Meditations for Each Day 21: Jesus Loved Me During his Childhood

and bless Thee in all Thy divine occupations and in the marvelous effects of Thy divine Childhood. I offer Thee all the honor and love Thou didst receive in Thy holy Childhood from Thy Father, Thy Blessed Mother, St. Joseph, St. John the Baptist, St. Gabriel, and from the other angels and saints who are in any special way associated with Thy divine Childhood.

Jesus Loved Me During his Childhood

0 most amiable Child, I adore all Thy thoughts and designs and Thy most burning love for me. Thou wast thinking of me, and didst love me without interruption in Thy Childhood. Thou didst cherish the plan and the strong desire to imprint upon my heart an image of Thy divine Childhood, that is, to make me enter upon a state of holy and sacred childhood, which should imitate and honor the meekness, simplicity, humility, purity of body and spirit, the obedience and innocence of Thy holy Childhood. 0 my Jesus, I give myself to Thee to accomplish Thy plan and desire and to enter into this state. I shall henceforth strive, with the help of Thy holy grace, which I invoke with my whole heart, to become meek, humble, simple, pure, obedient, free of all arrogance, bitterness and malice, like a child, so that I may render some small honor to Thy Childhood which so deserves to be honored.

Ejaculatory prayer:

"He was subject to them." Erat subditus illis (Luke 2, 51).

22-

Wednesday

The Hidden and Laborious Life of Jesus

DURING His HIDDEN LIFE, JESUS TEACHES US TO

Love Recollection and Solitude

0 JESUS, although Thou didst have so many and such great acts to perform on earth, converting so many souls, working so many miracles, doing so much good by Thy blessed example and holy preaching, if Thou hadst gone out among men, yet Thou didst not will to do this until the age of thirty , performing in the meantime no outward act that might make Thee known to men. Thou didst remain hidden and withdrawn into the Father, in Whom Thy mind, heart, thoughts, desires and affections were uninterruptedly enclosed. Thou didst choose this secluded life to honor Thy hidden life from all eternity in the bosom of Thy Father, and to teach us that solitude and recollection are pleasing to Thee. Of the thirty-four years of Thy life upon earth, no more than four were spent in active intercourse among men, while thirty were spent in seclusion and solitude. Blessed be Thou, 0 Good Jesus, for all the glory Thou didst give Thy Father during these thirty years of Thy hidden life! Grant that I in their honor may henceforth love recollection and solitude, both interior and exterior. Draw me apart and hide me in Thee. Absorb my mind into Thine, my heart into Thy Heart and my life into Thy life. I desire henceforth, with the help of Thy grace, to make every effort to withdraw m y thoughts and affections from all things into Thee, 0 my Jesus, as into my place of refuge, my centre, my element and my paradise, outside of which all else is hell