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

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Thursday Within the Octave of Ascension

Morning Meditation

DIVINE LOVE CAUSES GOD TO DWELL IN OUR SOULS

“Dulcis Hospes Animae.”

The Holy Ghost is called Sweet Guest of the Soul. This was the great promise made by Jesus Christ to those who love Him: If you love me, keep my commandments; and I will ask the Father and he will give you another Paraclete that he may abide with you for ever -(John xiv. 15, 16).


I.

The Holy Ghost is called Sweet Guest of the Soul. The great promise made by Jesus Christ to those who should love Him was this: If you love me, keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Paraclete, that he may abide with you for ever-(John xiv. 15, 16). Hence the Holy Ghost will never abandon the soul, if the soul does not drive Him away: He does not forsake, unless he be forsaken.

God, then, dwells in our souls when we love Him, but He declares that He is not satisfied with us unless We love Him with our whole hearts. St. Augustine writes, that the Roman Senate would not admit Jesus into the number of their gods, because said they, He is a proud God, Who will have no other adored but Himself. And so it is; He will not admit a companion in the heart that loves Him; He must dwell there alone, and be the only object loved. And when He sees that He is not the only object loved He is jealous, as it were, as St. John Chrysostom writes, of those creatures which divide with Him a heart which He desires to have entirely to Himself. Do you think that the Scripture saith in vain? To envy doth the spirit covet which dwelleth in you-(James iv. 5).

O my God, I see that Thou desirest that I should be all Thine. I have many times expelled Thee from my soul, and yet Thou disdainest not to return to me, and to unite Thyself to me. Oh, do Thou now take possession of my whole self. I give myself this day entirely to Thee.


II.

In a word, as St. Jerome says, Jesus is jealous. Hence the heavenly Spouse praises the soul which, as the turtle dove, lives alone and hidden from the world: Thy cheeks are beautiful as the turtle dove’s-(Cant. i. 9), because He desires that the world should not take any part of that love which He desires to have entirely Himself. Again, tlte spouse is praised because she is a garden enclosed-(Cant. iv. 12). A garden closed up against all worldly love. Can it be that Jesus does not deserve all our love? “He gave His whole self to Thee,” says St. John Chrysostom, “leaving nothing for Himself” He has given Thee His Blood and His life; nothing more remains for Him to give thee.

Do Thou accept of me, 0 Jesus, and grant that, for the future, I may never live one moment deprived of Thy love. Thou seekest me, and I seek no other but Thee. Thou desirest my soul, and my soul desires no other but Thee. Thou lovest me, and I love Thee; and because Thou lovest me, bind me in such a manner to Thee, that I may never more be separated from Thee. O Queen of Heaven, pray for me.

Spiritual Reading

GOING FREQUENTLY TO HOLY COMMUNION

Which of the two, asks Cassian, is the more humble the man that communicates often or he that communicates but seldom? He answers that the person that frequently receives Jesus Christ is the more humble, because he knows his infirmities, and therefore seeks more frequently the remedy of his disease. The angelic Doctor says that though to abstain from Communion through humility and fear is pleasing to God, still the love and confidence that induce a soul to receive Him are more acceptable in His sight. Love and hope, to which the Scriptures constantly exhort us, are preferable to fear.

You will say: I do not know whether I am in the state of grace. But I ask, do you expect that an Angel will come from Heaven to assure you that you are in the state of grace? Is it not enough for you to have the assurance of your confessor? You ought to place more confidence in the testimony of the minister of God than in the revelations of all the Angels of Paradise; for in receiving a communication from Angels, there might be an illusion, but in listening to the confessor who, in your regard, holds the place of God, there is no danger of deception. Whenever, then, your spiritual Father allows you to communicate, take care not to obey the suggestions of the devil by abstaining from Communion through fear and scruples.

I cannot, you will say, bring myself to communicate often, because I constantly commit faults and never amend. The greater you perceive your infirmities to be, the more frequently you ought to seek a remedy for them in Holy Communion. “Because,” says St. Ambrose, “I always sin, I should always use a remedy.” We buttress walls that are leaning, not to make them erect but to prevent them from falling. You say that you peceive in yourself no amendment. Will you improve without the aid of Holy Communion? No; you will, on the contrary, grow worse every day. Father Granada says that “he that desires to be cured of his infirmities should not abstain from this great remedy.” The bare remembrance of having communicated in the morning, and the thought of having to communicate the next day, makes a person more watchful and more attentive to the correction of his faults. Besides, the Sacrament Itself infuses an increase of light and strength into the soul. Theologians generally assert that the Holy Eucharist produces more grace than all the other Sacraments, because it contains Jesus Christ Himself who is the Author of grace. A present that a prince makes with his own hand is more valuable than the gifts that he dispenses through the hands of others.

You will say: I feel myself distracted, cold, and without devotion. What, I ask, do you understand by devotion? If you mean sensible fervour, I say that it is not necessary: it is enough to have fervour in the will, or a determination to do what you know to be pleasing to God.

This is the true devotion and fervour that God demands of you; and though you do not feel this fervour of the will, you should, notwithstanding, communicate in order to obtain it by means of the Holy Sacrament. For if you abstain from Communion because you have not sensible fervour, you will, as Gerson says, imitate the folly of those who, when cold, refuse to approach the fire because they do not feel warm. According to St. Lawrence Justinian, this Sacrament sometimes produces its effect, though we do not perceive it. St. Bonaventure says: “Although you feel tepid, approach with confidence; for the greater your infirmity the more you stand in need of a physician.” Do not be deterred from frequent Communion because you experience more devotion when you communicate seldom than when you communicate often. He that eats but seldom eats with great eagerness but with less profit; and, if you communicate but seldom you may, perhaps, feel a little more of sensible fervour, but you will also receive less fruit; because your soul will want the food that gives strength to avoid sins and imperfections. Seek not, then, sensible devotion in your Communions. Communicate only for the purpose of uniting your soul more closely to God, and be assured that, as often as you communicate with that view, your Communions will be productive of great fruit.

Evening Meditation

THE PRACTICE OF THE LOVE OF JESUS CHRIST

VII.-THE MEANS OF AVOIDING LUKEWARMNESS AND ATTAINING PERFECTION

I.

The third means of becoming a saint is mental prayer. John Gerson writes: “He who does not meditate on the eternal truths cannot, without a miracle, lead the life of a Christian. The reason is, because without mental prayer light fails us, and we walk in the dark. The truths of faith are not seen by the eyes of the body, but by the eyes of the mind, when we meditate; he that fails to meditate on them, fails to see them, and therefore walks in the dark; and being in the dark, he easily grows attached to sensible things, for the sake of which he then comes to despise the eternal.” St. Teresa wrote as follows to the Bishop of Osma: “Although we seem to discover in ourselves no imperfections; yet, when God opens the eyes of the soul, which He is wont to do in prayer, then they plainly appear.” And St. Bernard had before said, that he who does not meditate “does not abhor himself, simply because he does not know himself.” “Prayer,” says the Saint, “regulates the affections and directs the actions”; it keeps the affections of the soul in order, and directs all our actions to God; but without prayer the affections become attached to earth, the actions conform themselves to the affections, and in this manner all runs into disorder.


II.

We read of an awful example of this in the life of the Venerable Sister Mary Crucified of Sicily. Whilst this servant of God was praying, she heard a devil making a boast that he had suceeded in withdrawing a Religious from the Community-prayer; and she saw in spirit, that after this omission the devil tempted her to consent to a grievous sin, and that she was on the point of yielding. She forthwith accosted her, and by a timely admonition prevented her falling. St. Teresa said, that whoever leaves off prayer ” very shortly becomes either a brute beast or a devil.”

O Jesus, my Love, I repent of my lukewarmness, I am determined to love Thee as much as I can, and I wish to become a saint; and I wish to become a saint for this reason, in order to give Thee pleasure, and to love Thee exceedingly in this life and the next! I can do nothing of myself, but Thou canst do all things; and I know that Thou wishest me to become a saint. I see already by Thy grace my soul sighs only for Thee, and seeks nothing else but Thee. I wish to live no more for myself; Thou desirest me to be wholly Thine, and I desire to be wholly Thine. Come, and unite me to Thyself, and Thyself to me. Thou art Infinite Goodness; Thou art He who hast loved me so much; Thou art, indeed, too loving and too lovely; how, then, can I love any thing but Thee? I prefer Thy love before all the things of this world; Thou art the sole object, the sole end of all my affections. I leave all to be occupied solely in loving Thee, my Redeemer, my Comforter, my Hope, my Love, and my All.