June 21, 2026
Summary of the Morrow’s Meditation
We will meditate to-morrow upon St. Aloysius Gonzaga, and we will consider three principal features of his life: 1st, his innocence; 2d, his mortification; 3d, his charity. We will then make the resolution: 1st, to become saints, cost us what it may, and in order to do so, we will often ask ourselves in what manner St. Aloysius would perform such and such an action, would offer such and such a prayer, that we may animate ourselves to imitate his example; 2d, to avoid, with the greatest care, even the smallest faults and to be faithful to the smallest graces; 3d, to aspire ceaselessly to the mortifying of ourselves more and more, and to love God always more and more. Our spiritual nosegay shall be the words taken from the Book of Wisdom upon the death of the just carried away in the flower of his age: “In a short space he fulfilled a long time” (Wis. iv. 13).
Meditation for the Morning
Let us adore God, who is admirable in His saints; let us especially bless Him for having made of St. Aloysius so pure and ravishing a model of virtue, that his memory is dear to the whole Church, and also for having raised him in heaven to so high a degree of glory that St. Magdalene of Pazzi, who was permitted to contemplate him there, spoke of it with exclamations of surprise: “Oh, how great,” she said, “is the glory of Aloysius, the son of Ignatius!” Let us at one and the same time congratulate this amiable saint on the beautiful portion bestowed on him by grace and endeavor to imitate him, for, as he said, “The best way of honoring the saints is to imitate their virtues.”
FIRST POINT
The Innocence of St. Aloysius
Innocence is, as it were, the special characteristic of our saint and the first thought that the memory of him awakes in us. The slightest shadow of the smallest sin frightened him, and a few free speeches, of which he did not understand the meaning, which escaped from him in his childhood, occasioned his pure soul so great grief, that he fell into such a fainting state that he was not able to finish his confession on that day. All his life he was so ashamed of it, that he never recurred to it excepting with tears, groaning over what he called the time of his licentiousness. He aimed in everything at what was the most perfect, weighed all his words in the balance of the sanctuary, watched over all the movements of his heart, in order to root out of it all that remained in it of nature, mastered his disposition to such an extent that he was able to keep in restraint the slightest of the vivacities belonging to his temperament, and was so firmly attached to the performance of even the least of his duties and the whole of his exercises of piety, that even fits of burning fever with which he was attacked did not seem a sufficient reason for omitting any of them. Every week he confessed his imperfections with so lively a contrition that on several occasions it was thought that he was on the point of expiring. With still greater reason, he took every precaution against falling into sin. His noble birth called him to the court, but his faithful guardianship over his senses, his continual vigilance over himself, all was employed in defending his virtue. Not being reassured by this experience, he left the world and entered into the Society of Jesus. Once more, not feeling reassured in this new position, he observed in the whole of his person a restraint which might have caused him to be taken for an angel: a modesty in his eyes, a discretion in his words, an exactitude in keeping his rule, which allowed him at the hour of his death to say that he could not remember to have violated it in even the smallest article. Lastly, he was the admiration of every one, even of the most advanced, who remained persuaded at his death that he had taken into the presence of God the holy robe of his baptismal innocence, shining with whiteness. Let us here examine ourselves; let us compare ourselves with him; let us humble and correct ourselves.
SECOND POINT
Mortification of St. Aloysius
Everything in St. Aloysius was mortified: his senses, his imagination, his disposition, his self-love. He kept his senses in restraint to the extent of interdicting them the most innocent kind of satisfaction, never even raising his eyes to look at his mother before he left the world, nor in churches to look at the decorations of the altars, and in addition macerating his body by rude instruments of penance. He had so entirely obtained the mastery over his imagination that he was able to say: “Not a single thought, not a single idea ever enters into my mind except such as I allow to do so.” He had so entirely conquered his disposition, that nothing could trouble the tranquillity of his soul, interfere with its gentleness, disturb the lineaments of his face, so that those who had never known him believed him to have been born without passions. He had so completely annihilated his self-love by keeping continually in a state of entire contempt of himself, that he looked upon himself as being the refuse of the world. He was astonished at having been admitted into the Society of Jesus, and “I cannot conceive,” he said, “what they will do with such a miserable creature as I am.” The good opinion of men caused him extreme grief, as though it were an outrage against truth, and their contempt gave him a delight that showed itself upon his face. Every opportunity which presented itself to him of being humiliated seemed to him to be a piece of good fortune, and he canvassed for shame and confusion in the same manner as others canvass for honor and glory. It was thus that our saint had mortified everything within him; he was, according to the words of a great saint, an unknown martyr; he even avoided the attaching himself to the most precious of graces, that God alone might have the whole of his heart. What a lesson for us! Let us recall to ourselves the words of the Imitation: “We advance towards perfection only in the degree that we do ourselves violence” (I. Imit. xxv. 1), and also the words of St. Aloysius: “We do not love God unless we have an ardent and continual desire to suffer for His love.”
THIRD POINT
The Charity of St. Aloysius
St. Aloysius, before he had reached the age of eight years, had, according to the testimony of St. Charles and of Bellarmine, already made great progress in the path of perfect charity. From that time forward, his charity was always on the increase: and as the more we love God the more desirous are we to hold intercourse with Him, he was soon seen to spend as much as five consecutive hours in prayer, and also a portion of his nights. Even in the midst of his studies he preserved in the bottom of his soul a sense of the presence of God, and remained lovingly united with Him. The sole thought of the divine goodness filled him with transports; the sight of the crucifix kept him sometimes motionless during whole hours, wrapt up in the contemplation of the wounds and the sufferings of Jesus. Tabernacles ravished his heart even more. In presence of this memorial of divine love, he watered the pavement with his tears and seemed as though he were chained to Jesus Christ by love, until the moment when he was obliged to ask Our Lord to permit him to leave His presence when obedience summoned him elsewhere. Then he withdrew bodily, but his heart remained there without his being able to take it away, spite of the orders laid upon him by his superiors and his own efforts to obey them. The Holy Sacrifice was, above all, the moment in which his burning charity shone forth; and it would be impossible to tell either the abundance of his tears at the consecration, or his transports at the Communion, or the holy outbursts of his heart at the act of thanksgiving. Let us humble ourselves at being so far distant from so much love, and let us confess the cause of it: it is that we do not beg God fervently enough to give us His love, that we do not utter frequently enough acts of love, that we do not meditate sufficiently on the motives for loving, that we do not sufficiently keep up the fire of holy love in our hearts, by the spirit of recollection, when it is kindled by grace.
Resolutions and spiritual nosegay as above.