Roman Extraordinary (Tridentine)

Today I take up my pen in the name of God, so that my words, imprinting themselves on the white paper, may give service in perpetual praise of God, the blessed author of my life, my soul, my heart. I would like the whole Universe, with all the planets, stars, and the countless sidereal systems, to be a vast smooth surface on which could be written the name of God. I would like my voice to be stronger than a thousand thunders, more powerful than the surge of the sea, more fearful than the eruption of volcanoes, only to say the name of God. I would like my heart to be as great as Heaven, pure as that of the angels, guileless as that of the dove (Mt 10,16), so that it could possess God. But as none of these grandiose dreams can be realized, satisfy yourself, Brother Rafael, with little, and you who are nothing, that very nothing must suffice… Why keep silent about it? Why hide it? Why not cry out to the whole world, and proclaim to the four winds the wonders of God? Why not say to everyone what they would like to hear: “You see what I am? You see what I was? You see my wretchedness dragged through the mire? No matter – marvel at it – in spite of everything, I have God. God is my friend!” God loves me so deeply that if the whole world understood this everyone would go mad and shout in sheer amazement. Still more, all that is but a little. God loves me so much that the angels themselves don’t understand it! (cf. 1Pt 1,12) How great is the mercy of God! To love me, to be my friend, my brother, my father, my master. To be God! And I to be what I am! Oh Jesus! I don’t have paper or pen. What can I say? How am I not to go mad!

Roman Extraordinary (Tridentine) Daily Readings – rosary,team

Just as the divine law says that when God created the world “he saw all that he had made and it was very good,” (Gn 1:31) so the gospel speaking of our redemption and re-creation, affirms: “He has done all things well” (Mk 7:37)… As fire can give out nothing but heat and is incapable of giving out cold; and as the sun gives out nothing but light and is incapable of giving out darkness, so God is incapable of doing anything but good. For he is infinite goodness and light, a sun giving out endless light, a fire producing endless warmth. “He has done all things well.” The law says that all God did was good; the gospel says he has done all things well. Doing a good deed is not quite the same as doing it well. Many do good deeds but fail to do them well. The deeds of hypocrites, for example, are good, but they are done in the wrong spirit, with a perverse and defective intention. Everything God does, however, is not only good but is also done well. “The Lord is just in all his ways and holy in all his deeds. With wisdom you have done them all” (Ps 145[144]:17)… Now if God has done all his good works and done them well for our sake, knowing that we take pleasure in goodness, why, I ask, do we not endeavor to make all our works good and to do them well, knowing that such works are pleasing to God?
Roman Extraordinary (Tridentine) Daily Readings – rosary,team

…If, therefore, you wash by a good life the filth that has been stuck on your heartl like plaster, the divine beauty will again shine forth in you. It is the same as happens in the case of iron. If freed from rust by a whetstone, that which but a moment ago was black will shine and glisten brightly in the sun. So it is also with the inner man, which the Lord calls “the heart”. When he has scraped off the rustlike dirt which dank decay has caused to appear on his form, he will once more recover the likeness of the archetype (Gn 1,27) and be good. For what is like to the Good is certainly itself good. Hence, if a man who is pure of heart sees himself, he sees in himself what he desires; and thus he becomes blessed, because when he looks at his own purity, he sees the archetype in the image. To give an example. Though men who see the sun in a mirror do not gaze at the sky itself, yet they see the sun in the reflection of the mirror no less than those who look at its very orb: So, he says, it is also with you. Even though you are too weak to perceive the light itself, ye if you but return to the grace of the image with which you were informed from the beginning, you will have all you seek in yourselves. …For the godhead is purity, freedom from passion, and separation from all evil. If therefore these things be in you, God is indeed in you. Hence, if your thought is without any alloy of evil, free from passion, arid alien from all stain, you are blessed because you are clear of sight.

Roman Extraordinary (Tridentine) Daily Readings – rosary,team

The glorious Virgin paid our ransom as a courageous woman who loved with the compassionate love of Christ. In Saint John it is said: “When a woman is in labor she is sad that her time has come.” (Jn 16:21) The Blessed Virgin did not feel the pain that precedes childbirth because she did not conceive following the sin of Eve, against whom the curse was spoken. She felt her pain later: she gave birth under the cross. Other women know bodily pain, she felt that of the heart. Others suffer from physical change; she from compassion and love. The Blessed Virgin paid our ransom as a courageous woman who loved the world and above all the christian people with merciful love. “Can a mother forget her infant or be without tenderness for the child of her womb?” (Isa 49:15) This can make us understand that the entire Christian people has come forth from the womb of the glorious Virgin. What a loving Mother we have! Let us take our Mother as our model and let us follow her in her love. She had compassion for souls to such an extent that she counted all material loss and every physical suffering as nothing. “(We) have been purchased … at a great price.” (1 Cor 6:20)

Roman Extraordinary (Tridentine) Daily Readings – rosary,team