Meditação matinal: “GLADLY WILL I GLORY IN MY INFIRMITIES“ — (Epistle of Sunday. 2 Cor. xi., 19, 33)
What greater joy can there be than to suffer some cross and to know that by embracing it we give pleasure to God? St. Mary Magdalen de Pazzi felt such consolation in suffering whatever came to her by God’s will that she used to be lost in an ecstasy of Divine love.
Meditação I:
He who is united to the will of God, enjoys a perpetual peace, even in this world: Whatsoever shall befall the just man, it shall not make him sad — (Prov. xii., 21); and it must be so, because a soul cannot have more perfect content than to see its every wish fulfilled; and he who wills nothing but what God wills, has all that he wishes, since whatever happens must be by the will of God. Solinus says, that when resigned souls receive a humiliation, they will it; it they suffer poverty, they wish to be poor; in short, they will whatsoever happens, and therefore they lead a happy life. Be the weather cold or hot, let the rain or the storm come, he who is united to God’s will says: “I wish for this cold or heat (etc.), because God so wills it.” If loss or persecution, sickness or death, should come, he still says: “I am willing to be poor, persecuted, sick or even to die, because such is the will of God.” He who rests on the Divine will, and is pleased with whatsoever God may do, is as if he were placed above the clouds, and saw tempests raging below, but remained unhurt and undisturbed by them. This is the peace which, as the Apostle says, surpasseth all understanding — (Phil. iv., 7); which exceeds all the delights of the world, and is so steadfast as to admit of no change: A holy man continueth in wisdom as the sun; but a fool is changed as the moon. — (Ecclus. xxvii., 12). The fool, that is, the sinner, changes like the moon, which increases today, and wanes tomorrow; one day he laughs, the next he weeps; at one time he is mild and cheerful, at another violent and sad; for his peace rests in conformity with the will of God: And on earth peace to men of good will. — (Luke ii., 14). We cannot help feeling some sting of pain from adversity in the inferior part of our souls; but peace will always reign in the superior part, when our will is united to that of God: Your joy no man shall take from you. — (John xvi., 22). How foolish are those who resist God’s will, since what He appoints must nevertheless be fulfilled! Who resisteth his will? — (Rom. is., 19). Those poor creatures must therefore endure their cross, but without fruit, and without peace: Who hath resisted him, and hath had peace? — (Job ix., 4).
My Divine King, my beloved Redeemer, come, and from this day forward reign alone in my soul: take complete possession of my will that I may desire and wish nothing but what Thou willest. In whatever shall befall me, I will always say: My God, I will only what Thou dost will. May Thy will be always done in me! Thy will be done!
Meditação II:
Leitura espiritual: THE UNHAPPY LIFE OF SINNERS
Meditação noturna: “MY GRACE IS SUFFICIENT FOR THEE.“ — (Epistle of Sunday)
Meditação I:
Meditação II:
Meditação matinal: THE WILL OF GOD TO SAVE ALL MEN
Our holy Redeemer has ransomed us from eternal death at the price of His own Blood, and He does not wish to see these souls of ours lost which have cost Him so much. When He sees souls that are constraining Him by their sins to sentence them to hell, He, as it were, weeps with compassion for them and says: And wherefore will ye die, O house of Israel? Return ye and live! — (Ezech. xviii., 31). My children, why will you destroy and damn yourselves when I have died upon a Cross to save you? Return to Me as penitents, and I will restore to you the life you have lost.
Meditação I:
The Apostle, St. Paul, teaches that God willeth the salvation of all: He will have all men to be saved. — (1 Tim. ii., 4). And St. Peter writes: The Lord dealeth patiently for your sake, not willing that any should perish, but that all should return to penance. — (2 Peter iii., 9). For this end the Son of God came down from Heaven, and was made Man, and spent thirty-three years in labours and sufferings, and finally shed His Blood and laid down His life for our salvation. And shall we forfeit our salvation?
Thou, my Saviour, didst spend Thy whole life in securing my salvation, and in what have I spent so many years of my life? What fruit hast Thou hitherto reaped from me? I have deserved to be cut off and cast into hell. But Thou desirest not the death of the sinner, but that he be converted and live. — (Ezech. xxxiii., 11). Yes, O God, I leave all and turn myself to Thee. I love Thee, and because I love Thee I am sorry for having offended Thee. Accept of me, and suffer me not to forsake Thee any more.
How much did not the Saints do to secure their eternal salvation! How many nobles and kings have forsaken their kingdoms and estates, and shut themselves up in cloisters! How many young persons have forsaken their country and friends, to dwell in caves and deserts! And how many Martyrs have laid down their lives under the most cruel tortures! And why? – to save their souls. And what have we done?
Woe to me, who, although I know that death is near at hand, yet think not of it! No, my God, I will no longer live at a distance from Thee. Why do I delay? Is it that death may overtake me in the miserable state in which I now am? No, my God, do Thou assist me to prepare for death.
Meditação II:
Leitura espiritual: THE POWER OF THE PASSION OF JESUS CHRIST TO ENKINDLE DIVINE LOVE IN EVERY HEART
Meditação noturna: FRUITS OF MEDITATION ON THE PASSION OF JESUS CHRIST
Meditação I:
Meditação II:
Meditação matinal: THE MERCY OF GOD IN CALLING SINNERS TO REPENTANCE
Art thou a sinner, and dost thou desire to be pardoned? “Doubt not,” says St. John Chrysostom, “that God has a greater desire to pardon thee than thou hast to be pardoned.” God stands at the door of our hearts, and knocks that we may open to Him: Behold, I stand at the door and knock. — (Apoc. iii., 20). Again He urges: Why will ye die, O house of Israel? — (Ezech. xviii., 31). As if He were saying in compassion: “O My child, why wilt thou die?”
Meditação I:
The Lord called Adam, and said to him: Where art thou? — (Gen. iii., 9). These are the words of a father, says a pious author, going in quest of his lost son. Oh, the immense compassion of our God! Adam sins, he turns his back upon God; and yet God does not abandon him, but follows him and calls after him: Adam, where art thou? Thus, my soul, has God frequently done towards thee; thou hast forsaken Him by sin; but He did not hesitate to approach thee, and to call upon thee by many interior lights, by remorse of conscience, and by His holy inspirations; all of which were the effects of His compassion and love.
O God of mercy, O God of love, how could I have so grievously offended Thee! How could I have been so ungrateful to Thee!
As a father, when he beholds his son hastening to cast himself down from the brink of a precipice, presses forward towards him, and with tears endeavours to withhold him from destruction; so, my God, hast Thou done towards me. I was already hastening by my sins to precipitate myself into hell, and Thou didst hold me back. I am now sensible, O Lord, of the love which Thou hast shown me, and I hope to sing forever in Heaven the praises of Thy mercy: The mercies of the Lord I will sing forever. — (Ps. lxxxviii., 1). I know, O Jesus, that Thou desirest my salvation; but I do not know whether Thou hast yet pardoned me. Oh! give me intense sorrow for my sins, give me an ardent love for Thee, as signs of Thy merciful forgiveness.
Meditação II:
Leitura espiritual: THE POWER OF THE PASSION OF JESUS CHRIST – (continued)
Meditação noturna: REFLECTIONS AND AFFECTIONS ON THE PASSION OF JESUS CHRIST
Meditação I:
Meditação II:
Meditação matinal: THE TURNING AWAY FROM GOD BY SIN
Who is the Lord that I should hear his voice? I know not the Lord. — (Exod. v., 2). So speaks the sinner. Lord, I do not acknowledge Thee! I will do what I please! He insults God to His face and turns his back upon Him. This turning away from God is mortal sin.
Meditação I:
St. Augustine and St. Thomas define mortal sin as a turning away from God: that is, the turning of one’s back upon God, leaving the Creator for the sake of the creature. What punishment would that subject deserve who, while his king was giving him a command, contemptuously turned his back upon him to go and transgress his orders? That is what the sinner does; and it is punished in hell with the pain of loss, that is, the loss of God, a punishment richly deserved by him who in this life turns his back upon his Sovereign Good.
Alas! my God, I have frequently turned my back upon Thee; but I see that Thou hast not yet abandoned me; I see that Thou approachest me, and, inviting me to repentance, dost offer me Thy pardon. I am sorry above every evil for having offended Thee, do Thou have pity on me.
Thou hast forsaken me, saith the Lord; thou art gone backward. — (Jer. xv., 6). God complains and says: Ungrateful soul, hast thou forsaken Me! I should never have forsaken thee hadst thou not first turned thy back upon Me: thou hast gone backward. O God, with what consternation will these words fill the soul of the sinner when he stands to be judged before Thy Divine tribunal!
Thou makest me hear them now, O my Saviour, not to condemn me, but to bring me to sorrow for the offences I have committed against Thee. Yes, O Jesus, I sincerely repent of all the displeasure I have given Thee. For my own miserable gratification I have forsaken Thee, my God, my Sovereign, Infinite Good! But behold me a penitent returned to Thee; reject me not.
Meditação II:
Leitura espiritual: THE POWER OF THE PASSION OF JESUS CHRIST – (continued)
Meditação noturna: REFLECTIONS AND AFFECTIONS ON THE PASSION OF JESUS CHRIST
Meditação I:
Meditação II:
Meditação matinal: PROVOKING GOD BY SIN TO DEPART FROM US
Thus does the Royal Prophet speak of sinners: They tempted and provoked the most high God. — (Ps. lxxvii., 65). God is not capable of grief; but were it possible for Him to grieve, every sin that men commit would deeply afflict Him. Our sins were the cause of Jesus sweating Blood, and suffering the agonies of death in the garden of Gethsemane, where He declared that His soul was sorrowful unto death. — (Mark xiv., 34).
Meditação I:
Every soul that loves God is loved by Him in return, and God dwells within that soul, and leaves it not till He is expelled by sin. “He forsakes not unless He is forsaken,” says the Council of Trent. When a soul deliberately consents to mortal sin it expels God, and, as it were, says to Him: Leave me, O Lord, for I desire to possess Thee no longer. The wicked have said to God: Depart from us. — (Job xxi., 14).
O my God, I have then had the audacity, when I committed sin, to expel Thee from my soul and to desire to have Thee no longer with me! But Thou wouldst not have me to despair, but repent and love Thee. Yes, my Jesus, I do repent of having offended Thee, and I love Thee above all things.
The sinner must be sensible that God cannot dwell in a soul together with sin. When, therefore, sin enters the soul, God must depart from it. So that the sinner, by admitting sin, says to God: As Thou canst not remain any longer with me, unless I renounce sin, depart from me; it is better to lose Thee than the pleasure of committing sin. At the same time that the soul expels God it gives possession to the devil. Thus does the sinner eject his God Who loves him, and makes himself the slave of a tyrant who hates him.
This, O Lord, is what I have hitherto done. Oh, give me some share of that abhorrence for my sins which Thou didst experience in the Garden of Gethsemane. Dearest Redeemer, would that I had never offended Thee!
Meditação II:
Leitura espiritual: JESUS BY HIS EXAMPLE TEACHES US MORTIFICATION
Meditação noturna: REFLECTIONS AND AFFECTIONS ON THE PASSION OF JESUS CHRIST
Meditação I:
Meditação II:
Meditação matinal: THE SINNER DESPISES GOD
Contemplating the greatness and majesty of God, David cried out: Lord, who is like to thee! But God, seeing sinners compare and prefer a miserable gratification to His friendship, exclaims: To whom have ye likened me or made me equal! The sinner declares that his passion, his vanity, his pleasure, is of greater value than God’s friendship. They violated me among my people, for a handful of barley and a piece of bread. — (Ezech. xiii., 19).
Meditação I:
The sinner despises God. By the transgression of the law thou dishonourest God. — (Rom. ii., 23). Yes; because the sinner renounces God’s grace, and for the sake of a miserable pleasure he tramples upon His friendship. If a man were to lose the friendship of God to gain a kingdom, or even the whole world, still he would do a great wrong, because the friendship of God is of greater value than the world – and a thousand worlds. But for what do we offend God? Wherefore hath the wicked provoked God? — (Ps. ix., 13). For a little earth, for a fit of anger, for a filthy pleasure, for a mere vapour, for a caprice: They violated me among my people, for a handful of barley and a piece of bread. — (Ezech. xiii., 19). When the sinner deliberates whether he shall consent or not to sin, he then, as it were, takes the balance in his hands, and examines which weighs most – the grace of God, or that fit of rage, that vapour, that pleasure; and when he afterwards consents, he declares, as far as he is concerned, that his passion and his pleasure are of greater value than the friendship of God. Behold God dishonoured by the sinner! David, reflecting upon greatness and majesty of God, said: Lord, who is like to thee? — (Ps. xxxiv., 10). But God, on the other hand, when He sees a miserable gratification compared by sinners and preferred to Himself, says to them: To whom have you likened me, or made me equal? — (Is. xl., 25). Therefore, says the Lord, that vile pleasure was of greater value than My grace: Thou hast cast me off behind thy back. — (Ezech. xxiii., 35). You would not have committed that sin if you were, in consequence, to lose a hand, or ten ducats, or perhaps even much less. God, then, says Salvian, is so contemptible in thy eyes, that He deserves to be despised for a momentary passion or a miserable gratification: “God alone was esteemed vile by thee in comparison of all things else.”
Thou, then, O my God, art an infinite Good; and I have often exchanged Thee for a miserable pleasure, which was hardly obtained ere it vanished. But although despised by me, Thou dost now offer me pardon if I desire it; and dost promise to restore me to Thy grace if I repent of having offended Thee. Yes, O my Lord, I repent with all my heart of having thus insulted Thee; I detest my sin above every evil.
Meditação II:
Leitura espiritual: EXTERIOR MORTIFICATION: ITS NECESSITY AND ADVANTAGES
Meditação noturna: REFLECTIONS AND AFFECTIONS ON THE PASSION OF JESUS CHRIST
Meditação I:
Meditação II:
Meditação matinal: MARY, THE QUEEN OF MARTYRS
As Jesus is called the King of Sorrows and the King of Martyrs, because He suffered more than all the Martyrs, so also is Mary with good reason called the Queen of Martyrs, having merited this title by suffering a Martyrdom the most cruel, after that of her Divine Son. Of her can the words of Isaias with all truth be said: He will crown thee with a crown of tribulation – that is to say, Mary’s sufferings, which exceeded the sufferings of all the other Martyrs united, were the crown by which she was shown to be the Queen of Martyrs.
Meditação I:
Who can have a heart so hard that it will not melt on hearing the most lamentable event that has ever occurred in the world? There was a noble and holy woman who had an only son. This son was the most amiable that can be imagined – innocent, virtuous, beautiful, who loved his mother most tenderly; so much so that he had never caused her the least displeasure, but had ever shown her all respect, obedience, and affection; hence this mother had placed all her affections on earth in this son. Hear, then, what happened. This son, through envy, was falsely accused by his enemies; and though the judge knew, and himself confessed, that he was innocent, yet, that he might not offend his enemies, he condemned him to the ignominious death that they demanded. This poor mother had to suffer the grief of seeing that amiable and beloved son unjustly snatched from her in the flower of his age by a barbarous death; for, by dint of torments and drained of all his blood, he was made to die on an infamous gibbet in a public place of execution, and this before her own eyes. Devout souls, what say you? Is not this event, and is not this unhappy mother, worthy of compassion?
You already understand of whom I speak. This son, so cruelly executed, was our loving Redeemer, Jesus; and this mother was the Blessed Virgin Mary, who, for the love she bore us, was willing to see Him sacrificed to Divine justice by the barbarity of men. This great torment, then, which Mary endured for us – a torment that was more than a thousand deaths – deserves both our compassion and our gratitude. If we can make no other return for so much love, at least let us give a few moments to consider the greatness of the sufferings by which Mary became the Queen of Martyrs.
O my afflicted Mother, Queen of Martyrs and of Sorrows, thou didst so bitterly weep over thy Son, Who died for my salvation, but what will thy tears avail me if I am lost? by the merits, then, of thy sorrows, obtain for me true contrition for my sins, and a real amendment of life, together with constant and tender compassion for the sufferings of Jesus and thy Dolours.
Meditação II:
Leitura espiritual: MORTIFICAÇÃO: SUA NECESSIDADE E VANTAGENS
Meditação noturna: REFLECTIONS AND AFFECTIONS ON THE PASSION OF JESUS CHRIST
Meditação I:
Meditação II:
