June 16, 2026
Summary of the Morrow’s Meditation
The worship of latria, which we render to God by the Holy Sacrifice, and with which we ought to associate ourselves, joins to the supreme esteem and profound reverence towards God perfect submission to His sovereign dominion. We shall see then: 1st, how Jesus in the Holy Sacrifice renders this submission to His Father; 2d, how we all ought to be in all things perfectly submissive to the sovereign dominion of God. We will then make the resolution: 1st, to keep ourselves always in a state of humble and loving submission to all the decrees of Providence; 2d, to immolate joyfully, even in things which cost us the most, our own will to the sovereign dominion and the good pleasure of God. Our spiritual nosegay shall be the words of the high priest Heli, when, on hearing of the death of his two sons, and the disaster which had befallen his people, he exclaimed: “It is the Lord; let Him do what is good in His sight” (I. Kings iii. 18).
Meditation for the Morning
Let us adore the sovereign dominion of God over the whole universe, over the Church, and over the world, over all that belongs to us, over our will, over our body, and our soul. Let us be lost in adoration, in praise, and in love for this supreme dominion, and let us be inspired with profound submission to all that He wills, and all that He desires to do with us. “Lord, all things are in Thy power; Thou art Lord of all” (Esth. xiii. 9, 11).
FIRST POINT
Jesus Christ in the Holy Sacrifice Teaches us, by His Example, Submission to God
The whole life of Jesus Christ was a life of humble and loving submission to God His Father. “When He cometh into the world,” St. Paul tells us, “He saith: Sacrifice and oblation Thou wouldst not, but a body Thou hast fitted to Me. Holocausts for sin did not please Thee. Then said I: Behold I come; in the head of the Book it is written of Me, that I should do Thy will, O God!” (Heb. x. 5-7.) Until His last sigh He never departed for one moment, not even in the slightest of His actions or His words, from this spirit of submission and dependence. “He that sent Me is with Me, and He hath not left Me alone, for I do always the things that please Him” (John viii. 29), He said. “Father, all things are possible to Thee, remove this chalice from Me, but not what I will, but what Thou wilt” (Mark xiv. 36). “My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me” (John iv. 34). But this submission and this dependence were never so remarkable or so incomprehensible as they are in the Holy Sacrifice. He submits to descend therein from heaven to earth on all the altars throughout the world, each time that a priest summons Him; and at His arrival on the altar He immolates Himself mysteriously in order to recognize and confess that God, in His quality of supreme Lord of the universe, has a right of life and death over all created beings; and after having rendered this sublime homage, He remains in the tabernacle in a continual state of immolation, that He may continue to glorify the supreme dominion of God over every creature. He submits therein to all which it may please His Father to permit should be done to Him; to be carried wherever it is wished He should be taken, to be placed and lodged wherever it is desired He should be; He submits to be forsaken by men, to be left in the solitude and darkness of the tabernacle, to be exposed to the irreverence of bad Christians; He submits to allow Himself to be dropped, through inadvertence, or to be cast through malice on the ground, and to be trodden under foot; to be buried alive in a conscience soiled by sin, to submit to the evil deeds of thieves stealing away the consecrated vessels, or to fire, and other elements which may attack Him. Could there be a more complete submission to Providence, a more complete abandonment of our whole being to the sovereign dominion of God? How ill it would become me, after such an example, not to submit to all the decrees of Providence, to murmur or to complain! Let us consider in what we have failed, with respect to this duty, and let us determine to be more faithful to it.
SECOND POINT
We ought to Imitate Jesus Christ in His Perfect Submission to Providence
Following the example set us by the adorable Victim immolated on the altar, we ought to abandon ourselves, together with all that we have and all that we are, to the good pleasure of God, to dispose of us and of all that belongs to us as He wills. There must be no exception in regard to this abandonment and this sacrifice. We ought to immolate to Him our bodies, to keep them in a state of perfect purity and modesty; our mind, that we may no longer have any thought enter into it except thoughts of God and according to God; our heart, in order no longer to love any one but Him, and to love Him with all our strength; our whole being, in a word, the use of which ought to be not only devoted to nothing else except to serve Him, but to be offered in sacrifice to Him. O King of kings! Lord of lords! sovereign Master of all creatures! we ought to say to Him, abased in Thy presence and filled with the sentiment of my dependence upon Thee, I joyfully recognize Thy supreme dominion; I am glad to be the servant of such a Master, content that Thou shouldst dispose of me as my Sovereign, as a thing belonging to Thee by a thousand titles, and which I should be happy to give Thee, even if it did not belong to Thee (II. Mach. xiv. 35; Wis. xvi. 13). O God so great! how horrible then is sin, which is a refusal of submission to Thy lofty majesty, and a species of insurrection against Thy supreme dominion! How just, on the contrary, is calm and resigned submission to all the decrees of Thy Providence, and how I desire to see all the hearts of the universe submitted to Thy great dominion! Also, O my God, I detest all sin, and whatever may be the way in which Thou shalt dispose of me and of all that belongs to me, I will always say: It is well, for the sole reason that it is Thy good pleasure (Matt. xi. 26).
Resolutions and spiritual nosegay as above.