Monday after Trinity Sunday

Summary of the Morrow’s Meditation

We will consider to-morrow the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity: 1st, as the delight of hope; 2d, as the delight of love. We will then make the resolution: 1st, often, during the day, to repeat this aspiration, “To God alone in three Persons be confidence and love,” and to accompany all our prayers with this double sentiment which the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit so well deserve; 2d, to serve God, and to perform all our actions, not in the spirit of fear, which is the portion of slaves, but in the spirit of confidence and love, which is proper for children. Our spiritual nosegay shall be the words of the Apostle: “God hath not given us the spirit of fear but of love” (II. Tim. i. 7).

Meditation for the Morning

Let us raise our thoughts to a height above the splendor of the saints, to an infinite distance above the most lofty intelligences, the purest cherubim. Let us contemplate, adore, and bless the mystery of the divine essence, of the very nature of God, in the deepest secret of His substance, and let us beg of Him to enable us to see in this mystery the delight of our hope and also the delight of our love.

FIRST POINT

The Mystery of the Holy Trinity the Delight of our Hope

If we only consider ourselves as we really are, with our powerlessness to do anything that is good, our tendency to evil, and the sins that we have committed, we find therein matter for discouragement; but if we cast our eyes upon the Blessed Trinity, instantly our hope revives and is thrilled with happiness. We see in the first of the divine Persons a Father who loves us to the extent of calling us and really making us His children (I. John iii. 1); in the second, a Mediator who offers His blood in payment of our debts, a Pontiff who prays for us, an Advocate who pleads our cause; and in the third, a Friend, occupied night and day with our sanctification, an Aid in our weakness, a Light in our darkness, a Consoler in our troubles, the Inspirer of all good thoughts, of all pious affections or resolutions, the Author of the graces which touch and convert, which make saints. O sweet names of Father, and Son, and Holy Ghost, what repose do you give to the heart! how you make it swim in hope! how the soul which appreciates you enjoys you and tastes you with delight! It is by these sweet names that baptism regenerates us, that confirmation makes us perfect Christians, that penitence remits our sins, that marriage unites the faithful, and that ordination consecrates priests. It is by these sweet names that the Church blesses her children, that she begins and ends her prayers, that she terminates her psalms and her hymns. It is these sweet names which she teaches first to children when they leave the cradle, and which she repeats to God in favor of the dying on the borders of the tomb (Prayers for the dying). In the mystery of the Trinity the Church thus sees the support, the strength, and the charm of Christian hope! Following the example set us by the Church, let us lovingly confide in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.

SECOND POINT

The Mystery of the Most Holy Trinity the Delight of Love

Nothing is more calculated to dilate the soul with love than the thought of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Never does God appear to be more beautiful, more God, if I may so speak, than when, penetrating the secret of the Trinity, I contemplate the ineffable operations, the divine greatness, fully known by the Father, praised as it deserves to be by the Word, and worthily loved by the Holy Ghost. Never does charity urge my heart in so lively a manner to exclaim: Yes, verily, God is all love. The Father is love; for, not content to be the Father of the Eternal Word, He wills to be our Father also; Father by creation, since He gave us our being and our life (Deut. xxxii. 6); Father by providence, since He takes such care of His children whom He has placed in the world (Wis. xiv. 3); Father by predestination, since from all eternity He has conceived us as His adopted children in the same bosom wherein He engendered His Word (Ephes. i. 5); Father by the preaching of His Gospel (James i. 18); Father by the regeneration of baptism (John iii. 5); Father by the sanctifying grace which puts into our hearts the spirit of His Son, enabling us to cry out to Him with confidence: “Abba, Father” (Gal. iv. 6); Father, lastly, by a love which no earthly father ever reached—an inconceivable love, which goes so far as even to immolate His first-born to save us from death. O God, Thou art then my Father, and I am Thy child! At such a thought as this, where is the heart which would not melt with love? Who is there that would not have the heart of a child towards so good a Father? And Thou, also, O Eternal Son of God, Thou art all love! For me Thou didst make Thyself man; for me Thou didst sacrifice Thy life, and Thou dost not blush in the presence of Thy Father and of Thy Holy Ghost to call Thyself my brother (Heb. ii. 11); to make me sit upon Thy throne (John xvii. 24; Apoc. iii. 21); and, not being able to make of me a God by nature, Thou hast willed that I should be so by grace, by union and consummation in Thee (John xvii. 21). And Thou, Holy Ghost, Thou art also all love, since Thou art the very love of the Father and of the Son, equal to Thy origin; and it is through Thee that the Son has given Himself to me; it is through Thee that charity is shed in our hearts (Rom. v. 5); it is through Thee that good prayers are uttered (Rom. viii. 26). Thou dost live in us as in Thy temple, to correct our faults, to form us to virtue, and of sinners, that we are, to make saints (I. Cor. iii. 16). What, then, is more amiable than the three Persons of the Most Holy Trinity? and why have we not three hearts to love each one of them? But let us be consoled; in loving one sole God we love all three Persons, since they have but one sole nature. O love, inflame my heart! May I love only for the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost!

Resolutions and spiritual nosegay as above.