Day 7 - Preparation for Consecration

[Dawn Marie]

PREPARATION FOR CONSECRATION DAY 7

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

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

Reading:

Imitation of Christ

Book 1 Chapter 18 cont.

Outwardly they suffered want, but within they were refreshed with grace and Divine consolation. They were aliens to the world; they seemed as nothing and the world despised them; but they were precious and beloved in the sight of God. They persevered in true humility, they lived in simple obedience, they walked in charity and patience, and so every day they advanced in spirit and gained great favor with God. They were given for example to all religious, and ought more to excite us to advance in good, than the number of lukewarm to induce us to grow remiss. Oh! how great was the fervor of all religious in the beginning of their holy institute! Oh, how great was their devotion in prayer, how great was their zeal for virtue! How vigorous the discipline that was kept up, what reverence and obedience, under the rule of the superior, flourished in all! Their traces that remain still bear witness, that they were truly holy and perfect men who did battle so stoutly, and trampled the world under their feet. Now, he is thought great who is not a transgressor; and who can, with patience, endure what he has undertaken. Ah, the lukewarmness and negligence of our state! that we soon fall away from our first fervor, and are even now tired with life, from slothfulness and tepidity. Oh that advancement in virtue be not quite asleep in thee, who has so often seen the manifold examples of the devout!

 

 

 

Meditation: 1

Temporal Miseries Are to be Borne With Patience After the Example of Jesus Christ

 

C H R I S T-My son, I came down from Heaven for your salvation. (John 3:17) I took upon Myself your sorrows, not because I must, but out of pure love, that you might learn patience, and bear without complaint all the troubles of this world. From the hour of My Birth until My Death on the Cross, I had always to endure sorrow. (Isa. 53:3) I suffered great lack of worldly goods; many accusations were leveled against Me. I bore all disgrace and insults with meekness. In return for blessings I received ingratitude; for miracles, blasphemies; for My teaching, reproofs.

 

THE DISCIPLE-Lord, because You were patient in Your life, in this respect especially fulfilling the command of Your Father, it is fitting that I, a wretched sinner, should bear myself patiently in accordance with Your will, and that, for the salvation of my soul, I should bear the burden of this corruptible life so long as You shall will. For though this present life is hard, yet by Your grace it is made full of merit; and by Your example and the lives of Your Saints it is rendered easier and happier for the weak. Its consolations are richer than under the old Law, when the gates of Heaven were shut, and the way thither dark, so that few cared to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. And even those who in former days were righteous and to be saved could not enter the Kingdom of Heaven until Your Passion and the Atonement of Your sacred Death.

 

What boundless gratitude is Your due, for revealing to me and to all faithful people the true and holy way to Your eternal Kingdom! Your life is our Way, and by holy patience we will journey onwards to You, who are our crown and consummation. If You, Lord, had not gone before us and showed the way, who could follow? How many would have stayed behind and far distant had they not Your glorious example for their guide? Even now we are cold and careless, although we have heard Your teaching and mighty acts. What would happen to us had we not Your light as our guide? (John 8:12; 12:46)

 

 

 

Meditation: 2

Imitation of Christ

On Remembering God’s Manifold Blessings

 

THE DISCIPLE. Open my heart, 0 Lord, to know Your law, and teach me to live according to Your commandments(Ps.119:1; 2 Macc.1:4) Grant me to know Your will, and reverently to consider all Your countless blessings, that henceforward I may yield You due and worthy thanks. I know and confess that I am wholly unable to render You proper thanks, even for the least of the many blessings that You grant me, for I am less than the least of Your gifts. When I consider Your boundless generosity, my spirit grows faint at its greatness.

 

Whatever powers of soul and body we possess, outwardly or inwardly, natural or supernatural, are Your own gifts, and proclaim the bounty of the loving and good God, from whom we receive all good gifts. And whether we receive more or less, all gifts are Yours, and without You we have nothing. Thus, whoever has received abundant gifts may not on that account boast of his merits, nor exalt himself above his fellows, nor despise any who are less richly endowed; for the greater and better a man is, the less he attributes to himself, and the more humbly and devoutly he returns thanks to God. He who holds himself in humble esteem, and judges himself most unworthy, is most fitted to receive God's greatest gifts.

 

One who has received lesser gifts should not on that account be grieved, or envious of those who are more richly endowed than himself. Rather, he should turn to You and praise Your goodness, for Your gifts are given generously, freely, and readily, without respect of persons.(Rom.2:11) All good things come of You ; therefore in all things You are to be praised.(Rom.11:36) You alone know what is right for each to receive; and it is not for us to judge why one has less and another more, for You alone can weigh the merits of each.

 

O Lord God, I count it a great mercy not to possess many of those gifts which outwardly appear praiseworthy and admirable in the eyes of men. For a man who recognizes his own poverty and worthlessness should not be sad and sorry, nor be dejected on that account; rather should he take comfort and be glad, for You, 0 God, have chosen the poor, the humble, and the despised of this world to be Your own familiar friend (John 15:15; 1Cor. 1:27) and servants. Your Apostles are themselves witnesses of this, whom You have made princes over the whole earth(Ps. 45:16) Yet they lived in this world without complaint, being so humble, simple, and without malice or deceit, that they were glad to endure reproaches for Your Name's sake(Acts 5:41) and what the world seeks to avoid, they embraced with ready gladness.

 

Nothing should give so much joy to one who loves You and receives your blessings, as that Your holy will and the good pleasure of Your eternal purpose should be accomplished in him. With this he should be so greatly comforted and content, that he would as gladly be accounted the least of men as others might desire to be accounted great. He would be as peaceable and content in the last place as in the first ;(Luke 14:10) as willing to be a despised outcast of no name or reputation, as to be honoured and exalted among the great. Your will and the honour of Your Name must come before all else; this will bring greater comfort and richer pleasure than all other benefits that have been, or may be given.

 

 

MEDITATION- The Merciful Chastisements of God.

Taken from: The Way of Salvation and Perfection

by Saint Alphonsus

 

God, being infinite goodness, desires only our good and to communicate to us his own happiness. When he chastises us, it is because we have obliged him to do so by our sins. Hence the prophet Isaias says that on such occasions he doth a work foreign to his desires.  Hence it is said that it is the property of God to have mercy and to spare, to dispense his favours and to make all happy.

 

O God! it is this Thy infinite goodness which sinners offend and despise, when they provoke Thee to chastise them. Wretch that I am, how often have I offended Thy infinite goodness!

 

Let us therefore understand that when God threatens us it is not because he desires to punish us, but because he wishes to deliver us from punishment; he threatens because he would have compassion on us. O God, . . . Thou hast been angry, and hast had mercy on us.

 

But how is this? he is angry with us, and treats us with mercy? Yes! He shows himself angry towards us, in order that we may amend our lives, and that thus he may be able to pardon and save us; hence if in this life he chastises us for our sins, he does so in his mercy, for by so doing he frees us from eternal woe. How unfortunate, then, is the sinner who escapes punishment in this life!

 

Since then, O God! I have so much offended Thee, chastise me in this life, that Thou mayest spare me in the next. I know that I have certainly deserved hell; I accept all kinds of pain, that Thou mayest reinstate me in Thy grace and deliver me from hell, where I should be forever separated from Thee. Enlighten and strengthen me to overcome every obstacle to Thy favour.

 

He who makes no account of the divine threats ought much to fear lest the chastisement threatened in the Proverbs should suddenly overtake him.

The man that with a stiff neck despiseth him that reproveth him shall suddenly be destroyed; and health shall not follow him.  A sudden death shall overtake him that despises God’s reprehensions, and he shall have no time to avoid eternal destruction.

 

 

This, O Jesus! has happened to many, and I indeed have deserved that the like should happen to me; but, my Redeemer! Thou hast shown that mercy towards me which Thou hast not shown to many others who have offended Thee less frequently than I have done, and who are now suffering in hell without the least hope of ever again being able to regain Thy favour. I know, O Lord! that Thou desirest my salvation, and I also desire it, that I may please Thee. I renounce all, and turn myself to Thee, who art my God and my only good. I believe in Thee, I hope in Thee, I love Thee, and Thee alone. O infinite goodness! lam exceedingly displeased with myself for having hitherto done evil against Thee; and I wish that I had suffered every evil rather than offended Thee. Suffer me not any more to depart from Thee, rather let me die than offer Thee so great an injury. In Thee, my crucified Jesus, do I place all my hopes. O Mary, mother of Jesus! recommend me to thy Son.

 

 

 

[Susan Grace]

Amen

[Gloria]

Amen.

[Everett Thomas Kettler]

Amen

[bernadette szczepkowski]

Amen +

[Flavia Talladen Schott]

Amen 

[Margie]

Amen.

[Michael]

Amen.

[Joseph]

Amen.

[Sarah Louise Rita Armstrong]

Suffer me not any more to depart from Thee, rather let me die than offer Thee so great an injury.

[Kate Jackson]

AMEN.