Morning Meditation: “LORD, IT IS GOOD FOR US TO BE HERE!” — (Gospel of Sunday. Matt. xvii., 1, 9)
Let us labour during the remainder of our lives to gain Heaven. The Saints did but little to gain Heaven. St. Augustine said that to gain the eternal glory of Paradise we should willingly embrace eternal labour. The sufferings of this time are not worthy to be compared with the glory to come. — (Rom. viii., 8).
Meditation I:
In this day’s Gospel we read that, wishing to give His disciples a glimpse of the glory of Paradise, so as to animate them to labour for the Divine honour, the Redeemer was transfigured, and allowed them to behold the splendour of His countenance. Ravished with joy and delight, St. Peter exclaimed: Lord, it is good for us to be here! Lord, let us remain here; let us never more depart from this place; for the sight of Thy beauty consoles us more than all the delights of the earth.
Let us labour during the remainder of our lives to gain Heaven. Heaven is so great a good, that, to purchase it for us, Jesus Christ has sacrificed His life on the Cross. Be assured that the greatest of all the torments of the damned in hell arises from the thought of having lost Heaven through their own fault. The blessings, the delights, the joys, the sweetness of Paradise may be acquired; but they can be described and understood only by those blessed souls that enjoy them.
According to the Apostle, no man on this earth can comprehend the infinite blessings which God has prepared for the souls that love Him. Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man, what things God hath prepared for them that love him. — (1 Cor. ii., 9). In this life we cannot have an idea of any other pleasures than those which we enjoy by means of the senses.
Speaking of Paradise, St. Bernard says: O man, if you wish to understand the blessings of Heaven, know that in that happy country there is nothing which you would not desire and everything that you would desire. Although there are some things here below which are agreeable to the senses, how many more are there which only torment us? If the light of day is pleasant, the darkness of night is disagreeable: if the spring and the autumn cheer us, the cold of winter and the heat of summer are painful. In addition, we have to endure the pains of sickness, the persecution of men, and the inconveniences of poverty; we must submit to interior troubles, to fears, to temptations of the devil, doubts of conscience, and to the uncertainty of eternal salvation.
But, after entering into Paradise, the blessed shall have no more sorrows. God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes. And death shall be no more, nor mourning, nor crying, nor sorrow shall be any more, for the former things are passed away. And he that sat on the throne, said: Behold, I make all things new. — (Apoc. xxi., 4).
Meditation II:
Spiritual Reading: “NOT IN THE PASSION OF LUST LIKE THE GENTILES WHO KNOW NOT GOD” — (Epistle of Sunday, 1 Thess. iv., 1, 7)
Evening Meditation: REFLECTIONS AND AFFECTIONS ON THE PASSION OF JESUS CHRIST
Meditation I:
The iniquitous high-priest then asked Jesus if He were verily the Son of God: I adjure thee by the living God, that thou tell us if thou be the Christ, the Son of God. — (Matt. xxvi., 63). Jesus, out of respect for the Name of God, affirmed that He was so indeed; whereupon Caiphas rent his garments, saying that He had blasphemed; and all cried out the He deserved death: But they answering said, he is guilty of death. — (Matt. xxvi., 66). Yes, O my Jesus, with truth do they declare Thee guilty of death, since Thou hast willed to take upon Thee to make satisfaction for me, who deserved eternal death. But if by Thy death Thou hast acquired for me life, it is just that I should spend my life wholly, yea, and if need be, to lose it for Thee. Yes, my Jesus, I will no longer live for myself; but only for Thee, and for Thy love. Succour me by Thy grace.
Then they spat in his face and buffeted him. — (Matt. xxvi., 67). After having proclaimed Him guilty of death, as a man already given over to punishment, and declared infamous, the rabble set themselves to ill-treat Him all the night through with blows, and buffets, and kicks, with plucking out His beard, and even spitting in His Face, by mocking Him as a false prophet, and saying: Prophesy unto us, O Christ, who is he who struck thee? — (Matt. xxvi., 68). All this our Redeemer foretold by Isaias: I have given my body to the strikers, and my cheeks to them that plucked them; I have not turned my face away from them that rebuked and spit upon me. — (Is. l., 6). The devout Thauler relates that it is an opinion of St. Jerome that all the pains and infirmities which Jesus suffered on that night shall be made known only on the day of the Last Judgment. St. Augustine, speaking of the ignominies suffered by Jesus Christ, says, “If this medicine cannot cure our pride, I know not what can.” Ah, my Jesus, how is it that Thou art so humble and I so proud? O Lord, give me light; make me know who Thou art, and who I am.
Meditation II:
Morning Meditation: THE HABIT OF SIN PRODUCES BLINDNESS
Every sin produces blindness; and as sin increases, so does the sinner’s blindness increase. Therefore do we see relapsing sinners lose all light, and go from sin to sin, without even thinking of amendment. The very habit of committing sin, says St. Augustine, prevents sinners from perceiving the evil they do, and so they live as if they no longer believed in God, in Heaven, or in eternity.
Meditation I:
The wicked man, when he is come into the depths of sins, contemneth. — (Prov. xviii., 3). One of the greatest ills which the sin of Adam brought upon us was the evil inclination to sin. This made the Apostle weep when he found himself compelled by concupiscence towards those very sins which he abhorred: I see another law in my members . . . captivating me in the law of sin. — (Rom. vii., 23). Therefore is it so difficult for us, infected as we are by this concupiscence, and with so many enemies urging us to evil, to arrive sinless at our heavenly country. Now such being our frailty, I ask, what would you say of a voyager who, having to cross the sea in a great storm, and in a frail barque, would load it in such a manner as would be sufficient to sink it even were there no storm and the vessel strong? What would you predict as to the life of that man? Now, we may say the same of the habitual sinner, who, having to pass the sea of this life – a stormy sea in which so many are lost – in a frail and shattered barque, such as is our flesh to which we are united, still burdens it with habitual sins. Such a one can hardly be saved, because a bad habit blinds the understanding, hardens the heart, and thus renders him obstinate to the last. In the first place, a bad habit produces blindness. And why indeed, do the Saints always beg for light from God, trembling lest they should become the worst sinners in the world? Because they know that if for a moment they lose that light, there is no enormity they may not commit. How is it that so many Christians have lived obstinately in sin until at last they have damned themselves? Their own malice blinded them. — (Wis. ii., 21). Sin deprived them of sight, and thus they were lost. Every sin produces blindness; and as sin increases, so does the blindness increase. God is our light; as much, therefore, as the soul withdraws from God, so much the more blind does she become: His bones shall be filled with the vices of his youth. — (Job xx., 11). As in a vessel full of earth the light of the sun cannot penetrate, so in a heart full of vices Divine light cannot enter. Therefore do we see certain relapsed sinners lose all light, and proceed from sin to sin, without any more even thinking of amendment: The wicked walk round about. — (Ps. xi., 9). Having fallen into that dark pit, the unhappy wretches can do nothing but sin; they speak only of sin; they speak only of sin; they think only of sin; and hardly perceive at last what harm there is in sin. The very habit of committing sin, says St. Augustine, prevents sinners from perceiving the evil they do. So that they live as if they no longer believed in God, in Heaven, in hell, or in eternity.
My God, Thou hast conferred signal blessings upon me, favouring me above others; and I have signally offended Thee by outraging Thee more than any other person that I know. O sorrowful Heart of my Redeemer, afflicted and tormented on the Cross by the sight of my sins, give me, through Thy merits, a lively sense of my offences, and sorrow for them. Ah, my Jesus, I am full of vices; but Thou art omnipotent, Thou canst easily fill my soul with Thy holy love. In Thee, then, I trust; Thou Who art infinite goodness and infinite mercy. I repent. O my Sovereign Good, of having offended Thee. Oh, that I had rather died, and had never caused Thee any displeasure.
Meditation II:
Spiritual Reading: INTERIOR MORTIFICATION
Evening Meditation: REFLECTIONS AND AFFECTIONS ON THE PASSION OF JESUS CHRIST
Meditation I:
When it was day, the Jews conduct Jesus to Pilate, to make him condemn Him to death; but Pilate declares Him to be innocent: I find no cause in this man. — (Luke xxiii., 4). And to free himself from the importunities of the Jews, who pressed on him, seeking the death of the Saviour, he sends Him to Herod. It greatly pleased Herod to see Jesus Christ brought before him, hoping that in his presence, in order to deliver Himself from death, He would have worked one of those miracles of which he had heard; wherefore Herod asked Him many questions. But Jesus, because He did not wish to be delivered from death, and because the wicked one was not worthy of His answers, was silent, and answered him not. Then the proud king, with his court, offered Him many insults, and making them cover Him with a white robe, as if declaring Him to be an ignorant and stupid fellow, sent Him back to Pilate: But Herod with his soldiers despised him, and mocked him, putting on him a white robe, and sent him back to Pilate. — (Luke xxiii., 11). Cardinal Hugo in his Commentary says, “Mocking Him as if a fool, he clothed Him with a white robe.” And St. Bonaventure, “He despised Him as if impotent, because He worked no miracle; as if ignorant, because He answered him not a word; as if idiotic, because He did not defend Himself.”
O Eternal Wisdom! O Divine Word! This one other ignominy was wanting to Thee, that Thou shouldst be treated as a fool bereft of sense. So greatly does our salvation weigh on Thee, that through love of us Thou willest not only to be reviled, but to be satiated with revilings; as Jeremias had already prophesied of Thee: He shall give his cheek to him that striketh him; he shall be filled with reproaches. — (Lam. iii., 30). And how couldst Thou bear such love to men, from whom Thou hast received nothing but ingratitude and slights? Alas, that I should be one of these who have outraged Thee worse than Herod. Ah, my Jesus, chastise me not, like Herod, by depriving me of Thy voice. Herod did not recognise Thee for what Thou art! I confess Thee to be my God: Herod loved Thee not; I love Thee more than myself. Deny me not, I beseech Thee, deny me not the voice of Thy inspiration, as I have deserved by the offences I have committed against Thee. Tell me what Thou wilt have of me, for, by Thy grace, I am ready to do all that Thou wilt.
Meditation II:
Morning Meditation: THE HABIT OF SIN HARDENS THE HEART
His heart shall be as hard as a stone and as firm as a smith’s anvil. God does not indeed harden the habitual sinner, but He withdraws His grace in punishment of his ingratitude for past favours; and thus his heart becomes as hard as a stone. And St. Thomas of Villanova says: “Hardness of heart is a sign of damnation.”
Meditation I:
A bad habit hardens the heart, and God justly permits it in punishment of resistance to His calls. The Apostle says that the Lord hath mercy on whom he will; and whom he will he hardeneth. — (Rom. ix. 18). St. Augustine explains it thus: It is not that God hardens the habitual sinner; but He withdraws His grace in punishment of his ingratitude for past graces, and thus his heart becomes hard as a stone: His heart shall be hard as a stone, and as firm as a smith’s anvil. — (Job xli., 15). Hence, when others are moved and weep on hearing sermons on the rigours of Divine justice, the pains of the damned, and the Passion of Jesus Christ, the habitual sinner is in no way affected; he will speak of these things, and hear them spoken of, with indifference, as if they were things that concerned him not; and he will only become more hardened: He shall be as firm as a smith’s anvil. Even sudden deaths, earthquakes, thunderbolts, and lightning, will no longer terrify him; and instead of arousing him, and making him enter into himself, they will rather produce in him that stupor of death in which he hopelessly sleeps: At thy rebuke, O God of Jacob, they have all slumbered. — (Ps. lxxv., 7). A bad habit by degrees destroys even remorse of conscience. To the habitual sinner the most enormous sin appears as nothing, says St. Augustine: “Sins, however horrible, when once habitual, seem little or no sin at all.”
How can I thank Thee, O Lord, as I ought, for the many graces Thou hast bestowed on me! Instead of being grateful to Thee, and loving Thee for having delivered me from hell, and called me with so much love, I have continued to provoke Thy wrath by requiting Thee with insults. No, my God, I will no longer outrage Thy patience; I have offended Thee enough. Thou alone, Who art infinite love, couldst have borne with me till now. But I now see that Thou canst bear with me no longer; and with reason. Pardon, then, my Lord and my Sovereign Good, all my offences against Thee; of which I repent with my whole heart, for I purpose in future never to offend Thee again.
Meditation II:
Spiritual Reading: INTERIOR MORTIFICATION
Evening Meditation: REFLECTIONS AND AFFECTIONS ON THE PASSION OF JESUS CHRIST
Meditation I:
Presently we will speak of the other reproaches which Jesus Christ endured, until He finally died on the Cross: He endured the cross, despising the shame. — (Heb. xii., 2). Meanwhile let us consider how truly in our dear Redeemer was fulfilled what the Psalmist had foretold, that in His Passion He should become the reproach of men, and the outcast of the people: But I am a worm, and no man; the reproach of men, and the outcast of the people. — (Ps. xxi., 7); even to a death of ignominy suffered at the hands of the executioner on a Cross, as a malefactor between two malefactors: And he was reputed with the wicked. — (Is. liii., 12).
O Lord, the Most High, exclaims St. Bernard, become the lowest among men! O lofty One become vile! O glory of Angels become the reproach of men: “O lowest and highest! O humble and sublime! O reproach of men and glory of Angels!”
O grace, O strength of the love of God, continues St. Bernard. Thus did the Lord most high over all become the most lightly esteemed of all! “O grace, O power of love, did the highest of all thus become the lowest of all?” And who was it, adds the Saint, that did this? “Who hath done this? Love.” All this hath the love which God bears towards men done, to prove how He loves us, and to teach us by His example how to suffer with peace contempt and injuries: Christ also suffered for us (writes St. Peter), leaving you and example, that you should follow his steps. — (1 Pet. ii., 21). St. Eleazer, when asked by his wife how he came to endure with such peace the great injuries that were done him, answered: I turn to look on Jesus enduring contempt, and say that my affronts are as nothing in respect to those which He, my God, was willing to bear for me.
Ah, my Jesus, and how is it that, at the sight of a God thus dishonoured for love of me, I know not how to suffer the least contempt for love of Thee? A sinner, and proud! And whence, my Lord, can come this pride? I pray Thee, by the merits of the contempt Thou didst suffer, give me grace to suffer with patience and gladness all affronts and injuries. From this day forth I propose by Thy help never more to resent them, but to receive with joy all the reproaches which shall be offered me. Truly have I deserved greater contempt for having despised Thy Divine Majesty, and deserved the contempt of hell. Exceeding sweet and pleasant to me hast Thou rendered affronts, my beloved Redeemer, by having embraced such great contempt for love of me. Henceforth I propose, in order to please Thee, to benefit as much as possible whoever despises me; at least to speak well of and pray for him. And even now I pray Thee to heap up Thy graces on all those from whom I have received any injury. I love Thee, O infinite Good, and will ever love Thee as much as I can. Amen.
Meditation II:
Morning Meditation: THE HABIT OF SIN MAKES THE SINNER OBSTINATE EVEN TO THE LAST
A hard heart shall fare evil at the last. When light is lost and the heart is hardened, the probable consequence will be that the sinner will make a bad end, and die obstinate in sin. O Jesus, I am resolved to change my life and give myself to Thee.
Meditation I:
When light is lost, and the heart is hardened, the probable consequence will be that the sinner will make a bad end, and die obstinate in his sin: A hard heart shall fare evil at the last. — (Ecclus. iii., 27). The just continue to walk in the straight road: The path of the just is right to walk in. — (Is. xxvi., 7). Habitual sinners, on the contrary, go always in a circle: The wicked walk round about. — (Ps. xi., 9). They leave sin for a while, and then they return to it. To such as these St. Bernard announces a curse: “Woe to the man who follows this circle!” Such a one will say: I will amend before I die. But the difficulty lies in this – will an habitual sinner amend even though he should attain old age? The Holy Spirit says: A young man according to his way, even when he is old he will not depart from it. — (Prov. xxii., 6). The reason is, according to St. Thomas of Villanova, that our strength is very feeble: Your strength shall be as the ashes of tow. — (Is. i., 31). From which it follows, as the Saint observes, that the soul, deprived of grace, cannot avoid committing fresh sins: “Hence it comes to pass that the soul, destitute of grace, cannot long escape fresh sins.” But besides this, what madness would it be in a person to play and lose voluntarily all he possessed, in the hope of winning it back at the last stake! Such is the folly of those who continue to live in sin, and hope at the last moment of their life to repair all. Can the Ethiopian or the leopard change the colour of their skin? And how can he lead a good life who has contracted a long habit of sin? If the Ethiopian can change his skin, or the leopard his spots, you also may do well when you have learned evil. — (Jer. xiii., 23). Hence it happens that the habitual sinner abandons himself at last to despair, and thus ends his life.
Ah, my God, shall I, then, wait till Thou dost absolutely abandon me, and send me to hell? Ah, Lord, wait for me; for I am resolved to change my life, and give myself to Thee. Tell me what I must do and I will do it. O Blood of Jesus, aid me. O Mary, Advocate of sinners, succour me; and Thou, Eternal Father, through the merits of Jesus and Mary, have pity on me.
Meditation II:
Spiritual Reading: INTERIOR MORTIFICATION
Evening Meditation: REFLECTIONS AND AFFECTIONS ON THE PASSION OF JESUS CHRIST
Meditation I:
As soon as He arrived at the praetorium (as was revealed to St. Bridget), our loving Saviour at the command of the servants, stripped Himself of His garments, embraced the column, and then laid on it His hands to have them bound. O God, already is begun the cruel torture! O Angels of Heaven, come and look on this sorrowful spectacle; and if it be not permitted you to deliver your King from this barbarous slaughter which men have prepared for Him, at least come and weep for compassion. And thou, my soul, imagine thyself to be present at this horrible tearing of the Flesh of thy beloved Redeemer. Look on Him, how He stands, – thy afflicted Jesus, – with His head bowed, looking on the ground, blushing all over for shame, He awaits this great torture. Behold these barbarians, like so many ravening dogs, are already with the scourges attacking this innocent Lamb. See how one beats Him on the breast, another strikes His shoulders, another smites His loins and His legs; even His Sacred Head and His beautiful face cannot escape the blows. Ah, me! already flows that Divine Blood from every part; already with that Blood are saturated the scourges, the hands of the executioners, the column, and the ground. “He is wounded,” mourns St. Peter Damian, “over His whole Body, torn with the scourges; now they twine round His shoulders, now round His legs – weals upon weals, wounds added to fresh wounds.” Ah, cruel men, with whom are you dealing thus? Stay – stay; know that you are mistaken. The Man Whom you are torturing is innocent and holy; it is myself who am the culprit; to me, to me who have sinned, are these stripes and torments due me. But you regard not what I say. And how canst Thou, O Eternal Father, bear with this great injustice? How canst Thou behold Thy beloved Son suffering thus, and not interfere on His behalf? What is the crime that He has ever committed, to deserve so shameful and so severe a punishment?
Meditation II:
Morning Meditation: DELUSIONS THE DEVIL SUGGESTS TO SINNERS
The devil brings sinners to hell by closing their eyes to the dangers of damnation. He first blinds them, and then leads them into eternal torments. If, then, we wish to be saved, we must continually pray to God in the words of the blind man in the Gospel: Lord, that I may see! Domine, ut videam! Give my light, O Lord, and make me see the way in which I must walk, in order to escape the illusions of the enemy of my salvation.
Meditation I:
Let us take a young person who has fallen into grievous sins, has confessed them, and has regained Divine grace. The devil again tempts him to sin; he resists, but already wavers through the deceits suggested to him by the enemy. I say to that person – to you: Tell me, what will you do? Will you now lose the grace of God, which you have regained, and which is of more value than the whole world, for this wretched gratification? Will you write your own sentence of eternal death, and condemn yourself to burn for ever in hell? “No,” you say, “I do not wish to condemn myself, I wish to be saved; if I commit this sin, I will afterwards confess it.” Behold the first delusion of the tempter. You say to me, then, that you will afterwards confess it? But in the meantime you already give away your soul. Tell me, if you had in your hand a jewel worth a thousand crowns, would you throw it into the river, saying: Afterward I will search diligently and hope to find it? You hold in your hand that precious jewel of your soul, which Jesus Christ has purchased by His Blood; and you cast it voluntarily into hell (for in sinning you are, according to present justice, already condemned), and say: But I hope to recover it by Confession. But supposing you should not recover it? To recover it you must have true repentance, which is the gift of God; and if God should not give you this repentance? And if death were to come, and take from you time for Confession?
You say you will not allow a week to pass over without Confession; and who promises you a week? You say you will go to Confession tomorrow; and who promises you tomorrow? St. Augustine says: “God has not promised you tomorrow; perhaps He will give it you, and perhaps He will not give it you,” as He has denied it to so many, who have gone to bed well, and have been found dead in the morning. How many has God struck dead and sent to hell in the very act of sinning!
And should He do the same to you, how can you ever repair your eternal ruin? Know, that through this delusion, “I will confess afterwards,” the devil has carried off thousands and thousands of Christians to hell. We shall hardly ever find a sinner so desperate as positively to resolve to damn himself: all, even when they commit sin, do so in the hope of future Confession. And thus have so many poor souls been lost, and now they can no longer repair the past.
Is it, then, O my God, because Thou hast been so good to me, that I have been thus ungrateful to Thee? We have been engaged in a contest – I to fly from Thee, and Thou to pursue me; Thou to do me good, and I to return Thee evil. Ah, my Lord, were there no other reason, Thy goodness alone towards me ought to enamour me of Thee, since whilst I have increased my sins, Thou hast increased Thy graces. And how have I merited the light Thou now givest me? My Lord, I thank Thee for it with my whole heart; and I hope to thank Thee for it for all eternity in Heaven.
Meditation II:
Spiritual Reading: INTERIOR MORTIFICATION
Evening Meditation: REFLECTIONS AND AFFECTIONS ON THE PASSION OF JESUS CHRIST
Meditation I:
St. Bonaventure sorrowfully exclaims, “The royal Blood is flowing; bruise is superadded to bruise, and gash to gash.” That Divine Blood was already issuing from every pore: that Sacred Body had already become but one perfect Wound: yet those infuriated brutes did not forebear from adding blow to blow, as the Prophet had foretold: And they have added to the grief of my wounds. — (Ps. lxviii., 27). So that the thongs had not only made the whole Body one Wound, but even bore away pieces of it into the air, until at length the gashes in that Sacred Flesh were such that the bones might have been counted: “The Flesh was so torn away that the bones could be numbered.” Cornelius à Lapide says that in this torment Jesus Christ ought, naturally speaking, to have died; but He willed by His Divine power to keep Himself in life, in order to suffer yet greater pains for love of us; and St. Laurence Justinian had observed the same thing before: “He evidently ought to have died. Yet He reserved Himself unto life, it being His will to endure heavier sufferings.”
Ah, my most loving Lord, Thou art worthy of an infinite love; Thou hast suffered so much in order that I may love Thee. Oh, never permit me, instead of loving Thee, to offend or displease Thee more! Oh, what place in hell should there not be set apart for me, if, after having known the love that Thou hast borne towards such a wretch, I should damn myself, despising a God Who had suffered scorn, smitings, and scourgings for me; and Who had, moreover, after having so often offended Him, so mercifully pardoned me! Ah, my Jesus, let it not, oh, let it not be thus! O my God, how would the love and patience which Thou hast shown me be a torture for me in hell, another hell even yet more full of torments!
Meditation II:
(For First Friday of March)
Morning Meditation: THE LOVING HEART OF JESUS
The Sacred Heart of Jesus loves us infinitely more than we love ourselves. Jesus has loved us even to excess. He has loved us more than His own honour, more than His repose, more than His very life. And is not this an excess of love sufficient to stupefy with astonishment the Angels of Paradise!
Meditation I:
Oh, if we could but understand the love that burns in the Heart of Jesus for us! He has loved us so much, that if all men, all the Angels, and all the Saints were to unite with all their energies, they could not arrive at the thousandth part of the love that Jesus bears to us. He loves us infinitely more than we love ourselves. He has loved us even to excess: They spoke of his decease (excess) which he was to accomplish in Jerusalem. — (Luke ix., 31). And what greater excess of love could there be than for God to die for His creatures? He has loved us to the greatest degree: Having loved his own . . . he loved them unto the end. — (John xiii., 1); since, after having loved us from eternity, – for there never was a moment from eternity when God did not think of us and did not love each one of us: I have loved thee with an everlasting love, – for the love of us He made Himself Man, and chose a life of sufferings and the death of the Cross for our sakes. Therefore He has loved us more than His honour, more than His repose, and more than His life; for He sacrificed everything to show us the love that He bears us. And is not this an excess of love sufficient to stupefy with astonishment the Angels of Paradise for all eternity? This love has induced Him also to remain with us in the Holy Sacrament as on a throne of love; for He remains there under the appearance of a small piece of bread, shut up in a Ciborium, where He seems to remain in perfect annihilation of His Majesty, without movement, and without the use of His senses; so that it seems that He performs no other office than that of loving men. Love makes us desire the constant presence of the object of our love. It is this love and this desire that makes Jesus Christ reside with us in the most Holy Sacrament.
O adorable Heart of my Jesus, Heart inflamed with the love of men, Heart created on purpose to love them, how is it possible that Thou canst be despised, and Thy love so ill corresponded to by men? Oh, miserable that I am, I also have been one of those ungrateful ones that have not loved Thee. Forgive me, my Jesus, this great sin of not having loved Thee Who art so amiable, and Who hast loved me so much that Thou canst do nothing more to oblige me to love Thee. I feel that I deserve to be condemned to be unable to love Thee, for having renounced Thy love, as I have hitherto done. But no, my dearest Saviour, give me any chastisement, but do not inflict this one upon me. Grant me the grace to love Thee, and then give me the sweet, the pleasing precept of loving Thee, my Lord and my God? “Love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart.”
Meditation II:
Spiritual Reading: HEROES AND HEROINES OF THE FAITH – Saints Perpetua and Felicitas and Companions (March 7)
Evening Meditation: REFLECTIONS AND AFFECTIONS ON THE PASSION OF JESUS CHRIST
Meditation I:
We read in history that several penitents, being enlightened by Divine light to see the malice of their sins, died of pure sorrow for them. Oh, what torment, then, must not the Heart of Jesus endure at the sight of all the sins of the world, all the blasphemies, sacrileges, acts of impurity, and all the other crimes which would be committed by men after His death, every one of which, like a wild beast, tore His Heart separately by its own malice! Wherefore our afflicted Lord, during His Agony in the Garden, exclaimed: Is this, therefore, O men, the reward that you render Me for My immeasurable love? Oh, if I could only see that, grateful for My affection, you gave up sin and began to love Me, with what delight should I not hasten to die for you! But to behold, after all My sufferings, so many sins; after so much love, such ingratitude – this is what afflicts Me the most, makes Me sorrowful even unto death, and makes Me sweat pure Blood: And his sweat became as drops of blood trickling down upon the ground. — (Luke xxii., 44). So that, according to the Evangelist, this Bloody Sweat was so copious, that it first drenched all the vestments of our Blessed Redeemer, and then came forth in streams and bathed the ground.
Ah, my loving Jesus, I do not behold in this Garden either scourges or thorns or nails that pierce Thee; how, then, is it that I see Thee all bathed in Blood from Thy head to Thy feet? Alas, my sins were the cruel press which, by dint of affliction and sorrow, forced so much Blood from Thy Heart. I was, then, one of Thy most cruel executioners, who contributed the most to crucify Thee with my sins. It is certain that, if I had sinned less, Thou, my Jesus, wouldst have suffered less. As much pleasure, therefore, as I have taken in offending Thee, so much the more did I increase the sorrow of Thy Heart, already full of anguish. How, then, does not this thought make me die of grief, when I see that I have repaid the love Thou hast shown me in Thy Passion by adding to Thy sorrow and suffering! I, then, have tormented this Heart, so loving and so worthy of love, which has shown so much love to me. My Lord, since I have now no other means left of consoling Thee than to weep over my offences towards Thee, I will now, my Jesus, sorrow for them and lament over them with my whole heart. Oh, give me, I pray Thee, as great sorrow for them as may make me to my last breath weep over the displeasure I have caused Thee, my God, my Love, my All.
Meditation II:
Morning Meditation: MARY’S MARTYRDOM WITHOUT ANY ALLEVIATION
St. Bonaventure asks: “O Lady, tell me – where didst thou stand? Was it only at the foot of the Cross? Ah, much more than this. Thou wert on the Cross itself, crucified with thy Son!” Mary suffered in her heart all that Jesus suffered in His Body. Who shall heal thee, O Mary, since that very Son Who alone could give thee consolation was by His sufferings the sole cause of thine.
Meditation I:
St. Bonaventure remarks that “those wounds which were scattered over the Body of our Lord, were all united in the single heart of Mary.” Thys was our Blessed Lady, through the compassion of her loving heart for her Son, scourged, crowned with thorns, insulted, and nailed to the Cross. Whence the same Saint, considering Mary on Mount Calvary, present at the death of her Son, questions her in these words: “O Lady, tell me, where didst thou stand? Was it only at the foot of the Cross? Ah, much more than this, thou wast on the Cross itself, crucified with thy Son.” Richard of St. Laurence, on the words of the Redeemer, spoken by Isaias the Prophet: I have trodden the wine-press alone, and of the Gentiles there is not a man with me — (Is. lxiii., 3), says, “It is true, O Lord, that in the work of human redemption Thou didst suffer alone, and that there was a woman with Thee, and she was Thine own Mother; she suffered in her heart all that Thou didst endure in Thy body.”
But all this is saying too little of Mary’s sorrows, since she suffered more in witnessing the sufferings of her beloved Jesus than if she herself had endured all the outrages and death of her Son. Erasmus, speaking of parents in general, says that “they are more cruelly tormented by their children’s sufferings than by their own.” This is not always true, but in Mary it evidently was so; for it is certain that she loved her Son and His life beyond all comparison more than herself or a thousand lives of her own. Therefore, Blessed Amadeus rightly affirms that “the afflicted Mother, at the sorrowful sight of the torments of her beloved Jesus, suffered far more than she would have done had she herself endured His whole Passion.” The reason is evident, for, as St. Bernard says, “the soul is more where it loves than where it lives.” Our Lord Himself had already said the same thing: where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. — (Luke xii., 34). If Mary then, by love, lived more in her Son than in herself, she must have endured far greater torments in the sufferings and death of her Son than she would have done had the most cruel death in the world been inflicted upon her.
Meditation II:
Spiritual Reading: FASTING IN HONOUR OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN
Evening Meditation: REFLECTIONS AND AFFECTIONS ON THE PASSION OF JESUS CHRIST
Meditation I:
From the Scriptures alone it clearly appears how barbarous and inhuman was the scourging of Jesus Christ. For why was it that Pilate should, after the scourging, ever have shown Him to the people, saying, Behold the man! were it not that our Saviour was reduced to so pitiable a condition that Pilate believed the very sight of Him would have moved His enemies themselves to compassion, and hindered them from any longer demanding His death? Why was it that in the journey which Jesus, after this, made to Calvary, the Jewish women followed Him with tears and lamentations? But there followed him a great multitude of the people, and of women, who bewailed and lamented him. — (Luke xxiii., 27). Was it, perhaps, because those women loved Him and believed Him to be innocent? No, the women, for the most part, agree with their husbands in opinion; so that they, too, esteemed Him guilty; but the appearance of Jesus after His scourging was so shocking and pitiable, as to move even those who hated Him to tears; and therefore it was that the women gave vent to their tears and sighs. Why, again, was it that in this journey the Jews took the Cross from off His shoulders, and gave it the Cyrenean to carry? According to the most probable opinion, and as the words of St. Matthew clearly show: They compelled him to bear the cross. — (Matt. xxvii., 32); or as St. Luke says: And on him they laid the cross, that he might carry it after Jesus. — (Luke xxiii., 26). Was it, perhaps, that they felt pity for Him, and wished to lessen His pains? No, those guilty men hated Him, and sought to afflict Him to their uttermost. But as the Blessed Denis the Carthusian says, “They feared lest He should die upon the way”; seeing that Our Lord after the scourging was so drained of Blood and so exhausted of strength as to be scarcely able any longer to stand, falling down as He did on His road under the Cross, and faltering as He went at every step, as if at the point of death. Therefore, in order to take Him alive to Calvary, and see Him die upon the Cross, according to their desire, that His name might ever after be on of infamy: Let us cut him off, said they (as the Prophet had foretold), from the land of the living, and let his name be remembered no more — (Jer. xi., 19), — this was the end for which they constrained the Cyrenean to bear the Cross.
Ah, my Lord, great is my happiness in understanding how much Thou hast loved me, and that Thou dost even now preserve for me the same love which Thou didst bear me then, in the time of Thy Passion! But how great is my sorrow at the thought of having offended so good a God! By the merit of Thy scourging, O my Jesus, I ask Thy pardon. I repent, above every other evil, of having offended Thee; and I purpose rather to die than offend Thee again. Pardon me all the wrongs that I have done Thee, and give me the grace ever to love Thee for the time to come.
Meditation II:
