Meditación matutina: ALL ENDS AND SOON ENDS
The grass of the field which is to-day, and to-morrow is cast into the oven. — (Matt. vi., 30). Behold, the goods of the earth are like the grass of the field, which to-day is blooming and beautiful, but by the evening withers, and its flowers fade, and the next day it is cast into the fire! All flesh is grass and all the glory thereof as the flower of the field.
Meditación I:
Behold, the goods of the earth are like the grass of the field, which to-day is blooming and beautiful, but by the evening withers, and its flowers fade, and the next day it is cast into the fire. This what God commanded the Prophet Isaias to preach: Cry. And I said: What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the glory thereof as the flower of the field. — (Is. xl., 6). Hence St. James compares the rich ones of this world to the flower of the grass: at the end of their journey through life they rot, and all their riches and grandeurs with them. The flower of the grass shall he pass away. For the sun rose with a burning heat, and parched the grass, and the flower thereof fell off, and the beauty of the shape thereof perished: so also shall the rich man fade away in his ways. — (James i., 10, 11). They fade away and are cast into the fire, like the rich glutton, who made a splendid appearance in this life but afterwards was buried in hell.
Let us, then, dearly beloved Christian, attend to the salvation of our souls, and to the acquisition of riches for eternity, which never ends; for everything in this world ends, and ends very soon.
When some great one of this world is in the full enjoyment of the riches and honours he has acquired, death shall come, and he shall be told: Take order with thy house; for thou shalt die, and not live. — (Is. xxxviii., 1). Oh, what doleful tidings! The unhappy man must then say: Farewell, O world! Farewell, O my villa! Farewell, O my beautiful gardens! Farewell, relatives and friends! Farewell sports and balls! Farewell, festivities and banquets! Farewell, honours! All is over for me! There is no remedy: whether he will or not he must leave all. For when he shall die, he shall take nothing away; nor shall his glory descend with him. — (Ps. xlviii., 18). St. Bernard says that death produces a horrible separation of the soul from the body, and from all the things of this earth. Opus mortis, horrendum divortium. To the great of this world, whom worldlings regard as the most fortunate of mortals, the bare mention of death is so full of bitterness that they are unwilling even to hear it mentioned; for their entire concern is to find peace in their earthly goods. O death! says Ecclesiasticus, how bitter is the remembrance of thee to a man that hath peace in his possessions. — (Ecclus., xli., 1).
O my Jesus I give Thee thanks for having waited for me and for not having called me out of this world in my sins. During the remainder of my life I will weep over my iniquities. I will love Thee with all my strength. I know I must die, and by Thy grace I will prepare to die a happy death.
Meditación II:
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Spiritual Reading: DANGERS TO SALVATION
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Meditación vespertina: CONSIDERATIONS ON THE PASSION OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST
Meditación I:
The Divine Priest, Jesus Christ, Who was both Priest and Victim, by the sacrifice of His life for the salvation of men completed the Sacrifice of the Cross and accomplished the work of the world’s Redemption. By His death, Jesus Christ stripped our death of its terrors. Until then it was but the punishment of rebels; but by grace and the merits of our Saviour it becomes a sacrifice so dear to God that when we unite it to the death of Jesus, it makes us worthy to enjoy the same glory that God enjoys, and to hear Him one day say to us, as we hope: Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord! – (Matt. xxv., 21).
Thus death, which was an object of pain and dread, was changed by the death of Jesus into a passage from a state of peril and danger of hell, into one of security and of eternal blessedness, and from the miseries of this life to the boundless delights of Paradise.
Therefore the Saints have ever regarded death with joy and desire, and no longer with fear. St. Augustine says that they who love the Crucified One “live with patience and die with joy.” And common experience shows that they who in life have been most troubled with persecutions, temptations, scruples, or other painful events are in death most comforted by Jesus Crucified, conquering with great peace of mind all the terrors and pains of death. And if it has sometimes happened that some of the Saints, as we read in their Lives, died in great fear of death, the Lord God permitted this in order to increase their merits; because the more painful the sacrifice, the more acceptable it was to God, and the more profitable to them for eternity.
Oh, how much more bitter was death of old, before the time of Jesus Christ! The Saviour was not yet come, and men sighed for His coming: they waited for His promise, but they knew not when it would be fulfilled. The devil had great power upon earth; Heaven was closed to men. But after the death of the Redeemer, hell was conquered. Divine grace was given to souls, God was reconciled to men, and the Kingdom of Heaven was opened to all those who die innocent, or have expiated their sins by repentance. And if some who die in grace do not immediately enter Heaven, this only results from the faults of which they are not yet cleansed; and death merely bursts their bonds, in order that they may be free to unite themselves perfectly to God, from Whom they are far away in this land of exile.
Meditación II:
Meditación matutina: EARNEST LABOUR FOR ETERNAL SALVATION
“No security is too great where Eternity is at stake,” says St. Bernard. We should, therefore, resolve: “I will save my soul, cost what it may!” Perish all things else – property, friends, even life itself, if I can but only save my soul!
Meditación I:
To be saved it is not sufficient to profess to do merely what is absolutely necessary. If, for example, a person wishes to avoid only mortal sins, without taking any account of those which are venial, he will easily fall into mortal sins and lose his soul. He who desires to avoid only such dangers as are absolutely the immediate occasions of sin will most probably one day discover that he has fallen into grievous crimes and is lost. O my God, with what attention are the princes of this world served! Everything is avoided that can possibly give them the least offence for fear of losing their favour; but with what carelessness Thou art served! Everything is avoided that can endanger the life of the body is shunned with the greatest caution, while the dangers which threaten the life of the soul are not feared!
O my God, how negligently have I hitherto served Thee. Henceforth I will serve Thee with the greatest attention; be Thou my helper and assist me.
O my brother, if God should act as sparingly with you as you do with Him, what would become of you? If He should grant you only the grace barely sufficient – would you be saved? You would be able to obtain salvation, but you would not obtain it; because in this life temptations frequently occur so violent that it is morally impossible not to yield to them without a special assistance from God. But God does not afford His special assistance to those who deal sparingly with Him: He who soweth sparingly shall also reap sparingly. — (2 Cor. ix., 6).
But, O God, Thou hast not dealt sparingly with me: while I have been so ungrateful towards Thee as to repay Thy many favours with offences, Thou, instead of chastising me, hast redoubled Thy graces towards me. No, my God, I will never more be ungrateful to The, as I have hitherto been.
Meditación II:
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Spiritual Reading: DANGERS TO SALVATION
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Meditación vespertina: CONSIDERATIONS ON THE PASSION OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST
Meditación I:
The soldiers came, and broke the legs of the two thieves who were crucified with Jesus, but when they came to Jesus, they saw that He was already dead, and abstained from doing the same to Him. One of them, however, with a spear pierced His side, from which immediately came forth Blood and water. — (John xix., 34).
St. Cyprian says that the spear pierced straight into the Heart of Jesus Christ, and the same was revealed to St. Bridget. From which we understand that, as both Blood and water flowed forth, the spear, in order to strike the heart, must first have pierced the pericardium.
St. Augustine says that St. John used the words opened the side, because in the Heart of the Lord the way of life was opened, whence came forth the Sacraments by means of which we enter upon eternal life. Further, it is said that the Blood and water which came from the side of Jesus were figures of the Sacraments; the water, of Baptism, which is the first of the Sacraments; and the Blood, of the Eucharist, which is the greatest.
St. Bernard further says that, by receiving this visible stroke, Jesus Christ wished to signify the invisible stroke of love by which His Heart was pierced for us.
St. Augustine, speaking of the Eucharist, says that the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass to-day is not less efficacious before God than the Blood and water which flowed that day from the side of Jesus Christ.
Meditación II:
Meditación matutina: THE CERTAINTY OF BEING SAVED OR LOST
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Meditación I:
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Meditación II:
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Spiritual Reading: THE EVIL EFFECTS OF A BAD HABIT
1. IT BLINDS THE UNDERSTANDING
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Meditación vespertina: CONSIDERATIONS ON THE PASSION OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST
Meditación I:
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Meditación II:
Meditación matutina: THE UNCERTAINTY OF GRACE
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Meditación I:
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Meditación II:
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Spiritual Reading: THE EVIL EFFECTS OF A BAD HABIT
2. IT HARDENS THE HEART
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Meditación vespertina: CONSIDERATIONS ON THE PASSION OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST
Meditación I:
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Meditación II:
Meditación matutina: THE DESIRE OF GOD TO SAVE ALL MEN
Te he amado con amor eterno. And so God has from all eternity loved every human soul. It was for us and for our salvation He sent His only Son into the world to die upon the Cross. Alas, how often have I withdrawn myself from God and sold myself for a nothing to Satan, God’s enemy and my own!
Meditación I:
It is, indeed, amazing that man, a worm of the earth, should dare to offend His Creator and turn his back upon Him, by despising His graces after God has so favoured and loved him as to lay down His life to save him. But it is still more surprising that God, after having been thus despised by man, should seek after him, invite him to repentance and offer him pardon, as though God stood in need of us and not we of God.
O Jesus, Thou seekest me, and I seek after Thee. Thou desirest me, and I desire only Thee.
For Christdice el Apóstol, we beseech you, be reconciled to God. — (2 Cor. v., 20). “And does God,” exclaims St. Chrysostom, “call thus upon sinners? And what does He ask of them? That they be reconciled, and in peace with Him.”
My Redeemer, Jesus Christ, how couldst Thou have had so much love for me, who has had so often offended Thee? I detest all my offences against Thee; give me still greater grief, still greater love, that I may deplore my sins, not so much on account of the punishments I have deserved by them, as for the injury I have offered to Thee, my God, Who art infinitely good and amiable.
Meditación II:
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Lectura espiritual: THE EVIL EFFECTS OF A BAD HABIT
3. IT DIMINISHES SPIRITUAL STRENGTH
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Meditación vespertina: CONSIDERATIONS ON THE PASSION OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST
Meditación I:
When considering the love of the Son of God for men, we should ever bear in mind that when He saw, on the one hand all men condemned because of sin, and on the other Divine Justice requiring a full and perfect satisfaction, He voluntarily offered Himself to make satisfaction for the offences committed by man, who was himself unable to offer such a satisfaction: He was offered, because it was his own will. — (Is. liii., 7). And this humble Lamb gave Himself to the torturers, suffering them to lacerate His flesh, and to lead Him to death, without lamenting or opening His mouth, as it was foretold: He shall be brought as a sheep to the slaughter, and shall be dumb as a lamb before his shearer, he shall not open his mouth. — (Is. liii., 7). St. Paul writes that Jesus Christ accepted the death of the Cross to obey His Father. But let us not imagine that the Redeemer was crucified solely to obey His Father, and not with His own full will; He freely offered Himself to this death, and of His own will chose to die for man, moved by the love He bore him, as He Himself declares by St. John: I lay down my life; no man taketh it away from me, but I lay it down of myself. — (John, x., 17-18). And He said that it was the work of the Good Shepherd to give His life for His sheep. And why was this? What obligation was there on the Shepherd to give His life for the sheep? Christ also hath loved us, and delivered himself for us. - (Ef. v., 2).
This, indeed, our loving Redeemer Himself declared, when He said: And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all things to myself — (John xii., 32), thereby showing the kind of death that He would die upon the Cross, as the Evangelist himself explains it: Now this he said, signifying what death he should die. — (John xii., 33). On these words St. John Chrysostom remarks that He draws souls as it were from the hands of a tyrant. By His death He draws us from the hands of Lucifer, who, as a tyrant, keeps us enchained as slaves, to torment us after our death forever in hell.
Meditación II:
Meditación matutina: “IF I AM LOST, I SHALL NOT BE LOST ALONE”
What do you say? If you are lost, and are damned you will not be alone! But what consolation will the company of the wicked be to you in hell? O accursed sin, how it can blind men gifted with reason!
Meditación I:
What do you say? If you are lost, and are damned, you will not be alone! But what consolation will the company of the wicked be to you in hell? Every condemned soul in hell weeps and laments, saying: Although I am condemned to suffer forever, oh, would that I might suffer alone! The wretched company which you will meet with there will increase your torments by their despairing groans and moanings. What a torment to hear even a dog howling all night long, or a child crying for hours, and not to be able to sleep! And what will it be to hear the yells and howlings of so many wretched souls in despair, who will continually torment one another with their dismal noises, and this, not for one night, nor for many nights only, but for all Eternity!
Again, your companions will but increase the torments of hell by the stench of their burning carcasses. Out of their carcasses, says the Prophet Isaias, shall a stench arise. — (Is. xxxiv., 3). They are called carcasses, not because they are dead, for they are alive to pain, but because of the stench they will give forth. Your companions will also increase the torments of hell by their numbers; they will be in that pit as grapes in the wine-press of the anger of God: He treadeth, said St. John, the wine-press of the fierceness of the wrath of God the Almighty. — (Apoc. xix., 15). They will be straitened on every side, so as to be unable to move hand or foot so long as God shall be God.
Meditación II:
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Spiritual Reading: THE MISERY OF RELAPSING INTO SIN
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Meditación vespertina: CONSIDERATIONS ON THE PASSION OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST
Meditación I:
Behold Jesus, then, presented by the Scribes and priest to Pilate as a malefactor, that he might judge Him and condemn Him to the death of the Cross; and see how they follow Him, in order to see Him condemned and crucified. Oh, marvellous thing, cries St. Augustine, to see the Judge judged! To see Justice condemned! To see life dying! And by what were these marvels accomplished except by the love which Jesus Christ bore to men? Christ hath loved us and delivered himself for us. Oh, that these words of St. Paul were ever before our eyes! Truly then would every affection for earthly things depart from our heart, and we should think only of loving our Redeemer, reflecting that it was love which brought Him to pour forth all His Blood, to make for us a bath of salvation. Nos amó y nos lavó de nuestros pecados con su sangre. — (Apoc. i., 5). St. Bernardine of Sienna says that Jesus Christ from the Cross looked at every single sin of every one of us, and offered His Blood for every one of them. In a word, love brought the Lord of all to appear the vilest and lowest of all things upon earth.
“O power of love!” cries out St. Bernard; “The Supreme God of all is made the lowest of all! Who hath done this? Love, forgetful of its dignity, powerful in its affections! Love triumphs over God!” Love has done this, because, in order to make itself known to the beloved, it has brought the loving One to lay aside His dignity, and to do that alone which is to the advantage and pleasure of the beloved. Therefore, St. Bernard says that God, Who can be conquered by none, allows Himself to be conquered by the love He bore to men.
We must, moreover, bear in mind that whatever Jesus Christ suffered in His Passion, He suffered for each one of us individually. On which account St. Paul says: I live in the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and delivered himself for me. — (Gal. ii., 20). And what the Apostle said every one of us may say. Wherefore St. Augustine writes that each man was redeemed at such a price that each seems to be of equal value with God. The Saint also goes on to say: “Thou hast loved me, not as Thyself, but more than Thyself, since, to deliver me from death, Thou hast been willing to die for me.”
Meditación II:
Meditación matutina: THE HUMILITY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN
Jesus Christ said: Aprended de mí, que soy manso y humilde de corazón. As holy Mary was the first and most perfect disciple of Jesus Christ in the practice of all virtues, she was the first also in Humility, and merited to be exalted above all creatures.
Meditación I:
“Humility,” says St. Bernard, “is the foundation and guardian of virtues,” for without humility no other virtue can exist in the soul. Should the soul possess all virtues, all will depart when humility goes. But, on the other hand, as St. Francis de Sales wrote to St. Jane Frances de Chantal, “God so loves humility that whenever He sees it He is immediately drawn thither.” This beautiful and so necessary virtue was unknown in the world; but the Son of God Himself came on earth to teach it by His own example, and willed that in this virtue in particular we should endeavour to imitate Him: Aprended de mí, que soy manso y humilde de corazón. — (Matt. xi., 29). Mary, being the first and most perfect disciple of Jesus Christ in the practice of all virtues, was the first also in that of humility, and by it merited to be exalted above all creatures. It was revealed to St. Matilda that the first virtue in which the Blessed Mother particularly exercised herself from her very childhood was that of humility.
The first effect of humility of heart is a lowly opinion of ourselves: “Mary had always so humble an opinion of herself, that, as it was revealed to the same St. Matilda, although she saw herself enriched with greater graces than all other creatures, she never preferred herself to any one.” Not indeed that Mary considered herself a sinner: for “humility is truth,” as St. Teresa remarks: and Mary knew that she had never offended God: nor was it that she did not acknowledge that she had received greater graces from God than all other creatures; for an humble heart always acknowledges the special favours of the Lord, to humble itself the more: but the Divine Mother, by the greater light wherewith she knew the infinite greatness and goodness of God, also knew her own nothingness, and therefore more than all others she humbled herself. “The most Blessed Virgin had always the majesty of God, and her own nothingness, present to her mind,” says St. Bernardine. As a beggar, when clothed with a rich garment, which has been bestowed upon her, does not pride herself on it in the presence of the giver, but is rather humbled, being reminded thereby of her own poverty; so also, the more Mary saw herself enriched, the more did she humble herself, remembering that all was God’s gift; whence she herself told St. Elizabeth of Hungary that “she might rest assured that she looked upon herself as most vile and unworthy of God’s grace.” Therefore St. Bernardine says that “after the Son of God, no creature in the world was so exalted as Mary, because no creature in the world ever humbled herself so much as she did.”
Meditación II:
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Spiritual Reading: THE HUMILITY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN
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Meditación vespertina: CONSIDERATIONS ON THE PASSION OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST
Meditación I:
St. Augustine says that Jesus Christ, having first given His life for us, has bound us to give our life for Him; and, further, that when we go to the Eucharistic table to communicate, as we go to feed there upon the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, we ought also, in gratitude, to prepare for Him the offering of our blood and of our life, if there is need for us to give them for His glory.
Full of tenderness are the words of St. Francis de Sales on this text of St. Paul: La caridad de Cristo nos apremia. — (2 Cor. v., 14). To what does it press us? To love Him. But let us hear what St. Francis de Sales says: “When we know that Jesus has loved us even to death, and that the death of the Cross, is not this to feel our hearts constrained by a violence as great as it is full of delight?” And then he adds: “My Jesus gives Himself wholly to me, and I give myself wholly to Him; I will live and die upon His breast, and neither death nor life shall ever separate me from Him.”
St. Peter, in order that we might remember to be ever grateful to our Saviour reminds us that we were not redeemed from the slavery of hell with gold or silver, but with the Precious Blood of Jesus Christ, which He, the innocent Lamb, sacrificed for us upon the altar of the Cross. Great, therefore will be the punishment of those who are thankless for such a blessing. It is true that Jesus came to save all men who were lost; but what was said by the Venerable Simeon, when Mary presented the Child Jesus in the Temple is also true: Behold, this child is set for the fall and the resurrection of many in Israel, and for a sign which shall be contradicted. — (Luke ii., 34). By the words for the resurrection he expresses the salvation which all believers should receive from Jesus Christ, who by Faith should rise from death to the life of grace. But first, by the words he is set for the fall, he foretells that many shall fall into a greater ruin by their ingratitude to the Son of God, Who came into the world to become a contradiction to His enemies, as the following words imply: This child is for a sign which shall be contradicted; Jesus Christ was set up a sign, against which were hurled all the calumnies, the injuries, and the insults the Jews devised against Him. And this sign is contradicted not only by the Jews of the present day, who deny Him to be the Messias, but by those Christians who ungratefully return His love with offences, and neglect His commands.
Meditación II:
