Morning Meditation: “HE SENT THEM INTO HIS VINEYARD“ — (Gospel of Sunday. Matt. x., 1-16)
The Lord’s vines are our souls which He has given us to cultivate by good works that one day we may be admitted into eternal glory. Many live as if they were never to die, or as if they had not to give to God an account of their lives, as if there were no Heaven and no hell. They believe but they do not reflect. They take all possible care of worldly affairs, but attend not to the salvation of their souls. O my God, what shall my lot be? If I may be lost why do I not embrace such a life as may secure for me eternal life?
Meditation I:
St. Paul says: We entreat you, brethren . . . that you do your own business. — (1 Thess. iv., 10). The greater number of people in the world are attentive to the business of this world. What diligence do they not employ to gain a law-suit or a good position! How many means are adopted – how many measures taken! They neither eat nor sleep. And what efforts do they make to save their souls? All blush at being told that they neglect their family affairs, and how few are ashamed to neglect the salvation of their souls! Brethren, says the St. Paul, we entreat you that you do your own business; that is, the business of your eternal salvation.
“The trifles of children,” says St. Bernard, “are called trifles, but the trifles of men are called business,” – and for these trifles many lose their souls. If in one worldly transaction you suffer a loss, you may repair it in another; but if you die in enmity with God, and lose your soul, how can you repair this loss? What exchange shall a man give for his soul? — (Matt. xvi., 26). To those who neglect the care of salvation, St. Eucherius says: “If thou dost not believe thy Creator how precious thou art, interrogate thy Redeemer.” If, from being created by God to His own image, you do not comprehend the value of your soul, learn it from Jesus Christ Who has redeemed you with His own Blood. You were not redeemed with corruptible things as gold or silver, . . . but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb unspotted and undefiled. — (1 Pet. i., 18).
God, therefore, sets a high value on your soul. Such is its value in the estimation of Satan, that, to become master of it, he sleeps not night or day, but is continually going about seeking to make it his own. Hence St. Augustine exclaims: “The enemy sleeps not, and dost thou sleep?” The enemy is always awake to injure you, and you slumber. Pope Benedict XII, being asked by a prince for a favour he could not conscientiously grant, said to the ambassador: Tell the prince that if I had two souls, I might be able to lose one of them to please him; but, since I have only one, I cannot consent to lose it. Thus he refused the favour the prince sought from him.
O God, what shall my lot be? Shall I be saved, or shall I be lost? I may be either saved or lost! And if I may be lost, why do I not embrace such a life as may secure for me life eternal? O Jesus, Thou didst die to save me; yet I have been lost as often as I have lost Thee, my sovereign Good! Suffer me not to lose Thee any more.
Meditation II:
Spiritual Reading: “WHY STAND YE HERE ALL THE DAY IDLE?” — (Gospel of Sunday)
Evening Meditation: “THE LORD MY REFUGE AND MY DELIVERER”
Meditation I:
Meditation II:
Morning Meditation: THE LOVE OF GOD: I. THE LOVE AND GOODNESS OF GOD TOWARDS US
As long as God has been God He has loved us. As long as He has loved Himself He has loved us. Let us, therefore, love God, because God hath first loved us. — (1 Jo. iv., 10).
Meditation I:
Consider that God deserves your love, because He loved you before you loved Him, and because He has been the first of all to love you. I have loved thee with an everlasting love. — (Jer. xxxi., 3). Your parents have been the first to love you on this earth; but they have loved you only since they have known you. Before your father or your mother came into this world, God loved you: even before the world was created, He loved you. And how long before the creation of the world did God love you? Perhaps a thousand years, or a thousand ages? It is useless to count years or ages; God has loved you from eternity. I have loved thee with an everlasting love; therefore have I drawn thee, taking pity on thee. — (Jer. xxxi., 3). In a word, as long as He has been God, He has loved you. Hence the holy virgin, St. Agnes, had reason to say: “I am prevented by another Lover.” When the world and creatures sought her love, she answered: No, I cannot love you. My God has been the first to love me; it is but just, then, that I should consecrate all my love to Him alone.
Thus God has loved you from eternity, and through pure love has taken you from among so many men whom He could create; He has given you existence, and has placed you in the world. For the love of you God has created so many other beautiful creatures, that they might serve you, and remind you of the love He has borne to you, and of the love you owe to Him. “Heaven and earth,” says St. Augustine, “tell me to love Thee.” When the Saint looked at the sun, the moon, the stars, the mountains, the rivers, they appeared to him to speak, and say: “Augustine, love your God; for He has created us for you, that you might love Him.” The Abbot de Rancé, Founder of La Trappe, when he saw a hill, a fountain, or a flower, would say that all these creatures upbraided him with ingratitude to God. In holding a flower or fruit in her hand, St. Mary Magdalen de Pazzi felt her heart wounded as it were by a dart of Divine love, and would say within herself: “Then, my God has from eternity thought of creating this flower or fruit, that I might love Him.”
O sovereign Lord of Heaven and earth, infinite Good, infinite Majesty, Who hast loved men so tenderly, how does it happen that Thou art so much despised by them? But among these men, Thou, O my God, hast loved me in a particular manner, and hast bestowed on me special graces which Thou hast not given to so many others. And I have despised Thee more than others. I prostrate myself at Thy feet; O Jesus, my Saviour, Cast me not away from thy face! — (Ps. l., 13). I should deserve to be cast off on account of my ingratitude to Thee. But Thou hast said that Thou wilt not reject a penitent soul that returns to Thee. Him that cometh to me, I will not cast out. — (Jo. vi., 37).
Meditation II:
Spiritual Reading: THE PRACTICE OF CHRISTIAN VIRTUES: V. – PATIENCE
Evening Meditation: PRAYER: ITS NECESSITY
Meditation I:
Meditation II:
Morning Meditation: THE LOVE OF GOD: II. GOD HAS GIVEN HIMSELF TO US
Accursed sin robbed us of Divine grace and made us the slaves of hell, but, to the astonishment of Heaven and of all nature, the Son of God came on earth as Man in order to redeem us from eternal death and purchase for us grace and eternal glory which we had lost. He emptied himself taking the form of a servant . . . and in habit found as a man. — (Phil. ii., 7).
Meditation I:
God has given us many beautiful creatures, indeed, but He was not content until He even gave us Himself. Christ hath loved us and hath delivered himself for us. — (Eph., v., 2). Accursed sin had robbed us of Divine grace, and made us the slaves of hell; but, to the astonishment of Heaven and of all nature, the Son of God came on earth as Man in order to redeem us from eternal death, and purchase for us grace and the eternal glory which we had lost. How great would be our wonder if we saw a monarch become a worm for the love of worms! But our astonishment should be infinitely greater at the sight of God made Man for the love of men. He emptied himself taking the form of a servant . . . and in habit found as a man. — (Phil. ii., 7). God clothed in flesh! And the word was made flesh. — (Jo. i., 14). But the astonishment increases when we see all that the Son of God has done and suffered for the love of us. To redeem us it would have been sufficient for Him to shed a single drop of His Blood, or a single tear, or to offer a single prayer; for a prayer offered by a Divine Person would be of infinite value, and therefore sufficient for the salvation of the whole world, and of an infinite number or worlds. But, says St. Chrysostom, what was sufficient for redemption was not sufficient for the immense love that God bore to us. He not only wished to save us, but, because He loved us ardently, He wished to be loved ardently by us; and therefore He resolved to lead a life full of sorrows and humiliations, and to suffer a death the most painful of all deaths, in order to make us understand the infinite love which He entertained for us. He humbled himself, becoming obedient unto death, even to the death of the cross. — (Phil. ii., 8). O excess of Divine love, which all men and Angels will never be able to comprehend! I say excess; for Moses and Elias, speaking of the Passion of Jesus Christ, called it an excess. — (Luke ix., 31). St. Bonaventure called the Passion of Christ, an “excess of sorrow and of love.”
O my Jesus, I see that Thou couldst have done nothing more in order to compel me to love Thee; and I also see that by my ingratitude I have laboured to force Thee to abandon me. Blessed forever be Thy patience which has borne with me so long. I deserve a hell made on purpose for myself; but Thy death gives me confidence. Ah! make me understand well the claims which Thou, O infinite Good, hast to my love, and the obligations by which I am bound to love Thee. I knew, O my Jesus, that Thou didst die for me; how then, O God, have I been able to live for so many years in forgetfulness of Thee? Oh that the past years of my life were to commence again! I would wish, O my Lord, to give them all to Thee. But years do not return. Ah, grant that I may at least spend all the remaining days of my life in loving and pleasing Thee.
Meditation II:
Spiritual Reading: THE PRACTICE OF CHRISTIAN VIRTUE: V. PATIENCE (continued)
Evening Meditation: PRAYER: III. THE CONDITIONS OF PRAYER
Meditation I:
Meditation II:
Morning Meditation: THE LOVE OF GOD: III. THE LOVE HE HAS SHOWN US IN HIS PASSION
I have a baptism wherewith I am to be baptized, said Jesus, and how am I straitened until it be accomplished. — (Luke. xii., 50). I am to be baptized with the Baptism of My own Blood, and I feel myself dying through a desire that My Passion and death may come soon that thus man may know the love I bear him. Ah, my Jesus, men do not love Thee because they do not think of the love Thou hast had for them.
Meditation I:
Our astonishment increases more and more when we consider the ardour with which Jesus Christ desired to suffer and die for the love of us. I have a baptism, said Jesus Christ, wherewith I am to be baptized and how am I straitened until it be accomplished. — (Luke. xii., 50). I am to be baptized with the Baptism of My own Blood; and I feel Myself dying through a desire that My Passion and death may soon come, that thus man may know the love I bear to him. It was this desire that made Jesus say on the night before His Passion: With desire I have desired to eat this pasch with you before I suffer. — (Luke xxii., 15). Then, says St. Basil of Seleucia, it appears that our God cannot be satiated with loving men.
Ah, my Jesus, men do not love Thee because they do not think of the love Thou hast had for them. O God! how is it possible for a soul to live without loving God, if she considers that He died for her sake and died with so great a desire of showing His love for her? The charity of Christ presseth us. — (2 Cor. v., 14). St. Paul says that it is not so much what Jesus Christ has done and suffered for our salvation, as the love He displayed in suffering for us, that obliges, and, as it were, forces us to love Him. Contemplating the love which Jesus Christ exhibits in His Passion, St. Laurence Justinian exclaimed: We have seen Wisdom Itself as it were foolish, through the excess of love for us. And who could ever believe, had not Faith assured us of it, that the Creator should die for His own creatures? In an ecstasy, St. Mary Magdalen de Pazzi, holding a Crucifix in her hands, exclaimed: “Yes, my Jesus, Thou art foolish through love.” This the Gentiles also said when they heard the Apostles preaching the death of Jesus Christ. They regarded it as a folly which could not be believed. We preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews indeed a stumbling-block, and unto the Gentiles foolishness. — (1 Cor. i., 23). And how, said they, could a God that is most happy in Himself, and stands not in need of anyone, descend on earth to become Man and die for the love of men who are His creatures? This would be the same as to believe that a God had become foolish for the sake of men. But it is of Faith that Jesus Christ the true Son of God, delivered Himself to death for the love of us. Christ hath loved us, and hath delivered himself for us. — (Eph. v., 2).
Ah, my dear Redeemer, it is true that I have not loved Thee, because I have not reflected on the love Thou hast borne me! Ah, my Jesus, I have been very ungrateful to Thee. Thou hast given Thy life for me by submitting to the most painful of all deaths; and have I been so ungrateful as not even to think of Thy sufferings? Pardon me; I promise, O my crucified Love, that from this day forward Thou shalt be the only object of my thoughts and of all my affections! Ah, when the devil or the world presents me with forbidden fruit, remind me, O my beloved Saviour, of the pains Thou hast endured for my sake, that I may love Thee, and may never more offend Thee! Ah, if one of my servants had done for me what Thou hast done, I could not bring myself to displease him. And I have dared to turn my back so often on Thee Who hast died for me.
Meditation II:
Spiritual Reading: THE PRACTICE OF CHRISTIAN VIRTUE: VI. CONFORMITY TO GOD’S WILL
Evening Meditation: HOW MUCH IT PLEASES JESUS CHRIST THAT WE SUFFER FOR LOVE OF HIM
Meditation I:
Meditation II:
Morning Meditation: DIVINE LOVE CONQUERS ALL THINGS
The soul cannot exist without loving the Creator or creatures. Given a soul that is weaned of every other love, you will find it filled with Divine love. Do we wish to know whether we have given ourselves wholly to God? Let us examine ourselves whether we are weaned from every thing or not.
Meditation I:
Love is strong as death. — (Cant. viii., 6). As death separates us from all the goods of the world, from riches, honours, kindred, friends, and all earthly pleasures, so does the love of God, when it reigns in a heart, strip it of all affection for these perishable advantages. Therefore it was that the Saints stripped themselves of everything the world offered them, renounced their possessions, their posts of honour, and all they had, and fled to deserts or cloisters, to think upon and to love God alone.
Do we wish to know whether we have given ourselves wholly to God? Let us examine ourselves whether we are weaned from every earthly thing or not.
Some persons lament that in their devotions, prayers, Communions, Visits to the Blessed Sacrament, they do not find God. To such St. Teresa says: “Detach thy heart from creatures, and then seek God, and thou shalt find Him.” Thou wilt not indeed find constant spiritual sweetness, for this God does not give without interruption even to those who love Him in this life, but bestows it only from time to time to make them fly onwards towards those boundless delights which He prepares for them in Paradise. He gives them, however, an inward peace which excels all sensual delights; that peace of God which surpasseth all understanding. And what greater delight can be enjoyed by a soul that loves God than to be able to say with true affection: “My God and my All!” St. Francis of Assisi continued a whole night in an ecstasy of Paradise continually repeating these words: “My God and my All! My God and my All!”
Love is strong as death. If a dying man were to give a sign of moving towards any earthly thing, we should then know that he was not dead; death deprives us of everything.
Divine love strips us of everything. Father Segneri, an eminent servant of God said: “Love of God is a beloved thief which robs us of every earthly thing.” Another servant of God said, when he had given to the poor all his possessions, and was asked what had reduced him to such poverty, took the Book of the Gospels out of his pocket, and said: “This has robbed me of everything.” In a word, Jesus Christ will possess our whole heart, and He will have no companion there. St. Augustine writes that the Roman Senate refused to allow adoration to be paid to Jesus Christ because He was a haughty God Who claimed to be honoured alone; and truly as He is our only Lord, He has the right to be adored and loved with our undivided love.
Meditation II:
Spiritual Reading: THE PRACTICE OF THE CHRISTIAN VIRTUES: VII. – PURITY OF INTENTION
Evening Meditation: GIVING OF OURSELVES TO GOD WITHOUT RESERVE
Meditation I:
Meditation II:
Morning Meditation: HE THAT LOVES JESUS CHRIST SHOULD HATE THE WORLD
St. Paul writes that Jesus gave Himself for our sins that He might deliver us from the present wicked world according to the will of God and our Father. — (Gal. i., 4). As the lovers of God are hateful to the world, so the world ought to be hateful to him who loves God. Jesus Christ desires we should become superior to the promises and threats of the world and no longer take account of its censures or its praise.
Meditation I:
Whosoever loves Jesus Christ with true love, let him greatly rejoice when he sees himself treated by the world as Jesus Christ was treated. He was hated, scorned, and persecuted by the world, even unto an agonizing death upon a shameful Cross. The world is altogether against Jesus Christ; and, therefore, hating Jesus Christ, it hates all His servants. Wherefore the Lord encouraged His disciples to suffer in peace all the persecutions of the world, saying to them that, having given up the world, they could not but be hated by the world. Ye are not of the world, therefore the world hateth you. — (Jo. xv., 19).
And as the lovers of God are hateful to the world, so the world ought to be hateful to him who loves God. St. Paul said: God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified to me. — (Gal. vi., 14). The Apostle was an odious thing to the world, as a man condemned and dead upon a cross is odious; and in return, the world was odious to St. Paul: The world is crucified to me.
Jesus Christ chose to die upon the Cross for our sins, for this end, that He might deliver us from this wicked world. Our Lord, having called us to His love, desires that we should become superior to the promises and threats of the world. He desires that we should no longer take account of its censures of its praise. We must pray God to make us utterly forget the world, and to rejoice when we see the world reject us. It is not enough, in order to belong wholly to God, that we should abandon the world; we must desire that the world should abandon us, and utterly condemn us. Some people leave the world, but they do not cease to wish to be praised by it, at least for having abandoned it. In such persons the desire of worldly estimation causes the world still to live in them.
Meditation II:
Spiritual Reading: THE PRACTICE OF THE CHRISTIAN VIRTUES: IX. – MEANS OF ACQUIRING THE LOVE OF JESUS CHRIST
Evening Meditation: DIVINE LOVE VICTORIOUS OVER GOD HIMSELF
Meditation I:
Meditation II:
Morning Meditation: SOULS THAT LOVE GOD DESIRE TO GO TO SEE HIM IN HEAVEN
The worldly-minded fear losing their earthly goods, fleeting and miserable things that they are, but the Saints only fear losing God Who is a Good infinite and eternal. Wherefore death is an object of terror to souls attached to the earth, while it is specially desired by those who love God; for, says St. Bernard, it is the termination of labour and the gate of life. They cry out with St. Paul: Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? — (Rom. vii., 24).
Meditation I:
While we are in the body we are absent from the Lord. — (2 Cor. v., 6). Souls who, in this life love God alone are like noble pilgrims, destined, according to their present state, to be the eternal brides of the King of Heaven, but now live far away without seeing Him; wherefore they do naught but sigh for their departure to the country of the Blessed, where they know that their Spouse awaits them.
They know, indeed, that their Beloved is ever present with them, but is, as it were, hidden by a veil, and does not show Himself. Or, to speak more correctly, He is like the sun behind clouds, which from time to time, sends forth a ray of its splendour, but displays not itself fully. These beloved brides have a veil before their eyes, which prevents them from seeing Him Whom they love. They live, nevertheless, contented, uniting themselves to the Will of the Lord Who chooses to keep them in exile, and far away from Himself; but with all this, they cannot but continually sigh to see Him face to face, in order to be more inflamed with love towards Him.
Therefore, each one of them often sweetly complains to its beloved Spouse because He shows Himself not and says to Him: “O Thou only love of my heart, since Thou hast so loved me, and hast wounded me with Thy holy love, why hidest Thou Thyself, and allowest me not to see Thee? I know that Thou art infinite Beauty; I love Thee more than myself, though I have never yet beheld Thee. Open to me Thy beautiful countenance; I would know Thee all revealed, in order that I may no more look to myself nor to any creature, and may think only of loving Thee, my highest Good.”
Meditation II:
Spiritual Reading: PREPARATION FOR DEATH
Evening Meditation: MARY RENDERS DEATH SWEET TO HER CLIENTS
Meditation I:
Meditation II:
