St. Alphonsus Liguori: Daily Meditations for Second Week of Pentecost

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Saturday – Second Week after Pentecost

MARY IS OUR MOTHER OF PERPETUAL SUCCOUR

Morning Meditation

St. Paul wrote of our Lord Jesus Christ: For in that he himself hath suffered and been tempted he is able to succour them also that are tempted-(Heb. ii. 18). So, too, had the Mother of Jesus to be tried with many and terrible sufferings in order that, as St. Alphonsus says, she might be in all things like to her Son, and be able to succour and console the miserable.

I.

The Blessed Mother of God well deserves the glorious and beautiful title of Perpetual Succour. She has earned this title because of her great sufferings for our sake. “In all things like to her Divine Son is His Mother Mary; and as she is the Mother of Mercy, she rejoices when she succours and consoles the miserable.” -(St. Alphonsus). But here she could rejoice as the Consoler and Perpetual Succour of men, she had, like her Divine Son, to be tried, to be tempted, and to suffer. St. Paul wrote of Our Lord Jesus Christ: For in that he himself hath suffered and been tempted he is able to succour them also that are tempted. In order to win for Himself the glorious Name of Jesus, and to succour and save mankind, our Divine Lord underwent great sufferings, even to the shedding of the last drop of His precious Blood. So, too, had the Divine Mother to be tried with many and terrible sufferings in order to share with her Son in the work of the Redemption of the human race, and win for herself the glorious name and title of the world’s Perpetual Succour.

The Divine Mother suffered in her Child. It is in the sufferings of the child every true and loving mother suffers most keenly. Mary knew the Scriptures well, and from her earliest days of childhood in the Temple kept pondering them in her heart, especially all that concerned the coming of the Redeemer, His life and death. She knew better than Prophet and Priest what the Messias would have to do and to suffer that He might enter into His glory, and so from the hour the Archangel saluted her: Hail, full of grace! and she was overshadowed by by Holy Ghost and the Word was made Flesh in her womb, sorrows, too, overshadowed her, and filled her with the saddest forebodings. The Angel of her joys soon became the messenger of woe to carry the awful vision of the Cross and Nails before the eyes of Child and Mother from the manger of Bethlehem to the Hill of Calvary.

O my afflicted Mother, thou didst weep bitterly over thy Son Who died for my salvation; but what will thy tears avail me if I am lost? By thy merits, then, obtain for me true contrition for my sins and a real amendment of life. If Jesus and thou, being so innocent, have suffered so much for love of me, obtain that at least I may suffer something for your love. “O Lady,” I will say with St. Bonaventure, “if I have offended thee, in justice wound my heart: if I have served thee I ask for wounds as my reward. It is shameful to see my Lord wounded, and thee wounded, and myself without a wound! Ah, cease not, O Advocate of sinners, to assist my soul in the midst of the combat. I invoke thy Son and thee to succour me in life and in death. O Jesus and Mary, to you I recommend my soul.”


II.

How plainly and eloquently does the Picture of the Mother of Perpetual Succour tell of the Mother’s sufferings in her Child. There we see only one sufferer as it were, so united and identified are both in their sorrows. The horrid visions that afflict His eyes afflict her soul, and every quiver of pain in the limbs of the Divine Lamb in her arms makes her heart tremble and agonise. The loving St. Alphonsus says: “From the beginning of His life Jesus had always before His eyes the sad vision of all the torments He would have to endure before He left this earth, as He predicted by the mouth of the Prophet: My sorrow is continually before me-(Ps. xxxvii. 18). So, then, my Redeemer, throughout Thy life, I shall find Thee nowhere but on the Cross! Even while sleeping, says Bellarmine, the vision of the Cross was present to the Heart of Jesus. “Christ had His Cross always before His eyes. When He slept, His Heart watched; nor was it ever free from the vision of the Cross.”

So likewise had the Divine Mother to endure her perpetual agony that in all things, she, the Co-Redemptrix of the world, might be like to her Divine Son, the Redeemer. Mary revealed to St. Bridget that when she suckled her Child she thought of the vinegar and gall; when swathing Him, she thought of the cords with which He was to be bound; when bearing Him in her arms, of the Cross to which He would be nailed; when He was sleeping, of His Death. As often as she put on Him His garments, she reflected how they would be torn from His bleeding body one day; and when she beheld His feet and hands, she thought of the nails that would one day pierce them, and then, as Mary said to St. Bridget, “my eyes filled with tears and my heart was tortured with grief.” Thus truly had Mary to suffer and to be tempted. like her Divine Son, so as to be able to succour them also that are tempted, and to merit the glorious title of the world’s Perpetual Succour. Mary is now all-powerful in Heaven, ever acting as our Advocate and interceding for us, says Blessed Amadeus, with her most powerful prayers, for she well sees our miseries and our dangers, and, as our most clement and sweet Lady, compassionates and succours us with a Mother’s love.

O Mother of Perpetual Succour, grant that I may always invoke thy most powerful name, for thy name is help in life, salvation in death. I thank the Lord for having given thee for my good this name so sweet, so amiable, and so powerful. But merely to pronounce thy name is not enough for me. I wish to do so out of love. I wish that love may remind me to call thee always Mother of Perpetual Succour.

Spiritual Reading

CORAM SANCTISSIMO

SEVENTEENTH VISIT

Loving souls can find no greater delight than to be in the company of those whom they love. If we, then, love Jesus Christ much, behold we are now in His presence. Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament sees us and hears us: shall we, then, say nothing to Him? Let us console ourselves in His company; let us rejoice in His glory, and in the love which so many enamoured souls bear Him in the Most Holy Sacrament. Let us desire that all should love Jesus in the Holy Sacrament, and consecrate their hearts to Him; at least let us consecrate all our affections to Him. He should be all our love and our whole desire. Father Salesius, of the Society of Jesus, felt consolation in only speaking of the Most Blessed Sacrament; he could never visit It enough. When called to the parlour, or on returning to his room, or going about the house, he always profited by these occasions to repeat his visits to his beloved Lord; so much so, that it was remarked that scarcely an hour of the day passed without his visiting Him. At length he obtained the favour of dying by the hands of heretics while defending the truth of the Real Presence in the Blessed Sacrament.

Oh, had I but the happiness to die for so noble a cause as the defence of this Sacrament, in which, O most amiable Jesus, Thou hast taught us the tenderness of the love which Thou bearest us! But since, my Lord, Thou workest so many miracles in this Sacrament, work this one also; draw my entire self to Thee. Thou indeed desirest that I should be all Thine, and Thou dost also, indeed, deserve that I should be so. Give me the strength to love Thee with all the affection of my soul. Give the goods of this world to whomsoever Thou willest. I renounce them all. I sigh after and desire Thy love alone; this alone do I now and will always seek. I love Thee, my Jesus; grant me the grace always to love Thee, and grant me this alone.

Ejac. My Jesus, when shall I really love Thee?


AN ACT OF SPIRITUAL COMMUNION

My Jesus, I believe that Thou art truly present in the Most Holy Sacrament. I love Thee above all things, and I desire to possess Thee within my soul. Since I am unable now to receive Thee sacramentally, come at least spiritually into my heart. I embrace Thee as already there, and unite myself wholly to Thee; never permit me to be separated from Thee.

VISIT TO MARY

My most sweet Queen, how pleasing to me is that beautiful name by which thy devout clients address thee: “Mater amabilis, Most Amiable Mother!” Yes, my Lady, thou art truly and indeed amiable. Thy beauty has captivated thy Lord Himself: And the king shall greatly desire thy beauty-(Ps. xliv. 12). St. Bernard says that thy very name is so amiable to thy lovers that when they pronounce it, or hear it, they are inflamed with a fresh desire to love thee: “O sweet, O pious, O exceedingly amiable Mary! Thou canst not be named without inflaming, neither can thy name be heard without enkindling the affections of those who love thee.” It is, then, reasonable, my most amiable Mother, that I should love thee. But I am not satisfied with only loving thee; I desire in the first place on earth, and then in Heaven, to be, after God, thy greatest lover. If my desire is presumptuous, it is thou thyself who art to blame, on account of thy amiability and the special love which thou hast shown me. If thou wert less amiable, my desire to love thee would be less. Accept, then, O Lady, this my desire, and in token thou hast accepted it, do thou obtain for me from God this love for which I ask thee, since He is so well pleased with the love which is borne thee.

Ejac. My most amiable Mother, I love thee much!


Concluding Prayer

Most holy Immaculate Virgin and my Mother Mary, to thee, who art the Mother of my Lord, and Queen of the world, the advocate, the hope, the refuge of sinners, I have recourse today I, who am the most miserable of all. I render thee my most humble homage, O great Queen, and I thank thee for all the graces thou hast conferred on me until now, particularly for having delivered me from hell, which I have so often deserved. I love thee, O most amiable Lady; and for the love which I bear thee, I promise to serve thee always, and to do all in my power to make others love thee also. I place in thee all my hopes; I confide my salvation to thy care. Accept me for thy servant, and receive me under thy mantle, O Mother of Mercy. And since thou art so powerful with God, deliver me from all temptations, or rather obtain for me the strength to triumph over them until death. Of thee I ask a perfect love of Jesus Christ. From thee I hope to die a good death.

O my Mother, for the love which thou bearest to God, I beseech thee to help me at all times, but especially at the last moment of my life. Leave me not, I beseech thee, until thou seest me safe in Heaven, blessing thee, and singing thy mercies for all eternity. Amen. So I hope. So may it be.

Evening Meditation

THE PRACTICE OF THE LOVE OF JESUS CHRIST

XXX.-HE THAT LOVES JESUS CHRIST SEEKS TO DETACH HIMSELF FROM EVERY CREATURE

I.

To arrive at a perfect union with God, a total detachment from creatures is of absolute necessity. And to come to particulars, we must divest ourselves of all inordinate affection towards relations. Jesus Christ said: If any man come to me, and hate not his father and mother, and wife and children, and brethren and sisters, yea and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple -(Luke xiv. 26). And wherefore this hatred to relations? Because, generally, as regards the interests of the soul, we cannot have greater enemies than our own kindred: And a man’s enemies shall be those of his own household-(Matt. x. 36). St. Charles Borromeo declared that he never went to pay a visit to his own family without returning cooled in fervour. And when Father Antony Mendoza was asked why he refused to enter the house of his parents, he replied, “Because I know, by experience, that nowhere is the devotion of a Religious so dissipated as in the house of his parents.”

When, moreover, the choice of a state of life is concerned, it is certain that we are not obliged to obey our parents, according to the doctrine of St. Thomas Aquinas. Should a young man be called to the Religious life, and find opposition from his parents, he is bound to obey God, and not his parents, who, as the same St. Thomas says, with a view to their own interests and private ends, stand in the way of our spiritual welfare. “Friends of flesh and blood are oftentimes opposed to our spiritual profit.” And they are content, says St. Bernard, to have their children go to eternal perdition rather than that they should leave home.


II.

It is surprising, in this matter, to see some fathers and mothers, even though God-fearing, yet so blinded by mistaken fondness, that they use every effort and exhaust every means to hinder the vocation of a child who wishes to become a Religious. This conduct, however (except in very rare cases), cannot be excused from grievous sin. But someone may say: What, then, and if such a youth does not become a Religious can he not be saved? Are, then, all who remain in the world cast away? I answer: Those whom God does not call into Religion may be saved in the world by fulfilling the duties of their state; but those who are called from the world and do not obey God may, indeed, possibly be saved; but they will be saved with difficulty, because they will be deprived of those helps which God had destined for them in Religion, and for want of which they will not accomplish their salvation. The theologian Habert writes that he who disobeys his vocation remains in the Church like a member out of joint, and cannot discharge his duty without the greatest pain; and so will hardly effect his salvation. Whence he draws this conclusion: “Although, absolutely speaking, he can be saved, yet he will enter on the way, and employ the means of salvation, with difficulty.”

The choice of a state of life is compared by Father Lewis of Granada to “the main-spring” of a watch: if the main-spring be broken, the whole watch is out of order; and the same holds good with regard to our salvation,-if the state of life be out of order, the whole life is out of order too. Alas, how many poor youths have lost their vocation through their parents, and have afterwards come to a bad end, and have themselves proved the ruin of their family!