Meditation: The Choice of a State of Life: Conformity to the Holy Will of God in the Choice (9): We Should Look Upon This Day as the Last of Our Life and

We Should Look Upon This Day as the Last of Our Life and

Unite Ourselves to Jesus and his Holy Mother

WE SHALL consider this day as if it were to be our last. We must strive to spend it with as much care and devotion as if we had only this one day in which to love God. For this purpose, we should apply ourselves to the contemplation and adoration of Our Lord in the last day of His life on earth, and to do everything in union with the holy and divine dispositions of His last actions. With the last day of our life in view, we should implore Jesus to unite us to His Dispositions and foster them in our hearts, that we may be of the number of those of whom it is said: "Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord" (Apoc. 14, 13), that is, who die in the dispositions of the death of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Similarly we should consider and honor the Blessed Virgin on the last day of her life, uniting ourselves to her dispositions, offering her the last day of our life. The prayers addressed to Jesus Christ and His Blessed Mother for the end of the year should also serve our purpose here.

WE SHOULD ADORE JESUS IN His AGONY AND OFFER Him

OUR AGONY AND DEATH IN HONOR OF His

I may also add at this point that it is a good thing on this day to adore Jesus and honor His most holy Mother in their agony and death,

offering our agony and death in union with theirs, imploring them to bless and sanctify our death by their own. It is also most beneficial to adore the infinite power of the divine love that caused the death of Jesus and of His most holy Mother, for they both died of love and by love. We should implore that divine love to cause us to die with Jesus and His divine Mother, and to consume and sacrifice our life in its sacred flames.

We should also honor the holy martyrs and all saints in their agony and death. Let us offer them our agony and death, in union with their own, begging them to unite us with their holy dispositions as they prepared for death. Let us implore them specially to associate us with all the love and glory they gave to Our Lord on the last day of their life and at the moment they died for Him.

We should pray specially to St. John the Evangelist, St. Mary Mag. dalen and the good thief who died with Jesus, and all the other saints who were present at the death of the Son of God, that through the merits of their privilege in being near Him in death, they may give us special assistance at the hour of our own death.

On this same day it would be most advisable to read the Passion of Our Lord, the seventeenth chapter of St. John, containing His last words and prayers before setting forth to be crucified, as well as the prayers of Holy Mother Church for the agonizing soul, which are to be found at the end of the Breviary. We do not know whether we will be in a fit state on the last day of our life to complete these preparations for a holy death. Hence, it is a good thing to anticipate that day, and to read the Passion of Our Lord and the above-mentioned prayers with all the devotion we would wish to put into them at the hour of death, and all the devotion with which they have ever been read by the whole Church.

But above all, when we read the seventeenth chapter of St. John, which contains the last words and prayers of Jesus, let us give ourselves to Him in a sincere effort to pronounce these words and prayers in union with His love, dispositions and intentions when He spoke them, imploring Him to foster in our hearts these sublime dispositions in preparation for the last day of our life and to produce the effects of these holy words.

Finally, let us cast ourselves down at the feet of Jesus and His most holy Mother, to implore them to give us their blessing. "0 Jesus, 0 Mother of Jesus, give me your blessing for the last moment of my life. By your great goodness, grant that the last moment of my life may be consecrated to the glory of the last moment of yours, and that my last breath may be an act of most pure love of you." Ejaculatory prayer:

"Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord." Beati mortui qui in Domino moriuntur (Apoc. 14, 13)

The Particular judgment

Let Us Adore Jesus in the Judgment Pronounced

Against Him by his Heavenly Father

0 JESUS, Thou art I he Saint of Saints and Sanctity Itself, infinitely above all sin and imperfection. Yet, I behold Thee prostrate with Thy face to the earth at the feet of the All-just Father in the Garden of Olives, and the following day at the feet of Pilate, where the Eternal Father contemplates Thee as the Victim who has taken upon Himself all the sins of the world, giving Himself without reserve for the ransom of mankind. Thou hast taken the place of all sinners and borne the heavy judgment of our sins by dying on the Cross for our salvation. Thou dost accept that judgment with most perfect submission, most profound humility and most ardent love for Thy Father and for us. 0 Jesus, I adore and glorify Thee in this judgment and in all holy dispositions of humiliation, contrition, submission and love with which Thou didst suffer to be judged and condemned to save us.

Let Us Submit Ourselves in Advance to the Sentence

Pronounced Against Us at the Hour of Our Death

In honor of and in union with these dispositions, behold me prostrate at Thy feet, great Jesus, adoring Thee as my sovereign judge. I most willingly submit myself to Thy supreme power. I infinitely rejoice that Thou hast sovereign power over me and over all men and angels. A thousand times I him the Eternal Father for having given Thee this power. I affirm sincerely that if, to imagine the impossible,

Thou didst not have this power, and I did have it, I would want to strip myself of it to give it to Thee; if I were not subject to Thy power to judge me, I should wish to subject myself voluntarily to that power, out of homage to Thy divine justice and to the condemnation Thou didst undergo from Thy Father during Thy holy Passion.

0 Jesus, I adore Thee in Thy coming at the hour of my death and at the moment of Thy judgment of my soul. I adore now every aspect and detail of my particular judgment. May it please Thee to grant me now some measure of the divine light by which Thou wilt clearly show me every event of m y whole life, compelling me to give an account of everything. Grant me a share in the zeal for justice with which Thou wilt be avenged for my offenses, so that I may from now on see my sins clearly and make reparation by perfect contrition, horror and detestation for these same sins.

0 my God, how many sins I have committed against Thee all my life long, by thought, word and deed, in every way I They can not be numbered, I confess; and I accuse myself before Thee, before Thy Blessed Mother, before all the angels and saints, and, if it be Thy holy will, before the whole world. I accuse myself of my sins, just as they are in Thy sight, as Thou knowest them. If only I could see m y offenses as Thou seest them! If only I knew myself as Thou knowest me, and as I shall see and know myself in Thy light at the moment of judgment! How I shall be confounded and humiliated then by the realization of what I am! What horror my crimes will awaken in me! What regret, what anguish at having so little loved and so greatly offended so transcendent a goodness as Thine I How quickly will I then accuse and condemn my own self I Indeed there will be no need of any other judge, for I shall be the first to pass sentence upon my own misdeeds and ignominy.

But why wait until that final hour? Lord, at this very moment I surrender myself to the zeal of Thy divine justice and to the spirit of Thy just hatred and righteous horror for sin. In honor of and in union with Thy extreme hatred of sin, I hate and detest all my sins; I hold them in abhorrence; I renounce them forever; I offer myself to Thee to suffer for them all the penance Thou shalt order. Casting myself down before Thy face, in the ultimate depths of abjection, to which,

0 great God, I have deserved to be reduced by my sins, I pronounce against myself, in the presence of heaven and earth, that final sentence. Since I, who am nothing but a worm of the earth, a handful of ashes and mere nothingness, have in so many ways offended so exalted and great a majesty, there are no tortures, either on earth, in purgatory or in hell, capable of worthily expiating my sin, without the intervention of Thy mercy and the power of Thy Precious Blood. For all these torments are finite, while the offense of my sins is infinite, since they offend an infinite majesty, and consequently deserve an infinite punishment.

So, my sovereign judge, falling down once more at Thy feet, and in the lowest depths of the bottomless pit of my sins, I adore and bless and love Thee with my whole heart, as pronouncing the sentence that Thou shalt pronounce at the hour of my death, and I voluntarily, with all the love possible to me, submit to this sentence, whatever it may be, telling Thee with the Royal Prophet, with all the power of my will: "Thou art just, 0 Lord, and thy judgment is right" (Ps. 118, 137)And I most obediently accept anything it may please Thee to ordain in my regard, in time and eternity, giving myself to Thee to bear not only all the sufferings of Purgatory, in homage to Thy divine justice; but any other penalty Thou mayest impose upon me. I take no thought of what is to become of me nor what is to be done to me in time and eternity, provided only that the wrong and dishonor I have done Thee may be made good, no matter what the cost.

Let Us Beg Jesus to be Merciful

And yet, 0 God of mercy, do not permit that I should be numbered among those who will never love Thee. 0 most merciful Lord, what am I that Thou deignest to open Thy blessed eyes to look upon me, to summon me into Thy presence in judgment and to exercise Thy justice upon me? It is all too true that I deserve Thy mercy far less than Thy justice. But, 0 Thou Saviour of my soul, remember that Thou didst will to be judged for me~ and that Thou art most worthy that my sins should be forgiven in Thee, since Thou didst ask the All-merciful

Father to pardon them for me. And yet, Lord, enter not into judgment with Thy miserable and unworthy servant, but offer for me to Thy Father the judgment Thou didst sustain for my sins, and pray that His divine forgiveness be granted, not to me but to Thee.

0 Father of mercy, I confess that I have deserved to bear the stern weight of Thy judgments, and that I am not worthy that Thou shouldst give me the least grace, nor that Thou shouldst pardon the very smallest of my sins. I offer Thee the terrible judgment Thy Son sustained for my faults, and I implore Thee to pardon them, not to me, but to Thy Beloved Son, Who begs Thy forgiveness on m y behalf, and to give Him, also, all the graces I need for Thy service. All possible punishments in the world, visited upon me, are incapable of giving Thee fitting satisfaction for the very least of m y crimes. Thy Son alone can make perfect reparation for the dishonor I have given Thee. And so I offer to Thee, and I implore Him to offer with me, all that He did and suffered in His whole life, and all the honor He ever rendered to Thee, whether by Himself or through His Blessed Mother, His angels and all His saints.

0 Mother of Mercy, Mother of Jesus, 0 angels and saints of Jesus, offer to God all your merits and works on my behalf and all the glory you ever gave Him, in satisfaction for my offenses and implore Him to treat me not according to the rigor of His justice, but the multitude of His mercies, in order that I may love and bless Him with you forever.

Ejaculatory prayer:

"According to the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my iniquity." Secundum multitudinem misericordiarum tuarum dele iniquitatem meam (Ps. 50, 3)

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Ninth Meditation

Death and Burial

Let Us Offer Our Death to Jesus in Honor of his

0 JESUS, Thou art eternal life and the source of all life, yet I behold Thee cold in the darkness and shadow of death. I see Thee bid farewell, for a little while, to Thy most lovable Mother, to Thy dearly beloved apostles and disciples, and to all Thy friends left bathed in tears, in the greatest mourning and lamentation of all time. I contemplate Thy holy soul separated from Thy divine body, with which it had so holy, so close and so sublime a union. I see this same body, more holy and sacred than all the heavenly bodies-I mean than all heaven itself, - lying in a sepulchre, among the rocks in the dust.

0 my Jesus, I adore, praise and glorify Thee thus. I offer Thee an the honor rendered to Thee in this state by Thy holy Mother, by St. Mary Magdalen, by the holy apostles and disciples, by the angels, by the holy souls Thou didst free from Limbo and by the whole Church, with all the glory Thy Father gave Thee, and which Thou now enjoyest in heaven, in recompense for that humiliation Thou didst bear on earth. I offer Thee the state of death which will one day be mine, in honor of that state of death in which Thou didst remain before the, Resurrection.

I offer Thee the separation from the company of my friends and relatives that I shall one day have to bear, in honor of the most bitter separation which Thou didst suffer, torn from the most sweet company of Thy dearest Mother, of Thy dearly beloved apostles and disciples. I offer Thee all the sorrow and the tears of my relatives and friends in honor of the sorrow and tears of Thy harrowed Mother and sorrowing apostles. I offer Thee the separation of my soul from Thy sacred body.

I offer Thee all the states of my soul, until its reunion with its body, whatever they may be, i n homage to the state in which Thy holy soul existed during the time it was separated from Thy body. I offer Thee the burial of my body and all the actions that shall be done in performing this burial, i n honor of the burial of Thy holy Body.

In honor of and in union with the same love with which Thou, 0 good Jesus, didst will that Thy sacred body should lie upon the dust within a hollow rock, and by which Thou hast so often given me this same body in Holy Communion, although I am nothing but a worm of the earth, I most willingly surrender my body to the ground, and to the worms. I consent to be reduced to ashes and dust, but only on condition, 0 crucified Saviour, that all the grains of dust into which my flesh and bones shall crumble, may be so many voices praising and glorifying without interruption the adorable mystery of Thy burial, and that I may thus sing with the holy psalmist: "All my bones shall say: Lord, who i s like to thee?" (Ps. 34, 10).

Let Us Adore Jesus Buried in the Sepulchre

0 Divine Jesus, even though Thy body and soul were separated, nevertheless they are continually united to Thy divinity. Thus, they never ceased to be worthy of infinite honor and adoration. Therefore, I adore Thy holy soul in its descent into Limbo. I adore all that happened in Thy soul and all the effects produced in the souls of the Holy Patriarchs in Limbo. I also adore Thy body i n the tomb, in all its members, for there is no part of it that is not infinitely adorable. I adore you, 0 most holy eyes of my Saviour's body. I adore you, 0 sacred ears of my God. I adore and praise you, 0 most blessed mouth and tongue of Him who is the Word and eternal utterance of the Father. I adore and bless you, 0 most divine hands and feet of my Lord. I adore and love you, 0 most amiable Heart of Jesus.

Alas, my Beloved! Thy perfect ~body is lifeless because of my sins! Those sacred eyes, that by their sweet aspect gave joy to all who came in contact with Thee, are now darkened by the shadow of death. Those holy cars, always open to hear the cries and prayers of all unhappy

creatures, arc now closed and hear no more. Those divine lips, which pronounced the words of life , have become mute and speak no words. Those blessed hands that wrought so many miracles are lifeless and still. Those holy feet, so often wearied for the salvation of the world, are no longer able to walk. But above all, the most loving Heart of my Jesus, the most exalted and noble throne of divine love, is without life or feeling. Ah! My dear Jesus, who has brought Thee to this pitiable state? M y sins and Thy love! Cursed and detestable sin, how I abhor you! 0 love of my Saviour, may I love you, may I bless you without ceasing!