Monday, November 20 : Blessed Columba Marmion

The humble soul is ready to receive all the gifts of God, first because it is empty of self, because it looks to God for all that is necessary to its perfection, and because it feels itself to be poor and miserable. All that God has done for us since the Fall into which we have been drawn, is the effect of His mercy. The Angels who have no miseries hymn the sanctity of God; we hymn His mercy : “Misericordias Domini in aetiernum cantabo”. God, beholding fallen man, encompassed with weaknesses, subject to temptation, at the mercy of his inclinations which change with the times and seasons, with health, surroundings, education, is touched by this misery, as if it were His own ; this Divine movement which inclines the Lord towards our misery in order to relieve it, is mercy! So profound is our misery that it may be compared to an abyss, which calls upon the abyss of the Divine mercy : “Abyssus abyssum invocat”; but it only calls upon it in so far as this misery is recognised, confessed ; and it is humility that wrings this cry from us! Humility is the practical and continual avowal of our misery, and this avowal attracts the eyes of God. The rags and wounds of the. poor plead for them ; they do not strive to hide them, on the contrary, they display them so as to touch the hearts of those who behold them. In the same way, we ought not to strive to dazzle God by our perfection, but rather to draw down His mercy by the confession of our weakness. Each one of us has a sum of miseries sufficient to draw down the pity of our God. Are we not all like that poor wayfarer lying on the road to Jericho, stripped of his garments, covered with wounds ? It is an excellent Prayer to show our Lord all our miseries, all the deformities that still disfigure our soul. ” O my God, behold this soul which Thou hast created and redeemed ; see how it has been deformed, how full it is of inclinations displeasing in thy sight- Have pity ! This prayer goes straight to Christ’s heart!

Roman Catholic Ordinary Calendar – rosary,team