NECESSARY MEDITATION

 

The first thing we can obtain by meditating on the cross and virtues of our Savior is a profound repentance for our sins, which caused His Passion and Death, a great desire to make amends for the offenses we have committed against Him, and a continuous effort to achieve the conversion of sinners.

The second thing we must do when meditating on the passion and cross of the Redeemer is to confidently ask for forgiveness for all our faults, convinced that He suffered atrocious torments to obtain our pardon. Remembering them, we should feel a true hatred and disgust towards our wickedness and a great love towards the One who suffered so much to save us.

The third thing must be to strive with all our will to remove from our heart and suppress in our life the unjust inclinations that lead us to sin.

The fourth thing we propose is to imitate the admirable virtues of Jesus, who, as St. Peter says, "suffered for us, leaving us an example that we should follow in His footsteps" (1 Peter 2:21).

— Fr. Lorenzo Scupoli, Spiritual Combat

MEDITATING ON THE CROSS

Great are the advantages to be derived from meditating on the Cross, the first of which is, not only a detestation of past sins, but also the firm resolution to fight against our ever present disorderly appetites, which crucified our Savior. 

The second advantage is the forgiveness of sins, obtained from Jesus crucified, and a wholesome self-contempt which inspires us forever to forsake offending Him, and continually to love and serve Him with all our hearts in acknowledgment of what He suffered for our sakes. 

The third is the unceasing labor with which we root out all depraved habits, however trivial they may appear. 

The fourth consists in our ardent efforts to imitate our Divine Master, who, according to Saint Peter, "suffered for us, leaving us an example so that we could follow in His footsteps" (1P 2, 21).

Father Lorenzo Scupoli – Spiritual Combat

WORDS TO PONDER

 

Next Occasion of Sin

“Do you want to correct yourself of your faults? Anticipate and avoid the occasions in which you have succumbed; if you do not do this, the same causes will produce the same effects. Examine your life and you will see that the occasions and the dangerous companies are the ones that, every day, make you relapse into the same sins. A pilot does not approach but trembling to the place where before he was shipwrecked; a convalescent does not even dare to touch the fruit that made him sick; only the sinner looks for the occasions that lost him. What need is there to go to such a part, where each day it is necessary to overcome or perish?”

San Jerome

TO PUT OURSELVES NEEDLESSLY IN AN NEAR OCCASION OF SIN, CONSTITUTES A MORTAL SIN IN ITSELF.

The Weakness of the Catholic is Prayer Badly Made: it Causes Spiritual Anaemia

What is at risk in this life is Heaven or Hell for all eternity after death.

Prayer, explains St. John Damascene [De Fide Orthod. 1, 3, c.24], is: "Ascensus mentis in Deum" (the elevation of the soul towards God).

The holiness of life comes from God [Holy of Holies], during prayer the good Catholic rises to God, that is why the prayer in grace and a friendship with God is extremely desirable, for the soul rises towards Him [implores, pleads, thanks, talks]. How to understand an elevation towards God with the soul in mortal sin [that has seriously offended God]? It is obvious that it is not the best, a dialogue with whom you have offended and you have not asked for forgiveness.

* Annotations:

1st THE STRENGTH OF THE CATHOLIC IS GOD

A soul united to God by true faith, by the grace and friendship, is very strong, so much so that God himself dwells in the soul of a Catholic in grace. “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word. And my Father will love him and we will come to him and will make our abode with him.” Saint John 14:23

The strength of the Catholic is proven in tribulations and troubles of life; an evident testimony is the martyrdom of the saints at the time of their death: strength, humility, peace, charity.

2nd THE CATHOLIC MUST LIVE UNITED TO GOD

What is at risk in this life is Heaven or Hell for all eternity after death.

The soul has three enemies that will try to take it to hell: the world, the devil and the flesh.

A Catholic, with his good intention, living in mortal sin, is extremely vulnerable: weak, fearful, in danger of being condemned.

3rd THE CATHOLIC BECOMES STRONG IN PRAYER

The source [origin] of grace, of holiness is found in God, that is why He must have the holy doctrine of God, fulfill His holy commandments, constantly rise towards God: That is the way, form and substance of a strong soul of a holy catholic.

"I am the vine: you the branches. He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same beareth much fruit: for without me you can do nothing." Saint John 15:5

4th THE HOLY ROSARY

Brother sinner, if your soul is in danger of condemnation, I ask you to start a change of life through the devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, by slowly praying with attention and devotion the Holy Rosary, remembering that it is a safe means of eternal salvation.

"Even if you were on the edge of the abyss or had one foot in hell, even if you had sold your soul to the devil, even if you were a heretic hardened and stubborn as a demon, sooner or later you will convert, as long as you pray devoutly every day the Holy Rosary until your death.” Saint Louis Marie Grignion de Montfort, The Secret of the Rosary.

5th HOLY ADVICE.

I recommend that you have a special place in your home [it does not matter if it is humble] for praying with a small altar to the Blessed Virgin Mary, a kneeler for you to pray with two candles lit during it.

I advise you that this little place be clean, ventilated, in silence where every day you raise your soul towards God.

God bless you.

“O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to you.

The True Treasures

It is most useful for our salvation to say often to ourselves: I must one day die! The Church every year on Ash Wednesday brings this remembrance to the faithful. This certainty of death is brought to our recollection many times in the year; sometimes by the burial grounds which we pass upon the road, sometimes by the graves which we behold in churches, sometimes by the dead who are carried to burial.

The most precious furniture that was carried by the anchorites to their caves was a cross and a skull; the cross to remind them of the great love of Jesus Christ for us, and the skull to remind them of the day of their own death. And so they persevered in penitential works till the end of their days; and thus dying in poverty in the desert, they died more contented than if they had died as kings in their palaces.

"The end is at hand! The end is at hand! In this life one man lives a longer, another a shorter time; but for everyone sooner or later, the end comes; and when that end comes, nothing will comfort us at death but the thought that we have loved Jesus Christ, and have endured with patience the labors of this life for love of Him.

Then, not the riches we have gained, nor the honors we have obtained, nor the pleasures we have enjoyed, will console us. All the greatness of the world cannot comfort a dying man; it rather adds to his pains; and the more he has gained of it, the more does he suffer.

It was said by Sister Margaret of St. Anne, a very holy Discalced Carmelite, and daughter of the Emperor Rudolph II: "What profit is a kingdom at the hour of death?". Oh, how many worldly persons are there to whom, at the very moment when they are busy in seeking for gain, power, and office, the message of death comes: "Set thy house in order; for thou shalt die, and not live." (Isaias 37:1). Why, O man, hast thou neglected to make thy will till the hour when thou art in sickness? O my God, what pain is suffered by him who is on the point of gaining some lawsuit, or of taking possession of some palace or property, who hears it said by the priest who has come to pray for his soul: Depart, Christian soul, from this world. Depart from this world, and render thy account to Jesus Christ. "But," he cries, "I am not now well prepared." What matters that? Thou must now depart.

O my God, give me light, give me strength to spend the rest of my life in serving and loving Thee. If now I should die, I should not die content; I should die disturbed. What, then, do I wait for? That death should seize me at a moment of the greatest peril to my soul? O Lord, if I have been foolish in the past, I will not be so for the time to come. Now I give myself wholly to Thee; receive me and help me with Thy grace.

In a word, to every one the end comes, and with the end comes that decisive moment on which depends a happy or wretched eternity. Oh, what a moment, on which Eternity depends! Oh, that all would think upon that moment, and the account they must give to their Judge of their whole life! Truly, they would not then devote themselves to amassing riches, nor labor to become great in this perishable world; they would think how to become Saints, and to be great in that life which never ends. If, then, we have Faith, let us believe that there is a Death, a Judgment, an Eternity, and labour for the rest of our life to live only for God. And, therefore, let us take care to live as pilgrims on this earth, remembering that we must speedily leave it. Let us live ever with death before our eyes; and, in all the affairs of life, let us take care to act precisely as we should act at the point of death.

All things upon earth either leave us or we leave them. Let us hear Jesus Christ, Who says: "Lay up for yourselves treasures in Heaven, where neither the rust nor moth doth consume." (Matthew 6:20). Let us despise the treasures of earth, which cannot content us, and speedily end; and let us gain those heavenly treasures which will make us happy and will never end.

Miserable I am, O Lord, in that I have so often, for the sake of the goods of this life, turned my back upon Thee Who art the Infinite Good! I see my folly in having sought for a great name, and for making my fortune in the world. I see what my true happiness is: it is henceforth to love Thee, and in everything to fulfill Thy Will. O my Jesus, take from me the desire of gain; make me love neglect and a humble life. Give me strength to deny myself in everything that displeases Thee. Make me embrace, with a calm mind, infirmities, persecutions, desolations, and all the crosses that Thou mayst send me. Oh, that I could die for the love of Thee, abandoned by all, as Thou didst die for me!

Holy Virgin, Thy prayers can enable me to find my true happiness, which is earnestly to love Thy Son. Oh, pray for me; in Thee I put my trust.

SAINT ALPHONSUS MARIA DE LIGUORI

Which Waw Will We Follow After Lent?

Meditation on the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Taken from THE HOLY HOUR

Written by Fr. Matthew Crawley-Boevey

(1875 – 1960)

"Behold the Heart that has loved men so much... Contemplate It, my children, satiated with opprobrium, in this Host in which It beats, among fires of charity, for you... only for you! And being unable to bear any longer the ardor that consumes It, It has wished to surrender to the very world which has It pierced with the dart of ingratitude... This is the supreme and last resort of my redemption...

Here you have my Heart: I give it to you, I entrust it to you unreservedly, in exchange for yours, sinner and ungrateful... Oh, I am thirsty, I have an immense thirst to be loved, in this Sacrament of the Altar, in which I have been King of Silence, the Monarch of oblivion... But the time has come for my triumphs... I have come to regain Earth... Yes, I will subjugate it, despite Hell, and I will save it by the omnipotence of my Heart. Accept It, I beg you... give me your hands and your soul to receive this supreme gift of my redemptive mercy... I am come to cast fire on the earth, fire of life, of boundless love, fire of holiness, fire of sacrifice, and what will I, but that it be kindled?

Put your eyes on my wounded chest... there you have the Heart that has loved you to the lows of Bethlehem... and more; To the humiliations and darkness of Nazareth... much more so; even to the agonies of Calvary... This is the same Heart that stopped beating on Golgotha, yes, the same, that continues to love in the unquenchable bonfire of the altar... of the Holy Eucharist."

And you refuse to love Me!”

What Is Inside Your Heart? Answer Honestly

It Will Only Come Out Of It What’s Inside

ORANGE JUICE

I was preparing to give a talk and I decided to bring an orange to illustrate what I was going to say. 

I started a conversation with a young man who was sitting in the front row, and I said,

- If I squeezed this orange as hard as I can, what would come out?

He looked at me as if I was silly and said,

- Juice, of course!

- Do you think apple juice would come out of it?

- No! (He said laughing).

- And grapefruit juice?

- No, not grapefruit juice.

- What would come out of it?

- Orange juice, of course.

- Why? Why is it that when I squeeze an orange, orange juice comes out?

- Well, it's an orange and that's what's inside.

I nodded and said,

- True. Let's assume that this orange is not an orange, but it is you and someone squeezes you or puts pressure on you, and tells you something that you don’t like; this offends you and anger, hatred, bitterness and fear come out of you. Why does these come out?

The young man said,

- Because that's what's inside.

This is one of the great lessons in life: What comes out of you when life squeezes you, when someone causes you pain or offends you? If anger, pain and vengeance are the things that come out, it’s because that’s what’s inside. No matter who offends you, whether it is your mother, your brother, your children, your boss, etc.

If someone does or says something to you that you don’t like, what comes out of you is what's inside. When someone squeezes you and love comes out, it’s because that’s what you have allowed to be in you.

Today there is an orange for you and me. Now, we have to reflect what’s inside us, because " the things which proceed out of the mouth, come forth from the heart" [Matt 15:18].

They "squeezed" Jesus and the only things that came out for Him for us were forgiveness, blood of love and mercy. He gave us a living example that, although he was insulted, he was lacerated, humiliated and treated even worse than a criminal, He only gave us love and forgiveness!

What do we do when we are squeezed? What are our actions, words and feelings? Those of Jesus?

"Jesus, meek and humble of heart, make our hearts like unto Thine."

Meditation on the wounds of Christ

I.                    To love Jesus Christ you need only look at the sacred wounds in His feet, hands and adorable side. How could I not love you, O Sweet Jesus, when I see everything You suffered for me? You saved me from Hell by shedding all your blood; You gave me all the merits of your Holy Passion. Let us enter, O my soul, into the Heart of Jesus through the wound in his side; let us talk to Him and listen to what He tells us. Through His wounds, I can see the secrets of His heart.

II.                  Are you tempted by desperation in light of the sins you have committed and the difficulties you encounter on the way to Heaven? Are you prone to pride, lust or any other sin? Take refuge inside the loving wound in Jesus’ side; listen to Him saying: “How could I desire your death, my son, if I died for you? And would you want to offend Me after all the good that I have done for you? If my Father has so severely punished in Me Adam’s sin, would He forgive you if you offend Him?”

III.                Are you afflicted, overwhelmed by sorrow, loaded down with opprobrium, without support and consolation? Take refuge in the Heart of Jesus. In there you will find a safe haven; a consoler and a friend. Confide Him your sorrows, your heartaches, your concerns; tell Him all your sufferings, but, in turn, listen to Him when He tells you about His. He stretches His arms in the cross to embrace you, He opens His Heart to welcome you inside.

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Source of information: Blog CATOLICIDAD, http://www.catolicidad.com/2016/03/las-llagas-de-jesucristo.html