St. Alphonsus Liguori: Daily Meditations for Third Week after Easter

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Friday – Third Week After Easter

Morning Meditation

THE GENEROUS HEART OF JESUS

In the Heart of Jesus we receive every good, every grace we desire. To the heart of Jesus we are debtors for all the graces we have ever received-the graces of Redemption, the graces of Vocation, of light, of pardon; the grace to resist temptation and to bear contradictions patiently. The Sared Heart is rich unto all who call upon it.

I.

It is characteristic of good-hearted people to desire to make everybody happy, and especially those most distressed and afflicted. But who can ever find one who has a kinder heart than Jesus Christ? He is infinite Goodness, and has therefore a sovereign desire to communicate to us His riches: With me are riches: With me are riches … that I may enrich them that love me-(Prov. viii. 18, 21). He for this purpose made Himself poor, as the Apostle says, that He might make us rich: He became poor for your sakes, that through his poverty you might be rich-(2 Cor. viii. 9). For this purpose also He chose to remain with us in the most Holy Sacrament, where He remains constantly with His hands full of graces, as was seen by Father Balthazar Alvarez, to dispense them to those who come to visit Him. For this reason also He bestows Himself on us in Holy Communion, giving us to understand thereby that He cannot refuse us any good gifts, since He even gives Himself entirely to us: How hath he not also, with him, given us all things-(Rom. viii. 32). For in the Heart of Jesus we receive every good, every grace we desire: In all things you are made rich in Christ … so that nothing is wanting to you in any grace-(1 Cor. i. 5, 7).

Ah, my Jesus, Thou hast not refused to give me Thy Blood and Thy Life, and shall I refuse to give Thee my miserable heart? No, my dearest Redeemer, I offer it entirely to Thee. I give Thee all my will; do Thou accept it, and dispose of it at Thy pleasure. I can do nothing, and have nothing; but I have this heart which Thou hast given me, and of which no one can deprive me. I may be deprived of my goods, my blood, my life, but not of my heart. With this heart I can love Thee; with this heart I will love Thee.

I beseech Thee, O my God, teach me a perfect forgetfulness of myself; teach me what I must do to arrive at Thy pure love, of which Thou in Thy goodness hast inspired me with the desire. I feel in myself a determination to please Thee; but in order to put my resolve into execution, I expect and implore help from Thee. It depends on Thee, O loving Heart of Jesus, to make entirely Thine my poor heart, which hitherto has been so ungrateful, and -through my own fault deprived of Thy love. Oh, grant that my heart may be all on fire with the love of Thee, even as Thine is on fire with the love of me. Grant that my will may be entirely united to Thine, so that I may will nothing but what Thou willest, and that from this day forth Thy holy will may be the rule of all my actions, of all my thoughts, and of all my desires. I trust, O my Saviour, that Thou wilt not refuse me Thy grace to fulfil this resolution which I now make prostrate at Thy feet, to receive with submission whatever Thou mayest ordain for me and my affairs, as well in life as in death. Blessed art thou, O Immaculate Mary, who hadst thy heart always and entirely united to the Heart of Jesus; obtain for me, O my Mother, that in future I may wish and desire that which Jesus wills and thou willest.


II.

We must understand that we are debtors to the Heart of Jesus for all the graces we have received-graces of Redemption, of Vocation, of light, of pardon, the grace to resist temptations, and to bear patiently with contradictions; for without His assistance we could not do anything good: Without me you can do nothing-(John xv. 5). And if hitherto, says our Saviour, you have not received more graces, do not complain of Me, but blame yourself, who have neglected to seek them of Me: Hitherto you have not asked any thing … ask, and you shall receive-(John xvi. 24). Oh, how rich and liberal is the Heart of Jesus towards everyone that has recourse to Him! Rich unto all that call upon him -(Rom. x. 12). Oh what great mercies do those souls receive who are earnest in asking help of Jesus Christ. David said, For thou, o Lord, art sweet and mild, and plenteous in mercy to all who call upon thee-(Ps. lxxxv. 5). Let us therefore always go to this Heart and ask with confidence, and we shall obtain all we want.

Spiritual Reading

SALVE, REGINA, MATER MISERICORDIAE! HAIL, HOLY QUEEN, MOTHER OF MERCY!

XI.-THE GREATNESS OF THE LOVE THIS MOTHER BEARS US

Oh, how much does the love of this good Mother exceed that of all her children! Let them love her as much as they will, Mary is always amongst lovers the most loving, says St. Ignatius the Martyr. Let them love her as did St. Stanislaus Kostka who loved this dear Mother so tenderly that in speaking of her he moved all who heard him to love her. He had made new words and new titles with which to honour her name. He never did anything without first turning to her image and asking her blessing. When he said her Office, the Rosary, or other prayers, he did so with the same external marks of affection as he would have done had he been speaking face to face with Mary; when the Salve Regina was sung, his whole soul, and even his whole countenance, was all inflamed with love. On being one day asked by a Father of the Society who was going with him to visit a picture of the Blessed Virgin, how much he loved Mary, “Father,” he answered, “what more can I say?-she is my Mother.” “But,” adds the Father, “the holy youth uttered these words with such tenderness in his voice, with such an expression of countenance, and at the same time it came so fully from his heart, that it no longer deemed to be a young man but rather an angel speaking of the love of Mary.”

Let us love her as Blessed Hermann loved her. He called her the spouse of his love, for he was honoured by Mary herself with this same title. Let us love her as did St. Philip Neri, who was filled with consolation at the mere thought of Mary, and therefore called her his delight. Let us love her as did St. Bonaventure, who called her not only his Lady and Mother, but to show the tenderness of his affection, even called her his heart and soul: “Hail, my Lady, my Mother; nay, even my heart, my soul!”

Let us love her like that great lover of Mary, St. Bernard, who loved this sweet Mother so much that he called her “the ravisher of hearts”; and to express the ardent love he bore her added: “for hast thou not ravished my heart, O, Queen?”

Let us call her our beloved, like St. Bernardine of Sienna, who daily went to visit a devotional picture of Mary, and there, in tender colloquies with his Queen, declared his love; and when asked where he went each day, he replied that he went to visit his beloved.

Let us love her as did St. Aloysius Gonzaga, whose love for Mary burnt so unceasingly that whenever he heard the sweet name of his Mother mentioned his heart was instantly inflamed and his countenance lighted up with a fire that was visible to all.

Let us love as much as St. Francis Solano did, who, maddened as it were, but with a holy madness, with love for Mary, would sing before her picture, and accompany himself on a musical instrument, saying that, like worldly lovers, he serenaded his most sweet Queen.

Finally, let us love her as so many of her servants have loved her who never could do enough to show their love. Father John of Trexo, of the Society of Jesus, rejoiced in the name of “slave of Mary,” and as a mark of servitude went often to visit her in some church dedicated in her honour. On reaching the church he poured out abundant tears of tenderness and love for Mary; then, prostrating, he licked and rubbed the pavement with his tongue and face, kissing it a thousand times, because it was the house of his beloved Lady. Father James Martinez, of the same Society, who, for his devotion to our Blessed Lady on her feasts, was carried by Angels to Heaven to see how they were kept there, used to say: “Would that I had the hearts of all Angels and Saints to love Mary as they love her. Would that I had the lives of all men, to give them all for her love!”

Evening Meditation

THE PRACTICE OF THE LOVE OF JESUS CHRIST

XVII.·-HOW MUCH WE ARE OBLIGED TO LOVE JESUS CHRIST

I.

For this purpose He instituted the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist on the day preceding His death, and gave us the injunction that as often as we should be nourished with His most sacred flesh we should be mindful of His death: Take ye, and eat; this is my body … This do for a commemoration of me . . . For as often as you shall eat this bread and drink the chalice you shall show the death of the Lord until he come-(l Cor. xi. 24, 26). Wherefore the holy Church prays: ” O God, Who under this wonderful Sacrament has left us a memorial of Thy Passion,” etc. And she also sings: “O sacred Banquet, in which Christ is taken, the memory of His Passion is renewed,” etc. Hence we may gather how pleasing to Jesus Christ are they who think frequently of His Passion, since it was for this very purpose that He left Himself in the Holy Sacrament upon our Altars. in order that we may bear in continual and grateful remembrance all that He suffered for us, and by this means evermore increase our love towards Him. St. Francis de Sales called Mount Calvary” the mountain of lovers.” It is impossible to remember that mount and not love Jesus Christ Who died there for love of us.


II.

Oh, God, and how is it that men do not love this God, Who has done so much to be loved by men! Before the Incarnation of the Word, man might have doubted whether God loved him with a true love; but after the coming of the Son of God, and after His dying for the love of men, how can we possibly doubt of His love? “O man,” says St. Thomas of Villanova, “look on that Cross, on those torments, and that cruel death which Jesus Christ has suffered for thee: after so great and so many tokens of His love, thou canst no longer entertain a doubt that He loves thee, and loves thee exceedingly.” And St. Bernard says that” the Cross and every Wound of our Blessed Redeemer cry aloud to make us understand the love He bears us.”

In this grand Mystery of man’s Redemption, we must consider how Jesus employed all His thoughts and zeal to discover every means of making Himself loved by us. Had He merely wished to die for our salvation it would have been sufficient had He been slain by Herod with the: other children; but no, He chose before dying to lead during thirty-three years, a life of hardship and suffering; and during that time, with a view to win our love, He appeared in several different guises. First of all as a poor child born in a stable; then as a little boy helping in the workshop; and finally, as a criminal executed on a Cross. But before dying on the Cross we see Him in many different states, one and all calculated to excite our compassion, and to make Himself loved: in agony in the garden, bathed from head to foot in a sweat of blood; afterwards in the court of Pilate, torn with scourges; then treated as a mock king, with a reed in His hand, a ragged garment of purple on His shoulders and a crown of thorns on His head; then dragged publicly through the streets to death, with the Cross upon His shoulders; and at length on the hill of Calvary, suspended on the Cross by three iron nails. Tell me, does He merit our love or not, this God Who has vouchsafed to endure all these torments, and to use so many means in order to captivate our love? Father John Rigouleux used to say: “I would spend my life weeping for love of a God Whose love induced Him to die for the salvation of men.”