Morning Meditation: THE BODY IN THE GRAVE
Christian soul, follow the advice of St. Chrysostom: “Go to the grave. Contemplate there, dust, ashes, worms – and sigh!” O God, that body pampered with so many delicacies, clothed with so much pomp – see to what it is reduced! The worms, after having consumed all the flesh, devour one another, and in the end nothing remains but a fetid skeleton.
Meditation I:
Behold how the corpse first turns yellow and then black. Afterwards the entire body is covered with a white disgusting mould; then comes forth a clammy, fetid slime which flows to the earth. In that putrid mass is generated a great multitude of worms which feed on the flesh. Rats come to feast on the body; some attack it on the outside; others enter into the mouth and bowels. The cheeks, the lips, and the hair fall off. The ribs are first laid bare, and then the arms and legs. The worms, after having consumed all the flesh, devour one another; and in the end, nothing remains but a fetid skeleton which in the course of time falls to pieces. The bones separate from one another and the head separates from the body. They became like the chaff of a summer threshing-floor, and they were carried away by the wind. — (Dan. ii., 35).
Behold a young nobleman who was the life and soul of conversation: where is he now? Enter his apartment: he is no longer there. If you look for his bed, his robes, or his armour, you will find that they have passed into the hands of others. If you wish to see him, turn to the grave where he is changed into corruption and withered bones. O God, that body, pampered with so many delicacies, clothed with so much pomp, and attended by so many servants, to what is it now reduced? O ye Saints, who knew how to mortify your bodies for the love of that God Whom alone you loved on this earth, you well understood the end of all human greatness, of all earthly delights! Now your bones are honoured as sacred Relics, and preserved in shrines of gold, and your souls are happy in the enjoyment of God, awaiting the last day on which your bodies shall be made partners of your glory, as they have been partakers of your cross in this life. True love for the body consists in treating it here with rigour and contempt, that hereafter it may be happy, and in now refusing it all pleasures which may make it miserable for eternity.
Behold, then, O my God, to what this body by which I have so much offended Thee, must be reduced! To worms and rottenness! This does not afflict me; on the contrary I rejoice that this flesh of mine which has made me lose Thee, my Sovereign Good, will one day rot and be consumed. What grieves me is that to indulge in these wretched pleasures, I have given so much displeasure to Thee. But I will not despair of Thy mercy. Thou hast waited for me in order to pardon me. Thou wilt forgive me if I repent. O Infinite Goodness, I repent with my whole heart of having despised Thee. I will say with St. Catherine of Genoa: My Jesus, no more sins! No more sins! I will no longer abuse Thy patience. I will not wait till the hour of death to begin to love Thee. From this moment I love Thee. I embrace Thee and unite myself to Thee, and I promise never again to depart from Thee. O most holy Virgin, bind me to Jesus Christ and obtain for me the grace never to lose Him more.
Meditation II:
Spiritual Reading: ORIGINAL SIN
Evening Meditation: THE GREAT DIGNITY AND ADVANTAGES OF A SOUL IN GOD’S GRACE
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Morning Meditation: THE SENTENCE OF DEATH
Who is the man that shall live and not see death? The sentence has been already passed. Fire, water, the sword and the power of princes, says St. Augustine, may be resisted, but death – who shall resist it? It is appointed unto men once to die.
Meditation I:
The Sentence of Death has been written against all men. You are a man, you must therefore die. “Our other good and evil things,” says St. Augustine, “are uncertain; death alone is certain.” It is uncertain whether the infant that is just born will be rich or poor; whether he will have good or bad health; whether he will die in youth or in old age. But it is certain that he will die. The stroke of death will fall on all the nobles and monarchs of the earth. When death comes there is no earthly power able to resist it. St. Augustine says: “Fire, water, the sword, and the power of princes may be resisted; but death, who shall resist it?” It is related that at the end of his life a certain king of France said: “Behold, with all my power, I cannot induce death to wait one hour longer for me.” When the end of life arrives, it is not delayed a single moment. Thou hast appointed his bounds, which cannot be passed. — (Job xiv., 5).
Dearly beloved Christian, though you should live as many years as you expect, a day will come, and on that day an hour, which will be the last hour for you. For me who am now writing, and for you who read this little book, the day and the moment have been decreed when I shall no longer write, and you will no longer read. Who is the man that shall live and not see death? — (Ps. lxxxviii., 49). The sentence has been already passed.
Unhappy me, who have spent so many years only in offending Thee, O God of my soul. Behold those years are already past: death is perhaps at hand, and what do I find but pains and remorse of conscience? Oh, that I had always served Thee, my Lord! Fool that I have been! I have lived so many years on this earth, and instead of acquiring merits for Heaven, I have burdened my soul with debts to divine justice. Ah, my dear Redeemer, give me light and strength now to adjust my accounts. Death is perhaps not far off. I wish to prepare for that great moment which will decide my eternal happiness or misery. I thank Thee for having waited for me till now; and since Thou hast given me time to repair the past, do Thou tell me, O my God, what I am to do for Thee. Dost Thou wish me to weep over the offences I have offered to Thee? I am sorry for them and detest them with my whole soul. Dost Thou wish me to spend the remaining years and days of my life in loving Thee? I desire to do so, O God; I have even hitherto frequently resolved to do so; but I have violated my promises. Receive back the traitor that now casts himself with sorrow at Thy feet, that loves Thee and asks Thy mercy.
Meditation II:
Spiritual Reading: ACTUAL SINS
Evening Meditation: THE MISERY OF A SOUL IN SIN
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Morning Meditation: “YESTERDAY FOR ME, TODAY FOR THEE”
Who can tell whether it will be either in a year, or within a month, or within a week, or even whether you will be alive tomorrow? “Yesterday for me, today for thee.” O my Jesus, give me light and pardon me.
Meditation I:
It is appointed. It is certain, then, that we are all condemned to death. We are born, says St. Cyprian, with the halter round the neck, and every step we make brings us nearer to death. As your name was one day in inserted in the Register of Baptisms, so it shall be one day written in the records of the dead. As in speaking of those who have already departed you say: God be merciful to my father, to my uncle, to my brother, — so others shall say the same of you. As you have heard the death-bell toll for many, so others shall hear it toll for you.
But what would you say if you saw a man on his way to the place of execution, jesting, laughing, gazing about in every direction, and thinking only of comedies, festivities and amusements? And are not you now on your way to death? What are the objects of your thoughts? Behold in that grave your friends and relatives on whom justice has been already executed. How great is the terror and dismay of a man condemned to die, when he beholds his companions hanging dead on the gibbet! Look, then, at these dead bodies. Each of them says to you: Yesterday for me; today for thee. — (Ecclus. xxxiii., 23). The same is said to you by the portraits of your deceased relatives, by the memorandum books, the houses, the beds, the garments which they have left. Yesterday for me! Today for thee!
My beloved Redeemer, I would not dare to appear before Thee, did I not see Thee hanging on the Cross lacerated, despised, and lifeless, for the love of me. My ingratitude has been great; but Thy mercy is still greater. My sins have been very grievous; but Thy merits exceed their enormity. Thy Wounds, Thy Blood, and Thy Death, are my hope. I deserve hell by my first sin; to that sin I have added so many other offences. And Thou hast not only preserved my life, but Thou hast also invited me to pardon, and hast offered me peace with so much mercy and so much love. How can I fear that Thou wilt cast me away now that I love Thee and desire nothing but Thy grace? Yes, my dear Lord, I love Thee with my whole heart, and I desire only to love Thee. I love Thee, and am sorry for having despised Thee, not so much because I have deserved hell, as because I have offended Thee, my God, Who hast loved me so tenderly.
Meditation II:
Spiritual Reading: “THOU SHALT NOT HAVE STRANGE GODS BEFORE ME” — (Exod. xx., 3)
Evening Meditation: THE SINNER INSULTS GOD
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Morning Meditation: MEMENTO MORI! REMEMBER DEATH!
Oh, how correctly men estimate things, and how well directed their actions whose judgments are formed and whose conduct is regulated in view of death! “Consider the end of life,” says St. Laurence Justinian, “and you will love nothing in this world.”
Meditation I:
Death is certain. But, O God, this truth Christians know, this they believe and see; and how can they still live so forgetful of death as if they would never have to die? If after this life there were neither hell nor Heaven, could they think less of it than they do at present? It is this forgetfulness that makes them lead so wicked a life. If you wish to live well, spend the remaining days of life with death before your eyes. O death, thy sentence is welcome. — (Ecclus. xli., 3). Oh, how correctly do men estimate things, and how well directed their actions whose judgments are formed and whose conduct is regulated in view of death! “Consider the end of life,” says St. Laurence Justinian, “and you will love nothing in this world.” All that is in the world is the concupiscence of the flesh, the concupiscence of the eyes and the pride of life. — (1 John, ii., 16). All the goods of this earth are reduced to the pleasures of sense, to riches and honours. But all these are readily despised by the man who considers that after being the food of worms in the grave, he will soon be reduced to dust.
And in reality it was in view of death that the Saints despised all the goods of this earth. St. Charles Borromeo kept on his table a skull in order that he might continually contemplate it. Cardinal Baronius had inscribed on his ring the words, Memento Mori! Remember Death! The Venerable Father Juvenal Ancina, Bishop of Saluzzo, had this motto written on a skull, “What you are, I was; and what I am, you shall be.” A holy hermit being asked when dying how he could be so cheerful, said: “I have always kept death before my eyes; and therefore, now that it has arrived, I see nothing new in it.”
Then, at death, all shall be at an end for me! I shall then find only the little I have done for Thee, O my God, and what do I wait for! Do I wait till death comes and finds me as miserable and defiled with sin as I am at present? Were I now called to eternity I should die with great disquietude on account of my past sins. No, my Jesus, I will not die in so sad a state. I thank Thee for having given me time to weep over my iniquities and to love Thee. I wish to begin from this moment. I am sorry from the bottom of my heart for having offended Thee, O Sovereign Good, and I love Thee above all things – I love Thee more than my life.
Meditation II:
Spiritual Reading: FAITH
Evening Meditation: HE THAT LOVES GOD MUST LOVE, NOT ABHOR, DEATH
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Morning Meditation: “FOR WHAT IS YOUR LIFE?”
Worldlings esteem happy only those who enjoy the pleasures, the riches and the pomps of this earth. But death puts an end to all these earthly goods. For what is your life? It is a vapour which appeareth for a little while. O my Jesus, how often, for the miserable pleasures and goods of this earth, have I offended and lost Thee Who art an Infinite Good!
Meditation I:
For what is your life? It is a vapour which appeareth for a little while. — (James iv., 15). The vapours exhaled from the earth, when raised in the air and clothed in the light of the sun, make a splendid appearance, but how long does this splendour last? It vanishes before the first blast of wind. Behold that nobleman: today flattered and feared and almost adored; tomorrow dead, despised, reviled and trampled upon. At death we must leave all things. The brother of that great servant of God, Thomas à Kempis, took delight in speaking of a beautiful house which he had built for himself: a friend told him that it had one great defect. “What is it?” he asked. “It is,” answered the other, “that you have made a door in it.” “What!” rejoined the brother of à Kempis, “is a door a defect?” “Yes,” answered the friend; “for through this door you must one day be carried dead and must leave house and all.”
Death in a word, strips man of all this world’s goods. Oh, what a spectacle to behold a prince banished from his palace, never more to return to it; and to see others take possession of his furniture, his money, and all his other goods! The servants leave him in the grave with a garment scarcely sufficient to cover his body. There is no longer any one to esteem or flatter him, no longer any one to attend to his commands. Saladin, who had acquired many kingdoms in Asia, gave directions at death, that when his body should be carried to the place of burial a person should go before, holding a winding-sheet suspended from a pole and cry aloud: “This is all that Saladin brings with him to the grave.”
My Lord, since Thou givest me light to know that whatever the world esteems is smoke and folly grant me strength to detach my heart from earthly goods before death separates me from them. Miserable that I have been! How often, for the miserable pleasures and goods of this earth, have I offended and lost Thee, Who art an Infinite Good! O Jesus, my heavenly Physician, cast Thine eyes upon my poor soul, look at the many wounds which I have inflicted on it by my sins, and have pity on me. If thou wishest thou canst make me clean. — (Matt. viii., 2). I know that Thou art able and willing to heal me; but in order to heal me, Thou wishest me to repent of the injuries which I have committed against Thee. I am sorry for them from the bottom of my heart. Heal me, then, now that it is in Thy power to heal me. Heal my soul, for I have sinned against thee. — (Ps. xl., 5).
Meditation II:
Spiritual Reading: THE THINGS THAT WE MUST KNOW AND BELIEVE
Some Necessary by Necessity of Means, and Others by Necessity of Precept
There are some Articles to be believed by necessity of means without which we cannot obtain salvation; others by necessity of precept. The necessity of means implies that if we do not believe certain Articles of Faith, we cannot be saved. The necessity of precept signifies that we must believe certain other Articles proposed to us by the Church, but if it happens that we are ignorant of them by invincible ignorance, we are excused from sin and may be saved.
1. To know and believe that there is a God, and that He is a just rewarder of virtue and punisher of vice, is certainly necessary as a means of salvation, . . .
Evening Meditation: JESUS SATISFIES FOR OUR SINS
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Morning Meditation: MARY’S FAITH
St. Leo applies to our Blessed Lady the words of Proverbs: Her lamp shall not be put out in the night. When the Disciples doubted, she did not doubt. She saw Jesus weep and believed Him the Joy of Paradise. She saw Him in death, despised and crucified, and although Faith wavered in others, Mary remained firm in the belief that He was God. O Virgin Mary, increase our Faith!
Meditation I:
As the Blessed Virgin is the Mother of holy Love and Hope, so also is she the Mother of Faith: I am the mother of fair love, and of fear, and of knowledge, and of holy hope. — (Ecclus. xxiv., 24). And with reason is she so, says St. Ireneus, for “the evil done by Eve’s incredulity was remedied by Mary’s Faith.” This is confirmed by Tertullian who says that because Eve, contrary to the assurance that she had received from God, believed the serpent, she brought death into the world; but our Queen, because she believed the Angel when he said that she, remaining a virgin, would become the Mother of God, brought salvation into the world. For St. Augustine says that “when Mary consented to the Incarnation of the Eternal Word, by means of her Faith she opened Heaven to men.” Richard of St. Laurence, on the words of St. Paul, for the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the believing wife — (Cor. vii., 14), says that “Mary is the believing woman by whose Faith the unbelieving Adam and all his posterity have been saved.” Hence on account of her Faith, Elizabeth called the holy Virgin blessed: Blessed art thou that hast believed, because those things shall be accomplished in thee that were spoken by the Lord. — (Luke i., 45). And St. Augustine adds, that Mary was more blessed in receiving the Faith of Christ than in conceiving the Flesh of Christ.
Father Suarez says that the most holy Virgin had more Faith than all men and Angels. She saw her Son in the Crib of Bethlehem, and believed Him the Creator of the world. She saw Him fly from Herod, and yet believed Him the King of kings. She saw Him born and believed Him Eternal. She saw Him poor and in need of food, and believed Him the Lord of the universe. She saw Him lying on straw, and believed Him Omnipotent. She observed that He did not speak, and she believed Him Infinite Wisdom. She heard Him weep, and believed Him the Joy of Paradise. In fine, she saw Him in death, despised and crucified, and, although Faith wavered in others, Mary remained firm in the belief that He was God.
On these words of the Gospel, there stood by the cross of Jesus his mother — (John xix., 25), St. Antoninus says: “Mary stood supported by her Faith which she retained firm in the Divinity of Christ.” And for this reason it is, the Saint adds, that in the office of Tenebrae only one candle is left lighted. St. Leo, on this subject, applies to our Blessed Lady the words of Proverbs, Her lamp shall not be put out in the night. — (Prov. xxxi., 18).
Therefore Mary merited by her great Faith to become “the light of all the faithful,” as St. Methodius calls her, and the “Queen of the true Faith,” as she is called by St. Cyril of Alexandria. The Holy Church herself attributes to the merits of Mary’s Faith the destruction of all heresies: “Rejoice, O Virgin Mary, for thou alone hast destroyed all heresies through the world.”
Meditation II:
Spiritual Reading: PROOFS OF THE TRUTH OF OUR FAITH
Evening Meditation: THE PATIENCE OF GOD WITH SINNERS
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