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

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Wednesday – Third Week after Pentecost

Morning Meditation

II.-HOW TO CONVERSE CONTINUALLY AND FAMILIARLY WITH GOD

If you desire to please the loving Heart of Jesus, converse with Him from this day forward with the greatest possible confidence and tenderness. Beloved soul, says God, I have written thee in my hands: thy walls are always before me-(Is. xlix. 16). What do you fear? I have written you in My hands so as never to forget to do you service.

I.

In order the more to strengthen your confidence in God, often call to mind His loving treatment of you, and the gracious means He has used to draw you from the disorders of your life and your attachments to earth, in order to attract you to His holy love; and therefore fear lest you have too little confidence in treating with your God, now that you have a resolute will to love and please Him with all your power. The mercies He has granted you are most sure pledges of the love He bears you. God is displeased with a want of trust on the part of souls that heartily love Him, and whom He loves. If, then, you desire to please His loving Heart, converse with Him from this day forward with the greatest possible confidence and tenderness.

I have graven thee in my hands: thy walls are always before my eyes-(Is. xlix. 16). Beloved soul, says the Lord, why do you fear or mistrust? I have you written in My hands, so as never to forget to do you service. Are you afraid of your enemies? Know that the care of your defence is always before Me, so that I cannot lose sight of it. David rejoiced, saying to God: Thou hast crowned us as with a shield of thy good will -(Ps. v. 13). Who, 0 Lord, can ever harm us, if Thou with Thy goodness and love dost defend and encompass us round about? Above all, animate your confidence at the thought of the gift that God has given us the Gift of Jesus Christ: God so loved the world as to give his only-begotten Son-(Jo. iii. 16). How can we ever fear, exclaims the Apostle, that God will refuse us any good, after He has vouchsafed to give us His own Son? He delivered him up for us all; how hath he not also, with him, given us all things?-(Rom. viii. 32).

My delights are to be with the children of men-(Prov. viii. 31). The paradise of God, so to speak, is the heart of man. Does God love you? Love Him. His delights are to be with you; let you delight to be with Him; to pass all your lifetime with Him, in the delight of whose company you hope to spend a blissful eternity. Accustom yourself to speak with Him alone, familiarly, with confidence and love, as to the dearest Friend you have, and Who loves you best.


II.

If it be a great mistake, as has been already said, to deal mistrustfully with God,-to be always coming before Him, as a slave, full of fear and confusion, comes before his prince, trembling with dread,-it would be a greater error to think that conversing with God is but weariness and bitterness. No, it is not so: Her conversation hath no bitterness, nor her company any tediousness-(Wis. viii. 16). Ask those souls who love God with a true love, and they will tell you that in the sorrows of their life they find no greater, no truer relief, than in loving converse with Him.

Now this does not require that you should continually apply your mind to it, so as to forget all your various employments and recreations. It only requires of you, without putting these aside, to act towards God as you yourself act towards those who love you and whom you love.

Your God is ever near you, nay, within you: In him we live, and move, and have our being-(Acts xvii. 28). There is no barrier at the door against any who desire to speak with Him; nay, God delights that you should treat with Him confidently. Treat with Him of your business, your plans, your griefs, your fears,-of all that concerns you. Above all, do so with confidence, with an open heart. For God is not wont to speak to the soul that speaks not to Him; forasmuch as, if it be not used to converse with Him, it would little understand His voice were He to speak to it. And this is what the Lord complains of: Our sister is little: what shall we do to our sister in the day when she is to be spoken to? -(Cant. viii. 8). Our sister is but a child in my love; what shall we do to speak to her if she understand me not? God will have Himself regarded as the Lord of surpassing power and terribleness, when we despise His grace; but, on the contrary, He will have Himself treated with the most affectionate friend when we love Him; and to this end He would have us often speak with Him familiarly and without restraint.

It is true that God ought always to be revered in the highest degree; but when He favours you by making you feel His presence, and know His desire that you should speak to Him as to one who more than all loves all, then express to Him your feelings with freedom and confidence. She preventeth them that covet her, so that she first showeth herself unto them-(Wis. vi. 14). When you desire God’s love, He takes the first step, without waiting till you come to Him; and presents Himself to you, bringing with Him the graces and the remedies you stand in need of. He only waits for you to speak to Him, to show you that He is near to you, ready to hear and to comfort you: And his ears are unto their prayers-(Ps. xxxiii. 16).

Spiritual Reading

CORAM SANCTISSIMO

TWENTY-FIRST VISIT

Wheresoever the body shall be, thither will the eagles also be gathered together-(Matt. xxiv. 28). The Saints generally understand by this body that of Jesus Christ; and by the eagles, souls who, being detached from creatures, rise above the things of the earth and fly towards heaven, after which they always sigh in thought and affection, and where they constantly dwell. These eagles also find their Paradise on earth wherever they find Jesus in the Most Holy Sacrament; so much so, indeed, that they seem never to tire hovering around Him. If eagles, says St. Jerome, on scenting a dead body go afar to seek it, how much more should we run and fly to Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament, as to the most delicious food of our hearts! Hence the Saints in this valley of tears have always, as parched harts, run to this Fountain of Paradise. Father Balthazar Alvarez, of the Society of Jesus, in whatever occupation he was engaged, used often to cast his eyes towards the place where he knew our Lord was present in the Blessed Sacrament; he ofter visited Him, and even spent entire nights in His presence. He used to weep when he saw the palaces of the great ones of this world filled with people, who paid court to a man from whom they hoped for some miserable earthly good, and the churches so abandoned in which the supreme Sovereign of the world dwells, and remains with us on a throne of love, rich in immense and eternal treasures. He used also to say that Religious were indeed fortunate, because in the very houses in which they reside they can, whenever they please, either night or day, visit this great Lord in the Most Blessed Sacrament, and this lay people cannot do.

Since, then, my most loving Lord, notwithstanding that Thou seest me as a leper, and so ungrateful to Thy love, Thou invitest me to approach Thee, I will not be discouraged at the sight of my miseries: I come and approach Thee; but do Thou wholly change me. Drive from me every love which is not for Thee, every desire which displeases Thee, every thought which does not tend towards Thee. My Jesus, my Love, my Treasure, my All, I am determined to please Thee alone. I will give pleasure only to Thee. Thou alone deservest all my love; Thee only will I love with my whole heart. Detach me from everything, my Lord, and bind me to Thyself alone; but bind me so firmly that I may never more be able to separate myself from Thee, either in this life or in the next.

Ejac. My most sweet Jesus, never allow me to be separated from 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

Denis the Carthusian called the Most Blessed Virgin “the advocate of all the wicked who have recourse to her.” Since, then, O great Mother of God, thy office is to defend the cause of the most guilty criminals who have recourse to thee, behold me now at thy feet; to thee I have recourse, and I address thee in the words of St. Thomas of Villanova: “Now, therefore, O gracious advocate, fulfil thy charge.” Now quickly enter upon thy office, undertake my cause. It is true that I have indeed been guilty before my Lord, having offended Him, after the many benefits and graces He has conferred upon me; but the evil is done. Thou canst save me. Thou hast only to tell thy God that thou defendest me, and then I shall be forgiven and shall be saved.

Ejac. My dear Mother, thou hast to save me.


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 Prayer

THE PRACTICE OF THE LOVE OF JESUS CHRIST

XXXIV.–HE THAT LOVES JESUS CHRIST IS NEVER ANGRY WITH HIS NEIGHBOUR

I.

Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord-(Apoc. xiv. 13). We must, indeed, die in the Lord to be blessed, and to enjoy that blessedness here in the present life: we mean, such blessedness as can be had before entering Heaven, which, though certainly much below that of Heaven, yet far surpasses all the pleasures of sense in this world: And the peace of God, which surpasseth all understanding, keep your hearts-(PhiI. iv. 7); so wrote the Apostle to his disciples. But to gain this peace, even in the midst of affronts and calumnies, we must be dead in the Lord: a dead person, how much soever he may be ill-treated and trampled on by others, resents it not. In like manner, he who is meek, like a dead body, which no longer sees or feels, should endure all the outrages committed against him. Whoever loves Jesus Christ from his heart easily attains to this; because, as he is conformed in all things to God’s will, he accepts with equal composure and peace of mind prosperous and adverse occurrences, consolations and afflictions, injuries and courtesies. Such was the conduct of the Apostle; and he says, therefore: I exceedingly abound with joy in all our tribulation-(2 Cor. vii. 4). Oh, happy the man who reaches this point of virtue! He enjoys a continual peace, which is a treasure precious beyond all other goods of this world. St. Francis of Sales said: “Of what value is the whole universe in comparison with peace of heart?” And in truth, of what avail are all riches and all the honours of the world to a man that lives in disquiet, and whose heart is not at peace?


II.

In short, in order to remain constantly united with Jesus Christ, we must do all with tranquility and not be troubled at any contradiction that we may encounter. The Lord is not in the earthquake-(3 Kings xix. II). The Lord does not abide in troubled hearts. Let us listen to the beautiful lessons given on this subject by that master of meekness St. Francis of Sales: “Never put yourself in a passion, nor open the door to anger on any pretext whatever; because, when once it has gained an entrance, it is no longer in our power to banish it, or moderate it, when we wish to do so. The remedies against it are: (1) To check it immediately, by diverting the mind to some other object, and not to speak a word; (2) To imitate the Apostles when they beheld the tempest at sea, and to have recourse to God, to Whom it belongs to restore peace to the soul; (3) If you feel that, owing to your weakness, anger has already got footing in your breast, in that case do yourself violence to regain your composure, and then try to make acts of humility and of sweetness towards the person against whom you are irritated; but all this must be done with sweetness and without violence, for it is of the utmost importance not to irritate the wounds.” The Saint said that he himself was obliged to labour much during his life to overcome two passions which predominated in him, namely, anger and love; to subdue the passion of anger, he avowed it had cost him twenty-two years hard struggle. As to the passion of love, he had succeeded in changing its object by leaving creatures and turning all his affections to God. And in this manner the Saint acquired so great an interior peace that it was visible even in his exterior; for he was invariably seen with a serene countenance and a smile on his features.