighbor? — This is something you ought to examine, inquiring whether it is the love for God that moves you, or whether it is rather self-love. Perhaps you will find that you do not really love your neighbor. Maybe you will discover envy instead of charity, spite in place of love. See whether you grieve at your neighbor's good fortune and are gladdened when he suffers ruin and trouble. "Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks," says Jesus Christ.
Thus if your heart is full of love and charity for your neighbor, you will speak well of him; but if it has been emptied of charity and harbors some evil feeling of envy, spite or ill-will, you will be quick to speak ill of him; and sometimes you will grumble against him, another time criticize, another time ridicule, or exaggerate his faults, or you will downgrade his merits when you do not entirely deny them, or you might attribute them to a bad intention.
The person who is envious or uncharitable is like a spider which draws poison from the same flowers from which bees draw honey. Envious persons who are destitute of charity are like those large flying insects that are ever hunting for someone's sores, and when they come across one, they linger on it with pleasure to suck out the pus.
Thus envious, uncharitable people are recognized by the way they pry about their neighbor's faults and murmur about his failings. Such unhappy persons take pleasure and delight in going over such sordid affairs. You see, my soul, that you must have charity, and thus you will imitate the bee. Fashion a rich honeycomb which will be a great profit to you, an edification to your neighbor, and will serve God's greater glory.
Affective Acts
(1) Resolution — My God, I give Thee my word that I will do all the good I can for my neighbor by offering alms, good counsel, prayers, and good example. And besides, I will meekly and humbly put up with his frailties, his peculiar traits and everything that can annoy me, and never will I grumble about offenses he may do to me. I will forgive him and pray for him, in imitation of Jesus Christ, Thy Son and My Sovereign Master, Whom I want to follow and imitate.
(2) Prayer of Petition — My Jesus, grant me grace that will enable me to practise the virtues that Thou hast vouchsafed to teach me by word and example, and in particular meekness and charity, which Thou hast so strongly recommended to us.
Second Point
The virtue of charity or love that we must have for our neighbor is something very noble and holy — so much so that it deserves to be practised for what it is in itself. But there are some other very powerful motives for it which neither pride nor self-love can resist. How deeply people would be moved if they would reflect upon them!
The trouble is that people do not reflect on them, and therefore we see the world in wretched condition, without charity or love for neighbor, since there is no one who ponders the powerful motives for practising this virtue. We will proceed, then, to meditate on them. They are the following:
(1) Charity is commanded by God — and this is itself an adequate motive — You ought to know, my soul, that after loving God above all things we must love our neighbor as ourselves, even if he be our enemy. Maybe self-love or pride will object, but the ready answer is: God commands it; and if an enemy does not deserve to be loved, God does deserve to be obeyed, and for love of God and out of the obedience we owe Him, we must love our enemies.
(2) The second motive is human nature itself — There is a principle which says: Every living thing loves its own kind. To love is to desire and strive for someone's good. Hence we must strive for the good of one another. We all form one moral and social body, since man by nature is social. Thus, as members of the same body we ought to strive for the good of one another, just as we see is done by members of a physical body.
(3) Being Christians, we are taught by religion that we are all brothers — that we all have a common Father, Who is God, and a common Mother, Who is Blessed Mary, and that the greatest pleasure we can give Them is to love one another like good brothers. We have a common Redeemer and Advocate, Who is Jesus Christ. We are all created for the same end, which is Heaven. We all have the same commandments to keep and the same Sacraments to receive and the same truths that we must believe. We must put our hopes in the same promises and fear the same punishments.
(4) We are disciples of Jesus Christ — Who, by word and example, taught us this very important truth, and has done so with such earnestness and insistence that He went so far as to say that we know whether we are His disciples by whether we love one another as He has loved us; and He adds that whatever we do to our neighbor, He takes it as something done to Himself.
To emphasize the importance of charity, He reveals to us a wonderful truth. He told us that when He shall come to judge us at the end of the world, He will glorify and reward those who have loved and served their neighbor as if they had done this to Him. But as for those who have not loved and helped their neighbor, He will disgrace them and publicly take them to task as though they had refused this love and help to Himself, and finally He will condemn them to eternal fire.
(5) The motive of good order — Even if this love had not been commanded by the Lord, one ought to love one's neighbor because of a need for it. Take a good look, my soul, at what happens in a home or town where there is no love of neighbor or fraternal charity, or where people do not love one another as brothers.
Oh, dear God! What disorder! What confusion! It seems more like a hell than a home or community . . . God withdraws His graces and blessings from it and leaves the people to themselves, and they become playthings of their passions; they do nothing good and are apt to do much evil — turning to rash judgments, suspicions, hatred, grumbling, fights, scandals, and many other great evils.
That is why Saint John says that one who does not love his neighbor as he ought, is dead. God is so fond of this love or charity that He is named Charity, and where charity is, God is, and there is peace and happiness. But where there is no charity, there is no peace nor tranquillity, laws are not kept, Commandments are not observed, obligations are not fulfilled, virtue is not practised, temporal goods are wasted, diseases afflict people, death is hastened, and the soul goes to hell after having suffered greatly in this world.
Affective Acts
(1) Resolution — I know that charity is such a necessary virtue that without it there can be no society. I am quite convinced that I have the strongest reasons to practise this virtue. Therefore, with God's help, I will practise it as much as I can.
(2) Prayer of Petition — Grant me grace, my Jesus, to be charitable to my neighbor, to help him as much as I can. May I never make him suffer from my disorderly or proud ways. May I always speak to him with friendliness and sweetness and never with unpleasant, rude or disparaging words. May I be sympathetic towards his pains and troubles and remedy them as much as I can.
Third Point
Consider, my soul, the means that you must take to suitably practise this virtue of charity or love for your neighbor.
(1) Do not of set purpose dwell on his faults and defects — On the contrary, consider the good with which God has favored him. If you do not see something in him that can move you to highly respect him, consider that he is an image of God, redeemed by the Blood of Jesus Christ and made for Heaven.
Consider that perhaps in Heaven he will have more glory than you, and that even if today he may be evil, perhaps he will become converted, will do penance, will become fervent, and will gain more merit than you will — as happened with Saint Paul, with Saint Mary Magdalene, with the Samaritan woman, and others.
(2) One must distinguish the sin from the sinner — Sin should be abhorred, but the sinner should be loved. When you see someone who has committed a crime, reflect that if you had been placed in the temptation he was in, you might have committed the same sin as he, and that if he were in your position, assisted by the grace with which God assists you, he might be better than you are.
Therefore do not murmur about your neighbor. Fear God. Reflect that the weakness one person has, another can have, and that you will fall into the sin into which your neighbor has fallen if God does not help you in a special way. Moreover, not seldom does it happen that God permits us or our immediate kinsmen to fall into the same fault which we censure in others. Thus we should treat others as we would want to be treated if we had fallen into those faults.
(3) To preserve charity we must also fulfill the obligations called for by our state in life, our office, and our power to do good — It is not seldom that displeasure, quarrels, and abusive remarks come about from failure to meet obligations. In this way we trouble our parents and superiors, our equals complain, and people under us murmur and grumble when we do not fulfill the duties that pertain to us.
(4) We must also respect the interests of other people — One must not take nor desire what belongs to another. A man is more sensitive about the way he is treated as to his pocketbook, than about his blood. It not seldom happens that ties of close kinship are ruptured by a little property dispute. The same should be said about ties of friendship. Oh, how many friendships have been broken by petty property and money matters!
How many associations began in the name of God, and due to a sordid concern over temporalities, ended in the name of the devil, who engineered a thousand lawsuits wherein charity was abandoned, peace was forfeited, and even the wealth of the persons concerned was lost.
Therefore Jesus Christ tells us in His holy Gospel not to put up resistance to the injury. If someone wants to sue us and take our tunic, we are to let him take our cloak as well. If someone strikes us on our right cheek, we are to turn to him the other. Let all be lost rather than charity . . . Let us leave everything in God's hands, Who is well able to give us more than we give up and is just in seeing that our honor is restored. Let us not desire revenge. On the contrary, all who do us harm we should commend to God in imitation of Jesus.
(5) To preserve charity, not only must we respect other people's temporal interests and their persons, but also their honor — treating everyone with politeness and thoughtfulness, not offending anyone by rudeness, inappropriate speech, nicknames, and ridicule; for such behavior is not only against charity, but discloses a spirit that is cheap, ill-bred, and unworthy of human society.
Affective Acts
(1) Prayer of Petition — Grant me, my God, that patient charity which nothing changes, that accommodating charity that does good to all, that universal charity that makes no one an exception to it.
(2) Resolution — I will never be angry with my neighbors. If I might sometimes feel anger, I will be silent until the trouble passes. I will never speak ill of anyone. I will not listen to those who speak ill of their neighbor. I will do what good I can to all, with the help of our Lord and the protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Now pray the Our Father and the Hail Mary and the Concluding Prayers as on page xi.
"So let us be confident, let us not be unprepared, let us not be outflanked, let us be wise, vigilant, fighting against those who are trying to tear the faith out of our souls and morality out of our hearts, so that we may remain Catholics, remain united to the Blessed Virgin Mary, remain united to the Roman Catholic Church, remain faithful children of the Church."- Abp. Lefebvre
Posts: 12,955
Threads: 6,814
Joined: Nov 2020
Meditation 34. The Blessed Sacrament
Preparatory Prayer as on page x
Composition of Place — Imagine you see Our Lord Jesus Christ at the Cenacle with His beloved Apostles, that you are with them, that Our Lord washes everyone's feet, yours as well as theirs, and that He gives you Holy Communion.
Prayer of Petition — Ah, my Jesus! . . . That Thou would wash my feet! . . . that Thou would want it so! . . . Thy most holy Will be done. As Thou dost wish to wash me . . . do so, and I shall be whiter than snow.
First Point
Consider, first, that a gift is valuable and precious according to how great it is in itself, how great the giver's love is, and how useful and profitable it is for us. These three qualities are found together in a supreme degree in the priceless gift that the Lord gave us of His Body and Blood in the Most Blessed Sacrament.
The grandeur of the gift could not rank any higher; for it was like a seal of all blessings and is the greatest among blessings — bringing the things that are contained within Christ to each of the Faithful, namely, all of Christ's goods and treasures — His Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity, with all His merits, graces and virtues.
This gift is made with a resourcefulness so wonderful that for all eternity a prodigy so astonishing would never have occurred to the mind of the most enlightened Seraphim. And it comes with such lavish affection that, though God is infinitely wise, good and powerful, He cannot give us in this life a boon and a treasure that is worth more.
Affective Acts
(1) Thanksgiving — I give Thee thanks, my loving Lord and God, for Thy infinite generosity toward this lowly creature — myself. Thou dost shame me at the same time for my having been so stingy toward Thee up to now. But with sorrow and repentance I humbly beg that Thou add to this Sovereign Gift, the favor of granting me a new spirit and heart so that henceforth I may rightly value this Thy Gift and respond with total love and faithfulness to Something so precious and so priceless.
(2) Prayer of Petition — O Virgin Mary, when Thou heard from the angel that Thou wert destined for the great dignity of Mother of God, You were humbly baffled. How will my soul react on hearing and knowing that Jesus Christ, Son of Thy chaste flesh, Who is in the Most Holy Sacrament, wants to come into my poor heart. Obtain for me, O my Mother, a heart meek and humble like Thine, that I may be able to welcome Jesus in it, Who greatly delights in dwelling in hearts that are well disposed. Help me, assist me, and be present with me, my Mother.
Second Point
Consider, second, the greatness of the giver's love. Here is where properly is found the excellence of the favor; for Jesus was moved by a most ardent love — and this is to be valued most highly. The warmest flame of love one can conceive of burned in His breast the night on which He instituted for our good this Divine Sacrament.
At the same hour in which men were plotting His arrest and His infamous and cruel death, the Lord, knowing all this, celebrated this solemn occasion much as an eager bridegroom celebrates a wedding. Our Lord's celebration was to provide that He remain with men until the end of the world.
He gave Himself in the manner of a banquet, and took the appearance of bread and wine, in order to be our food and drink and to unite Himself with us spiritually and bodily in such close union, that just as no skill can separate food once it is changed into the body's substance, so no skill nor power nor anything else can separate us from Him.
But there is something else in which He revealed the fine quality of His Charity. He knowing all the injuries, irreverences and sacrileges that were to be done to Him in the Consecrated Host by infidels, heretics and bad Christians as long as the world would last, He went ahead with His whole design and did not hold back this favor to us. Through this gift He feeds us with His Own Flesh and becomes closely united to our souls and makes us truly blessed, in order to satisfy the desires of His loving Heart.
Who would have ever imagined something so wonderful, if Faith did not give us the certain assurance?
Affective Acts
(1) Self-accusation — And how is it, O my soul, that you react to this great favor with such coolness, or rather such ingratitude and lack of faith? How is it that, though you have often had this Divine fire within your breast, no heavenly flame is now burning in it?
Recognize your unhappy condition, bitterly deplore it, lift up your heart with repeated Acts of Contrition, of Faith, of Hope and of Charity, and ask the loving Jesus to kindly visit you again with His presence, so that, united to Him intimately in Holy Communion, you will persevere until death in His friendship and grace and hereafter enjoy Him and bless Him forever in Heaven.
(2) Resolution — I see, Lord, that love is strong as death. Love obliged us to suffer everything, to bear everything. I resolve to surrender entirely to Thee. It will no longer be I who live, but Thou will live in me. I will be dead to the world and to myself. Praised be Jesus Christ!
Third Point
Finally let us consider, my soul, the benefits and advantages that this Divine Bread offers us. It is called, among other things, Communion, because in It the Lord communicates, or distributes, to each of the Faithful who receive Him in the 'State of Grace', the treasure of His virtues, gifts and merits that He earned by His holy life, passion and death.
At the same time He reveals with a fine tenderness not only the love with which He gave His Life for all, but the prompt and generous will whereby He would die again for the same cause if it were needed. As if to save us were a small thing to have offered once His Sacred Body on the altar of the Cross, He wonderfully multiplies His Body numberless times each day on altars by the ministry of priests for the same end.
Not satisfied with bringing us the gifts of His grace by the other Sacraments and other channels of His bounty and mercy, He comes in Person. And with His own hand in this Sacrament He is lavish with His heavenly riches, enlightening our minds, enkindling our wills, reducing the heat of our passions, reforming our feelings and depositing in us, even in our flesh, the seed of immortality, so that we may rise again one day to live eternally.
Affective Acts
(1) Admiration — O my God, in this sum of all marvels how wonderfully Thou hast shown us proof of Thy tender love with the sure pledge of eternal happiness! And I — how ungrateful and petty I appear toward One Who does not grow weary of being my most liberal benefactor! What small fruit I have obtained from the frequent sharing of this Source of all good things!
And what fruit — may I ask — if each time I am worse, each time more lacking in devotion, more vain, more impatient, more selfish, more anxious about pleasures of the world? I confess it with great shame, out of respect for Thy Divine honor. Ah! My ingratitude, my perversity, my hard-heartedness have gone far enough.
Help me with Thy powerful grace. Let Thy love triumph! O Jesus, Who already works so many miracles in this great Sacrament in order to become food for my soul, enkindle today within my breast, O Lord, the fire of Thy charity, so that my soul will always live in Thy grace and hereafter enjoy Thee in glory and praise Thee for all eternity. Amen.
(2) Prayer to Mary Most Holy — O my Mother, obtain for me the wine of divine love which I lack. Say to Thy Son Who is in the Most Holy Sacrament: "My Son, this poor soul has no wine." I am sure that then Thou wilt obtain it. Obtain also for me the faith of Saint Peter, the love of Saint John, the zeal of Saint James, and the devotedness of the other Apostles. Adorn me, my Mother, with those virtues which Thou knowest I need in order to approach the Most Holy Sacrament in the best possible way.
Soul of Christ, sanctify me.
Body of Christ, save me.
Blood of Christ, inebriate me.
Water from the side of Christ, wash me.
Passion of Christ, strengthen me.
O Good Jesus, hear me.
Within Thy wounds, hide me.
Suffer me not to be separated from Thee.
From the malignant enemy defend me.
At the hour of my death, call me
and bid me to come to Thee,
that with Thy saints I may praise Thee forever and ever. Amen.
Now pray the Our Father and the Hail Mary and the Concluding Prayers as on page xi.
Meditation 35. On Perseverance
Preparatory Prayer as on page x
Composition of Place — Imagine that you see Christ and that He tells you: Remember what you have received and learned in this retreat, and observe it all faithfully. — "Behold, I come quickly: hold fast: that which thou hast, that no man take thy crown." (Apoc. 3:11).
Prayer of Petition — My Lord and my God, grant me grace to perfectly fulfill the resolves I have made, and grant that I may persevere in them to the end of my life. Amen.
First Point
How fortunate you are, O my soul! Now you can truly be called happy. You have sought the Lord during these days of retreat and have found Him. He Who loves you has admitted you into His house, and opening the arms of His mercy, He has given you a place in the midst of His Heart.
He wants you to repay Him for this great love and the signs of affection which He has shown you, by opening to Him your heart and clinging to Him so firmly that you would never let Him go. You would do Him the most outrageous wrong if you would not accept this grace of a fond and favored familiarity with Him.
Then you would deserve that terrible woe of the Prophet Isaias — the woe against "apostate children;" "Woe to you, apostate children, saith the Lord, that you would take counsel, and not of Me: and would begin a web, and not by My spirit . . ." (Is. 30:1).
Woe to him who does not persevere with the Lord! Woe to him who quits His service! Alas for the ingratitude! Oh, what malice! Be astonished, ye Heavens! After God, in His overflowing love, has forgiven a sinner and has restored him to His grace, if the sinner is bold enough to gravely offend Him, he insolently declares to God, if not in words, at least by his actions: "I know not Thy favors. I am dissatisfied with Thy love. I am weary of serving Thee and so do not choose to serve Thee for the future. Satan will be my master. I put myself in his care and I am his slave. Down with Jesus! Long live satan!"
Do you not tremble, my soul, on hearing this language? Are you not filled with horror? Is it possible that you have no conscience about this deep in your heart? Where can we match an ingratitude so black, a treachery so unheard of, and a pride so mad? O Good God! It is not strange that those who know Thee not, run in the ways of wickedness.
Nor is it strange that they who have not experienced the pleasing taste of Thy sweetness would pursue the charms of their unbridled appetites, and that they who have not seen for themselves how sweet, how desirable is the yoke of Thy service, would serve Thy enemy. But that they who have known Thee, would leave Thee! That one who has experienced Thy lovable presence in his soul through grace, would offend Thee! That anyone would sin who has tasted the delightful fare of a good conscience and the enduring treat of peace of soul! How monstrous! What a profanation! What an insult to Thee, O Lord of Majesty!
An insult? Indeed, it is an insult to tell Thee plainly that sin is preferable to Thy grace, that it is more worthwhile to serve satan than Thee. That is what sinners do when they sin. They shut their eyes to Thy light in order to bury themselves in a pit of darkness. Alas for them!
In this very folly they have punishment. They have not wanted to see, and have remained blind. They have withdrawn from the source of All Good and have plunged into the sea of all evil. They have hated life and have fallen into the darkness of death. "If the just man turn himself away from his justice . . . Shall he live? No, he shall not live." (Ezech. 18:24).
While the tree stays planted beside the running stream of water, it will keep its greenness and vigor and in season it will bear fruit in abundance. But if it is uprooted and removed from the spot, it will promptly start withering, will shed its leaves, will bear no fruit, will dry up, and will only be good for firewood.
The same thing happens to a just man who does not persevere. As long as he sits by the streams of Divine grace, he is rich in virtue and merit for eternal life. But as soon as he removed himself by sin from that fertile soil, he serves no purpose but to consume himself in vice and in the end to enter the eternal fire.
Do you understand this, my soul? If you want to be saved, you must persevere in the good way you have begun. You must do this at all costs; for it is not beginnings that count so much as the end. Saint Paul began badly and ended well. Judas began well and ended badly. Paul is blessed and one of the greatest saints in paradise. Do you wish to be Judas or Paul?
The reward is offered to those who begin, but, as Saint Bernard says, is given only to those who persevere. The crown of glory is hanging over your head. To come to wear it, you must persevere, for perseverance alone will be crowned, as Saint Bonaventure rightly declares: Persevere, and it will be given to you. Jesus Christ Himself has pledged His word for it.
Read chapter 24 of Saint Matthew's Gospel and you will see that these words have come from His Divine Mouth: "He that shall persevere to the end, he shall be saved." (verse 13). Be not deceived, my soul. The desire for salvation and an ineffective inclination to fulfill the means of salvation, are not enough. An effective will is necessary — one which goes ahead to perform the deeds needed for salvation.
Heaven and hell are full of men with desires, but with this difference: Those in hell stayed at a standstill with their desires, and those in Heaven put their hands to the task. The former were damned, and the latter were saved. You, too, should desire, proceed to the performance, and persevere, and you will be saved.
Here is where everything worthwhile for us lies. Therefore one must be whole-hearted, generous, and constant, without becoming frightened, no matter what the effort, the difficulty or the cost. The cost? Certainly it costs something. We should not hide the fact; for it has been written, "The Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence, and the violent bear it away." (Mt. 11:12)
One must put down all evil cravings, conquer a rebellious flesh, subject a wayward will, be humble before God's Almighty Will, and submit to all of God's designs without giving any hearing to self-love or other enemies. Ah, this is the way, but a rough way, my soul.
One must keep following it, going ahead without turning back, without weakening. — As for you, what will you do, my soul? Will you perhaps turn back? Ah, no. You have generously left a world which, like another wicked Pentapolis (Wisd. 10:6; Gen. 19:25), is burning in the flames of every vice. See that you are not like Lot's foolish wife, who turned her eyes back, and after changing into a statue of salt, was left on the road. (Gen. 19:26).
Saint Augustine tells you, my soul, to consider well this salt. Keep yourself from a great misfortune. Salt is a sign of prudence. Know to be prudent and take a warning from another's experience. Through God's Providence you have put your hand to the plough.
Continue to work out your eternal happiness, without becoming frightened at difficulties, and trusting that the Lord, Who inspired your generous thoughts, will give you the strength necessary to carry on to the end. If you do this, you will not be among the number of those fools who "began in the spirit" and ended "by the flesh" — using Saint Paul's blunt language to the faithful of Galatia (Gal. 3:3).
Be mindful that people guilty of this folly are not few. "The number of fools is infinite," says the wise man (Ecclesiastes 1:15); and Saint Jerome and Saint Augustine add that they who begin are many, but they who persevere are few. Will you not be generous enough to be numbered among the few? Surely you have resolved to stand with Our Lord, and I trust you will persevere.
Affective Acts
(1) Confidence — My Lord and Father, I know the dangers and I am convinced of my weakness; but I hope in Thy Goodness, that from everything Thou wilt safely deliver me. Thou wilt not forsake me, my Father.
(2) Prayer of Petition — Most Holy Virgin, my Mother, pray to God for me now and always, so that I will persevere until death. Amen.
Second Point
But it is necessary, my soul, that you get ready for temptation, for you must walk a road that is narrow and rough, and where cruel enemies are on either side. The world, the devil and the flesh are hiding in ambush on both sides of the road to Heaven, which you are travelling. They have observed and learned your aims. They are preparing surprise attacks on you and will attack you at the first opportunity.
Oh, the scandals, the snares, the flatteries, the charms, which the world, even now, keeps preparing, to captivate your heart! And beware, for it is so skillful at this that it now reckons its victory to be a sure thing. But, ah! if the world fails in this ambush, what a shower of jeers, unkind jests, misrepresentations, cruel persecutions, it will cause to fall on you! You will be dragged before tribunals of criticism where you will be judged without a hearing and condemned without compassion.
On streets men will point you out with a finger. In gatherings and gossiping circles your honor will be torn to shreds. Perhaps you will be booed. You will be the butt of tales and the topic of amusement for worldlings. As for you, what will you do? Will you quit on this account? Will you know how to laugh in return at the world and resist its attacks?
But when you do this, are you unaware that the devil will spur on the worldlings and supply them with schemes to overcome you, and if he cannot, he will make them cruel toward you? He will use your father, your brother, your friends perhaps, as his most powerful instruments. He will rage by the mouth of all and will avail himself of everyone to devour you.
Oh, what heroic manliness, what constancy, you will need! And where will you get this? Do you not see how weak you are and how feeble your flesh is? This is the flank where the devil will doubtless attack and where he thinks you will surrender. Your good will shows itself, and it will do so quickly for "the spirit is willing" (Mt. 26:41).
But where will you get enough strength to be able to resist and conquer? Where? Listen: Be circumspect, be ever watchful and pray without ceasing, as Jesus Christ tells you in His Gospel (Lk. 21:36); because what is impossible for you, is very easy for God. If God is with you, what can all your foes do against you? But do not grow slack on your part.
Do what you can and in this way you will oblige the Lord to help you. Does the world hate you? Does it want to involve you in its ruin? You too should hate it and shun its supporters, who are the salt of Babylon, so that they will not envelop you in their darkness. Is the devil not roaring furiously, going about in search of a chance to devour you?
Live in perfect sobriety and continued watchfulness, as the Apostle Saint Peter tells you (1 Pt. 5:8 ff.), and, armed with the shield of faith resist him with firmness, for it is certain that the devil is very courageous against the faint-hearted, but with courageous and generous souls he is faint-heartedness itself. Does the flesh seek to overpower the spirit?
Strengthen the spirit, crucify your flesh and its concupiscences by mortification and penance, and you will subject it. In this way you will be fighting as God commands you to fight; and you will win, and will receive the immortal crown. "Be thou faithful until death: and I will give thee the crown of life" (Apoc. 2:10), says the Lord.
But, alas for me! Saint Augustine declares that when they are guilty of a careless look, lofty cedars of Lebanon fall, of whom one would not have feared this any more than of an Ambrose and Jerome! Persons have fallen who were as mighty as Samson, as just as David, as wise as Solomon, as determined as Peter to die with Christ.
And we who are weak, ignorant, faint-hearted, will we be over-confident? "Your strength shall be as the ashes of tow" (Is. 1:31), God tells you by the Prophet. Should we despair, then? Oh, no! Then where will our weakness lean for support? On Thee, Lord. I put my hope in Thee to deliver me from my enemies (cf. Ps. 7:2).
Prayer — May Holy Mary and all the saints intercede for us to the Lord, that we may be worthy to receive help and salvation from Him Who lives and reigns forever and ever. Amen. (Oration at Prime).
Third Point
Listen, my soul. Saint Paul defies tribulations, distress, danger, persecution, the sword, and has no fear of being overcome. "Who . . . shall separate us," he boldly exclaims, "who shall separate us from the Love of Christ?" (Rom. 8:35). No one. Why? Because, as this Apostle assures us, while he was by himself frail and weak, he could do all things in the Lord Who strengthened him.
Trusting not in himself, he fully leaned on the Lord. He had been told that the grace of Jesus Christ was sufficient for him to fight the good fight, to finish his course, to keep the Faith, and to earn for himself the crown of justice which the Lord was reserving for him. Crown of justice? Is it not through grace he was able to acquire it? Yes, my soul.
Take note of this: God wanted Paul's cooperation, and Paul added to grace his cooperation; that is, with the help of grace he performed the work which God had commanded him, and for the performance of which God had promised an unfading crown of glory as a reward. Thus, by the merits of Jesus Christ he won the crown, and in justice the crown was awarded to him.
This is what we, too, must do: Have trust, and apply ourselves using all means conducive to obtaining final perseverance — something hard and necessary, yet possible. Very many, millions of saints have gained it. Can we gain it also if we use the same means? And what are these means? Learn the answer in the five following maxims, which are the principles which you should observe and conscientiously keep:
(1) Death rather than sin — this was the principle which gave Susanna courage to resist the two elders (cf. Dan. 13:23), gave chaste Joseph courage to despise the advances of his master's wife (cf. Gen. 39), gave the aged Eleazar courage to be worthy of his grey hairs (cf. 2 Mach. 6). With this principle the seven young Machabees became mighty and their tender mother became a heroine (cf. 2 Mach. 7).
These good people resigned themselves, suffered as they struggled against tremendous torments, until they conquered and by dying gained the crown of victory. Let us lose a short, wretched life, they said to themselves, and gain for ourselves another life which is eternal and full of blessing.
This was the language of the Holy Martyrs, who, acting by those sentiments, succeeded in gaining the palm of glory in wearing the white garments which they had washed in their blood and the Blood of the unspotted Lamb, Who became Chief of Martyrs and blotted out our sins and purchased life for us by surrendering to death, without counting the distress. He expected to suffer.
Oh my God, death rather than sin was the determined sentiment of all the saints, it is the resolution of all the just, and if it has not been mine up to now, it is now and will be until my death. This I promise and with Thy grace I will fulfill it. Neither pleasure nor delights nor pain nor death itself is to separate me from Thee. Alas! I am nothing more than weakness itself! But I put my trust in Thee, my Lord.
(2) Flee all occasions of sin — This is the second principle for persevering. He who loves danger will fall into it and will perish, says the Lord (Ecclus. 3:27). Therefore I will no longer love danger, nor hunt for the occasion; rather, I will flee from it. The slippery places where I have fallen will not harm me any more, because I will avoid them.
The Lord admonishes me to watch and pray, so that I will not fall into temptation, and I will watch and pray (Mt. 26:41). But how should I do this so that I pray with fruit? Let it be in the Name of Jesus and by His merits — so the Savior Himself tells us; and let it be by the Blessed Virgin's intercession — so all the saints cry out. Here you have the remedy, my soul.
(3) Prayer and devotion to the Blessed Virgin — Oh, who knows how to be truly devoted to Mary and to pray to Her without ceasing? Who knows how to win the heart of this great Mother of Mercy, this powerful Advocate for sinners? Do you want to win Her Heart, O my soul? It is a very easy matter: Have a horror for sin, consecrate yourself to Her service, practise all the devotions you can, not so that you can get by with your sins, but so that thereby you amend your ways; and above all manage to form in yourself, in Her honor, a living copy of Her virtues.
Ah! Never has anyone doing this been lost, nor will such a person ever be lost. Within that tower of refuge, what can the enemies do against you? Sheltered by that shield, what arrows of theirs can wound you? Mary will be a sure guide for you to walk without a stumble on the difficult road of your salvation, and a gateway ever open for entering the heavenly Jerusalem.
Follow Her steps and you will not go astray. Give Her your hand and you cannot fall. Now those truly devoted to Mary go to Confession and Holy Communion often. This presents the fourth principle for perseverance, which I am going to set forth.
(4) Frequent Confession and Holy Communion — Tell me, my soul, would your body live long without food? To enable it to live, do you think it would be enough if it took food one, two, or three times a year? And even if it were possible for it to live that way, would it be very strong and healthy? And will you try to have your soul live the life of grace without frequently taking the Divine and supersubstantial Bread of the Eucharist? Do you imagine that is less necessary than material bread is for the body? No. You foolishly deceive yourself. Do not seek miracles without necessity.
As God has given you material bread to nourish your body, He has likewise given you the Eucharistic Bread to maintain and increase the spiritual life of your soul. Therefore, receive Holy Communion often, as the saints counsel you and your spiritual needs indicate; and you will live forever. "He that eateth this bread shall live for ever," says the Lord (Jn. 6:59). But you must eat it with the right disposition; otherwise this very healthful and Divine Food will become a poison to you.
Therefore take good care to cure your spiritual ailments with a healthful repentance and bathe yourself often in the heavenly bath of a good Confession, so that your life may be pleasing to the eyes of the heavenly Bridegroom of souls. Oh, if you do this, how lovable you will be to Jesus Christ! What a fondness He will have for you and you for Him! Then you can truly say: My Beloved is everything to me, and I to Him (Cant. 2:16). Then the good Jesus will let you know Him, He will become always present to you, and you will never fail to see things with lively faith; and perhaps you may come to have the light of contemplation.
(5) The presence of God — Consider that God sees you. In whatever place you are, whether in your house or in your yard, whether in a church or on the street, whether in a public place or in a deep cave, God is always watching you.
And would you dare offend Him before His very Eyes? Does God not happen to be your Bridegroom, your Father, your Lord, your Judge as well as your God? And what bride, what son, what slave, what defendant, what creature would boldly venture so far? Consider, my soul, all God's claims on you — His claim to your loyalty, your piety, your respect, your fear, your gratitude and your love — all, all these cry out to you and plead that you sin no more.
Have you not gained a bit of light during these days of retreat? Have you not meditated, reflected, resolved? Have you not written down resolutions in your heart? Ah! Inscribe them now in your memory, or, if you wish, write them also on paper so that you may read them every day, or at least every month, so that you will never forget them and so that you will practise them faithfully, aiding yourself in this by the five very important principles which you have just seen. Oh, how useful, how necessary they are for you! Always remember them, keep them ever in view, count them off by the five fingers of your right hand, and you will never sin.
Prayer of Petition — O my God, God of my heart! Come to my assistance. By the merits of Jesus Christ, Thy Son and my Loving Redeemer, I ask of Thee final perseverance in Thy Grace, and I ask that I die in Thy Love. O my Sweet Jesus! Do not permit all that Thou hast done to save me, to be fruitless in me.
By Thy weariness and sweat, by the humiliations and ill treatment Thou didst suffer, by the Precious Blood Thou didst shed, by Thy dereliction, Thy Agony and death, do not allow me again to plunge to my ruin. I love Thee, my Jesus, above all things, and I hope to be bound to Thee forever with new ties of love. O my Beloved, shackle me ever more and more with Thy chains.
I want to live always loving Thee. May I breathe my last breath for love of You, O Mary. You are called the Mother of Fair Love and are the Dispenser of the great gift of final perseverance. I beg that gift from You, and I hope for it from You; I am certain that I shall not be left eternally disappointed and confounded.
Now pray the Our Father and the Hail Mary and the Concluding Prayers as on page xi.
"So let us be confident, let us not be unprepared, let us not be outflanked, let us be wise, vigilant, fighting against those who are trying to tear the faith out of our souls and morality out of our hearts, so that we may remain Catholics, remain united to the Blessed Virgin Mary, remain united to the Roman Catholic Church, remain faithful children of the Church."- Abp. Lefebvre
|
