St. Alphonsus Liguori: Daily Meditations for First Week of Pentecost

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Tuesday – First Week After Pentecost

Morning Meditation

JESUS DELIGHTS TO COME TO US IN HOLY COMMUNION

Oh, how delighted Jesus is to be united to our souls! To excite souls to receive Him He exhorts them to do so by many invitations. Come, eat my bread, and drink the wine which I have mingled for you-(Prov. ix. 5). Eat, O friends, and drink,-speaking of this Heavenly Bread and Wine. These invitations all proceed from the ardent desire Jesus has to come to us in this Sacrament.


I.

Eat, O friends, and drink, and be inebriated, my dearly beloved-(Cant. v. 1). The “friends,” that is, beginners, who scarcely enjoy the Divine friendship, when they receive the Holy Communion, feed indeed on the Flesh of Jesus Christ, but they eat with labour; while those who are on the way to perfection eat with less difficulty. But, by the “dearly beloved” are meant the perfect, who, inebriated with holy love, live almost out of the world, forgetting all things, even themselves, and think only how they may love and please their God.

My beloved Jesus, I am not yet perfect, but Thou canst make me perfect. I am not dear to Thee, and it is my own fault, because I have been ungrateful and unfaithful; but Thou canst make me dear to Thee by inebriating me this morning with Thy love. Thy kingdom come-(Matt. vi. 10). Come, my beloved Lord. and take possession of my whole soul. Establish Thy kingdom in me; so that Thou alone mayest reign in me, that Thy love alone may command me, and that Thy love alone may I obey. Inebriate me, inebriate me entirely; make me forget all creatures, myself, my interests, and all, that I may love nothing but Thee, my God, my Treasure, all my Good, my All! May I sigh for Thee alone, seek Thee alone, think of Thee alone, and please Thee alone. Do this by the merits of Thy Passion. This only do I ask of Thee; for this I hope.


II.

I found him whom my soul loveth. I held him, and I will not let him go-(Cant. ii.i. 4). So ought every soul to say who is united with Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament: Creatures, depart from me! Go out altogether from my heart! I loved you once because I was blind; now I love you not, nor can I ever love you again. I have found another Good, infinitely more delightful than you. I have found in myself my Jesus, Who has enamoured me of His beauty. To this Love I have given myself entirely. He has already accepted me, so that I am no longer my own. Creatures, farewell! I am not, nor shall I ever again be yours; but I am and shall always be Christ’s. He, too, is mine, and will always be mine: I held him and I will not let him go. Now l have pressed Him to my heart, receiving Him in the Holy Communion; for the future I will hold Him with my love, and will not let Him leave me again.

Permit me, sweet Saviour, to embrace Thee so closely that I may never more be separated from Thee. Behold, I press Thee to myself, my Jesus! I love Thee! I love Thee! Oh, that I could love Thee worthily! I wish that my only happiness and repose should be to love Thee and please Thee. Do Thou command all creatures to leave me, and not to disturb me. Say to them: I adjure you, do not arouse or waken my love–(Cant. viii. 4). Ah, if I do not wish it, creatures cannot enter in to disturb and divide me from Thee. Strengthen, then, my will; unite my miserable heart to Thy Divine Heart that it may always will what Thou wilIest. Do this, Lord, by Thy merits.

Spiritual Reading

CORAM SANCTISSIMO

SIXTH VISIT

Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also (Luke xii. 34). Jesus Christ says that where a person esteems his treasure to be, there also he keeps his affections. Therefore the Saints, who neither esteem nor love any other treasure than Jesus Christ, centre their hearts and their love in the Most Blessed Sacrament. My most amiable Jesus, hidden under the sacramental veils, Who for the love which Thou bearest me, remainest night and day imprisoned in this Tabernacle, draw, I beseech Thee, my whole heart to Thee, that I may think of none but Thee, that I may love and seek and hope for Thee alone. Do this by the merits of Thy Passion, through which I seek and hope for it. Ah, my sacramental Lord and divine Lover, how amiable and tender are the inventions of Thy love to gain the love of souls! O Eternal Word, Thou, in becoming Man, wast not satisfied with dying for us; Thou hast also given us this Sacrament as a Companion, as Food, and as a pledge of Heaven. Thou reducest Thyself so as to appear amongst us, at one time as an Infant in a stable, at another as a poor Man in a workshop, then as a Criminal on a gibbet, and now as Bread on an altar. Tell me, couldst Thou invent other means to win our love?

O infinite Goodness, when shall I really begin to correspond with such refinements of love? Lord, I will live only to love Thee alone. And of what use is life to me, if I do not spend it wholly in loving and pleasing Thee, my beloved Redeemer, Who hast poured out Thy whole life for me? And what have I to love if it is not Thee, Who art all beauty, all condescension, all goodness, all loving, all worthy of love? May I live only to love Thee! May the mere remembrance of Thy love dissolve my soul with love! May the very names of Crib and Cross and Sacrament inflame it with the desire to do great things for Thee, O my Jesus, Who hast indeed done and suffered such great things for me!

Ejac. Grant, O my Lord, that before I die I may do something for Thee!


AN ACT OF SPIRITUAL COMMUNION

My Jesus, I believe that Thou art truly present in the Most Holy Sacrament. I love Thee above all things, and I desire to possess Thee within my soul. Since I am unable now to receive Thee sacramentally, come at least spiritually into my heart. I embrace Thee as already there, and unite myself wholly to Thee; never permit me to be separated from Thee.


VISIT TO MARY

As a fair olive-tree in the plain-(Ecclus. xxiv. 19). I am, says Mary, the beautiful olive-tree from which the oil of mercy always flows. And I stand in the plain that all may see me. “Rememher,” let us say in the words of the prayer of St. Bernard, “O most compassionate Mary, that it has never been heard of in any age, that anyone having recourse to thy protection was abandoned by thee.” Most merciful Queen, such, a thing was never heard of, that anyone having recourse to thy aid was abandoned; I will not be the first unfortunate creature who, having recourse to thee, was abandoned.


Ejac. O Mary, grant me the grace always to have recourse to thee!

Concluding Prayer

Most holy Immaculate Virgin and my Mother Mary, to thee, who art the Mother of my Lord, and Queen of the world, the advocate, the hope, the refuge of sinners, I have recourse today I, who am the most miserable of all. I render thee my most humble homage, O great Queen, and I thank thee for all the graces thou hast conferred on me until now, particularly for having delivered me from hell, which I have so often deserved. I love thee, O most amiable Lady; and for the love which I bear thee, I promise to serve thee always, and to do all in my power to make others love thee also. I place in thee all my hopes; I confide my salvation to thy care. Accept me for thy servant, and receive me under thy mantle, O Mother of Mercy. And since thou art so powerful with God, deliver me from all temptations, or rather obtain for me the strength to triumph over them until death. Of thee I ask a perfect love of Jesus Christ. From thee I hope to die a good death.

O my Mother, for the love which thou bearest to God, I beseech thee to help me at all times, but especially at the last moment of my life. Leave me not, I beseech thee, until thou seest me safe in Heaven, blessing thee, and singing thy mercies for all eternity. Amen. So I hope. So may it be.

Evening Meditation

THE PRACTICE OF THE LOVE OF JESUS CHRIST

XIX.-HE THAT LOVES JESUS CHRIST IS NOT VAIN, BUT HUMBLES HIMSELF, AND IS GLAD TO BE HUMBLED

I.

But it is not enough, in order to be humble, to have a lowly opinion of ourselves, and to consider ourselves the miserable beings that we really are; the man who is truly humble, says Thomas a Kempis, despises himself, and wishes also to be despised by others. This is what Jesus Christ so earnestly recommends us to practise, after His example: Learn of me, because I am meek and humble of heart-(Matt. xi. 29). Whoever styles himself the greatest sinner in the world, and then is angry when others despise him, plainly shows humility of tongue, but not of heart. St. Thomas Aquinas says that a person who resents being slighted may be certain that he is far distant from perfection, even though he should work miracles. The Divine Mother sent St. Ignatius Loyola from Heaven to instruct St. Mary Magdalen de Pazzi in humility; and behold the lesson which the Saint gave her: “Humility is a gladness at whatever leads us to despise ourselves.” Mark well, a gladness; if the feelings are stirred to resentment at the contempt we receive, let us be glad, at least, in spirit.


II.

And how is it possible for a soul not to love contempt if she loves Jesus Christ, and beholds how her God was buffeted and spit upon, and how He suffered in His Passion! Then did they spit in his face, and buffeted him; and others struck his face with the palms of their hands-(Matt. xxvi. 67). For this purpose our Redeemer wishes us to keep His image exposed on our altars, not indeed representing Him in glory, but nailed to the Cross, that we might have His ignominies constantly before our eyes; a sight which made the Saints rejoice at being vilified in this world. And such was the prayer which St. John of the Cross addressed to Jesus Christ, when He appeared to him with the Cross upon His shoulders: “O Lord, let me suffer, and be despised for Thee!” My Lord, on beholding Thee so reviled for my love, I only ask of Thee to let me suffer and be despised for Thy love.