MEDITATIO

I know, O Lord God Almighty, that I owe you, as the chief duty of my life, the devotion of all my words and thoughts to yourself (…). In our want shall pray for the things we need. We shall bring an untiring energy to the study of your prophets and apostles, and we shall knock for entrance at every gate of hidden knowledge. But it is yours to answer the prayer, to grant the thing we seek, to open the door on which we beat (Lk 11:9). Our minds are born with dull and clouded vision, our feeble intellect is penned within the barriers of an impassable ignorance concerning your mysteries. But the study of your revelation elevates our soul to the comprehension of sacred truth, and submission to the faith is the path to a certainty beyond the reach of unassisted reason. And therefore we look to your support for the first trembling steps of this undertaking, to your aid that it may gain strength and prosper. We look to you to give us the fellowship of that Spirit who guided the prophets and apostles, that we may take their words in the sense in which they spoke and assign its right shade of meaning to every utterance. (…) Grant us, therefore, precision of language, soundness of argument, grace of style, loyalty to truth. Enable us to utter the things that we believe.

Roman Catholic Ordinary Calendar – rosary,team

I saw that God rejoices that he is our Father, God rejoices that he is our Mother, and God rejoices he is our true spouse, and that our soul is his beloved. And Christ rejoices that he is our brother, and Jesus that he is our saviour (…). During our lifetime here we have in us a marvellous mixture of both well-being and woe. We have in us our risen Jesus Christ, and we have in us the wretchedness and harm of Adam’s falling (…). We are so afflicted in our feelings by Adam’s falling in various ways, by sin and by different pains, and in this we are made dark and so blind that we can scarcely accept any comfort. But in our intention we wait for God and trust faithfully to have mercy and grace; and this is his own working in us. And in his goodness he opens the eye of our understanding, by which we have sight, sometimes more, sometimes less, according to the ability God gives us to receive. And now we are raised to the one, and now we are permitted to fall to the other. This mixture is so marvellous in us that we scarcely know, about ourselves or about our fellow-Christians, what condition we are in, these conflicting feelings are so extraordinary. But what matters is that we say a holy “yes” to God which we make when we feel him, truly willing with all our heart to be with him, and with all our soul and all our might. And then we hate and despise our evil inclinations (…). And so we remain in this mixture all the days of our life.

Roman Catholic Ordinary Calendar – rosary,team

Rejoice and be happy ! Persevere to the end and prefer to die rather than abandon the post to which God has called you. But embrace the Cross with patience and hide in God’s breast with your troubles: fix your eyes on the Lamb immolated for your sake and always be content with what God gives you and destines for you. We must act like this because we are sure that God is calling us and has chosen for us what will make us the most pleasing in his sight. Thus you will go from light to light and the pains endured for the sake of Jesus crucified will be delightful to you, whereas the pleasures and consolations of the world will become bitter. You will begin to taste, even in this life, a foretaste of eternal life, for the principal beatitude of the soul in heaven is to be confirmed for ever in the will of the Father. Thus it tastes the divine sweetness. But it will never taste it in heaven if it is not clothed with it on earth where we are pilgrims and travelers. When it is clothed with it, it tastes God by grace in its troubles; its memory will be full of the blood of the Lamb without blemish; its mind will be opened and contemplate the ineffable love that God has made known in the wisdom of his Son, and the love it finds in the Holy Spirit’s goodness casts out self-love and love for created things to love only God. So do not be afraid (…) but suffer with joy so as to conform yourself to the will of God.

Roman Catholic Ordinary Calendar – rosary,team

Admire God’s wonderful works ; come out of your sleep. Are you only going to admire extraordinary miracles? But are they any greater than those that daily take place before your eyes? Are people astonished because our Lord Jesus Christ satisfied several thousand persons with five loaves (Mt 14,19f) and are not surprised that a few seeds are enough to cover the ground with abundant harvests? They are filled with wonder when they see our Savior change water into wine (Jn 2,19); isn’t it the same thing when rain goes through the roots of the vine? The author of both these miracles is the same… Our Lord worked miracles and yet many despised him… They said to themselves : « The works are divine but, as for him, he is only a man. » Therefore you see two things: divine works on the one hand and a man on the other. If those divine works can only be carried out by God, could it not be because God is hidden in this man? Yes. Be very attentive to what you see and believe what you do not see. He who calls on you to believe has not abandoned you to yourself; even if he asks you to believe what you cannot see, he has not left you without anything to see to help you believe what is unseen. Isn’t creation itself a faint sign, a faint manifestation of the Creator? In addition, look at him who comes into the world and works miracles. You were unable to see God but you were able to see a man: therefore God became man so that what you see and what you believe should be but one.

Roman Catholic Ordinary Calendar – rosary,team