5th Friday after Pentecost

Summary of the Morrow’s Meditation

We will continue to meditate to-morrow upon the desire to lead a perfect life, and we shall see: 1st, that this desire is a sign of predestination; 2d, that it increases in the soul in proportion as we advance in virtue. We will then make the resolution: 1st, ceaselessly to aspire towards a higher degree of perfection; 2d, often to recall to ourselves how the saints loved and served God, and to be ashamed that we are so far from them, and to excite ourselves to love and serve God as they did. Our spiritual nosegay shall be the words of the Psalmist: “The just in his heart hath disposed to ascend” (Ps. Ixxxiii. 6).

Meditation for the Morning

Let us adore Our Lord Jesus Christ proclaiming those to be blessed who hunger and thirst after perfection, that is to say, who have a great desire for it, and promising to them that they shall have the complete satisfaction of their desire in heaven (Matt. v. 6). Let us thank Him for this lesson and this promise.

FIRST POINT

An Ardent Desire for the Perfect Life is a Sign of Predestination

It is enough to make us tremble to hear the Holy Spirit saying to us by the mouth of the Sage: “Man knoweth not whether he be worthy of love or hatred” (Eccles. ix. 1). But to calm the fear which such words inspire, there is a disposition of the heart which ought to reassure us; it is an ardent desire to lead a perfect life, or the desire to please God and to love Him always more and more. As long as we feel that we have this disposition of the heart, we have nothing to fear, for it is love bearing its most certain characteristic. Now, Jesus Christ has said: “He that loveth Me shall be loved of My Father” (John xiv. 21), consequently he shall be saved. Therein consists, says St. Bernard, the most evident proof that God lives in us, because He alone can produce such a desire, and make Himself desired in making Himself enjoyed (Serm. ii., de St. Andrea). Therein, lastly, according to the witness of the Holy Ghost, consists the true seal of the just. “The path of the just,” says the Book of Proverbs, “as a shining light, goeth forwards and increaseth even to perfect day” (Prov. iv. 18). The more they advance, the more they tend to advance still further, and they never say: It is enough. They are always hungering and thirsting after greater righteousness, they are always tending to become better, according to what is written of them that “they shall go from virtue to virtue” (Ps. Ixxxiii. 8), and are very different from the base souls which do not perceive even their falls, who often do not esteem that to be sin which really is sin, and regard as an imperfection what is sometimes even a serious fault. Let us examine our conscience; do we there recognize the characteristic of predestination on which we have been meditating?

SECOND POINT

The Desire for the Perfect Life Increases in the Soul in Proportion as it Advances in Virtue

There is a great difference between the enjoyments of the world and the enjoyments of religion. We ardently desire the first before we possess them, because we are ignorant of their nothingness and of their incapability of rendering us happy; and after having obtained them at the cost of great trouble and anxiety, we are almost immediately afterwards disgusted with them, because experience makes us feel the vacuity of them. The contrary takes place with regard to the enjoyments of religion; before tasting them we have no desire for them, because we do not suspect the charm of them; but as soon as we have tasted them, that we have felt their excellence and sweetness, we ardently desire them, because we feel the value of them ever more and more. Virtue is so beautiful, it is so suited to the heart of man, that the more we practise it, the more zeal we are inspired with towards the exercise of all the acts of it. “Whosoever drinketh of this water,” says Jesus Christ, “shall thirst again” (John iv. 13), that is to say, he will always be desiring to advance more and more in the practice of virtue. The world and its false joys will be insipid to him, he will feel a disgust for them, according to those other words of Our Lord: “He that shall drink of the water that I will give him shall not thirst forever” (Ibid.). All his desires will tend towards the pure joys of virtue, and he will at once be satisfied and hungry; for the characteristic of spiritual goods is that they both satisfy and excite hunger, that they quench and excite thirst. We are satisfied because we find in God all good; we are hungry, because in tasting it we find it so delicious that we desire it ever more and more. The ravished heart sings the praises of God and of virtue, but it is a song which is ever new, because fresh beauties are continually revealing themselves to our love and admiration. Let us judge, by the measure of our desires, to what degree of virtue we have attained.

Resolutions and spiritual nosegay as above.