October 6, 2026
Summary of the Morrow's Meditation
We will meditate during the whole of this week upon a fourth effect of divine love, which is fidelity in walking in the presence of God; and for to-morrow we will consider: 1st, what the exercise of the presence of God is; 2d, how dear this exercise ought to be to every Christian heart. We will then make the resolution: 1st, seriously to undertake a life of recollection and of union with God; 2d, to maintain in ourselves perfect purity of heart and of conscience, without which union with God is impossible. 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 Holy Spirit inviting us to be attentive to the presence of God, and to exercise an effort over ourselves that we may constantly remain in His august presence (Ps. civ. 4). Let us thank Him for so useful a lesson, and let us ask of Him grace to profit by it.
FIRST POINT
In what the Exercise of the Presence of God Consists.
1st. It is to have a lively and habitual faith in this truth, that God fills heaven and earth (Jer. xxiii. 24); that He sees at night as well as by day; that He discerns not only our acts, but even our most secret thoughts (II. Paral. xvi. 9; Heb. iv. 13); that He envelopes us with His essence, penetrates us as water penetrates a sponge in the midst of the sea, so that it is in Him that we have life, motion, and being, and that He is more intimate with us than we are with ourselves (Acts xvii. 28). 2d. This lively faith ought to be accompanied by a profound feeling of religious veneration for the grandeur and infinite perfections of God; an acquiescence full of love to His adorable will, to His desires, to all His designs, whatever they may be, to all His graces, which only ask, in order to save us, a heart faithful in corresponding to them; and from thence there arises between God and the soul a holy intercourse full of confidence and of love, a holy jealousy to be agreeable to Him in all things, by doing every moment what is pleasing to Him, and in the manner which pleases Him most. 3d. This lively faith and this religious veneration of the presence of God ought to be accompanied by perfect detachment from all the pleasures of the senses, from all exterior things, even those which are in the order of God with regard to us, in such a manner that, whilst lending ourselves to them from duty, we do not deliver up ourselves to them to the extent of being absorbed by them; otherwise the presence of God would produce nothing more in us than a secondary sentiment; created things, news, and earthly trifles would alone have the privilege of exciting our interest and our avidity, to the detriment of God, whom even the best things have not the right to banish from our mind and our heart. St. Mary Magdalene at the sepulchre did not pause to look at the beauty of the angels which appeared to her; she saw them without allowing herself to be distracted from the thought of Jesus; she continued to seek Him, and had no peace until she had found Him. Let her be our model.
SECOND POINT
How Dear the Exercise of the Presence of God ought to be to the Heart of a Christian.
When we have the eyes of our heart sufficiently enlightened to see everywhere, and principally in ourselves, the three Divine Persons, with all their glory, their infinite amiability, their ineffable attributes, it is the delight of the soul to keep company with them, to contemplate them, to bless them, to praise them, to love them; and to live in the forgetfulness of the many marvellous things which we possess in ourselves would be a monstrosity. If, in the world, we do not leave to himself a beloved friend who has come to make us a visit; if we are delighted to converse with him and to remain in his society, how could the soul which loves God, and which sees Him everywhere with it and in it, not delight also to keep company with Him! If things which are extraordinarily beautiful occupy the mind to the point of its being difficult for us to tear away ourselves from them, with how much greater reason ought the infinite perfections of God, present in the midst of us, to be the delight of our mind and of our heart; and the more we give ourselves up to it, the more the delight increases, the more love is inflamed, for the reason given by the author of the Imitation, that we cannot remain near a great fire without bringing away with us some of its heat; or, rather, for the reason that we cannot live in the midst of flames without being burned, be plunged in love without loving, and because God is a consuming fire and love itself (Heb. xii. 29; I. John iv. 16): we can only escape the fire by forgetting it. Happy he who, understanding these holy truths, is not contented with an act of the presence of God made in the morning and speedily stifled by the dissipation of the day, but who applies himself to love God only, constantly, in the use of creatures, in his actions and his sufferings, in life and at death, and who often utters, from the bottom of his heart, this cry of a holy soul: "To the love of God in three Persons; all for the love of the Holy Trinity living in me!"
Resolutions and spiritual nosegay as above.