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Meditations for Eight Days

Being a portion of an attempt to teach a young invalid to meditate.

Sunday

Our Lord

  1. Place yourself in the presence of God, kneeling with your hands clasped.

  2. Read slowly and devoutly

Apocalypse, chap. i, verses 10-18.

"I was," &c. down to "of death and of hell."

  1. Bring all you have read before you at once, as if you saw our Lord.

  2. Then say to Him whatever comes into your mind to say; for instance:—

"His eyes were as a flame of fire," and "His countenance shone as the sun shineth in his strength."

(1) O my God, the day will come when I shall see that countenance and those eyes, when my soul returns to Him to be judged.

(2) Those eyes are so piercing: they see through me; nothing is hid from them. Thou countest every hair of my head; Thou knowest every breath I breathe; Thou seest every morsel of food I take.

(3) Those eyes are so pure. They are so clear that I can look into their depths, as into some transparent well of water, though I cannot see the bottom; for Thou art infinite.

(4) Those eyes are so loving; so gentle, so sweet; they seem to say, "Come to Me."

  1. Conclusion. O Lord, make me love Thee, make me love Thee.

Monday

Guardian Angel

  1. Place yourself in the presence of God, kneeling with your hands clasped.

  2. Read slowly and devoutly

Psalm xc. (as it is found in Compline)

  1. Bring all you have read before you, as if you saw the Angels protecting you, especially your Guardian Angel.

  2. Then say to God whatever is suggested to you; for instance:—

"He hath given His Angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. In their hands they shall bear thee up, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone."

(1) O my God, I will go forward in Thy way, for my Guardian goes with me. I am very blind; I know not what is before me. I know not what will happen to me in life. I do not know whether I shall live long, or die young. But this I know, that in health and sickness, in joy and sorrow, in youth and age, Thou wilt be with me.

(2) O my sweet Guardian, how beautiful thou art. I wish I could see thee. And thou art as pure and holy as thou art beautiful, and thy breath inspires chaste thoughts. And as gentle and kind as thou art pure.

  1. Conclusion.—God of Angels, have mercy on me. Queen of Angels, pray for me.

Tuesday

St. Joseph

  1. Place yourself in the presence of God, kneeling with your hands clasped.

  2. Read slowly and devoutly

Psalm xiv.

  1. Bring all you have read before you at once, as if you saw our Lord.

  2. Then say to Him whatever comes into your mind to say; for instance:—

(1) Joseph was pure and innocent in a way unlike any other man who ever lived, our Lord excepted. His soul was as white as snow. He had nothing whatever within his heart to make him ashamed, and he would have found it most difficult to find matter for confession. O Joseph, make me so blameless and irreproachable that I should not care though friends saw into my heart as perfectly as Jesus and Mary saw into thine. O gain me the grace of holy simplicity and affectionateness, so that I may love thee, Mary, and, above all, Jesus, as thou didst love Jesus and Mary.

(2) Joseph was as humble as he was sinless. He never thought of himself, but always of the Infant Saviour, whom he carried in his arms. O holy Joseph, make me like thee in purity, simplicity, innocence and devotion.

  1. Conclusion.—Jesus, mercy! Mary, Joseph, pray for me.

Wednesday

All Saints

  1. Place yourself in the presence of God, kneeling with hands clasped.

  2. Read slowly and devoutly

Apocalypse, chap. vii. verses 9-17.

  1. Bring all this before you as in a picture.

  2. Then say to Him whatever comes into your mind to say; for instance:—

"They are before the throne of God, and serve Him day and night in His Temple." "They shall not hunger nor thirst any more;" "The Lamb shall lead them to the fountains of living waters."

(1) My dear Lord and Saviour, shall I ever see Thee in heaven? This world is very beautiful, very attractive, and there are many things and persons whom I love in it. But Thou art the most beautiful and best of all. Make me acknowledge this with my heart, as well as by faith and in my reason.

(2) My Lord, I know nothing here below lasts; nothing here below satisfies. Pleasures come and go; I quench my thirst and am thirsty again. But the saints in heaven are always gazing on Thee, and drinking in eternal blessedness from Thy dear and gracious and most awful and most glorious countenance.

  1. Conclusion.—May my lot be with the saints.

Thursday

The Paraclete

  1. Place yourself in the presence of God, kneeling with hands clasped.

  2. Read slowly and devoutly

Psalm ciii. verses 29-36.

  1. Try to imagine the secret power of God dispensing blessing and grace every moment all over the earth.

  2. Then say what is suggested by that thought; for instance:—

(1) How mysterious is my sovereign Lord and God! He is doing things innumerable always everywhere; yet one does not interfere with another. He hears everything which is said everywhere, yet He never confuses one thing with another. He sustains everything day and night, yet He is not wearied. He is at once most occupied, yet ever in repose. He is sovereign and supreme, yet He ministers, like a servant, to the whole creation.

(2) He is thus mysterious in His works—much more mysterious is He in His nature. God the Holy Ghost is the one God—but so is God the Father, so is God the Son. How is it that God is at once perfectly one, and perfectly three? I cannot tell—no wit of man can tell, no angel can tell it fully—for He is incomprehensible.

(3) O my Lord, God the Holy Ghost, I adore Thee, because Thou art so mysterious, so incomprehensible. Unless Thou wert incomprehensible, Thou wouldst not be God. For how can the Infinite be other than incomprehensible to me?

  1. Conclusion.—Holy angels, who see God’s face, teach me to have faith in Him.

Friday

Jesus

  1. Place yourself in the presence of God, kneeling with hands clasped.

  2. Read slowly and devoutly

St. Luke xxii. verses 40 to 46 (as it occurs in the Passion on Holy Wednesday).

  1. Bring what you have read before you, as a picture.

  2. Then say to Him whatever comes into your mind to say; for instance:—

(1) What is it that bows down the Almighty Son of God? What is it that so terrifies and overwhelms my dear Saviour? What is it that thus convulses Him from head to foot? See how He trembles! He falls on his knees as under a tremendous load! His flesh quivers, and at length out of its pores comes a dew. It is red, and it trickles down Him, and falls heavily on the ground. It is His precious blood, and this is His agony.

(2) Alas! I know well enough what was the cause of it. He came on earth to undergo it, and to destroy it by undergoing it. It is the weight of sin. The sins of every child of Adam, of the whole race, were all then heaped into one mass, higher than the mountains, and placed upon His head. The burden would have crushed anyone else, even the highest Archangel, even the Blessed Mother of God. One human heart alone could undergo it, the heart of the Divine Son; yet see how His soul and body agonised with it, though it was the soul and body of God Incarnate.

(3) My most dear Saviour, give me some little tenderness to grieve for Thee suffering for me.

  1. Conclusion.—My dear Mother Mary, thou wert sinless, teach me to grieve with Thee.

Saturday

Mary

  1. Place yourself in the presence of God, kneeling with your hands clasped.

  2. Read slowly and devoutly

Isaias xxxv. (as on Ember Saturday Mass in Advent)

  1. Think of Mary as robed in white, like the lily.

  2. And say:—

(1) Thou, Mary, art the Virgin of Virgins. To have a virgin soul is to love nothing on earth in comparison of God, or except for His sake. That soul is virginal which is ever looking for its Beloved who is in heaven, and which sees Him in whatever is lovely upon earth, loving earthly friends very dearly, but in their proper place, as His gifts, and His representatives, but loving Jesus alone with sovereign affection, and bearing to lose all, so that she may keep Him.

(2) O Mary, I wish I could see how you used to behave towards father and mother, especially towards St. Anne; and then how you behaved towards the priests of the temple; and then towards St. Joseph; and towards St. Elizabeth, and St. John Baptist; and afterwards towards the Apostles, especially towards St. John. I should see how sweet and lovely you were to every one of them; but still your heart was with Jesus only. And they would all feel and understand this, however kind you were to them.

  1. Conclusion.—O Mary, when will you gain for me some little of this celestial purity, this true whiteness of soul, that I may fix my heart on my true love?

Sunday

Our Lord

  1. Place yourself in the presence of God, kneeling with your hands clasped.

  2. Read slowly and devoutly

The Apocalypse as last Sunday.

  1. Bring all you have read before you at once, as if you saw our Lord.

  2. Then say, "His head and hairs were white like white wool, and as snow."

(1) Thy hair is white, O Jesus, because Thou art the Ancient of days, as the Prophet Daniel speaks. From everlasting to everlasting Thou art God. Thou didst come indeed to us as a little child—Thou didst hang upon the Cross at an age of life before as yet grey hairs come—but, O my dear Lord, there was always something mysterious about Thee, so that men were not quite sure of Thy age. The Pharisees talked of Thee as near fifty. For Thou hadst lived millions upon millions of years, and Thy face awfully showed it. And even when Thou wast a child, Thy hair shone so bright that people said, "It is snow."

(2) O my Lord, Thou art ever old, and ever young. Thou hast all perfection, and old age in Thee is ten thousand times more beautiful than the most beautiful youth. Thy white hair is an ornament, not a sign of decay. It is as dazzling as the sun, as white as the light, and as glorious as gold.

  1. Conclusion.—Jesus*,* may I ever love Thee, not with human eyes, but with the eyes of the Spirit, which sees not as man sees.

Chapter 12 of 48