May 10, 2026
The Gospel according to St. John, xvi. 23-30.
"Amen, amen, I say to you: if you ask the Father anything in My name, He will give it you. Hitherto you have not asked anything in My name. Ask and you shall receive: that your joy may be full. These things I have spoken to you in proverbs. The hour cometh when I will no more speak to you in proverbs, but will show you plainly of the Father. In that day you shall ask in My name; and I say not to you, that I will ask the Father for you; for the Father Himself loveth you: because you have loved Me and have believed that I came out from God. I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world: again I leave the world, and I go to the Father. His disciples say to Him: Behold now Thou speakest plainly, and speakest no proverb. Now we know that Thou knowest all things, and Thou needest not that any man should ask Thee. By this we believe that Thou camest forth from God."
Summary of the Morrow’s Meditation
As the gospel of to-morrow recalls to us the duty of prayer, and as the three following days are called days of rogation or of prayer, we will meditate to-morrow on the humility and respect which ought to be associated with all our prayers. We will then make the resolution: 1st, always when praying to maintain a deeply reverential deportment; 2d, to entertain within us the humble sentiments experienced by the publican, who, at the door of the temple, is filled with confusion before God at the remembrance of his sins. We will retain as our spiritual nosegay the words of St. Francis of Assisi: “Who art Thou, Lord, and who am I?”
Meditation for the Morning
Let us prostrate ourselves with profound humility and with deep reverence before the Divine Majesty, saying to Him as did St. Francis of Assisi: “Who art Thou, Lord, and who am I who come and present myself before Thee?” or like the holy patriarch Abraham: Shall I dare to speak to my Lord, who am but dust and ashes? (Gen. xviii. 27.) Let us beg Him to inspire us in the bottom of our hearts with the humility and reverence which are the two first conditions of a good prayer.
FIRST POINT
The Humility which ought to be Associated with our Prayers
God loves truth and takes pleasure in truth; wherever He sees it His heart expands, and He sheds His graces there. He hates lies and injustice, and wherever He discovers them His heart turns away and His ear closes. Two results flow from these clear facts: the first is that humility is the best means of obtaining from God the things which we ask. If we present ourselves before Him inspired with a profound feeling of our misery, humbly exposing our sad state to Him, as a poor man does to one who is rich, and saying to Him: “Lord, behold my indigence, I hunger and thirst for Thy graces; I am devoid of all that is good and of all virtue; I have asked every creature for something to feed my soul, to cover my nakedness, and they have all replied that they have nothing to give me, that from Thee only comes every good and perfect gift,” God will infallibly answer us; for it is written that “the prayer of him that humbleth himself shall pierce the clouds” (Ecclus. xxxv. 21), and opens to us the bosom of divine mercies; that the Almighty “hath regard to the prayer of the humble” (Ps. ci. 18), that He never forsakes the humble heart (Ps. l. 19), that He feels a special tenderness for the poor who, feeling themselves to be really poor in His presence, sigh beneath the weight of their wretchedness (Ps. ci. 20, 21; cviii. 31). David is heard because he presents himself before God as a poor man, and a beggar (Ps. xxxix. 18; cviii. 22), and as one who is sick and covered with wounds (Ps. xl. 5; xxxvii. 4). The publican is justified because he prays with humility at the door of the temple. The second consequence which results from the preceding statement is that where there is not humility our prayers cannot be pleasing to God. If we entertain, when we come before His throne, any secret esteem of our virtues and our merits; if we do not feel our nothingness in approaching the Being whence all beings come, our lowness in presence of His supreme greatness, our misery in presence of His infinite holiness, we shall only be in His eyes like the poor proud Pharisee whom He holds in horror (Ecclus. xxv. 3, 4); our prayer will incur the malediction reserved for liars, since the truth is that we are poor beyond all power of speech, that we are nothing (Gal. vi. 3), that we have nothing of ourselves (I. Cor. iv. 7), that we can do nothing (II. Cor. iii. 5), and, therefore, why should God give His graces to the heart which is not humble? It would only be furnishing it with food for its pride, which would attribute to itself the gifts of God; it would be to yield up His possessions to a thief. Who is there amongst us who would give alms to a poor man filled with pride and who would not allow that he was miserable? We do not obtain assistance from our fellows except in touching their hearts by the humble exposure of our miseries. God follows the same rule. Let us here examine our conscience. Do we associate with our prayers the profound humility which is at once the warrant and condition of our success?
SECOND POINT
The Deep Reverence which ought to be Associated with our Prayers
In order to understand this, it is enough to consider, with a little faith, to whom we address ourselves when we pray. We speak to the great God before whom the pillars of heaven shake, before whom the twenty-four elders of the Apocalypse fall in adoration with their faces prostrate on the ground, and the seraphim cover themselves with their wings. Now, when all heaven annihilates itself, how could I, a poor sinner, not be filled with reverence and overwhelmed with veneration? how could I omit to observe, during this divine interview, a profoundly religious demeanor, a perfect recollection in my senses, and above all in my eyes; in a word, the utter modesty imposed upon us by the majesty of God? O supreme God! how differently we treat Thee! When we have to speak to a king, if it be but a single word, it is always with great respect; and yet in Thy presence, O eternal Majesty, how often do habit, routine, and want of attention make us lose all external and internal respect, so that we do not even think of what we are saying to Thee, and we even forget that if we had but a single word to say to Thee we ought always to treat Thee as a God, that is to say, with the utmost reverence! Let us here examine ourselves; let us humble ourselves, let us ask pardon and be converted.
Resolutions and spiritual nosegay as above.