May 17, 2026
Summary of the Morrow’s Meditation
We will continue to-morrow our meditation upon interior solitude, and we will consider three principal advantages of it: 1st, it glorifies God; 2d, it sanctifies us; 3d, it forms our happiness. We will then make the resolution: 1st, to unite heartily and frequently during the whole week with Mary and the apostles in retreat at the cenacle; 2d, to watch over all the ill-regulated movements of our imagination, in order to repress them firmly and resolutely; 3d, to examine our soul at certain fixed times, to see if God only dwells and reigns completely within it. Our spiritual nosegay shall be the words of the Imitation: “Empty thy heart in order to live alone with God alone” (II. Imit. viii. 5).
Meditation for the Morning
Let us transport ourselves in spirit to the cenacle, and, uniting our meditation with that of Mary and the apostles assembled together there, let us render to Jesus Christ, seated at the right hand of His Father, our homage of adoration, of admiration, of praise, and of love. Let us beg of Him to make us thoroughly understand the advantages of interior solitude, and to give us the love and the practice of it.
FIRST POINT
Interior Solitude Glorifies God
The soul which has the courage to be isolated within itself from all that is not God, that it may be given up wholly to God alone, thereby tells Him that He alone is all, that everything else is nothing; that the world and all the creatures in it do not deserve a thought of its mind or an affection of its heart; that to God alone it belongs and will always belong; that He only is sufficient to it, because He alone is all good (Ex. xxxiii. 19). Now is there any homage more worthy of the Divine Majesty? What can we take from within ourselves which will glorify Him more and better testify to Him that esteem of supreme deference due to Him on so many accounts? Have we it at heart to glorify God in this way? Let us question our conscience.
SECOND POINT
Interior Solitude Sanctifies us
The whole of Christian perfection reduces itself to these two points: To separate ourselves from creatures, and to unite ourselves to God. Now, both the one and the other are admirably accomplished in the interior solitude. There we learn to separate ourselves from the world and from ourselves; from the world, because we clearly see the nothingness and the folly of it; from ourselves, because our eyes being always kept open and beholding our own heart, we see all its miseries, and we clearly recognize how vile and despicable it is. Oh, how all creatures seem but as nothing when we consider them in the interior solitude, and how willingly then does the heart detach itself from them! but at the same time how truly God appears as He really is, that is to say, as the great All; the one alone amiable, the one alone perfect! Listen, O my soul! listen in the bottom of thy heart; not in that part where the imagination creates its phantoms, but in that deeper portion where truth makes itself to be heard; where pure and simple ideas collect together; and there in the secret of thy heart will noiselessly resound those divine words: God alone is all, God alone is just; all which is not God is nothing. At these words, ravished by the beauties of this Supreme Being, thou wilt take to Him all thy love, and immediately thou wilt find Him approaching towards thee with incomparable goodness, according to the words of the Apostle: “Draw nigh to God, and He will draw nigh to you” (James iv. 8). Thus, in the interior solitude is consummated the divine union. The soul, ravished at such a blissful meeting, cries out then with the spouse of the Canticles: “I found Him whom my soul loveth, I held Him and will not let Him go” (Cant. iii. 4). I will keep Him in the solitude of my heart, and I will remain there alone with Him, alone without any other desire than that of His presence, alone without any other love than His alone, without any other will than His good pleasure. Oh, what rapid progress do we then make in virtue! We find nothing difficult, because we have the strong God with us; nothing painful, because we have with us the God of all consolation. We are no longer tempted to pause in our career, because it is God Himself who bears us along it; to be attached to creatures, because this union, contracted in the shadow of the internal solitude, consumes the soul with charity and makes it in a manner divine even in this life.
THIRD POINT
Interior Solitude Forms our Happiness
The interior solitude is the delightful place of meeting given by the Creator to His creature. There we love God, we enjoy His presence; and the soul, rendered happy and tranquil, exclaims, like the apostles upon Thabor: “It is good to be here” (Matt. xvii. 4). There we lead a hidden life, but it is hidden in God and in the society of Jesus Christ (Coloss. iii. 3). What more do we want in order to be happy? There we converse delightfully with God; and, in comparison with a word uttered by God, what are all the speeches of men? (Ps. cxviii. 85.) There things belonging to the world do not enter, but things belonging to heaven descend into it every day; every day God reveals to the soul beauties unperceived until then, and the soul is completely ravished by them (Cant. v. 6). There the vain joys of the world are put outside the door, but Jesus Christ compensates for them by the unction of His consolations, the abundance of His peace. Oh, what do we not gain by the exchange even as regards pleasure and happiness! O solitude, says St. Jerome, paradise on earth, road to heaven! O desert, where we enjoy familiarity with God! Christian soul, what dost thou in the world, thou who art greater than the world! (Hier. ad Hel.) There, lastly, is the tabernacle where the faithful soul hides itself as in the face of God, far from the tumult of men and the contradiction of tongues; the strong tower where reigns a continual calm, an uninterrupted peace, because man, the enemy, cannot reach it (Ps. lx. 4); and it is there that it is good to dwell from the rising to the setting of the sun, and during the night as often as sleep withdraws from the eyelids. It is there that it is good to work and to repose, to pray and to converse; finally, to do all things. How are we situated in regard to this interior solitude? Have we formed it in ourselves, and do we maintain it by the practice of recollection?
Resolutions and spiritual nosegay as above.