St. Alphonsus Liguori: Daily Meditations for the Sixth Week after Easter

[Stone]

The Rogation Days – Tuesday



Morning Meditation

GOD HAS PLEDGED HIMSELF TO GRANT US SPIRITUAL, NOT TEMPORAL, GOODS

We can expect to obtain only those graces that we ask in the Name and through the merits of Jesus Christ. “But,” says St. Augustine, “if we ask anything hurtful to our salvation it cannot be said to be asked in the Name of the Saviour.” When we see that God does not give us temporal gifts, let us be assured that He refuses them only because He loves us, and because He sees that the things we ask would only injure our spiritual well-being.


I.

Consider that our Lord’s promise to hear our prayers does not apply to our petitions for temporal goods, but only to those for spiritual graces necessary, or at any rate useful, for the salvation of the soul. We can only expect to obtain the graces that we ask in the Name and through the merits of Jesus Christ. “But,” as St. Augustine says, “if we ask anything hurtful to our salvation, it cannot be said to be asked in the Name of the Saviour.” That which is injurious to salvation cannot be expected from the Saviour; God does not and cannot grant it; and why? Because He loves us. A physician who has regard for a sick man will not permit him to have food Which he knows will injure him, And how many people would be prevented from committing the sins they do commit if they were poor or sick! Many people ask for health or riches, but God does not give them, because He sees they would be an occasion of sinning, or at least of growing lukewarm in His service. So, when we ask these temporal gifts, we ought always to add this condition -if they are profitable for our souls. And when we see that God does not give them, let us rest assured that He refuses them only because He loves us, and because He sees that the things we ask would only injure our spiritual well-being.

And often we pray God to deliver us from some troublesome temptation which seeks to induce us to forfeit His grace; but God does not deliver us, in order that our soul may be more closely united in love with Him. It is not temptations or bad thoughts that hurt us, and separate us from God, but consent to evil. When the soul, through the assistance of God’s grace, resists a temptation, it makes a great advance in the way of perfection. St. Paul tells us that he was very much troubled with temptations to impurity, and that he prayed God thrice to deliver him from them: There was given me a sting of my flesh, an angel of Satan to buffet me; for which thing thrice I besought the Lord that it might depart from me. And what did the Lord answer? He told him: It is enough to have My grace: My grace is sufficient for thee-(2 Cor. xii. 7-9). Thus should we, in the temptations which assault us, pray God to deliver us from them, or at least to help us to resist them. And when we thus pray, we should be quite certain that God is already helping us to resist them: Thou didst call upon me in affliction, and I delivered thee. I heard thee in the secret place of tempest-(Ps. lxxx. 8). God often leaves us in the storm for our greater good; but still He hears us in secret, and gives us His grace to strengthen us to resist and to be resigned.


II.

All temporal gifts which are not necessary for salvation ought to be asked conditionally; and if we see that God does not give them, we must feel sure that He refuses them for our greater good. But with regard to spiritual graces, we must be certain that God gives them to us when we ask Him. St. Teresa says that God loves us more than we love ourselves. And St. Augustine has declared that God has a greater desire to give us His grace than we have to receive it: “He is more willing to bestow His favours upon. you than you are desirous of receiving them.” And after him, St. Mary Magdalen de Pazzi has said that God feels a kind of obligation to the soul that prays, and, as it were, says to it: “Soul, I thank thee that thou askest Me for grace.” For then the soul gives God an opportunity of doing good to it, and of thus satisfying His desire of giving His grace to all. And how can it ever happen that God will not hear a soul that asks for the things which He most delights to give? When the soul says: “Lord, I ask Thee not for riches, honours, the goods of this world, but I only beg for Thy grace. Deliver me from sin; give me a good death; give me Paradise; give me Thy love,” which is the grace that, as St. Francis de Sales says, we ought to pray for above all others, “give me resignation to Thy will”-when the soul prays thus, how is it possible that God should refuse to hear it? And what prayers, O my God, wilt Thou ever hear, asks St. Augustine, if Thou hearest not those that are made as Thou wishest them to be made: “If Thou hearest not these, what dost thou hear?” And St. Bernard says that when we ask for spiritual graces of this kind, the desire of obtaining them can only come to us from God Himself; so the Saint turns to God, and says to Him: “Wherefore hast Thou given the desire unless Thou art willing to satisfy it?” But above all, the words of Jesus Christ should revive our confidence, when we are praying for spiritual graces: If you, then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father from heaven give the good Spirit to them that ask him?-(Luke xi. 13). If you, who are full of evil and of self love, are unable to refuse your children the good things which they ask, how much more will your heavenly Father, who loves you more than any earthly father can love his family, grant you His spiritual gifts, when you ask Him for them?

Let us pray, then, and be ever praying, if we wish to be saved. Let prayer be our most delightful occupation; let prayer be the exercise of our whole life. And when we are praying for particular graces, let us never forget to ask for the grace to continue to pray; because if we ever leave off praying we shall be lost. There is nothing easier than prayer. It costs us little to say: Lord, stand by me! Lord, assist me! Lord, give me Thy love! and the like. What can be easier than this? But if we do not do so we cannot be saved. Let us pray, then, and let us always shelter ourselves under the intercession of Mary: “Let us seek for grace, and let us seek it through Mary,” says St. Bernard. And when we recommend ourselves to Mary, let us be sure that she hears us and obtains for us whatever we want. The same Saint says: “Neither the means nor the will can be wanting to her.” And St. Augustine thus addresses her: “Remember, O most pious Lady, that it has never been heard that anyone who fled to thy protection was forsaken.” Ah, no, says St. Bonaventure, he who invokes Mary, finds salvation; and therefore he calls her “the salvation of those who invoke her.” Let us, then, in our prayers always invoke Jesus and Mary; and let us never neglect to pray.

Eternal Father, I humbly adore Thee, and thank Thee for having created me, and for having redeemed me through Jesus Christ. I thank Thee most sincerely for having made me a Christian, by giving me the true Faith, and by adopting me as Thy child in the Sacrament of Baptism. I thank Thee for having, after the numberless sins I had committed, waited for my repentance, and for having pardoned, as I humbly hope, all the offences I have offered to Thee, and for which I am now sincerely sorry, because They have been displeasing to Thee, Who art infinite goodness. I thank Thee for having preserved me from so many relapses, of which I would have been guilty if Thou hadst not protected me. But my enemies still continue, and will continue till death, to combat against me, and to endeavor to make me their slave. If Thou dost not constantly guard and succour me with Thy aid, I, a miserable creature, shall return to sin, and shall certainly lose Thy grace. I beseech Thee, then, for the love of Jesus Christ, to grant me holy perseverance unto death. Jesus, Thy Son has promised that Thou wilt grant whatsoever we ask in His Name. Through the merits, then, of Jesus Christ, I beg, for myself and for all the just, the grace never again to be separated from Thy love, but to love Thee forever, in time and eternity. Mary, Mother of God, pray to Jesus for me.

Spiritual Reading

SPES NOSTRA, SALVE-HAIL, OUR HOPE!

XXIX.-MARY IS THE HOPE OF ALL

St. Ephrem, reflecting on the present order of Providence, by which God wills that all who are saved should be saved by the means of Mary, thus addresses her: “O Lady, cease not to watch over us; preserve and guard us under the wings of thy compassion and mercy, for, after God, we have no hope but in thee.” St. Thomas of Villanova repeats the same thing, calling her: “our only refuge, help, and asylum.” St. Bernard seems to give the reason for this when he says: “See, O man, the designs of God-designs by which He is able to dispense His mercy more abundantly to us; for, desiring to redeem the whole human race, He has placed the whole price of redemption in the hands of Mary, that she may dispense it at will.”

In the book of Exodus we read that God commanded Moses to make a mercy-seat of purest gold, becanse it was thence that He would speak to him: Thou shalt make also a propitiatory of the purest gold … Thence will I give orders, and will speak to thee-(Exod. xxv. 17,22). St. Andrew of Crete says that “the whole world embraces Mary as being this propitiatory.” And, commenting on his words, a pious author exclaims: “Thou, O Mary, art the propitiatory of the whole world. From thee does our most compassionate Lord speak to our hearts; from thee He speaks words of pardon and mercy; from thee He bestows His gifts; from thee all good flows to us.” And therefore, before the Divine Word took flesh in the womb of Mary, God sent an Archangel to ask her consent: because He willed that the world should receive the Incarnate Word through her, and that she should be the source of every good. Hence St. Ireneus remarks that as Eve was seduced by a fallen angel to flee from God, so Mary was led to receive God into her womb, obeying a good Angel; and thus by her obedience repaired Eve’s disobedience, and became her advocate, and that of the whole human race. “If Eve disobeyed God, yet Mary was persuaded to obey God, that the Virgin Mary might become the advocate of the virgin Eve. And as the human race was bound to death through a virgin, it is saved through a Virgin.” And Blessed Raymond Jordano also says that “every good, every help, every grace that men have received and will receive from God until the end of time came, and will come to them by the intercession and through the hands of Mary.”

The devout Blosius, then, might well exclaim: “O Mary, thou who art so loving and gracious towards all who love thee, tell me, who can be so infatuated and unfortunate as not to love thee? Thou, in the midst of their doubts and difficulties, enlightenest the minds of all who, in their afflictions, have recourse to thee. Thou encouragest those who fly to thee in time of danger; thou succourest those who call upon thee; thou, after thy Divine Son, art the certain salvation of thy faithful servants. Hail, then, O hope of those who are in despair; O succour of those who are abandoned. O Mary, thou art all-powerful, for thy Divine Son, to honour thee, complies instantly with all thy desires.”

Evening Meditation

THE PRACTICE OF THE LOVE OF JESUS CHRIST

XXXV.- “CHARITY ENVIETH NOT”-HE THAT LOVES JESUS CHRIST DOES NOT ENVY THE GREAT ONES OF THE WORLD, BUT ONLY THOSE WHO ARE GREATER LOVERS OF JESUS CHRIST.

I.

Many, on the other hand, are willing to serve God, but it must be in such an employment, in such a place, with such companions, or under such circumstances, or else they either quit the work or do it with a bad grace. Such persons have not freedom of spirit, but are slaves of self-love; and on that account gain very little merit by what they do: they lead a troubled life, because the yoke of Jesus Christ becomes a burden to them. The true lovers of Jesus Christ care only to do what pleases Him; and for the reason that it pleases Him, when He wills, and where He wills, and in the manner He wills, and whether He wishes to employ them in a state of life honoured by the world or in a life of obscurity and insignificance. This is what is meant by loving Jesus with a pure love; and in this we ought to exercise ourselves, battling against the craving of our self-love, which would urge us to seek important and honourable functions, and such as suit our inclinations.

I love Thee, my Jesus; I love Thee with all my soul; I love Thee more than myself, O true and only Lover of my soul; for what friend but Thee has ever sacrificed his life for me? I weep to think that I have been so ungrateful to Thee. Unhappy that I am! I was already lost; but I trust that by Thy grace Thou hast restored me to life. And this shall be my life, to love Thee always, my Sovereign Good. Make me love Thee, O infinite love, and I ask Thee for nothing more! O Mary, my Mother, accept me for thy servant, and gain acceptance for me with Jesus thy Son.


II.

We must, moreover, be detached from all exercises, even spiritual ones, when the Lord wishes us to be occupied in other works of His good pleasure. One day, Father Alvarez, finding himself surrounded with business, was anxious to get rid of it in order to go and pray, because it seemed to him that during that time he was not with God, but our Lord then said to him: “Though I do not keep thee with Me, let it suffice thee that I make use of thee.” This is a profitable lesson for those who are sometimes disturbed at being obliged, by obedience or by charity, to leave their accustomed devotions; let them be assured that such disturbances on these and like occasions do not come from God, but either from the devil or from self-love. “Give pleasure to God, and die.” This is the grand maxim of the Saints.

O my Eternal God, I offer Thee my whole heart; but what sort of heart, O God, is it I offer Thee? A heart created, indeed, to love Thee; but which, instead of loving Thee, has so many times rebelled against Thee. But behold, my Jesus, if there was a time when my heart rebelled against Thee, now it is deeply grieved and penitent for the displeasure it has given Thee. Yes, my dear Redeemer, I am sorry for having despised Thee; and I am determined to do all to obey Thee, and to love Thee at every cost. Oh, draw me wholly to Thy love; do this for the sake of the love which made Thee die for me on the Cross.