4th Week after Epiphany: Monday

Summary of the Morrow’s Meditation

We will resume to-morrow our visits to the cradle of the Infant Jesus, and we will endeavor to fill ourselves with His purity and innocence, whilst considering that a pure heart is pleasing: 1st, to God; 2d, to our neighbor; 3d, to ourselves. We will then make the resolution: 1st, very carefully to avoid not only the slightest sins, but even the smallest voluntary imperfection; 2d, with this object in view, to perform all our actions with the utmost perfection possible. Our spiritual nosegay shall be the sixth beatitude: “Blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God” (Matt. v. 8).

Meditation for the Morning

Let us adore the Infant Jesus as the type of purity and innocence. Innocence is the most striking characteristic of an infant in the cradle; he does not know what evil is. Pure and without spot in his intelligence and his will, pure and without spot in his senses, pure and without spot in his heart, he teaches us to keep our intelligence always pure by repressing dangerous curiosity, and our memory by keeping it aloof from evil remembrances, and our imagination by restraining its flights, and our senses by keeping them under subjection. What the ordinary child preaches to us, the Child Jesus preaches to us better still; He, the abyss of purity, not like an infant by the powerlessness of His reason, but by the infinite holiness of the divine nature which is in Him. Let us admire this ineffable purity, and let us beg Him to make us sharers in it, so that we may avoid, as much as possible, even the slightest faults.

First Point

A Pure Heart is Pleasing to God.

“He that loveth cleanness of heart, for the grace of his lips shall have the King for his friend” (Prov. xxii. 11). “Blessed,” says Jesus Christ, “are the clean of heart, for they shall see God” (Matt. v. 8). “How good is God,” says David, “to them that are of a right heart” (Ps. lxxii. 1), that is to say, pure and innocent. “Incorruption,” the Holy Spirit elsewhere says, “bringeth near to God” (Wis. vi. 20). It is of inestimable value in His eyes (Ecclus. xxvi. 20). A place apart, close to the Lamb, is reserved in heaven for pure souls (Apoc. xiv. 4). God takes His pleasure amidst the lilies of purity (Cant. ii. 16). And even in the present life He communicates Himself quite specially to pure hearts, imparts to them His secrets, and inundates them with His graces. My God, enable me to thoroughly understand these beautiful truths, and to derive from them a horror of the least faults, with that tender appreciation of purity and innocence which embalms the heart and sanctifies the soul.

Second Point

A Pure Heart is Pleasing to our Neighbor.

Purity of heart is so agreeable that we cannot see an innocent little child without being touched by it. This internal purity is reflected upon its face by a candor and by an ingenuousness which charms us; and, at a more advanced age, it implants in the soul a foundation of rectitude which inspires respect, esteem, and love. All our relations with these beautiful souls are delicious; in them exists no unjust suspicions, no prejudices, no hatreds, and no aversions; never any jealousies or disputes about pre-eminence; but, on the contrary, always constant attention, to give pleasure by their words and their actions; always a modest and amiable manner of acting and speaking. In the society of such souls we breathe an atmosphere of purity and of innocence, of humility and meekness, which edifies us, which tends to God, which disposes us to become better, and which makes us take pleasure in their company; it is like meeting an angel. Let us here examine ourselves: whence comes it that we are not always amiable towards our neighbor? Is it not that remorse for our faults makes us peevish and bad-tempered; that our little passions, when they meet with contradictions, make us speak and act in a disagreeable manner; that the ennui of our own conscience renders us insipid and vexatious? We make victims of those with whom we live through our ill-regulated disposition.

Third Point

A Pure Heart is Pleasing to Ourselves.

Purity is the happiness of him who possesses it; he enjoys a delicious peace which surpasses all expression (Bar. iii. 13; Philipp. iv. 7). His conscience, without reproach, is for his soul a bed of roses, or rather, in the judgment of the Holy Ghost, it is as a continual feast (Prov. xv. 15). Happy as it is possible to be in this world, the present offers him nothing but sweetness, confidence, and love; the future, nothing but hopes of perfect and eternal happiness. Such a man knows nothing either of the emotions of the passions which trouble the heart, nor of the desires which torment it; he reposes sweetly in God, whom he loves; finds all his pleasure in pleasing Him, and that suffices for his happiness. Oh, how badly do they understand their interests who do not endeavor to keep themselves pure and holy! They never satisfy themselves without at the same time creating remorse for themselves, and, consequently, a fund of vexation and bitterness; whilst pure souls, on the contrary, form for themselves an anticipated paradise, embellished by the joys of the Holy Ghost, the unction of grace, the peace of a good conscience, and the delight of a heart without reproach. Let us examine into all the troubles and sorrows we have given ourselves by our faults; all the graces of which we have deprived ourselves by our want of vigilance over ourselves; and let us exert ourselves by these considerations to hold in great esteem purity of heart and of the conscience.

Resolutions and spiritual nosegay as above.