July 26, 2026
The Gospel according to St. Luke, xix. 41-47.
âAt that time, when Jesus drew near to Jerusalem, seeing the city, He wept over it, saying: If thou also hadst known, and that in this thy day, the things that are to thy peace: but now they are hidden from thy eyes. For the day shall come upon thee, and thy enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and straiten thee on every side, and beat thee flat to the ground, and thy children who are in thee; and they shall not leave in thee a stone upon a stone, because thou hast not known the time of thy visitation. And entering into the temple, He began to cast out them that sold therein and them that bought, saying to them: It is written, My house is the house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves. And He was teaching daily in the temple.â
Summary of the Morrowâs Meditation
We will meditate to-morrow upon the gospel of the day, and we shall learn from it, from Our Lord weeping over Jerusalem, to have a spirit of compassion: 1st, for our own miseries; 2d, for the miseries of others. We will make the resolution: 1st, to consider our own spiritual miseries without feeling any bitter self-love, or desolation, but with humility and a strong resolution to live a better life; 2d, to pity the trials of the Church at least by our prayers, if we cannot do more, the unhappiness of sinners by exercising zeal to bring them back, the misery of the poor by our alms, and the sorrow of the afflicted by the consolations we may be able to give them. Our spiritual nosegay shall be the words of the gospel: âWhen He drew near the city, He wept over itâ (Luke xix. 41).
Meditation for the Morning
Let us adore the Saviour of the world shedding tears of compassion over Jerusalem, which He had always so much loved. Let us admire, love, and praise His goodness; He is more touched by the evils hanging over the unfortunate city than by His own interests, and the acclamations of the people who receive Him in triumph do not make Him forget the calamities reserved for its inhabitants. Who would not love so good a God?
FIRST POINT
On the Spirit of Compassion for our own Miseries
The Jerusalem over which Our Lord weeps is the type of our soul, in which there is so much to weep over. âWeep for yourselvesâ (Luke xxiii. 28), said Jesus to the holy women when He was ascending Calvary. We ought to weep, in fact, over our past sins, over our present miseries, over the uncertainty in which the future leaves our salvation, upon the abuse of graces, upon the small progress we make in virtue. God visits us every day by the illuminations with which He enlightens us, by the good movements with which He inspires us, by numerous instructions, by good books, by holy examples, by the blessings, and even by the trials which He sends us; the former to make us feel His goodness, and the latter to make us remember His justice; and it is a thing worthy of tears that we do not appreciate these graces and that we render them useless to us. O my soul, what a subject for compassion! (Luke xix. 42.) What unhappiness to have so often disregarded the visit of the Lord! (Ibid. 41.) Let us weep over ourselves as Jesus Christ wept over Jerusalem, and let us be converted. The design of God in making us see our wretchedness is to render us humble and penitent and to make us lead a better life; and it would be a great evil if we were to derive from such a sight nothing but annoyance, desolation, and discouragement. Let us weep, then, because we are miserable, but let our tears be accompanied by a strong resolution to change our life, and to be filled with humility and confidence in the divine mercy.
SECOND POINT
On the Spirit of Compassion for the Miseries of Others
We ought, 1st, to have compassion for the trials of the Church, who is our mother, our benefactress; she to whom we owe everything, and by whom alone we can be saved. All her evils ought to go to our heart; all her interests ought to be dear to us; it is a duty of filial piety to pray for her, to espouse her cause, and to defend her by all the means in our power. We ought, 2d, to have compassion for the trials of our country, because Jesus Christ, weeping over Jerusalem, teaches us to love our country, to sigh over her temporal and spiritual misfortunes, and to remedy them, each one of us according to the degree of his power and the sphere of his means, by prayer, by good example, wise counsels, and his support. We ought, 3d, to have compassion on the evil-doing of sinners; instead of being irritated and murmuring against those who do evil, we ought to pity their blindness, pray for their conversion, and zealously use all our endeavors to bring them back; they are the children of God, they are our brethren in Jesus Christ. We ought, 4th, to have compassion on the needs of the poor, succoring them by our alms, and practising privations so that we may afford them help. We ought, 5th and lastly, to have compassion for the trials of the afflicted, and console them by kind and gentle words, weeping with those who weep, and finding our greatest enjoyment in being able to raise up the sorrowful soul of a brother and to shed a little balm upon his grief. Let us examine whether our compassion extends to these five objects without neglecting any one of them.
Resolutions and spiritual nosegay as above.