Divine Intimacy: Meditations on the Interior Life for Everyday of the Year

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329. THE ROAD TO OUR ETERNAL HOME

TWENTIETH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST

PRESENCE OF GOD - O Lord, teach me the way to come to You.


MEDITATION

1. The liturgy of the last Sundays after Pentecost has a special note, warning us of the approaching end of all things. In fact, the liturgical year is almost at its close, and, as it ends, it invites us to consider the uncertainty of the present life and to turn our eyes toward the eternal life awaiting us. Spontaneously we stop to reflect on the condition of our own soul: How have we employed the time that God has given us? In the Introit we find the humble confession: “O Lord, we have sinned against Thee, we have not obeyed Thy commandments,” and in the Collect we pray to obtain forgiveness: “Grant unto Thy faithful people pardon and peace, we
beseech Thee, merciful Lord.” In the Epistle (Eph 5,15-21) St. Paul counsels us to use the time that remains to us in the best possible way, to attain eternal glory. “See, therefore, brethren, how you walk circumspectly, not as unwise, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil.” The Apostle then explains what the nature of our wisdom should be: “Become not unwise, but understand what the will of God is.”

It would be the height of folly and imprudence to go through life following our own whims and desires. This is a most dangerous way and one which will never lead us to our destination. The only road that takes us to our eternal home is that of the will of God. Anyone who sincerely seeks God’s will and follows it, will be guided, not by his own spirit, but by God’s Spirit, the Holy Spirit, and can be sure that he will not go astray. “Be ye filled with the Holy Spirit,” exhorts St. Paul, “speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual canticles, singing and making melody in your hearts to the Lord...being subject one to another.” When a soul allows itself, with childlike docility, to be led by the Holy Spirit, He takes complete possession of it, filling it entirely with Himself; and from this plenitude, the spirit of prayer, virtue, humble submission and fraternal love spontaneously blossoms forth. To follow God’s will under the direction of the Holy Spirit is the quickest and safest way of reaching our heavenly home.


2. It is impossible to discover and walk in the way of God’s will without faith; today’s Gospel (Jn 4,46-53) expressly treats of this faith and the qualities it must have in order to be pleasing to God. A certain ruler, having heard of the marvelous cures performed by Jesus, went to Him and begged Jesus to come to his house and “heal his son, for he was at the point of death.” This man had faith in the miraculous power of the Master, but he was far from believing that He was the Son of God. Jesus knew this and replied: “Unless you see
signs and wonders, you believe not.” These words, which historically were addressed to the ruler and his companions, were meant for all whose faith depends on what they see and hear. There are very few who believe with simplicity in the Gospel, in Revelation, in the teachings of the Church; most people remain indifferent and are moved only in the presence of something unusual which strikes their senses. It is true that the Lord can use such things to help our weakness, but this is not the faith which pleases Him. “Blessed are they that have not seen and have believed ” (ibid. 20,29), He said to Thomas, who would not believe unless he saw the place of the nails and put his finger into His wounds. True faith is not based on our experience, on what we see and touch, but on the authority of God. God has revealed Himself; He can neither deceive nor be deceived; and we believe firmly on His word. To believe on the word of God is supernatural faith, the pure faith which is pleasing to God.

Jesus, who wished to lead the ruler to this true faith, said to him: “‘Go thy way, thy son liveth.” The man believed the word which Jesus said to him, and went his way.” It was not yet supernatural faith in the Son of God; nevertheless, it was an act of faith in the Master’s word, and although it was imperfect, it brought forth fruit: his son was cured. God does not demand more than each one can give Him, and when He sees our good will, our sincere efforts, He Himself intervenes to perfect the work. Thus the ruler’s imperfect and still human faith was rewarded by his son’s cure, and as a result, his faith became supernatural. He believed in Jesus, no longer as a simple prophet or wonder-worker, but as the Son of God; “and himself believed and his whole house.” In this life we walk toward God, not by vision, but by faith. The purer our faith is and the more free from human elements, the more pleasing it will be to God, and the more it will enable us to know His holy will and to accomplish it with love.


COLLOQUY

“Be propitious to Your children, O divine Master, Father and Lord. Grant that we who keep Your commandments may reflect Your image; may we experience, according to our strength, Your goodness, and not the severity of Your judgment.

“Grant that we may all live in Your peace and be admitted to Your kingdom after struggling against the waves of sin without being shipwrecked. In great tranquility, may we be drawn by the Holy Spirit, Your ineffable Wisdom, and guided by Him day and night, unto the perfect day. Grant that, until our last hour, we may be grateful in prayer and prayerful in gratitude to the one Father and Son, Son and Father, the Son our Teacher and Master, together with the Holy Spirit ” (Clement of Alexandria).

“Lord, You know what is best; let this or that be done as You will. Give what You will, as much as You will, and when You will. Do with me as You know best, as will most please You, and will be for Your greater honor. Put me where You will, and do with me in all things according to Your will. Lo, I am Your servant, ready to obey You in all things; for I do not desire to live for myself, but for You: Oh, that I could do so in a faithful and perfect manner!

“O most loving Jesus, grant me always to will and desire that which is most acceptable to You, and which pleases You best. Let Your will be mine, and let my will always follow Yours, and agree perfectly with it. Let my will be one with Yours in willing and in not willing, and let me be unable to will or not will anything but what You will or do not will” (Imit. IIT, 15,2.3).

330. THE FORMATION OF APOSTLES

PRESENCE OF GOD - Jesus, divine Teacher, deign to accept me in Your school, so that, under Your direction, I may prepare myself for the apostolate.


MEDITATION

1. No special preparation is necessary before giving oneself to the interior apostolate, for, if a soul dedicates itself to prayer and sacrifice, not only will it help others, but at the same time it will draw great profit for its own sanctification. In fact, the practice of the interior apostolate coincides perfectly with the fundamental exercises of the spiritual life. However, the same cannot be said of the external apostolate which, by its very nature, involves cares and occupations beyond those required for one’s personal progress. One who is just setting out in the spiritual life is not capable of attending to his own sanctification and the sanctification of others simultaneously; he should first have time to concentrate all his powers on his own spiritual formation. Furthermore, since the effectiveness of the apostolate corresponds to the degree of love and union with God which the apostle has attained, it is evident that a beginner will not be capable of exercising a very fruitful apostolate. Hence, if he engages in the active apostolate prematurely, he will dissipate his energy uselessly, with consequent harm to his own interior life and to the fruitfulness of his apostolate.

Jesus Himself spent thirty years in prayer and retirement although, being God, He had no need to do so. It was as if He wanted to show us that before we plunge into the work of the exterior apostolate, we must have reached a certain spiritual maturity by the exercise of the interior life. He treated the Apostles in a similar way : the three years they spent with Jesus were years of true formation for them. Our Lord instructed and admonished them, taught them how to pray and to practice virtue. Only occasionally, and then with precaution, did He entrust some mission to them, in order to give them experience. Finally, before He sent them out to conquer the world, He wished to strengthen their spirit by nourishing them with His Body, calling them to witness His Passion, and reuniting them in the Cenacle to await the coming of the Holy Spirit. Thus true Catholic tradition demands that, before apostles go out into the field of battle, they must prepare themselves by the practice of an intense interior life, which will make them qualified, fruitful instruments for the good of souls.


2. The great necessity for apostolic works, which is growing in urgency today, cannot justify a hasty preparation for the apostolate. What advantage would it be to send a greater number of apostles into the fray if, from lack of formation, they would not only be incapable of making any headway, but could not even withstand the attacks of the enemy? Enthusiasm and good will are not enough. A vigorous interior life, maturity of thought and judgment, and a spirit of sacrifice and union with God are also necessary; if these are wanting, no good will be accomplished, and the spiritual life of the apostles themselves will be endangered. The urgency of the apostolate must be answered by intensifying the formation of those who are to dedicate themselves to it, because only souls who are firmly anchored in God by an intense interior life will be able to withstand the constant pressure of external activity, and to vivify this activity with the fire of love.

St. Teresa of Jesus says, “A single one who is perfect will do more than many who are not” (Way, 3). It is, therefore, of the greatest importance that those who give themselves to the apostolate strive earnestly for perfection and sanctity, for only thus can they give God to souls and bring souls to God. The entire history of the Church is a practical demonstration of this principle: “St. Paul was only one, yet how many he attracted!... If all Christians were like St. Paul, how many worlds would be converted!” (St. John Chrysostom). The holy Curé of Ars had very few human resources, yet he converted an immense number of souls by the power of his own holiness, love, and union with God.

The pressing demands of the external apostolate focus our attention more than ever upon the need of well-formed apostles, apostles of deep interior life, saintly apostles. Therefore, even when the formative period has ended, we must always take care that external activity in no way diminishes our interior life. It is necessary to continually maintain the balance between prayer and work in such a way that we do not exhaust our spiritual energies, but allow sufficient time to renew them, to revive and to sustain our intimate contact with God.


COLLOQUY


“O Lord, my whole yearning is that, as You have so many enemies and so few friends, these last should be trusty ones. Therefore I am determined to do the little that is in me: namely, to follow the evangelical counsels as perfectly as I can, and...to pray for those who are defenders of the Church, and for the preachers and learned men who defend her. O Lord, since I am not strong enough to defend Your Church myself, I want to strive to live in such a way that my prayers may be of avail to help these servants of Yours, who, at the cost of so much toil, have armed themselves with learning and virtue and have labored to defend your Name.

“O my God, I wish to try to live in such a way as to be worthy to obtain two things from You: first, that there may be many of these very learned and religious men who have the qualifications for their task, and that You may prepare those who are not completely prepared already; for a single one who is perfect will do more than many who are not. Secondly, that, after they have entered upon this struggle, You may have them in Your hand so that they may be delivered from all the dangers that are in the world, and, while sailing on this perilous sea, may shut their ears to the song of the sirens. If I can prevail with You, my God, in the smallest degree about this, I shall be fighting Your battle even while living a cloistered life.

“I beseech Your Majesty to hear me in this; miserable creature that I am, I shall never cease to beg You for this, since it is for Your glory and the good of Your Church, and on these my desires are set. The day that my prayers, desires, disciplines and fasts are not performed for the intentions of which I have spoken, I shall not have fulfilled the object for which You, O Lord, called me to the contemplative life” (cf. T.J. Way, 1 - 3).

331. SANCTIFICATION IN THE APOSTOLATE

PRESENCE OF GOD - Give me light, O God, that I may recognize the graces You have prepared for me to lead me to sanctity; help me to correspond with them.


MEDITATION

1. It is the saints who are the most efficient apostles. Must we then be saints before devoting ourselves to the apostolate? Theoretically, this is the ideal, but in practice, it is impossible. To think that the formative years—those spent in the seminary or novitiate, for example—suffice to make us saints is a misconception. It is equally wrong to exempt ourselves from apostolic work, when charity or our duty imposes it on us, under the pretext that we have not yet arrived at sanctity. We must therefore conclude that when the period allotted exclusively to preparation is over, we must combine our own personal efforts toward sanctity with the exercise of the active apostolate. In other words, apostles must sanctify themselves in the apostolate and by means of it. “To sanctify yourself in view of and by means of the apostolate: these should be the marching orders of a diocesan priest.... We would be giving the lie to the Church, to the life of Jesus, and the lives of all the saints, if we said that the exterior apostolate is incompatible with personal sanctity.” These words, spoken by the servant of God, Don Poppe, to priests, are equally true for all apostles, cleric or lay, religious or secular. Every apostle should be convinced that precisely in his own field of labor—and nowhere else—will he find all the graces necessary to sanctify himself, to attain intimate union with God. When a person gives himself to the apostolate, not by his own choice, nor because of a natural attraction for activity, but solely in answer to a call from God, he can be certain that, since God has willed him to engage in the apostolate, and as He also wills him to be a saint, that the apostolate will provide him with the means to become one. God cannot condemn to mediocrity one who, in order to do His will, and out of love for Him, is burdened with apostolic labors and responsibilities.

“No, brethren,” Don Poppe continues, “the active life is not a night in which the light of the ideal is extinguished. If so many apostles have lost their light, you should not lose confidence, but humble yourselves profoundly because of your weakness, and then more abundant grace will surely bring you success. Do you not know that difficulties and obstacles are sometimes transformed into helps under the wonderful action of grace, and may contribute greatly to good? ‘Certus sum,’ you can say with St. Paul: I am certain that no creature in the world has the power to draw me away from the road to sanctity.” In the measure that an apostle is docile and faithful to grace, God will purify him, refine him, and sanctify him, precisely by means of his apostolic labors.

2. The conviction that we can sanctify ourselves in the midst of our work does not prevent us from having that silent longing for recollection, that desire for solitude and intimacy with God which often accompanies an apostle in his activities, becoming so keen at times that it casts a veil of nostalgia over his life. Anyone who has tasted, even in a slight degree, the infinite beauty and goodness of God, cannot fail to experience an overwhelming longing and need for Him. This is a good sign: it means that the apostle has not permitted himself to be pervaded and distracted by exterior occupations, and that, although living in the world, he is not of the world, but really tends toward God. Even if this longing should at times become painful, the apostle must not be disturbed nor believe that he has mistaken his way. ‘This pain will purify him and lead him to God. Moreover, he should not think that the mere desire for deeper recollection and union with God necessarily indicates a call to the contemplative life, which is characterized especially by the need of a radical dedication and self-immolation. An insistent call to a deeper interior life should be considered rather as a grace given to protect the apostle against the dangers of the exterior life. It is the bulwark, the enclosure wall of his spiritual life.

However, the desire for God should be satisfied; in addition to the daily hours of prayer and silence, the apostle must have sufficient pauses in his work. Monthly and yearly retreats are indispensable, and even more leisure for recollection must be taken after periods of intense activity. It would be a fatal error to allow oneself to become so absorbed in work that time could no longer be found for concentration on God in intimate heart-to-heart conversation with Him. Not even from the standpoint of greater generosity should an apostle renounce his hours of prayer.

But at the same time, he must go to his work calmly and confidently, ever mindful of the fact that, until he has attained to full maturity in the spiritual life, he will not be able to escape the conflict between action and contemplation: action which tries to draw him away from contemplation, and contemplation which would like to prolong itself beyond the appointed time. He must make every effort to maintain an equilibrium, avoiding both extremes, and unifying his life by means of love. Before the conflict is settled in perfect harmony, a long road must be traversed, where it is absolutely necessary to give oneself to activity with great prudence, and to be very faithful to prayer, being careful not to allow the time allotted for it to be encroached upon.


COLLOQUY

“O my God, how few saintly apostles there are! How rare are Your real friends! O Lord, I am on fire with longing for the coming of Your kingdom in the souls of apostles; I am on fire, but I am so poor that I shall be consumed before this kingdom comes!

“O Lord, make me a holy apostle, because a saint can accomplish more with one word than an ordinary worker can with a whole series of speeches. Without sanctity, I am like sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal, and You, O God, speak only through the mouths of the saints. Give me sanctity then, as it alone can enlighten minds, move hearts, and renew them. O my God, do not permit me to deal in tinsel or to be an empty vessel!

“It is hard to sanctify oneself in the apostolate; there are many obstacles and dangers to be encountered. Shall I then retire in discouragement? No, my God, because if my will is good, I shall always be aided by Your grace, and where there is grace, the way which leads to the end, to sanctity, will always be found! Then what have I to fear? Your grace is with me; You Yourself are with me and in me. And if You, O God, enter the battle with me, what can I call an obstacle? Would it be tribulation or sorrow, hunger or nakedness, danger, persecution, or the sword? I shall overcome all these difficulties with Your help, for You love me, and will not abandon me. Leaning on You, O Lord, I am certain that nothing in the world has the power to separate me from the way of sanctity. I am certain because You want apostles to be saints, because You are infinitely good, infinitely powerful, and faithful to Your promises, and because You are infinitely merciful ” (Don Poppe).

332. A RIGHT INTENTION

PRESENCE OF GOD - O God, remove from my heart all secondary intentions and all movements of self-love, so that I may seek only Your glory.


MEDITATION

1. Difficulties encountered in the apostolate often arise because apostolic activity is not exercised under conditions which are required by its very nature, conditions which are indispensable if this activity is to be transformed into an intense exercise of the spiritual life. There is question here of a certain disorder, arising from the more or less natural motives which insinuate themselves into the work and cause it to descend from the supernatural to the natural level. Thus it becomes an occasion for deviation and lukewarmness in the interior life, which in turn, makes the soul feel dissatisfied and uneasy. Pope Pius XII, in his Motu proprio Primo Feliciter, expressed very clearly the necessary conditions for a holy activity. He said : “ The apostolate should always be exercised in a saintly manner, with such purity of intention, such interior union with God, such generous forgetfulness and abnegation of self, and with so great a love for souls that it [the apostolate] flows from the interior spirit which informs it and at the same time nourishes and renews this same spirit.” Examining our apostolate in the light of these words, we shall be able to detect its weak points, to discover the defects to be avoided and the remedies to be applied. There are four conditions proposed: purity of intention, union with God, self-abnegation, love for souls. They are so important that while guaranteeing a fruitful apostolate, they constitute an efficacious means of spiritual progress. Striving to realize them, we shall simultaneously raise the level of our activity and of our interior life.

Let us first consider purity of intention. If no one can “serve God and Mammon” (Mt 6,24), much less can the apostle give himself to apostolic works with the double intention of serving God and his own self-love, of pleasing God and the world, of being zealous for the interests of souls and for his own personal interests. Strength, peace, and life come from unity; dividing one’s forces especially in the realm of the spirit, can only lead to weakness, conflict, and ultimately to death. An apostle whose heart is torn between opposing intentions will look in vain for peace in his work; he will always be disturbed and dissatisfied.


2. There can be a lack of right intention in a way that easily escapes one’s notice; it may be so subtle that to a distracted soul, it passes wholly unobserved. In order to discover the least secondary intentions which, like little foxes, creep in secretly to destroy apostolic activity, an atmosphere of recollection and prayer is necessary. In his moments of quiet at the feet of Our Lord, the apostle will discover that often, in the course of his daily occupations, he loses sight of the supernatural end which should animate his activity, and that in its place secondary ends appear, becoming the immediate motive of many of his decisions and acts. This means that his intention has not remained directed solely toward God and souls, but has often deviated under the influence of self-love. Sometimes it is a question of seeking praise and glory, more or less unconsciously, or it may be preoccupations concerning his personal advantage or material interests: keeping a position, obtaining some promotion, being favored by superiors, or selected for more attractive or remunerative work.... In short, the apostle should realize that, side by side with his love for God and souls there is still much self-love and egoism. This is not a very consoling picture, but he should not be discouraged by it; instead, he should humbly recognize his own misery and thank God who has revealed it to him in order that he may correct it. On the other hand, he must not think that everything he does is merely the fruit of pride. No, when a person has consecrated himself to the apostolate with a sincere desire of doing God’s will and winning other hearts for Him, he should acknowledge that he is animated by love for God and souls, but that his love is not strong enough yet to triumph completely over human passions. Therefore, the apostle should not give up the struggle against the manifestations of self-love, no matter how trivial. He must not yield to them under the pretext that they are natural tendencies, but must correct, mortify, repress, and cut them off without pity, and must always rectify his intentions.

A long, thorough purification is necessary to overcome completely the dualism between God and “ self,” between love for souls and love of self. The apostle must ask Our Lord for the grace of this total purification and dispose himself to receive it, profiting by every occasion for detachment, renunciation, sacrifice, and humiliation, which apostolic activity offers in abundance to all who seriously dedicate themselves to it. If the apostle does this, he will find in his work an excellent means of spiritual progress, and instead of becoming entangled in the dangers which abound in external activity when self-love is not mortified, he will be purified by the very exercise of his apostolate.


COLLOQUY

“When I desire to pray or work for the good of others, I must first of all turn the eyes of my mind toward You, O eternal Light, and to Your splendor, so that You will give me light, strengthen my spirit, and help me to withdraw, as much as possible, from external things in order to turn wholly toward that which is interior. Grant that I may see only the interior man in my neighbor, paying attention to the exterior only insofar as it helps the interior, so that everything else will be put aside as vanity and I may not be attracted by vain things.

“O my God, grant that I may be drawn to the apostolate, to prayer, and to giving good example, not by vainglory, ambition, human complacency, or any worldly interest, but only by the desire to save souls. You alone, O my crucified Christ, do I wish to seek! I want to inebriate souls with Your Blood, and not with vain curiosities, in order that they may desire You alone. I would say to each one of them, ‘I know only Jesus Christ and Him crucified.’ Hence I not only have no desire of worldly advantages or of being pleasing to men; I do not even judge myself as knowing anyone or anything but You, Christ crucified.

“O Lord, inebriate me so thoroughly with Your love that, if anything else but You presents itself to my sight or taste, to my hearing or any other sense, I shall consider it as nothing, so much so that I shall not take my delight, nor my glory, nor my rest except in Your Precious Blood, toward which I desire to be completely turned. Grant that my eyes may not be filled with the things of earth, but only with Your sufferings; grant that my mouth may not be filled with vain words, but with what concerns Your Passion, and may it be the same with all my other senses ” (cf. St. Bonaventure).

333. SELF-FORGETFULNESS AND ABNEGATION

PRESENCE OF GOD - O Lord, You who give Yourself to us even to becoming our food, teach me to give myself to souls even unto total forgetfulness of myself.


MEDITATION

1. Another condition necessary for making our activity holy is “generous forgetfulness and abnegation of self” (Pius XII); what is more, without forgetfulness of self, it would be impossible to have rectitude of intention. Many secondary intentions steal into our actions precisely because we are so wrapt up in ourselves, so occupied and preoccupied with our ego, our interests, our conveniences, so anxious to be admired and to win applause and esteem. “We must go forth from ourselves and from creatures,” says St. John of the Cross, go forth especially from this creature whom we love more than every other, ourself. If the Saint indicates to us the way of “ the nothing” with a view to the contemplative ideal of union with God, we may assert that the apostolic life does not require less; it too exacts total abnegation of self which can only be brought about by constantly reminding ourselves : nothing, nothing, nothing.

To realize his vocation, the missionary must leave his homeland, his parents, his friends; he must give up the language, habits, and customs of his country in order to conform to those of his adopted land; likewise, due proportion being made, every apostle must renounce many things, even when working in home surroundings, his place of employment, or among his neighbors. Tastes, habits, personal demands of culture, education, sensibility must be generously put aside, that the apostle may adapt himself to the mentality and to the demands of others; quiet, rest, relaxation, must yield their place to the service of souls. The apostle should not go about seeking interesting conversations, consoling friendships, pleasant occupations, satisfying results. Occasionally it may happen that he will meet these things on his way, but even then, he may not stop to enjoy them selfishly, but must use them as means for the apostolate; in any case, they may never and must never rule his activity. The apostle is sent to “give” and not to “receive,” to sow and not to reap; therefore, he ought to know how to give his time, his work, his energies, and his very self, even in situations which offer nothing consoling, and even to those souls from whom he receives neither satisfaction nor gratitude.


2. St. Paul teaches that the priest “is ordained for men” (Heb 5,1), and the same can be said of every apostle. The apostle does not exist for himself, for his career, for his own advantage, but for souls, for the advantage of others and for all that concerns their spiritual good. Even if the apostolate confers on him some authority, some dignity, it is not for his honor, for his utility, but only for the service of his fellow men. The only personal advantage that he can and should derive from the exercise of his apostolate is his own sanctification. Such is the only right that the apostle is entitled to, the sole benefit he can seek for himself; all the rest must be generously sacrificed for God and for souls.

A soul truly given to the apostolate no longer belongs to himself: his strength, his talents, his time, his health, his life belong to God and his neighbor, and having given himself, he can no longer take himself back, nor dispose of himself. It can be said that he has lost the right of ownership over all that he is and all that he has. To give himself by forgetting himself, and to forget himself that he may give himself even more: such is his program; and this, not only in moments of enthusiasm, on bright days, when souls respond to his care, when his works flourish, and he himself is strong and vigorous, but also in moments of darkness, on gray days, when all seems to crumble under the impact of difficulties, when his tired body claims a little rest, when the work is heavy and energy declines and, with the onrush of internal and external struggles, it becomes very difficult to remain at his post.

Yes, even in hours of abandonment and trial, the apostle must continue to give himself with equal constancy and generosity. If he does not do so cheerfully, that is, with a true spirit of sacrifice, it will be impossible for his conduct not to betray his ill humor, discontent, aversion, or impatience; and all this is very prejudicial to his work and the influence he could exercise. But where can the strength be found for this complete and continual gift of self? In the Holy Eucharist. In it, Jesus gives Himself to us even to becoming our food. If the apostle, called to extend the mission of the Master, cannot imitate Him by giving himself literally as food to souls, he can nevertheless follow His example by putting himself at their disposal to the point of allowing himself to be “ eaten” by them, that is to say, by allowing himself to be consumed in their service.


COLLOQUY

“O Lord, help me to understand well that my work has eternal value only in proportion to the love with which I do it, and not to the success or failure it may or may not have. Even if I do not see the fruits, what does it matter as long as You see them? You want me to work in the spirit of faith, without seeking personal satisfaction.

“I feel that I am a mother of souls, and I must sacrifice myself for them with the greatest generosity because the salvation of many souls may depend on my correspondence to grace. I am a poor little nothing, Lord, but I offer You all. Father, I offer You Your divine Son. Take me and dispose of me for Your greatest glory.

“O Lord, with insistence You are constantly urging me to an ever more generous and total sacrifice. I feel the need to give myself to You, no longer to reserve anything for myself. I wish, then, to renew my offering to You in order that You may take me wholly, that You may transform me, that You may use me for Your glory, for the salvation of souls, and that You may complete in me what is lacking to Your Passion for Your Body which is the Church. I am happy to find so many practical occasions in the course of my day to realize this offering” (Sr. Carmela of the Holy Spirit, O.C.D.).

“O Jesus, my whole strength lies in prayer and sacrifice: these are my invincible weapons, and experience has taught me that the heart is won by them rather than by words” (T.C.J. St, 11).

334. HUMILITY IN THE APOSTOLATE

PRESENCE OF GOD - Impress in me such a deep sense of my poverty, O Lord, that I may look to You for everything and attribute to You, to You alone, all that is good.


MEDITATION

1. Humility is the indispensable foundation of the whole spiritual life; hence it is the basic condition of every apostolate and constitutes the principal part of the program of abnegation and forgetfulness of self which the apostolate requires. Because the apostle is placed, as it were, on a candlestick, he needs more than others to protect himself from pride and vainglory by a deep humility. In glancing through the Gospels, it is significant to note how much Jesus insisted on this point relative to the training of His Apostles. While they were debating among themselves who would be the greatest in the messianic kingdom, the Master answered: “Unless you be converted and become as little children, You shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven” (Mt 18,3). On another occasion, when the mother of James and John asked the first places for her sons, Jesus replied: “He that will be first among you shall be your servant” (ibid. 20,27). And on the evening of the Last Supper, while washing the feet of the Apostles, He showed them to what extent they should make themselves servants: “If then, I, being your Lord and Master, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet ” (Jn 13,14). Finally, before sending them into His vineyard to bear “much fruit,” He repeatedly told them, “Without Me you can do nothing” (ibid. 15,5). Yes, the apostle is the friend of Jesus, chosen by Him and destined to evangelize the world. Some have been appointed by Him to govern the Church, clothed with the dignity of the priesthood, with the power “to loose and to bind.”

All—cleric or lay—have been elevated to the dignity of collaborators with the Hierarchy in the work of saving souls. But at the base of all these privileges, all these honors, are found the great words: “You must become as little children.... Without Me you can do nothing.” Oh! If we were truly convinced that, although God may will to make use of us, He alone possesses the power to make our action fruitful, He alone can produce fruits of eternal life, He alone can give grace to souls, and we are nothing but instruments! In fact, the smaller we make ourselves by acknowledging our poverty, the more qualified we become to be used as a means for the salvation of others. What glory can a brush claim if a skillful artist uses it to perfect a work of art? Can the marble used by Michelangelo to sculpture his Moses boast of any merit? “You have not chosen Me,” Jesus said to His Apostles, "but I have chosen you; and have appointed you, that you should go and should bring forth fruit” (Jn 15,16).

2. “Without Me you can do nothing.” How many ambitions and points of honor, how much vain self-complacency, how many desires for applause and for advancement in recognition of our personal worth are broken, like waves on the rocks, by these words! Jesus does not tell us that “without Him we can do little,” but, nothing, absolutely nothing, and if in appearance the works flourish, admirers increase, churches and halls are filled, in reality not the least atom of grace can descend into hearts if God does not intervene.

Poor apostle, at times so satisfied, so inflated by success! Despite your abilities, your talent, your brilliant style, your attractive conversation, your titles, your successes—in relation to the apostolate, you are smaller and more powerless than an ant before a very high mountain. Recognize your nothingness, take refuge in God, keep yourself closely united to Him, for only from Him will you draw the fruitfulness of your works.

Charged with the education of the novices, St. Thérése of the Child Jesus exclaimed: “You see, Lord, that I am too small to feed Your little ones, but if through me You wish to give to each what is suitable, then fill my hands, and without leaving the shelter of Your arms, or even turning my head, I will distribute Your treasures to the souls who come to me asking for food” (St 11). Such should be the attitude of every apostle; and what is more, the higher his mission, the more important and delicate it is, the more necessary is this humble consciousness of his personal misery, this confident recourse to God, this constant union with Him. If God does not use us to accomplish great works, is it because, being insufficiently convinced of our nothingness, we would take to ourselves the glory due to Him alone, attributing our success to our own merits? If our apostolic activity produces few fruits, is it because, relying too much on ourselves, we do not constantly strive to keep close to God by means of humility and prayer? “Abide in Me,” Jesus repeats to us. “As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abide in the vine, so neither can you, unless you abide in Me” (Jn 15,4). It does not suffice for the apostle to be united to Jesus through the state of grace; he must remain united to Him, plunged in profound humility which makes him realize that he can do nothing, absolutely nothing, without continual help.


COLLOQUY

“O Lord, You wish that in my apostolate I may feel and recognize my nothingness, but at the same time You want me to let myself be taken and carried by You to accomplish the mission that You confide to me, and then enter again into obscurity and silence, boasting of nothing and saying only: ‘servi inutiles sumus'; I am a useless servant, without You I can do nothing.

“O Lord, help me to flee praise and the applause of creatures; help me to act always with an upright intention, seeking only Your good pleasure. I beg You to put far from me those defects which could distract me from working only to please You: ostentation, compliments, adulation, the desire of making a good appearance, of being agreeable to others. Grant that I may never seek my glory but only yours. All to please You, nothing to satisfy myself” (Sr. Carmela of the Holy Spirit, O.C.D.).

“I beg You, Lord, to direct the heart and the will of Your apostles to Yourself so that they may follow You, immolated Lamb, poor, humble, and meek, by the way of the Holy Cross, in Your way and not in their way. Dispel the darkness of their hearts and give them Your light; take from them all self-love and kindle in them the fire of Your charity. Make them close the faculties of their souls, shutting their minds to vain delights and earthly benefits, leaving them open only to Your benefits, that they may love nothing outside of You, but love You above all things, and everything else according to Your will; may they follow You alone.

“Grant that, with well ordered charity, they may seek the salvation of all, disposing themselves to give their life for the good of souls. And may they be angelic creatures, earthly angels in this life, and burning lamps in the Holy Church!” (cf. St. Catherine of Siena).

335. HUMAN QUALITIES AND APOSTOLIC CHARITY

PRESENCE OF GOD - Melt my heart, Lord, in the flame of Your charity.


MEDITATION

1. The apostolate is the expression and the fruit of caritas apostolica, that is to say, of love of God and neighbor, which has increased until it has become zeal for souls. But besides this essential aspect of the charity which must animate the apostle, there are secondary aspects; we might almost say human ones, that are, nevertheless, of great importance, since they permit the apostle to exercise influence over souls. We here speak of such qualities as affability, thoughtfulness, courtesy, sociability, sincerity, understanding, which although human gifts in themselves, acquire supernatural value when elevated by grace and placed at the service of the apostolate. It is a matter, in substance, of those qualities which St. Paul attributes to love: “Charity is patient, is kind.. .is not provoked to anger, thinketh no evil. . .rejoiceth with the truth” (1 Cor 13,4-6).

It is not sufficient to love souls in the secret of our heart, working and sacrificing ourselves for them; this love must also be manifested exteriorly by an agreeable and pleasant manner, in such a way that those who approach us may feel themselves loved, and consequently encouraged to confidence and to trust. A rude, brusque, or impatient manner might cause some to go away offended, and perhaps, even scandalized. The apostle may well have a heart of gold, rich in charity and zeal, but if he maintains a rough and sharp exterior, he closes access to souls, and considerably diminishes the good he could realize. The saints, while being very supernatural, never neglected these human qualities of charity. St. Francis de Sales liked to say that, as more flies are attracted with a drop of honey than with a barrel of vinegar, so more hearts are conquered by a little sweetness than by rough manners. And St. Teresa of Jesus, who wished her daughters to be united by the bond of pure supernatural charity, did not believe it superfluous to make recommendations of this kind: “The holier you are, the more sociable you should be with your sisters. Although you may be sorry if all your sisters’ conversation is not just as you would like it to be, never keep aloof from them if you wish to help them and to have their love. We must try hard to be pleasant, and to humor the people we deal with” (Way, 41). This is very useful advice for anyone who wishes to win souls for God.


2. Concerning natural qualities employed in the service of apostolic charity, we can meditate fruitfully on the exhortation addressed by Pius XII to a group of religious men: “Before the young religious (and this could be said of the apostle) becomes a shining example, let him study to become a perfect man in the ordinary everyday things.... Let him learn, then, and show by his works, the dignity proper to human nature and to society; let him regulate his countenance and bearing in a dignified manner and be faithful and sincere; let him keep his promises; let him govern his acts and his words; let him have respect for all and not harm the rights of others; let him endure evil and be sociable.... As you well know, the virtues called natural are raised to the dignity of the supernatural life chiefly when a man practises them and cultivates them in order to become a good Christian and a worthy herald and minister of Christ” (September, 1951). There is, therefore, no reason to believe that an antagonism exists between the plenitude of the supernatural life, union with God,
and the plenitude of human virtue, deriving from a right development of the natural virtues. We must remember that grace does not destroy nature, but elevates it. The struggle against nature making way for grace, tends to mortify and to destroy only what is defective in nature, leaving intact the good qualities and powers to be raised and transferred to the supernatural plane. Grace, and consequently the Christian life, greatly respects and uses all human values; moreover, how could we believe that the supernatural destroys nature when the latter, no less than the former, is the work of God, the fruit of His wisdom and of His infinite goodness?

In raising man to the supernatural plane, God did not intend to destroy in him what had already been created, but only to sublimate and to elevate it. In the light of these principles, we understand why it has been said that the apostle, as well as the priest, must be a “perfect gentleman” (Cardinal Newman). We also grasp why the saints are the more perfect men, in the sense that they have carried the natural virtues to their highest perfection and sublimation. It follows that the saints are more capable than others of surrounding men with amiability, delicacy, and understanding, while loving them with a purely supernatural love; thus they more easily win their hearts. This perfect courtesy, ever self-possessed, even with the importunate, and even in moments of weariness, can only flow from great supernatural virtue and delicate charity.


COLLOQUY

"O Lord, “if I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal...if I should have the gift of prophecy and should know all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I should have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. And if I should distribute all my goods to feed the poor, and if I should deliver my body to be burned, and have not charity, it would profit me nothing.

“Grant me charity, then, O my God, for charity is patient, is kind: charity envieth not, dealeth not perversely; is not puffed up; is not ambitious, seeketh not her own, is not provoked to anger, thinketh no evil; rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth with the truth; beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things” (cf. 1 Cor 13,1-7).

"Grant, O Lord, that in consecrating myself to Your service, my tenderness toward my neighbor may not diminish, but may grow in my heart, and may become ever more pure, more supernatural. Teach me to love tenderly all who draw near to me. Make me gentle, affable, agreeable, not to attract to myself the affection of creatures, but to conquer their hearts for You.

"O Jesus, if the apostle should be a copy of You, not only in broad lines, but even in details, how shall I be such if I do not try to imitate the gentleness of Your heart? O Jesus, meek and humble of heart, make my heart like unto Yours."

[Stone]

336. FORGIVENESS
TWENTY-FIRST SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST

PRESENCE OF GOD - O Lord, as You are so generous in forgiving me, teach me to forgive others generously.


MEDITATION

1. “The kingdom of heaven is likened to a king who would take an account of his servants.” Today’s Gospel (Mt 18,23-35) refers to the account which all men will one day be called upon to give. It is a serious thought, which makes us reflect, as we did last Sunday, on the state of our conscience. Yet, as we continue the reading of this parable, our hearts are comforted. God, represented by the king, manifests such kindness, mercy, and compassion to the poor servant who cannot pay his debt; He forgives him everything and sets him free.

The debt of that servant was not a trifling one: ten thousand talents; our debts to God are much greater and cannot be computed in talents, nor in silver and gold; they must be reckoned according to the price of our redemption, the most precious Blood of Jesus. Our debts are our sins which needed to be washed away in the Blood of a divine Victim. In spite of our good will, we increase these debts each day, to a greater or lesser extent, if only by faults of frailty and weakness. Is there one who can say at the day’s end that he has not contracted new debts with God? If, at the end of life, God should place before us an exact account of our deficit, we should find ourselves in a much more embarrassing position than that of the servant in the parable. But God, being infinite goodness, knows and has pity on our misery; each time we place ourselves before Him and humbly acknowledge our faults with sincere repentance, He immediately pardons us and cancels all our debts. God is magnificent when He pardons: He does not reproach us for the faults over which we have already wept, nor does He keep any account of them; His pardon is so generous, so great and complete, that it not only annuls our debts, but destroys even the memory of them, as if they had never existed. It is enough for Him to see us repentant; then every wound, even the most grievous and repugnant, is completely healed by the precious Blood of Jesus. Christ’s Blood is like an immense sea which has the power to cleanse and destroy the sins of all mankind, provided they are sincerely repented of. Every minute of every day we can take the burden, heavy or light as it may be, of our sins and infidelities and make it disappear in this ocean of grace
and love, certain that not one trace of it will remain.


2. The second part of the parable speaks of our forgiveness of others. Returning home, the fortunate servant whose debts had all been cancelled, met one of his fellow servants, who owed him a hundred pence, a very small sum compared with the ten thousand talents which had been cancelled for him. Yet he who had been treated with so much mercy, showed none to his fellow servant; he would neither listen to his pleadings, nor heed his tears, but “went and cast him into prison, till he paid the debt.”

A few moments ago we were moved by the master’s kindness; now the servant’s cruelty makes us indignant. Yet, even though we blush, we ought to recognize that, just as the kindheartedness of the master is the image of the mercy of God, ever ready to pardon, so the cruelty of the servant is the figure of our own hardheartedness and miserliness in forgiving our neighbor. Unfortunately, it is all too true: we who need God’s forgiveness even more than we need our daily bread, are so hard, so demanding toward our fellow men; we find it difficult to be indulgent and forgiving. Yet what are the debts that our neighbor may owe us compared with what we owe to God? Certainly, infinitely less than a few pence compared with ten thousand talents, since it is a matter of an offense committed against a mere creature compared with one committed against the infinite majesty of God. But what a contrast! God pardons, forgets, and entirely cancels all our heavy debts; He does not cease to love us and bestow favors upon us in spite of our continual want of fidelity. We, on the contrary, find it very difficult to forgive some little slight; even if we do forgive, we cannot entirely forget it, and we are ready to reproach the other person at the first opportunity. How would we act if our neighbor committed against us each day the numerous infidelities and faults that we commit against God? Oh! how miserable and constrained is our way of pardoning others!

The parable describes the punishment inflicted on the cruel servant by his master: “And his lord being angry, delivered him to the torturers until he paid all the debt”; and the conclusion follows: “So also shall My heavenly Father do to you, if you forgive not your brothers from your hearts.” If we wish God to be generous in pardoning us, we must be generous in forgiving others; we shall be forgiven according to the measure in which we forgive, which means that we ourselves give to God the exact measure of the mercy He is to show to us.


COLLOQUY

“Is there anyone, O Lord, who is not in debt to You? Is there anyone who has not someone in debt to him? In Your justice You have determined that Your rule of conduct toward me, Your debtor, should be that followed by me in regard to my debtors. Therefore, because I also have sinned—and how often!—I must be indulgent with him who seeks my pardon. In fact, when the time of prayer comes, I should be able to say to You, ‘Forgive me, O Lord, my trespasses,' and how? The condition is laid down by me, I myself fix the law: ‘Forgive me my trespasses as I forgive those who trespass against me.’

“O Lord, You have set down in the Gospel two short sentences: ‘Forgive and it shall be forgiven you; give and it shall be given to you.’ This is my prayer: I ask pardon of You for my sins, and You will that I should pardon others.

“Just as the poor beg from me, so I, Your poor little beggar, stand at the door of my Father’s house; rather, I prostrate myself there, begging and groaning, longing to receive something, and this something is You. The beggar asks me for bread, and what do I ask of You, if not Yourself, for You have said, ‘I am the living bread that came down from heaven?'

“In order to obtain forgiveness, I shall forgive; I shall pardon others, and I shall be pardoned. Because I wish to receive, I shall give, and it shall be given to me.

“If it is hard for me to forgive someone who has offended me, I shall have recourse to prayer. Instead of repaying insults with more insults, I shall pray for the guilty one. When I feel like giving him a harsh answer, I shall speak to You, O Lord, in his favor. Then I shall remember that You promise eternal life, but You command us to forgive others. It is as if You said to me, ‘You who are a man, forgive other men, so that I, who am God can come to you °”? (St. Augustine).

337. EDUCATION AND CULTURE AT THE SERVICE OF THE APOSTOLATE

PRESENCE OF GOD - Teach me, O Lord, to put into the service of the apostolate all the talents I have received from You.


MEDITATION

1. Together with the natural virtues placed at the service of apostolic charity, it is also necessary to consider the other human qualities which give the apostle an ascendency in his field of activity, not for his personal gain, but for the benefit of the Christian ideal. To say that notwithstanding his culture and abilities, the apostle can do nothing without the help of God, is not a condemnation of these natural values; is merely the statement that, of themselves, these qualities are insufficient to attain the essential end of the apostolate, that is, the communication of grace to souls, an end which only the divine action can effect. However, that which does not suffice in itself, can become in the hands of God a most excellent means for procuring the good of souls. The brush of itself can do nothing, but in the hands of a skillful master, it can be used to create great works of art.

The apostle should be conscious of the radical insufficiency of his gifts and talents; but at the same time, he should cultivate these gifts and make these talents bear fruit, so as to put them at the disposal of God for apostolic ends. It is therefore necessary that apostles foster their intellectual formation, together with the interior life. Certainly sanctity is always the more important element; however, when learning is united to sanctity, the results will be better. St. Teresa of Jesus was of this opinion, and she did not hesitate to say concerning spiritual direction: “The director ought to be a spiritual man, but if he has no learning, it is a great inconvenience” (Life, 13). This is true, not only in the direction of souls, but in any form of apostolate, for “learning is a great help in giving light upon everything” (Way, 5); furthermore, it is impossible to gain entrance into certain circles without sufficient culture. It is therefore a duty of the apostle to procure an intellectual preparation adequate to the apostolate which he must exercise. It is not a question of seeking knowledge which inflates, nor of cultivating one’s intellect in order to make a display of oneself, but of putting into use for the good of souls all the talents received from God. Under the vivifying influence of charity, such things as education, culture, doctrine, technical capabilities, — everything, in fact, is transformed into means of furthering the apostolate.


2. Those who are called to exercise the apostolate in professional life have, more than others, the duty of training themselves and of developing the technical skill required for their profession. A teacher who does not carefully prepare his courses, who does not keep abreast of the times, or give himself with zeal to teaching, will never deeply influence his pupils; any apostolic endeavor among them is doomed to failure. Only good professional competence can obtain for the Catholic that authority which, going beyond the limits of his profession, often embraces the moral and religious field, permitting him to exercise an efficacious influence over those who approach him; in this way he can do immense good, and his word is sometimes more readily heeded than that of the priest. It is noteworthy that Pope Pius XII counseled Catholic laymen not to “be inferior to others in scientific and professional competence, but to do what they could to become better professionals, better jurists, scholars, physicians, engineers” (to the Catholic Laureates, March 20, 1941); and this, not in view of financial profit, but in order to acquire for apostolic ends a wider and more authoritative influence.  In proportion to their professional competence, Catholics will be called upon to occupy positions of command in society; they will in this way be able to cooperate more effectively in organizing a civil world in harmony with the principles of the Gospel, thus making it more receptive to divine grace.

Before devoting himself to other forms of the apostolate, the layman should first exercise it by the perfect fulfillment of his professional duties. For, as sanctity should be sought above all in the fulfillment of the duties of one’s state in life, so the apostolate should be developed primarily through the perfect accomplishment of professional duties, which are precisely those of one’s state of life. To become a saint and an apostle by means of his ordinary everyday life, that is, by the fulfillment of his professional duties, should be the program of the Catholic layman. This practical program is within the reach of all; nevertheless, it requires an eminent spirit of sacrifice, of faith and of love, to transform arduous professional labor into an apostolic force. But apostolic charity is capable of great things. In the name of God it can do all things, because it “beareth all things, hopeth all things” (1 Cor 13,7).


COLLOQUY

O Lord, I do not desire knowledge that inflates, but the humble learning which comes from You, enlightening minds and enkindling hearts.

“You, O Lord, are He who teaches men knowledge, and to little ones You give a clearer understanding than can be taught by man. If You speak to me, I shall become learned in a short time and will make great progress in the spiritual life.

“It is You, O Lord, who in an instant so enlighten the humble mind that it comprehends more of eternal truth than could be learned by ten years in the schools, You who teach without noise of words or clash of opinions, without contention of arguments” (Imit. II, 43,2.3).

Give me this knowledge, O Lord, and I shall be able to enter into study and work without any danger of vainglory. I want to use the intelligence You have given me by employing it in Your service; I want to make it fructify for Your glory and for the good of souls. Everything that I have received from You—intelligence, will, physical and moral energies— should be used for this end, for the apostle must be completely devoted to the fulfillment of his mission, always at his post for the defense and the glory of Your Name.

Sanctify, Lord, my studies, my work, the practice of my profession; grant that love may transform all into a means of apostolate.

“Remember, Lord, that You declared to me, ‘I have come for the salvation of souls.’ I offer You, then, my life, now and forever; grant that it may be pleasing to You; I offer it for Your glory, humbly begging You by virtue of Your Passion, to purify and to sanctify Your people” (St. Catherine of Siena).

338. APOSTOLIC HOPE

PRESENCE OF GOD - O Jesus, I place all my hope for the souls that You have entrusted to me, in Your power, in Your infinite love, and in Your Passion.


MEDITATION

1. In his work the apostle needs to be sustained by a strong hope. The moments of enthusiasm are brief, success is quickly followed by failure, difficulties are numerous, the struggle waged by enemy forces is sharp and incessant, and if the apostle is not firmly anchored in God by solid theological hope, he will end, sooner or later, by giving up the enterprise in discouragement. “I have overcome the world” (Jn 16,33), Jesus declared, and sending the apostles to continue His victorious mission, He assured them, “I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world” (Mt 28,20). The foundation of apostolic hope is the victory of Christ and His continual help. Yes, He is with us all days, even on the dark days, when the horizon is black without a ray of light, when the enemy triumphs, when our friends forsake us, and when, humanly speaking, one does not see any possibility of success. If we had to rely upon our own resources, our ability, our works, we should have every reason to give up in despair; this, however, is not the case. We hope and we are certain in our hope, because God is omnipotent, because He wills all men to be saved, because Christ has redeemed us with His Precious Blood, and because He has died for us and for us has risen again; and finally, because His promises—the promises of a God—are infallible: “Heaven and earth shall pass, but My words shall not pass” (ibid. 24,35).

Relying on the salvific will of God, on His infinite power, and on the redemption of Christ, the apostle should nourish the certain hope that grace will triumph in the end. But at the same time, he should have no delusions; he should realize that he will not attain victory except by passing through Calvary. “Neither is the apostle greater than He that sent him” (Jn 13,16). If Jesus reached the triumph of the Resurrection only after His Passion and most painful death, the apostle cannot seek another way. For him also, there will necessarily come hours of darkness, but rather than being a sign of defeat, they will be the prelude to victory; rather than being a sign of abandonment on the part of God, they will be a proof that God is with him, precisely because He is leading him by the very same way along which He led His divine Son.


2. Jesus also has known failure: after His discourse in the synagogue of Nazareth, His fellow citizens were indignant. “ They brought Him to the brow of the hill... that they might cast Him down headlong” (Lk 4,29). On two other occasions when the Jews were scandalized by His words, they “ took up stones to stone Him” (Jn 10,31). The Pharisees conspired against Him and treacherously plotted His death; Judas betrayed Him; His own abandoned Him. He was made the laughingstock of the soldiers; He was scourged, crowned with thorns, clothed as a mock king, blindfolded, spat upon; Barabbas was preferred to Him. He was led to Calvary and crucified between two thieves. Humanly speaking, one could well say that the apostolate of Jesus terminated in absolute failure, with His death as a malefactor. All this should be deeply impressed on the mind of the apostle, so that he may not be scandalized if something similar should happen in his own life: “If they have persecuted Me, they will also persecute you” (ibid. 15,20).

By means of persecutions, humiliations and failures, the apostle will learn not to trust in his own strength; he will consider himself a useless servant even after he has labored much; he will be convinced of his own insufficiency and of the insufficiency of all human means; hence, he will place all his hope in God. He will learn to work solely for the love of God, without seeking the consolation of success, renouncing even the legitimate satisfaction of seeing the results of his labors. He will learn to be detached from the opinions and judgments of men, to act independently of their approval or disapproval, and to look only to the judgment and approval of God. The contradictions and troubles that the apostle encounters in his work constitute his dark night, comparable to that of contemplatives, a night that is painful but very precious, because its purpose is to purify the soul of every remnant of self-love, of egoism, of vanity, of attachment to creatures and to their esteem.

This night, if generously accepted, will gradually lead to an ever greater interior purity, and therefore, to an ever closer union with God. The apostle should remain steadfast in hope, notwithstanding struggles, difficulties, and failures. He should be assured of success, not only where the salvation of the souls entrusted to him is concerned, but also in relation to his own personal sanctification. Even if God should permit his success to remain hidden and all his work to end, as did that of Jesus, in apparent failure, the apostle will find strength in the wounds and Blood of the divine Crucified to persevere in hope, and to hope against all hope.


COLLOQUY

“O Lord, I wish to draw down Your mercy on this poor world, not only by the generosity of my sacrifice and my detachment, but also by the generosity of my confidence. I want to believe against all evidence, hope against all hope; I want to believe with unshakable confidence, even when things seem to become ever more painful and difficult to resolve. I want to touch Your heart, O Lord, by the firmness and generosity of my confidence!

“I know and firmly believe that You love me, that You permit all for Your greater glory and for my greater good; I know that I can cooperate in the salvation of souls, and that the sufferings of time have no proportion with future glory; I know that to become a saint it is necessary to suffer much, and that one reaches pure love through pure suffering; I know that all is possible to me in You, who are my support. Even if I were fatigued, oppressed by darkness, anguish, and agony, by looking at You, O Jesus Crucified, I should always taste an intimate supernatural joy, since You admit me to share Your sufferings in order to conform me to Your Passion and to permit me one day to participate in Your glory.

“I can always rejoice in the face of any suffering, humiliation, trial, interior or exterior pain, by reflecting that You, O Jesus, do me the honor of inviting me to participate in Your Passion, in Your redemptive work for souls. Therefore, far from considering these sorrows as evils, teach me to embrace them and to welcome them as favors and precious means for my sanctification, vivifying them through love and a peaceful, total adherence to Your will. O Lord, it is in this spirit that I intend to offer You my prayer, my mortification, my daily renunciation, my continual acceptance of the sufferings You send me, to draw down graces on the whole Church and to save souls” (Sr. Carmela of the Holy Spirit, O.C.D.).

339. PROGRESS IN THE APOSTOLATE

PRESENCE OF GOD - Unite me to You, O Lord, and may the power of Your charity enkindle in my heart true apostolic fire.


MEDITATION

1. St. Thomas teaches that love is like fire. It produces a flame, and the flame of love is zeal. If the fire burns intensely, then the flame will also be intense and devouring. True apostolic zeal is the spontaneous result, the normal fruit of intimate contact of the soul with God through love. The more a soul is united to God by love, the more it becomes enveloped in the flame of His charity, participating in His infinite love for men, in His eternal zeal for their salvation; thus it necessarily becomes apostolic.

It would be an exaggeration to say that one could not be an apostle before being thus intimately enraptured by divine love, but it is evident that the fullness of the apostolate, and therefore of apostolic fecundity, will not be attained without this interior flame which is born of union with God. Until we attain this, we must consider ourselves beginners in the apostolate, like apprentices who apply themselves to an art, executing this or that work without yet being sustained or led by personal inspiration. Beginners must act as such,
that is, with caution, giving themselves to the apostolate with prudence and measure, because not having attained that spiritual maturity in which the flame of zeal burns spontaneously within them, they have not as yet those reserves of grace which serve to defend the soul from the dangers of a too intense external activity, and which, at the same time, have the power to make all their labor fruitful.

St. Teresa asserts that “as yet the soul is not even weaned, but is like a child beginning to suck the breast. If it be taken from its mother, what can it be expected to do but die? That, I am very much afraid will be the lot of anyone to whom God has granted this favor, if he gives up prayer; unless he does so for some every exceptional reason, or unless he returns to it quickly, he will go from bad to worse” (int C IV, 3). Let us remark that the Saint is not speaking of souls who are taking the first steps in the interior life, but of those who have attained to the prayer of quiet and could well be called proficients; yet it is no exaggeration to say that, in respect to the apostolate, they are still beginners.


2. St. Teresa shows us a soul at the moment in which —in consequence of the charity which unites it to God— there is born in it the interior flame of the apostolate. Through love and abandonment, it has becomed so submissive to the will of God that “it neither knows nor desires anything save that God shall do with it what He wills”; and God who “takes it for His very own...seals it with His seal” and infuses into it a most lively sorrow for the sins of men and an ardent desire to immolate itself for their salvation (Int C V, 2). In this soul charity has increased to such a point as to enable it to renounce effectively its own will in order to conform itself in all things to the divine will. Even when confronted with difficult and unforeseen circumstances which require a great spirit of sacrifice it puts aside every natural repugnance and resentment, all personal views and desires, in order to adhere entirely to the divine will, whether this presents itself under the aspect of daily duties or by means of the external voice of obedience, the interior voice of the Holy Spirit, or even by the circumstances of life.

Then, when the soul is truly united to God by love, truly given to Him, God takes it and sends it forth in the service of the Church and souls. He wills to make use of it to realize His plan for the salvation and sanctification of humanity. Immense desires of the apostolate, in no wise comparable to those it had nourished before, awaken in the soul. It feels that it no longer belongs to itself, that its life is necessarily bound to that of the divine Redeemer, and that, in imitation of Him, it should dedicate its life to souls and let it be wholly consumed in their service. Even those who apparently live isolated from the world and from external contact with men—religious in their cloisters, contemplatives in hermitages and deserts—become eminently apostolic when they have reached this state. Their whole life of prayer and sacrifice is orientated toward one ideal : to make reparation for the sins of mankind, to save souls. Whereas contemplatives give vent to this apostolic zeal by redoubling their hidden immolation, active souls, given to exterior works, find in the interior flame blazing forth from their union with God the impulse, the strength, the support, the fecundity of their apostolate. Once again we must come to the conclusion that to the way to attain to the greatest apostolic efficacy is the solitary and silent way of union with God.


COLLOQUY

“O my God, how fervent and strong is the charity of a soul who is united with You by love! Those whom You have taken to Yourself in this way, cannot confine themselves to their personal advantage, and be satisfied with it. Nor would it suffice for them to go to heaven alone, but with solicitude and affection wholly celestial, and with utmost diligence, they endeavor to lead many others with them. Grant, O Lord, that my love for You may have this same effect on me” (cf. J.C.).

“O Lord, when once a soul is resolved to love You and has resigned itself into Your hands You will have nothing else save that it desire and seek to contribute to Your greater glory.

“Oh! the charity of those who truly love You! How little rest will they be able to take if they see they can do anything to help even one soul to make progress and love You better, or to give it some comfort or save it from some danger! How insupportable would their rest become for them!

“Even if I can do nothing for others by my actions, I can do a great deal by means of prayer, importuning You, O Lord, for the many souls the thought of whose ruin causes me such grief. I would lose my own comfort, and look upon it as well lost, for I am not thinking of my own pleasure but of how better to do Your will.

“O my God, as time goes on, my desires to do something for the good of some soul grows greater and greater, and I often feel like one who has a large amount of treasure in her charge and would like everyone to enjoy it, but whose hands are tied, so that she cannot distribute it.... Unable to contain myself any longer...I call upon You, O Lord, beseeching You to find me a means of gaining some soul for Your service” (T.J. F, 5-1).

349. APOSTOLIC MATURITY

PRESENCE OF GOD - Your love, O my God, matures my soul and renders it capable of giving itself fully to the service of souls.


MEDITATION

1. We may ask if the apostle can devote himself freely to the apostolate when he has reached the degree of union with God in which the flame of zeal bursts forth spontaneously. The fact is that, at this point, he cannot and should not evade the gift of self. Whether he is consecrated to contemplation or to action, whether he lives in the cloister or in the midst of the turmoil of the world, his life consists henceforth in giving himself unceasingly : in giving himself to God for the good of his neighbor, in giving himself to his neighbor for the glory of God. To stifle this tendency would be to retrogress and to impoverish his own spiritual life; the time has come when the soul should be enriched by the gift of self lived in the exercise of an intense apostolate, interior or exterior as the case may be. However, the saints teach that prudence is still necessary, and one must not cease to be vigilant, since to have received the interior grace of the apostolate does not signify that one has been confirmed in grace. St. Teresa says this expressly: “I have known people of a very high degree of spirituality who have reached this state, and whom, notwithstanding, the devil with great subtlety and craft, has won back to himself” (Int C V, 4). “How many are called by the Lord to the apostleship, as Judas was, and enjoy communion with Him...and afterwards, through their own fault, are lost!” (ibid., 3). Spontaneously one recalls the cry full of humility and distrust of self that burst forth from the heart of St. Paul, the Apostle who had been rapt to the third heaven: “Lest perhaps, when I have preached to others, I myself should become a castaway” (1 Cor 9,27).

As long as we are on earth, we have reason to fear; we always have, alas, the sad possibility of not corresponding with grace, of separating ourselves, even in small things, from the will of God—and herein lies our ruin—thus, little by little we fall back. “Christian souls whom the Lord has brought to this point on your journey,” exclaims St. Teresa of Jesus, “I beseech you, for His sake, not to be negligent, but to withdraw from occasions of sin”; and she adds, “For this purpose [the downfall of an apostle] the devil will marshall all the powers of hell, for as I have often said, if he wins a single soul in this way, he will win a whole multitude” (Int C V, 4). On the contrary, if the apostle remains faithful to the grace of the apostolate, he will not only be an instrument for the salvation of many, but his own interior life will be deeply enriched.


2. In order not to be unfaithful to the grace of the apostolate, three cautions are particularly necessary. First of all, one must always have a jealous care for humility, defending oneself against the flattering voices of praise and success and confronting them with the picture of one’s misery, the poor figure so often made, as well as of one’s blunders and failures in the apostolate. If Lucifer—-a pure spirit—fell through pride, it is not unthinkable that an apostle, too, is subject to such a fall, being man and weighed down by
matter. Constant vigilance is necessary, then, to maintain intimate contact with God, for just as iron becomes red hot and glows only when it is in contact with fire, so the apostle radiates the divine light and warmth only if he keeps himself united to Him who is their only source.

Lastly, it is of the greatest importance to persevere in perfect detachment from one’s own will and judgment. In regard to this, St. John of the Cross warns us that “among the many wiles used by the devil to deceive spiritual persons, the most ordinary is that of deceiving them under an appearance of what is good, not under an appearance of what is evil: for he knows that if they recognize evil, they will scarcely touch it” (P, 10). Therefore, in order not to fall into his snares, the Saint warns us never to undertake any action “ however good and full of charity” (ibid., 11) it may seem to be, without the sanction of obedience.

This advice is good not only for religious but for all who work in the apostolate, because all should be submissive to ecclesiastical authority. For even if such a work, such an initiative, such a method of apostolate should obtain excellent results, from the moment that ecclesiastical authority does not approve of it, for whatever reason, the apostle should immediately renounce it, without criticism, complaint, or
murmuring, by which he might try to make his own point of view prevail. Protected by deep humility and sincere detachment, sustained by intimate union with God, the apostle can go through the paths of the world without fear for his spiritual life.


COLLOQUY

“O Lord, the souls who were closest to You, as were Your most holy Mother and Your glorious Apostles, were those who suffered and labored the most for You, giving themselves no rest.

“O my God, how little should the soul that lives closely united to You think about resting! How far it ought to be from wishing to be esteemed in anything! If it is occupied with You, as it is right it should be, it will forget itself; its whole thought will be concentrated upon finding ways to please You, and seeing in what things and in what ways it can show You its love. You teach me, O Lord, that this is the aim of prayer, and that union with You tends to this: to produce good works and good works alone.

“If I fix my eyes on You, my crucified Lord, everything will become easy to me. Since you have shown me Your love by doing and suffering such amazing things, why should I content myself with words alone? Oh! make me know how to give myself to You as Your slave, so that branded as such with Your sign, which is the sign of the Cross, You can sell me as a slave to the whole world. Let me see what it means to become truly spiritual.

“Unite me to You, O divine Strength, that I may share in Your strength as the saints shared in it, so that with great zeal, I may work for Your glory, and suffer and die for You, and thus win many souls for You” (Int C VII, 4).

341. SPIRITUAL PATERNITY AND MATERNITY

PRESENCE OF GOD - O my God, unite me to Yourself by a bond of fervent love; grant that by this union I may bring You many souls.


MEDITATION

1. God has bestowed on man the great honor of willing that he be His collaborator in a work which is proper to Himself, as God, which belongs essentially to Him alone, that is, the communication of life, and not only of natural life but of supernatural life also. On the natural level, which we may call the plan of creation, the fathers and mothers of families are His collaborators, having been entrusted with the high mission of communicating life to new human beings, of rearing and educating them for the glory of God. On the supernatural level, that of Redemption, God’s collaborators are all those who, by dedicating themselves to the apostolate, have an even more noble and vast mission, that of communicating to men the life of grace, without which they are unhappy creatures, and in a certain sense, are unable to attain eternal life. In his Encyclical Menti Nostrae, Pope Pius XII declares, “The priest is...the organ of the communication and increase of life in the Mystical Body of Christ. Far from losing the gift and the office of paternity because of his celibacy, the priest increases them immeasurably, since if he does not beget children for this passing life on earth, he begets them for that life which is heavenly and eternal.” In due proportion, the same can be said of every apostle; for the final end of the apostolate is precisely to engender souls to the supernatural life.

“My little children, of whom I am in labor again, until Christ be formed in you,” exclaimed St. Paul in a letter to the Galatians (4,19). Every apostle has an equal right to feel himself both father and mother of the souls for whom he sacrifices himself entirely—a paternity and a maternity which are a reflection of, or rather, a sharing in the paternity of God. In the natural order, God has arranged that fecundity, the source of life, should be the result of the union of two creatures. In the supernatural order also, fecundity is born of union, but of an immensely superior and wholly spiritual union: the union of the soul with God. The more a soul is united to God by love, the greater is its participation in His inexhaustible fecundity, which has for its end the communication of the divine life to men. Therefore, consecrated souls, who have renounced natural fecundity, have not impoverished and stifled their lives, condemning them to sterility; through their union with God, these souls have been raised to a paternity, to a maternity, of a far superior nature.


2. To be a father or mother of souls is not limited to those who work in the external apostolate; it extends also to those who have dedicated themselves to the contemplative life. Although completely separated from the world, St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus felt an ever increasing spiritual maternity grow in her heart, and in the solitude of Carmel she writes: “To be Your spouse, O Jesus, and by my union with You, to be the mother of souls!” (T.C.J. St, 13). This is the fundamental aspiration of her spirit, the ideal that attracted her, sustaining and urging her on to a life of continual and painful immolation. She is ever conscious that she must give herself, sacrifice herself for souls; like a loving mother she must be constantly at the complete disposal of her children. One day, seeing a novice sauntering listlessly to her work, the Saint teasingly reproved her: “Is that the way people hurry when they have children and are obliged to work to procure them food?” (T.C.J. C).

The earnest apostle, ever conscious of having children to nourish, realizes that he should spend his whole life for them, that he has to maintain them by his toil, his prayers, his weariness, and above all by his love. Precisely from love—from this same love which unites him to God—does he draw the strength to sacrifice himself for them, and draws even that spiritual fecundity by which he becomes God’s collaborator in communicating to them the life of grace. As love increases, union with God becomes deeper, and this, in turn, gives rise to greater fecundity and more power in communicating divine life to an immense number of souls. Who can estimate the extent of the spiritual paternity and maternity of the saints?

There is no interior life, no real sanctity which is not crowned with the aureole of spiritual paternity or maternity. But as in the natural realm, the mother brings forth her children in sorrow, so in the supernatural order, there is no paternity or maternity of souls without suffering. It was by dying on the Cross that Jesus brought us forth to divine life. From Him we learn that if we wish to share in His redemptive work, we must not fear either persecutions, or mockeries, or scourgings, or thorns, or nails, or the cross; we must be ready to give for souls all that we have and are, even our very life, that they may be nourished with our blood.


COLLOQUY

“O eternal Father, You cannot fail to know that poor sinners are Your creatures and belong to You by the supreme title of creation.

“O eternal Son, blessed King, You cannot deny that these wretched beings belong to You, since You gained them for Yourself by the incomparable title of Redemption. Listen to me, O most obedient Son, listen to me and show Yourself propitious to my prayers, because when I present myself to the eternal Father with the pledge of Your Blood and Your Passion in my hand, He cannot drive me far away from Him without first hearing my requests.


“Come to my aid, O eternal Holy Spirit! No matter how abominable these sinners may be by the enormity of their sins, they still belong to You, since You made them Yours by admitting them to a share in Your goodness.

“O Lord, my only comfort is to see souls converted to You; and for this alone I suffer patiently Your absence. If You do not grant me this comfort, what can I do? Do not drive me away, most merciful Lord!

“You are resolved and already disposed to hear me, since in Your compassionate glance toward me, I perceive, clothed with Your light, my spiritual sons and daughters, my brothers and sisters and all those whom I strive to win to You day by day. May they always remain faithful to You.

“O sovereign and eternal Father, I recommend to You my beloved children, whom You have confided to me; I beg of You to visit them with Your grace, to make them live as dead to the world that they may enjoy clear and perfect light, and be united among themselves with the sweet bond of charity. I pray You, O eternal Father, that none of them be taken from my hands, and I beg You to pardon us all our offenses. I offer and commend to You my beloved children, because they are my very soul” (St. Catherine of Siena).

342. MARTHA AND MARY

PRESENCE OF GOD - Grant, O Lord, that I may love You with the heart of Mary, while serving You with the devotedness of Martha.


MEDITATION

1. There are two great attractions in a soul which has given itself seriously to God: the attraction to solitary, silent prayer where, immersed in God, the soul listens to His voice, penetrates His mysteries, and above all unites itself more intimately with Him; and correspondingly, the attraction to the apostolate, to active, generous sacrifice for the salvation of souls. To recollect itself in God “the soul would like to flee from other people, and greatly envies those who live, or have lived, in deserts. On the other hand, it would like to plunge right into the heart of the world, to see if by doing this it could help one soul to praise God more” (T.J. Int C VI, 6). Such is the double movement of charity which, fusing the love of God and the love of neighbor into one and the same love, urges the soul equally to union with God and to the service of its neighbor. If one of these movements is lacking, charity will not be complete. The development of the interior life requires this double attraction which is both a sign and a means of progress; it is at the same time, a torment for the soul that has not yet found the just mean between the two tendencies. To which of the two will it give the preference? To action or to contemplation? In practice, the problem must be solved on the basis of the requirements and the duties of one’s state in life, the directions of obedience, and the particular circumstances permitted by God. A desire for contemplative prayer which distracts, or withdraws the soul from the fulfillment of duty would not be in conformity with the will of God; God has every right to
ask us to renounce such a desire, that He may send us to serve our neighbor.

Magdalen rejoiced when she finally found Jesus, her Risen Lord; she longed to remain at His feet, but He commanded her: “Go to My brethren” (Jn 20,17); and she, with docility, left Him to announce His Resurrection. On the other hand, the contrary is also true. Jesus said to His Apostles on their return from preaching: “Come apart into a desert place and rest a little” (Mk 6,31), thereby inviting them to suspend their apostolic activity and to reinvigorate their spirit in silence and in prayer, alone with Him. The best way, which steers a middle course deviating neither to right nor left, is always the way of duty, of the will of God, of interior inspiration, under the guidance of one who has the authority to direct the soul.


2. To harmonize interiorly this double attraction to the active apostolate and to union with God in prayer, there is need of a deeper solution, one which can come only from the interior. This solution consists in a greater progress in the interior life leading to an ever greater degree of love. Love is the only root from which blossom both action and contemplation; it is the only force which, nourishing these two activities simultaneously, finally succeeds in blending them into perfect harmony, thus enabling them to bear the best
fruit. Springing from the same stem of an advanced love, action and contemplation are fused only in perfect love.

Perfect charity makes the soul, while recollected in contemplation at the feet of the Lord, more operative and fruitful than ever for the good of others. “A very little of this pure love” (solitary love which flourishes in intimate contact with God) “is more precious in the sight of God and the soul, and of greater profit to the Church, even though the soul appear to be doing nothing, than are all other works together.... Therefore,” declares St. John of the Cross, “if any soul should have aught of this degree of solitary love, great wrong would be done to it and to the Church, if, even for a brief space, one should endeavor to busy it in active or outward affairs of however great moment” (SC 29,2.3).

In the regions of pure love, that is, of perfect charity, contemplation and the apostolate become identified; they complete and require one another. At this point, the contemplative soul is eminently apostolic. Its greatest activity for the benefit of its fellow men is precisely its solitary prayer, nourished by love, sacrifice and immolation. On the other hand, the soul occupied in apostolic works becomes, through perfect charity, more contemplative, more united to God than ever. Love has so fixed the soul in God that, even during work, its interior gaze is always turned toward Him, to nourish itself with His divine presence, to reflect in its own conduct His infinite perfections, and to govern itself at all times according to His good pleasure. Thus at the summit of the spiritual life, action and contemplation become fused in perfect unity and harmony. “Believe me,” wrote St. Teresa of Avila, “Martha and Mary must work together when they offer the Lord lodging, and must have Him ever with them, and they must not entertain Him badly and give Him nothing to eat...His food consists in our bringing Him souls, in every possible way, so that they may be saved and may praise Him forever” (T.J. Int C VII, 4). From this we can understand how all the great contemplatives were at the same time great apostles, and the great apostles, great contemplatives.


COLLOQUY


“O Lord, the desire to listen to Your divine Word, the need to be silent is sometimes so strong that I would wish not to know how to do anything else save to remain at Your feet, like Magdalen, in order to penetrate ever more deeply into that mystery of love which You came to reveal to us. But You teach me that if the soul never separates itself from You, it can always remain absorbed in contemplation, even though apparently it is carrying out Martha’s functions. In this way, O Lord, I intend and wish to exercise my apostolate: I shall radiate You, I shall give You to souls, provided I do not separate myself from You, O divine Source. Help me, sweet Master, to come very near You, to commune with Your Soul, to identify myself with all Your operations, and then to go forth like You to do the Father’s will.

“What a wonderful influence over souls has the apostle who never leaves the source of living waters! Grant me, O Lord, to be one of these. Then the spring of water will fill my soul and overflow it without danger of its becoming empty, for it will find itself in continual communication with You, the Infinite.

“My God, deign to invade all the faculties of my soul; grant that everything within me may become divine and marked with Your seal, so that I may be another Christ working for Your glory.

“Lord, how I long to labor for Your glory! I long to give myself entirely to You, to be serraded by Your divine life; be the life of my life, the soul of my soul, and grant that I may always remain under the influence of Your divine action ” (E.T. L).

[Stone]

343. OUR DUTIES

TWENTY-SECOND SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST

PRESENCE OF GOD - Teach me, O Lord, to fulfill all my duties in homage to Your sovereign Majesty.


MEDITATION

1. The teachings contained in the Mass of this Sunday can be synthesized in the well known statement of Jesus, which we read in the Gospel (Mt 22,15-21) of this day: “Render...to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God, the things that are God’s”; in other words, fulfill with exactness your duties toward God and toward your neighbor, by giving to each one his due.

The Epistle (Phil 1,6-11) presents St. Paul to us as a model of charity toward those whom God has confided to his care. “I have you in my heart,” writes the Apostle to the Philippians, “for that in my bands and in the defence and confirmation of the Gospel, you all are partakers of my joy.” St. Paul is keenly aware of his spiritual paternity toward the souls he has begotten in Christ; even from a distance, he feels responsible for their success, is preoccupied with their perseverance in good, sustains them with his fatherly affection and wise counsels: “Being confident of this very thing, that He, who hath begun a good work in you, will perfect it unto the day of Christ Jesus.” He does not want them to be frightened because he is far away from them: he is nothing but a poor instrument, God alone is the true guide of souls, and He will complete the work begun. As for him, they may be certain that he does not cease to love them: “For God is my witness how I long after you all in the heart of Jesus Christ.”

St. John Chrysostom asserts that the heart of Paul is the heart of Christ because of the great love for souls which makes him so like the Redeemer; thus should it be possible to say of the heart of every apostle. When God has put us in contact with a soul and has asked us to occupy ourselves with it, we can no longer be disinterested; this soul is henceforth bound to ours, we should feel responsible for it, and bound to help it even to the end.

After having spoken to us of the solicitude we should have for those confided to our care, the Epistle reminds us also of charity toward our neighbor in general: “That your charity may more and more abound in knowledge and in all understanding : that you may approve the better things.” He speaks of a charity increasingly delicate in its understanding of the souls of others, adapting itself with an ever more refined tact to the mind, the demands, the tastes of others; a charity which must urge us, as St. Paul says, to “approve”—and therefore, to do—“the better things,” in order that we “may be sincere and without offence unto the day of Christ.”


2. The Gospel outlines, clearly and distinctly, the position of the Christian toward civil authority. The insidious question: “Is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar, or not?” gives Jesus the occasion to solve the problem of the relation between religious and civil duties. He asks for a coin and says: “Whose image and inscription is this? They say to Him: Caesar’s. Then He saith to them: Render, therefore, to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God, the things that are God’s.”

There is no opposition between the rights of political power and the rights of God, since “there would be no power unless it were given from above” (cf. Jn 19,11): political authority, legitimately constituted, comes from God and must be respected as a reflection of the divine authority. This is precisely the reason why every Christian is bound to fulfill all the duties of a good citizen, and, consequently, must obey political authority, unless its orders are opposed to the law of God; for, in this case, it would no longer represent
divine authority and then, as St. Peter says, “We ought to obey God rather than men” (Acts 5,29).

We must not believe that because we are vowed to the apostolate or dedicated to religious works, we are, by this fact, dispensed from civic duties; on the contrary, even in this domain Catholics should be in the front rank. Emperors, kings, statesmen, soldiers, whom the Church honors as saints, tell us that sanctity is possible everywhere and for everyone, that it can be realized by those who dedicate themselves to the service of the State, because even here it is a question of serving God in His creatures.

By telling us to render to Caesar what is Caesar’s, Jesus teaches us to give to the State all that falls under its jurisdiction, that is, everything that concerns temporal order and the public good. But Jesus does not stop there, He says more: “Give to God what is God’s.” If the coin which bears the image of Caesar should be restored to Caesar, with much greater reason should our soul, which bears the image of God, be restored to God. To say that we must give our soul to God, is to say that we owe Him everything, because, as a matter of fact, we have received everything from Him. In this sense, to fulfill our duties toward our neighbor, toward our equals or our inferiors, toward our ecclesiastical or civil superiors, is to fulfill our duty toward God; it is to restore to Him everything He has given us, by submitting our freedom to His law, by putting our will in the service of His will.


COLLOQUY

“O my God, since I am Yours for so many reasons, and have so many obligations to serve You, permit no longer that sin, or Satan, or the world, usurp, even in the slightest degree, that which is entirely Yours. But, if it please You, take complete and absolute possession of my being and of my life. Here lam, O my God, I give myself entirely to You, protesting to You that I do not wish to exist but for You, and that I do not want to think, or say, or do, or suffer anything but for Your love, today, tomorrow, and always” (St. John Eudes).

“O my Lord Jesus, You gave Yourself to me and You ask only for my heart. But, O my Lord, what is this poor heart of mine when You are all? If my heart were worth more than those of all the children of men combined, and all the love of the angels, and if its capacity were so great that it could contain more than all the empyreal heaven, I would consecrate it wholly to You. It would be a very poor gift, and even almost nothing, to so great a Lord. But, how much more shall I not give You, and wholly repose in You, this little spark of a heart which I find in myself! Because this is for me a very great thing, that You should deign to keep my heart. Would it not be folly if I should consecrate it henceforth to some creature, when my God wills it for Himself? I do not want it to remain any longer in me, but to repose entirely in You, who have created it to praise You. It is better that I place my heart in eternal joy, in divine majesty and in immense goodness, rather than in my frailty; that I place it in Your deity, rather than in my iniquity” (St. Bonaventure).

344. THE HOLY SPIRIT AND THE APOSTOLATE

PRESENCE OF GOD - O Holy Spirit, take possession of my soul and transform it into a chosen instrument for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.


MEDITATION

1. The heart of the apostolate is love. St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus understood this well; after having passed in review all possible vocations, and recognizing that they would not suffice to appease her immense apostolic desires, she exclaimed: “ My vocation is found at last—my vocation is love!... In the heart of the Church, my Mother, I will be love! Thus shall I be all things” (T.C.J. St, 13). Where can we obtain such a complete and transforming love? We must never forget that the source of charity is the Holy Spirit, who is the personal terminus of the love of the Father and of the Son, the eternal breath of Their mutual love. This Spirit “has been given” to us, He is “ours”; He dwells in our hearts precisely to pour forth in them that supernatural love which makes us burn with love for God and for souls. “ The charity of God is poured forth in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who is given to us ” (Rom 5,5). By communicating the flame of divine charity to men and associating them to His infinite love, the Holy Spirit is the secret animator and sustainer of all apostolate; “It is He,” Pius XII teaches, “who through His heavenly breath of life is the source from which proceeds every vital and efficaciously salutary action...in the Mystical Body of Christ” (Mystici Corporis). He is the soul of the Church. Do we wish to become apostles? Let us open our hearts wide to the outpourings of the Holy Spirit, in order that His love may invade and penetrate us to the point of absorbing our poor love into Himself. When the love of a soul is united to “the living flame of love” which is the Holy Spirit, so as to “become one thing with it” (cf. J.C. LF, 1,3), then it becomes a vivifying love in the heart of the Church. This is the only way to realize the magnificent ideal: “In the heart of the Church I will be love. Thus I shall be everything” (T.C.J. St, 13). To attain to this supreme summit of love and of the apostolate, we must follow, day by day, moment by moment, the motions of the Holy Spirit, open ourselves submissively to His action, and allow ourselves to be directed and governed by Him. Above all, we must yield ourselves to His infinite love which diffuses itself totally in the Father and the Son, and then overflows on souls, to draw them all into the Blessed Trinity.


2. The apostolate was inaugurated in the Church on the day of Pentecost when the Apostles “ were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they began to speak with divers tongues, according as the Holy Spirit gave them to speak ” (Acts 2,4). Before that, the twelve were poor men, dull, weak, full of fear. But once the Holy Spirit took possession of them, He transformed them into men of fire, ready to give their lives to witness to the Lord.

In our day too, the Holy Spirit can renew that great miracle. As in former times, He can—or rather, He wills— to take possession of poor men, of weak women, in order to, transform them into ardent apostles. What is the condition that He requires? A total self-surrender, a docility so sensitive, so delicate, that the apostle becomes wholly amenable to His operative presence, to His motions, to His inspirations. To attain this, the apostle must have a true sense of his complete dependence on the divine Paraclete, a sense which must manifest itself practically by diligent care to maintain, even in the midst of activity, a continual contact with Him, always attentive to His inspirations, and quick to follow them. Like the wind “the Spirit breatheth where He will; and thou hearest His voice, but thou knowest not whence He cometh, and whither He goeth” (Jn 3,8). His inspirations may surprise us in the midst of activity no less than in prayer; it is essential, therefore, to learn to speak interiorly with Him even while exteriorly we are occupied with creatures.

This attitude is particularly necessary in our direct contact with souls; then, more than ever, the apostle should invoke the Holy Spirit, keep himself under His influence, and allow himself to be directed by Him. Souls belong to God and they should be directed, not according to one’s own spirit, but according to the Spirit of God. Complete submission demands great faith and great confidence in the omnipotent and transforming action of the Holy Spirit. Only in this way will the apostle have the courage to follow His lead in any form of activity, while remaining fully aware of his own insufficiency. Only thus will he have the courage to face any sacrifice with generosity, while feeling all his own weakness. The Holy Spirit has not been given to us in vain; He is within us, and provided we give ourselves wholly to Him, He can transform us into “chosen instruments” for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.


COLLOQUY

“Pardon me, my Jesus, if I venture to tell You of my longings, my hopes that border on the infinite; and that my soul may be healed, I beseech You to fulfill all its desires. To be Your spouse, O my Jesus...and by my union with You, to be the mother of souls, should not all this content me? Yet other vocations make themselves felt, and I would wield the sword, I would be a priest, an apostle, a martyr, a doctor of the Church.... O Jesus, my Love, my Life, how shall I realize these desires of my poor soul?


“You make me understand that all cannot become apostles, prophets, doctors; that the Church is composed of different members; that the eye cannot also be the hand.... You teach me that all the better gifts are nothing without love, and that charity is the most excellent way of going in safety to You.

“At last I have found rest.... Charity gives me the key to my vocation. I understand that since the Church is a body composed of different members, she could not lack the most necessary and most nobly endowed of all the bodily organs. I understand, therefore, that the Church has a heart—and a heart on fire with love.

“I see too, that love alone imparts life to all the members, so that should love ever fail, apostles would no longer preach the Gospel and martyrs would refuse to shed their blood. And I realize that love includes every vocation, that love is all things, that love is eternal.... O Jesus, my Love! my vocation is found at last—my vocation is love! I have found my place in the bosom of the Church, and this place, O my God, You Yourself have given to me: in the heart of the Church, my Mother, I will be love. Thus shall I be all things and my dream will be fulfilled” (cf. T.C.J. St, 13).

345. UNION WITH GOD

PRESENCE OF GOD - My God, Thou hast created me for Thyself; grant that I may return to Thee and unite myself to Thee by love.


MEDITATION

1. The whole life of man is a return journey to God: he came from God and must go back to Him. The more complete this return, the more intimate his union with God will become and the better will he have attained the end for which he was created: he will be perfect and eternally happy. St. Thomas teaches that a being is perfect when it attains its end; thus the perfection of man consists in rejoining God and uniting himself to Him, his last end. Man finds in union with God all that he can desire: he finds his peace, the assuaging of his hunger for the infinite, of his thirst for love and imperishable felicity. “Thou hast made us for Thyself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in Thee” (St. Augustine). Man finds his eternal happiness in union with God; and the life of heaven is nothing else than this union carried to its ultimate perfection, wherein man gives God the greatest glory and the greatest love which, in turn, redounds to man’s own eternal beatitude.

The soul that truly loves God does not resign itself to waiting for heaven in order to be united to Him, but desires ardently to anticipate this union here below. Is this possible? Yes, Jesus has said so: “If anyone love Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him; and We will come to him and will make Our abode with him ” (Jn 14,23). Our Lord Himself tells us in these words the condition for living united to Him: love. “He that abideth in charity, abideth in God, and God in him” (1 Jn 4,16). Love is the great power which unites us to God even in this life, where, imprisoned in matter, we cannot yet enjoy the direct contact, the face to face vision of Him. “The end of the spiritual life,” says St. Thomas, “is that man unite himself to God by love” (II@ IIe, q.44, a.1, co.). By steps of love, gressibus amoris, we advance toward our last end: union with God. Such is the great ideal which should illumine and direct our whole life, the great goal which, with the divine assistance, we can attain even here below, as far as is possible in our state as pilgrims.


2. St. John of the Cross explains wherein union of love with God consists. It is not a question of the substantial union which always exists between God and everything created and by means of which He is preserving their being. That kind of union is natural and can never be jacking in any creature, not even in the greatest sinner. The union of love, however, is supernatural and only takes place in souls “when there is produced that likeness that comes from love,” that is, in souls that are in the state of grace. The Saint says: “Although...God is ever in the soul, giving it, and through His presence conserving within it, its natural being, yet He does not always communicate supernatural being to it. For this is communicated only by love and grace, which not all souls possess; and all those that possess it have it not in the same degree; for some have attained more degrees of love and others fewer.” He concludes: “God communicates Himself most to that soul that has progressed farthest in love” (AS II, 5,3.4).

The state of grace is the point of departure for the union of love with God. The goal is the full development: of grace, so that the soul remains totally supernaturalized, and all its powers, its entire will, all its affections are concentrated in God, neither desiring nor loving anything henceforth but what God wills and loves. Grace is the life of God in us, a life which develops through progress in love. The more the soul loves, the more grace increases in it, with the result that its participation in the divine life becomes more profound, leading it to an ever more intense and perfect union with God. Grace and love are the precious seeds of union with God; they put the soul in intimate communion with Him: communion of life, of thought and of will. God always remains God, distinct from His creature; the creature always keeps its own personality, and yet the soul becomes so permeated with divine life, God so “communicates to it His own supernatural Being that it seems to be God...rather than a soul” (ibid., 7). Such is the ultimate end of union with God upon earth, a sublime end, but one which it is not rash to desire, since each of us has already received in baptismal grace the seed of union with God.


COLLOQUY


“O Jesus, who will give me the grace to form one only spirit with You? Rejecting the multiplicity of creatures, I desire indeed, O Lord, Your unity alone! O God, You are the only One, the sole unity necessary for my soul! Ah! dear friend of my heart, unite this poor soul of mine to Your singular goodness! You are entirely mine, when shall I be all Yours? The magnet draws iron and holds it fast to itself; Lord Jesus, my Beloved, be the magnet of my heart: draw, hold fast, unite forever my spirit to Your paternal heart! Oh, since I was made for You, how is it that I am not in You? Submerge this drop, which is the spirit You have given me, in the sea of Your goodness, from which it proceeds. Lord, seeing that Your heart loves me, why do You not lift me up to You, as I so much desire? Draw me, and I will run in the odor of Your ointments until I cast myself into Your arms and never move from thence forever. Amen” (St. Francis de Sales).

“O Lord, who could describe how great a gain it is to cast ourselves into Yours arms and make an agreement with You: You will take care of my affairs and I of Yours."

“For what am I, Lord, without You? What am I worth if I am not near You? If once I stray from Your Majesty, be it ever so little, where shall I find myself?

“O my Lord, my Mercy and my Good! What more do I want in this life than to be so near You that there is no division between You and me?

“O Lord of my life, draw me to Yourself, but do it in such a way that my will may ever remain so united to You that it shall be unable to leave You” (T.J. Con, 4 — 3).

346. THE WAY OF UNION

PRESENCE OF GOD - Lord, give me light and strength to root out of my heart all that hinders me from being united to You.


MEDITATION

1. “God communicates Himself most to that soul that has progressed farthest in love : namely, that has its will in closest conformity with the will of God” (J.C. AS I, 5,4). In ordinary life, true love is manifested in willingness to do what pleases the person loved; in conforming oneself to his desires, tastes and will, not willing anything which could displease him. The soul unites itself to God in the measure in which it is truly conformed to His will. It is evident that this union cannot be perfect as long as the soul resists the divine will, be it only in very small things, or does not accept it readily, or as long as it retains desires and tastes which, even in a very slight way, are not in harmony with the will of God. The whole spiritual ascent to divine union consists in a double movement, very simple but essential: despoiling oneself of all that is displeasing to God, and renouncing all that is in opposition to His will, by conforming oneself to that will and fulfilling it with the greatest love. It is an extremely simple movement, but at the same time an all-embracing one, because it extends to every circumstance of life, without exception, so that in all things, the greatest as in the least, the soul acts in a manner that is in perfect conformity with the divine will. It is also a very profound movement which must reach even to the most secret recesses of the spirit, in order to free it from the least residue, the last resistances of egoism and pride, not only eliminating their manifestations but undermining their very roots.

As long as this work of total purgation is incomplete, the soul’s will cannot be totally conformed to that of God; its numerous imperfections and imperfect habits are still opposed to this entire conformity. Only “the soul that has attained complete conformity and likeness of will is totally united and transformed in God supernaturally. It needs, then, only to strip itself of these natural dissimilarities and contrarieties...” (ibid.).


2. If we examine ourselves attentively, we shall see that our will is still very dissimilar to God’s will. God wills only the good, and He wills it in the most perfect manner. We, on the contrary, often will evil together with the good; moreover, we lack the strength to do the good that we will, and we realize it only imperfectly. Every time we commit any fault, even a simple imperfection, we desire something that God cannot will: these faults include slight acts of slothfulness, negligence, impatience; they may involve a subtle seeking of self or the affection and esteem of creatures; there could be numerous secondary motives which secretly insinuate themselves into our actions. To attain to divine union all these must be eliminated.

St. John of the Cross says expressly that it is not only beginners on the spiritual road, but even the “proficients” who are subject to many imperfections and still retain imperfect habits, proceeding especially from a subtle pride and spiritual egoism. As they have exercised themselves for a long time in the interior life, a certain presumption and self-assurance may easily creep in, through which these souls are exposed to failings in humility and reverence in their relations with God, while in their relations with their neighbor, they often fall into the weakness of desiring to be esteemed as perfect. Furthermore, as they are not entirely detached from themselves, they stop to enjoy, a bit egoistically, the spiritual consolations they receive in prayer; thus they distract themselves from seeking God alone, retard their union with Him, and even expose themselves to falling into the snares of imagination or of the devil (cf. DN I, 2,2).

All this proves how deeply pride and egoism are rooted in us. Scarcely have we detached our hearts from earthly vanities and material goods, than we are immediately ready to attach ourselves to spiritual goods. Yet we must not despair of attaining divine union; we must seize the occasion of our misery to beg with greater insistence that Our Lord may deign to complete the work of our purification. Moreover, He desires it more than we ourselves, and if He does not effect it as He would, it is only because He finds us refractory, impatient, little disposed to accept in good. part what humbles and mortifies us to the core. Yet this alone is the way to reach union with God.


COLLOQUY

“As long as my will desires that which is alien to the divine will, has preferences for one thing or another, I remain like a child; I do not walk in love with giant strides. The fire has not yet burnt away all the dross, and the gold is not yet pure. I am still seeking myself. O Lord, You have not yet done away with all my resistance to You. But when the crucible has consumed all tainted love, all tainted pain, all tainted fear, then love is perfect, and the golden ring of our union is wider than heaven and earth.

“But in order to attain this I must die daily to myself. O Jesus, I wish to die, to decrease, to deny myself daily more and more, in order that You may grow and be exalted in me. As a ‘little one’ I dwell in the depths of my poverty; I see my nothingness, my penury, my weakness; I see that I am incapable of progress, of perseverance; I appear to myself in all my destitution; I prostrate myself in my wretchedness, and recognizing my state of dire need, I spread it out before You, my divine Master.... As far as my will—not my feelings—is concerned, I set my joy in everything that can humble me, immolate me, destroy self in me, for I want to give place to You, O Lord.... I no longer wish to live by my own life, but to be transformed in You, so that my life may be more divine than human, and that, inclining unto me, the Father may recognize Your image, the image of His beloved Son, in whom He is well pleased ” (E.T. J, 2 - 3).

347. THE NIGHT OF THE SPIRIT

PRESENCE OF GOD - Pour forth, O Lord, into my soul greater love and greater courage, that I may willingly accept Your purifying action.


MEDITATION

1. The difficult and bitter purification called the night of the spirit is necessary to extirpate the roots of imperfect habits. The purification of the soul begins with the night of sense, which, by putting the soul into obscurity and depriving it of all sensible consolation, frees it from attachment to creatures and to material goods; but this night is completed only by the night of the spirit, which, annihilating the soul in its spiritual faculties, succeeds in destroying in it every imperfect habit. St. John of the Cross remarks very appositely that after having passed through the night of sense, “there still remain in the spirit the stains of the old man, although the spirit thinks not that this is so, neither can it perceive them” (DWN H, 2,1); these stains are so deep and hidden that the soul has difficulty in recognizing them.

Consider, for example, one who is detached from creatures and earthly goods, advanced in prayer and virtue, a soul, therefore, who has already gone through the stages of the purgative and illuminative ways; nevertheless, when put to the test, it is easy to discover in it a certain attachment to its good works—works of the apostolate, exercises of penance or devotion—so that if obedience or the service of its neighbor oblige it to leave these works or substitute others for them, the soul is troubled, offers a certain resistance, and only with much reluctance does it succeed in submitting. This happens precisely because there are still within it the roots of imperfect habits and, above all, those of pride and egoism, whence spring all the other faults and imperfections. Of what use is it to suppress faulty actions if their roots remain in the spirit? Cut off only superficially, these roots, sooner or later, send forth shoots in a new direction.

No one can be freed from the roots of his faults without passing through the painful night of the spirit. Comparing this night with the night of sense, St. John of the Cross says that the difference between one and the other “ is the difference between the root and the branch, or between the removing of a stain which is fresh and of one which is old and of long standing” (ibid.). Although the operation is very arduous and painful to undergo, it is nevertheless indispensable, because the stains of the old man are removed only “with the soap and strong lye” of the purgation of the spirit, without which the soul “ will be unable to come to the purity of divine union” (ibid.).


2. In order to enter the night of sense a good measure of courage is necessary, for it is a matter of renouncing every pleasure that presents itself to the senses, if it be not purely for the honor and glory of God” (J.C. AS J, 13,4). To enter the night of the spirit, much more is required, since it is necessary to renounce not merely material things, but spiritual things as well. It is a matter, for example, of blinding one’s own reason, of renouncing one’s own will or the asserting of one’s personality, not only in what concerns material goods but even in regard to moral and spiritual goods. In the night of the spirit the soul must walk in darkness, it must be placed in emptiness with respect to the senses and also with respect to its spiritual faculties. In this night God “strips their faculties, affections, and feelings, both spiritual and sensual, both outward and inward, leaving the understanding dark, the will dry, the memory empty and the affections in the deepest affliction, bitterness and constraint, taking from the soul the pleasure and experience of spiritual blessings which it had aforetime” (J.C. DN II, 3,4).

Such desolation and such privation of everything should not discourage us; they are not ordered to death, but to life and even to the fullness of life, which is union with God by love. Therefore, the soul that loves is neither frightened nor alarmed; its ideal is divine union and it desires to reach it at any cost; no sacrifice seems too hard, provided it reach its goal. On the other hand, if we had the least conception of the infinite perfection of God and were even dimly aware of our own profound misery, we should have to admit that no purification, however severe or painful, could ever be exaggerated when it prepares us, unworthy and wretched as we are, for union with Him who is Goodness, Purity, and Infinite Beauty; nor could the sufferings which this purification imposes on us ever seem insupportable when compared with the immense good which they will procure for us. The soul enamoured of its God repeats with St. Francis: “So great is the good which awaits me that all pain is delightful to me”; and it is here below that it awaits this good, because it knows that God does not refuse to admit to union with Himself the spirit which is well disposed, that is, totally purified.


COLLOQUY

“O my soul, when will you be delivered from your passions and vicious tendencies and changed for the better? When will the root of all evil be dried up within you? When will every trace of sin in You be effaced? Oh, if only you would love your God ardently! If only you were indissolubly united to your Sovereign Good!

“Good Jesus, tender Shepherd, my sweet Master, King of eternal glory, when shall I appear before You without stain and truly humble? When shall I truly despise all that is of earth for Your love? When shall I be entirely detached from myself and all things? For if I were really free of all worldly attachment I would no longer have any will of my own, nor would I any longer groan under the yoke of my passions and ill-regulated affections; I would no longer seek self in anything. The lack of this absolute, total detachment is the only real obstacle between You and me, the only thing which keeps me from taking flight freely toward You. When, then, shall I be despoiled of all? When shall I abandon myself without reserve to Your divine will? When shall I serve You with a pure, humble, calm, serene spirit? When shall I love You perfectly? When, after receiving you into my heart, will my soul unite itself delightfully to its Beloved? When shall I leap up to You with
tender and ardent desire? When will my negligence and imperfections be absorbed in the immensity of Your love? O my God, my life, my love, my sole desire! My treasure, my good! My beginning and my end! My soul longs for Your tender embrace, it languishes and faints with desire to unite itself to You, to be held close to You by the bond of a sweet, holy and indissoluble love! What have I in heaven? What do I desire upon earth? The God of my heart, the God who is my portion forever!” (Bl. Louis de Blois).

348. PURIFYING LOVE

PRESENCE OF GOD - O Lord, help me to open my heart wide to the outpouring of Your purifying love.


MEDITATION

1. One of the greatest graces God can give a soul is that of introducing it into the painful desolation of the night of the spirit, for it is in this way that He prepares and disposes it for union. Although to the soul who experiences its distressing pains, this night seems to be a chastisement from God, it is, on the contrary, a gift of His merciful love, by means of which, He wills to disentangle the soul from the last snares of its imperfections. St. John of the Cross declares expressly that this night is the work of “the loving wisdom of God,” which purifying the soul “ prepares it for the union of love” (DN II, 5,1). But if this is the work of love, why is it is so painful? The soul has become like a piece of green wood placed in the fire; material fire, acting upon wood, first of all begins to dry it by driving out its moisture, and “to make it black, dark, and unsightly, and even to make it give forth a bad odor; and, as it dries it little by little, it brings out and drives away all the dark and unsightly accidents which are contrary to the nature of fire. Finally, it begins to kindle it externally, to give it heat, and at last transforms it into itself, making it as beautiful as fire.” Likewise divine Love, “before it unites and transforms the soul into itself, first purges it of all its contrary accidents. It drives out its unsightliness, and makes it black and dark, so that the soul seems worse than before, and more unsightly and abominable than it was wont to be” (ibid., 10,1.2).

One easily understands that under the weight of such purifications the soul must suffer; nevertheless, all this is the work of Love. The loving Wisdom of God invading the yet imperfect soul must necessarily begin in it a work of destruction, of purification, and only after having freed it from everything contrary to divine love, will He unite it to Himself and transform it in Himself. ‘Then the work of Love will no longer be grievous to the soul, but very sweet and delightful; however, as long as it is not completely purified, this work of purgation cannot fail to be afflictive. O blessed affliction which disposes the soul for so great a good! St. John of the Cross cries out: “O souls that seek to walk in security and comfort in spiritual things! If ye did but know how necessary it is to suffer and endure in order to reach this lofty state of security and consolation...ye would in no way seek consolation, either from God or from creatures, but would rather bear the cross, and having embraced it, would desire to drink pure vinegar and gall, and would count this a great happiness” (J.C. LF, 2,28).


2. The more deeply convinced we are that purification is the work of Love, the more eager we shall be to welcome it gladly, and to embrace it courageously, even when it costs us dear. Moreover, the general law of perfect love—even of human love—does not tolerate sharing the heart. Love will not admit rivals and cannot endure a lack of harmony between those who love. If human love, so limited and weak, demands such totality, why should we not accord the same rights—or rather, infinitely superior ones—to divine Love?

Love by its very nature tends to equality: it either finds or it makes those who love one another equal; and God, seeing a soul of good will, wanting to give itself entirely to Him, loves it to the point of making it like Himself, by stripping it of all that is contrary to His infinite perfection; and in the measure that He strips it, He clothes it with Himself, with His own divine Life. By its very nature, love also tends to unity: it desires complete fusion of hearts; and God, who infinitely loves the soul that sincerely seeks Him, desires nothing more than to unite it to Himself; therefore He purifies it of every stain that would impede perfect union with His infinite purity.

Jesus Himself, at the Last Supper, expressed the supreme desire of His love for us by asking for this perfect union: “ As Thou, Father in Me, and I in Thee; that they also may be one in Us” (Jn 17,21). But because we were radically incapable of this union, vitiated by sin and full of every misery, He took our sins upon Himself and washed them away in His Blood. The Passion of Jesus tells us how much our purification has cost the sinless Son of God. And if it has cost Him, Innocence itself, so much, is it not just that we should suffer a little, too, we who are culpable, having so often offended God, and having so many times, by our willfulness, put obstacles to the outpouring of His love in our souls? And now that this divine Love, instead of abandoning us as we deserve, comes to us in order to purify us, shall we flee from its action? No, this cannot be! Just as purifying sufferings are the work of God’s love for us, so we want our acceptance of them to be the work, the proof, of our love for Him. “ To love is to labor to detach and strip ourselves for God’s sake of all that is not God” (J.C. AS II, 5,7).


COLLOQUY

“O Lord, be mindful of me, who dwell in darkness and in the shadow of death, and quicken Your creature with Your love, which is the very breath of my life. Make the divine fire of Your love consume in me every desire for earthly affection, and may there remain in my heart but one love alone, entirely directed to Your infinite beauty and goodness.

“O Jesus, Your immense love, drawing me to union with Yourself, awakens in me a great longing to love You in return. Therefore, from the very depths of my heart I cry to You, and beg You, by the flames of the boundless charity with which You loved me and became incarnate for me, to send me the Holy Spirit, that divine Fire which inflames the Church, my Mother and Your Spouse, that He may enlighten and convert me and thus revivify my soul.

“O sweetest Son of God, let that divine Spirit come. I open wide my heart to Him so that, disfigured as I am by sin, He may, transform me according to Your beautiful form and grace.

“This, O Lord, is my request, and to obtain it I surrender myself to the fire and water of tribulations, and to all the pains of this life. For this I rise early to forestall You with prayer and to sacrifice myself to You in the morning watches. For this I supplicate You in the silence of the night and knock at the door of Your mercy. By their tears my eyes speak to You, and I shall not take any rest until You have satisfied my desire.

“Tf You condescend to hearken to me by sending me Your Fire, I will sacrifice to You the firstfruits of my affections, and I will never serve strange gods. I will praise You in public and in secret. I will sing Your mercies eternally and acclaim the victories of Your love” (Ven. John of Jesus Mary).

349. TOWARD COMPLETE PURIFICATION

PRESENCE OF GOD - Help me, O Lord, that I may have the courage set out myself by my own initiative toward complete purification.


MEDITATION

1. “The soul desirous of reaching this high state of union with God is greatly impeded when it clings to any understanding or feeling or imagination or appearance or will or manner of its own, or to any other act or to anything of its own, and is unable to detach and strip itself of all these” (J.C. AS I, 4,4). This profound and radical detachment is effected in the soul by the night of the spirit. If then, we wish to enter this night, which will bring such good to our soul, we must try as far as in us lies, to deny ourselves in everything, especially in those things to which we are most attached. We must be disposed to renounce our plans, our projects, and our views, not only regarding material things, but even spiritual ones, for we must go to God, not by a way of our own choosing or taste, but only by the way which He Himself has prepared for us. We must be disposed to renounce divine consolations and to walk in darkness and aridity for as long as Our Lord wills, to renounce our most cherished works, our most legitimate affections, our most holy friendships, even the very support of the one who understands and guides us in the ways of God. There are few who enter effectively into the night of the spirit precisely because “ there are few who can enter, and desire to enter, into this complete detachment and emptiness of spirit ” (ibid., 7,3).

Even among spiritual persons, few are persuaded that the way which leads to union with God “ consists only in the one thing that is needful, which is the ability to deny oneself truly, according to that which is without and that which is within, giving oneself up to suffering for Christ’s sake, and to total annihilation” (ibid., 7,8). We must be convinced of this, and act in all things with the greatest detachment, without detaining ourselves through a spirit of ownership or by vain complacency, either in material or in spiritual goods. We must look at Jesus on the Cross: He was truly despoiled, stripped of all things, and “annihilated in everything, that is, with respect to human reputation; since, when men saw Him die, they mocked Him rather than esteemed Him; and also with respect to nature, since His nature was annihilated when He died; and further, with respect to the spiritual consolation and protection of the Father, since at that time, He forsook Him” (ibid., 7,11). From this we should understand the way to unite ourselves to God; we should realize that the more completely we annihilate ourselves for love of Him, the more completely will we be united to Him.


2. The generous practice of total renunciation is not the only thing we can do in order to enter the night of the spirit; there is another, no longer negative but eminently positive: the intense exercise of the theological virtues. Faith, hope and charity must be our support and guide in the obscurity of the night and, at the same time, help us to purify the faculties of our soul—the understanding, the memory and the will—-so that they may cling to God alone.

“Faith,” writes St. John of the Cross, “causes an emptiness and darkness with respect to the understanding” (AS II, 6,2). Indeed, in proposing for our belief truths which we cannot understand because of their sublimity, faith teaches us that instead of depending upon our own manner of reasoning and understanding, we ought rather to despoil ourselves of this—thus placing our intellect in emptiness—in order to unite ourselves to God. The greater our progress in faith, the more detached we shall be from our shallow ways of thinking, not only in what concerns the divine mysteries and our direct contacts with God, but even with respect to the events of life, which we shall learn to judge only in relation to God.

Hope, on its part, “renders the memory empty and dark with respect both to things below and to things above” (ibid., 6,3). If we hope earnestly, it means that we await blessings which we do not yet enjoy and are not content with those already possessed. If we place all our hope in God, it means that we no longer hope in the things of earth, that possession of them does not satisfy us; thus the remembrance of them becomes less lively, less frequent, so that our memory remains empty, and capable of applying itself solely to what concerns God and His service. If we exercise ourselves intensively in the hope of heavenly goods, we shall forget earthly ones; if we hope in God alone, we shall no longer be occupied with the remembrance of creatures.

“Charity causes emptiness in the will with respect to all things, since it obliges us to love God above them all; which cannot be unless we withdraw our affection from them all in order to set it wholly upon God” (ibid., 6,4). If we wish to attain to detachment and to total renunciation we must love much. The more we grow in divine love, and the more readily we detach ourselves from earthly things and also from ourselves, the more capable we become of renouncing our own will and annihilating our ego in all things. If we walk in faith, hope, and love, we shall go forward in the night of the spirit, without going astray in the obscurity and darkness that is encountered, for these virtues will keep us strongly anchored in God.


COLLOQUY

“O Lord, make possible to me by Your grace what seems impossible to me by nature. You know that I can bear but little and that I am quickly discouraged by a small adversity. Let every trial and tribulation become agreeable to me, for Your name’s sake; for to suffer and to be afflicted for You is very beneficial to my soul.

“Be with me, O Lord Jesus, in all places and at all times. Let this be my consolation, to be willing to be without all human comfort. And if Your comfort also be withdrawn, let what You will and ordain for my trial be to me as the greatest of comforts. ‘For You will not always be angry, nor will You threaten forever.’

“Lord, provided that my will remain but right and firm toward You, do with me whatever pleases You. For whatever You shall do with me can only be good. If You wish me to be in darkness, I shall bless You; and if You wish me to be afflicted, I shall still bless You forever.

“Lord, I shall suffer willingly for Your sake whatever You wish to send me. I will receive with indifference from Your hand both good and evil alike; keep me from all sin, and I will fear neither death nor hell. Do not cast me out forever, nor blot me out of the book of life, and whatever tribulation befalls will not harm me” (Imit. III, 19,5 — 16,2 — 17,2.4).

[Stone]

350. DESIGNS OF PEACE AND LOVE
TWENTY-THIRD SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST

PRESENCE OF GOD - O Lord, fulfill in me Your designs of peace and love, making me rise to a life of complete fervor.


MEDITATION

1. In spite of our sublime ideal, our ardent desire for sanctity, we always find ourselves full of miseries, always indebted to God. Our souls often tremble with fear in His presence, and we ask ourselves: How will He receive me? Will He turn me away? But the answer is quite different from what we would expect: “The Lord saith: I think thoughts of peace and not of affliction. You shall call upon Me and I will hear you, and I will bring back your captivity from all places.” These consoling words, which we read in the Introit of today’s
Mass, open our hearts to the sweetest hopes. God loves us in spite of all. He is always and everywhere our Father, and He desires to free us from the servitude of our passions and from our weaknesses. Then spontaneously the humble invocation of the Collect rises to our lips: “Grant, O Lord, that by Your goodness we may be delivered from the bonds of sin which by our frailty we have committed.” Humility and the sincere acknowledgment of our wrongdoing is always the starting point for conversion.

In the Epistle (Phil 3,17-21-4,1-3) St. Paul speaks to us of conversion: “For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you weeping, that they are enemies of the Cross of Christ...who mind only the things of earth.” Every time that we shun a sacrifice, that we protest against suffering, that we seek selfish pleasures, we behave, in practice, like enemies of the Cross of Christ. Thus our lives become too earthly, too much attached to creatures, too heavily burdened to rise toward heaven. We must be converted, we must
practice detachment, and remember that “our conversation is in heaven”; to this end, we must willingly embrace the hardships of the return journey to our heavenly homeland. As an encouragement, St. Paul places before our eyes the glory of our eternal life: “Jesus Christ will reform the body of our lowness, made like to the body of His glory.” These are the “ thoughts of peace,” the great designs of love which our heavenly Father outlines for us: to free us from the bondage of sin, and conform us to His own Son, making us sharers in His glorious resurrection. They are marvelous designs but they will be realized only with our cooperation. “Therefore,” the Apostle beseeches us, “my dearly beloved brethren, and most desired, my joy and my crown: so stand fast in the Lord.” Stand fast, that is, persevere in your conversion, strong in humility, confidence, and love of the Cross.


2. Today’s Gospel (Mi 9,18-26) gives a striking example of the transformation which God desires to accomplish in us. It also shows how He realizes His thoughts of peace in those who approach Him with a humble and trustful heart. First, let us consider the woman troubled with an issue of blood. Her malady was incurable, she had been suffering from it for twelve years, and she had found no remedy. The poor woman, ashamed and humiliated, did not dare, like the other sick persons, to present herself directly to Jesus. However, her faith was so lively that she said within herself: “If I shall touch only His garment, I shall be healed.” Furtively drawing near to Him she touched the hem of His garment. Jesus noticed that light touch and turning around said: “Be of good heart, daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole.” No petition, no spoken request—but what moved the Lord was the prayer of that humble, trustful heart, so full of faith.

As Jesus healed the woman with the issue of blood, so does He wish to heal our souls, but He expects of us dispositions similar to hers. Too often we are content to pray with our lips while our hearts are cold and distant; Jesus, however, looks to the heart; He wants the prayer of the heart, a cry of humility and confidence, a cry which goes straight to His own divine Heart. On the other hand, how much more fortunate are we than that poor sick woman! She succeeded only once in touching the hem of His garment, whereas our souls in Holy Communion may be daily united with His very Body and Blood. Oh! if we only had faith like a grain of mustard seed!

The second miracle followed. The daughter of Jairus was not simply ill, she was dead; but it was no more difficult for Jesus to restore a dead person to life than to heal one who was sick. He, the true Lord of life and death, “took her by the hand and the maid arose.” Jesus is our Resurrection not only for our eternal life when, at a signal from Him, our body will rise glorious and be reunited to our soul; but He is our Resurrection even in this life : our Resurrection from the death of sin to the life of grace, our Resurrection
from a lukewarm life to a fervent and holy life.

Let us draw near to Jesus with the humility and confidence of the woman cured of the issue of blood. Let us beg Him with all our hearts to realize in us His designs of love, by drawing us away from the sluggish mediocrity of a spiritual life still entangled in the snares of egoism, and by giving us a strong, determined impetus toward sanctity.


COLLOQUY

“O Lord, how ill is Your friendship requited by those who so soon become Your mortal enemies again! Of a truth, Your mercy is great; what friend shall we find who is so long-suffering? If once such a cleavage takes place between two earthly friends, it is never erased from the memory and their friendship can never again become as close as before. Yet how often has our friendship for You failed in this way, and for how many years do You await our return to You! May You be blessed, my Lord God, who bear so compassionately with us that You seem to forget Your greatness and do not punish such treacherous treason as this, as would only be right” (T.J. Con, 2).

“O Jesus, You are my peace; for through You I have access to the Father, since it has pleased the Father to grant peace through the Blood of Your Cross to all in heaven and on earth.

“This is Your work as regards every soul of good will; it is what Your immense, Your exceeding charity urges You to do in me. You desire to be my peace.... By the Blood of Your Cross, You will make peace in the little heaven of my soul... You will fill me with Yourself, You will bury me in Yourself, and You will make me live again with You, by Your Life.

“O Jesus, even though I fall at every moment, in trustful faith I shall pray You to raise me up, and I know You will forgive me, and will blot out everything with jealous care. More than that : You will despoil me, deliver me from my miseries, from everything that is an obstacle to Your divine action; and will draw all my powers to Yourself, and make them Your captive.... Then I shall have passed completely into You and shall be able to say : It is no longer I that live; my Master liveth in me” (E.T. J, 12).

351. PASSIVE PURIFICATION

PRESENCE OF GOD - My God, illumine my way, that I may not go astray in the midst of the darkness of tribulation.


MEDITATION

1. Although it is possible for us to enter the night of the spirit by a generous practice of total renunciation and an intense exercise of the theological virtues, we will never be able to penetrate into its deepest part if God Himself does not place us there. Only He can deepen the darkness which envelops us in this night, so that we may be reduced to nothingness in all, to the point of attaining the purity and poverty of spirit which are required for union. Far from taking the initiative, our task is then reduced to accepting with love, to enduring with patience and humility all that God disposes for us.

In order not to resist the divine action, we should remember that God generally purifies souls through the ordinary circumstances of life. In the life of every Christian, every apostle, every religious, there is always a measure of suffering sufficient to effect the purification of the spirit. These are the sufferings which God Himself chooses and disposes in the way best suited to the different needs of souls; but, unfortunately, few profit by them because few know how to recognize in the sorrows of life the hand of God who wishes to purify them. Illness, bereavement, estrangement, separation from dear ones, misunderstandings, struggles, difficulties proceeding sometimes from the very ones who should have been able to give help and support, failure of works that were cherished and sustained at the price of great labor, abandonment by friends, physical and spiritual solitude —these are some of the sufferings which are met with more or less in the life of every man, and which we will find in ours. We must understand that all such things are positively willed or at least permitted by God precisely to purify us even to the very inmost fibers of our being. In the face of these trials, we must never blame the malice of men, or stop to examine whether or not they are just; we must see only the blessed hand of God who offers us these bitter remedies to bring perfect health to our soul. St. John of the Cross writes: “It greatly behooves the soul, then, to have patience and constancy in all the tribulations and trials which God sends it, whether they come from without or from within, and are spiritual or corporal, great or small. It must take them all as from His hand for its healing and its good, and not flee from them, since they are health to it” (LF > 2,30).


2. Let us consider how great a spirit of faith is necessary to accept from the hand of God all the circumstances which afflict and humble, contradict and mortify us. It will sometimes be easier to accept heavy trials which come directly from Our Lord, such as illness and bereavement, than other lighter ones where creatures enter into play, and for which, perhaps, we experience greater repugnance. The immediate action of creatures, especially if their malice has a share in it, makes it more difficult for us to discover the divine hand. A greater spirit of faith is necessary here, that we may pass beyond the human side of circumstances, the faulty way of acting of such and such a person, and find, beyond all these human contingencies, the dispositions of divine Providence, which wills to use these particular creatures, and even their defects and errors, to file away our self-love and destroy our pride.

The counsel given by St. John of the Cross to a religious will be very useful for us in such cases: “Thou must know that those (who are in the convent) are no more than workers whom God has placed there only that they might work upon and chisel at thee by mortifying thee. And some will cut at thee through words...others in deed...others by their thoughts, neither esteeming nor feeling love for thee... and thou must be subject to them in all things, even as an image is subject to him that fashions it and to him that paints it and to him that gilds it” (P, 15). Profoundly convinced that God guides and disposes all for the good of those who love Him, the soul of faith sees in every person a messenger from our Lord, charged by Him to exercise it in virtue, particularly in that which it lacks most. Instead of rebelling and being indignant because of some want of consideration or even some really unjust treatment, it bows its head and accepts all humbly, as the most suitable treatment for curing its faults and imperfections. This must be our conduct, if we wish to draw profit from all the trials that God places in our path. In each instance we must keep ourselves from posing as a victim, from protesting, from complaining, or from retaliating. Whatever suffering may come to us from creatures has only one true explanation: Our Lord wishes to purify us, and is beginning to do it precisely through these exterior tribulations. Let us be persuaded that all serves greatly for our spiritual progress, because before attaining to union with God, it is necessary to be reduced to nothingness, that is, to be established in profoundest humility.


COLLOQUY

“Teach me, my God, to suffer in peace the afflictions which You send me that my soul may emerge from the crucible like gold, both brighter and purer, to find You within me. Trials like these, which at present seem unbearable, will eventually become light, and I shall be anxious to suffer again, if by so doing I can render You greater service. And however numerous may be my troubles and persecutions. ..they will all work together for my greater gain though I do not myself bear them as they should be borne, but in a way which is most imperfect ” (T.J. Life, 30).

“O grandeur of my God! All the temptations and tribulations which You permit to come upon us, absolutely all, are ordered for our good, and if we have no other thought, when we are tried here below, than that of Your goodness, this will suffice for us to overcome every temptation.

“O Word of God, my sweet and loving Spouse, all power in heaven and on earth is Yours. You confound and put to flight every enemy. As for me, I am extremely weak; I cannot see, being filled with misery and sins; but by Your slightest glance, O Word, You put all these enemies to flight, like bits of straw in the wind; first, however, You permit them to give battle to Your servants, to make these, Your servants, more glorious. And the greater the grace and light You want to give Your servants, that they may love and know You better, the more do You try them by fire and purify their hearts like gold, so that their virtues may shine like precious stones.

“By Your power, O divine Word, You confer strength for the combat, and he who wishes to fight manfully for Your glory must first descend into the most profound knowledge of self, yet all the while raising his heart to You, that he may not be confounded ” (St. Mary Magdalen dei Pazzi).

352. INTERIOR TRIALS

PRESENCE OF GOD - O Lord, purify me as gold in the crucible; purify me and do not spare me, that I may attain to union with You.


MEDITATION

1. If Our Lord finds you strong and faithful, humble and patient in accepting exterior trials, He will go on little by little to others that are more inward and spiritual “to purge and cleanse you more inwardly. ..to give you more interior blessings” (J.C. LF, 2,28). The passive night of the spirit culminates precisely in these interior sufferings of the soul, by which God “destroys and consumes its spiritual substance and absorbs it in deep and profound darkness” (J.C. DN JI, 6,1) in order that it may be completely reborn to divine Life.
We are, in fact, so steeped in miseries and faults, which adhere so closely to our nature, that if God Himself did not take our purification in hand, renewing us from head to foot, we should never be delivered from them. Jesus, too, spoke of this total renovation, of this profound spiritual rebirth: “Unless a man be born again of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God” (Jn 3,5); the kingdom of God here below is the state of perfect union with Him, to which no one attains if he be not first totally purified.

St. John of the Cross explains at length how this work of purification is accomplished by the Holy Spirit, who, invading the soul with the living flame of His Love, destroys and consumes all its imperfections. So long as this divine flame purifies and disposes the soul, says the Saint, it “is very oppressive. ..the flame is not bright to it, but dark, and if it gives any light at all, it is only that the soul may see and feel its own faults and miseries ” (J.C. LF, 1,19). Although the soul finds itself under the direct action of the Holy Spirit, this action is not agreeable but painful, because its first fruit is precisely to show it all its weaknesses and miseries that it may conceive a horror for them, detest them, humble itself for them and be sorry for them. The penetrating light of the “living flame of Love” lifts the thick veil which hides from the soul the roots of its evil habits. The soul suffers at such a sight, not only because it feels humbled, but also because it fears being rejected by God; indeed, seeing itself so miserable, it feels itself dreadfully unworthy of divine love, and, at certain times, it even seems as if God in anger had cast it off from Himself. This is the greatest torment the soul can suffer, but a precious one, because it purifies the soul of all residue of self-love and pride, and deepens within it the profound abyss of humility which calls to and draws down the abyss of divine mercy.


2. If the Holy Spirit did not make you understand and experience your wretchedness, you could not be delivered from it, for in your ignorance you could not further the work of purification which He wills to accomplish in you. Therefore, when the divine light shows you the depths of your depravity through the failures of your spiritual life, the powerlessness of your spirit, or the struggles and rebellions of nature, you must support the sight humbly, recognizing and confessing your weaknesses without excusing them, without blaming adverse circumstances, without turning your gaze elsewhere. ‘These are the moments in which, more than ever, you must humble yourself “under the mighty hand of God” (1 Pt 5,6), who shows you what you really are in His sight. But, on the other hand, the sight of your miseries, however ugly and detestable they may be, should not plunge you into discouragement, for this is not the end for which the Holy Spirit reveals them to you; rather, it is to divest you of every trace of secret self-esteem and to extinguish in your heart—in case it were there—any claim to meriting divine gifts and favors. Neither should you believe that you have become worse than formerly. You have always borne these miseries within you! Hitherto you were ignorant of them, whereas now the divine light shows them to you clearly, not that they may overwhelm you but that you may be delivered from them. Therefore, despite all the suffering that you may experience at the ight of your misery, you must remain confident and certain that God will never abandon you. You have been unfaithful to Him, it is true; you have not corresponded to His love as you should have done, and the services which you have rendered Him are very little in comparison with what God deserves; nevertheless He who is infinitely good does not despise your contrite and humble heart. God loves you and, far from rejecting you, He desires to unite Himself to you; but first He wants to make you perfectly aware that you are wholly undeserving of this great grace. God communicates Himself only to humble souls, and only the humble are filled with His gifts; that is the reason for the purifying sufferings of the night of the spirit: it is impossible to be entirely humble without passing through the bitter anguish of this night in which God Himself undertakes to humble the soul. But when finally He will have reduced it to the center of its nothingness, then He will exalt it, drawing it to Himself in the perfect union of love.


COLLOQUY

“O my soul, if you are wounded by sin, behold your physician, ready to cure you. His mercy is infinitely greater than all your iniquities. This I say, not that you may remain in your misery, but that by doing your utmost to overcome it, you may not despair of His clemency and pardon.

“Your God is sweetness itself, mildness itself; whom will you love, whom will you desire except Him?

“Let not your imperfections discourage you; your God does not despise you because you are imperfect and infirm; on the contrary, He loves you because you desire to cure your ills. He will come to your assistance and make you more perfect than you would have dared to hope, and adorned by His own hand, your beauty will be unequalled, like His own goodness.

“O my Jesus, tender Shepherd, gentle Master, help me, lift up Your dejected sheep, extend Your hand to sustain me, heal my wounds, strengthen my weakness, save me; otherwise I shall perish. I am unworthy of life, I confess, unworthy of Your light and help; for my ingratitude has been so great; Your mercy, however, is greater still. Have pity upon me, then, O God, You who love men so much! Oh, my only hope! Have pity upon me according to the greatness of your mercy ” (Bl. Louis de Blois).

“One abyss calleth upon another. It is there, my God, at the bottom that I shall meet You : the abyss of my poverty, of my nothingness, will be confronted with the abyss of Your mercy, the immensity of Your All. There I shall find strength to die to myself and, losing every trace of self, I shall be changed into love” (E.T. J, 1).

353. DESOLATION AND DARKNESS

PRESENCE OF GOD - Come to my aid, O Lord, that I may not be overwhelmed by the storm.


MEDITATION

1. Seeing its wretchedness so clearly, the soul senses the infinite distance separating it from God; and, while desiring even more to be united to Him, it realizes that it is farther from Him than ever, absolutely incapable of bridging the chasm which divides them. This recognition causes pain as well, for the lover ardently desires union with the beloved. The suffering sometimes becomes so intense that it seems to the soul that there no longer exists any hope of holiness, of union with God, or even of eternal salvation for it.

There is nothing exaggerated, much less feigned in this desolation. The Holy Spirit, under whose action the soul finds itself, cannot inspire it with anything not entirely conformable with truth. It is quite true that between us, poor creatures that we are, and God, sovereign and infinite perfection, there is a distance, an incalculable distance; it is quite true that, by our own strength, we are radically incapable of elevating ourselves to God; again it is true that considering our actions—even the best of them—there is nothing in us which merits either union with God or eternal life. If many souls are not convinced of this, thinking that they are able of themselves to do something to advance toward God and holiness, it is because they have not yet been enlightened as to the depths of their own nothingness.

If we are, then, utterly unworthy of God, of His love, of union with Him, of His eternal glory, it is equally true that God Himself, in His merciful love, has desired to bridge the distance that separates Him from us. He has stooped down to us to the point of clothing us with His divine Life and calling us to his intimacy. What is impossible to our misery is entirely possible to the omnipotence and infinite mercy of God. He wills to do this work in us, yet He wants us to realize that it is His work alone.

In those moments when the soul is tempted to despair of attaining to God and eternal salvation, it must remain firm in unshakable hope. However justifiable may be its mistrust of itself and all its efforts, there is even more reason to await all from God, whose love and goodness infinitely surpass both its poverty and its expectation. In this way the desolation of the night of the spirit will achieve its end—that of establishing the soul in a deeper humility, in a purer and more perfect hope, because now the soul trusts only in the merciful love of God.


2. St. John of the Cross write : “And thus at this time the soul also suffers great darkness in the understanding... . And in its substance the soul suffers from abandonment and the greatest poverty. Dry and cold, and at times hot, it finds relief in naught, nor is there any thought that can console it, nor can it even raise its heart to God” (J.C. LF, 1,20). Yet another cause of spiritual distress is the aridity in which the soul finds itself: the inability to think of God, to find help by reflecting upon divine things. It seems to the soul as if a very high wall had risen up between God and itself, preventing its cries from reaching Him. It is deep night, in which the soul cannot go forward except by leaning upon pure, naked faith, clinging with all its strength to the belief that God is infinitely good, that He loves it and listens to its cries, that He knows its torment, and allows it to suffer only to purify it. It is not surprising that the soul in this state may experience strong temptations against faith, like those which afflicted St. Thérése of the Child Jesus in the last period of her life. She writes: “Our Lord allowed my soul to be plunged in thickest gloom, and the thought of heaven, so sweet from my earliest years, to become for me a subject of torture” (St, 9). She adds, however: “God knows how I try to live by faith, even though it affords me no consolation. I have made more acts of faith during the past year than in all the rest of my life” (ibid.). Alluding to her poems on the happiness of heaven, she confesses: “When I sing. . .of the happiness of heaven and of the eternal possession of God, I feel no joy; I sing only of what IJ will to believe” (ibid.).

This is exactly how the soul must conduct itself: believing because it wills to believe, not relying on what it feels or experiences, but relying solely upon the word of God. These acts of pure faith, stripped of all consolation, independent of any feeling whatsoever, are truly heroic acts; they honor God more purely, the more they are based only on divine revelation; and they unite the soul to God, the more stripped they are of all human support. The darkness of the night of the spirit has precisely this end: to accustom the soul to walk by pure faith, by heroic faith.


COLLOQUY

“O Jesus, King of peace, whose presence heaven and earth long for, how have You gone so far away from me! How are all my riches and strength lacking! O loss more painful than mortal wounds, O truly bitter separation, worse than the anguish of death!

“Why have You hidden Yourself, my gentle Spouse, and by Your absence cast me into this night full of thick shadows and dark desolation? Who will help me in this utter abandonment, in this solitude? Oh! how great are the sufferings of love, how great is the anxiety of the heart which knows not nor can do anything but love, while possessing not Him whom it loves!

“I have no other remedy, O most kind King, than to sigh for You. I cry to You from the bottom of my heart and speak to the tenderness of Your love. Remember me, O my hope; see my desolation at the thought of Your refusal, and the bitter abandonment consuming me.

“Do not abandon me, O gentle Son of the Virgin, because mercy was born, together with You, from the womb of Your Immaculate Mother. See, Lord, how all my strength is failing, and how, bereft of You, I am oppressed by the horror and shadow of death.

“ Have pity on me, my Friend, because all my strength being consumed, I have only lips and tongue left to cry to You. O immortal life and fountain of living water, do not deprive me of Your presence with so much rigor, for it is dearer to me than life. I shall not rest, O gentle Son of God, nor ever cease my sighs and supplications until You show me Your Face” (Ven. John of Jesus Mary).

354. CONFIDENCE AND ABANDONMENT

PRESENCE OF GOD - Into Your hands, O Lord, I abandon myself with all confidence.


MEDITATION


1. “There are many who desire to make progress [in the spiritual way] and constantly entreat God to draw them and let them advance to this state of perfection [the state of union], but when it pleases God to begin to bring them through the first trials and mortifications, as is necessary, they are unwilling to pass through them, and flee away, to escape from the narrow road of life and to seek the broad road of their own consolation” (J.C. LF, 2,27). This is the reason why many souls do not reach union with God; they are not willing to tread the way of the Cross, the only way which leads to it.

You also desire to arrive at divine union, but perhaps you, too, think to reach it by a broad, sunny, pleasant way, by the way of success, where one goes from victory to victory, where one enjoys abundant spiritual consolations, where one finds the applause, support, and esteem of creatures. But by now you must certainly have understood that it is necessary to take quite another way: the narrow and obscure way where the soul discovers all its misery, experiences all its powerlessness, where consolation from God and men is wanting. You know, too, that you must accept having to walk on this road for as long as it will please God. How many months or years will suffice? Only God knows. He often keeps souls a long time in the dark night of the spirit, and it might even be said that, in general, even after the principal stages have been passed, there is always a little of the night as long as one lives upon earth. ‘The wisest course to take is to surrender yourself completely to the divine will of God, without setting limits either to the duration or the nature of your trials. God knows what is best for you; He, who knows so well the weaknesses and necessities of your soul, will know how to prescribe exactly the treatment to cure your evils.

Do not be hasty, but, on the contrary, have much patience, and you will not expose yourself to deception. Let your patience be long-suffering and trustful because, although you truly suffer, these sufferings do not come to you from an enemy but from your greatest Friend, from God, who loves you much more than you could love yourself, who wills your good, your happiness, your sanctification much more than you could ever desire them. Hope in Him and you will never be confounded; entrust yourself to Him blindly and you will have nothing to fear.


2. The most suitable moments to prove to God that you trust Him blindly, that you wish to abandon yourself to Him without reserve, are undoubtedly those of the dark night of the spirit. Even if it seems to you that all gives way under your feet, even if the tempest engulfs you to the point of making you feel tempted against faith and hope, you have nothing to fear, because in this night you are, in a very special way, under the action of the Holy Spirit. It is He who, by the living flame of His Love, lays waste your soul to purify it, but at the same time He Himself covers it with His shadow, secretly pouring into it the strength to resist, and measuring the suffering in such a way as not to exceed your capacity. Do not be afraid; you are in good hands: you are protected by the shadow of the Almighty, and no evil can befall you, provided you adhere voluntarily and with docility to His purifying action. Accept, and continually repeat your “fiat”; this is what Our Lord wants of you in this state, and this you can and should do, even in the midst of the most violent tempests. This pure, simple adhesion of your will to God, will unite you to Him and anchor you in Him, keeping you from shipwreck. What does it matter if you can neither say nor do anything more, if you are incapable of long prayers; even Jesus, in the Garden of Olives, did nothing but repeat this one protestation: “Father...Thy will be done” (Mt 26,42). Let this be your prayer too, prayer rising more from your heart than
from your lips, rising from a profound attitude of pure adherence to the will of God, in which you submerge yourself with all the powers of your soul. ‘This adherence must become so strong, so complete, so filial and confident as to transform itself into a prolonged act of abandonment: “Father, into Thy hands I commend My spirit” (Lk 23,46). Jesus Himself formulated this act in the midst of anguish and desolation infinitely more intense than anything you could ever experience. Unite yourself to the agonizing Jesus; lean upon Him, and in Him you will find the necessary strength to accept and to resist. Keeping your eyes fixed upon Jesus Crucified, who has reconciled and united the human race to His divine Father by His Passion and death, you will understand ever more perfectly that union with God “consists not in refreshment and in consolations and spiritual feelings, but in a living death of the Cross, both as to sense and as to spirit—that is, both inwardly and outwardly” (J.C. AS II, 7,11).


COLLOQUY

“O my God, where is the sun of Your grace? It seems to me that it is darkened. You seem to have wholly withdrawn Your goodness from my soul. I am abandoned now, like a body which, deprived of its members, cannot help itself, or like a sterile tree trunk, for, Your grace being taken away, I can do nothing. O my God, stretch out Your right hand to me and give me strength.

“O eternal Father, if Your Word is with me, who can be against me? What can move me, cast me down, or vanquish me? Storms will beat against me exteriorly, but will not touch my inmost heart. ‘They may make me suffer, and I accept it willingly because You so will, but they can never trouble my soul, ever abandoned to Your divine good pleasure. I shall still every storm, thinking that these sorrows come by Your will, and I shall immerse myself in the lowliness of my being. If these troubles swallow me up in hell, I shall raise myself up again to heaven with Your help, and in Your name I shall overcome every conflict.

“Nevertheless, I know my weakness and during this trial, which may be long or short according to Your good pleasure, while many battles rage, I know well what I must do; I shall trust in You and I shall never be moved” (St. Mary Magdalen dei Pazzi).

“Blessed Master, grant that the divine good pleasure may be my food and daily bread; may I let myself be immolated according to the Father’s every wish, after Your example, O adored Christ. If at times what He wills is more crucifying, no doubt I may say with You: ‘ Father, if it be possible let this chalice pass from me, ’ but I shall immediately add : ‘not as I will, but as Thou wilt’; and calmly and steadfastly I shall climb my calvary with You, singing in my inmost soul, sending up to the Father a hymn of thanksgiving. For those who tread that Way of Sorrows are those ‘whom He foreknew and predestined to be made conformable to the image of His divine Son,’ who was crucified for love!” (E.T. J, 3 - 8).

355. THE DEVELOPMENT OF LOVE

PRESENCE OF GOD - My God, from all eternity You have gone before me with Your infinite love; increase my love for You.


MEDITATION

1. “What shall prevent God from doing that which He will in the soul that is resigned, annihilated, and detached?” (J.C. AS JJ, 4,2). This statement of St. John of the Cross makes you understand that God has an immense desire to work in your soul, to lead you to sanctity and to union with Himself, provided you commit yourself into His hands, despoiled of every attachment, annihilated in your self-love, entirely docile, malleable, and adaptable to His action. The Lord comes to your assistance with purifying trials in order to empty you of self, to detach you from creatures, to immerse you in true humility, but at the same time He helps you to grow in love, the strong bond which must unite you to Him. All the work which God accomplishes in your soul is done in view of making you advance in this virtue; exterior and interior trials, humiliations, powerlessness, aridity, struggles, and tempests are meant in the divine plan to extinguish the illusory fires of self-love, pride, earthly affections, and all other irregular passions, so that only one fire may burn within you, ever more intensely and strongly, the fire of charity.

The more the Lord purifies you, the more your heart will be freed from all dross and become capable of concentrating all its affection upon Him. Walk, then, in this way by accepting purification in view of a deeper love, and by orientating your whole spiritual life toward the exercise of love. What you suffer, suffer for love, that is, suffer it willingly, without rebellion or complaint, and then, in the measure that your soul is humbled, despoiled, and mortified, it will also be clothed with charity. The trials which God sends you have the purpose not only of purifying your heart, but also of dilating it in charity. They aim at deepening your capacity for love; not, certainly, a sensible love, but a powerful love of the will, which tends toward God through pure benevolence, independent of all personal consolation, its sole pursuit being His glory and good pleasure.


2. By means of purifying trials, “God secretly teaches the soul and instructs it in the perfection of love” (J.C. DN I, 5,1). Above all, He teaches it to love independently of all happiness and joy, even depriving it of that joy, though legitimate and spontaneous, which proceeds from the consciousness of its own love. The soul that is not yet wholly purified could become attached to this joy, so God withdraws it entirely; in the thick darkness the soul feels that it no longer loves; dry aridity extinguishes all joy and sweetness, and it is constrained to go forward by a pure act of the will. Instead of taking complacency in its own love, which henceforth it no longer feels, the soul is profoundly afflicted by the tormenting doubt that it no longer knows how to love, and to combat this doubt, it can only apply itself with all its might to performing the works of love, that is, embracing generously every labor, every sacrifice that may please God. In this way, its love matures, becoming purer and stronger: purer, because it is not mixed with any personal consolation; stronger, because it urges the soul to more generous labors. In this state, the soul adheres to God by a simple act of the will, and herein the substance of love consists: it wills good to God solely because He is the supreme, infinitely lovable Good; it desires Him alone and serves Him alone, fulfilling all His divine will without any return on self, without seeking any joy or spiritual consolation.


The soul is no longer preoccupied with enjoying His love, or with receiving; its one solicitude is to give, to give itself, to give pleasure to God. From this we understand how aridity and darkness, instead of stifling love, make it grow in a wonderful manner, provided the soul is disposed to seek only God’s good pleasure and forget itself completely. “Learn to love as God desires to be loved, and lay aside your own temperament” (SM I, 57) St. John of the Cross tells you; that is, learn to love God by a pure, strong act of the will, without being preoccupied with what is sentiment, consolation and joy of heart. Perhaps your manner of loving is still a little too dependent upon feeling; so be grateful to God if He makes you walk in darkness and aridity: it is thus that He will help you deliver yourself from this weakness.


COLLOQUY

"O Lord of my soul and my only Good! When a soul has resolved to love You, and forsaking everything, does all in its power toward that end, so that it may the better employ itself in Your love, why do You not grant it at once the joy of ascending to the possession of this perfect love? But I am wrong: I should have made my complaint by asking why we ourselves have no desire so to ascend, for it is we alone who are at fault in not at once enjoying so great a dignity.

“If we attain to the perfect possession of this true love of God, it brings all blessings with it. But so niggardly and so slow are we in giving ourselves wholly to God that we do not prepare ourselves as we should to receive that precious love which it is His Majesty’s will that we should enjoy only at a great price.

“There is nothing on earth with which so great a blessing can be purchased; but if we did what we could to obtain it, if we cherished no attachment to earthly things, and if all our cares and all our intercourse were centered in heaven, I believe there is no doubt that this blessing would be given us very speedily.... But we think we are giving God everything, whereas what we are really offering Him is the revenue or the fruits of our land while keeping the stock and the right of ownership of it in our own hands.... A nice way of seeking His love! And then we want it quickly and in great handfuls, as one might say.

“O Lord, if You do not give us this treasure all at once, it is because we do not make a full surrender of ourselves. May it please You to give it to us at least little by little, even though the receiving of it may cost us all the trials in the world.

“No, my God, love does not consist in shedding tears, in enjoying those consolations and that tenderness which for the most part we desire and in which we find comfort, but in serving You with righteousness, fortitude of soul, and humility. The other seems to me to be receiving rather than giving anything....

“May it never please Your Majesty that a gift so precious as Your love be given to people who serve You solely to obtain consolations ” (T.J. Life, 11).

356. THE LOVE OF ESTEEM

PRESENCE OF GOD - O my God, sovereign and infinite Good, grant that I may esteem nothing more than You and prefer nothing to You.


MEDITATION

1. Our Lord once said to St. Teresa: “Knowest thou what it is to love Mein truth? It is to realize that everything which is not pleasing to Me is a lie” (Life, 40). Without sound of words, the Holy Spirit gives this lesson to every soul that lets itself be formed and purified by Him. The more He enlightens it on the truth of its own misery and that of all creatures, the more the soul remains disinclined toward them; it withdraws all its hope from them and comes truly to esteem God above all things and to prefer Him to everything else. The attitude of this soul becomes very like that of St. Paul, who exclaimed: “I count all things to be but loss for. . . Jesus Christ, my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and count them but as dung, that I may gain Christ” (Phil 3,8).

The love of esteem which the Holy Spirit pours into the soul through the purifying darkness is so strong that the soul is disposed to accept any sacrifice whatsoever, to confront every obstacle, to undergo every humiliation and suffering that it may win its God. St. John of the Cross says: “The love of esteem which it has for God is so great, even though it may not realize this, and may be in darkness, that it would be glad, not only to suffer in this way, but even to die many times over in order to give Him satisfaction” (DN II, 13,5). Let us note that the soul does not feel nor take pleasure in its own love, this love is not accompanied by enjoyment and sweetness; nevertheless, it is a love so real that it leads the soul effectively to the accomplishment of the most difficult things “if thereby...it might find Him whom it loves” (ibid.). We should also note that it is not a question of impulses, of inoperative desires which immediately give way before concrete opportunities for sacrifice, but, on the contrary, of a strong determination of the will which nothing can shake. Once the soul has understood that a certain action is necessary in order to unite itself to God, it pays no attention to anything, neither to the repugnances of nature, nor to the voice of self-love or egoism, nor to what others might say or think; it plunges headlong with great courage.


2. A further effect of this great love of esteem for God is that “the greatest sufferings and trials of which [the soul] is conscious in this night are the anguished thoughts that it has lost God, and the fears that He has abandoned it ” (J.C. DN II, 13,5). Just as it is not concerned about acquiring any possession except the possession of God, neither is the soul concerned about any loss, if it be not the loss of God. Everything can be taken from it: health, riches, honors, esteem, trust, the affection of the most cherished creatures, and these creatures themselves; but never could the soul endure that God should be taken from it, or that it should be prevented from loving Him. Thus have the saints thought and acted. In her immense desire to love God, St. Teresa Margaret Redi declared that she was ready to suffer even the pains of hell to obtain that grace; and to one who asked how she would be able to support such unspeakable torments she replied: “I think that love would render them bearable for me and perhaps even sweet, for of itself love makes all things else seem as naught” (T.M. Sp). That is also what St. Teresa of Jesus thought when she wrote to her daughters these beautiful lines: “ Let your desire be to see God; your fear, that you may lose Him; your sorrow, that you are not having fruition of Him; your joy, that He can bring you to Himself” (M, 69). Such is the characteristic of true love: to create but one preoccupation in the soul, one fear, one desire, and one joy,—all of which are concentrated on God alone.

If you wish to see how far your love of esteem for God has reached, examine your conduct, and try to discover the ultimate motive of your preoccupations, fears, desires, and joys; if this motive is not God, but creatures, your own interests and satisfaction, you ought to acknowledge humbly that you have not yet succeeded in esteeming God above all things; for you weigh “in the balance against God that which...is at the greatest possible distance from God” (J.C. AS I, 5,4). Searching your heart more deeply, you will see that you frequently place on the same plane your will and the will of God, your tastes and His good pleasure, your interests and His glory, your convenience and His service. Furthermore, although in theory you protest that you esteem God above all things, in practice you very often give the preference not to His will, desires, and interests, but to your own, and that is why you fall into so many imperfections. Be convinced that “where there is true love of God, there enters neither love of self nor that of the things of self” (J.C. DN II, 21,10).


COLLOQUY

“Most amiable Son of God, I confess to You my fault. I know not by what spirit I was led when I allowed my heart, created for You, to be ensnared by affection for creatures and sullied by the profane conversations of earth. I let myself be deceived, not by reality, but by the appearance of a love artfully represented, and I withdrew far from You and from the sweet law of Your true and only love. But now that Your light has drawn me out of my darkness, I renounce all worldly beauty and I choose You, Son of God and of the Blessed Virgin, that I may love You by a pact of eternal love.

“Without You, infinite Beauty and Goodness, no creature can possess true good, and outside of You my soul finds no satisfaction. For You have given it so great a capacity and such a hunger for the infinite, that it can neither will nor seek any other good than You. When I consider the earth, and all things, O Son of the Most High, they seem small and imperfect compared with You. [If all the dignities of the world, all created beauties, all the comforts of life were given to me; if I had at my disposal all that is great, honorable, rich, and admirable in the world and could enjoy all these things together for all eternity, I would never change what I have chosen, but I would sing with ardent love: Your Face, O Lord, I seek and I shall seek it forever.

“Close my heart, Lord, that no human affection may enter there. Grant that I may not see, nor feel, nor taste, anything created, and may no creature attach itself to me, to the detriment of Your pure love. You alone, O my infinite Good, suffice to fill to the brim all my desires and to satisfy this hunger which tortures me; no other good, not even all other goods combined would be able to satisfy me; rather, after having tasted them all, I would be left dying with hunger, languishing in extreme abandonment, deprived of You" (Ven. John of Jesus Mary).

[Stone]

357. THE GRAIN OF MUSTARD SEED
TWENTY-FOURTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST
SIXTH AFTER EPIPHANY

PRESENCE OF GOD - May Your kingdom come, O Lord, in the whole world and in my heart.


MEDITATION

1. The parable of the mustard seed emerges from the text of today’s Mass; it is brief, but rich in meaning: “The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed which a man took and sowed in his field; which is the least indeed of all seeds, but when it is grown up, it is greater than all herbs and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and dwell in the branches thereof” (Gosp: Mt 13,31-35). Nothing was smaller or more humble in its beginnings than “the kingdom of heaven,” the Church: Jesus, its Head and Founder, was born in a stable; He worked for the greater part of thirty years in a carpenter’s shop, and for only three years unfolded His mission to a poor people, preaching a doctrine so simple that all, even the unlettered, could understand. When Jesus left the earth, the Church was established by an insignificant group of twelve men, gathered about a humble woman, Mary; but this first nucleus possessed so powerful a vitality that in a few years it spread into all the countries of the vast Roman Empire. The Church, from a very tiny seed, sown in the hearts of a Virgin Mother and of poor fishermen, became little by little through the centuries a gigantic tree, extending its branches into all regions of the globe, with peoples of every tongue and nation taking shelter in its shade.

The Church is not merely a society of men, but of men who have for their Head, Jesus, the Son of God; the Church is the whole Christ, that is, Jesus and the faithful incorporated in Him and forming one Body with Him. The Church is the Mystical Body of Christ of which each of the baptized is a member. To love the Church is to love Jesus; to work for the extension of the Church is to work for the increase of the Mystical Body of Christ, so that the number of His members may be filled up and each may contribute to the splendor of the whole. All this is summarized and asked of the Father in the brief invocation: “Adveniat regnum tuum.” Perhaps there is but little that we can do for the extension of the Church. Let us, at least, do that little; let us contribute our insignificant labor, as a veritable mustard seed, toward the growth of this wonderful tree, beneath whose shadow all men are called to find salvation and repose.


2. The parable of the mustard seed makes us consider not only the expansion of the kingdom of God in the world, but also its development in our hearts. Has not Jesus said: “The kingdom of God is within you” (Lk 17,21)? Yes, in us too this wonderful kingdom began as a tiny seed, a seed of grace: the sanctifying grace which, in a hidden and mysterious way, was sown in us by God at Baptism, and the actual grace of good inspirations and of the divine word—“semen est verbum Dei”—which Jesus the heavenly Sower, has scattered plentifully in our souls. This little seed has germinated slowly, it has sent down ever deeper roots, it has grown progressively, penetrating our whole spirit, until it has entirely conquered us for God, until we have felt the need of saying: Lord, all that I have, all that I am, is Yours; I give myself wholly to You. I want to be Your kingdom.

To be entirely the kingdom of God, so that He is the only Sovereign and Ruler of the heart, so that nothing exists in it which does not belong to Him or is not subject to His rule, is the ideal of a soul that loves God with perfect love. But how can we attain to the full development of this kingdom of God within us? The second parable which we read in today’s Gospel tells us: “The kingdom of heaven is like to leaven which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, until the whole was leavened.” Here is another very beautiful image of the work grace must accomplish in our souls: grace has been placed in us like leaven which little by little must increase until it permeates our whole being and divinizes it entirely. Grace, the divine leaven, has been given to purify, elevate, and sanctify our entire being, with all its powers and faculties; only when this work will have been brought to completion, shall we be entirely the kingdom of God.

Let us reflect further on the great problem of our correspondence with grace. This divine seed, this supernatural leaven, is within us; what can prevent it from becoming a gigantic tree, capable of giving shelter to other souls; what can impede the leaven from fermenting the whole mass, if we remove all the obstacles opposed to its development, if we respond to all its motions and requirements? “Adveniat regnum tuum!” Yes, let us pray for the absolute coming of the kingdom of God in our hearts.


COLLOQUY

“O Lord, my God, who created me to Your own image and likeness, grant me this grace which You have shown to be so great and necessary for salvation, that I may overcome my very evil nature that is drawing me to sin and perdition. For I feel in my flesh the law of sin contradicting the law of my mind and leading me captive to serve sensuality in many things. I cannot resist the passions if Your most holy grace warmly infused into my heart does not assist me....

“O Lord, without grace I can do nothing, but with its strength I can do all things in You.

“O grace, truly heavenly, without which our merits are nothing and no gifts of nature are to be esteemed! O most blessed grace, which makes the poor in spirit rich in virtues, which renders him who is rich in many good things humble of heart, come descend upon me, fill me quickly with your consolation lest my soul faint with weariness and dryness of mind.

“Let me find grace in Your sight, I beg, Lord, for Your grace is enough for me, even though I obtain none of the things which nature desires. If I am tempted and afflicted with many tribulations, I will fear no evils while Your grace is with me. It is my strength. It gives me counsel and help. It is more powerful than all my enemies and wiser than all the wise.

“Let Your grace, therefore, go before me and follow me, O Lord, and make me always intent upon good works, through Jesus Christ, Your Son” (Imit. IHI, 55).

358. COURAGEOUS AND IMPATIENT LOVE

PRESENCE OF GOD - May Your love, my God, make me intrepid in seeking You, and impatient to possess You.


MEDITATION

1. Although the soul subjected to interior purifications by the Holy Spirit is profoundly conscious of its own misery and unworthiness, it is nevertheless “sufficiently bold and daring to journey toward union with God” (J.C. DN II, 13,9). Whence comes such audacity? From the love which is ever growing within it; indeed, “ the property of love is to desire to be united, joined, and made equal and like to the object of its love” (ibid.). Therefore, the more love increases in the soul, the greater is the longing for union with God. Even if its love is still imperfect—since it has not yet brought the soul to union—nevertheless, it is sincere and thanks to “the strength set by love in the will,” the soul experiences “hunger and thirst for that which it lacks, which is the union” to which love tends (ibid.). Besides, how could the soul which has grasped something of the infinite beauty and immense love of God not aspire to unite itself to Him? That same divine light which reveals to it the abyss of its own nothingness and that of creatures, enlightens it, by contrast, as to the infinite transcendence of God, so that the soul remains seized and captivated, while God Himself, in the measure that He purifies it, draws it to Himself by infusing new love in it.

Humbled by the knowledge of its own unworthiness, but emboldened by the love which is growing within, and by the invitation which God Himself addresses to it, drawing it secretly to Himself, the soul dares to aspire to this supreme good which is divine union. It is humble in its audacious desire, because it knows that it does not merit such a gift; but it is also daring, because it feels that God Himself wills to give this union, and because its hunger and thirst for God are so great that it cannot live apart from Him. “Why should not the confiding soul venture toward the One whose noble image and glorious likeness it is conscious of bearing within itself? ” exclaims St. Bernard. God’s love has gone before it, willing to render it like unto Himself by creation and by grace. This divine resemblance, natural and supernatural, best expresses the desire of God to unite the soul to Himself and, at the same time, constitutes the basis of such union. God, who has established this basis, certainly wills to bring His work to completion; and to do it He only waits for the soul to concur with His action, letting itself be purified, despoiled of self, and clothed completely with divine Life.


2. The soul, famished and athirst for God, seeks Him without respite, “for, being in darkness, it feels itself to be without Him and to be dying of love for Him” (J.C. DN II, 13,8). Love makes the soul impatient to find the Lord, and it seeks Him with great solicitude, like Magdalen, who, after the death of Jesus, gave herself no peace, but, rising early, ran to the sepulcher, and finding the sacred Body no longer there, went in search of it, questioning all whom she met. “I will rise and go about the city,” says the spouse in the Canticle, “in the streets and in the broad ways I will seek Him whom my soul loveth” (3,2). This is the attitude of the soul who does not turn back or resign itself to being vanquished; indeed, it desires at any cost to find this God whom it loves more than its very self. In this state, says St. John of the Cross, “the soul now walks so anxiously that it seeks the Beloved in all things. In whatsoever it thinks, it thinks at once of the Beloved. Of whatsoever it speaks, in whatsoever matters present themselves, it is speaking and communing at once with the Beloved. When it eats, when it sleeps, when it watches, when it does aught soever, all its care is about the Beloved” (DN I, 19,2).

Oh! if you, too, were so solicitous in seeking your God! From all eternity His love has gone before you; created to His image and likeness, you, also, have been clothed with divine life, and God has invited you to divine union. Why then, do you go about the world, not in quest of God, but of yourself; anxious, not for His love, but for the love of creatures? Is there not, perhaps, more anxiety and solicitude in you for the wretched things of earth than for the things of heaven, than for God?

Oh! how much need you still have of detachment, of renunciation and purification! Do not resist the divine invitations; open your heart wide to the purifying action of the Holy Spirit; He alone can finally disengage you from all earthly cares and solicitude. If you are attentive and faithful to the inspirations of the divine Paraclete, He will send you new, more subtle and delicate ones which will incline you ever more and more to leave the vanities of earth, to seek and love God alone.


COLLOQUY

“O Lord, my life and my strength, one of the greatest of the divine mercies which You have bestowed upon me is that of deigning to invite a creature so sinful and ungrateful as I am to love Your Majesty. In Your presence the heavenly seraphim veil their faces, dazzled by the splendor of the divinity and the fire of Your love. I am honored by such liberality and at the same time impelled to love You in return for Your love and for the desire which You have to unite me to Your heart, that sweet refuge, to which I long to fly that I may find repose therein.

“Let others look after their affairs and worldly pretensions; as for me, I shall occupy myself with You alone and shall importune You to grant me Your love. I know not, nor can I ask anything but You alone : I love You and seek You; I shall love You and always seek Your Face, that I may be drawn and captivated by its divine beauty.

“Cast me not away from You, most amiable Lord! You, who have ever been most liberal and divinely merciful, even toward those who have not asked it of You, be not severe with me, who implore from the bottom of my heart the kindness and sweetness of Your love.

“May it please Your most tender Heart, O Son of the Most High, to accept me for Your service, to number me among the servants of Your house, who suffer, labor, bear the burden of the day, and desire no other recompense than You Yourself.

“But my desire goes further still, for I aspire to unite myself to You by an indissoluble bond. O Beauty full of majesty which ravishes hearts with an infinite power, and makes them like unto Yourself, realize this transformation in me, I implore, so that I may no longer live in myself but in You. May the most sweet law of Your grace and the power of Your love direct all my thoughts, words, and works” (Ven. John of Jesus Mary).

359. HUMBLE AND REVERENT LOVE

PRESENCE OF GOD - O God, who art so great, deign to lift up my soul, so small and miserable, to Yourself.


MEDITATION

1. The love which audaciously urges the soul on to the conquest of divine union is, at the same time, full of reverence and respect, for the soul understands, much better than before, how sublime and lofty is the majesty of God. If, on the one hand, love makes it impatient to be united to Him, on the other, the clear and continual consciousness of its misery renders it more eager than ever to keep strict watch over its conduct, so that nothing may be found in it which could displease such great majesty.

“The soul,” says the Mystical Doctor, “immediately perceives in itself a genuine determination and an effective desire to do naught which it understands to be an offense to God, and to omit to do naught that seems to be for His service. For that dark love cleaves to the soul, causing it a most watchful care and inward solicitude concerning that which it must do, or must not do, for His sake, in order to please Him. It will consider and ask itself a thousand times if it has given Him cause to be offended” (DN IJ, 16,14).

Evidently there is question here of something far exceeding mere flight from sin: it is the firm resolution to shun every imperfection, omission, or voluntary negligence; and since the soul knows from experience that, in spite of all its good will, many of these faults may escape it, either through inadvertence or through frailty, it desires to intensify its vigilance in order to avoid even these as far as is possible.

This solicitude proceeds from love and not from scruples, a truly loving anxiety, like that which made St. Teresa Margaret continually repeat: “What am I doing now, in this action? Am I loving my God?” (Sp), or that which St. Angela of Foligno expressed in these burning words: “ See, O Lord, if there is anything in me which is not love!”

If you would have a sure sign of your love of God, test the firmness of your resolution to fly from every least thing which might displease Him. This resolution must be so deeply rooted in your will that not only is it continually present to you—as are the things you really care for—but is also strong enough to withdraw you from every imperfection as soon as you become aware of it. This is absolutely indispensable, because, as St. John of the Cross teaches, “for the soul to come to unite itself perfectly with God through love and will...it must not intentionally and knowingly consent with the will to imperfections, and it must have power and liberty to be able not to consent intentionally ” (AS J, 11,3).


2. Knowledge of its lowliness helps keep the soul humble in its love, driving away all presumption. Far from relying on its own merits and good works, it sees clearly that however much it might accomplish, it is as nothing in comparison with the exalted majesty of God. “Wherefore it considers itself useless in all that it does and thinks itself to be living in vain” (J.C. DN IJ, 19,3). The words of the Gospel: “We are unprofitable servants, ” are for it a living actuality, and they express very well its habitual state. The light poured forth in the soul by the Holy Spirit is too great to let it fall into any illusion concerning its own worth, or to allow it to take complacency in its works. Even more, the soul “considers itself as being, most certainly, worse than all other souls: first, because love is continually teaching it how much is due to God; and secondly, because, as the works which it here does for God are many and it knows them all to be faulty and imperfect, they all bring it confusion and affliction, for it realizes in how lowly a manner it is working for God, who is so high” (ibid.). It is wonderful to see how this profound humility is not only the fruit of light but also of love: love makes the soul esteem God so highly that, while ardently desiring to possess Him, it is profoundly convinced of being absolutely incapable of reaching Him.

On the other hand, although humble and reverent, love maintains its characteristic audacity and the soul does not cease to aspire to divine union. Precisely in this spirit St. Thérése of the Child Jesus wrote: “notwithstanding my littleness, I dare to gaze upon the divine Sun of love” (St, 13). The Saint, who in all simplicity compared herself to a downy little bird, incapable of taking its flight, well understood that of herself she could never soar so high; nevertheless, she did not lose her confidence. If she could not count on her own strength, she knew that she could rely upon the love of Jesus, the divine Word, who became incarnate precisely to come and seek us, poor sinners that we are, who willed “to suffer and to die, in order to bear away each single soul and plunge it into the very heart of the Blessed Trinity, Love’s eternal home” (ibid.). St. Thérése had the certitude that one day Jesus would be touched by her weakness, and would swoop down to make her the “prey” of His love: “I am filled with the hope that one day Thou wilt swoop down upon me, and bearing me away to the source of all Love, wilt plunge me at last into its glowing abyss” (ibid.). Yes, Jesus is ready to meet all souls of good will, to come to your soul and raise it to the much desired union, but He would have you know how to await Him with fidelity, fully and generously devoted to His service.


COLLOQUY

“O eternal Word! O my Savior! Thou art the divine Eagle whom I love and who allurest me. Thou who, descending to this land of exile, didst will to suffer and to die, in order to bear away each single soul and plunge it into the very heart of the Blessed Trinity—Love’s eternal home! Thou who, returning to Thy realm of light, dost still remain hidden here in our vale of tears under the semblance of the white Host.... O eternal Eagle, it is Thy wish to nourish me with Thy divine substance, a poor little being who would fall into nothingness if Thy divine glance did not give me life at every moment....

“Forgive me, O Jesus, if I tell Thee that Thy love reacheth even unto folly, and at the sight of such folly, what wilt Thou but that my heart should leap up to Thee? How could my trust know any bounds?

“I know well that for Thy sake the saints have made themselves foolish—being “eagles” they have done great things. Too little for such mighty deeds, my folly lies in the hope that Thy love wilt accept me as a victim....

“O my divine Eagle! As long as Thou willest, I shall remain with my gaze fixed upon Thee, for I long to be fascinated by Thy divine eyes, I long to become Love's prey. I am filled with the hope that one day Thou wilt swoop down upon me, and bearing me away to the source of Love, wilt plunge me at last into its glowing abyss, that I may become forever its happy victim ” (T.C.J. St, 13).



360. STRONG AND ACTIVE LOVE


PRESENCE OF GOD - Lord, grant that my love for You may not be content with words, but prove itself in generous deeds.


MEDITATION

1. “Love is never idle” (T.J. Int C V, 4). When true love of God enters the soul it gradually begets in it an interior dynamism so strong and forceful that it spurs it on to seek ever new ways of pleasing the Beloved, and makes it diligent in devising fresh means of proving its fidelity to Him. Love, in fact, is not nourished by sweet sentiments or fantasies, but by works. “This love,” says St. Teresa, “is also like a great fire which has always to be fed lest it should go out. Just so with these souls [in which God Himself kindles the flame of charity]; cost them what it might, they would always want to be bringing wood, so that this fire should not die” (Life, 30). The soul that truly loves does not stop to examine whether a task is easy or difficult, agreeable or repugnant, but undertakes everything in order to maintain its love. It even chooses by preference tasks which demand more sacrifice, for it knows that love is never truer than when it urges the sacrifice of self for the One loved. Hence, through love, “there is caused in the soul a habitual suffering because of the Beloved, yet without weariness. For, as St. Augustine says, ‘Love makes all things that are great, grievous, and burdensome to be almost naught.” The spirit here has so much strength that it has subjected the flesh and takes as little account of it as does the tree of one of its leaves. In no way does the soul here seek its own consolation or pleasure, either in God, or in aught else” (J.C. DN IT, 19,4).

This explains the attitude of the saints, who not only embraced wholeheartedly the sufferings with which God strewed their paths, but sought them with jealous care, as the miser seeks gold. St. John of the Cross replied to Our Lord, who had asked him what recompense he desired for the great services he had rendered Him: “To suffer and to be despised for Your love.” And St. Teresa of Jesus, seeing her earthly exile prolonged, found in suffering embraced for God the only means of appeasing her heart, a thirst for eternal love; and she entreated: “To die, Lord, or to suffer! I ask nothing else of Thee for myself but this” (Life, 40). In heaven we shall have no further need of suffering to prove our love, because then we shall love in the unfailing clarity of the beatific vision. But here below, where we love in the obscurity of faith, we need to prove to God the reality of our love.

2. “If our love is perfect, it has this quality of leading us to forget our own pleasure in order to please Him whom we love”; it has the power to make us accept our trials with love “and take the bitter with the sweet, knowing that to be His Majesty’s will” (T.J. F, 5). Evidently, a love like this cannot be the fruit of our own human nature, which has such repugnance for suffering; it cannot be acquired, for it greatly surpasses the capacity of our nature, so poor and weak. God alone can infuse it little by little into souls who allow Him to guide them by the narrow way of interior purification. Yes, in aridity, in solitude of heart, in the privation of all light and consolation, the Holy Spirit enkindles in them this flame of charity, a flame which invades them increasingly as it finds them well disposed, that is, purified of everything contrary to love. When all resistances have been overcome, all dross eliminated, the flame of love will blaze up irresistibly and. give to the soul the strength of a giant. The flame of love, St. John of the Cross explains, “causes [the soul] to go forth from itself, and be wholly renewed and enter upon another mode of being” (SC, 1,7). While formerly the soul feared and fled suffering, now it embraces it courageously.

The soul strongest in suffering is also the strongest in love. No creature in the world loved, nor will love God more than the most Blessed Virgin Mary, and none was, nor ever will be, stronger than she in suffering. See her at the foot of the Cross: she is a Mother, and she voluntarily assists at the terrible agony of her Son; she sees the nails being driven into His Flesh; she hears the heavy blows of the hammer; she beholds His Head crowned with thorns, vainly seeking a little repose on the hard wood of the Cross; she sees the Cross raised and her Son hanging on it, suspended between heaven and earth, disfigured by suffering, without the least consolation. Mary’s heart was pierced; nevertheless, she repeated her fiat with the same fullness of consent with which she had pronounced it at the joyous annunciation of her maternity. In her love, she found courage to offer her well-beloved Son for the salvation of His executioners. What mother could rival Our Lady in strength? Yet her sacrifice immeasurably surpassed that of any other mother because only she could say: The Son whom I immolate is my God. Let us learn the secret of strong love at the foot of the Cross beside Mary, Queen of Martyrs, through love and suffering.


COLLOQUY

“He who truly loves You, Lord, has only one ambition, that of pleasing You. He dies with desire to be loved by You, and so will give his life to learn how he may please You better. Can such love remain hidden? No, my God, that is impossible! There are degrees of love, for love shows itself in proportion to its strength. If it is weak, it shows itself but little. If it is strong, it shows itself a great deal. But love always makes itself known, whether weak or strong, provided it is real love.

“O Lord, grant that my love be not the fruit of my imagination but be proved by works. What can I do for You, who died for us and created us and gave us being, without counting myself fortunate in being able to repay You something of what I owe You?

“May it be Your pleasure, O Lord, that the day may finally come in which I shall be able to pay. You at least something of all I owe You. Cost what it may, Lord, permit me not to come into Your presence with empty hands, since the reward must be in accordance with my works. Well do I know, my Lord, of how little I am capable. But I shall be able to do all things provided You do not withdraw from me.

“It is not You that are to blame, my Lord, if those who love You do no great deeds; it is our weak-mindedness and cowardice. It is because we never make firm resolutions but are filled with a thousand fears and scruples arising from human prudence, that You, my God, do not work Your marvels and wonders. Who loves more than You to give, if You have anyone that will receive; or to accept services performed at our own cost? May Your Majesty grant me to have rendered You some service and to care about nothing save returning to You some part of all I have received ” (T.J. Way, 40 — Int C II, 1 — Life, 21 - F, 2).

361. UNITIVE LOVE

PRESENCE OF GOD - My God, You have infused love into my soul. Grant that it may increase until it brings me to union with You.


MEDITATION

1. “God continues to do and to work in the soul by means of this night, illumining and enkindling it divinely with yearnings for God alone and for naught else whatever” (J.C. DN I, 13,11). In proportion as it detaches itself from earth, leaving aside all affection and desire for creatures, the soul climbs “the secret ladder” of love which raises it step by step even unto its Creator, “for it is love alone that unites and joins the soul to God” (ibid., 18,5).

This enkindling of love is not perceived in the beginning of the purification, because then “this divine fire is used in drying up and making ready the wood (which is the soul), rather than in giving it heat. But, as time goes on, the fire begins to give heat to the soul, and the soul then very commonly feels this enkindling and heat of love ” (ibid., 12,5). The flames of love can produce great spiritual delight; there are moments of unspeakable joy in which the soul receives a foretaste of its approaching union with God, a joy which compensates fully for all the pain and anguish suffered in the obscurity of the night, and one which encourages it to accept wholeheartedly whatever it must still undergo to attain perfect union with God. Nevertheless, it is well to remember that the enkindling of love does not consist in the joy the soul may experience, but rather in the firm determination of the will to give itself entirely to God. Moreover, “this is wrought by the Lord, who infuses as He wills,” that is, who can infuse love, either “leaving the will in aridity” (ibid., 12,7) or inflaming it with sweet ardor.

Be that as it may, what matters is not the enjoyment of love, but our rapid advancement in it, for love is the only power that can unite us to God. St. John of the Cross, developing this topic, states precisely: “It is to be observed, then, that love is the inclination of the soul and the strength and power which it has to go to God...and thus, the more degrees of love the soul has, the more profoundly does it enter into God and the more is it centered in Him” (LF, 1,13). As a stone in its fall is drawn toward the center of the earth by gravity, so the soul is drawn to God by the power of love. The stronger the love, the more powerfully will the soul be drawn to God and entirely united to Him: “the strongest love is the most unitive love” (ibid.). How, then, could a soul that sincerely desires union with God fail to exert all its efforts to grow in love?


2. A degree of imperfect love bears a corresponding degree of imperfect union, whereas perfect union corresponds to perfect love. “For the soul to be in its center, which is God, it suffices for it to have one degree of love, since with one degree alone it may be united with Him through grace. If it have two degrees of love, it will be united and have entered into another and a more interior center with God, and so forth” (ibid.). We may compare these degrees of union to a stone which by its weight is drawn to the center of the earth; the heavier it is and the less impeded by obstacles, the more rapidly will it reach the center, and even the deepest part of it. Love is the weight which draws us into God, and, conversely, love draws God into our souls, for Jesus has said: “If anyone love Me, he will keep My word. . .and We will come to him and will make Our abode with him” (Jn 14,23). A single degree of love, shown by the observance of the divine law, guarantees that we are in the state of grace and that God is present in the soul, making His abode there; consequently, we can live united to Him. But it is evident that a very imperfect union with God corresponds to this first degree of love and grace. In this state the soul is already in its center, that is, in God, and it already lives united to Him who deigns to dwell in it by grace; however, it still has a long way to go before reaching its deepest center, before penetrating into the depths of God and living intimately with Him, perfectly united to Him. The stages of this road are marked by progress in love; the more the soul loves, the more it immerses itself in God; and, on the other hand, God Himself, making good His promise, becomes ever more present to it by grace, inviting it to an increasingly more intimate friendship and union.

Finally, the day comes when “ if it attain to the last degree [of love], the love of God will succeed in wounding the soul even in its remotest and deepest center—that is, in transforming and enlightening it as regards all its being and power and virtue such as it is capable of receiving, until it be brought into such a state that it appears to be God” (J.C. LF, 1,13). Love accomplishes the great miracle; it draws God into the soul that loves Him and immerses the soul in Him; by means of love, a miserable creature comes to the embrace of its Creator and is united to Him so intimately and perfectly that it abides there entirely transformed and _ divinized. Could God have granted us a greater gift than that of creating us in love and filling us with love, the great power capable of uniting us to Himself?


COLLOQUY

“O most loved King of peace, desired by all generous hearts in heaven and upon earth, who ask me with infinite sweetness to love You with all my heart, my mind, and my strength; despise not my sighs and yearnings.

“Beloved King, You came into the world to reign in the hearts of men by Your sweet law of charity, grant that I may love You with all my heart, and all the strength of my mind. Grant, most amiable Lord, that I may live no longer in myself but in You, who are my life; transform me into Yourself by love’s activity. Communicate to me that sweet fire which burns in Your Heart and grant that in all things I may seek You alone, You who are the true peace and center of my soul. I await but one thing from You: kindle Your eternal fire within me and let it beget in my heart such great desire for You that I may seek You always, night and day; let this longing constrain me to use everything, to seize every occasion, to find ever new ways of pleasing You and of inducing all creatures to serve You, to love You, and to unite themselves to You by the bond of charity.

“Come within me, O sweet Spouse of my soul, O ardent Heart, desirous of my own. Enter Your dwelling as absolute Lord, and govern there irresistibly by the power of Your omnipotent love. This very day I wish to be drawn to You, O generous Son of God; let my soul be transformed in Yours, and, after that, You will be my soul, my life, the one comfort of my afflicted heart, and my only consolation”? (Ven. John of Jesus Mary).

362. UNION OF WILL

PRESENCE OF GOD - O Lord, take my entire will and transform it into Your own.


MEDITATION

1. The first and most important result of the unitive power of love is the perfect union of man’s will with the will of God. As love develops, it so empties the soul of everything opposed to the divine will, so impels it to love and desire only that which God Himself loves and desires, that little by little, the weak human will becomes fully conformed and united to the divine will of God; the two wills are made into one, “namely, into the will of God, which. . .is likewise the will of the soul” (J.C. AS J, 11,3). In all its deliberate
actions, the soul is no longer guided by its personal will, so frail and inconstant; it is directed and moved solely by the will of God, wherein its own has been lost, lost through love. “ He that shall lose his life for My sake shall find it,” Jesus declared (Mt 16,25). Captivated by love for God, the soul has, for His sake, entirely renounced its own will; it has voluntarily lost in Him all desire, all inclination; and now, the loss has become the greatest of all gains, because the soul finds its will, now entirely transformed in the divine
will of God. Could one hope for a more advantageous exchange? St. John of the Cross writes: “The state of this divine union consists in the soul’s total transformation, according to the will, in the will of God” (AS J, 11,2). This transformation is total, and not merely in part, nor is it merely in things of greater importance, but even in very small, minute things, so that the divine will truly becomes the unique motive force of the soul : whatever it does, says and thinks is “in all and through all. . . the will of God alone” (ibid.). A sublime state, which lifts a creature to the heights of the Creator, which takes it from the level of human life to that of the divine! To achieve this it was worthwhile for the soul to have undergone the bitter purification by which it was “stripped and denuded of its former skin ” (J.C. DN H, 13,11), that is, of its own imperfect will; it was worthwhile to have renounced itself and everything created!


2. Speaking of perfect union with the will of God, St. Teresa of Jesus writes: “This is the union which I have desired all my life; it is for this that I continually beg Our Lord; it is this which is the most genuine and the safest” (Int C V, 3). The Saint, who had experienced the efficacy and sweetness of the mystical graces of union, wherein the soul “cannot possibly doubt that God has been in it and it has been in God  (ibid., 1), does not hesitate to prefer to such delights perfect union with the will of God. Actually, the essence of sanctity consists solely in this union, whereas mystical graces are only a means toward its attainment, a very precious means, because a more rapid one, but always a means and not an end. The end consists solely in perfect conformity of one’s own will with the will of God. Besides, it does not depend upon us to choose the “shortcut” of mystical graces, rather than to follow the ordinary way of generous and persevering effort. The choice depends upon God alone, who is Master of His gift and “gives when He wills, and as He wills, and to whom He wills...and this is doing no injury to anyone” (ibid. IV, 1).

What is of the greatest importance is to know that union with God is not reserved for a small number of privileged souls; God calls every soul of good will to union with Himself, regardless of the way by which He chooses to lead it. Hence, the ordinary way, “the little way,” as St. Thérése of the Child Jesus called it, or the “carriage road,” according to St. Maria Bertilla, leads just as surely to divine union. Instead of preoccupying ourselves about the way, let us rather concern ourselves with striving to be completely generous, for only souls who give themselves wholly to God reach union with Him. “But observe, my daughters,” writes St. Teresa of Avila, “that if you are to gain this [union with God], He would have you keep back nothing; whether it be little or much, He will have it all for Himself, and according to what you yourself have given to Him, the favors He will grant you will be small or great” (ibid. V, 1). The more generous our gift, the more God will anticipate us with His grace and sustain us by His omnipotent action. The ordinary way, though more hidden and less consoling than the way of mystical favors, is no less genuine or efficacious. Whether God chooses to lead us by one way or by the other, we shall never lack the necessary divine help to attain to union with Him.


COLLOQUY

“Lord, what power this gift has! If it be made with due resolution, it cannot fail to draw You, the Almighty, to become one with our lowliness and to transform us into Yourself and to effect a union between the Creator and the creature.

“The more resolute we are in soul and the more we show You by our actions that the words we use to You are not words of mere politeness, the more and more do You draw us to Yourself and raise us above all petty earthly things, and above ourselves, in order to prepare us to receive great favors from You, for Your rewards for our service will not end with this life. So much do You value this service of ours that we do not know for what more we can ask, while You never weary of giving.

“Not content with having made this soul one with Yourself, through uniting it to Yourself, You begin to cherish it, to reveal secrets to it, to rejoice in its understanding of what it has gained and in the knowledge which it has of all You have yet to give it. You begin to make such a friend of the soul that not only do You restore its will to it, but You give it Your own also. For now that You are making a friend of it, You are glad to allow it to rule with You. So You do what the soul asks of You, just as the soul does what You command, only in a much better way, since You are all-powerful and can do whatever You desire, and Your desire never comes to an end.

“O my God, how precious is the union which the soul attains with You, after having established itself in submission to Your will. Oh, how much to be desired is this union, in which we resign our wills to the will of God! Happy the soul that has attained to it, for it will live peacefully both in this life, and in the next, for, apart from the peril of losing You, O Lord, or of seeing You offended, there is nothing that could afflict it, neither sickness nor poverty nor even death, for this soul sees clearly that You know what You are doing better than it knows itself what it desires!” (T.J. Way, 32 — Int C V, 3).

363. DIVINE ASSISTANCE

PRESENCE OF GOD - O Lord, You anticipate, accompany, and sustain me with Your grace. Grant that it may not remain sterile.


1. “If a soul is seeking God, its Beloved is seeking it much more; and, if it sends after Him its loving desires... He likewise sends after it the fragrance of His ointments, wherewith He attracts the soul and causes it to run after Him ” (J.C. LF, 3,28). The soul is never alone in its efforts to attain union: God goes to meet it, giving it His helping hand and drawing it to Himself by means of the holy inspirations which enlighten its mind, and the interior touches which inflame its will. These inspirations and divine touches are none other than the actuation of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, by which God directs the soul and works within it, first to purify and dispose it for union, and then to unite it effectively to Himself by love. It is most consoling to consider that this wealth of divine help enters into the normal course of the development of the life of grace, and hence is encountered even in the ordinary way of holiness. This is the heritage which God has prepared for every soul, provided it is generous in giving itself to Him.

With St. John of the Cross we must conclude that if souls which actually reach perfect union are so few, “it is not because God is pleased that there should be few raised to this high spiritual state,” or that He is sparing of His help; “it is rather that He finds few vessels which can bear so high and lofty a work” (LF 2,27).

If after many years of the spiritual life we find ourselves still far from union with God, we cannot attribute this to the insufficiency of divine help; rather, we should blame our own lack of generosity and fidelity to grace. St. Teresa emphatically declares: “True union can quite well be achieved with the favor of Our Lord, if we endeavor to attain to it by not following our own will but by. submitting our will to whatever is the will of God.” And, while recognizing that one does not attain this except by painful labor, she assures us, “ You must not doubt the possibility of this true union with the will of God ” (Int C V, 3).


2. “We do not require extraordinary favors from the Lord before we can achieve this [union]. He has given u all we need in giving us His Son to show us the way” (ibid.). Jesus suffices for us! He has not only shown us the way to divine union, but has likewise procured for us the means of obtaining it.

Jesus washes and purifies our souls in His Blood; He nourishes them with His Flesh, instructs them by His doctrine; every day, and many times a day, He renews His sacrifice upon the altar on our behalf; Jesus, glorious at the right hand of the Father, is always interceding for us, obtaining grace and dispensing it to us according to our need. Jesus sends us the Holy Spirit, His Spirit, that He may guide us on the road to sanctity. Jesus gives us His Mother, the most Holy Virgin Mary, that she may be our Mother, our refuge, our support in time of trial. What more could we desire? Should we consider these graces less precious because they form part of the “ ordinary” graces accorded to all souls? Oh! if we were truly convinced of the great efficacy of these means of sanctification, we would not seek others; instead of waiting for some extraordinary favors in order to give ourselves wholly to God, we would work at corresponding with great fidelity to the grace which He offers each day with wonderful largesse, and thus we would surely achieve our end.

“Let us beg the Lord,” St. Teresa exhorts us, “that, since to some extent it is possible tor us to enjoy heaven upon earth, He will grant us His help so that it will not be our own fault if we miss anything” (ibid. V, 1). The heaven which we can enjoy here below is precisely the state of union with God in which the soul, perfectly conformed to the divine will, enjoys great peace, even amid the inevitable sorrows of life, because it abandons itself always into the hands of divine Providence. We can all reach this happy state, provided we are determined to follow the way which Jesus Himself has marked out for us: “If anyone love Me he will keep My word.... You are My friends if you do the things that I command you” (Jn 14,23 — 15,14). It is the way that Jesus Himself travelled, desiring no other food than the Father’s will and doing always the things that pleased Him. Let us follow Jesus, entrusting ourselves to His guidance, and He, who is the way, the truth and the life, will lead us to the union we so desire.


COLLOQUY

“O Jesus, in those words by which You told us that Your food was to do the Father’s will, You have shown us that Your will was His, and His will was Yours, and, having but one will with Him, You have declared to us that You are equal to the Father, and one with Him. Further, You have taught us how we, too, can become by grace, in a certain manner, equal to God and one with Him. We can do this by accomplishing His will, which should be the rule and pole toward which our will, like a magnetized needle, ceaselessly tends; and when we deviate, be it ever so slightly, from the divine will, we will lose this equality and union.

“O Lord, deign to unite me entirely to Yourself as a bride. Take from me my will and all my desires, so that I may neither will nor desire anything except what You will. Make my will so conformed and united to Yours that I may no longer will anything of myself, being preoccupied neither with living nor dying, but only willing what You will.

“My God, when I shall have offered You my will in all and for all, You will return it to me, for, when it is no longer mine, but I shall have given it entirely to You, then You will be content that I follow it in all things, since it will not be mine but Yours” (cf. St. Mary Magdalen dei Pazzi).

“Receive, O Lord, all my liberty; take my memory, my understanding and my will. All that I am and have, You have given to me. I give it all back to You to dispose of according to Your will. Give me Your love and Your grace. With these I am rich enough and have nothing more to desire” (St. Ignatius Loyola).

[Stone]

364. THE END OF THE WORLD

LAST SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST

PRESENCE OF GOD - My God, in the evening of life You will judge me according to my love. Help me to grow in love each day.


MEDITATION

1. The Mass for today, the last Sunday of the liturgical year, is a prayer of thanksgiving for the year that is ending, and one of propitiation for that which is about to begin; it is a reminder that the present life is fleeting, and an invitation to keep ourselves in readiness for the final step which will usher us into eternity.

In the Epistle (Col 1,9-14), St. Paul prays and gives thanks in the name of all Christians: “We...cease not to pray for you and to beg that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will. ..that you may walk worthy of God, in all things pleasing; being fruitful in every good work.” This is a beautiful synthesis of the task which the interior soul has endeavored to accomplish during the whole year: to adapt and conform itself to God’s holy will, to unite itself to it completely, and, being moved in all things by that divine will alone, to act in such a manner as to please Our Lord in everything. God be praised if, thanks to His help, we have succeeded in advancing some steps along that road which most surely leads to holiness. Making our own the sentiments of the Apostle, we should give thanks to “the Father who hath made us worthy to be partakers of the lot of the saints in light.” The lot, the inheritance of the saints, of those who tend toward holiness, is union of love with God—here below in faith, hereafter in glory. This heritage is ours because Jesus has merited it for us by His Blood, and because in Jesus “we have redemption, the remission of sins”; thus, cleansed from sin and clothed in grace by His infinite merits, we also can ascend to that very lofty and blessed state of union with God.

If, with God’s help, we have succeeded in making some progress, there still remains more and greater work to be done. The Church, therefore, has us ask in the Collect: “Stir up, we beseech Thee, O Lord, the wills of Thy faithful people, that by more earnestly seeking the fruit of good works, they may receive more abundantly the gifts of Thy loving kindness.” So it is: the more we correspond to grace, the greater the graces Our Lord will grant us; the more we press on toward Him, the more He will draw us to Himself, so that the result of this continuous interplay of the divine assistance and our correspondence will be the sanctification of each one of us.


2. With the description of the end of the world and the coming of Christ to judge the living and the dead, the Gospel (Mt 24,15-35) reminds us that just as the liturgical year passes and comes to an end, so does the life of man on earth. Everything will have an end, and, at the end of all, will come the majestic epilogue : “ Then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven [the Cross]: and then shall all tribes of the earth mourn; and they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with much power and majesty.” Jesus who once came upon earth in poverty, hiddenness and pain, to teach us the way to heaven and to redeem our souls, has every right to return glorious at the end of time, to gather the fruit of His labor and His Blood. He will be our judge, and will judge us, as He Himself has said, according to our love: “Come, ye blessed of My Father, possess the kingdom prepared for you.... For I was hungry and you gave Me to eat...thirsty and you gave Me to drink.... As long as you did it to one of these My least brethren, you did it to Me” (Mt 25,34.35.40). His sweet precept of love, love of God and of neighbor, will be the law by which we shall be examined. Blessed shall we be if we have loved, and loved much! “Many sins are forgiven her, because she hath loved much” (Lk 7,47), Jesus said, referring to the sinful woman. The greater and deeper our love, the more effectively will it efface all the sins, miseries, and faults into which, despite our good will, we fall daily.

“For this reason it is a great thing,” says St. John of the Cross, “for the soul to exercise itself constantly in love, so that, being perfected here below, it may not stay long, either in this world or in the next, without seeing God face to face” (LF, 1,34). The Saint is alluding to a soul inflamed with divine love and longing anxiously for heaven in order to see its God face to face and be able to love Him more. Only an intense exercise of love, however, can of itself lead to union with God, both here on earth and in a blessed eternity. Happy the soul who, at the end of life, after having exercised itself much in love, can be immediately admitted to the beatifying union of heaven. Then it will have nothing to fear from the judgment of Jesus, for this judgment will be its eternal joy and happiness.


COLLOQUY

“Deign, O Lord, to grant me the experience of true love before You take me from this life, for it will be a great thing at the hour of my death to realize that I shall be judged by One whom I have loved above all things. I shall be able to meet You with security, certain that I shall not be going into a foreign land, but into my own country, for it belongs to the One whom I have loved so truly and who has loved me in return.

“How sweet will be the death of that soul who has done penance for all its sins and does not have to go to purgatory! It may be that it will begin to enjoy glory even in this world, and will know no fear, but only peace!” (T.J. Way, 40).

“To You, O Lord our God, we must always cling, that with Your continual help we may live in all holiness, godliness and uprightness. The weight of our weakness drags us down: but by Your grace, may we be enkindled and raised on high, may we be inflamed so as to climb from the depths, arranging in our hearts to ascend by steps. Let us, then, sing the song of ‘ ascents,’ burning with Your holy fire and journeying on toward You.

“Where are we going? On high, to the peace of the heavenly Jerusalem, as it is written: ‘I rejoiced at the things that were said to me: we shall go into the house of the Lord.’ There, good will shall be so ordered in us that we shall have no other desire than to remain there eternally. So long as we live in this mortal body we are journeying toward You, O Lord; here below we have no lasting dwelling place, but seek one which is to come, since our home is in heaven. Therefore, with the help of Your grace, I enter into the secrecy of my heart, and lift up songs of love to You, to You, my King and my God!” (St. Augustine).

365. THE “ YES” OF PERFECT CONSENT

PRESENCE OF GOD - Lord, grant that I may give You the free and full consent of my will.


MEDITATION

1. St. John of the Cross very aptly says that the characteristic of union of wills is the yes of the soul’s “free consent” (LF 3,24) by which it gives itself entirely to God, surrendering itself completely to Him by the full and total gift of its will. In other words, the soul is henceforth so determined not to will anything but God and His good pleasure, that in every circumstance it only repeats its yes, by accepting with love all that He wills and does for it. This yes is effective, and not simply a desire; it is a yes by which the soul truly gives itself with all the generosity of which it is capable.

From the beginning of the spiritual life, the fervent soul should desire to give itself to God without reserve, always saying yes to Him. But in practice, being still hampered by the bonds of passions and attachment to creatures, it often happens that the soul’s gift is not a complete one. Frequently, in the concrete instances of life, when faced with the bitterness of renunciation and interior conflict, its ideal yes is changed into a virtual no. In the state of union, however, this is no longer true. Here the soul is so surrendered to the holy will of God that it does not take back anything of its gift; its yes is so definitive and efficacious that it offers and unites the soul to God as a bride to her Bridegroom; that is why the mystics call this state “spiritual espousals.”

It is important to realize, that, on the part of the soul, the intensity of its union with God depends on the perfection of its yes; it should be a consent that is perfect in breadth and in depth: in breadth, because it should extend not only to what God commands, but even to all that He desires, to all that would give Him greater pleasure. Love must keep the soul so vigilant and attentive that it can discern in various circumstances what pleases God most, and this same love should make the soul generous enough to accomplish all without the least hesitation. The yes must be equally perfect in depth, because the soul should adhere to the divine good pleasure, not with negligence, niggardliness, nor even with the slightest bad grace, but with all the ardor of its will, happy to be able to give itself to God, whatever sacrifice this might entail.


2. The soul must apply itself to saying its yes perfectly, especially in the sense that Jesus has indicated to us in His great commandment of charity, which is the foundation, not only of the whole law, but of all sanctity. St. Teresa of Avila says expressly: “Here the Lord asks only two things of us: love for His Majesty and love for our neighbor. It is for these two virtues that we must strive, and if we attain them perfectly, we are doing His will, and so shall be united with Him” (Int C V, 3). But the attention of the Saint is immediately turned to charity toward our neighbor, because she sees in it the surest sign of the love of God, and also because she knows that this is a very vulnerable point. It is not uncommon that, after having said yes to Our Lord in the face of sacrifice, renunciation, or works of greater importance, some no is permitted to escape in connection with fraternal charity. Speaking of certain faults which insinuate themselves very secretly into the soul, and hinder it from attaining union, St. Teresa singles out, besides self-love and self-esteem, “criticism of our neighbors (even if only in small things), lack of charity toward them, and failure to love them as we love ourselves” (ibid.). As long as we find in ourselves failings of this kind, however slight, it is a sign that our gift to God is not complete, that our yes is not perfect. God wants us to love our neighbor, whoever he may be, and to love him perfectly: “This is My commandment,” Jesus said, “that you love one another, as I have loved you” (Jn 15,12). How can we be united to the will of God, if we do not fulfill this commandment with great diligence?

“I tell you, ” warns St. Teresa, “ that doing what I have said [that is, practicing fraternal charity with perfection], you will not fail to obtain this union, but, if you find that you are lacking in this virtue [of fraternal charity], you should be persuaded that you will never reach it, although you may have devotion and consolation so that you think that you have attained it.” And she concludes with this beautiful assertion : “So dearly does His Majesty love us that He will reward our love for our neighbor by increasing the love we bear to Himself, and that in a thousand ways: this I cannot doubt” (Int C V, 3).


COLLOQUY

“O infinite God, I wish to offer and consecrate myself unceasingly to You on the altar of my heart. First of all, I offer You my soul, Your spouse, ransomed with Your precious Blood. I offer it as a place of repose for Your Majesty, that it may be transformed in You, no longer living of itself, but only with Your life.

“O divine Wisdom, I offer You my intellect avid for knowledge, that You may quench its thirst by enabling it to comprehend Your grandeurs! Enlighten my darkness, and let me taste You in that very sweet knowledge which inflames my heart with love.

“Next, O most beautiful Spouse of my soul, I offer You my will which seeks You above all else, to love You with an eternal ardor, and be united to You forever. Deign, O Lord, that my will may detach itself from all creatures and, soaring aloft, elevate itself to You; then, in the slumber of pure love, let it repose in the cavern of Your Heart. O delightful cavern, when shall I hide within You, and hear the pulsations of that Heart which gives me life and salvation?

“But why, O my God, do I offer You my soul with its faculties, when I am already all Yours by creation and, even more, by Redemption? Is there some advantage for You, O most lovable Life, in this gift and offering which I would make to Your majesty and greatness? No, certainly it is not for Your interest, but for mine, O immortal Life, that I offer and give myself to You, since I know with certainty that my happiness consists in uniting myself to You” (Ven. John of Jesus Mary).

366. THE RECIPROCAL GIFT

PRESENCE OF GOD - May I be all Yours, Lord, and You all mine.


MEDITATION

1. “God does not give Himself wholly to us until He sees that we are giving ourselves wholly to Him” (T.J. Way, 28). God respects man’s liberty so much that, although desiring to have him share in His divine Life, He actually communicates Himself only in the measure of our consent; when this consent is total, He does not hesitate to give Himself wholly. God responds to the perfect yes of the soul with the “true and entire yes of His grace” (cf. J.C. LF, 3,24). To the perfect gift of the will on the part of the soul corresponds the full communication of grace on the part of God; grace is granted in all its perfection, accompanied by the wealth of the infused virtues and the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Grace and love necessarily go together, and as perfect adherence to the will of God is the sign of perfect love, it follows that God gives the superabundance of grace to the soul which is completely conformed to His divine will.

St. John of the Cross explains this lofty state yet more fully: “When the will of God and the will of the soul are as one in a free consent of their own, then the soul has attained to the possession of God through grace of will, insofar as can be, by means of will and grace; and this signifies that God has corresponded to the yes of the soul with the true and entire yes of His grace” (ibid.). The soul has given itself entirely to God, and now it receives its reward : God gives Himself to it. The soul, says the Saint, possesses God “through grace of will,” that is, by reason of the perfect communication of grace, which is God’s response to the total gift of the will. By this perfect communication, God gives Himself to the soul, allowing it to participate more and more in His supernatural Being and divine Life, and dwelling in it in a manner ever more intimate and profound.

This is the triumph of grace in the soul. That grace, which was communicated to it in germ at Baptism, and which has increased little by little in the course of the various stages of the spiritual life, reaches maturity when the soul has surrendered itself completely into the hands of God, giving Him its whole will. Not in vain has the soul died to itself; it has died in order to live in God and for God, to live by His life, by His love, by His will. “You are dead,” says St. Paul, “and your life is hid with Christ in God” (Col 3,3.).


2. With the authority of a Doctor of the Church, St. John of the Cross declares: “When in this way the soul voids itself of all things and achieves emptiness and surrender of them (which, as we have said, is the part that the soul can play), it is impossible, if the soul does as much as in it lies, that God should fail to perform His part by communicating Himself to the soul, at least secretly and in silence. It is more
impossible than that the sun should fail to shine in a serene and unclouded sky; for as the sun, when it rises in the morning, will enter your house if you open the shutter, even so will God...enter the soul that is empty and fill it with divine blessings ” (LF 3,46).

How long has Our Lord, the divine Sun, let the luminous ray of His grace shine upon your soul; how long has He knocked at your door: “ Behold, I stand at the gate and knock ” (Ap 3,20). Each confession, each Holy Communion, each Mass, each occasion for the exercise of virtue, each inspiration, each command or request of obedience: are not these God, knocking repeatedly at the door of your heart? And what are you doing? Why do you still keep Him waiting? Wake from your torpor, open your soul! “Lift up your gates. ..and be ye lifted up, O eternal gates, and the King of glory shall enter in!” (Ps 23,7). Do not be satisfied with opening the door half-way, or even three-quarters; open it completely. It is necessary to lift up the gates, to remove every obstacle : your God must enter in.

If you find it costly to deny your will in everything, consider how great a good it is to be guided in all things by the will of God. If you find it a burden to renounce self-love and earthly affections, think how joyous it is to possess the love of God. If you are reluctant to die to self, ponder how glorious it is to live to God. St. Teresa of Jesus cried out in a burst of enthusiasm: “What nothingness is all that we have given up, and all that we are doing, or can ever do, for a God who is pleased to communicate Himself in this way to a worm! If we have the hope of enjoying this blessing while we are still in this life, what are we doing about it, and why are we waiting? What sufficient reason is there for delaying even a short time instead of seeking this Lord, as the Bride did, through streets and squares?” (Int C VI, 4).

Our Lord wills to communicate Himself to your soul, to give Himself entirely; He wills to come and live with you: “If any man shall hear My voice and open to Me the door, I will come into him and will sup with him and he with Me” (Ap 3,20). Oh! may you not lose this immense gift through your own fault, your own negligence!


COLLOQUY

“O Lord of heaven and earth! Is it possible, while we are still in this mortal life, for us to enjoy You with such special friendship?... Oh! the joys which You bestow on souls who give themselves entirely to You! What endearments, what sweet words are these, one word of which would suffice to unite us to You. May You be blessed, O Lord, for so far as You are concerned we shall lose nothing. By how many paths, in how many manners, through how many means do You reveal Your love to us! By trials, by bitter death, by tortures, by affronts suffered daily, by Your forgiveness. And not by these alone, but by words that pierce the soul that loves You.

“So, my Lord, I ask You for nothing else in this life but that You should ‘ kiss me with the kiss of Your mouth’; and let this be in such a way, Lord of my life, that, even if I should desire to withdraw from this friendship and union, my will may be so completely subject to Yours that I shall be unable to leave You. May nothing ever hinder me, O my God and my glory, from being able to say: ‘Better and more delectable than any other good is Your friendship and Your love."

“For the love of the Lord, my soul, wake out of this sleep and remember that God does not keep you waiting until the next life before rewarding you for your love of Him. Your recompense begins in this life.

“O my Lord, my Mercy and my Good! What more do I want in this life than to be so near You that there is no division between You and me? And since Your love allows it, I will repeat without ceasing: ‘My Beloved to me and I to my Beloved’ ” (cf. T.J. Con, 3 - 4).

367. PERFECT UNION

PRESENCE OF GOD - I implore You, my God, to let nothing trouble my union with You.


MEDITATION

1. The yes of perfect consent has surrendered the whole human will to God, placing it completely under the vivifying influence of the divine will. Yet there are still found in the sensitive part of the soul disturbances which tend to withdraw it from the governance of God’s will: this sensitive part is subjected to the spirit only with difficulty, in consequence of the disorder produced by original sin. Even while the soul is by its will entirely conformed and united to the divine will, the sensitive part is always pulling in its own direction, carrying the affections along with it, sometimes stirring up repugnances and difficulties which can render continual adherence to God’s will painful and trouble the peace of the soul. Sensitiveness can still subject the soul to impressions and emotions which are a little too lively and expose it, when it does not succeed in wholly dominating them, to commit faults through inadvertence or frailty. Nor is the devil excluded from making use of the movements of the sensitive part to assail the soul, to hinder its progress, or, quite simply, to make it turn back, which, unfortunately, is always possible as long as we are in this life. The soul suffers from these trials, and ardently sighs to be freed from them, for it sees how they can disturb its union with God, and it desires this union to be more intense and perfect than ever.

Only God can re-establish in man the harmony destroyed by original sin, and He does not refuse this sublime grace to a soul which is truly faithful to Him. He grants it by means of a more intimate and complete union with Himself, wholly dominating the soul by His powerful influence, as if taking it into His possession. ‘This is total union, called by the mystics “spiritual marriage,” the highest degree of union with God possible in this life. Oh! with what fervor the loving soul longs for this sublime state in which it can give itself entirely to God, and can be wholly possessed and directed by Him, without being troubled by the turbulence of sensibility.


2. “Spiritual marriage,” writes St. John of the Cross, “is a total transformation in the Beloved, wherein on either side there is made surrender by total possession of the one to the other with a certain consummation of union of love” (SC, 22,3). It is a total transformation in God; that is, the transformation which at first—in the spiritual espousals—was realized only in the will, is now extended to the other faculties as a result of that mutual, perfect giving of God to the soul and of the soul to God. God gives Himself to the soul as if He were its possession; He establishes Himself in it as the active principle, not only of its will, but of its whole being, directing its entire life, and inspiring it in all that it does. This is the result of an ever more intense influence of the gifts of the Holy Spirit that pervades all the faculties of the soul, entering even into its sensitive part, which remains henceforth completely subject to the spirit. The soul possesses its God as One who vivifies, moves and governs it; it possesses Him as its principle of life, as its support, its strength, its all; it exclaims spontaneously with St. Paul: “I live, now not I; but Christ liveth in me” (Gal 2,20). It feels that its life is much more the life of God than its own life; in fact, since God has given Himself wholly to the soul, it is precisely in virtue of the singular plenitude of the divine gift that the soul has given itself wholly to Him. It is no longer only the perfect gift of the will; it is the gift of the entire being, magnificently harmonized by the full actuation of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. This gift, this total surrender of the soul to the Beloved, effects, as it were, the transfer of the life of the soul into God, so that it lives more in Him than in itself, “more in Him whom it loves than in the body which it animates” (cf. J.C. SC, 8,3). Like the mystical spouse of the Canticle, the soul which has arrived at this state can repeat in all truth: “My Beloved to me, and I to Him” (2,16). The union of the soul with God is henceforth so perfect, so full, that only the beatific union of heaven can surpass it. Total union is heaven anticipated, heaven offered to generous souls who spare neither pain nor sacrifice in order to give themselves wholly to God.


COLLOQUY

“Great is this favor, my Spouse, and this delectable feast, this precious wine that You give me, one drop of which makes me forget all created things, and withdraw from creatures and from myself, and no longer desire the satisfactions and joys which until now my senses have longed for. Great is all this and unmerited by me.

“Let worldlings come with all their possessions, their riches, their delights, their honors, and their feasts: even if all these could be enjoyed without the trials that they bring in their train, which is impossible, they could not in a thousand years cause the happiness enjoyed in a single moment by a soul whom You have elevated to this state.

“No, I do not see how it is possible to compare the base things of the world with these delights so sweet that no one could merit them, with this union so complete with You, my God, with this love so ineffably shown and so blissfully experienced ” (T.J. Con, 4).

“O Lord my God, who is there that seeks Thee in pure and true love who does not find Thee to be the joy of his will? It is Thou who art the first to show Thyself, going forth to meet those who desire Thee.

“O my God, how sweet to me Thy presence, who art the sovereign Good. I will draw near to Thee in silence...I will rejoice in nothing till I am in Thine arms. O Lord, I beseech Thee, leave me not for a moment because I know not the value of my soul” (J.C. SM J).

368. THE TRIUMPH OF LOVE

PRESENCE OF GOD - Grant that there may be only love in me, my God; that all may proceed from love, and all revert to love.


MEDITATION

1. The life of the soul which has reached total union may be defined as one simple, continual, most intense exercise of love, by means of which it gives itself to God unceasingly. All its faculties, not only purified, but pefectly harmonized, are wholly employed in the divine service: “Its understanding [the soul] employs in the understanding of those things that pertain most nearly to His service in order to do them; its will, in loving all that pleases God and in having affection of the will for God in all things; and its memory and care in that which pertains to His service and will be most pleasing to Him ” (J.C. SC, 28,3). Furthermore, even the sensual part, the body with all its senses, takes part in this magnificent concert of love, so that the soul can truly say that all its “possessions,” that is, all its spiritual and sensitive powers, are completely employed in the service of holy love. “For the body now works according to God; the inward and outward senses are directed toward Him in all their operations and all the four passions of the soul [that is, joy, hope, fear, and sorrow], it likewise keeps bound to God, because it neither has enjoyment save from God, nor has hope save in God, nor fears any save only God, neither does it grieve save according to God; and likewise all its desires and cares are wholly directed to God alone” (ibid., 4).

The loving flame of divine Wisdom has taken possession of this soul to such an extent, has so purified it and made it love God alone, that its whole being and all its faculties vibrate solely for Him, being engaged in nothing except in His service and in giving Him pleasure. It has no craving but for Him, no other desire than to give itself and unite itself to Him in perfect love; hence even the very first movements of this soul are movements of love : “ The understanding, the will, and the memory go straightway to God; and the affections, the senses, the desires and appetites, hope, joy, and all the rest of the soul’s possessions are inclined to God from the first moment” (ibid., 5). Love has become the atmosphere in which the soul moves; it has become its breath, its life. The difficult sacrifices, the bitter struggles and renunciations of the past, when its exercise of love consisted “in stripping itself for God’s sake of all that was not God” (J.C. AS II, 5,7), seem to it as nothing now, compared with the great good it has obtained; thus it repeats enraptured: “everything is little when it is a question of acquiring pure and true love of God ” (T.M. Sp).


2. The love of a soul completely surrendered to God is truly pure love, because it has been purged of the least affection for creatures and of all return on self; it is pure love because it goes straight and swiftly to God through all the circumstances of life, without stopping at anything created. The soul makes use of every happening, all its duties, all its actions to love God, which simply means that it gives itself to Him by serving Him in the way most pleasing to Him. It no longer needs to apply itself, as formerly, to the practice of this or that virtue, since it has acquired all of them in a perfect manner, and “whether its commerce be with temporal things or whether its exercise be concerning spiritual things, a soul in this case can ever say that its exercise is now in loving alone” (J.C. SC, 28,9). The soul no longer has need of the spur and stimulus of an exterior law to guide it, because its law is now the great love it bears within itself, which impels it in all things to seek and to will the divine good pleasure. “Love and do what you will,” said St. Augustine; “For the just man there is no law,” wrote St. John of the Cross at the summit of the Mount of Perfection. Far from implying that love dispenses from the observance of the law, from duties and obedience, these words signify rather, that love, when it is truly perfect, replaces and completes all law, having in itself the power to draw the soul to the highest perfection.

Of this perfect and most pure love, which concentrates upon God all the powers of the soul without anything being able to draw them away; of this love which wounds the heart of God directly, passing beyond all that is of earth, St. John of the Cross writes: “A very little of this pure love is more precious, in the sight of God and the soul, and of greater profit to the Church...than are all these [other] works together ” (SC, 29,2). There cannot be, in fact, an activity more intense and more sublime than that which concentrates and employs in God all the energies and capacities of the creature. It is the eternal activity of the angels and saints in heaven; it is the activity which, even here below, souls who have attained to perfect union with God can enter upon in emulation of the Blessed. “Happy life and happy estate and happy the soul that arrives thereat, where all is now substance of love to it, and joy and delight of betrothal" (ibid, 28,10).


COLLOQUY

“Even as a maiden that is betrothed sets not her love upon another than her spouse, nor directs her thoughts or her actions to any other, grant, O Lord, that my soul may no longer have any affections of the will or acts of knowledge of the understanding, nor any thought or action which is not wholly turned to Thee. Grant that I may know naught save how to love Thee, O my divine Spouse, and seeing that Thou prizest nothing and art pleased with nothing besides love, help me to employ everything purely for love of Thee and to serve Thee perfectly.

“Permit not that I should seek my own gain nor pursue my own tastes nor busy myself in other things and in intercourse that has naught to do with Thee. May I have no other style or manner of intercourse save the exercise of love. May all in me be moved by and in love. In laboring, I wish to do all with love; in suffering I wish to endure all for love.

“Grant that I may repeat to Thee with the Spouse of the Canticle: ‘All the fruits, the new and the old, my Beloved, I have kept for Thee, ’ which is as if she said: My Beloved, I desire for Thy sake to have all that is hard and wearisome, and all that is sweet and delectable I desire for Thee” (J.C. SC, 27,7.8 — 28,2-10).

“O Jesus, I do not ask for riches or glory, not even for the glory of heaven.... I ask only for love. One thought is mine, henceforth, dear Jesus, it is to love Thee!... I love Thee, I love my Mother the Church, and I bear in mind that ‘the least act of pure love is of more value to her than all other works together.’ But does this pure love really exist in my heart?..

“O Jesus, grant that love may surround and penetrate me; that at each moment Thy merciful love may renew and purify me, cleansing my soul from all trace of sin” (T.C.J. St, 13 - 8).

369. TRANSFORMING LOVE

PRESENCE OF GOD - My God, may Your love inundate and penetrate my soul until I am completely transformed in You.


MEDITATION

1. As the flame of a candle, united to the flame of an immense fire, becomes one with it, burning and shining with a single brightness, so that it is impossible to distinguish it from the great fire in which it is immersed, similarly the soul united to God by love loses itself in Him, remaining so enveloped and transformed in Him as to appear to be God Himself, and to be made “divine and become God by participation, insofar as may be in this life” (J.C. SC, 22,3). God is always God, essentially distinct from the soul. Love, however,
has so united and, as it were, merged the creature with the Creator, that “there are two natures in one spirit and love” (ibid.). By the perfection of charity and of grace the Holy Spirit dwells with singular plenitude in such a soul, and in this divine Spirit—the Spirit and bond of Love—the soul lives completely united to the Blessed Trinity. Here is realized in the most perfect manner the burning desire and ardent prayer of Jesus: “As Thou, Father, in Me and I in Thee; that they also may be one in Us” (Jn 17,21).

United to God in this way, the soul remains transformed in Him by love, or rather, it is love which, uniting it completely to God, makes the soul so similar as to transform it wholly in Him. This transformation extends to all its powers: “The human understanding. . . becomes divine, through union with the divine,” and wholly enlightened with supernatural light; “ the will is informed with divine love so that it is a will that is now no less than divine, nor does it love otherwise than divinely.... So, too, is it with the memory; and likewise the affections and desires are all changed and converted divinely, according to God” (J.C. DN IJ, 13,11).

Further, the soul remains divinized not only in its being and its faculties, but also in its actions, for “it is God Himself who moves the faculties and commands them divinely, according to His divine Spirit and will; and the result of this is that the operations of the soul are divine” (J.C. AS III, 2,8). The plenitude of supernatural life communicated to the soul in the state of spiritual marriage realizes in it, in the highest degree, the prerogative of grace, which is precisely that of making man a “partaker of the divine nature” (2 Pt 1,4). We see here the marvelous continuity which exists between the development of grace in our soul and these elevated states which are its ultimate consequence and its refulgent crown. Why do we tarry amid the paltry things of earth, when God has created us for these divine grandeurs?


2. St. John of the Cross says:  The lover cannot be satisfied if he feels not that he loves as much as he is loved” (SC*, 37,2). One who truly loves cannot endure being outdone in love, and the more he feels himself loved, the more he desires to love in return. But how can a creature, so weak and limited, equal God in love, that is, love Him as much as it is loved by Him? This holy and audacious ambition is realized precisely in the state of total transformation. As the will is completely transformed in that of God, “there is equality of love,” affirms the Saint, “for the will of the soul that is converted into the will of God...becomes the will of God. And thus the soul loves God with the will of God, which is also its own will; and thus it will love Him even as much as it is loved by God, since it loves Him with the will of God Himself, in the same love wherewith He loves it, which is the Holy Spirit” (ibid.). The Holy Spirit, the Third Person of the Blessed Trinity, terminus and subsistent bond of uncreated Love, who unites indissolubly the Father and the Son, has been given to us, so that, enkindling in our souls the fire of divine love, He may make us capable of loving God, not alone with our poor and very limited powers, but conjointly with Him, infinite Power and Love. The flame of charity was enkindled in our soul by the divine Paraclete on the day of our Baptism; it has grown since then, in proportion to our correspondence with grace. In the soul that has reached full transformation in God and has become one spirit with Him, this flame of charity is totally absorbed and loses itself in the infinite flame of the Holy Spirit. Then it truly loves God as it is loved by Him, because it loves Him together with the Holy Spirit.

The capacity of the soul becomes in a certain sense and by participation, quasi infinite, and only in this way is its love assuaged because it can love God in return with parity of love. The Mystical Doctor again explains: “And thus the soul loves God in the Holy Spirit together with the Holy Spirit. ..by reason of the transformation. ..and He supplies that which it lacks by its having been transformed in love with Him” (ibid.).

What joy and consolation for the soul, who suffers because of the extreme poverty of its love, compared with the infinite love of God and His infinite lovableness, to know that the Holy Spirit can and will supply for its insufficiency, provided that it let itself be completely seized and absorbed in the immense flame of His love.


COLLOQUY

“O my soul, created for these grandeurs and called thereto! What are you doing? Wherein do you occupy yourself? Your desires are base and your possessions misery. O wretched blindness of your eyes, which obscures so great a light! And why are you deaf to so clear a voice, seeing not that for as long as you seek grandeurs and glories you remain miserable and mean, and have become ignorant and unworthy of so many blessings? ” (cf. J.C. SC, 39,7).

“O Holy Spirit, You serve as intermediary between the soul and God, moving it with such ardent desires that it becomes enkindled by that sovereign Fire, who is so near it.

“O Lord, what mercies are these that You bestow upon the soul! May You be blessed and praised forever, You who are so good a Lover! O my God and my Creator! Is it possible that there is any soul who does not love You?
Unhappy that I am since for so long a time I myself loved You not!

“O my Lord, how good You are! May You be blessed forever! Let all things praise You, my God; You have so loved us that we can truly say that You have communication with souls even in this exile. O infinite Bounty, how magnificent are Your works!

“One whose understanding is not occupied with things of earth is amazed at being unable to understand such truths. Do You, then, grant these sovereign favors to souls who have so greatly offended You? Truly, my own understanding is overwhelmed by this, and when I begin to think about it I can go no farther. Where, indeed, would I go that would not be turning back? As for giving You thanks for these favors, there is no way of doing it...” (T.J. Con, 5 - Life, 18).

370. DIVINE INTIMACY

PRESENCE OF GOD - Grant, O Lord, that I may have perfect and lasting intimacy with You, that I may ever love You more and more.


MEDITATION

1. A soul enters upon the way of divine intimacy the moment that it resolutely determines to go forth from itself and from all created things, in order to set out with fervor in quest of God, living and present within it. The road between this first step and profound intimacy, which will bind to God the soul that has reached complete union, is long and difficult. Progressively, the soul begins to walk toward that “sweet and delectable union” (J.C. DN I, 16,14) in the measure that, sustained by grace, it becomes detached from
itself and creatures, delivered from its imperfections, despoiled of its own will so as to be clothed with the divine will alone, and permits the fire of love to be enkindled within it. Intimacy with God becomes more intense and loving, until, attaining the heights of transforming love, it becomes continual and perfect, a divine embrace which binds the creature to the Creator. Then the great promise of Jesus: “If anyone love
Me...My Father will love him : and We will come to him and will make Our abode with him” (Jn 14,23), is realized as perfectly as is possible here below. St. John of the Cross affirms: “It must not be held incredible that in a faithful soul which has already been tried and proved and purged in the fire of tribulations and trials, and found faithful in love, there should be fulfilled that which was promised by the Son of God : namely, that, if any man loved Him, the Blessed Trinity would come to dwell within him and would abide in him. And this comes to pass when the understanding is divinely illumined in the Wisdom of the Son, and the will is made glad in the Holy Spirit, and the Father, with His power and strength, absorbs the soul in the embrace and abyss of His sweetness” (LF, 1,15).

In the most sublime moments of transforming union, the soul is rendered conscious of God living, present, and working in it; it is conscious of His sweet paternal embrace which sustains it, of the splendor of His Wisdom which enlightens it, of the divine enkindling of His Love which penetrates it through and through. Even when the realization of the divine presence and action is less strong, and does not make the soul so blissful, it is still conscious of being profoundly united to God, of being moved and governed by Him. St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus attests : “I know that Jesus is within me, always guiding and inspiring me” (St, 8). The humble Saint, although not having experienced the extraordinary mystical graces, attained no less than her glorious Mother, St. Teresa of Jesus, to the profound intimacy with God which the soul enjoys in the state of perfect union.

2. Divine intimacy, especially in its highest degrees, is in itself a very joyous and blessed state; yet the enamored soul does not desire this intimacy in order to enjoy it, but to love God more, to be totally united to Him, entirely possessed, moved, and governed by Him, that it may serve Him better and give Him glory in all its actions. St. Teresa of Avila says expressly that the end for which Our Lord communicates Himself to souls and gives them so many graces—even the highest mystical favors—is not merely to “give them pleasure,” or to console them, but “to strengthen their weakness that they may be able to imitate Him in His great sufferings,” and she adds, with her usual enthusiasm: “This is the aim of prayer, this is the purpose of the spiritual marriage, to give birth to good works and good works alone” (Int C VII).

The end of the sweetness and the joy of intimacy with God is to make the soul more courageous in the divine service, more generous in the gift of self, stronger in bearing the cross. As long as we are on earth, suffering will never be wanting, and it will be found even amid the delights of divine union, for we must be conformed to Jesus Crucified; we must follow Him on the way to Calvary, that we may be completely immolated with Him for the glory of the Father and the salvation of our brethren. The works which union with God
should produce are precisely works of love; it is through the intense activity of pure love that the soul gives itself unceasingly to God, eager to draw with it an immense multitude of other souls. Therefore, the most fruitful apostolate springs spontaneously from divine intimacy, from perfect union with Our Lord, from pure love. “Their conception of glory” (that of souls who have arrived at spiritual marriage), says the ardent Teresa of Jesus, “is that of being able in some way to help the Crucified, especially when they see how often people offend Him, and how few there are who really care about His honor and are detached from everything else” (ibid., 3).

The loving soul, truly forgetful of itself, thinks neither of enjoying nor of suffering, but only of loving and serving God, of contributing as much as it can to His glory by associating itself to the redemptive work of Jesus. And if it aspires to an ever more perfect and intimate union with God, as well today, on earth, as tomorrow in heaven, it is in order to love with the greatest intensity, and make Love loved by the greatest possible number of souls.


COLLOQUY

“O Lord God, my Love, if Thou art still mindful of my sins, and wilt not grant my petitions, Thy will be done, for that is my chief desire. Show Thou Thy goodness and mercy, and Thou shalt be known by them. If it be that Thou art waiting for me to do good works, that in them Thou mayest grant my petition, do Thou give them and work them in me; send also the penalties which Thou wilt accept, and do Thou inflict them. But if Thou art not waiting for my good works, what art Thou waiting for, O most merciful Lord? Why tarriest Thou? For if, at last, it must be grace and mercy, and I pray for it in Thy Son, do Thou accept my worthless offering, according to Thy will, and give me this good also according to Thy will.

“Who can free himself from base and mean ways, if Thou, O my God, will not lift him up to Thee in pure love?

“How shall a man raise himself up to Thee, for he is born and bred in misery, if Thou wilt not lift him up with the hand that made him?

“Thou wilt not take away from me, O my God, what Thou hast once given me in Thy only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ, in whom Thou dost give me all I desire. I will therefore rejoice; Thou wilt not tarry if I wait for Thee. Wait in hope, then, O my soul, for from henceforth thou mayest love God in thy heart.

“Mine are the heavens and mine is the earth; mine are the people, the righteous are mine, and mine are the sinners; the angels are mine, and the Mother of God, and all things are mine; God Himself is mine and for me, because Christ is mine, and all for me. What dost thou, then, ask for, what dost thou seek, O my soul? All is thine, all is for thee, do not take less, nor rest with the crumbs which fall from the table of thy Father. Go forth and exult in thy glory, hide thyself in it, and rejoice, and thou shalt obtain all the desires of thy heart” (J.C. SM J, Prayer of the Enamored Soul).