Saturday before Pentecost

Summary of the Morrow’s Meditation

We will meditate to-morrow upon the gift of fortitude, the last and the complement of the gifts of the Holy Spirit on which we have to meditate, and we shall see: 1st, what man is without this gift; 2d, what he becomes by this gift. We will then make the resolution: 1st, to pass in a very holy manner the eve of Pentecost, in order to attract the Holy Spirit to come and dwell within us; 2d, often to call to our aid the gift of fortitude, and not to permit ourselves to give way to any pusillanimity to-day or to make any concession to our evil nature. We will retain as our spiritual nosegay the prayer of Holy Church: “O Holy Spirit, give Thy seven gifts to the faithful who call upon Thee with confidence” (Hymn of Pentecost).

Meditation for the Morning

Having reached the eve of the great day on which the Holy Spirit is coming to dwell in souls that are well disposed to receive Him, as He formerly descended upon the apostles, let us recollect ourselves, let us prepare ourselves. Let us adore the Spirit of fortitude in the heights of heaven, and let us beg of Him to descend into our hearts.

FIRST POINT

What Man is without the Gift of Fortitude

The gift of fortitude is a supernatural energy which strengthens us against pusillanimity or cowardice in the service of God, against our own weakness, against the difficulties, dangers, and trials we may meet with in the accomplishment of our duties. More excellent than the virtue of strength, which only supposes an ordinary grace, the gift of fortitude is an interior vigor, a divine courage, which, raising man above himself, renders possible, and even easy, things which appear to be impossible. Unless this gift is added to virtue, we are incapable of fulfilling all our duties; ordinary strength is not sufficient to sustain nature, which is sometimes afraid at certain great sacrifices which duty imposes; sometimes wearied by the continual violence which we must do ourselves in order never to fall; sometimes discouraged by its own weakness, which, as regards what is good, can do nothing, not even to the producing of a thought which would be useful to our salvation, and which, in regard to all that is evil, is capable of everything if not restrained by grace. What strength does it not indeed require to keep firm against a heart in which are the germs of all the vices; which is besieged by temptations and solicited by passions; which is cast down by adversities and is attached to prosperity; which is frightened at obstacles and discouraged by sorrows; which human respect enchains through the wretched fear of raillery, of a look or a sign of want of approbation! Without the extraordinary vigor which is communicated by the gift of fortitude, the weakness of the will paralyzes the best resolutions and extinguishes all spirit of prayer and of mortification. Hence the fall of persons we thought to be firm as pillars, and who have bent like reeds. O weakness! O misery of poor humanity! what good reason had the Apostle to say: “He that thinketh himself to stand, let him take heed lest he fall” (I. Cor. x. 12). The gift of fortitude is, above all, necessary to those who are in authority; for then, from want of this gift, is added to personal evil public evil. Through an unworthy timidity, a cowardly and pusillanimous condescension, evil is permitted to be committed, from want of speaking and reproving it. Hence the lowering of characters, the triumph of the wicked, the reign of evil, to which weakness gives the reins: a weakness which is deplorable at all times, but, above all, in these evil days, wherein the genius of evil makes such furious war against all that is good. Let us recognize how greatly we ourselves stand in need of this gift, in whatever position we may be; let us therefore prepare ourselves to receive it into our hearts on this holy day.

SECOND POINT

What Man Becomes through the Gift of Fortitude

One of the greatest beauties which characterizes the Church is the transformation of souls by the gift of fortitude. The apostles, as soon as they had received it, became strong, intrepid, magnanimous. He who had trembled at the voice of a servant dared to denounce the whole nation on account of the deicide it had committed. “You denied the Holy One and the Just,” he said to them; “you desired a murderer to be granted unto you, but the Author of life you killed” (Acts iii. 14, 15). The preacher was arrested for having dared to speak in such a manner; “Preach no more in His name,” the judges say to him. You ask of us what is impossible, answered the intrepid apostle. “We cannot but speak of the things which we have seen and heard” (Acts iv. 20). He does not say, remarks St. John Chrysostom, we will not; the will of man is subject to change; the judges might have hoped that they could conquer it, but, we cannot. We can suffer, we can die, but we cannot, through unworthy weaknesses, betray our ministry. By means of this gift of fortitude, the Ambroses, the Basils, the Athanasiuses, become heroes, their courage raises them above all the evils with which they are threatened as well as all the favors which are promised them. Let bad fortune of all kinds fall upon them, let calumny attack them, let them be surrounded by misfortunes; they are firm and calm as is a rock attacked by a tempest; they pass through all these trials with the generosity of a heart which loves God above all else (III. Imit. v. 4, 5). Even death does not terrify them (Cant. viii. 6). Patient in waiting for or in doing what is good, as well as in suffering evil, they are always the same. St. Chrysostom causes it to be said of him, “This man fears nothing but sin,” and St. Francis Xavier, in the midst of a thousand perils of death, exclaims, “The surest remedy is to fear nothing, leaning upon confidence in God, and the greatest evil would be to fear the enemies of God whilst upholding the cause of God.” Thus, by means of the gift of fortitude, the saints do and suffer all things, expose themselves to the greatest dangers, overcome the most painful labors, support the most severe anguish. Happy, then, the soul which, mistrusting itself, through a deep feeling of its weakness, calls to its aid the Spirit of fortitude and puts all its confidence in Him! It is capable of all virtue. Is anything more required to make us desire it and earnestly ask it of God?

Resolutions and spiritual nosegay as above.