Morning Meditation: THEY FOUND THE CHILD WITH MARY, HIS MOTHER
They found the child with Mary, his mother. — (Matt. ii., 11). The kings find a poor Maiden, and her poor Infant wrapped in poor swaddling-clothes, and not one to attend on Him or assist Him. They adore, they acknowledge Him for their God, and, kissing His feet, they offer Him their gifts of Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh. Let us adore our little King, and offer Him all our hearts.
Meditation I:
The Son of God is born humble and poor in a stable. There indeed the Angels of Heaven acknowledge Him, singing: Glory to God in the highest — (Luke ii., 14); but men on earth, for whose salvation Jesus is born, leave Him neglected: only a few shepherds come and acknowledge Him, and confess Him to be their Saviour. But our loving Redeemer desires from the very beginning to communicate to us the grace of Redemption, and therefore He begins to make Himself known even to the Gentiles, who neither knew Him nor looked for His coming. For this purpose He sends the star to give notice to the holy Magi, enlightening them at the same time with interior light, in order that they may come to acknowledge and adore their Redeemer. This was the first and sovereign grace bestowed upon us; our call to the true Faith.
O Savior of the world, what would have happened [to] us if Thou hadst not come to enlighten us? We should be like our forefathers, who worshipped as gods, animals, stones, and wood, and consequently we should have all been damned. I give Thee thanks today on behalf of all men.
Meditation II:
Spiritual Reading: “LO, HERE AM I, SEND ME!”
Evening Meditation: HAPPINESS OF HAVING BEEN BORN AFTER THE REDEMPTION AND IN THE TRUE CHURCH
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Morning Meditation: PRESENTATION OF JESUS IN THE TEMPLE
He delivered himself . . . an oblation and a sacrifice to God. — (Eph. v., 2).
If Jesus offers His life to His Father for the love of us, it is just that we should offer Him our life and our entire being. This is what He desires, as He signified to the Blessed Angela de Foligno, saying to her: “I have offered Myself for thee, in order that thou shouldst offer thyself to Me.”
Meditation I:
The time having now come when, according to the Law, Mary had to go to the Temple for her purification, and to present Jesus to the Divine Father, behold she sets out in company with Joseph. Joseph carries the two turtle doves they are to offer to God, and Mary carries her dear Infant: she takes the Lamb of God to offer Him to the Almighty, in token of the great Sacrifice that this Son would one day accomplish on the Cross.
Consider the holy Virgin entering the Temple; she makes an oblation of her Son on behalf of the whole human race, and says: Behold, O Eternal Father, Thy beloved Only-Begotten One, Who is Thy Son and mine also; I offer Him to Thee as a Victim to Thy divine justice, in order to appease Thy wrath against sinners. Accept Him, O God of mercy! Have pity on our miseries; and for the love of this immaculate Lamb do Thou receive men into Thy grace.
Eternal Father, I, a miserable sinner, who have deserved a thousand hells, present myself this day before Thee, O God of infinite Majesty, and I offer Thee my poor heart. But, O God, what a heart I offer Thee – a heart that has never known how to love Thee, but has, on the contrary, so often offended Thee and so often betrayed Thee! But now I offer it to Thee full of penitence, and resolved to love Thee at all costs and to obey Thee in all things. Pardon me, and draw me entirely to Thy love. I do not deserve to be heard; but Thy Infant Son, Who offers Himself to Thee in the Temple as a Sacrifice for my salvation, merits for me this grace. I offer Thee this Thy Son and His Sacrifice, and in this I place all my hopes.
Meditation II:
Spiritual Reading: ST. SIMEON’S PROPHECY
Evening Meditation: THE FIRST SWORD OF SORROW (First Dolour)
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Morning Meditation: “THEY SEEK THE CHILD TO DESTROY HIM”
Arise! and take the Child and his mother and fly into Egypt. — (Matt. ii., 13).
Behold, Jesus is no sooner born than He is persecuted unto death. Herod is a figure of those miserable sinners who, as soon as they see Jesus Christ born again in their souls by the pardon of sin, persecute Him unto death by returning to their sins: for they seek the Child to destroy him. — (Ibid.)
Meditation I:
The Angel appeared to St. Joseph in a dream, and informed him that Herod was seeking the Infant Jesus to destroy His life; wherefore he said: Arise, and take the Child and his mother and fly into Egypt. Behold, then, how Jesus is no sooner born than He is persecuted unto death. Herod is a figure of those miserable sinners who, as soon as they see Jesus Christ born again in their souls by the pardon of sin, persecute Him unto death by returning to their sins: for they seek the Child to destroy him.
Joseph immediately obeys the command of the Angel, and gives notice of it to his holy spouse. He then takes the few tools that he can carry, in order to make use of them in his trade, and to be able in Egypt to support his poor family. Mary at the same time puts together a little bundle of clothes for the use of the holy Child; and then she goes into her cell, kneels down first before her Infant Son, kisses His feet, and with tears of tenderness says to Him: O my Son and my God, hardly art Thou born and come into the world to save men, than these men seek Thee to put Thee to death! She then takes Him; and the two holy spouses, shedding tears as they go, at once set out on their journey.
My dear Jesus, Thou art the King of Heaven, but now I behold Thee as an Infant wandering over the earth; tell me whom dost Thou seek? I pity Thee when I see Thee so poor and humbled; but I pity Thee more when I see Thee treated with such ingratitude by the same men whom Thou camest to save. Thou dost weep; but I also weep, because I have been one of those who in times past have despised and persecuted Thee. But now I value Thy grace more than all the kingdoms of the world; forgive me, O my Jesus, all the evil I have committed against Thee, and permit me to carry Thee always in my heart during the journey of my life to eternity, even as Mary carried Thee in her arms during the flight into Egypt.
Meditation II:
Spiritual Reading: THE SECOND SWORD OF SORROW (Second Dolour)
Evening Meditation: MAN IS A TRAVELLER ON EARTH
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Morning Meditation: SALVATION ALONE IS NECESSARY
The affair of eternal salvation is not only the most important, it is the only affair to which we have to attend in this life. Only one thing is necessary. If you save your soul, it will do you no harm to have lived here in poverty, afflictions and contempt.
Meditation I:
But one thing is necessary. — (Luke x., 42). It is not necessary that in this world we should be honoured with dignities, favoured with riches, with good health, and earthly pleasures; but it is necessary that we should be saved; for there is no middle course – we must either be saved or damned. After this short life, we shall be either eternally happy in Heaven, or eternally wretched in hell.
How many worldly persons there are who, loaded with riches and hours in this life, and lifted up to high positions, and even to thrones, now find themselves in hell, where all their fortune in this world serves only to increase their pains and their despair. This is what the Lord warned us of: Lay not up for yourselves treasures on earth; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth destroy. — (Matt. vi., 19). The acquisition of earthly goods perishes with death; but the acquisition of spiritual goods is an unrivalled treasure, and is eternal.
God has taught us that He wills the salvation of all, and to all He gives the power of being saved. Miserable is he who is lost; it is all his own doing: Destruction is thy own, O Israel; thy help is only in me. — (Osee xiii., 9). And this will be the greatest pain of the damned, the thought that they are lost through their own fault. Fire and the worm (that is, the remorse of conscience) will torture the damned in punishment for their sins, but the worm will forever torment them more terribly than the flame. How much pain do we not suffer through the loss of any object of value – a diamond, a watch, a purse of money – especially when this happens through our own carelessness! We cannot eat or sleep, for thinking of our loss, so long as there is hope of repairing it in some way or other. What, then, will be the torment of one who, through his own fault, has lost God and Paradise, without a hope of ever recovering them!
O my God! what is it that will befall me? Shall I be lost? One lot or the other must be mine. I hope to be saved; but who shall assure me of it? I know that I have repeatedly deserved hell. Yes, my Saviour, Thy death is my hope.
Meditation II:
Spiritual Reading: THE GREAT THOUGHT OF ETERNITY
Evening Meditation: THE DWELLING OF JESUS IN EGYPT
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Morning Meditation: THE FAILURE TO SAVE ONE’S SOUL IS WITHOUT REMEDY
An irreparable affair! No error can be compared with the error of neglecting one’s eternal salvation. For all other failures there is a remedy. If you lose your soul the loss is irreparable, for the soul, once lost, is lost forever!
Meditation I:
No error, says St. Eucherius, can be compared with the error of neglecting eternal salvation. For all other errors there is a remedy: if you lose property in one way, you may recover it in another; if you lose a situation, there may be some means of afterwards regaining it; if your life be but brief, provided your soul be saved, all is safe. But if you lose your soul the loss is irreparable. Death happens but once; the soul, once lost, is forever lost. Nothing remains but to weep for all eternity with the other miserable wretches in hell, whose greatest torment is the conviction, that the time for repairing their ruin is gone forever. The summer is over, and we are not saved. — (Jer. viii., 20). Ask the worldly wise now in that pit of fire, what are their present sentiments; ask them if, condemned to that eternal prison, they feel happy at having made a fortune in this life. Listen to their wailing and lamentation: We have erred. — (Wis. v., 6). But of what use is it to know their error now, when there is no remedy for their eternal damnation? Should a man find his palace in ruins, how great would be his pains in reflecting on the impossibility of repairing the evil, when his loss is due only to his own neglect.
The greatest torment of the damned consists in the thought of having lost their souls and of being damned through their own fault. Destruction is thy own, O Israel. — (Osee xiii., 9). St. Teresa says that if a person loses a ring or even a trifle through his own fault, his peace is disturbed; he neither eats nor sleeps. O God! how great will be the torture of the damned Christian when, on entering hell and finding himself shut up in that dungeon of torments, he reflects on his misfortune, and sees that for all eternity there will be no relief, no mitigation of pain! He will say: “I have lost my soul! I have lost Paradise! I have lost my God! I have lost all – and all is lost forever! And why? Through my own fault.”
Ah my Jesus, remind me always of the death Thou hast suffered for me, and give me confidence. I tremble lest the devil should make me despair at death by bringing before my view the many acts of treason I have committed against Thee. How many promises have I made never more to offend Thee after the light Thou hast given me! and, after all my promises, I have, presuming on pardon, again turned my back upon Thee. Thus have I insulted Thee because Thou didst not chastise me! My Redeemer! give me a great sorrow for my sins before I leave this world. I ask of Thee sorrow and love.
Meditation II:
Spiritual Reading: AN ADMONITION ADDRESSED TO PERSONS OF ALL STATES WHO DESIRE TO BE SAVED
Evening Meditation: THE RETURN OF JESUS FROM EGYPT
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Morning Meditation: THE GOODS OF THIS WORLD ARE FALSE GOODS
St. Teresa used to say that nothing that ends ought to be considered of any consequence. Death approaches, the curtain falls, and thus all things come to an end. Let us therefore strive to gain that fortune which will not fail with time.
Meditation I:
What doth it profit a man if he gain the whole world and suffer the loss of his own soul. — (Matt. xvi., 26). O great maxim, which has conducted so many souls to Heaven, and given so many Saints to the Church! What doth it profit us to gain the whole world, which passes away, and lose the soul, which is eternal?
The world! And what is this world but mere show – a scene which quickly passes away? The fashion of this world passeth away. — (1 Cor. vii., 31). Death approaches, the curtain falls, the scene closes, and thus all things come to an end!
Alas! at the hour of death, how will all worldly things appear to a Christian – those sliver vessels, those heaps of money, that rich and vain furniture – when he must leave them all forever?
O Jesus! grant that henceforward my soul may be wholly Thine; grant that I may love no other but Thee. I desire to renounce all things before death tears me away from them.
What does it avail a man to be happy for a few days (if anything can be called happiness without God), if afterwards he must be unhappy forever?
David says that earthly goods, at the hour of death, will seem as a dream to one waking from sleep: As the dream of them that awake. — (Ps. lxxii., 20). What disappointment does he feel who, having dreamt that he was a king, on awaking finds himself still lowly and poor as ever!
O my God! who knows but that this Meditation which I am now reading may be the last call for me? Enable me to root out of my heart all earthly affections, before I enter into eternity. Grant that I may be sensible of the great wrong that I have done Thee, by offending Thee, and by forsaking Thee for the love of creatures. Father, I am not worthy to be called thy son. — (Luke xv., 21). I am grieved for having turned my back upon Thee; do not reject me, now that I return to Thee.
Meditation II:
Spiritual Reading: THE POWER OF THE PASSION OF JESUS CHRIST TO ENKINDLE DIVINE LOVE IN EVERY HEART
Evening Meditation: WHAT THE PASSION OF JESUS CHRIST REQUIRES OF US
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Morning Meditation: THE LOSS OF JESUS IN THE TEMPLE
Our Lord, having given us the Blessed Virgin Mary as a model of perfection, it was necessary that she should be laden with sorrows, that in her we may admire heroic patience and endeavour to imitate it. The loss of her Son in the Temple was one of the greatest sorrows that Mary had to endure in her life. Therefore do I weep, and my eyes run down with water because the Comforter, the relief of my soul, is far from me. — (Lament. i., 16).
Meditation I:
St. Luke relates that Mary and Joseph went every year to Jerusalem on the Feast of the Pasch, and took the Infant Jesus with them. It was the custom, says the Venerable Bede, when the Jews made this journey to the temple, or at least on the return journey, for the men to be separated from the women; and the children went at their pleasure, either with their fathers or their mothers. Our Redeemer, Who was then twelve years old, remained during this Solemnity for three days in Jerusalem. Mary thought He was with Joseph, and Joseph that He was with Mary: Thinking that he was in the company. — (Luke ii., 44).
The Holy Child employed all these three days in honouring His Eternal Father, by fasts, vigils, and prayers, and in being present at the sacrifices, all of which were figures of His own great Sacrifice on the Cross. If He took a little food, says St. Bernard, He must have procured it by begging; and if He took any repose, He could have no other bed but the bare ground.
When Mary and Joseph had come a day’s journey, they did not find Jesus; wherefore, full of sorrow, they began to seek Him amongst their relatives and friends. At last, returning to Jerusalem, after three days they found Him in the Temple, disputing with the doctors, who, full of astonishment, admired the questions and answers of this wonderful Child. On seeing Him Mary said: Son why hast thou done so to us? Behold thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing. — (Luke ii., 48).
O Mary, thou weepest because thou hast lost thy Son for a few days; He has withdrawn Himself from thy eyes, but not from thy heart. Dost thou not see that the pure love with which thou lovest Him keeps Him constantly united and bound to thee? Thou knowest will that he who loves God cannot but be loved by God, Who says: I love those that love me — (Prov. viii., 17); and with St. John: He that abideth in charity abideth in God, and God in him. — (John iv., 16). Wherefore, then, dost thou fear? Wherefore dost thou weep? Leave those tears to me, who have so often lost God through my own fault, by driving Him away from my soul. O my Jesus! how could I offend Thee thus with my eyes open, when I knew that by sinning I should lose Thee?
Meditation II:
Spiritual Reading: THE THIRD SWORD OF SORROW (Third Dolour)
Evening Meditation: “HE WAS SUBJECT TO THEM”
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Morning Meditation: JESUS AT NAZARETH
And Jesus advanced in wisdom and age and grace with God and men. — (Gospel of Feast. Luke. ii., 42-52).
Every word, every action of Jesus was so holy that it filled all with love for Him, but especially Mary and Joseph who were constantly observing Him. A God serving as a boy! A God working, and sweating as He planes a piece of wood! Ought not the mere thought of this to move our hearts to love Him!
Meditation I:
St. Luke, speaking of the life of the Infant Jesus in the house of Nazareth, writes: And Jesus advanced in wisdom and age, and grace with God and men. — (Luke ii., 52). As Jesus grew in age, so did He increase in wisdom; not that He went on every year acquiring knowledge of things, as is the case with us; for, from the first moment of His life, Jesus was full of all Divine knowledge and wisdom: In whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. — (Col. ii., 3). But it is said that He advanced, because every day as He advanced in age He manifested more and more His sublime wisdom.
Thus it is also said that He advanced in grace with God and men; with God, because all His divine actions, though they did not render Him more holy or increase His merit – since Jesus was from the first full of sanctity and merit, of Whose fulness we have received all graces: of his fulness we have all received – (John i., 16); – yet, nevertheless, these operations of the Redeemer were all sufficient in themselves to increase His grace and merit.
Grow, my beloved Jesus, grow continually for me; grow to teach me Thy virtues by Thy divine example; grow to consummate the great sacrifice on the Cross, on which depends my eternal salvation! Grant also my Saviour, that I, too, may grow more in Thy love and grace. Miserable that I have been, my ingratitude has only increased towards Thee Who hast loved me so much. O my Jesus, grant that in future it may be just the contrary with me; Thou knowest all my weakness, it is from Thee that I must receive light and strength. Make me know the claims which Thou hast to my love. Thou art a God of infinite beauty and of infinite majesty, Who didst not refuse to come down upon this earth and become Man for us, and for our sakes to lead a life abject and painful, and to end it by a most cruel death. And where can we ever find an object more amiable and more worthy of love than Thee? Fool that I was, in times past I refused to know Thee, and therefore I lost Thee. I implore Thy pardon; I am heartily sorry, and I am determined to be entirely devoted to Thee in future.
Meditation II:
Spiritual Reading: MARY’S POVERTY
Evening Meditation: JOSEPH’S LOVE FOR MARY AND JESUS
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