St. Alphonsus Liguori: Daily Meditations for the Week after the Ascension

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Tuesday Within the Octave of the Ascension

Morning Meditation

DIVINE LOVE IS A REPOSE THAT REFRESHES

“In Labore Requies: in Fletu Solatium.”

Divine Love is called rest in labour, in mourning comfort. A soul that loves God finds peace and contentment in all tribulations and adversities, by merely saying: This is the will of my God.


I.

Divine Love is also called rest in labour, in mourning comfort. In labore requies, in fletu solatium. Love is a repose that refreshes, because the principal effect of love is to unite the will of the lover with that of the beloved. For a soul that loves God, in every affront it receives, in every grief it endures, in every loss it suffers, it is sufficient to make it resigned to know that such things are permitted to befall it by the will of its Beloved. It finds peace and contentment in all tribulations and adversities, saying: Such is the will of my God. This is that peace which surpasseth all the pleasures of sense: The peace of God which surpasseth all understanding-(Philipp. iv. 7). St. Mary Magdalen de Pazzi, by merely repeating: “it is the will of God,” was immediately filled with joy.

O my God, how often, for the sake of following my own will, have I opposed Thy holy will and despised it. I grieve for this evil above every other evil. O Lord, I desire from this day forward to love Thee with my whole heart.


II.

Everyone in this world must carry his cross; but St. Teresa says that the cross is hard to those who drag it but not to those who embrace it. Thus, the Lord knows well how to strike and how to heal. He woundeth, saith holy Job, and cureth; he striketh, and his hands shall heal. The Holy Ghost, by His sweet unction, renders even ignominies and torments sweet and amiable. Yea, Father: for so hath it seemed good in thy sight (Matt. xi. 26). Thus ought we to say in all the adversities which befall us: So be it done, O Lord, for so hath it pleased Thee. And when the fear of any temporal calamity alarms us, let us always say: “Do with me, o Lord, whatever Thou pleasest; I will accept all as coming from Thee.” It is good, as St. Teresa advises, frequently in the course of the day to offer ourselves in this manner to God.

Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth. What wouldst Thou have me to do? I will do all that Thou requirest of me. Thy will shall be my only desire, my only love. Holy Spirit, strengthen my weakness. Thou art goodness itself: how can I love any other but Thee? 0 do Thou draw all the affections of my heart to Thyself, by the sweet attractions of Thy holy love. I renounce all, to give myself entirely to Thee. Accept of me, and succour me. O Mary, my Mother, pray for me.

Spiritual Reading

THE PRIESTHOOD SURPASSES ALL OTHER CREATED DIGNITIES

The sacerdotal dignity is the most noble of all the dignities in this world. “Nothing,” says St. Ambrose, “is more excellent in this world.” It transcends, says St. Bernard, “all the dignities of kings, of emperors, and of Angels.” According to St. Ambrose, the dignity of the priest as far exceeds that of kings, as the value of gold surpasses that of lead. The reason, is, because the power of kings extends only to temporal goods and to the bodies of men, but the power of the priest extends to spiritual goods and to the human soul. “Hence,” says St. Clement, “as much as the soul is more noble than the body, so much is the priesthood more excellent than royalty.” “Princes,” says St. John Chrysostom, “have the power of binding, but they bind only the bodies, while the priest binds the soul.”

The kings of the earth glory in honouring priests: “It is a mark of a good prince,” says Pope St. Marcellinus, “to honour the priests of God.” “They willingly,” says Peter de Blois, “bend their knee before the priest of God; they kiss his hands, and with, bowed down head receive his benediction.” “The sacerdotal dignity,” says St. Chrysostom, “effaces the royal dignity; hence the king inclines his head under the hand of the priest to receive his blessing.” In the Council of Nice, the Emperor Constantine wished to sit in the last place, after all the priests, and on a seat lower than that which they occupied; he would not even sit down without their permission. The holy king, St. Boleslaus, had so great a veneration for priests, that he would not dare to sit in their presence.

The sacerdotal dignity also surpasses the dignity of the Angels. The Angels in Heaven cannot absolve from a single sin. The Guardian Angels procure for the souls committed to their care grace to have recourse to a priest that he may absolve them: “Although,” says St. Peter Damian, “Angels may be present, they yet wait for the priest to exercise his power, but no one of them has the power of the keys-that is, to bind and to loose.” When St. Michael comes to a dying Christian who invokes his aid, the holy Archangel can chase away the devils, but he cannot free his client from their chains till a priest comes to absolve him. After having given the order of priesthood to a holy ecclesiastic, St. Francis de Sales perceived, that in going out he stopped at the door as if to give precedence to another. Being asked by the Saint why he stopped, he answered that God favoured him with the visible presence of his Angel guardian, who before he had received priesthood always remained at his right and preceded him, but afterwards walked on his left and refused to go before him. It was in a holy contest with the Angel that he stopped at the door. St. Francis of Assisi used to say, “If I saw an Angel and a priest, I would bend my knee first to the priest and then to the Angel.”

Besides, the power of the priest surpasses that of the Blessed Virgin Mary; for, although this Divine Mother can pray for us, and by her prayers obtain whatever she wishes, yet she cannot absolve a Christian from even the smallest sin. “The Blessed Virgin was eminently more perfect than the Apostles,” says Innocent III: “It was, however, not to her, but only to the Apostles, that the Lord entrusted the keys of the kingdom of Heaven.” St. Bernardine of Sienna has written: “Holy Virgin, excuse me, for I speak not against thee: the Lord has raised the priesthood above thee.” The Saint assigns the reason of the superiority of the priesthood over Mary; she conceived Jesus Christ only once; but by consecrating the Eucharist, the priest, as it were, conceives Him as often as he wishes, so that if the Person of the Redeemer had not as yet been in the world, the priest, by pronouncing the words of Consecration, would produce this great Person of a Man-God. “O wonderful dignity of priests,” cries out St. Augustine, “in whose hands, as in the womb of the Blessed Virgin, the Son of God becomes incarnate.” Hence priests are called the parents of Jesus Christ: such is the title that St. Bernard gives them, for they are the active cause by which He is made to exist really in the consecrated Host.

Thus the priest may, in a certain manner, be called the creator of his Creator, since by saying the words of Consecration, he creates, as it were, Jesus in the Sacrament, by giving Him a sacramental existence, and produces Him as a Victim to be offered to the Eternal Father. As in creating the world it was sufficient for God to have said: Let it be made, and it was created He spoke, and they were made-(Ps. xxxii. 9)-so it is sufficient for the priest to say, “Hoc est corpus meum,” and behold the bread is no longer bread, but the Body of Jesus Christ. “The power of the priest,” says St. Bernardine of Sienna, “is the power of the Divine Person; for the Transubstantiation of the bread requires as much power as the creation of the world.” And St. Augustine has written: “O venerable sanctity of the hands! O happy function of the priest! He that created me (if I may say so) gave me the power to create Him; and He that created me without me is Himself created by me!” As the Word of God created Heaven and earth, so, says St. Jerome, the words of the priest create Jesus Christ. “At a sign from God there came forth from nothing both the sublime vault of the heavens and the vast extent of the earth; but not less great is the power that manifests itself in the mysterious words of the priest.” The dignity of the priest is so great, that he even blesses Jesus Christ on the altar as a Victim to be offered to the Eternal Father. In the sacrifice of the Mass, writes Father Mansi, Jesus Christ is the principal Offerer and Victim; as Minister, He blesses the priest, but as Victim, the priest blesses Him.

Evening Meditation

THE PRACTICE OF THE LOVE OF JESUS CHRIST

V.-THE MEANS OF AVOIDING LUKEWARMNESS AND ATTAINING PERFECTION

I.

The first resolution must be to make every effort, and to die rather than commit any deliberate sin whatever, however small it may be. It is true that all our endeavours, without the Divine assistance, cannot enable us to vanquish temptations; but God wishes us on our part frequently to use this violence with ourselves, because then He will afterwards supply us with His grace, will succour our weakness, and enable us to gain the victory. This resolution removes from us every obstacle to our going forward, and at the same time gives us great courage, because it affords us an assurance of being in the grace of God. St. Francis of Sales writes: “The best security we can possess in this world of being in the grace of God, consists not indeed in feeling that we have His love, but in a pure and irrevocable abandonment of our entire being into His hands, and in the firm resolution of never consenting to sin, either great or small.” This is what is meant by being of a delicate conscience. Be it observed that it is one thing to be of a delicate conscience, and another to be of a scrupulous conscience. To be of a delicate conscience is requisite to become a saint; but to be scrupulous is a defect, and does harm; and on this account we must obey our directors, and rise above scruples, which are nothing else but vain and unreasonable alarms.


II.

Hence it is necessary to resolve on choosing the best; not only what is agreeable to God, but what is most agreeable to Him, without any reserve. St. Francis of Sales says: “We must start with a strong and constant resolution to give ourselves wholly to God, and protest to Him that for the future we wish to be His without any reserve, and then we must afterwards often renew this same resolution.” St. Andrew Avellini made a vow to advance daily in perfection. It is not necessary (or every one who wishes to become a saint to make it the matter of a vow); but he must endeavour every day to make some steps forward in perfection. St. Laurence Justinian has written: “When a person is really making progress, he feels in himself continual desire of advancing; and the more he improves in perfection, the more this desire increases; because as his interior light increases each day more and more, he seems to himself always to be wanting in every virtue, and to be doing no good at all; and if, perchance, he is aware of some good he does, it always appears to him very imperfect, and he makes small account of it. The consequence is, he is continually labouring to acquire perfection without ever feeling wearied.”