DAY 9
Meditations to Help Us Grow in the Knowledge of Ourselves
Knowledge of self is the foundation of sanctity
The first thing we must impress upon ourselves is that we are creatures. There is a great deal more in this thought then may at first appear. We were created by a Holy God and for a holy purpose. In his book, The Secret of Mary, St. Louis de Montfort says quite bluntly:
“Chosen soul, living image of God and redeemed by the Precious Blood of Jesus Christ, God wants you to become holy like Him in this life, and glorious like Him in the next…It is certain that growth in holiness of God is your vocation. All your thoughts, word, actions, everything you suffer or undertake, must lead you towards that end. Otherwise you are resisting God, in not doing the work for which He created you, and for which He is even now keeping you in being(Secret of Mary pp3).
This is nothing other then what Our Lord meant when He said: “Be ye perfect, as also your heavenly Father is perfect” (Mt 5:48)
We therefore belong entirely to Him: and it is our duty to fulfill His desire that we become perfect-for, after all, it is only saints that go to Heaven. That sanctity is achieved here below, or in the fires of Purgatory. Ask yourself candidly: “Have I always looked upon myself in that light”? When you have performed any great act of self-sacrifice, etc. have you regarded it as a small thing and nothing more than your duty? If this is how you approach the things you do for God, well and good. It is the right light in which to view what you do, because it is a truthful light.
Many people-and they are well intentioned people- endeavor to hide what they do; they trouble themselves a great deal for fear of giving way to vanity; they think they are bound not to know what they have done. To these good people I would say: pray for the grace to know yourself, and then you will not fear vanity; God, Who is Truth itself, does not wish you to be untruthful. He wishes you to know yourself, as far as it is possible.
This self-knowledge will go on increasing until the day of your death. Nevertheless if you earnestly strive to spend this week, in the endeavor to know yourself, you will have made a great step in laying the foundation-stone of all sanctity, which is self-knowledge, the lowly sentiment of yourself as a creature, or in other words the virtue of humility. Perhaps until now you, have not been aware how much you needed this virtue.
Today's Reading
Imitation of Christ: Book 1, Chapter 13 (continued)
Fire tries iron, and temptation a just man. We often know not what we are able to do, but temptations discover what we are. Still, we must watch, especially in the beginning of temptation; for then the enemy is more easily overcome, if he be not suffered to enter the door of the mind, but is withstood upon the threshold the very moment he knocks. Whence a certain one has said "Resist beginnings; all too late the cure." When ills have gathered strength, by long delay, first there comes from the mind a simple thought; then a strong imagination, afterwards delight, and the evil motion and consent and so, little by little the fiend does gain entrance, when he is not resisted in the beginning. The longer anyone has been slothful in resisting, so much the weaker he becomes, daily in himself, and the enemy, so much the stronger in him. Some suffer grievous temptations in the beginning of their conversion, others in the end and others are troubled nearly their whole life. Some are very lightly tempted, according to the wisdom and the equity of the ordinance of God who weighs man's condition and merits, and pre-ordaineth all things for the salvation of His elect. We must not, therefore, despair when we are tempted, but the more fervently pray to God to help us in every tribulation: Who, of a truth, according to the sayings of St. Paul, will make such issue with the temptation, that we are able to sustain it.
Let us then humble our souls under the hand of God in every temptation and tribulation, for the humble in spirit, He will save and exalt. In temptation and tribulations, it is proved what progress man has made; and there also is great merit, and virtue is made more manifest.
Meditation:
Taken from Abandonment to Divine Providence
SECTION V.—The Divine Influence alone can Sanctify Us.
No reading, nor any other exercise can sanctify us except in so far as they are the channels
of the divine influence.
Our whole science consists in recognising the designs of God for the present moment. All
reading not intended for us by God is dangerous. It is by doing the will of God and obeying His
holy inspirations that we obtain grace, and this grace works in our hearts through our reading or
any other employment. Apart from God reading is empty and vain and, being deprived for us of
the life-giving power of the action of God, only succeeds in emptying the heart by the very fullness
it gives to the mind.
This divine will, working in the soul of a simple ignorant girl by means of sufferings and actions
of a very ordinary nature, produces a state of supernatural life without the mind being filled with
self-exalting ideas; whereas the proud man who studies spiritual books merely out of curiosity
receives no more than the dead letter into his mind, and the will of God having no connection with
his reading his heart becomes ever harder and more withered.
The order established by God and His divine will are the life of the soul no matter in what way
they work, or are obeyed. Whatever connection the divine will has with the mind, it nourishes the
soul, and continually enlarges it by giving it what is best for it at every moment. It is neither one
thing nor another which produces these happy effects, but what God has willed for each moment.
What was best for the moment that has passed is so no longer because it is no longer the will of
God which, becoming apparent through other circumstances, brings to light the duty of the present
moment. It is this duty under whatever guise it presents itself which is precisely that which is the
most sanctifying for the soul. If, by the divine will, it is a present duty to read, then reading will
produce the destined effect in the soul. If it is the divine will that reading be relinquished for
contemplation, then this will perform the work of God in the soul and reading would become useless
and prejudicial. Should the divine will withdraw the soul from contemplation for the hearing of
confessions, etc., and that even for some considerable time, this duty becomes the means of uniting
the soul with Jesus Christ and all the sweetness of contemplation would only serve to destroy this
union. Our moments are made fruitful by our fulfillment of the will of God. This is presented to us
in countless different ways by the present duty which forms, increases, and consummates in us the
new man until we attain the plenitude destined for us by the divine wisdom. This mysterious
attainment of the age of Jesus Christ in our souls is the end ordained by God and the fruit of His
grace and of His divine goodness.
Prayers
Veni Creator Spiritus
Come, Holy Spirit, Creator blest,
and in our souls take up Thy rest;
come with Thy grace and heavenly aid
to fill the hearts which Thou hast made.
O comforter, to Thee we cry,
O heavenly gift of God Most High,
O fount of life and fire of love,
and sweet anointing from above.
Thou in Thy sevenfold gifts are known;
Thou, finger of God's hand we own;
Thou, promise of the Father,
Thou Who dost the tongue with power imbue.
Kindle our sense from above,
and make our hearts o'erflow with love;
with patience firm and virtue high
the weakness of our flesh supply.
Far from us drive the foe we dread,
and grant us Thy peace instead;
so shall we not, with Thee for guide,
turn from the path of life aside.
Oh, may Thy grace on us bestow
the Father and the Son to know;
and Thee, through endless times confessed,
of both the eternal Spirit blest.
Now to the Father and the Son,
Who rose from death, be glory given,
with Thou, O Holy Comforter,
henceforth by all in earth and heaven. Amen.
Ave Maris Stella
Hail, O Star of the ocean,
God's own Mother blest,
ever sinless Virgin,
gate of heav'nly rest.
Taking that sweet Ave,
which from Gabriel came,
peace confirm within us,
changing Eve's name.
Break the sinners' fetters,
make our blindness day,
Chase all evils from us,
for all blessings pray.
Show thyself a Mother,
may the Word divine
born for us thine Infant
hear our prayers through thine.
Virgin all excelling,
mildest of the mild,
free from guilt preserve us
meek and undefiled.
Keep our life all spotless,
make our way secure
till we find in Jesus,
joy for evermore.
Praise to God the Father,
honor to the Son,
in the Holy Spirit,
be the glory one. Amen.
Magnificat
My soul doth magnify the Lord.
And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour.
Because he hath regarded the humility of his handmaid; for behold from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed.
Because he that is mighty, hath done great things to me; and holy is his name.
And his mercy is from generation unto generations, to them that fear him.
He hath shewed might in his arm: he hath scattered the proud in the conceit of their heart.
He hath put down the mighty from their seat, and hath exalted the humble.
He hath filled the hungry with good things; and the rich he hath sent empty away.
He hath received Israel his servant, being mindful of his mercy:
As he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his seed for ever.
Glory Be
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
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I am Thine, and all that I have is Thine, to Jesus through Mary, my most Holy and
Immaculate Mother.
With love!
Jesus Meek and Humble of Heart, make my heart like unto thine.
It is neither onething nor another which produces these happy effects, but what God has willed for each moment.
What was best for the moment that has passed is so no longer because it is no longer the will of
God which, becoming apparent through other circumstances, brings to light the duty of the present
moment. It is this duty under whatever guise it presents itself which is precisely that which is the
most sanctifying for the soul.
My apologies for the goofy formatting in the one section of reading. I tried to fix it but can't.
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