Sunday, March 15 : Blessed Columba Marmion

Listen to St. John in his divinely inspired Epistle : ” If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us L ” As regards great and holy souls, this
assertion is luminous. The nearer they corpe to God, the Sun of Justice, and spotless Holiness, the better they perceive the stains that disfigure them ; the brilliance of the Divine light in which they move, makes their least faults and failings appear in more striking contrast. Their inner gaze, purified by faith and love, penetrates more deeply into the Divine perfections ; they have a clearer view of their own nothingness ; they are better able to measure the abyss that separates them from the Infinite… We understand that the fact of having offended God, were it but once in their existence, moves these souls with intensest grief. And there is,* in their habitual attitude of
repentance and detestation of sin, a constant proof of supernatural delicacy which cannot fail to please God, and draw down His infinite mercy upon them. Moreover, the state of soul we are studying is in nowise, as might be imagined at first sight, incompatible with confidence and spiritual joy, with outpourings of love and delight in God. Quite the contrary !… Far from love and joy finding a hindrance in the habitualattitude of repentance which constitutes compunction, they find in it a firm basis and one of the greatest incentives for soaring Godwards.
Roman Catholic Ordinary Calendar – rosary,team