9th Wednesday after Pentecost

Summary of the Morrow’s Meditation

We will meditate to-morrow: 1st, upon the manner in which we ought to conduct ourselves towards the different classes of people with whom we have to converse; 2d, on what ought to be the most ordinary subject of our conversation. We will then make the resolution: 1st, to delight to converse with the poor, the simple, and the humble, to console them by good words, rather than with the great, to whom we can be but very rarely of any use; 2d, always to mingle with our conversation something edifying or useful, and to avoid everything that virtue disavows. Our spiritual nosegay shall be the words of the Holy Ghost: “A man wise in words shall make himself beloved” (Ecclus. xx. 13).

Meditation for the Morning

Let us adore Our Lord in His conversation. He converses by preference with the poor, the little, and the simple, and above all with those recommended to Him by His Father (John xvii. 24), and He holds with them pious conversations calculated to lead them to God: it is thus that He teaches us to converse in a manner worthy of the gospel (Philipp. i. 27). Let us thank Him for the beautiful example which He gives us.

FIRST POINT

How we ought to Conduct ourselves toward the Different Classes of Persons with whom we have to Converse

1st. Whoever may be the persons with whom we have to converse, religion prescribes that we shall always be kind, amiable, and obliging (Ecclus. vi. 5); to treat every one according to his deserts, his dignity, his character, behaving towards some in a serious manner and in a gayer manner towards others (Coloss. iv. 6); always to avoid affectation in our deportment, pride and austerity, contradiction and dissimulation, so that no one should have to complain of us and that every one should be edified (I. Tim. iv. 12). 2d. If they are persons whom we dislike, we must conceal our repugnance beneath a gracious exterior, and not allow any feeling of annoyance or of austerity to show itself. If, on the contrary, they are persons who are pleasing to us, we must be on our guard against being too free and too frivolous, say nothing which is not according to propriety, and mistrust sensible attachments and too great friendships, which captivate the heart and preoccupy it. We must be friendly towards all, familiar with hardly any one; and this observation, which is always true, is above all true in regard to persons of different sex. 3d. If they are inferiors, poor, simple, or ignorant, charity forbids us to avoid them or to repel them, to grieve them by a proud and disdainful manner, to be melancholy in their presence, and to make use of a pretext for sending them away. It commands us, on the contrary, to welcome them joyfully, to place ourselves within their reach, to speak to them kindly, and to act in such a manner that they shall leave us in a contented frame of mind. 4th. If they are great personages, humility forbids us to seek their society and to endeavor to insinuate ourselves into their good graces; to use flattery towards them, and to show complaisance, and to utter applauses in regard to what they do or say which conscience reproves. We must, says St. Francis de Sales, treat them as we do fire, and not go too near them; when we are obliged to do so, we must observe the perfect modesty which indicates that we respect them, and a frank liberty which proves that we love them. 5th. If they are fervent souls, whose conversation tends towards God and virtue, we must seek them out and take pleasure in their society; but if they are persons who are tepid or devoid of religion, it is well to try and gain them over by amenity of language and of manners; and if we do not succeed, and on the contrary, we see that their society is hurtful to us, we must avoid them. Are these the rules which we have followed?

SECOND POINT

What ought to be the most Ordinary Subject of our Conversations

Our conversations ought to be first of all edifying; the heart of the wise inspires his lips, says the Holy Ghost (Prov. xvi. 23). That is to say, that as the mouth, speaking out of the abundance of the heart, speaks willingly of what it loves, a Christian ought to mingle from time to time in his conversation a few words which are edifying and which have respect to God, salvation, eternity, religion, the Church, the saints, and the imitation of these holy examples. He would not be a Christian who only took pleasure in talk about worldly, vain, and futile things. When our conversations are wanting in this characteristic of edification, they must at least be marked by utility, for it is not worthy of a reasonable man to speak only of trifles and puerilities, about things happening in the town or in the household, a thousand things without utility and without an object. Lastly, when our conversations are neither edifying nor useful, they must at least be irreproachable, that is to say, that if sometimes we may have nothing in view but an innocent recreation, we must at least take care that there shall be nothing in what we say that would be disavowed by virtue; that the love of truth shall put aside all deceit in our language, all those falsehoods so familiar to self-love in order to hide a truth which humiliates, to make ourselves esteemed for more than we are worth; to raise ourselves above others, or to lower others beneath ourselves; the love of our neighbor must banish all backbiting or criticism, all raillery in regard to the present or the absent; all tales calculated to sow discord, all the jealousies which cannot bear to hear others praised without trying to lower them; lastly, humility must not be able to find a single word inspired by self-love or vanity to reprehend, meekness must not be wounded by any altercation or dispute, nor the Christian spirit by any worldly maxim contrary to the gospel. Do our conversations bear this character?

Resolutions and spiritual nosegay as above.