Sunday, May 25 : Saint Bernard

You see that he who is guided by the Spirit does not always remain in the same state. He does not always advance with the same facility. “The course of man is not in his control.” It rather depends on the guidance of the Spirit who sets the pace as he pleases, sometimes torpidly, sometimes blithely, teaching him to forget the past and to strain ahead for what is still to come. If you have been attentive I think you will have seen that your inward experience echoes what Ihave outwardly described. Therefore when you feel weighed down by apathy, lukewarmness and fatigue, do not yield to cowardice or cease to study spiritual truths, but look for the hand of the one who can help you, begging like the bride, to be drawn, until finally, under the influence of grace, you feel again the vigorous pulse of life. Then you will run and shout out: “I run the way of your commandments since you have enlarged my heart.”… When you feel happy beware of boasting: “Nothing can ever shake me!” For you may be compelled to repeat for yourself the Psalmist’s sad comment: “But then you hid your face and I was terrified.” If you are wise you will try to follow the advice of the Wise Man: “in the time of adversity not to be unmindful of prosperity, and in the time of prosperity not to be forgetful of adversity.”… This will keep your hopes buoyant in times of hardship, and give you foresight when fortune favors you. You will ride above the vicissitudes of good and evil times with the poise of one sustained by values that are eternal, with that enduring, unshakeable equanimity of the man of faith who thanks God in every circumstance. So even amid the fluctuating events and inevitable shortcomings of this giddy world you will ensure for yourself a life of durable stability, provided you are renewed and reformed according to the glorious and original plan of the eternal God.

Roman Catholic Ordinary Calendar – rosary,team