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3rd Sunday after Pentecost - Devotion to the Sacred Heart

6/30/2019

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WE celebrate today the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Let us enter into the senti-ments of the Church by meditating on the object of this feast land the duties which it imposes.
First Point.—-By instituting the feast of the Sacred Heart, the Church has wished to honor the immense love with which the heart of God has burned for us, and to eternalize the memory of it. In fact, the heart is the seat of the affections and the principle of generous devotion. To establish a feast in honor of the heart of Jesus is, therefore, to erect a monument which shall recall the sacrifices which the love of Jesus for men has imposed on Him. And what is more natural than such an institution? To console herself for the loss of her cherished child, a mother retains a part of his clothing. A child, to solace his sorrow, erects a suitable monument to the memory of the mother whom he has lost; a people set free from slavery wish to preserve the generous heart of the liberator whom death has removed from their gratitude; in fact, it seems that while these precious pledges keep their regrets alive, they still sweeten their bitterness.

The feast of the Sacred Heart is a monument which must constantly recall the love and the blessings of our divine Saviour. In the Eucharist we adore not only His divine nature, but also His body and blood; by a particular feast we venerate His adorable wounds and the very thorns with which His sacred brow was crowned, the nails which pierced His hands and feet, and the cross on which He expired. How then shall we refuse our homages to this Sacred Heart, the noblest and tenderest portion of His sacred humanity? All blessings have come to us from this divine Heart. By the mouth of Jesus it has published those evangelical truths which teach us the way to heaven. It was the heart of Jesus that wept over Lazarus in the tomb, and over the ill-fated city of Jerusalem—sad figures of a soul stained by sin. It was His heart which prompted Him to heal the sick and call the children to Him, and to pardon sinners and raise the dead to life. It was His heart which poured out its bloody sweat from every part of His body in the Garden of Olives. If it is true that one deserves to be loved in proportion as they love, what love does not our adorable Saviour merit? Open the Gospel and judge of it for yourself. How amiable He is when He compares Himself to a Father who weeps for very joy at seeing His prodigal son return; when He depicts Himself to us under the image of the Good Shepherd who seeks for His lost sheep; when He pardons the woman taken in the commission of sin, and when He allows the vilest sinners to approach Him. Whom do you see at His feet? Magdalene, a public sinner. And on whom does He bestow His tenderness and mildness? On the poor children whom He caresses. He meets with a widow who mourns the loss of her only son, and His heart is touched with pity and He commands death to give back its victim. Behold Him at Jacob's well, conversing with the Samaritan woman and revealing to her the secret of His divinity. Is it possible to manifest more merciful tenderness? But behold the masterpiece of His love ! Before the Good Shepherd had given His life for His flock, He had given them His heart, by instituting the Blessed Eucharist. Other shepherds provide food for themselves from their flock, but Jesus gives Himself to His sheep to be their nourishment: "Eat, this is My body, drink, this is My blood." And He shall remain with them till the end of time to sustain and console them. " Come to Me, all you who are heavily laden, all you that suffer, come to Me whosoever you may be, and I shall refresh you." Where shall you find love more constant, words that are sweeter, or invitation more pressing? You are worthy of pity if these thoughts do not reach your heart.

Second Point.—To suitably honor the heart of Jesus, three conditions are necessary: We should invoke it with confidence, imitate it with fidelity, and love it generously. Invoke it with confidence. It is the heart of a friend, and you could not doubt it for a moment, especially after reflecting on what has just been told you. You shall seek in vain to find a heart that loves you with more devotion. But besides, it is the heart of a God. You may doubt the constancy of some mortal friend and you may suspect his fidelity; you may exhaust his kindness, for every human love is inconstant and all human goodness has limits; but the heart of a God! ah, no. When human friendship fails, His friendship shall never fail and is the only one worth striving for. How often does mistrust and suspicion invade our hearts and wound the Sacred Heart of Jesus! We think that we shall never acquire piety, or overcome certain defects, or conquer certain temptations; we think, therefore, that Jesus does not love us sufficiently to help us, or that He is not powerful enough to defend us against the demon! Be on your guard against such despairing thoughts. They are one of the most dangerous temptations, especially in certain circumstances, when a great confidence can alone give us the strength to overcome every obstacle. You should imitate the heart of Jesus if you wish to honor it worthily. To imitate the heart of Jesus is to copy it. Now, when you wish to copy a picture, you must first study it. To copy the heart of Jesus, the first thing to do is to strive to know it well. The god of philosophers is known by the prodigies and wonders which come from his hands, but the God of the humble Christian is known especially by His blessings.

The dove selects the rocks of the deserts in which to build her dwelling, but the faithful soul chooses the heart of Jesus, in which she retires and there reflects in secret. In the heart of Jesus she beholds her own; she contrasts the thoughts, the affections, and the desires of Jesus with her own desires, affections, and thoughts. In the heart of Jesus she finds humility, chastity, charity, patience, love of the cross, and zeal for souls; but in her own heart she finds pride, sensuality, jealousy, love of pleasures, and inconstancy; she strives to dispel all these vicious dispositions and exemplify the virtues of her divine Model. Jesus smiles on her efforts, and sustains them by His grace. You should love the heart of Jesus. The only request which Jesus makes, the only gift that He would receive from us, is the possession of our heart. "My son," He says to you, "give Me thy heart." And here let us ask, what is our heart, that Jesus asks for it so earnestly? What treasure is concealed there? It is because the most precious of all gifts is the heart, and it renders every other gift precious. But is it not something more ? Yes, since to possess the heart is the glorious triumph. Everywhere the victory for Jesus was easy. He walked on the waters, He healed the sick, He commanded the elements; in a word, nothing could resist His power. It was only in the heart He found resistance, and now He considers it His glory to conquer it. Thus, all His efforts tend to gain the hearts of men. In the crib, His tears; on the cross, His sufferings; in the Eucharist, His humiliations—everything to win human hearts to Himself.

Christian, God asks your love, shall you dare to refuse it to Him? It is absolutely necessary that your heart should be given to some one, since it cannot live without loving, nor can it love without bestowing itself on the object of its love. If your heart is to be given or sold, who can better purchase it than He who made it? If it is to be given away, who deserves it better than He who is its happiness and its end ? Give your heart to Jesus, and ask Him to accept it and to watch over it, today and forever.

Source: Short Instructions on the Feasts of the Year, Imprimatur 1897

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2nd Sunday after Pentecost -          The Real Presence of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament

6/23/2019

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"THE Church has fixed the feast of the Blessed Sacrament for the first Thursday after Trinity. . . Sunday, and thus she affords her children every facility of testifying their gratitude to the God of the Eucharist. During eight days this adorable Master shall come from His tabernacle and shall be exposed to your gaze, as if He would come closer and closer to you. Oh, how poorly you understand your soul's best interest if you fail to respond to this lovable condescension! Today reanimate your faith by meditating on the proofs which demonstrate the real presence of Jesus in the Blessed Eucharist. These proofs are of two kinds: proofs of reason and theological proofs.

First Point.—The proofs of reason which demonstrate the real presence of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament are taken from the absurd consequences of the contrary doctrine. If the Protestants are right in declaring that Jesus is in figure and not in reality in the Holy Eucharist, then Christianity—this religion so pure in its moral and so sublime in its dogma, and having all the characters of divinity-- was, from the beginning, the most monstrous and most extravagant religion. It merits justly all the reproaches of superstition, idolatry, and foolishness lavished on paganism. See all the disciples of Christ, foolish victims of error, having at their head their doctors, their venerable prelates, lights of the world by their science and by their virtue, prostrating themselves before bread, which is only a vain image, and adoring it as the Egyptians formerly adored the fruits of their gardens. Calvin, who had come to undeceive the world, merited divine honors much more than Jesus; he should be regarded as the benefactor of humanity, while Jesus would be only an impostor. In fact, either Jesus foresaw the false interpretation which would be given to His words, "This is My body, this is My blood," or He did not foresee it. If He foresaw it, He should have hindered it otherwise He has deceived His apostles, His friends, and His Church. He has left her in error during fifteen centuries, and He has failed in His promises of being with her to the end of time. If He did not foresee those false interpretations, He is not God; He is only a cheat and an impostor. And thus the denial of the Real Presence carries with it the denial of all religion. These monstrous consequences should suffice to make us reject as false and impious the doctrine which begets them. But these are not all. By the interpretation of Protestants, St. Paul is convicted of absurdity. In his First Epistle to the Corinthians he formally declares that he is guilty of outrage against the body of Jesus who should dare to receive the eucharistic bread unworthily. Are these words, which are so true in a Catholic sense, anything else than an absurdity in the Protestant sense? If Jesus is not really in the Eucharist, or if He is there only in figure, or if the bread is eaten only in faith, can he who participates in this mystery unworthily be wanting in respect for Jesus. Does he abuse His goodness ? How are we to understand that such a one outrages the body of Christ? Besides, if it is faith which attracts Jesus in the Eucharist, to the Jew or an unbeliever not having faith the Eucharist is only a piece of ordinary bread; and how can a piece of bread be profaned ?

St. Paul has said that the glory of the Old Law was nothing when compared with the sublimity of the Gospel. By the interpretation of Protestants these words are false. In fact, if the body of the Saviour is not in the Eucharist, all the excellence and advantage are on the side of the manna. This bread falls from heaven; it is prepared by angel hands, wholly miraculous and diversified in an infinity of tastes; it is a figure of Jesus far more worthy and more noble than the material bread made by the hands of men, if this bread even after consecration was only a figure. We must say the same of the ancient sacrifices, and in particular of the paschal lamb, whose blood was an image of the blood of Jesus more natural than wine, and especially a more lively and touching image. Contrary to the words of St. Paul, the Gospel, in this matter, would be inferior to the Old Law and the Church inferior to the synagogue. Reason rejects such a consequence, and it forces us to recognize the Real Presence or to accept the most monstrous absurdities.

Second Point.—The theological proofs are taken from the very words which Jesus employed in the institution of the Blessed Eucharist: "This is My body, this is My blood." Reflect on these words, and say if the Saviour could employ expressions more precise to affirm His real presence. The Protestants who deny it pretend that here the language of Jesus is figurative and that His words must be taken in a metaphorical sense. As if the Saviour had said: "This is the figure of My body; this is the figure of My blood." The falsity of such an interpretation is evident from the very circumstances in which the words were pronounced. Jesus was about to die ; at that solemn moment one shall hardly employ language which is figurative and almost unintelligible, and especially when one speaks to friends who are the depositaries of his last will. The Saviour of the world was making His last will and testament, and He bequeathed to the Church His body and His blood—all that He possessed. The very essence of a last will and testament is that it shall be expressed in clearest terms and exempt from all ambiguity; the law requires that the words of such a testament should be accepted in their natural and literal sense. Has it ever been heard of that the terms of a last will should be interpreted in a figurative sense? But what is the evident meaning of these words: "This is My body, this is My blood"? Is it the meaning which the Church gives them by taking them in their literal sense? Is it the meaning which heretics give them when they assert that they signify, This is the figure of My body ? But how can this last interpretation be justified ? There are in the world two kinds of signs, viz., natural signs and signs of convention. New, a piece of bread has never been the natural sign of a body; on the other hand, there is not in the Gospel a single word which ever fell from the lips of Jesus which has made it a conventional sign. Jesus had warned His disciples that He would speak to them no longer in parables. His words should therefore be accepted in their natural sense, and every other interpretation is purely arbitrary and finds no foundation anywhere. Behold the last will and testament of the Saviour, and the things He has bequeathed us. They are all contained in these words, which assure to the Catholic priesthood the power of renewing, to the end of the world, what He Himself did the first time. "Do this in commemoration of Me." The priest, in virtue of these words pronounced over the bread and the wine, "This is My body, this is My blood," operates this mystery, the substance of the bread and wine disappears, and they become the body and blood of Jesus.

What simplicity, as Bossuet remarks, and what omnipotent power in these few words ! After such assurance on the part of the Saviour, what remains for us to do if not to believe, and adore, and love? He says that it is His body, therefore it is His body; He says that it is His blood, therefore it is His blood ! My Saviour, be forever blessed for this favor! Thou hast wished to be Thyself the inheritance of Thy children, and Thy love knows how to survive death, in discovering the secret of eternalizing Thy presence in the midst of them.

Source: Short Instructions on the Feasts of the Year, Imprimatur 1897



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Trinity Sunday - Our Duties Toward the Trinity

6/16/2019

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 First Point.—You owe to the Holy Trinity the homage of your faith. There is not in Holy. . . Writ anything more strongly established than the mystery of one God in three persons. You
shall find it expressed in the Gospel most clearly and most precise. At the moment when the Saviour received Baptism in the Jordan a voice from heaven is heard saying: "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. " At the same time the Holy Spirit, under the form of a dove, rested on the head of Jesus. Behold, the three adorable persons of the Blessed Trinity, perfectly distinct. Later on, when Jesus commanded His apostles to go and preach His Gospel throughout the world, He said to them: "Go, teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." These words again reveal the existence of the Holy Trinity. In fact, the design of Our Lord and Saviour was certainly not to baptize the faithful in any other name than that of God, and He indicates three persons in whose name He wishes Baptism to be given. Each of these three persons must, therefore, be truly God, and that could not be unless they were really and absolutely equal among themselves.

There is but one God; this is the foundation of our faith. But this same faith teaches you that the unity of God is fruitful; that the divine nature, without ceasing to be one, is communicated by the Father to the Son, and by the Father and the Son, to the Holy Spirit. Adore, with a respect wholly filial, the mysterious shadow under which God--Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—unveils His majesty to mortal eyes. Be faithful, and a day shall come when you shall contemplate Him without veil or shadow.

Second Point.—-You owe to the Trinity the homage of your respect. " The Holy Trinity is truly God, who reigns in the highest heavens and who fills the whole earth with His majesty. A Being infinitely perfect, to whom all honor, all praise, all glory is due for ever and ever." Strive, therefore, to mingle your voice in the concert of blessed spirits who in the heavenly city sing with unspeakable joy and in profoundest abasement: "Holy, holy, thrice holy is the God of armies!" With them adore the eternal Father, the principle of everything which exists; the eternal Son, equal to His Father; the Holy Spirit, equally eternal, and whom we cannot separate from the two other persons. To the three persons give the same worship, the same adoration; and when in God's temple you shall hear resounding these triumphant words, "Glory be to the Father, to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost," unite your voice to the voice of the Church, and sing with enthusiasm to the glory of the august Trinity.

Third Point.
—You owe to the Holy Trinity the homage of your love. Everything, in the Church, is done in the name of the Trinity. It is in this name that the august sacrifice of the New Law is offered. The priest at the foot of the altar makes the sign of the cross while pronouncing the names of the three adorable Persons of the Holy Trinity. It is in this name that you have been regenerated at the sacred font of Baptism, and it is in this name that the priest restores you to grace in the Sacrament of Penance. The Church puts this sacred name on your lips at the beginning of all your prayers and all your acts, by these august words: "In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." How often, perhaps, it has happened that you pronounced these words without thinking of what you said! Accustom yourself, therefore, to pronounce them henceforth with sentiments which should arise in every Christian heart. "In the name of the Father." He it is who has created us; by a single word He could reduce this world to the nothingness from which He has drawn it. With what respect should we be filled when pronouncing a name which recalls such grandeur and so many blessings? "In the name of the Son." This name recalls all that is tenderest in love, most generous in devotion and most lovable in virtue. While pronouncing this ever-blessed name, you place your hand on your heart, as if you would say to the Son that you love Him. Oh, may this sign be the expression of truth and not a vain ceremony "In the name of the Holy Ghost." It is the Holy Ghost who has sanctified the world; it is in Him, as the source, that grace dwells, or, rather, grace is nothing else than the Holy Spirit Himself. He resides in you as the pledge of your divine adoption He prays for you in terms which no human tongue can express. When you speak His name, ask of Him the grace never to sadden His heart by resisting His holy inspirations.

Fourth Point.
— You owe it to the Holy Trinity to retrace their image in yourself. This image God Himself has deigned to engrave in your soul, since Holy Scripture tells you that God made man to His
own image and likeness. If, by imposing silence on your senses, you consider yourself intimately for a few moments, you will easily find the traits of this glorious resemblance. Our soul is simple; God is one, and still there are in Him three things really distinct. As the Father, our soul has being; as the Son, it has intelligence; as the Holy Ghost, it has love. Like the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, our souls have in their being, in their intelligence, in their love the same happiness and the same life (Bossuet). This likeness, which is only commenced in us, must be perfected by retracing in our soul and in our conduct, as far as the weakness of our poor nature shall allow, the divine perfections. It is to perform this glorious work that Jesus calls us in these words: "Be ye perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect." And thus the Christian, on his way to perfection, can find no resting- place: he must "grow constantly from virtue to virtue," until he arrives, as St. Paul says, to " the plenitude of the perfect man, which is in Christ Jesus."

O my God, I love to contemplate Thee in the unity of Thy nature and in the Trinity of Thy persons. No mystery reveals to me better than this one Thy grandeur and my nothingness. The less I understand Thee, the more I adore Thee. The most worthy use I can make of my reason is to annihilate myself before Thee. It is the joy of my mind, the charm of my weakness to feel myself overwhelmed by Thy greatness. May I, O my God, by my fidelity in adoring Thee in the shadows of faith, merit to contemplate Thee face to face, and without veil or shadow, in the city of the elect.

Source: Short Instructions on the Feasts of the Year, Imprimatur 1897


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Catholic Homeschool Planner Survey

6/14/2019

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Dear Readers I've been thinking of putting together a Catholic Homeschool Teachers Planner.  If you would be interested in one could you please leave me comments on this post as to what kind of things you would like in it?  Such as: Curriculum to use, to-do lists, year at a glance calendar, monthly calendars, chore charts, menu planner, etc.....


I look forward to your comments, thank you for your time! 

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Corpus Christi - The Institution of the Feast and Our Duties

6/12/2019

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 WE celebrate today one of the most beautiful feasts of the Catholic Church. Let us meditateon the motives which have induced the Church to institute it, and the duties it imposes on us. . . .

First Point.—Motives of the Church in instituting the feast of Corpus Christi. The principal motive of the Church in instituting a feast in which she surrounds the God of the Eucharist with so much magnificence, when she commands her ministers to carry Him in triumph about the streets of cities and villages, is to make Him reparation for all the outrages that He receives in the august sacrament of His love on the part of bad Christians. Jesus, having wished to constitute Himself a prisoner of love in the holy tabernacles; Jesus, having given us the sacrament of His body and blood for our nourishment, our support, and our consolation here below, should only receive the homage of our adoration and the tribute of our gratitude. Instead of this He is often the object of outrages which are most painful to His heart, by profanations, sacrileges, and the irreverences of which we make ourselves guilty. In consequence of these profanations, the Holy Eucharist, instituted essentially to honor the body of the Saviour, becomes for this very body a mystery of humiliation and ignominy.

Yes, the body of the Saviour suffers from us in the Eucharist a thousand times more than it suffered on the part of the Jews in His Passion In the Passion He only suffered for a time, but here He is exposed to suffer to the end of time. In His Passion He suffered only as much as Jesus wished it, and because He wished it, but here He suffers, so to speak, by violence and by force. If He suffered in His passion, He was in a state of suffering and mortal nature, but here He suffers in a state of impassibility. What He suffered in His Passion was glorious to God and salutary for man, but here what He suffers is injurious to man and to God. What a powerful motive to awaken and excite all your piety for this great mystery? This feast is one of gratitude for the voluntary humiliations of Jesus in the Eucharist. Place yourself for a moment at the foot of the tabernacle which contains your God, and strive to understand to what humiliations He has devoted Himself for love of you. Humiliations in the solitude to which He is condemned. When He was born at Bethlehem He had the two cherubim of the manger to adore Him, Mary and Joseph, then the shepherds, and, finally, the Wise Men; here almost always He is alone, His temples are deserted, a solitary lamp which swings before the tabernacle is only too often the only homage He receives. Humiliations in the obscurity of His Eucharistic life. He is concealed in the tabernacle; He lives there unknown to the world, as He once lived in the house of Joseph. Humiliations in His state of dependence. Even as formerly He was submissive to Joseph and Mary, so in the Eucharist He is submissive to the commands of the priest. The priest calls Him from heaven and causes Him to descend; he encloses Him in the tabernacle and makes Him come out from it; he takes Him in his hands, lifts Him up, puts Him down, carries Him to the sick; distributes Him to the people, gives Him to children and even to sinners. Jesus obeys, and always obeys. Humiliations in His state of annihilation. Was there ever one more complete? At Bethlehem, He was born in a state of complete indigence. The humanity veiled the divinity, but a miraculous star revealed His presence; if He leads in the midst of the people a painful and laborious life, in contempt and contradictions, all His steps are marked by prodigies and His humiliations do not conceal the Master of the world, since He is recognized by His miracles.

If He dies on the cross, His last sigh makes the world tremble, and countless prodigies reveal in the dying man the Son of the Most High. But how shall we recognize a God in the God of our temples? In the Holy Eucharist, Jesus not only conceals His divinity, but His very humanity has disappeared, and we see realized the words of the apostle with especial energy: "He is annihilated." On today the Church strives to efface many humiliations; she does not wish that the God of the Eucharist should be an unknown God; she withdraws Him from the sanctuary where He reposes, from the enclosure of the temples which contain Him; she carries Him through the streets of the cities, she adores and avows Him as her God. In fine, to set off the display of triumph destined to her King, she puts forth all that is majestic in her august ceremonies, the most sumptuous in her treasures; she strips the earth of its flowers; she borrows from profane vanity its luxury and its pomp, happy to testify to her heavenly Spouse her love and her gratitude.

Second Point.—Our duties on this blessed day. The occupation of a Christian soul on this solemnity
should be to enter into the sentiments of the Church, and with her to honor the body of the Saviour. And what is it to honor the body of the Saviour? It is to give Him all the worship which it can receive from us in the Sacrament of the Altar. It is to imitate Magdalene, who had a particular zeal for this sacred body, watering it with her tears, wiping it with her hair, and spreading on it sweetest perfumes. After her example, you should often prostrate yourself in the presence of this sacred body,
and there offer to it a thousand sacrifices of praise, a thousand interior adorations, a thousand homages, and a thousand acts of thanksgiving. You should say to it sometimes, with a lively faith and with ardent devotion: "Divine Body, Thou hast been the price of my salvation; what should I not do to glorify Thee ? The heretic despises Thee, the impious outrage Thee, but as for me, O my God, I am happy to offer to Thee the incense of my prayer and the homage of my love." Such are the sentiments which should animate you; and because the body of Jesus shall be today carried in triumph, your duty is to contribute to the pomp of this triumph, and to all the extent of your power. You are so fond of a thousand superfluities which serve only for luxury and vanity; there it is that you can sanctify them, by consecrating them to the body of your God, by employing them to enrich the vessels which contain Him and to embellish the tabernacles where He is enclosed, and to adorn His oratories where He remains. You are so careful of your bodies; you love so much to adorn them and to clothe them, and for this purpose you spare no expense ! But your body, that body infected by sin, that body which shall soon be only dust and corruption should it be dearer to you than the body of Christ?

In fine, because the body of the Son of God is taken out of its temples and carried in triumph, what does the Christian soul do? She follows Him in His triumph and gives herself as an escort. This is what the Spirit of God divinely expresses in the spouse of the canticles. She says she has sought her well-beloved in the place where he is accustomed to take his repose; but, she adds, not having found him, she has taken the resolution to go out, to go into the streets and places of the city to seek him. The guards and the officers of the city have met her; she perceives him in their midst, and at once she runs to him and she does not leave him until she has led him to the house of her mother. This spouse is the faithful soul. Today she seeks the Saviour of the world in His tabernacle, and she does not find Him there. She then goes through the streets and public places to see if He shall be there. He is there; in fact, she meets Him surrounded by guards and ministers who carry Him with honor, and the whole people make His countless court. She casts herself at His feet, she adores Him, she follows Him with her eyes, she does not leave Him until He enters the temple, which is really the house of her mother. Imitate her, and strive to pay to your adorable King the just tribute of your love and your gratitude.

Source: Short Instructions on the Feasts of the Year, Imprimatur 1897






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Pentecost Sunday - On the Mystery

6/12/2019

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TODAY the Church commemorates the descent of the Holy Ghost on the apostles. There can ... be nothing more interesting for us to know than the dispositions which are required to receive Him and the effects which He produces in those who receive Him.

First Point.—Dispositions required to receive the Holy Spirit. The first is recollection. The Holy Spirit Himself tells us that He leads into solitude the soul with whom He wishes to speak. God cannot communicate Himself to a disturbed or agitated soul. The apostles were in retreat when the Holy Spirit descended upon them. And hence we conclude that everything which disturbs the soul preoccupies the heart, and consequently is an obstacle to the communications of the Holy Spirit and to the support and strength of the Christian life. The reading of romances, the frequentation of worldly assemblies, a love for plays are, therefore, incompatible with a spirit of piety. And it is for this reason that Jesus in His Gospel condemns all these diversions. The world is astounded at this reprobation, and accuses the Gospel of too great severity. Perhaps you yourself have thought and spoken as the world of this matter; but think of the levity and injustice of this language, in comparing the disturbance produced by romances, balls, and spectacles with the recollection required for the holy and sweet communications of the Divine Spirit.

Vigilance is the second disposition required to receive the Holy Spirit. When the days of Pentecost were accomplished, says the Sacred Text, "a sound from heaven was heard, as of a mighty wind coming." It is in a sudden and unlooked-for way that grace knocks at the door of our heart, and that the Holy Spirit communicates Himself to a soul. He does not consult our time, but we should await His time of coming. St. Paul was suddenly stricken to the earth while on his way to Damascus. It was suddenly that the mysterious star appeared to the Wise Men. We should, therefore, be attentive to the
movements of the Holy Spirit; want of vigilance would cause us to lose a multitude of graces which would sanctify us. It is this want of vigilance in studying the secret movements of grace that each day permits us to miss a thousand happy occasions of performing acts of virtue; our resolutions remain sterile, and our most sacred promises are never realized. But do we not make them in good faith? Unquestionably our desire is sincere, but it is inefficacious because we forget them at the moment when we should keep them. If we are exposed to humiliation, this would be an occasion for us to make an act of humility. If an injury be done us, this would offer an opportunity for making an act of love. Perhaps we may meet with a disappointment, some opposition, or some suffering; this should be the moment for making an act of patience. Unfortunately, natural impressions precede reflection, and we become unfaithful when, with greater vigilance, we should have acquired a new merit for heaven.

The third condition for receiving the Holy Spirit is to ask it by fervent prayer. "He will give the good spirit to them that ask Him." Grace comes from heaven; therefore we should seek it there, since it is from there we must expect it. Attract the Holy Spirit to you by the profound conviction of your misery and your weakness, by the earnestness of your desires, and by the knowledge which you have of the need of His gifts. Let your soul be before Him as the parched earth, which, by its very dryness, seems to implore the dews of heaven. The apostles were engaged in prayer when they received the Holy Spirit. Then imitate them, pray with fervor, and in asking for the Holy Spirit you ask for the source of all gifts.

Second Point.—The effects of the Holy Spirit. The principal effects of the Holy Spirit are indicated in the Epistle of today. He comes like a mighty wind. As the wind drives before it straw and dust and renews the corrupted air, so the Holy Spirit drives away all carnal -affections, earthly desires, worldly thoughts, and every evil from the heart. He overthrows all idols and breaks every bond; He purifies the atmosphere of the soul and expels the miasms of sin. He filled the whole house. He filled the cenacle in which the apostles were assembled. These expressions should make us understand with what abundance the Holy Spirit communicates His gifts. He fills the Church with them, and enriches her with every virtue and every grace. He showers His gifts on the faithful soul and with as great a liberality as He finds perfect dispositions. Therefore open to Him all the avenues of your soul, widen and extend all her faculties, that He may enrich her with all His gifts.

The Holy Spirit rested on the apostles in the form of tongues of fire. This circumstance reveals to you two principal effects of the Holy Spirit, viz. : He enlightens and gives warmth at the same time. What is more worthy of admiration than the lights which He caused to shine on the intelligence of the apostles? What knowledge of the Holy Scriptures? What intelligence concerning the highest mysteries Jesus had said to them: "I have much more to communicate to you, but you are not capable of understanding now; but when the Spirit of truth shall come, He shall reveal everything to you. " His words were verified to the letter. Men so slow to believe and so densely ignorant have hardly received the Holy Spirit, than they astonish the most learned by their profound science; at length they understand what another Teacher had said to them when they could not comprehend His teachings:
"Blessed are they that mourn, blessed are they that suffer persecution for justice." These truths, which are so opposed to all the sentiments of nature and to all the prejudices of the world, are now believed and accepted, from the first day, by three thousand persons.

Oh how great is the power of the Holy Spirit He whom the Holy Scriptures call the most beautiful among the children of men, He "who went about doing good," in spite of His virtues and benefits could only win to Himself a small number of disciples; but at the first preaching of St. Peter three thousand men became Christians! This is what the Holy Spirit has done for the world. And while He enlightens the intelligence, the Holy Spirit warms and inflames the heart. He is the Spirit of love as well as the Spirit of truth. Of all the sentiments which agitate the human heart, love is the most powerful. Read the lives of the saints. What self-abnegation we see in their lives! What zeal for the glory of their heavenly Father! What charity for their brethren! With what energy did they repress temptations, and with what contempt did they trample under foot all the seductions of the world! What devotion in the apostles, what patience in the martyrs, and what purity in the virgins! Where shall we look for the principle of all these wonders? We shall find it in the divine love with which the Holy Spirit filled their hearts. But you, oh, how weak you are, and how cowardly ! And whence comes it? Either you do not love at all or you do not love enough. Conjure the Holy Spirit, therefore, to come into your heart and to bless you ask of Him to plant His grace deeply in your heart, that He may make known to you all those titles which God has for your gratitude, and may that gratitude lead you to love.

Source: Short Instructions on the Feasts of the Year, Imprimatur 1897


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The Ascension - On the Mystery

6/12/2019

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FORTY days after His resurrection, Jesus gathered His disciples together. St. Paul assures us. . . that they numbered fully five hundred. Then Jesus led them to the mountain of Olives, and after blessing them He disappeared from them, rising majestically to heaven. If we seek to know why Jesus returned to Heaven, we shall find He returned for Himself and for us.

First Point.—It is for Himself and for His own glory that Jesus triumphantly ascended to heaven. Bossuet says: "As a prince who has on hand a great war against a foreign nation quits his kingdom for a time to go forth and combat his enemies in their own country, and when the expedition shall have ended he shall return with superb display into the capital city of his own country, his followers and his chariots adorned by the spoils from the conquered people; so the Son of God, our King, wishing
to overthrow the reign of the demon who by an insolent usurpation was boldly declared the prince of the world, has Himself descended from heaven to earth to conquer this irreconcilable enemy. Having deposed him from his throne by arms of the weakest kind were they in other hands than His, there was nothing else to do than to return triumphantly to heaven, which is the place of His origin and the principal seat of His royalty." It is, then, Jesus marching royally to the throne of His glory whom you are now considering. What a grand and magnificent spectacle! How different He is on this day, the high and powerful Lord, from what you have hitherto seen Him? His departure from the earth is very different from His entrance into the world. Then He manifested Himself in His infirmity; He was little; He was born as the children of men are born; He, the King of heaven and earth, descended into a stable. We see Him weak, and His mother Mary carrying Him in her arms; He was subject to the needs of our body, and experienced hunger, thirst, fatigue, and sufferings. He was a man—not the primitive man, ruling the earth, happy, immortal; but, apart from sin, a man like to fallen man: that is to say, a man of sorrows, despised, beaten, outraged; a mortal man obliged to submit to an ignominious death, the death of the cross. Many of those who saw Him in that degradation did not know Him. Jerusalem remained indifferent when the Wise Men came to speak to Him; Samaria closed her gates against Him; Nazareth wished to cast Him from the high hills on which she was built, and the doctors of the law laughed at Him when He answered them. The Pharisees calumniated Him, the synagogues expelled Him, and the whole people cried out, "Crucify Him!" But today Jesus avenges His sacred humanity on all their degradations, all their outrages, and He manifests Himself glorious and triumphant in the eyes of the whole universe.

The cross of Jesus has ceased to be a scandal for the Jews. They wished for a glorious Messias. Is He, then, without glory—He who conquered death, and, having accomplished His mission on earth, returns to heaven in magnificence? He is more splendid than Solomon in all his glory, stronger than David in battles, more beautiful than Absalom in the flower of his youth, more holy than Enoch and Elias, who were taken up from earth. His body, which had been placed and sealed in a sepulchre, had undergone a glorious transformation; His face shone as the sun; His vestments were white as snow; His reed sceptre is changed to a sceptre of command; His crown of thorns is replaced by an aureola of light; at His feet are His disciples, and above His head legions of angels are descending: the earth is silent before Him, and the elements await His command; a docile cloud lowers about His feet, and He ascends—ascends into the heavens, leaving Judea, Bethlehem, Nazareth, and Calvary, and to take in exchange possession of the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of Sion, the kingdom of His Father! Arise, then, Lord, above the heavens, and let Thy glory shine throughout the whole earth. As for me, Lord Jesus, my King and my Master, I am proud of my name of Christian; on this day, especially, when Thou coverest all the humiliations of man with the strength and the omnipotence of God.

Second Point.—Jesus returns to heaven in our interest. It is, first, to prepare a place for us. The gates of heaven had been closed by the sin of Adam and no one could enter there, before the divine Mediator. Even the just of the Old Law, the Abels, the Abrahams, and the Jacobs, these men so famous in our sacred books for the splendor of their virtues and their lively faith, awaited in Limbo for the day of their deliverance; and it is today that they enter heaven with Jesus. Henceforth the gates of the Holy City are open to us: let immortal thanks be given to our blessed Saviour! He has marked out the way for us by His lessons, by His precepts, and by His examples while He lived on earth; to-day He has thrown the gates wide open for us. He is there our Precursor. From His sojourn of glory, He extends His hands to us and calls us to Him. He said to His apostles: "I go to prepare a place for you." But this place shall not be for us, except we merit it.

Jesus ascends to heaven, and there occupies a throne at the right hand of His Father, to serve us as Advocate and Intercessor before God. And so He quits the earth, but does not abandon us. In the sojourn of His glory He loves us still, and His blood pleads for us. As the always-living Mediator, He intercedes in our behalf. It is through Him we have access to the heavenly Father. By His prayers He gives to our prayers a value; by His thanksgiving, our gratitude is acceptable; by His oblations, our sacrifices are made worthy; by His sorrows, our penance is valuable; by His sufferings, our mortifications are efficacious; and by His expiations, our satisfaction is complete. It is in union with His merits that our feeble works become meritorious. The eternal Mediator between God and man continues in heaven the ministry which He exercised on the cross. It is He who has prompted St. John to say: "Be consoled, my children, and do not despair; if you have sinned, remember that you have in heaven an Advocate, who is all-powerful and who shall plead your cause before God."

Jesus has ascended to heaven to send us the Holy Ghost, whose mission it shall be to complete the work of redemption. The effusion of the Holy Spirit on earth, His visible descent on the apostles, are the recompense of the Passion of Jesus on the cross. He could not be given, therefore, until the Sovereign Priest had consummated His sacrifice in heaven. "For as yet the Spirit was not given, because Jesus was not yet given" (John vii.). Moreover, Jesus had formally declared that, "if I do not go, the Holy Spirit shall not come, but if I go, I shall send Him to you."

O my amiable Master, since Thy entrance into heaven must have such precious results, then quit this earth : enter heaven to fulfill there the ministry of Mediator; appease divine justice, which I have so often angered by my crimes, and grant me the grace of imitating Thee on earth, that I may possess Thee and contemplate Thee eternally in heaven.

Source: Short Instructions on the Feasts of the Year, Imprimatur 1897


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6th Sunday after Easter - The Holy Ghost

6/12/2019

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 TO appreciate fully how great is the love which Jesus manifests for us in promising us the . . . Holy Ghost, it is necessary to know what is the ministry of the Holy Spirit in the Church and in the hearts of the faithful.

First Point.—The ministry of the Holy Spirit in the Church. Our divine Saviour attributes to Him three principal functions. He is the Consoler, and the Church calls Him "the best Consoler." Never has any one merited this title more than He. There is not among men a single one who has not fallen into misfortune. Where shall man turn for consolation? His very friends fly from him, even as the birds of passage depart at the approach of winter. If some should strive to console him, they can only exhort him to patience and speak of the necessity of suffering. This necessity is incontestible, without doubt, but it is truly disheartening when suffering is separated from religion; for then sufferings have neither principle, nor end, nor recompense. But, on the contrary, we find greatest consolation in suffering when it is viewed in the light of the Holy Spirit. And how does this happen? Because the Holy Spirit reveals to the unfortunate sufferers that the true cause of sorrow is in the sins which have been committed; because He makes sufferings glorious, since they give to him who suffers a trait of resemblance to Jesus; because sufferings may become a means of expiation for sin and, consequently, a means of attaining the happiness of heaven. It is the special office of the Holy Spirit to accord us these sublime consolations, and He only has the power to make us taste them.

The Holy Spirit is called by Jesus the Spirit of Truth. He merits this title because it is He who is the Author of all truth; it is He who propagates and spreads it; it is He who convinces the intelligence of man and makes him receive it. The law of Moses clearly pointed out the duty, but it did not afford strength to put this duty in practice. The world proclaims the eulogy of virtue, but this sterile admiration gives no aid to the heart, which is left to its own weakness. It belongs to the Holy Spirit only to reveal to us all truth, and to render it lovable and easy for us. See the apostles; think of their ignorance with regard to the mystery of the cross. It was for them an "unintelligible word," but hardly had they received the Holy Spirit than they understood the happiness of sufferings. They considered themselves happy to have endured ignominy for the name of Jesus. Had not Jesus already said: "Blessed are they who suffer persecutions for justice's sake"? These were new sentiments, which had
hitherto been unknown. This truth was too deep for the apostles—" You cannot bear it now." The Holy Spirit was necessary. It was His mission to enlighten their intelligence, and to make them taste the maxims which take away all the repugnances of nature. The same ignorance still exists. Carnal minds revolt at the obscurity of our mysteries; sinners do not see the abyss open at their feet; even many pious people do not understand Christian life. They all need the light of the Holy Spirit. If you wish to receive Him, correct in yourself every disposition which would render you unworthy of His holy communications. The Holy Spirit must give testimony to Jesus. He gives this testimony in a most splendid manner, in manifesting His divinity by countless prodigies.

On the very day when the Holy Spirit descended on the apostles they were transformed into other men. St. Peter preached his Master and his God before multitudes of different peoples whom the solemnity of the day had assembled at Jerusalem, and all heard him speak in their own native tongue. The most splendid miracles attest the divine mission of the apostles and the divinity of Him who sent them. These poof "fishermen, without the study of human sciences, without credit, without the art of eloquence, undertook the conversion of the world; and in spite of prejudices and persecutions, in spite of obstacles humanly insurmountable, the greatest success crowned their efforts. Legions of virgins triumphed over the corruption of the pagan world by their purity; millions of martyrs died in testimony of the divinity of the Christian faith. In spite of all the efforts of the mighty ones, all the resources of genius, all the artifices of sophistry, all the revolts of passion, the Church was established and developed, and continued her triumphant march along the ages. Behold how the Holy Spirit has rendered, and still renders, testimony to Jesus, the Saviour of the world.

Second Point.—The ministry of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of the faithful. He exercises three principal functions in us: He brings us forth to Christian life, He sanctifies us, and He gives us the pledge of our divine affiliation. He brings us forth to Christian life. At the beginning, God the Father called the world from nothingness; on the cross, the Incarnate Word reformed man by His blood; in the Church, the Holy Spirit creates this supernatural life, which absorbs in the Christian all that there
is there of the old Adam, even to his name of man, and makes of him a creature wholly new. The Church proclaims these admirable effects of the Holy Spirit by her enthusiastic chants: "Come, Spirit Creator—send Thy Holy Spirit and renew the face of the earth." But where is this new creation wrought? At first in Baptism, and then, if we should lose this precious life, in the Sacrament of Penance, when the Holy Spirit returns it to us by His grace. The Holy Spirit sanctifies us. He is the love which unites the Father and the Son; He personifies, in a manner, the love of God for us. He it is who is the Source of all graces, or, rather, He is grace itself. In the same manner as the just man who rejoices in grace is the living temple of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit dwells in him as a lovable guest
-- dulcis hospes animce. It is from Him good inspirations come which prompt us to good works, and those holy inspirations which keep us from evil. It is His strength which sustains us in combats, and His light which removes our doubts. It is His charity which encourages the Christian to practice the most heroic virtues, and it is by Him that the just attain the most sublime perfection.

The sanctification of man is attributed to the Holy Spirit particularly, as the creation is attributed to the Father, and the redemption to the Son. And thus it is that the august Trinity is wholly engaged in procuring our happiness. The Holy Spirit gives us a pledge of our divine affiliation. This is the very teaching of St. Paul. Listen to his admirable words, and then you can comprehend the nobility which your vocation to the faith gives you. He writes to the faithful at Ephesus: "You have been marked by the Holy Spirit, who is the seal of the promise and the pledge of the heavenly inheritance. Never forget that you are the temples of God and that the Holy Spirit dwells in you" (Acts). And read what he writes to the Romans: "You have not received the spirit of bondage again in fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption of sons, whereby we cry, My Father. For the Spirit Himself gives testimony to our spirit, that we are the sons of God." And if we are sons, we are also heirs, yes, heirs of God and co-heirs of Jesus. See, therefore, what magnificent destinies await us. Pray to the Holy Spirit that He may render you worthy, not only to see Him, but to realize Him fully.

Source: Short Instructions on the Feasts of the Year, Imprimatur 1897


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5th Sunday after Easter - On Prayer

6/12/2019

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 THE reproach which Jesus makes to His disciples, in the Gospel of today, for not having prayed. . . in His name, must reveal to us the reason that the prayers of so many Christians, and yours in particular, are fruitless. The reason is, they do not pray, and you do not pray, in the name of Jesus. Strive, therefore, to understand how you should pray, and to pray in the name of the adorable Master.

First Point
.—To pray in the name of Jesus is to pray in virtue of His merits and in union with Him. We are, after all, only sinful men, and we only merit the anger of Heaven; so that when God deigns to hear us it is not through any merit of ours, but it is solely in consideration of Jesus His Son. He is the powerful Mediator between God and man, He is the eternal Intercessor before His Father, He constantly offers our prayers to Him, and thus secures for them a favorable acceptance. Nothing is agreeable to God except what comes to Him through His divine Son. When our prayers are presented by Him, when they are united and, as it were, incorporated with His, they then become, in a manner, divine prayers. It is not we, properly speaking, whom God hears, but Jesus who prays for us and with us, and hence the efficacy of prayer offered in His name. God, who owes us nothing, can refuse nothing to His Son.

And so at every instant the benefits of redemption are applied to each of our actions. Jesus on earth was our Redeemer; in heaven He is our Intercessor, and, on His heavenly throne He consummates the grand work which He began on the cross. He has not ceased to shed His blood for us, except to offer it continually in our behalf. This teaching, which is at once consoling and encouraging, shows us our blessed Saviour standing between His Father and us; in one hand He offers Him our prayers and in the other He brings us His graces. He is all-powerful before God because of His merits, and over our hearts, to make us acquire them. The apostles did not yet know this consoling dogma of the mediatorship of Jesus. Hitherto they had prayed, as all the other Jews had prayed, in their faith in the Messias. By commanding them to pray, henceforth, in His name, the divine Master began to reveal to them His character of Mediator. But you, who know this truth so well, approach your heavenly Father; clothed by the merits of your Saviour, pray in His name, being fully assured that you shall be heard. The promise of Jesus is most formal: "Everything that you shall ask the Father in My name shall be given you."

Second Point.—To pray in the name of Jesus is to ask what He wishes we should ask. As there are two kinds of goods, spiritual and temporal, there are also two kinds of legitimate objects which we may request, but the rules of prayer are not the same for both. Certainly we are not forbidden to ask God for temporal goods. In the prayer which Jesus Himself has dictated to us He makes us ask for our daily bread, and the Church, enlightened by His spirit, implores fruitfulness for the earth, regularity of the seasons, the health of the atmosphere, the prosperity of States, and universal peace. Let us also ask, with her, all these blessings, but let us ask them as she does. We should observe in our
prayers the order the Church follows and the end she proposes.

The order which the Church follows is according to the precept of her divine Founder. She begins her prayer by asking for the kingdom of God and His justice; her petitions for earthly things are only secondary.

The end which the Church proposes in her prayers. She does not ask the goods of the present life, except in so far as they may be conducive to salvation. These are the only prayers in the temporal order which may be made in the name of Jesus. The mission of our divine Saviour, His labors, His sufferings, and His pains were only for our sanctification. It would, then, be a gross error to think of applying to objects which are foreign to salvation those merits of Jesus which have only our salvation for their object and aim. As for prayers in the spiritual order, they can be general or particular. We may ask in general for our salvation and the graces which shall be conducive for it, or we may solicit a special and distinct grace. The first kind of prayer is at all times and under every circumstance assured of its effect. The promise of Jesus applies to it in all its extent and without restriction or reserve of any kind. God wishes our salvation as much and more than we do so that when we ask of Him, in the name of Jesus, that which enables us to gain our salvation we are certain to obtain it. Sometimes the request of a special grace, as the conversion of a parent, thenreformation of a defect, is not heard; it is because God knows best what is advantageous for us. That which we desire as our greatest good may be perhaps opposed to a greater good, of which we are ignorant, or may be prejudicial to us in a way we do not perceive. Again, it is the infinite goodness of God which refuses us. In vain did the great St. Paul ask of God three times to be delivered from the angel of Satan, who tormented him. This trial was useful for him, since the magnificent revelations with which he was favored were not occasions of pride and destruction for him. God Himself assured him that His grace was sufficient, and that his virtue should be perfected by temptations.

Third Point.—To pray in the name of Jesus is to ask as He wishes us to ask, viz., with purity of heart, humility, confidence, perseverance, and attention. Prayer should come from a heart which is pure and exempt from sin. The sinner has lost all the rights which the merits of Jesus had acquired for him to the grace of salvation. One prayer only can serve him, and it is the prayer of penance; there remains but one grace to implore, arid that is pardon. Every other shall be useless for him and shall be refused. If, then, you have had the misfortune to sin, beg before everything, by your most ardent supplications, the grace of your pardon, and that only shall render you worthy to receive other graces.

The second condition of prayer is humility. " The prayer of the humble man shall penetrate the clouds." The impious Achab at last humbled himself before God, and by this act alone he obtained that the thunders of the heavenly anger, already suspended above his head, should be turned away. Is it possible for us to have an idea of prayer and be ignorant of this fundamental rule? Why, arrogance in prayer is not only a vice—it is contradiction, it is a madness! Would some great one of the earth receive a request which should be asked with pride? The very need which leads us to the feet of the King of kings should make us also feel our dependence on Him.

Confidence is the third condition of prayer. A man would feel injured if you should doubt his word. Your doubts are then an outrage against God. And of what are you uncertain? Is it of His fidelity, or is it of His power? Put no limit to your hopes; He has placed none to His engagements. You will never please Him by reserved or timid requests. Fearlessly ask the most excellent gifts. If it is a virtue you need, ask that it be perfect; if it is a victory, ask that it may be complete ; if it is the pardon of your sins, then ask for the entire remission of them. Divine munificence is the contrary of human liberality: the more you ask, the more you have a right to obtain.

The fourth quality of prayer is perseverance. Jesus promises that prayer made in His name shall be heard, but He has not designated the time. He engages Himself to grant every request, but not as soon as you have formulated your demands. Often, on the contrary, He seems not to hear you, but this is precisely to test your faith, your patience, your humility, and your fervor. And, after all, are not
the graces of God sufficiently precious and worthy of being asked for long and often?

Attention is the fifth condition of prayer. Without attention there can be no prayer. The most necessary act of religion cannot be a purely exterior practice. Can we, in good faith, persuade ourselves that we love God, and implore Him, and return Him thanks, and yet without thinking of Him? That which essentially constitutes prayer, the prayer which God hears, is not a mere sound which comes from the mouth and is lost in the air, but it is the sentiment of the heart which arises to Him. Let us reflect on these different conditions of prayer, and see if we have hitherto prayed in the name of Jesus.

Source: Short Instructions on the Feasts of the Year, Imprimatur 1897

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