Day 14 ~ Preparation for Consecration

PREPARATION FOR CONSECRATION DAY 14

Prayers for the Preparatory Period (Days 1-33) to be said daily.

To see the prayers in their entirety click the links below...

Imitation of Christ, by Thomas á Kempis: Book 3, Chapter 13

Of the Obedience of One in Humble Subjection,

After the Example of Jesus Christ

My son, he that endeavoreth to withdraw himself from obedience, withdraweth himself from grace; and he who seeketh for himself private benefit (Matt. 16:24), loseth those which are common. He that doth not cheerfully and freely submit himself to his superior, it is a sign that his flesh is not as yet perfectly obedient unto him, but oftentimes kicketh and murmureth against him. Learn thou therefore quickly to submit thyself to thy superior, if thou desire to keep thine own flesh under the yoke. For more speedily is the outward enemy overcome, if the inward man be not laid waste. There is no worse nor more troublesome enemy to the soul than thou art unto thyself, if thou be not well in harmony with the Spirit. It is altogether necessary that thou take up a true contempt for thyself, if thou desire to prevail against flesh and blood. Because as yet thou lovest thyself too inordinately, therefore thou art afraid to resign thyself wholly to the will of others. And yet, what great matter is it, if thou, who art but dust and nothing, subject thyself to a man for God's sake, when I, the Almighty and the Most Highest who created all things of nothing, humbly subjected Myself to man for thy sake?

I became of all men the most humble and the most abject (Luke 2:7; John 13:14), that thou mightest overcome thy pride with My humility. O dust! learn to be obedient. Learn to humble thyself, thou earth and clay, and to bow thyself down under the feet of all men. Learn to break thine own wishes, and to yield thyself to all subjection.

Meditation: 1

How Burdens must be Borne to win Eternal Life

CHRIST. My son, do not let the work that you have undertaken for My sake break your spirit, nor any hardships discourage you. Let My promise be always your strength and comfort; I can give you a boundless reward. You will not labor here for long, nor will sorrow always be your lot. Wait but a short while, and you will see a speedy end to your troubles. The time will come when all toil and trouble will cease. Everything temporal is short lived and of little consequence.

Labor with all your might. Work faithfully in My vineyard ;(Matt. 20:7) I myself will be your reward. (Gen. 15:1) Write, study, worship, be penitent, keep silence and pray. Meet all your troubles like a man: eternal life is worth all this and yet greater conflicts. Peace will come at a time known only to the Lord. It iwll not be day or night as we know it, (Rev. 22:5) but everlasting light, boundless glory, abiding peace and sure rest. You will not say then, 'Who will free me from this mortal body?';(Rom 7:4) nor cry, 'Alas, how long is my exile!'(Ps. 120:5) for the power of death will be utterly broken,(Isa.25:8) and full salvation assured. No anxiety will remain, but only blessed joy in the fair and lovely fellowship of the Saints.

If you could but see the Saints crowned in endless glory,(Wids.3:1 ;6:16) you would at once humble yourself to the dust, and would rather be the servant of all than lord it over a single person; for the Saints are now as high exalted as they were formerly accounted by this world low, despicable, and unfit to live. You would not hanker after a pleasant time in this life, but rather be glad to suffer for God's sake, and account it the greatest gain to be considered of small importance among men. If the things of God were your true delight and pierced your inmost heart, you would never complain. Is not all labour to be endured for the sake of eternal life? It is no small matter to win or lose the Kingdom of God. Raise your eyes to Heaven. See, here am I, and with Me are all My Saints, who in this world fought a great fight (Heb.10:32; 11:34) They are now filled with joy and consolation; they are now safe and at rest ;(John 14:3) and they shall remain with Me forever in the Kingdom of My Father.

Meditation: 2

Matthew Chapter 16, 21-26

[21] From that time Jesus began to shew to his disciples, that he must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the ancients and scribes and chief priests, and be put to death, and the third day rise again. [22] And Peter taking him, began to rebuke him, saying: Lord, be it far from thee, this shall not be unto thee. [23] Who turning, said to Peter: Go behind me, Satan, thou art a scandal unto me: because thou savourest not the things that are of God, but the things that are of men. [24] Then Jesus said to his disciples: If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. [25] For he that will save his life, shall lose it: and he that shall lose his life for my sake, shall find it.

[26] For what doth it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and suffer the loss of his own soul? Or what exchange shall a man give for his soul? [27] For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels: and then will he render to every man according to his works. [28] Amen I say to you, there are some of them that stand here, that shall not taste death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom.

Taken from: HOLY ABANDONMENT
Rt. Rev. Dom Vitalis Lehodey, O.C.R.
Original Pub. 1934, Dublin

NATURE OF HOLY ABANDONMENT

GOD'S WILL, THE SUPREME RULE OF LIFE

WE want to save our souls and to tend to the perfection of the spiritual life. That is to say, we want to purify ourselves thoroughly, to make progress in all the virtues, to attain to loving union with God, and so in a sense to transform ourselves into Him ever more and more. This is the sole occupation to which we have exclusively consecrated our lives. It is a work of incomparable grandeur, yet also one that involves almost endless toil. It offers us liberty of spirit, peace and joy of heart, and the sweet unction of the Holy Ghost; but, on the other hand, it demands of us sacrifices innumerable and the patient labour of a lifetime. An undertaking so colossal would assuredly be not only difficult but utterly impossible to us, were we left dependent upon our own resources, for it belongs to the purely supernatural order. But "I can do all things in Him Who strengtheneth me " (Phil. iv, 13). Without God, we are absolutely powerless, unable to do anything at all meritorious of eternal life; as St. Paul says: we cannot of ourselves even think or will what is good, much less bring it to accomplishment (2 Cor. iii, 5; Phil. ii, 13). We have still greater reason to despair of ourselves and to put all our trust in Divine grace when our object is the eradication of vice, the perfect acquisition of virtue, and a life of intimate union with God.

What a paradoxical being is man! utterly helpless, and at the same time omnipotent! Apart from God, he is so weak and resourceless that he cannot so much as conceive a good thought; whereas, with the Divine assistance, enterprises the most sublime are within his competence. Happily, God has condescended to make Himself " the support of our salvation " (Ps. lxxxviii, 27), for which we can never sufficiently thank Him. Nevertheless, He will not save us without our co-operation. Consequently, we must unite our activity with His, and all the more zealously for the reason that without His support we shall labour in vain.

Our sanctification, even our salvation, is therefore the work of two. The action of God is of absolute necessity and so likewise is our co-operation: there must be an uninterrupted harmony between the Divine will and the human. Whoso works with God is continually advancing in virtue, whilst he who chooses to depend upon his own efforts either falls into sin or, at best, wearies himself with unprofitable agitation. Hence it is a matter of supreme importance to maintain this alliance on all occasions and in all our actions, the least as well as the greatest, since otherwise we lose both our labour and our time. How many actions which to men appear to be perfect are yet empty of merit in the sight of God, simply because He has had no part in them! For that reason, in spite of the trouble they may have cost us, they have as little value for eternity as if they had never been done at all.

But if God participates in the work of our sanctification, we must from first to last allow Him the direction of the enterprise: nothing is to be done save in accordance with His designs, under His orders, and by the inspirations of His grace. He is the First Principle and the Last End of all things, whilst we are only His creatures, created to accomplish His will. In His goodness He has called us to "a school of Divine service" (Holy Rule of St. Benedict, Prol.) in order there to make Himself our Teacher; He has placed us in "the workshop of the monastery" (Ibid.) in order there to direct our labour; "He has enrolled us under His standard" (Holy Rule, iv.) so that He may lead us Himself to the combat. For to the Sovereign Master belongs the right to command, to infallible wisdom the right to make all arrangements; the creature can collaborate, but only in subordination to the Creator's will.

This continual dependence will doubtless impose on us manifold renunciations. It will demand of us the sacrifice of our short-sighted views, of our whims and caprices. Nature, of course, will complain, but we must turn a deaf ear to her murmurings. What greater blessing could befall us than to have the Divine wisdom for our guide, the Divine omnipotence for our support, and to be associated with God in the work of our salvation? Moreover, all the profit of this joint enterprise comes to us. God demands as His share only the glory that exclusively belongs to Him and the pleasure of benefiting us; the rest He leaves to His human collaborators. And what do these gain? The perfection of their nature, elevation to a higher mode of existence, the only true prosperity attainable in this life, and the pledge of eternal happiness in the life to come. Oh! if we could but comprehend the designs of God and our own real interests, we should have no other desire than to be perfectly submissive to Him, no other fear but the fear of failing in submission; we should entreat Him and weary Him with our entreaties that His holy will might be accomplished in us rather than our own. But how foolish we should be, and how unfortunate, were we to abandon so wise and powerful a Leader in order to follow our own delusive lights and to live according to our fancies!

Here is a further consideration which will show us how truly it can be said that the love of God and the accomplishment of His will "is all man" (Eccles. xii, 13). The Divine will, taken in general, is for us the ultimate criterion of what is good, "the sole rule of what is just and perfect," as St. Alphonsus expresses it. And the measure in which we accomplish that will is also the measure of our advancement.

"If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments" (Matt. xix, 17). Therefore, in order to obtain admission into the kingdom of Heaven, it is not enough to cry: Lord! Lord! We have also to do the will of Our Father Who is in Heaven (Id. viii, 21). "He that remains united to the will of God lives and saves his soul; he that prefers to follow his own will dies and is lost." 1 "If thou wilt be perfect, go sell what thou hast . . . and come, follow Me" (Matt. xix, 21). That is to say: accomplish the will of God with more completeness, by adding the observance of the counsels to that of the precepts. If thou wilt mount to the very summit of perfection, accomplish the will of God with ever-growing exactitude and generosity. You will advance in proportion as your obedience becomes more universal in its object, more exact in its execution, more supernatural in its motives, more perfect in the dispositions of your will. "Search the Scriptures" (John v, 39), examine the life and teaching of Our Saviour: you shall find that nothing more is demanded of you but "the faith that worketh by charity" (Gal. v, 6), and the love that proves its loyalty by keeping the word of God. Your perfection, in a word, will be commensurate with the perfection of your obedience to the Divine will. So important is this point that we judge it well to adduce some authorities in support of our statements. "Never forget this great truth," writes the elder St. Teresa: "namely, that they who are beginning to devote themselves to prayer should first of all endeavour with all their power, with all their courage, and by every possible means, to conform their wills to the will of God. In this conformity, believe me, consists the most sublime perfection of the spiritual life. . . . Do not imagine, then, that our advancement depends on something esoteric and extraordinary. No, all our spiritual progress is measured by the degree of our conformity to the Divine will."

"Everyone"-----so speaks St. Francis de Sales-----"seems to have his own peculiar ideas as to what constitutes spiritual perfection. Some make it to consist in the practice of austerity in dress or in food, others seek it in almsgiving, in the frequentation of the Sacraments, in prayer, in a certain kind of passive and sublime contemplation, or in those extraordinary graces which theologians call gratiae gratis datae. Such persons deceive themselves. They mistake the effect for the cause, the accessory for the principal, the shadow for the substance. For my own part, I neither know nor understand any other perfection than that which consists in loving God with one's whole heart and one's neighbour as oneself." The holy Doctor completes his thought in another place, where he says: "Devotion (or perfection) adds nothing to the fire of charity except the flame which renders charity prompt, active and diligent, not alone in keeping the commandments, but also in practising the counsels and following Divine inspirations."

The following is from Rodriguez: "Just as the love of God is the most sublime and perfect form of virtue, so perfect submission to the Divine will is the best and purest expression, the fairest flower of that love. . . . Besides, is it not manifest that, since there can be nothing so good and perfect as the will of God, in the measure in which we conform ourselves thereto, in that measure precisely do we become virtuous and holy?"

A learned disciple of St. Alphonsus sums up the holy Doctor's teaching in these words: "They for whom sanctity signifies the multiplication of penances, Communions, and vocal prayers, labour manifestly under a delusion. For such practices are good only in so far as God wills them. Out of harmony with His will, so far from giving Him pleasure, they rather merit His detestation and punishment. Therefore, they are only intended to serve as means to unite our wills to His. Let me repeat it: all perfection, all sanctity consists in faithfully accomplishing that which God requires of us. The Divine will is the norm of all goodness and of all virtue. Being holiness itself, it sanctifies whatever it touches, even indifferent actions when they are done to please God. . . . If, therefore, we wish to sanctify our souls, this should be our one aim: never to follow our own wills, but always the Divine. For the whole multiplicity of precepts and counsels can be reduced to the single injunction that we do and suffer whatsoever God wills and as He wills. Hence the essentials of perfection may be expressed in the formula: Do all that God wills, will all that God does."

But now let us hear St. Alphonsus himself: "All our perfection consists in the love of our God, infinitely amiable, and the perfection of love is found in the union of our wills with the Divine. . . . If then we desire to gratify fully the heart of our God, we must endeavour not merely to conform but to identify, if I may so speak, our wills with His, so that there shall no longer be two wills but only one. . . . The Saints have always contented themselves with just doing the will of God, convinced that this alone constituted their spiritual perfection. The Lord described David as a man according to His own heart, precisely because that great King was ever ready to follow the direction of the Divine will. And if Mary, the Virgin Mother, was the most perfect of all the Saints, she owes her pre-eminence to the fact that she surpassed all others in the perfection of her constant union with the will of God."

Day 14 ~ Preparation for Consecration

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