{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_39223/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_39223","id":"gutenberg_39223","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/39223","summary":null,"tags":["Advent -- Meditations","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Christmas -- Meditations"],"text":"Produced by Karina Aleksandrova, JoAnn Greenwood, and the\nOnline Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net\n(This file was produced from images generously made\navailable by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries)\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n    ORTUS CHRISTI\n\n\n\n\nWorks by the same Author:\n\n\n    SPONSA CHRISTI\n    Meditations on the Religious Life.\n\n    PASSIO CHRISTI\n    Meditations for Lent.\n\n    MATER CHRISTI\n    Meditations on Our Lady.\n\n    DONA CHRISTI\n    Meditations for Ascension-tide, Whitsun-tide and Corpus\n    Christi.\n\n\nLONGMANS, GREEN & CO.\n\nLondon, New York, Bombay, Calcutta, and Madras.\n\n\n\n\n    ORTUS CHRISTI\n\n    _Meditations for Advent_\n\n    BY\n    MOTHER ST. PAUL\n\n    RELIGIOUS OF THE RETREAT OF THE SACRED HEART\n    HOUSE OF RETREATS--BIRMINGHAM\n    AUTHOR OF\n    \"SPONSA CHRISTI,\" \"PASSIO CHRISTI,\" \"MATER CHRISTI,\"\n    \"DONA CHRISTI,\" ETC.\n\n    PREFACE BY\n    REV. JOSEPH RICKABY. S.J.\n\n\n    \"_Ambulabunt gentes in lumine tuo et reges in splendore ortus tui._\"\n                                                (Is. lx. 3).\n\n\n    LONGMANS, GREEN AND CO.\n    39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON, E.C. 4\n    FOURTH AVENUE AND 30TH STREET, NEW YORK\n    BOMBAY, CALCUTTA AND MADRAS\n    1921\n\n\n\n\nNihil obstat\n\n    JOSEPHUS RICKABY S. J.\n        Censor deputatus.\n\nImprimatur\n\n    [+] EDUARDUS ILSLEY\n        Administrator Apostolicus.\n\nDie 19 Aprilis 1921.\n\n\n\n\nPREFACE.\n\n\nReading these Meditations we discover with surprise how much spiritual\nfood is obtainable from a study of the lessons and liturgy of Advent.\nMother St. Paul is always a heart-searcher. She presses self-reform upon\nsouls, who to the eye of outward observers and perhaps in their own\nconceit, have little or nothing to amend. We must always be following\nChrist, and Christ is ever moving forward. Deliberately to stand still\nis to widen the distance between ourselves and Him, an ungenerous, not\nto say a dangerous thing to do. What are called here Meditations may\nwell be taken for daily spiritual reading in preparation for Christmas.\nAdvent after all is a season of joy, and these Meditations must be taken\nin a joyful spirit. Courage and enthusiasm in the cause of Christ is the\nsupreme need of all Catholics who really _love His coming_. (2 Tim. IV.\n8)\n\n                                       JOSEPH RICKABY, S. J.\n\n    St. Beuno's College.\n\n\n\n\nNOTE.\n\n\nAlthough there are twenty-eight Meditations given in this book they will\nnot all be needed every year, for the length of Advent varies between\ntwenty-two and twenty-eight days. The Third Sunday of Advent _may_ fall\nas late as December 17th (the first day of the \"Great O's\") and the\nFourth Sunday of Advent be Christmas Eve. The plan suggested, which will\nsuit all years, is to use No. 1 on Advent Sunday and the rest according\nto choice till December 17th; from then to December 24th Nos. 21-28\nshould be used.\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS.\n\n\n                                                  PAGE\n\n     1. Ortus Christi               (_Advent I_)     1\n\n     2. Our Lady's Rest                              6\n\n     3. My Sins--A Triptych                         11\n\n     4. The Last Judgment                           16\n\n     5. Traders and Talents                         21\n\n     6. Stir up!                                    27\n\n     7. St. John the Baptist, 1 His Preparation     33\n\n     8. St. John the Baptist, 2 His Mission         39\n\n     9. St. John the Baptist, 3 His Testimony       44\n\n    10. St. John the Baptist, 4 His Martyrdom       49\n\n    11. St. John the Baptist, 5 His Character       53\n\n    12. \"Incarnatus est\"                            58\n\n    13. \"Ex Maria Virgine\"                          63\n\n    14. \"The Lord is nigh\"        (_Advent III_)    67\n\n    15. The Interior Life, 1 Humility               73\n\n    16. The Interior Life, 2 Oblation               77\n\n    17. The Interior Life, 3 Imprisonment           81\n\n    18. The Interior Life, 4 Hiddenness             85\n\n    19. The Interior Life, 5 Prayer                 89\n\n    20. The Interior Life, 6 Zeal                   93\n\n    21. O Sapientia!            _December 17th._    99\n\n    22. O Adonai! (_Expectation of Our Lady_)\n                                _December 18th._   104\n\n    23. O Radix Jesse!          _December 19th._   110\n\n    24. O Clavis David!         _December 20th._   114\n\n    25. O Oriens! (_Feast of St. Thomas_)\n                                _December 21th._   118\n\n    26. O Rex Gentium!          _December 22nd._   123\n\n    27. O Emmanuel!              _December 23d._   127\n\n    28. Christmas Eve           _December 24th._   130\n\n\n\n\nPRAYERS.\n\n\nDeus, qui de beatae Mariae Virginis utero, Verbum Tuum, Angelo\nnuntiante, carnem suscipere voluisti: praesta supplicibus Tuis ut qui\nvere eam Genitricem Dei credimus, ejus apud Te intercessionibus\nadjuvemur.\n\nO God Who didst please that Thy Word should take flesh, at the message\nof an Angel, in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary; grant to Thy\nsuppliants that we who believe her to be truly the Mother of God, may be\nhelped by her intercession.\n\n    (Collect for the Annunciation, said at Mass every day during\n    Advent.)\n\n\nOmnipotens sempiterne Deus, qui gloriosae Virginis Matris Mariae corpus\net animam, ut dignum Filii tui habitaculum effici mereretur, Spiritu\nsancto cooperante, praeparasti: da, ut cujus commemoratione laetamur,\nejus pia intercessione, ab instantibus malis, et a morte perpetua\nliberemur.\n\nAlmighty, everlasting God, Who by the co-operation of the Holy Ghost\ndidst prepare the body and soul of the glorious Virgin Mother Mary to\nbecome a habitation meet for Thy Son; grant that as we rejoice in her\ncommemoration, we may, by her loving intercession, be delivered from\npresent evils and from everlasting death.\n\n    (Collect said at Office after the _Salve Regina_.)\n\n\nConscientias nostras, quaesumus Domine, visitando purifica, ut veniens\nJESUS Christus Filius Tuus Dominus noster cum omnibus Sanctis, paratam\nSibi in nobis inveniat mansionem.\n\nPurify our consciences, we beseech Thee O Lord, by Thy visitation, that\nwhen Thy Son JESUS Christ our Lord shall come with all His Saints, He\nmay find a mansion prepared in us for Himself.\n\n    (Little Office B. V. M. Vespers for Advent.)\n\n\n\n\nPRAYER OF VEN. FATHER OLIER.\n\n\n    O JESUS, vivens in Maria,\n    Veni et vive in famulis Tuis,\n    In spiritu sanctitatis Tuae,\n    In plenitudine virtutis Tuae,\n    In veritate virtutum Tuarum,\n    In perfectione viarum Tuarum,\n    In communione mysteriorum Tuorum;\n    Dominare omni adversae potestati,\n    In Spiritu Tuo, ad gloriam Patris.\n      Amen.\n\n    O JESUS, living in Mary,\n    Come and live in Thy servants,\n    In the spirit of Thy sanctity,\n    In the fulness of Thy strength,\n    In the reality of Thy virtues,\n    In the perfection of Thy ways,\n    In the communion of Thy mysteries.\n    Dominate over every opposing power,\n    In Thine own Spirit, to the glory of the Father.\n      Amen.\n\n    (300 days, once a day, Pius IX, Oct. 14 1859.)\n\n\n    Sancta Dei Genitrix, ora pro nobis.\n    Mater Christi, ora pro nobis.\n    Vas spirituale, ora pro nobis.\n    Vas honorabile, ora pro nobis.\n    Vas insigne devotionis, ora pro nobis.\n    Turris Davidica, ora pro nobis.\n    Turris eburnea, ora pro nobis.\n    Domus aurea, ora pro nobis.\n    Foederis arca, ora pro nobis.\n    Janua coeli, ora pro nobis.\n\n\n\n\nORTUS CHRISTI.\n\n                                            =Advent Sunday.=\n\n     \"=Arise=, be enlightened, ... for thy light is come, and the\n     glory of the Lord is =risen= upon thee.... The Lord shall\n     =arise= upon thee ... the Gentiles shall walk in thy light,\n     and kings in the brightness of thy =rising=\" (ortus).\n\n                                              (Is. LX. 1-3).\n\n\n_1st Prelude._ A picture of the first streaks of dawn.\n\n_2nd Prelude._ Grace to arise because the Light has come.\n\n\nPOINT I. THE RISING OF CHRIST.\n\nThe Church begins her new liturgical year with the words: \"_Ad Te levavi\nanimam meam_\"--To Thee have I lifted up my soul (\"Introit\" for\nto-day)--as though she were straining her eyes to try to see something\non the horizon. She cannot see anything very definite yet, but she is\nfull of hope. _Deus meus, in Te confido, non erubescam_--My God I trust\nin Thee, let me not be ashamed, do not let me lift up my eyes in vain,\nshe cries; and she keeps on looking. This will be her attitude all\nthrough the season of Advent, an attitude of expectancy, of waiting, of\nhope, of trust, of prayer. We know for what she is waiting--the _Ortus\nChristi_--the Rising of Christ. \"The Lord shall arise upon thee\" is the\npromise. \"To Thee have I lifted up my soul\" is her response. What is in\nher mind when she sees those first streaks of light? They are to her an\nearnest of what is coming, an earnest of the Advent of her Lord. St.\nBernard says that His Advent is threefold, that He comes in three\ndifferent ways: (1) In the flesh and in weakness, (2) in the spirit and\nin power, (3) in glory and in majesty.\n\nThe Church knows how much these three Comings mean to her children, and\nso at the first sign of dawn she forgets the long weary night, and calls\nto each one: \"_Arise_, be enlightened for thy light is come, and the\nglory of the Lord is risen upon thee.\" \"Behold the Bridegroom cometh, go\nye forth to meet Him.\"\n\nLet us then begin our Advent in the spirit of the Church. Let us arise\nonce more as she bids us, rouse ourselves that is, to look with her at\nthe dawn, while we say to ourselves: \"Behold He cometh leaping upon the\nmountains, skipping over the hills. Behold He standeth behind our wall,\nlooking through the windows, looking through the lattices.\" As we look\nwe hear the voice of our Beloved, He is speaking to His Church. What has\nHe to say as soon as He comes in sight? \"_Arise_, make haste, my love,\nmy dove, my beautiful one, and come\" (Cant. II. 8-10). It is the same\ninjunction: \"_Arise_.\"\n\n\nPOINT II. THE RISING OF THE CHURCH.\n\nIf the Bridegroom is rising, it is evident that the Bride must do the\nsame. He is rising to come to His Bride, she must rise to go to Him.\nHow? By meditating on His Advents; by thanking Him once more for them;\nby asking herself what use she has made of them hitherto, what use she\nintends to make during this New Year that is beginning; by preparing\nherself for them; by remembering that as His Bride she has a very real\nshare in each.\n\n1. The _past_ Coming, \"in the flesh and in weakness.\" We shall think\nabout this coming more especially at Christmas, for which the season of\nAdvent is a preparation. \"The bright and morning star\" (Apoc. XXII. 16)\nwill by then have risen in all its fulness. The Word will be made Flesh\nand once more we shall _rise_ in the \"quiet silence\" of the night to\nworship our God \"in the flesh and in weakness.\"\n\n2. The _present_ Coming, \"in the spirit and in power\"--His Coming in\ngrace to the soul, to dwell with it by His Spirit. \"In _power_\"--because\nonly He Who is omnipotent could work such a stupendous miracle as the\nmiracle of grace. This miracle could never have been worked, had it not\nbeen for the first Coming. \"The Word was made Flesh\" that He might by\nHis death redeem His people and restore to them the kingdom of grace\nwhich they had lost in Adam. This second Coming is to prepare us for the\nthird.\n\n3. The _future_ Coming, in \"glory and in majesty\" when He shall \"come\nagain with glory to judge both the living and the dead,\" and when all\nwill be forced to _rise_ and go to meet Him whether they will or not. It\nis those, who have _risen_ voluntarily to meet their God in His second\nComing, who will have no fear of the third. The second Coming, then, the\nComing in grace, is the most practical one for us as we begin our\nAdvent, and upon it we will meditate in our third point.\n\n\nPOINT III. THE DWELLING OF THE BLESSED TRINITY WITHIN US.\n\nThis is what God's Coming in grace means--a soul in the state of grace\nis the host of the Blessed Trinity, neither more nor less. \"_We_ will\ncome to Him and will make our abode with him,\" (St. John XIV. 23) and\nfrom the moment that grace enters, the soul becomes the abode of God the\nFather, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost.\n\nIt was at the moment of Baptism that our souls were raised to the\ndignity of being hosts of God Himself. What happened then? God added to\nthe natural gifts with which He had endowed man _super_natural ones,\nsummed up in the gift of grace. What is that? A participation in His own\nlife, something which makes us \"partakers of the _Divine_ nature.\" (2\nPet. I. 4). He created man thus in the beginning, for He meant man\nalways to possess supernatural as well as natural gifts. He meant always\nto live with man and talk and walk with him in the paradise of his soul;\nbut Adam chased out the Divine Guest and lost this miraculous privilege\nfor all his children. God, however, could not rest content to be outside\nthe souls which He had created solely that He might live in them, and He\ndevised a way (the first Coming of Christ) by which He might get back to\nthe dwelling which He cherished so much. We need not follow the\nbeautiful story of the Redemption through all its wondrous steps, we\nknow it well enough; we will take it up at Baptism, when the divine gift\nof life which Adam lost was restored to the soul, when God came back to\nHis chosen dwelling, and the soul regained its responsible position of\nhost to the Blessed Trinity. When Satan had noticed that the soul was\nleft exposed, that it was a human soul only, with nothing divine about\nit, he naturally had taken possession, as he does of all empty houses;\n(St. Matt. XII. 44) so at Baptism the Priest said: \"Depart from him,\nthou unclean spirit, and give place to the Holy Ghost.\" Where the Holy\nGhost is, there are also the Father and the Son. The Blessed Trinity,\nthen, waits to take possession of each soul, waits to come back to Its\nown, waits to restore the privilege that man had at the beginning.\n\nThus the new creation takes place, and the soul is no longer a human\nsoul only, but divine, for the Divine Life within has made it one with\nItself. Does man realize this privilege and rise to it? No! For the\ngreater part of Christians we are obliged to say: No. As soon as they\ncome to years of discretion, they invite back the unclean spirit and\nchase out their Divine Guest. What base ingratitude! And what folly!\nBut God, who is rich in mercy is not repelled by such conduct; His one\nthought is to go back to His Temple which has been so profaned, and the\nscheme of Redemption included a method, (the Sacrament of Penance,)\nwhereby, if man would, he could drive out the devil and invite back the\nDivine Guest. Is God angry? Does He upbraid? Does He allude to the past\nand throw doubts on the future? No, He _loves_, and all He asks in\nreturn is love. Such is our Guest!\n\nNow what is my side of this great question? I am, or if I am not, I can\nbe, a Temple of God. God is living within me. How much do I think about\nit? I often talk about recalling the Presence of God, but it is His\nPresence _within_ me that I have to recall. I make Acts of Contrition,\nof Love. To Whom? To the God within me. Do not let me forget that my\nheart is an altar where I can, whenever I will, adore God. He is there\nto walk with me and talk to me as He did to Adam of old. He wants me to\nlive side by side with Him, and talk to Him as naturally as I do to my\nfriend.\n\nLet me try this Advent, as one of the best ways of preparing for the\nComing of Christ at Christmas, and for His Coming in judgment, to\n_realize_ what the supernatural life means, what _God in me_ means, what\nit means to be the host always of God Himself. The realization will\ntransform my life, will alter my point of view, will change me from a\nmediocre Christian into one who is filled with a great idea and who is\noccupied with it every moment of his time--an idea which is ever\nstimulating him to aim higher. _God in me_--then I am never alone, my\nlife is intimately bound up with God's life. I am a partaker of His\nnature. O my God, forgive me for having thought of it so little; help me\nto _rise_ to my great privileges. I thank Thee for letting a few streaks\nof Thy Divine Light reach my dark soul, and by the time that the Sun of\nJustice has risen in all His splendour this Advent, may my soul be\nflooded with the new light which the realization of the Divine Presence\nwithin it, will surely bring.\n\n_Colloquy_ with God within me.\n\n_Resolution._ To realize this truth to-day, and every day more and more.\n\n_Spiritual Bouquet._ \"We will come to Him and make our abode with Him.\"\n\n\n\n\nOUR LADY'S REST.\n\n     \"In omnibus requiem quaesivi, et in hereditate Domini\n     morabor.\"\n\n     In all these I sought rest, and I shall abide in the\n     inheritance of the Lord.\n\n                                         (Ecclus. XXIV. 11).\n\n\n_1st. Prelude._ A statue of Our Lady.\n\n_2nd. Prelude._ Grace to \"abide in the inheritance of the Lord.\"\n\n\nThat the Church intends us to spend the season of Advent with our\nBlessed Mother is quite evident to anyone who takes the trouble to study\nthe Liturgy. The Bridegroom is coming, but it is through the\nVirgin-Mother that He will come; and if we would be amongst the first to\ngreet Him, if we desire a large share of His grace, if we would have no\nfear of His judgments, we must keep close to Mary.\n\n\nPOINT I. \"I SHALL ABIDE IN THE INHERITANCE OF THE LORD.\"\n\nThe Church applies these words to Mary; let us try to see what they mean\nand how far we may copy her in her determination. \"The inheritance of\nthe Lord,\" what is it? The words bear many interpretations but we\ncannot be wrong, surely, in thinking that this inheritance was Mary's\nown soul; it was indeed \"the inheritance of the Lord,\" an inheritance to\nwhich the Blessed Trinity had a special right, the Father because He had\ncreated her in grace, the Son because He had saved her from the stain of\noriginal sin, the Holy Ghost because He had ever sanctified her and kept\nher \"full of grace.\" But what was it that made _this_ inheritance more\npleasing to God than any of the other souls which He had redeemed?\nMary's correspondence with grace we naturally answer; but what do we\nmean by that? We mean, or we ought to mean, that Mary realized to the\nfull that God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost lived\nwithin her; and hence her resolution to abide in \"the inheritance of the\nLord,\" never to leave her Divine Guest, never to forget that she was the\nhost and that it was her privilege to entertain. This is surely the\nsecret of Mary's life and of her correspondence with grace. She dwelt in\nclosest union with the God who dwelt within her.\n\n\nPOINT II. \"IN ALL THINGS I SOUGHT REST.\"\n\nWhere did she seek this rest, this calm of which her whole life speaks?\nWithin her own soul with her Divine Guest, in other words Mary lived an\n_interior_ life. She preferred a life inside with God, to one outside in\nthe world. Hers was a continual realization of God's Presence--of God's\nPresence within her; and it was this realization which enabled her to\nfind rest in every circumstance of her chequered life. She did not allow\noutward events to mar her interior calm. Her Divine Guest was always\nthere and to Him she could always turn. The consequence was that she was\nnever agitated, disquieted, excited, anxious, troubled. She dwelt \"in\nthe inheritance of the Lord,\" and there she sought rest in all things\nwhether it was in:\n\nThe joy of the Archangel's visit, or the difficulty of her visit to\nElizabeth.\n\nThe anguish of the reception at Bethlehem, or the joy at the birth of\nher Son.\n\nThe Angels who sang: _Glorias_ at His birth, or the neighbours who made\nunkind remarks.\n\nThe shepherds who came to worship in their poverty, or the Wise Men in\nall their pomp and splendour.\n\nThe ecstasy caused by her Babe's smile, or the distress caused by His\ntears.\n\nThe words of the Angel: \"Of His Kingdom there shall be no end,\" or the\nwords of Simeon: He shall be \"a sign which shall be contradicted.\"\n\nThe peaceful home-life with JESUS and Joseph, or the hurried flight into\nEgypt.\n\nThe anguish of losing Him (Desolation), or the joy of finding Him\n(Consolation).\n\nThe active work for the little household, or the times of contemplation\nat JESUS' feet.\n\nThe long, happy days at Nazareth with her Son, or the sad day when He\nleft His Mother's roof.\n\nThe account of His success: \"All men go to Him,\" or the account of His\nfailure: \"They all forsook Him and fled.\"\n\nThe cry: \"Hosannah, blessed is He!\" or the cry: \"Crucify Him, crucify\nHim! it is not fit that He should live.\"\n\nThe agony of watching Him suffer and die, or the delight of seeing His\nglorified Body.\n\nThe pain of being left in exile on earth, or the joy of hearing Him say:\n\"Arise, My fair one and come, the winter is over.\"\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n_In omnibus requiem quaesivi._--Not that all these things were the same\nto her, not that she was indifferent or did not care, she cared more\nthan anyone else could, for her heart was perfect and therefore more\ndelicate and sensitive than any other except the Sacred Heart of JESUS.\nWhat then was her secret? That she lived with the Blessed Trinity, and\nthat made her see God's Will in all that happened to her, and see it so\nvividly that she almost lost sight of the particular circumstances, and\nhardly knew whether they were painful or joyful. The pain was a joy\nbecause it was God's Will, and the joy was only a joy because it was\nGod's Will; so she never wanted to change any thing. She sought rest in\nthe holy habitation, the home of the Blessed Trinity; she pondered\nthings over in her heart, that is, she talked about them with her Divine\nGuest.\n\n\nPOINT III. THE CHILD OF MARY.\n\nThe child must copy the Mother. How is it with me? Surely if anyone\nought to realize the Divine Presence within, it is a child of Mary! How\nfar do I copy Our Lady in her interior life? What do I know of that deep\ncalm within, into which I can always retire and seek rest, and where I\ncan, if I will, rest so entirely that outward circumstances make little\ndifference? If I have made the same resolution as Our Lady; namely, to\n\"abide in the inheritance of the Lord;\" pain and anxiety and difficulty\nwill be an actual source of joy, because they afford an excuse for an\nextra visit to the Home within, and for longer conversations than usual\nwith my loved Guest. If a difficulty or a humiliation or something that\nI do not like comes in my way, I shall not be troubled, my first thought\nwill be with my Divine Guest. _He_ has permitted this, even planned it.\nI will go and talk to Him about it, find out what He means, what He\nwants me to do and how I can best act in the circumstances to gain glory\nfor Him. This is what is meant by the interior life, and it _can_ be, it\n_ought_ to be, far stronger than the exterior. It means a holy\nindifference to everything except God's Will; it means rest and peace\nabout everything that happens, without any desire to have things\naltered; it takes all anxiety and disquiet and perplexity out of life\nand leaves a great calm which nothing has the power to disturb _except_\na will in opposition to God's Will.\n\n_In omnibus requiem quaesivi._--Is it so very hard? Perhaps, for it\nmeans the spiritual life, and that means a continual battle against\nself; but it is a battle worth fighting. To fight is not only the way to\n\"_seek_ rest,\" but it is also the surest way to obtain it; for they\nalone who are continually fighting to keep the enemy out can hope to\ndetain their Divine Guest within.\n\n_Colloquy_ with Mary. Help me, my Mother, to dwell, this Advent, in \"the\ninheritance of the Lord,\" and when outward things are too much for me\nand I am apt to behave in a manner unworthy of a child of thine, do thou\nlead me by the hand into the place of rest and calm, where God Himself\ndwells, and where I shall see things from His point of view.\n\n\"O God, who didst please that Thy Word should take flesh, at the message\nof an angel, in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary, grant to Thy\nsuppliants, that we who believe her to be truly the Mother of God may be\nhelped by her intercession.\"\n\n(Collect to be said every day at Mass from Advent to Christmas Eve.)\n\n_Resolution._ To \"abide in the inheritance of the Lord\" to-day.\n\n_Spiritual Bouquet._ \"In all things I sought rest.\"\n\n\n\n\nMY SINS--A TRIPTYCH.\n\n     \"The night is past, and the day is at hand; let us therefore\n     cast off the works of darkness and put on the armour of\n     light.\"\n\n        (From the \"Epistle\" for the First Sunday of Advent).\n\n\n_1st. Prelude._ The Foot of the Cross where my sins have all been laid.\n\n_2nd. Prelude._ The grace of contrition and firm resolution.\n\n\nIt is clear from the words which she has chosen for her \"Epistle\" for\nthe First Sunday of Advent that the Church intends us during this solemn\nseason to think about sin,--the darkness of the past night and the light\nof the day that is coming and our duty with regard to both. It is not\nsin in the abstract, but our own personal sins that we are to consider.\n\"Let _us_ cast off the works of darkness.\" If the Apostle Paul included\nhimself in that \"_us_,\" we need not fear to do the same. It is meet,\nwhen we are thinking on the one hand of Him Who is coming to save us\nfrom our sins and on the other of His coming to judge us \"according to\nour works,\" that we should give some thought to those sins. Nothing will\nbetter help us to understand the mercy of the Saviour and the justice of\nthe Judge than a meditation upon our own sins. God _forgets_ the sins He\nhas forgiven, but it is better for us, more wholesome and more\nhumiliating, to remember them sometimes. David says: \"My sin is always\nbefore me\" (Ps. L. 5). The object of this meditation, then, is not to\ncause trouble in the soul--trouble about sins that are _forgiven_ can\nonly come from the devil--but to excite in us a deeper contrition, more\ngratitude and a greater watchfulness.\n\n\nPOINT I. A TRIPTYCH--MY SINS.\n\nAm I to consider all the sins of my life? The subject seems so vast, it\nis difficult to know how to condense it so that I may be able to bring it\nwithin my grasp. All sin may be summed up in one word--disobedience--_non\nserviam_. It was the sin of the Angels, it was the sin of our first\nparents and it is at the root of every sin that has ever been committed.\nGod says: Thou shalt not, the sinner says: I will. God says: Do this and\nthou shalt live; the sinner says: I will not, I would rather die. Sin is\nman's will in opposition to God's Will. This thought simplifies the\nsubject and makes it easier for me to call up the sins of my life and\nlook at them. Let me make a picture of them--a triptych, a picture, that\nis, with three panels side by side, the middle one shall be called\n_Places_, that on the right hand _Persons_ and that on the left _Work_.\n\n1. _Places._ As I look at the middle picture I see it consists of\nnumbers and numbers of small ones, each representing some place that is\nfamiliar to me--there is the house where I was born, there the school I\nattended, houses I have visited, hotels where I have stayed, gardens,\nplaygrounds, lonely roads, walks on cliffs, villages, towns, churches,\nthe sea-side, trams, omnibuses, trains, boats, bicycles, carriages,\nstations.... I am fascinated and cannot help looking still, though the\nvariety and number are almost bewildering. Each picture is so familiar;\nsome awaken sweet and precious memories, from some I quickly turn away\nmy eyes. All can witness to my presence, how many can witness also to my\nsins? \"Indeed the Lord is in this place, and _I knew it not_.\" (Gen.\nXXVIII. 16). That may to some extent be true and if so there is One who\nis always ready to say: \"Father, forgive them for they know not what\nthey do.\" _I_ know how much I knew, and the best thing, the only thing\nfor me to do is to make an Act of Contrition.\n\n2. _Persons._ I turn to the right hand panel and there are crowds and\ncrowds of _faces_, each one familiar--father, mother, brothers, sisters,\nrelations, servants, teachers, scholars, friends, enemies, priests,\nconfessors, acquaintances ... what impression have I left upon each of\nthese? If they could be called up and asked: \"What did you think of so\nand so?\" what would they have to say? They would have something, for I\nleft _some_ impression--and yet _none_ of them know me as I really am.\nThe three Persons of the Blessed Trinity have been near me _always_ and\nalways observant. They really know me. What have _They_ to say? \"If\nThou, O Lord, wilt mark iniquities, Lord, who shall stand it?\" (Ps.\nCXXIX. 3).\n\nThis picture makes me sad! That is just what Our Lord wants from this\nmeditation. Let me offer once more my heartfelt contrition and He will\nbe glad that I had the courage to open the triptych.\n\n3. _Work._ As I turn to the panel on the left I feel that I can breathe\nmore freely--my work will certainly give satisfaction! It is something\nto be proud of; I have always got on well; I have never been idle and I\nhave had a certain measure of success, and I feel that in that respect\nat any rate my life will bear inspection. But this picture too, as I\nlook at it, seems to be divided up. Yes, I can see quite clearly all the\ndifferent works upon which I have been engaged. All are very familiar\nand bring back for the most part happy memories, but some of them seem\nto be labelled.--What is it that is written across them? \"_You did it to\nMe._\" And all the rest that have no labels? They do not count--so\nevidently considered the One Who put on the labels. He left them, passed\nthem over, there was nothing there _for Him_. But that hospital that\nwas founded is not labelled, nor that legacy promised for a charitable\npurpose! Surely some of these without labels are \"good works!\" And these\nthat are labelled are such insignificant things, things I should never\nhave remembered at all if they were not in the picture--a kind word, a\nsmile, a hasty word kept back because I knew it would pain _Him_,\nsuffering cheerfully borne because I wanted to be like Him who suffered\nfor me. Why these and not those? Because He prefers _little_ things? No,\nbut because of the motive. Had the hospital been built out of love for\nHim and His sick, had it been built for the glory of God and not for the\nglory of self, it too would have been labelled. Had the hasty word been\nkept back that others might notice my self-control, it would _not_ have\nbeen labelled. What counts with God is the intention with which a thing\nis done. If it is done out of love for Him, no matter how insignificant\nit is, yea, no matter how badly done, it will surely be labelled \"_You\ndid it to Me_,\" and it will last when the mighty works that men have so\nmuch praised are crumbling in the dust, labelled with another label _You\ndid it not unto Me_. Have I not need to make another Act of Contrition\nas I think of my works, my love of gain, my ambition, love of praise and\nsuccess, of the motives of my so-called works of charity, of the times\nin which I have allowed my work to take the first place in my life,\nwhile my soul had to take the second?\n\nI shut up my triptych and leave it at Thy Feet O my JESUS, where the\nBlood from Thy Wounds may ever drip upon it, while I with Magdalen stoop\nand bathe Thy Feet with my tears.\n\n\nPOINT II. THE TRIPTYCH.--GOD'S MERCIES.\n\nAs I look up, I see my triptych opened again and all the thousands of\nlittle pictures seem to be transformed. Each one is speaking to me of\nGod's goodness and tenderness and love. How good it is to turn away from\nmy own misery to His infinite mercy; yea, more--to recognize that the\none is the cause of the other! And this is what He wants. If the sight\nof self does not lead me instinctively to look at Christ, it is a very\ndangerous thing, for it can only lead to despondency and discouragement.\nThe object of looking at self and its deeds is so to look that\neverything good or evil may shrivel up and disappear, till self is there\nno longer, but Christ only and all _He_ has done either for or through\nme. As I gaze now at the picture, I no longer see the places on earth\nwhich have known me for short periods of time, but my place in Heaven\nwhich by His mercy, if I persevere to the end, is to know me through all\neternity; not my dear ones as I saw them on earth, but as they are now\nin my heavenly country waiting for me; not my innumerable sins of\nomission, nor my \"good works\" done to please self, but the work of Him\nwho always pleased His Father, work which has made up for all my\nomissions, and which shines through every thing that I have done for\nHim, making it, too, acceptable to His Father. It seems to me now that I\nwant to linger over the picture, for His mercies are indeed infinite,\nand I shall never be able to thank Him enough for them.\n\nBut does He, the God of infinite mercy and plenteous redemption, never\nlook at my pictures? He says: \"I will forgive their iniquity, and I will\nremember their sin no more\" (Jer. XXXI. 34); and it is true. He will\nnever open my triptych for the sake of looking at my sins, but may He\nnot open it for the joy of seeing each of those thousands of pictures\nshining with pearls--the tears of contrition? Do not let me disappoint\nHim. This is the chalice of consolation which I can offer to the Sacred\nHeart in reparation.\n\n_Colloquy_ with JESUS thanking Him for making me look at my triptych and\nfor all that He has taught me in it.\n\n_Resolution._ Never to look at my sins without at once seeing\n_Christ_--a sight which will necessarily produce humility, gratitude and\ncontrition.\n\n_Spiritual Bouquet._ \"My sin is always before me\" but \"Thou shalt give\njoy and gladness.... and my mouth shall declare Thy praise\" (Ps. L. 5,\n10, 17).\n\n\n\n\nTHE LAST JUDGMENT.\n\n     \"The powers of Heaven shall be moved; and then shall they see\n     the Son of Man coming in a cloud with great power and\n     majesty.\"\n\n               (The \"Gospel\" for the 1st. Sunday of Advent.)\n\n\n_1st. Prelude._ The Last Day.\n\n_2nd. Prelude._ Grace to meditate upon it.\n\n\nThe Church invites us during Advent to turn our thoughts towards the\nSecond Coming of Christ--His Coming in judgment at the end of the world.\nThe subject of the Last Judgment is perhaps one which we are rather\ninclined to avoid in our Meditations; but it is one about which Our\nBlessed Lord said a great deal; it is continually mentioned, too, in the\nEpistles and in the Apocalypse, and as we shall most certainly take a\npart in that last great scene of the world's drama, it is surely well\nfor us to have a rehearsal from time to time.\n\n\nPOINT I. THE COMING OF THE JUDGE.\n\n_When will He come?_ God \"hath _appointed_ a day wherein He will judge\nthe world in equity by the Man whom He hath appointed.\" (Acts XVII. 31).\nThe day then is _fixed_, \"but of that day and hour no one knoweth, no\nnot the Angels of Heaven, but the Father alone.\" (St. Matt. XXIV. 36).\n\n_How will He come?_ He \"shall so come as you have seen Him going into\nHeaven\" (Acts I. 11), the Angel told the Apostles who had just watched\nHis Ascension. He will come, that is, in His beautiful Resurrection\nBody, dazzling with brightness and glory, with the wounds in Hands and\nFeet and Side. He will come \"with much power and majesty\" (St. Matt.\nXXIV. 30) for He will come to judge, not to preach penance nor atone for\nsin; He will come unexpectedly \"as a thief in the night\" (1 Thess. V. 2)\n\"at what hour you think not\" (St. Luke XII. 40); He will come \"with\nthousands of His Saints\" (Jude 14) for all those \"who have slept through\nJESUS will God bring with Him\" (1 Thess. IV. 13); He will bring, too,\n\"all the Angels with Him\" (St. Matt. XXV. 31); He will come \"with the\nvoice of an Archangel, and with the trumpet of God\" (1 Thess. IV. 15);\nHe will come \"with the clouds\" (Apoc. I. 7); He will come \"in the glory\nof His Father with His Angels\" (St. Matt. XVI. 27); He will come \"as\nlightning\" (XXIV. 27) and before Him will come His Cross--\"the sign of\nthe Son of man\" in the heavens (verse 30), every eye shall see it. What\ndifferent emotions that sign will excite!\n\n\nPOINT II. THE EFFECTS OF HIS COMING.\n\n\"Every eye shall see Him, and they also that pierced Him. And all the\ntribes of the earth shall bewail themselves because of Him\" (Apoc. I.\n7).\n\n\"We shall all rise again.\" (1 Cor. XV. 51).\n\n\"The sea will give up the dead that are in it, and death and hell ...\ntheir dead that are in them.\" (Apoc. XX. 13).\n\n\"The dead who are in Christ shall rise first.\" (1 Thess. IV. 15).\n\n\"We shall be changed, for this corruptible must put on incorruption, and\nthis mortal must put on immortality.\" (1 Cor. XV. 52).\n\n\"He shall send His Angels with a trumpet, and a great voice, and they\nshall gather together His elect from the four winds.\" (St. Matt. XXIV.\n31).\n\n\"Then we who are alive, who are left, shall be caught up together with\nthem (those who died in Christ) in the clouds to meet Christ.\" (1 Thess.\nIV. 16).\n\n\"Then shall He sit upon the seat of His Majesty,\" (St. Matt. XXV. 31)\nand \"render to every man according to his works.\" (chap. XVI. 27).\n\nThen \"the heavens shall pass away with great violence, and the elements\nshall be melted with heat, and the earth and the works which are in it\nshall be burnt up.\" (2 Pet. III. 10). And all these events are to take\nplace \"in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye!\" (1 Cor. XV. 52).\n\nWith the vivid words of Scripture before us, it is not difficult to make\na picture of the scene--the sign of the Cross where all can see it; the\nvoice of the Archangel and the trumpet of God heralding the approach of\nthe Judge; the Son of Man, coming in the clouds with all His Angels and\nthousands of His Saints (all those from Heaven and Purgatory); the cries\nof those to whom His coming is as that of \"a thief in the night\" (1\nThess. V. 2); the shouts of joy of \"the children of light\" (verse 5);\nthe opening of the graves, the sea giving up its dead and the reunion of\neach soul, whether from Heaven, Purgatory or hell, with its body; the\nchanging of the bodies of those who are living on the earth into\nResurrection bodies; then the great multitude of the elect clothed in\ntheir bodies of immortality rising to meet their Lord in the air; then\n\"the great white throne\" set up and He who is \"appointed by God to be\nJudge\" (Acts X. 42) taking His seat upon it, \"His garment ... white as\nsnow ... His throne like flames of fire ... thousands of thousands\"\nministering to Him (Dan. VII. 9, 10); the dead, great and small,\nstanding in the presence of the throne (Apoc. XX. 12), \"ten thousand\ntimes a hundred thousand\" standing before Him. (Dan. VII. 10).\n\n\nPOINT III. THE JUDGMENT.\n\n(1) _The Separation._ Quickly the Angels separate that vast multitude\ninto two companies--those on His right Hand and those on His left, the\nsheep and the goats, those who are to enter into life everlasting and\nthose who are to enter into everlasting punishment (St. Matt. XXV. 46);\nthose who have been faithful over the few things entrusted to them and\nthose who have hidden their Lord's talent; those whose lamps are burning\nand those whose lamps are going out. There is fixed a great chaos\nbetween the two companies, so that they who would pass from one side to\nthe other _cannot_, it is too late. (St. Luke XVI. 26).\n\n(2) _The books._ \"And the books were opened ... and the dead were judged\nby those things which were written in the books, according to their\nworks.\" \"And another book was opened, which is the book of life,\" and\nonly \"they that are written in the book of life of the Lamb\" shall enter\nHeaven. (Apoc. XX. 12, XXI. 27). \"Every man's work shall be manifest\" (1\nCor. III. 13); \"every idle word that men shall speak, they shall render\nan account for it in the day of Judgment\" (St. Matt. XII. 36). Then will\nbe seen, and _all_ will acknowledge it, the triumph of right over wrong,\nthe triumph of the Kingdom, the triumph of Christ; then will be\nadjusted all that we have so often longed to adjust but could not, for\n\"let both grow together till the harvest\" was the King's order. Then\nwill seeming injustices be explained and crimes that have called to\nHeaven for vengeance receive their just reward. Then will the unanimous\ncry be: \"The Lord He is God,\" and all will be forced to add: \"He doeth\nall things well.\"\n\n(3) _The Sentences._ There are only two: (1) \"Then shall the King say to\nthem that shall be on His right Hand: Come, ye blessed of my Father,\npossess you the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the\nworld.\" He tells them why they are to have such a blessed reward--they\nhave been faithful subjects of their King during their lives on earth,\nthey have ministered to His needs, lived for Him and not for self. They\nseem surprised, they cannot remember doing acts of charity to their King\nand He explains: \"As long as you did it to one of these My least\nbrethren, you did it to Me.\" (St. Matt. XXV. 40). The sentence \"Come\" is\npronounced on those who lived their lives for their King, who did all\nthey had to do, no matter what it was, for Him, thus uniting themselves\nwith Him, and now He will unite Himself with them for all\neternity--\"_Come_!\"\n\n(2) \"Then He shall say to them also that shall be on His left Hand:\nDepart from Me, you cursed, into everlasting fire.\" And again He gives\nHis reasons for this terrible punishment--they would not acknowledge Him\nas their King, would not serve Him, lived for self instead of for Him\nand His brethren: \"As long as you did it _not_ to one of these least,\nneither did you do it to Me\" (verse 45). During their lives they\nseparated themselves from the King and His interests: \"We will not have\nthis Man to reign over us;\" now He will separate Himself from them for\nall eternity.--\"_Depart from Me!_\"\n\nThen He \"will say to the reapers: Gather up first the cockle, and bind\nit into bundles to burn, but the wheat gather ye into My barn.\" (St.\nMatt. XIII. 30). \"The Angels shall go out, and shall separate the wicked\nfrom among the just, and shall cast them into the furnace of fire\"\n(verses 49, 50). \"Then shall the just shine as the sun in the Kingdom of\ntheir Father. He that hath ears to hear let him hear\" (verse 43).\n\n_Colloquy._\n\n        Inter oves locum praesta,\n        Et ab hoedis me sequestra,\n        Statuens in parte dextra.\n        (Among the sheep grant me a place,\n        separate me from the goats,\n        placing me on Thy right Hand).\n\n_Resolution._ To remember \"the doctrine ... of eternal judgment\" (Heb.\nVI. 2) to-day.\n\n_Spiritual Bouquet._ \"He shall come again to judge the living and the\ndead.\"\n\n\n\n\nTRADERS AND TALENTS.\n\n     \"A man going into a far country called his servants and\n     delivered to them his goods; and to one he gave five talents,\n     and to another two, and to another one, to every one\n     according to his proper ability; and immediately he took his\n     journey.\"\n\n                                        (St. Matt. XXV. 14).\n\n\n_1st. Prelude._ JESUS telling this parable to His disciples.\n\n_2nd. Prelude._ Grace to learn the lessons from it which He intended.\n\n\nPOINT I. THE TALENTS.\n\nIt is Christ Himself Who is the Author of this parable and He told it to\nshow us how we are to prepare for His Coming. Every word of it is of\nimportance and bears some instruction or warning for Advent.\n\nThe \"_man going into a far country_\" is the Man-God, He Who came from\nHeaven to take our human nature and to redeem us to God by His Blood.\nHis work of Redemption is finished and He is going back to His own\ncountry--\"_A far country_\"--implying that He will be gone a long time.\n\n(He) \"_called His servants_.\" They are His own servants, He has created\nthem, He has bought them with His Blood, they belong to Him--their\nservice, their time, their very lives are His, and this not because they\nare _slaves_ forced to labour, but because of their own free will and\nout of love and gratitude to Him who has bought them from the cruel\nslavery of sin, they have said: \"I love my Master ... I will not go out\nfree\" (Ex. XXI. 5).\n\n\"_And (He) delivered to them His goods._\" They are _His_ goods not the\nservants', they all belong to Him and He entrusts them to His servants\nto take care of them and to do the best they can with them while He is\ngone. What are these \"goods?\" All the good things which God has given to\nman--his life, his preservation, his Baptism, his christian education,\nintellect, faith, health, rank, wealth, talents, conscience,\nopportunities of doing good, position,--and all have to be traded with,\nfor the Master to Whom they belong. His \"goods\" include too what the\nworld would label \"evils\"--ill-health, difficulty, failure, poverty,\nincapability; these have to be traded with too, and there is often a\nhigher profit to be made out of these than out of the others. They are\nall the Master's goods and He delivers them to His servants.\n\n\"_To one He gave five talents and to another two and to another one, to\nevery one according to his proper ability._\" He knows His servants, and\nHe knows exactly the strength and capability of each. He measures each\nburden before imposing it and calculates each sum before giving it. This\nservant can manage five, this one two, this can only manage one. It is\nno disgrace to have only one talent, the ability of the servants is the\nMaster's affair, not the servants'. They cannot turn to Him and say:\n\"Why hast Thou made me thus?\" (Rom. IX. 20). He makes each one according\nto His own Will and endows him according to His Will too. What the\nservant has to remember is that he is responsible for all that is\nentrusted to him, that he _can_ trade with it and that it is not too\nmuch for him, it is \"according to his proper ability,\" and that though\nhis Master will never try to reap where He has not sown, He _will_\nexpect to reap where He _has_ sown, He will expect a harvest from each\ntalent.\n\n\nPOINT II. THE TRADERS.\n\n\"_He that had received the five talents went his way and traded with the\nsame and gained other five._\" He lost no time, he loved his Master and\nhe loved the \"goods\" because they belonged to his Master and because\nthey had been lent by Him. The whole of their value lay in the fact that\nthey were the Master's; he felt responsible, he must not only take care\nof them but put them to the best account, and so he set to work at once\nto trade with them, and he did well, for he gained _cent per cent_!\n\n\"_And in like manner he that had received the two gained other two._\"\nThere was no jealousy, no thinking the Master partial or that He had\nunderrated his powers in only giving him _two_ talents. He loved and\ntrusted his Master; the two talents were very precious because they were\nHis and because He had chosen them out with such love and care, giving\nthe servant just what he could manage, no more and no less. He went and\ntraded and did as well as the first, _cent per cent_.\n\nThus the good servants, that is those who love, who have said, I _will_\nnot go out free, are always trading for their Master. They say to\nthemselves: This talent, this time, this opportunity, this health, this\nstrength belongs to my Master not to me, I must use it for Him. They\nforget sometimes; the Master is so long away and they act as if the\ngoods were their own, and even trade with them for their own profit,\nusing their talents to attract people to themselves rather than to their\nMaster! But as they really love Him and want to \"trade\" for Him only,\nthey see the dishonesty of their trading and they do their best by acts\nof reparation to restore to Him His own. When He comes back, He will not\nexpect perfection but _effort_. Some, He says, will gain \"a hundred\nfold\" but for our consolation and encouragement He adds: \"some\nsixtyfold, and some thirtyfold\" (St. Matt. XIII. 8).\n\n\"_But he that had received the one, going his way digged into the earth,\nand hid his lord's money._\" He lost no time either, his mind was made up\nat once, he would take no trouble, make no effort, would hide his\nMaster's talent and forget all about it; he wanted no responsibility, he\ncould not be troubled with \"trading.\" His Master could not expect much\nfrom him, he argued, because he had entrusted so little to him, he knew\nhe was not capable of doing _much_, but he would do nothing at all. He\ndid not waste or spoil his Master's goods, his sin was one of\n_omission_--you did it _not_ to Me. He dug in the earth instead of\nlaying up treasure in Heaven.\n\n\nPOINT III. THE RECKONING.\n\n\"_After a long time the Lord of those servants came and reckoned with\nthem._\" Each servant must come up before Him to give an account and to\nbe judged according to his works.\n\n\"_Lord, Thou didst deliver to me five talents, behold I have gained\nother five over and above._\"\n\n\"_Lord, Thou deliveredst two talents to me, behold I have gained other\ntwo._\" The Lord gives exactly the same answer, the same reward to each,\nshowing clearly that what counts in the reckoning is not the _number_ of\ngood works but the spirit and intention and motive with which they are\ndone, be they many or few.\n\n\"_Well done, good and faithful servant, because thou hast been faithful\nover a few things, I will place thee over many things._\" The reward is\nnot given to the most capable, nor to those who have the most or the\ngreatest talents, but to those who have been _faithful_ over the few\nthings entrusted to them. They have traded with their talents for God's\nglory and for the salvation of their own souls. They have realized that\neach thing entrusted to them was a \"good,\" whether it was sickness or\nhealth, poverty or riches, prosperity or adversity, and they have said\nabout each: This belongs to the Master, how can I best use it for Him?\nNow they find that the merit of each action done, each suffering borne\nfor Him, has been carefully stored up.\n\n\"_Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord._\" It is His joy, His interest,\nHis glory that the faithful servant has studied on earth, now he shall\nshare them for ever.\n\n\"_He that had received the one talent came and said: Lord, I know that\nThou art a hard man_\" expecting the impossible, \"_and being afraid I\nwent and hid Thy talent in the earth; behold here Thou hast that which\nis Thine._\" He could have traded and made _cent per cent_ as the others\nhad done and earned the \"_Euge_\" (\"Well done!\") He not only did not do\nthis, but he put all the blame on his Master Who with such care had\ngiven him just the talent that was suited to his ability. He was\n_afraid_, he said, afraid of what? Of his Master because He was hard and\nunjust? No, this was only an excuse, he knew his Master and he knew it\nwas not true. What he was afraid of was hard work, effort, ceaseless\nwatching against temptation. It was far less irksome to bury the talent\nand live a life of ease, letting things just take their course, and\nhoping all would come out right in the end; but at the end things were\nnot right, for he had nothing to give to his Master, the one talent\n_was_ the Master's, he knew that quite well: \"Behold here Thou hast that\nwhich is Thine.\"\n\n\"_Wicked and slothful servant_\"--wicked, because he had robbed God of\nHis rights; slothful, because he would not raise a finger to serve his\nMaster.\n\n\"_Take ye away therefore the talent from him and give it him that hath\nten._\" It is a solemn thought that a grace refused by one may be handed\non to another who is more faithful.\n\n\"_To everyone that hath shall be given_\" is a principle of the Kingdom.\nHe ever giveth \"grace for grace\" (St. John I. 16). For every grace used\nHe gives \"more grace\"--\"he shall abound.\"\n\n\"_From him that hath not, that also which he seemeth to have shall be\ntaken away._\" There is such a thing as a last grace, a last opportunity.\nGod has nowhere pledged Himself to give the grace of repentance; grace\nis ever a free gift and He is not unjust if He withholds it. I can never\nsay: I will sin and repent after! To sin is in my power, but to repent\nis not. Our Lord speaks of sinners filling up the measure of their\niniquity (St. Matt. XXIII. 32). Had Herod reached the limit, filled up\nthe measure? Is that why Our Lord refused to speak to him? We do not\nknow, but we do know that it is possible for a sinner to sin to such an\nextent--not necessarily by gross sin, but by steadily refusing God's\ngrace and the opportunities offered to him--that what he has, that is,\nhis opportunities, will be taken from him.\n\n\"_The unprofitable servant cast ye out into the exterior darkness._\" He\never shunned the light and now it will _never_ be his. He was\n_unprofitable_, that was his sin, he did nothing for his Master. All\nsins, however terrible, will be forgiven if the sinner turns to God and\nrepents, because his repentance shows that he is \"trading,\" though he\nmay often fail in his business; but the unprofitable servant carries on\nno trade with God at all, he leaves Him out altogether. There is nothing\nfor God to do but to leave him out in the \"exterior darkness\" which he\nhas deliberately chosen.\n\n_Colloquy_ with the Master, Who though He is a \"long time\" coming, is\nnever far from those who are trading for Him.\n\n_Resolution._ Never to leave the Master out of anything I do.\n\n_Spiritual Bouquet._ \"Well done good and faithful servant!\"\n\n\n\n\nSTIR UP!\n\n     \"I think it meet ... to stir you up by putting you in\n     remembrance.\"\n\n                                             (2 Pet. I. 13).\n\n\n_1st. Prelude._ Paul writing to Timothy: \"Stir up the grace of God which\nis in thee\" (2 Tim. I. 6).\n\n_2nd. Prelude._ Grace to stir myself up this Advent.\n\n\nOn the Sunday before Advent and nine times during the Advent Masses, the\nChurch puts on the lips of her children this prayer: _Stir up, O Lord_.\nLet us try in this Meditation to catch her spirit which runs all through\nthe Advent season and see what it is that she wants God to stir up.\n\n\nPOINT I. HIS OWN MIGHT.\n\nWe ask Him during Advent to stir up His might for four different\nreasons.\n\n(1) _To protect and deliver us._ \"Stir up Thy might, we beseech Thee O\nLord and come: that by Thy protection we may deserve to be delivered\nfrom the threatening dangers of our sins and by Thy deliverance be\nsaved.\" (The \"Collect\" for Advent Sunday.)\n\nWe ask Him to show His might by _protecting_ us from dangers and by\n_delivering_ us from sin. We want to spend a good Advent, we want to\nprepare well for His Coming, then there rise up before us the\n\"threatening dangers of our sins\"--those old temptations that are sure\nto come back again as soon as we begin to put forth fresh effort. Are we\nto be discouraged, to dread them, to say we are sure to fall again, and\nthus give the enemy a hold over us? No, but to believe that our God Who\nis coming will protect us in the day of battle, that though to humiliate\nand to strengthen us, He may still permit the temptations, yet He will\nHimself be our shield and buckler, and will deliver us if we trust in\nHis strength and not in our own--\"Stir up Thy might, O Lord, and come to\nprotect and deliver.\"\n\n(2) _To free us from adversity._ \"Stir up Thy power, we beseech Thee O\nLord and come, that they who confide in Thy mercy may be more speedily\nfreed from all adversity\" (The \"Collect\" for Friday in Ember week).\n\nThe adversity from which the Church prays to be freed here is probably\nthe same as she continually teaches us to pray for deliverance from in\nher Litanies: war, pestilence, famine, floods, earthquakes--all things\nwhich damage the peace of nations and the produce of the earth, great\nnational disasters. From all such the world will never be free till the\nAdvent of her Lord, till God stirs up His power and comes to save it.\nMeanwhile for our consolation we can remember that it is when God's\njudgments are in the earth that the nations learn justice (Isaias XXVI.\n9). Adversity is a great teacher and trainer for Heaven, and as we\nadvance in the spiritual life we see more and more that many things\nwhich are adversity to the body are prosperity to the soul. We should\nnaturally like to be freed from the adversity of sickness, poverty,\nfailure, loss of friends, of health and strength, but all these\nadversities have their work to do. \"These are they who came out of great\ntribulation,\" and it is probable that but for the tribulation many would\nnever \"have washed their robes and have made them white in the blood of\nthe Lamb\" (Apoc. VII. 14). Let us strive to be amongst those who _trust_\nHim, who _confide_ in His mercy, who believe that He knows what is best\nfor them, and who gladly let Him arrange all for them. He _will_ stir up\nHis power and speedily free them one day, but it will not be till the\nflail of adversity has done its work and the corn is ready to be\ngarnered in the heavenly barns.\n\n(3) _To save us._ \"Stir up Thy might O Lord and come to save us.\"\n\nIn the Masses for the third week, that is Ember week, the prayer occurs\nfive times, twice in the Mass for the third Sunday and three times in\nthat for Ember Saturday. The time of the birth of the Saviour is drawing\nnearer, and the Church is beginning to be importunate. Stir up Thy\n_might_; for though He is coming as a little helpless infant, He is God\n\"mighty to save.\"\n\n(4) _To accelerate His Coming._ \"Stir up Thy might, we beseech Thee O\nLord and come; and succour us with great power, that by the help of Thy\ngrace, the indulgence of Thy mercy may accelerate what our sins impede.\"\n(The \"Collect\" for the 4th. Sunday of Advent).\n\nWe ask Him to stir up His might in _coming_. His Advents show His\nOmnipotence. Only a _God_ could come to this world to save it, only a\n_God_ could come to a soul and raise it to the supernatural state. These\nare miracles and we ask Him to stir up His might to come and work them.\nIt is our sins that hold Him back and hinder His work both in our own\nsouls and in the world. We want them to do so no more and so we ask for\nHis succour and indulgence.\n\n\nPOINT II. OUR WILLS.\n\n\"Stir up the wills of Thy faithful, O Lord, we beseech Thee; that\nearnestly seeking after the fruit of good works, they may receive more\nabundant helps from Thy mercy.\" (The \"Collect\" for the Sunday before\nAdvent).\n\nHere we pray for something which it is far more difficult to \"stir\nup\"--our own wills. We are not sufficiently in earnest; the might and\nthe mercy of God are there waiting to help us, but we have not the\nenergy nor the desire to receive them. We weaken our wills by yielding\nto temptation, by deliberately going into occasions of sin, by allowing\nourselves to be careless about rules and resolutions, by letting things\ndrift and contenting ourselves with a low standard. Advent is a time to\nrectify all this, to pull ourselves up and make a fresh start, and if we\nare in earnest, we shall gladly join in the prayer: \"Stir up the wills\nof Thy faithful, O Lord,\" stir up _my_ will. It is not a prayer to be\nsaid lightly for it means much--a will stirred up to \"seek after the\nfruit of good works\" means constant and continued effort; it means\nmortification, suffering, death to self; it means a determination to do\nor suffer _anything_ rather than run the _least_ risk of committing the\n_least_ sin; it means constant unremitting attention to little\nthings--to the smallest duties, the least prickings of conscience; it\nmeans hard work. _Dare_ I say this prayer? If I am _really_ anxious for\n\"the fruit of good works,\" I shall dare anything. Fruit is impossible\nwithout hard work either in the natural or the spiritual world.\n\n\"Who is sufficient for these things?\" Certainly I am not, but the\nconsolation is that the work is _co-operative_. As soon as I pray: Stir\nup my will, O God, because I want to bring forth fruit to Thy glory; He\nwill be there giving me \"_more abundant helps_\" from His mercy. God does\nnot expect me to work alone, nor to suffer alone, nor to make efforts\nalone. What He wants is a good will. He is coming \"to men of good will,\"\nand nothing can prove that I am one of them, better than a fervent\nprayer that my will may be stirred up, cost what it may. The \"abundant\nhelps\" will immediately be at my service; and when it seems sometimes as\nif, in spite of all my efforts, the day is going to be lost, I will hold\non still, remembering that the help is \"_more_ abundant\" when the need\nis greater. The stores of His mercy are infinite and He ever gives\n_more_ to the generous soul.\n\n\nPOINT III. OUR HEARTS.\n\n\"Stir up our hearts, O Lord, to prepare the ways of Thy only-begotten\nSon: that by His Coming we may be worthy to serve Thee with purified\nminds.\" (The \"Collect\" for the 2nd Sunday of Advent).\n\nHere lies the secret; if our _hearts_ are stirred up there will be\nlittle difficulty about our _wills_. If I _love_, I shall gladly make\nefforts, no trouble will be too much, no work too exacting, no sacrifice\ntoo great, no mortification too hard. \"_If you love Me, keep My\ncommandments._\" My will is to be stirred up to _seek_, but my heart is\nto be stirred up to _prepare_. It is my King Who is coming, He Who has a\nright to my heart, and He is quite sure to pass by my way, for to win my\nheart and make it all His own is one of the special reasons of His\nComing. No pains, no cost shall be spared in my preparation; my heart\nshall be decorated with the flowers that I know He loves and hung with\nbanners which shall speak of my gratitude for all He has done. This is\nthe preparation of the heart--the preparation of _love_; and it will not\nstop at my own heart, for if I really love my King I shall take an\ninterest in all the work that He is coming to do; I shall try to prepare\nHis way for Him in the hearts of others; I shall let them know that\nJESUS of Nazareth is going to pass by. Perhaps I shall have no\nopportunity of speaking about His visit, but the careful preparations I\nam making will not go unnoticed--each thing that I do out of love to Him\nwill in some way or another spread His Kingdom in the hearts of men.\n\n_Colloquy._ With my King Who is coming.\n\n_Resolution._ To do something _to-day_ in preparation.\n\n_Spiritual Bouquet._ \"Stir up!\"\n\n\n\n\nST. JOHN THE BAPTIST. (1)\n\nHIS PREPARATION.\n\n     \"This is he of whom it is written: Behold I send my Angel\n     before Thy face, who shall prepare Thy way before Thee.\"\n\n                                         (St. Matt. XI. 10).\n\n\n_1st. Prelude._ Picture of the Naming Day of St. John the Baptist who is\non Our Lady's knee, while Elizabeth and the kinsfolk are discussing the\nname and Zachary is writing on a tablet; St. Joseph is looking on.\n\n_2nd. Prelude._ The spirit of penance.\n\n\nOften during Advent the Church directs our thoughts to the great\nPrecursor of JESUS Christ, to him who was sent to prepare His ways. On\nfour occasions she chooses for the \"Gospel\" in the Mass, passages which\nrelate to St. John the Baptist and his work of preparation. If we would\nprepare well for the coming of our King, we cannot do better than\nmeditate on St. John the Baptist and try in our small measure to prepare\nas he did.\n\n\nPOINT I. THE PREPARATION BEFORE HIS BIRTH.\n\n(1) _A prophecy._ Four hundred years before the Precursor's birth,\nMalachias prophesied of him: \"Behold I send My angel,\" that is My\n_messenger_; and Our Lord tells us expressly (His words are noted by\nthree of the Evangelists, St. Matthew, St. Mark and St. Luke) that this\nmessenger was John the Baptist, who was sent by God to prepare the ways\nof the Messias.\n\n(2) _His miraculous conception_--for his parents were both \"well\nadvanced in years.\" Both his father and mother were \"just before God\nwalking in all the commandments and justifications of the Lord without\nblame;\" and they had their cross to bear--the \"reproach\" of having no\nson and therefore no hope of the Messias being born to them; but this\ndid not prevent them from praying, as all fervent Israelites prayed, for\nthe coming of the Messias. The answer to their prayer was nearer than\nthey thought. One day as Zachary was performing the most solemn part of\nhis priestly office--offering incense on the golden altar that stood\n\"over against the veil\" which separated the Holy Place from the Holy of\nHolies--he saw an angel standing on the right side of the altar, who,\nafter he had calmed his fear, told him that his prayer was heard, that\nthe Messias was coming, and that his wife Elizabeth was to bear him a\nson who was to be His Precursor, \"he shall go before Him.\" The angel\nthen prophesied many things about this child, which all show how careful\nwas God's preparation of His Precursor:\n\n\"Thou shall call his name John\" (the Grace of God). Only those who had\nan important future before them were named by God Himself before their\nbirth.\n\n\"Many shall rejoice in his nativity.\" Many--both angels and men.\n\n\"He shall be great before the Lord.\" Great in sanctity and great in\noffice.\n\nHe \"shall drink no wine nor strong drink.\" He shall be a Nazarite, one\nseparated and consecrated to God by a vow.\n\n\"He shall be filled with the Holy Ghost even from his mother's\nwomb\"--that is, he shall be cleansed from the stain of original sin and\nput into the state of grace before his birth as was Jeremias (Jer. I.\n5).\n\n\"He shall convert many\" by preaching penance and telling of Him who\ntakes away sin.\n\n\"He shall go before Him ... to prepare unto the Lord a perfect people.\"\nZachary listened but he could not believe that what he heard was true,\nthough Gabriel, who stands before God, had been sent expressly to him\nwith the message of good tidings. He asked for a sign and He received\none which not only proved to him that God can do what He wills as He\nwills, but also that He expects His children to trust Him.\n\nWhen at length Zachary appeared from behind the curtain to the waiting\nand wondering people, instead of giving them the accustomed blessing\n(Num. VI. 24, 26), he made signs to them and remained dumb and they\nunderstood that he had seen a vision. God dealt severely with Zachary\nbecause he was so closely bound up with the Advent of the Messias. He\nhad to be taught, and we through him, that the least venial sin may\nhinder God's work and designs, and that if we would be His instruments\nused by Him for the preparation of the Coming of His Son, we must be\nabsolutely faithful about little things, full of confidence in God,\nsetting no limit to His power and never doubting His dealings with us.\n\n(3) _He was filled with the Holy Ghost._ Six months later, Elizabeth who\nhad been waiting in solitude and silence for God to fulfil His designs,\nreceived a visit from the Mother of God, and the Precursor and the\nMessias Who was to come were brought into close contact. We cannot doubt\nthat it was at that moment when, as Elizabeth said \"the infant in my\nwomb leaped for joy,\" that John was \"filled with the Holy Ghost.\" Thus\nGod cleansed His Precursor before his birth from the stain of original\nsin, again showing us that those who are to prepare for the Coming of\nHis Son must be distinguished by their purity.\n\n(4) _By the holiness of his mother and his home._ His mother taught by\nthe Holy Spirit was the first to recognize Our Lady as the Mother of\nGod; she was saluted by Our Lady and ministered to by her. She had the\nunspeakable privilege of having Our Lady with the blessed Fruit of her\nwomb JESUS living under her roof for three months. A home where the\nMother of God was welcomed and honoured--such was the home God chose for\nthe Precursor of His Son.\n\n\nPOINT II. THE PREPARATION AFTER HIS BIRTH.\n\n\"There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. This man came to\nbear witness of the Light, to prepare unto the Lord a perfect people.\"\n(The \"Gradual\" for the Vigil of St. John the Baptist). The Feast of the\nNativity of St. John the Baptist is a Double of the First Class with an\nOctave, for Mary and her Son were present at his birth and he was \"great\nbefore the Lord.\"\n\nThe eighth day was the day of circumcision and the naming day. Everybody\nnaturally was calling him Zachary, but his mother who knew from her\nhusband that the name was fixed, said: \"Not so, but he shall be called\nJohn.\" They would not have it and appealed by signs to the deaf and dumb\nfather, who wrote: \"John _is_ his name,\" for \"he was so named of the\nangel before he was conceived.\" At that moment Zachary's penance came to\nan end and \"he _spoke_ blessing God.\" This fresh miracle was soon\n\"noised abroad\" and the people asked in fear: \"What an one, think ye,\nshall this child be?\" Zachary, \"filled with the Holy Ghost,\" used his\nloosed tongue to sing his beautiful hymn of praise to God who had\nremembered His holy testament, and had allowed \"the _Orient_ from on\nhigh\" to visit them. And then addressing his little son, he said: \"And\nthou child shalt be called the prophet of the Highest, for thou shalt\ngo before the face of the Lord to prepare His ways.\"\n\nHe began to \"prepare His ways\" by a life of hardship, solitude and\npenance, having no fixed home, living on what he could find in the\ndeserts--locusts and wild honey, and wearing as a garment camels' hair\nwith a leathern girdle. Tradition tells us he began all this at a very\nearly age and he continued it \"until the day of his manifestation to\nIsrael,\" that is, until the day he left his solitude and began to\npreach--nearly thirty years later. He had thirty years' preparation for\nhis life's work, like Him whose way he was preparing, and he was\npreparing it no less as a solitary in the deserts than as the great\npreacher of penance by the Jordan.\n\nWhat lessons can we learn for our own preparation for the Coming of\nChrist this Advent?\n\n1. That because we are going to be amongst those who in some way or\nother \"prepare His ways,\" God has occupied Himself with our preparation\neven before we were born. Either by surrounding us with good, or by\nbringing good out of evil or by some of His many ways which are not our\nways, He has had a hand in all that concerns us. We have first firmly to\nbelieve this, and secondly to co-operate with all God's designs for us,\nas John did.\n\n2. That if we would prepare the ways of Christ we must be familiar with\nHis Mother, accustomed to receiving her salutations and to returning\nthem. That we must have her to live with us and take an interest in all\nthat concerns us. Who could better help us to prepare for the Coming of\nher Son than His own Mother?\n\n3. That we must be filled with the Holy Spirit and never turn Him out of\nour hearts by sin. It would be useless to try to prepare the way for\nChrist if we had not the co-operation of the Holy Spirit.\n\n4. That penance in one form or another must have a share in our\npreparation for the Coming of Christ. All we know of John from the time\nof his infancy till he began his mission is that \"he was in the\ndeserts.\" It was not that he preferred such a life, but he felt that it\nwas the one most suited to his own preparation for the Messias, for\nduring those long years in the deserts he was preparing the way of\nChrist in his own heart; during his mission he prepared it in the hearts\nof others. Solitude, fasting, lack of ease and comfort, coarse\nclothing--these were the allies which John chose to aid him in his\npreparation for the Coming of the King, for His \"Kingdom is not of this\nworld\" and \"the weapons of our warfare are not carnal\" (2 Cor. X. 4). He\nwas consecrated to God, and he separated himself from everything that\nmight interfere with his entire consecration.\n\n_Colloquy._\n\n        (1) With God the Father Who has chosen me to prepare the ways\n            of His Son.\n\n        (2) With Him Who is coming.\n\n        (3) With God the Holy Ghost Who is co-operating with me.\n\n        (4) With Our Lady who is ready to let me do all my work by her\n            side. (Ecclus. XXIV. 30).\n\n        (5) With St. John the Baptist who will obtain for me, if I ask\n            him, the spirit of penance.\n\n_Resolution._ To examine myself to-day as to the place penance is having\nin my Advent, and if it has none, to fix at least _one_ daily\npenitential act.\n\n_Spiritual Bouquet._ \"He was in the deserts.\"\n\n\n\n\nST. JOHN THE BAPTIST. (2)\n\nHIS MISSION.\n\n     \"In those days cometh John the Baptist preaching in the\n     desert of Judea.... preaching the baptism of penance unto\n     remission of sins.\"\n\n                      (St. Matt. III. 1. and St. Mark I. 4).\n\n\n_1st. Prelude._ John preaching and baptizing by the Jordan.\n\n_2nd. Prelude._ Gratitude to the \"Friend of the Bridegroom\" for pointing\nHim out to the Bride.\n\n\nPOINT I. THE PROPHET.\n\nWhen John was about thirty years of age the \"word of the Lord\" (St. Luke\nIII. 2) reached him in his solitude, just as it had done all the\nprophets of old from Samuel down to Malachias, but since then, that is\nfor a period of four hundred years, God had spoken through no prophet.\nAs a result of this \"word\" the \"Prophet of the Highest\" came into all\nthe country about the Jordan--a large area--and began his mission. His\narrival made a great stir and the people flocked to see and hear him.\nThere \"went out to him Jerusalem and all Judea and all the country about\nJordan.\" All classes went--publicans, soldiers, even the Pharisees and\nSadducees, for if this man were really a prophet sent from God, it\nbehoved _them_ to know all about him. What did the multitudes see? A man\nwearing a \"garment of camels' hair and a leathern girdle about his\nloins,\" whose food consisted of locusts and wild honey--a man as the\nAngel Gabriel had prophesied \"in the spirit and power of Elias\" (see IV\nKings I. 8). What did they hear? A voice of one crying in the desert:\n\"Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight His paths.\" (St. Matt.\nIII. 3). And what were their conclusions? That this was he who was\nspoken of by Isaias the prophet (verse 3), that he was \"sent from God\"\n(St. John I. 6) and that he \"came for a witness, to give testimony of\nthe light\" (St. John I. 7). What light? The \"Light of the world.\" John\ncame to proclaim that the dawn which the world had been so long watching\nwas on the point of giving place to day, that the \"Sun of justice\" was\neven now rising with \"health in His wings\" for those that feared God's\nname, and that they must go forth to meet him (Mal. IV. 2).\n\nI too must go forth. What am I going to do to-day which will prove to\nmyself, to my Guardian Angel, to my Patron Saint, to Mary my Mother and\nto Him Who is coming that I am preparing the way of the Lord?\n\n\nPOINT II. HIS PREACHING.\n\nJohn came \"preaching the baptism of penance for the remission of sins\"\n(St. Luke III. 3). His voice was like that of a herald proclaiming a\ngreat event that was close at hand. \"Do penance, for the kingdom of\nheaven is at hand\" (St. Matt. III. 2). The Messias is coming to set up\nHis Kingdom. He Whom you have so long expected is close to you, prepare\nfor Him. Then John told them shortly and explicitly how to prepare: (1)\n\"To believe in Him Who was to come\" (Acts XIX. 4). (2) To repent of\ntheir sins and bring forth fruits worthy of penance such as fasting and\nself-denial (St. Mark II. 18). (3) To confess their sins (St. Mark I.\n5). (4) To be baptized as a sign of hope that their sins had been\nforgiven. John's baptism could not wash away sin, for it was no\nsacrament, St. Paul, as well as St. Mark and St. Luke, called it the\n\"Baptism of penance\" (Acts XIX. 4). It was a baptism which proclaimed to\nall that he who submitted to it acknowledged himself to be a sinner and\na penitent.\n\nJohn the Baptist was greatly in earnest, for the time was short; he\nspoke very plainly to those whom he noticed coming to be baptized out of\ncuriosity or human respect without any repentance or intention of doing\npenance. He warned them of the wrath of God which would fall upon\nsinners who persisted in their sin, of the folly of thinking that all\nwas well with them because they had Abraham for their father; he told\nthem that every tree which did not yield good fruit would be cut down\nand cast into the fire, that He Who was coming and was even now so nigh\nwould divide all people into two classes--the wheat and the chaff, and\nthat the great winnowing fan was already in His Hand.\n\nThe people then began to feel uncomfortable and alarmed, and anxious to\nmake sure that they were not going to be blown away as chaff, or burnt\n\"with unquenchable fires\" by the Mighty One Who was coming; and\ndifferent classes began to ask John what they must do. His answers were\nsingularly appropriate and confirmed the opinion that he was indeed a\nprophet. To the people generally he counselled charity, kindness and\nbrotherly love as the best possible preparation; to the public\ntax-collectors, who grew rich on the sums that they demanded in excess\nof the fixed tax, that they should do nothing more than that which was\nappointed; to the soldiers, that they should avoid violence and calumny\nand be content with their pay (St. Luke III. 10-14). He showed clearly\nby his straight and simple answers that the best way for us to prepare\nfor Him Who is coming, is to look into our daily life and occupations\nand change anything and everything that we know He would find faulty.\n\n\nPOINT III. HIS BAPTISM.\n\nOne after another the people made up their minds to change their evil\nlives and bad habits. They made their good resolutions and as a proof of\ntheir sorrow for the past and firm purpose of amendment for the future,\nthey went into the Jordan confessing their sins, and John baptized them.\nHe told them then that He Who was coming was mightier than himself, and\nthat He would baptize them with the Holy Ghost and fire. \"Then cometh\nJESUS from Galilee to the Jordan unto John to be baptized by him!\" Where\nhad He come from? Straight from His home, from Nazareth, from His\nMother. He had come to fulfil John's prophecy, to begin His public\nministry to the people, and He would begin it by identifying Himself\nwith them. They were sinners, coming to confess their sins and He would\nbe numbered with the transgressors (Isaias III. 12). \"But John stayed\nHim, saying: I ought to be baptized by Thee, and comest Thou to me?\"\n(St. Matt. III. 14). Though they were cousins it is probable that they\nhad not met since their early childhood. One had lived in the seclusion\nof Nazareth and the other in the seclusion of the desert. \"I knew Him\nnot,\" (St. John I. 31, 33) John said. It was probably the fact of\nsomeone coming for the baptism of penance who had no sins to confess\nthat made John suspect and then protest; but he could not resist the\ngentle, authoritative words: \"Suffer it to be so now, for so it becometh\nUs to fulfil all justice.\" Then when He had gone out of the water John\nsaw a wonderful sight--he described it himself: \"I saw the Spirit coming\ndown as a dove from Heaven and He remained upon Him; and I knew Him not,\nbut He Who sent me to baptize with water said to me: He upon Whom thou\nshalt see the Spirit descending and remaining upon Him, He it is That\nbaptizeth with the Holy Ghost. And I saw; and I gave testimony, that\nthis is the Son of God.\" (St. John I. 32-34). He knew Him now--there was\nno longer any doubt, no more time of waiting and preparation, He Who\nshould come had come. God Himself pointed Him out to the faithful\nPrecursor--a voice from Heaven said: \"This is My beloved Son in Whom I\nam well pleased\" (St. Matt. III. 17). What a reward for John after his\nlife of solitude and penance and mortification--to be in close contact\nwith the Son of God, to see the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove, and\nto hear the Voice of God the Father, and thus have the seal set to his\nmission! \"And I saw; and I gave testimony.\"\n\nAnd what have the waters of Jordan to say? That He, over Whose Sacred\nHead they closed, has, by the contact of His precious Body, sanctified\nthem and all other waters and given them power, when they are in contact\nwith His mystical Body to wash away sin. JESUS went down to John in the\nJordan not to _receive_ a gift, but to _impart_ one. From henceforth the\nwaters will bring forth abundantly and God will say of His new creation,\nas He did in the beginning, that it is good. All three Persons of the\nBlessed Trinity were present at this new creation, the Holy Spirit\nbrooded over the face of the waters for this new baptism was the Baptism\nof the Holy Ghost, the Voice of the Lord was upon the waters (Ps.\nXXVIII. 3), the Voice, that is, of the Father proclaiming that He was\nwell pleased, not only with His \"Beloved Son\" but with this first act of\nHis public ministry; for in Him He saw a countless multitude coming out\nof the sanctified water, and of each one He will say: \"_This_ is My\nbeloved son, in whom I am well pleased.\"\n\n\"O Almighty Eternal God, preside over the mysteries of Thy great mercy,\npreside over Thy sacraments and send forth the Spirit of adoption to\nregenerate the new people, whom the font of Baptism brings forth to\nThee\" (Prayer for the Blessing of the Font on Holy Saturday).\n\n_Colloquy._ \"Grant we beseech Thee, Almighty God, that Thy servants may\nwalk in the way of salvation; and by following the exhortation of\nBlessed John the Precursor may securely attain the possession of Him\nWhom He foretold, Our Lord JESUS Christ.\" (Collect for the Vigil of St.\nJohn the Baptist).\n\n_Resolution._ To \"prepare His ways\" to-day.\n\n_Spiritual Bouquet._ \"Blessed John the Baptist ... pray to the Lord our\nGod for us.\"\n\n\n\n\nST. JOHN THE BAPTIST. (3)\n\nHIS TESTIMONY.\n\n     \"This man came for a witness to give witness of the Light,\n     that all men might believe through Him.\"\n\n                                            (St. John I. 7).\n\n\n_1st. Prelude._ \"John stood and two of his disciples and beholding JESUS\nwalking, he saith: Behold the Lamb of God.\" (verses 35, 36).\n\n_2nd. Prelude._ Grace so to hear his testimony that we follow JESUS.\n\n\nPOINT I. \"THAT HE MAY BE MADE MANIFEST THEREFORE AM I COME\" (verse 31).\n\nThis was all John wanted, all he cared about, it was his vocation, it\nwas the point of his long years of mortification, the reason for his\npreaching and baptism; he was a man of one idea--the Christ is coming, I\nmust manifest Him to the people. This man came for a witness to give\ntestimony of the Light (verse 7). When the people wondering asked him:\nArt thou the Christ? Art thou Elias? Art thou the prophet? his answer\nwas: No, I am only a voice proclaiming His coming. I, He? Oh, no, I am\nnot worthy to be His slave. He is the Light, the Light of the whole\nworld. \"I saw the Spirit coming down as a dove from Heaven and He\nremained upon Him.... And I saw; and I gave testimony that this is the\n_Son of God_\" (verses 32-34).\n\nLet me look at my preparation for His coming this Advent and see whether\nI am in any way following in the footsteps of the great Precursor. Can I\nbe said to be a person of one idea--that of manifesting my Lord to\nothers? When people want to make much of me and my work and ask who I\nam, is my one thought to turn their eyes from me to Him Who is coming?\nAm I really persuaded that I am only here to make Him manifest? _Is_ He\nbeing made manifest to others through me? Do those with whom I come in\ncontact leave me, with a greater knowledge of Him, with a greater desire\nfor His coming, with more anxiety about the salvation of their souls and\nwith more zeal for that of others? Do my words and deeds, does my very\nmanner, speak to them of Him and make them think of Him? \"Art thou the\nChrist?\" In one sense, yes, for I am or ought to be another Christ\n(_alter Christus_), living His life, doing His work and representing Him\nin the world.\n\n\nPOINT II. \"BEHOLD THE LAMB OF GOD.\"\n\nThis is He, behold Him! He is the Lamb of God. He it is to whom all the\nlambs that have been sacrificed point; their blood could not wash away\nsin, but \"behold Him who taketh away the sin of the world.\" You are\nsorry for your sins, you have confessed them and I have baptized you as\na sign that they are forgiven, now there is One among you who takes them\naway. Behold the Lamb of God! This was what John said when he saw JESUS\nthe day after His baptism; he said the same thing the next day when he\nsaw Him walking by the Jordan; two of his disciples were with him,\nAndrew and John (probably), and when they saw their master pointing to\nJESUS and saying: \"Behold the Lamb of God!\" they did what John meant\nthem to do, they left their master and followed _Him_. How well had the\nfaithful Precursor prepared the way in their hearts! How thoroughly he\nhad done his work! How absolutely he had effaced himself! There was no\ndoubt, no hesitation in the minds of his disciples, no wondering whether\nJohn would mind; \"_they followed_ JESUS,\" and John had the joy of seeing\nJESUS turn and speak to them: \"What seek you?\" And then the joy of\nhearing them call _Him_ Master. \"Master, where dwellest Thou?\" \"Come and\nsee.\" Then the Friend of the Bridegroom saw the three going away\ntogether, and he knew that his mission had not been in vain, the Bride\nwas beginning to join the Bridegroom.\n\n\nPOINT III. \"HE THAT HATH THE BRIDE IS THE BRIDEGROOM.\"\n\nIt was not for nothing that Andrew and John spent that day with JESUS.\nThey told others what they had found: \"We have found the Messias, which\nis being interpreted the Christ,\" and they brought their companions one\nby one to JESUS, with the result that very soon the Baptism of the Holy\nGhost was taking place in the Jordan as well as the Baptism of Penance,\nand the people instructed by John left the less for the greater.\n\nThere were \"busybodies,\" as St. Paul calls them (1 Tim. V. 13), even in\nthose days, people who could not let others alone, who could not\nunderstand the situation or pretended that they could not; they \"came to\nJohn and said to him: Rabbi, He that was with thee beyond the Jordan, to\nWhom thou gavest testimony, behold He baptizeth and all men come to\n_Him_\" (St. John III. 26). They were words calculated to stir up\njealousy and ill-feeling; but John was too humble and too great to be\ndisturbed by them, his answer was characteristic: \"You yourselves do\nbear me witness, that I said that I am not Christ, but that I am sent\nbefore Him. He that hath the Bride is the Bridegroom.\" There is the\nproof that all I have been telling you is true. He has the Bride, the\npeople all go to Him, you see for yourselves that He _must_ be the\nBridegroom; \"but the Friend of the Bridegroom, who standeth and heareth\nHim, rejoiceth with joy because of the Bridegroom's voice. This my joy\ntherefore is fulfilled.\" It was enough for \"the Friend of the\nBridegroom\" to hear His Master's voice. The necessity for him and his\npreaching was fast passing away and he knew it. He had been for a time\nthe great man, the popular preacher, the one every one talked about,\nwhose advice everyone sought, now he must stand aside and see his\ndisciples gather round another master, himself not in the group at all.\nIt is a position most workers in God's vineyard find themselves in\nsooner or later, they have to give place to others, to watch others\nreaping the fruit of their labours, to see those whom they have taught\ngoing to other teachers, those who have sought their advice seeking it\nelsewhere. How do they bear this difficult situation? How am I going to\nbear it when my turn comes? Am I going to pose as a martyr, craving for\nand expecting every one's sympathy? Am I going to put difficulties in\nthe way of those who succeed me, and make it hard for those to whom it\nhas been my privilege to minister? Some are even jealous and show their\ndispleasure by criticizing those who succeed them! What was John's\nattitude? All he wanted was his Master and His Will. He was the \"Friend\nof the Bridegroom.\" He was satisfied to stand on one side, and his cup\nof joy was full when he heard his Master's Voice. \"He must increase\" in\nthe minds of the people \"and I must decrease.\" Let me learn a lesson\nfrom John the Baptist and make my sacrifice beforehand, remembering that\nnothing matters so long as I am the friend of the Bridegroom, can hear\nHis Voice and see the souls I have tried to help following Him. These\nare joys, real joys, and they are perhaps never fully realized till the\ncool shade of the background is reached.\n\n\nPOINT IV. JOHN'S TESTIMONY OF HIMSELF.\n\n     1. I am sent before Him (St. John III. 28).\n\n     2. I am the voice (chap. I. 23).\n\n     3. I baptize with water (verses 26, 31).\n\n     4. I am not worthy (verse 27).\n\n     5. I am come that He may be made manifest (verse 31).\n\n     6. I ought to be baptized by Thee (St. Matt. III. 14).\n\n     7. I knew him not. (St. John I. 31).\n\n     8. I saw the Spirit coming down ... and He remained upon Him\n     (verse 32).\n\n     9. I saw (verse 34); (that is, I understood).\n\n     10. I gave testimony that this is the Son of God. (ibid.)\n\n     11. I am not the Christ (verse 20).\n\n     12. I must decrease (chap. III. 30).\n\n_Colloquy_ with St. John the Baptist.\n\n_Resolution._ To bear my testimony.\n\n_Spiritual Bouquet._ \"Behold the Lamb of God!\"\n\n\n\n\nST. JOHN THE BAPTIST. (4)\n\nHIS MARTYRDOM.\n\n     \"Herod the Tetrarch, when he was reproved by him for\n     Herodias, his brother's wife, and for all the evils which\n     Herod had done, he added this also above all, and shut up\n     John in prison.\"\n\n                                     (St. Luke III. 19, 20).\n\n\n_1st. Prelude._ John the Baptist in Prison.\n\n_2nd. Prelude._ Grace to be faithful unto death.\n\n\nPOINT I. JOHN IN PRISON.\n\nJohn knew no fear where right was concerned. His duty was to make the\npaths straight for Him who was coming and it mattered little to him\nwhether he rebuked the Pharisees and Sadducees at the Jordan or Herod in\nhis palace. Herod, however, could not brook such plain speaking and he\nhad (at first) a mind to put him to death (but) \"he feared the people,\nbecause they esteemed him as a prophet\" (St. Matt. XIV. 5). Herodias\nalso had \"laid snares for him and was desirous to put him to death and\ncould not\" because of Herod who knowing that John was \"a just and holy\nman\" (afterwards) protected his life (St. Mark VI. 19, 20). So John was\nshut up in prison; Josephus tells us that it was at a place called\nMachaerus on the east of the Dead Sea where Herod had a castle.\n\nLet us go and visit John in that lonely prison, where he was cast quite\nat the beginning of Christ's ministry. His long years of preparation in\nthe desert, his fearless, outspoken preaching, his generosity and\nhumility in giving place to his Master, his important office of\nForerunner of the Messias, his vision of the Blessed Trinity--are they\nall to end thus? Is this how God treats His friends? Is this the reward\nfor fidelity and loyalty? Yes, St. John would be the first to answer,\nthese are ever God's ways, \"He must increase, I must decrease.\" John had\nindeed been specially favoured and he was specially favoured in prison\ntoo. It is not everybody whom God can trust with a trial such as this.\nJohn was still preparing the ways of the Lord, no longer by an active\nlife, but by a life of suffering, solitude and privation. His patience\nand his perfect submission to God's Will no doubt prepared the ways of\nChrist in the hearts of many.\n\nIf He is to increase, I _must_ decrease, it is only natural. Yes, it is\nnatural for the saints to reason like this, but what about me? I want to\nbe a saint. I often perhaps ask God to make me one, perhaps I even tell\nHim to use any means He likes, not to spare me. Does not this solve many\na problem? God is only taking me at my word; the beginning, the middle\nand the end of the process of saint-making is _humility_. \"I must\ndecrease,\" and if I ask to be a saint, He will give me the humiliations\nand the sufferings which alone can teach me humility and unite me to\nHimself. What then does it matter, if I have to suffer physically or\nmorally, if a career of usefulness in His service is suddenly cut short,\nif I have to stand on one side and see the work I love and for which my\nwhole life has been a preparation, being done by another, if those I\nhave taught do not seem to understand, if my life is full of little\nthings I dislike and which seem made to annoy me--all these and\neverything else that can possibly happen to me are the direct result of\nmy God-given wish to be a saint. Let me ask St. John the Baptist for\ncourage to continue my prayer this Advent and to accept joyfully for Him\nWho is coming all that it entails, saying, to myself when something\nseems to happen on purpose to annoy me: \"This is to help to make me a\nsaint,\" and then seeing to it that it does.\n\n\nPOINT II. THE END.\n\nVengeance still rankled in the breast of Herodias for John had said to\nHerod: \"It is not lawful for thee to have thy brother's wife.\" She laid\nher plans and awaited her opportunity; it came on Herod's birthday; he\ngave a supper for the princes and tribunes and chief men of Galilee, and\nshe made her daughter come in and dance till they were all so pleased\nthat Herod swore to the girl: \"Whatsoever thou shalt ask I will give\nthee, though it be the half of my kingdom.\" Herodias knew Herod and\nexpecting that this would happen had told her daughter to do nothing\nwithout consulting her. \"What shall I ask?\" she said to her mother, who\nreplied without any hesitation: \"The head of John the Baptist.\" Herodias\nwas evidently afraid that the king would change his mind and that her\nwicked plans would after all fail, for she impressed upon her daughter\nthe necessity of haste. The girl went back _immediately, with haste_ to\nHerod, and said: \"I will that _forthwith_ thou give me in a dish the\nhead of John the Baptist.\" Herod was very sorry, for he was interested\nin his prisoner, also he knew him to be \"a just and holy man\" (St. Mark\nVI. 20) and he hesitated before such a crime; but he had taken an oath\nand to break it before his guests would be inconsistent with his\ndignity, besides \"he would not displease\" the girl, so he acted at once\nas Herodias had bidden him: \"he sent and beheaded John in the prison,\nand his head was brought in a dish, and it was given to the damsel, and\nshe brought it to her mother.\"\n\n\"Faithful unto death.\"--\"O Lord, Thou hast set on his head a crown of\nprecious stones\" (\"Communion\" for the feast of the Beheading of St. John\nthe Baptist, August 29th).\n\n\"And his disciples came and took the body and buried it, and came and\ntold JESUS,\" told the Bridegroom that His \"friend\" was dead. \"Which\nwhen JESUS had heard, He retired from thence by a boat, into a desert\nplace apart.\"\n\n\"Faithful unto death,\" I must be too, if my preparation this Advent is\nto be anything like that of St. John the Baptist. He died to self long\nbefore his cruel death in the prison; his whole life from the day he\nwent into the desert as a little child was a living death: \"As dying and\nbehold we live\" (2 Cor. VI. 9). This is how St. Paul describes the state\nof all those who \"_will_ live godly in Christ JESUS\" (2 Tim. III. 12).\nIt is the death of \"the old man,\" the death of self; the \"I\" must ever\nbe decreasing, ever receiving the blows which will one day, probably not\nbefore the soul's last day on earth, cause its death. Such is the\nprospect I have before me, if I would copy John the Baptist and be\nfaithful unto death. What is my consolation and strength? That JESUS\nknows and sympathizes. Not one of the blows which cost me so much, not\none of the sufferings, not one hour of desolation or loneliness or\ntemptation or misunderstanding or unkindness, or any of the many things\nwhich are conspiring together for the death of \"the old man,\" are lost\nupon Him. He knows, He cares, He sympathizes and He is glad, for in\nproportion as the \"I\" is decreasing, _He_ is increasing in my soul.\n\n_Colloquy_\n\n        (1) With John in the prison.\n        (2) With JESUS in \"a desert place apart.\"\n\n_Resolution._ To be \"faithful unto death\" to-day.\n\n_Spiritual Bouquet._ \"I spoke of Thy testimonies before kings and I was\nnot ashamed\" (\"Introit\" for the Feast of the Beheading of St. John the\nBaptist).\n\n\n\n\nST. JOHN THE BAPTIST. (5)\n\nHIS CHARACTER.\n\n     \"What went you out into the desert to see? A reed shaken with\n     the wind? But what went you out to see? A man clothed in soft\n     garments? Behold they that are in costly apparel and live\n     delicately, are in the houses of kings. But what went you out\n     to see? A prophet? Yea, I say to you, and more than a\n     prophet, for ... among those that are born of women, there is\n     not a greater prophet than John the Baptist. But he that is\n     the lesser in the Kingdom of God, is greater than he.\"\n\n                                      (St. Luke VII. 24-28).\n\n\n_1st. Prelude._ JESUS talking to His disciples about John.\n\n_2nd. Prelude._ Grace to stand by and listen and learn.\n\n\nPOINT I. HIS HUMILITY.\n\nOne day when John was in prison his disciples came and told him that\nthey had heard that JESUS was working a great many miracles and that His\nfame was spreading all through the country. At Capharnaum He had healed\na centurion's servant, and at Naim He had raised a widow's son to life;\nand the people were all glorifying God and saying: \"A great prophet is\nrisen up among us, and God hath visited His people\" (St. Luke VII). This\nnews sounded like music in John's ears; it was just what he wanted; it\nwas a proof that his life's work had not been in vain: \"He _must_\nincrease.\" The disciples however who brought the news did not take at\nall the same view of the case. They were not pleased that another should\ntake the place of their master while he languished in prison. John knew\nthat had they been quite sure that JESUS was the Messias, such thoughts\ncould have had no place in their minds, and so to strengthen their\nfaith he sent two of them to JESUS with the question: \"Art thou He that\nart to come or look we for another?\" hoping no doubt that they might see\nsome miracles for themselves, or at any rate that personal contact with\nJESUS would clear away their doubts.\n\nSee the beautiful humility of John's character, there is no thought for\nhimself; he is only anxious still to point out the Lamb of God and to\nremove all obstacles from His path in the hearts of all; he is still the\nvoice crying with no uncertain sound. It happened (not by chance) that\njust when the two disciples arrived many miracles were being worked by\nJESUS, and in answer to their question, which they were probably now\nrather ashamed to put, He said: \"Go and relate to John what you have\nheard and seen;\" and He added: \"Blessed is he whosoever shall not be\nscandalized in Me.\" Surely after that the disciples could never again\nstumble in their faith, and it must have been with joy in their hearts\nthat they told their master of all they had seen and heard.\n\n\nPOINT II. CHRIST'S TESTIMONY OF JOHN.\n\nWhen the messengers had gone, JESUS began to talk to the people about\nHis faithful Precursor, whom they all knew so well. \"What went you out\nin the desert to see?\" He asked them. Was it \"a reed shaken with the\nwind?\" Was it \"a man clothed in soft garments\" and living delicately?\nWas it \"a prophet?\" On another occasion He spoke of him as \"a burning\nand a shining light\" (St. John V. 35). What praise this was on the lips\nof the Master! The four points He picked out are characteristics that He\nappreciates not only in John but in all who are preparing for His\nComing. Let us see where we stand with regard to them.\n\n1. _A determination of purpose._ \"What went you out into the desert to\nsee? A reed shaken with the wind?\" No, but a man of one idea, and who\npursued that idea through all difficulties and opposition and failure,\nnot counting the cost. I want to copy John the Baptist. I want to\nprepare the way of the Lord in my heart, how shall I do it? Not by\nallowing myself to be a reed shaken with the wind, trying very hard for\na day or two and then giving all up and saying it is no use; not by\nmaking good resolutions and then quietly dropping them because they have\nbeen broken. No, but by a steady, determined effort, in spite of many\nfailures, to overcome in myself everything which I know will be a\nhindrance to my King pursuing His way in my soul. He is never\ndisappointed by my failures; these are more than made up for directly I\ntell Him that I am sorry. What pains His loving Heart is cessation of\neffort, giving up the fight, running away from the enemy instead of\nstanding up to be knocked down again, if my Captain thus wills to give\nme another opportunity of meriting, and of practicing humility. Saints\nare not made by victories all along the line, but by repeated failures\nhumbly and patiently accepted, with a firm determination that each\nfailure shall be the _last_. But what is the use when I know I shall\nfail again? I do not know; I need not fall, it is my own fault if I do.\nTo do less than have a firm determination about the future, would be to\nlay down my arms. Every effort made for God leaves me holier, and as\nlong as I keep on trying I am making progress in the spiritual life,\nthough I cannot see it.\n\n2. _Self-sacrifice._ \"But what went you out to see? A man clothed in\nsoft garments? Behold they that are in costly apparel and live\ndelicately are in the houses of kings.\" John prepared for the Coming of\nhis King by a life of self-sacrifice, every day giving up for the sake\nof Him Who was coming all the things that were just as dear to his\nnature as they are to mine. What part is self-sacrifice taking in my\npreparation for my King this Advent? I have no need to go into the\ndesert or live the life of a hermit. It is the little tiny acts of\nself-sacrifice known only to my King and me which are so pleasing to\nHim. It is wonderful what notice He takes of little things which are\ndone out of love to Him. If we could promise Him a certain number of\nthese little acts every day--perhaps six or ten, or even _one_--and mark\nthem down to ensure their being remembered, it would be a preparation\nvery precious in His sight. To do a hard thing just because it is hard,\nto keep silent when I could say something sarcastic or clever but not\nquite charitable, to bear little physical sufferings without letting\neverybody know about them, to be cheerful and bright when I am feeling\ntired and moody, to accept all that happens to me as coming straight\nfrom God's Hands, especially all the little crosses that come to me\nthrough others--these are the things that will make me a saint and I\ncannot keep Advent or any other season better than by practicing them.\nNothing is too small for my King to notice. Let me then be generous and\ngive Him all I can, remembering that as long as the little act _costs_\nme something, it is sure to be acceptable to Him; \"He must increase, I\nmust decrease,\" and it is by self-sacrifice that this great work will\nslowly but surely be accomplished in my soul.\n\n3. _Fidelity to duty._ \"But what went you out to see? A prophet? Yea, I\nsay to you, and more than a prophet for ... amongst those that are born\nof women, there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist. But he\nthat is the lesser in the kingdom of God is greater than he.\" John was\nmore than a prophet, because he not only prophesied of Christ as so many\nother prophets had done, but he was the last of the prophets, the\nimmediate Forerunner of the Messias. No office could be greater than\nthis and no one else ever held it, it was unique and made John \"more\nthan a prophet.\" Nevertheless, Our Lord said: \"He that is the lesser in\nthe kingdom of God is greater than he\"--_lesser_ in holiness and in\noffice, but _greater_ in dignity and privilege, because he is a member\nof the Holy Catholic Church and a partaker of her Sacraments.\nThanksgiving that I am a member of the Holy Catholic Church should often\nfind a place in my heart, and especially during Advent when the Church\nbegins again to spread out before me all the treasures of her Liturgy\nand when my thoughts and meditations are centred round Him Who is coming\nto be incarnate for that Church, to die for it, to make a plan which\nwill enable Him to be with it \"all days, even to the consummation of the\nworld\" (St. Matt. XXVIII. 20), and finally to judge it that He may\n\"present it to Himself a glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle, or\nany such thing but that it should be holy and without blemish.\" (Eph. V.\n27).\n\nIf my privileges are greater than those of St. John the Baptist, my\nresponsibilities are greater also. As I think how faithfully he\nfulfilled one of the greatest offices ever entrusted to man, let me\nremember that I too have a special office given me to fulfil, and it is\nno less important for me to fulfil it faithfully, than it was for St.\nJohn. It may be that my office is a very lowly one, that I have only one\ntalent, but JESUS is taking notice how I am trading with it. What have\nHis messengers to say when He asks: \"What went you out to see?\" Let the\nseason of Advent inspire me to be up and doing--faithful in that which\nis least, living as one who has to give an account of each talent, each\noccasion of merit, each opportunity of influencing another, each\ninspiration of grace.\n\n4. _Light giving._ \"He was a burning and a shining Light.\" This was the\nsecret of John's greatness, of his humility, of his courage, of his\nzeal. His heart so burned with love for God and zeal for His service\nthat it shone out on all with whom he came in contact.\n\nLet me make one last examen on myself here. Do I feel sometimes that my\ninfluence on others is very small, that my light seems to be hidden\nunder a bushel, that try as I will, I cannot make any impression? May it\nnot be that I am thinking too much about the shining of the light and\ntoo little about the burning? The candle must _burn_ before it can\n_shine_. If my heart is in constant touch with the Sacred Heart of JESUS\nit will burn with His love and zeal, and the shining will follow as a\nmatter of course, I need not trouble about it; but if I allow anything\nto separate my heart from His, even ever so little, the fire in my heart\nwill die down; there may be a little glow left, unless I leave it too\nlong, but there is not enough to \"shine before men.\" \"What went you out\nto see?\" What answer would those with whom I live, those who know me\nbest, have to give?\n\n_Colloquy_ with JESUS and St. John the Baptist.\n\n_Resolution._ To win the approval of JESUS to-day by the way in which I\nprepare for His Coming.\n\n_Spiritual Bouquet._ \"What went you out to see?\"\n\n\n\n\n\"INCARNATUS EST\"\n\n     Regem venturum Dominum venite adoremus. [Come let us adore\n     the King our Lord Who is to come.]\n\n\n_1st. Prelude._ Picture of the Annunciation.\n\n_2nd. Prelude._ Grace to understand the mystery of the Incarnation.\n\n\nPOINT I. VENITE ADOREMUS.\n\n\"Come let us adore the King our Lord Who is to come.\" These are the\nopening words of the Invitatory which the Church uses every day at\nMatins during the first fortnight of Advent. Let us turn then from the\nPrecursor, who has taught us so many lessons, to JESUS Christ Himself.\nWhat is He doing during these months of waiting before Christmas? He,\ntoo, is preparing, preparing for the work for which He has already come\ninto the world, although He is not yet manifest. John the Baptist has\npointed Him out to me: \"Behold the Lamb of God!\" Now I will do what his\ndisciples did--leave \"the Friend of the Bridegroom\" for the Bridegroom\nHimself. He has become incarnate for me; it behoves me then to keep as\nclose to Him as possible, to love Him with all my heart and to copy Him\nas far as I can. He is God and therefore there can be nothing imperfect\nabout Him; from the first moment of the Word being made flesh in the\nwomb of His Mother till \"she brought forth her first-born Son\" on\nChristmas day, His faculties, His reason, His intelligence, His\nsensibilities were all in a state of perfection; He knew the past, the\npresent, and the future; and He, the Source of grace, was pouring forth\ngrace on all around Him. Directly we understand this, we feel that we\nmust draw near, not only to adore but to sympathize, to wonder, to love,\nto learn, to imitate. For those who understand the Incarnation, His work\ndid not begin on Christmas Day, but on the Feast of the Annunciation,\nwhen Mary said: \"Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it done unto me\naccording to Thy word.\" What happened at that moment? The Holy Ghost\novershadowed her, the Body of Our Lord was formed from her pure blood,\nGod created the human Soul to dwell in it, and by the act of the\nIncarnation that Soul and Body became the Soul and Body of the Word, the\nSecond Person of the Blessed Trinity; Mary became the Mother of God and\nGabriel worshipped before the Tabernacle of the Word made flesh.\n\nMary was the next to adore; Joseph, Elizabeth, John, Zachary followed,\nand there may have been other privileged ones to whom Our Lord Himself\nrevealed His secret; but the world at large went on as usual--it \"knew\nHim not.\" The same thing happens every day in our midst. When the priest\nwith his God hidden on his breast passes on his way to give the Bread of\nLife to some sufferer, only a few privileged ones know the secret and\noffer their silent adoration. _Venite adoremus._\n\n\nPOINT II. DIVINE ADORATION.\n\nIt was a _new life_ that Our Lord entered upon at the moment of the\nIncarnation. He had had His Divine Life from all eternity, but God had\nnever before been man. He now for the first time could express Himself\nthrough a human body. God could adore with human lips, could love with a\nhuman heart, could suffer through human senses, could plan with a human\nintelligence, could reason with a human mind. The consequence of the\nunion of the two natures was that the human nature was perfect, more\nthan perfect--it was Divine, and God received at the moment of the\nIncarnation, the first perfect human act of adoration, the first perfect\nhuman act of love, of humility and of all the other virtues. The God-Man\ncould adore perfectly, because being God He knew God and knew what\nadoration was fitting for God; it was God adoring God and yet it was a\nhuman act, the act of a man like ourselves. At that moment God received\nwhat He wanted from one of the human race. The first breath drawn by His\nSon Incarnate made it worth His while to have created man in spite of\nthe Fall. He received not only reparation but all He expected from the\nhuman race when He first created it. He was satisfied, and would have\nbeen satisfied even if that first moment had also been His last on\nearth. The Incarnation would have done its work, the justice of God\ncould have required no more--a human will was perfectly submissive to\nHis Will, a human heart beat in unison with His, a human creature\noffered itself as a victim for the race: \"Behold, I come to do Thy Will,\nO My God,\" I have desired it. (Ps. XXXIX. 8, 9). God received at the\nmoment of the Incarnation a higher act of worship than He had ever\nreceived from all the nine choirs of Angels, and that act was a _human_\nact. Did the Angels who fell understand this and was this the cause of\ntheir rebellion? It is true that this first moment of the Incarnation\nwould have more than satisfied God, but it was not enough for the\nGod-made-Man. He would go on, on even to the death of the cross, not to\nsatisfy His Father's justice, but His own love, and to show to those\nwhom by His Incarnation He had made His brethren to what lengths love\ncan go. Every breath He drew was as perfect as the first--a perfect\noffering, a perfect act of adoration; every beat of His Heart until He\nsaid: \"Father, into Thy Hands I commend My Spirit,\" was a perfect act of\nlove; every act, every thought, every word perfect, because they were\nthe acts, thoughts and words of _God_.\n\n\nPOINT III. THE PRACTICAL CONCLUSION.\n\nWhat have I to do with these sublime truths? Everything, for He was\nincarnate _for me_. What does it mean? It means that He is my Brother\nand that He is giving to God what God must have, but what I cannot give\nHim; and that all I have to do is to unite myself to Him and to offer my\nimperfect acts of adoration, love, humility with His perfect ones. He\nhas given Himself to me, that I may give Him back to God--a perfect\noffering with which God will be entirely satisfied. My God, I cannot\nadore Thee as I should, though I desire to do so with my whole heart,\nbut JESUS is there incarnate for me, He is adoring Thee perfectly for\nme, accept His adoration and mine with it. My God, I love Thee, but I\ncannot love Thee enough, I cannot love Thee as I ought, I cannot love\nThee as Thou deservest to be loved, but JESUS is incarnate for me, He\nhas a human Heart which is loving Thee _perfectly_; I put my heart\ninside His, accept His love and mine with it. My God, I want to be\nperfectly submissive, perfectly humble, a perfect victim, but great\nthough my desires are, I cannot arrive at the perfection which Thou dost\nrequire. Oh, look upon my Brother incarnate for me, accept all His\nperfections; let me offer my little struggles and desires and efforts\nwith all that He is doing, for is it not all for me? \"_Through_ Him and\n_with_ Him and _in_ Him.\"\n\nLet me go to Nazareth to Mary; she will welcome me for she knows that He\nhas become incarnate _for me_. The Angel has just left her to take back\nher _Fiat_ to Heaven. I will take his place and on bended knees before\nthat holy shrine where the new Life has just begun, I will meditate.\nNever before perhaps have I so felt the need of thanksgiving, of\nadoration, of wonder, of love. All I offer now and from henceforth must\npass through Mary to her Son, Who will offer my gifts with His own to\nHis Father.\n\n_Colloquy_ with God-Incarnate.\n\n_Resolution._ To thank God often to-day for the Incarnation.\n\n_Spiritual Bouquet._ \"He was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin\nMary and was made Man.\"\n\n\n\n\n\"EX MARIA VIRGINE\"\n\n     \"Apud me est fons vitae.\" [In me is the Source of life.]\n\n\n_1st. Prelude._ Mary, just after the Angel had departed from her.\n\n_2nd. Prelude._ Grace to understand Mary's part in the Incarnation.\n\n\nPOINT I. MARY SHARES ALL WITH HER SON.\n\nAll the joy that the Incarnation brought to the Blessed Trinity, Mary to\na great extent must have shared. There was the joy of God the Father,\nbecause He saw His designs in creating man fulfilled, His justice\nsatisfied and a human creature doing Him perfect homage and bringing Him\nso much glory. There was the joy of God the Son, because at last He was\nunited to our human nature, because He being God had nevertheless a\nhuman Soul and a human Body, to which He could unite all the Divine\nperfections, and by means of which He could carry out all His Father's\ndesigns for the lost human race. There was the joy of the Holy Spirit\nWho had overshadowed Mary and by His Divine power created in her a Soul\nand a Body so beautiful that they were worthy to be taken by the Eternal\nWord and for ever united to the Divinity. The Holy Ghost saw now a human\nSoul into which He could pour _all_ the grace that would be needed by\nthe whole human race. Of His fulness all were to receive (St. John I.\n16).\n\nAnd what was the means whereby all this joy was given to the Blessed\nTrinity? The Body which had been formed from the most pure flesh and\nblood of Mary. She had lent herself at God's request to be the\ninstrument used, and now she was the Tabernacle where the God-Man lay\nhidden. As He shared His life with His Mother, since it was her blood\nwhich was coursing through His Veins, so He shared all His acts with\nher. That first perfect act of adoration made by a human Soul to God was\nshared by Mary--she adored too. That first whole-hearted oblation of a\nhuman Soul to God was shared by Mary when she said her: \"_Fiat mihi\nsecundum verbum Tuum_.\" That first perfect act of love from a human\nHeart was shared by Mary for how close was the union between the Sacred\nHeart of JESUS and the most pure heart of Mary! When JESUS made acts of\nreparation of humility, of conformity to His Father's Will, Mary made\nthem too--she could not but do so, for her life was so closely bound up\nwith that of her Son; He became the mainspring of all she did. It was\nthe charity and humility in _His_ Heart that made her go to visit her\ncousin Elizabeth and make herself her handmaid; it was _His_ salutation\nthat made hers so powerful with regard both to Elizabeth and to the\ninfant John; it was the thanksgiving in _His_ Heart which overflowed\ninto hers and made her sing her _Magnificat_. That Mary spent the nine\nmonths in adoration we may well believe, but she spent them also in\nunion with her Son, sharing all with Him and giving us a perfect model\nof the interior life--which means not only that God shares in the acts\nof the soul, but also that the soul shares in the acts of God,\nEmmanuel--God with us--in order that we may be \"with the King for _His_\nworks\" (1 Paralip. IV. 23).\n\n\nPOINT II. MARY MY EXAMPLE.\n\nHe was incarnate for me, and His Mother is my Mother; it is to her that\nI must look now to teach me how to spend these days before His birth.\nTeach me, my Mother, to follow the great example which you set. Teach\nme, too, to rejoice in the wonders of the Incarnation. Who should be\nmore filled with joy than I for whom He was incarnate? Teach me what the\ninterior life means, teach me to allow Him to be the mainspring within\nme of all I do, so that the life which I live is not mine but His, the\nwords which I speak not mine but His,--JESUS acting, thinking, speaking\nthrough me. This is the interior life which Mary understood so well and\nlived so perfectly during her time of waiting. There is, however,\nanother side to the interior life, and this is the one we want to\nmeditate about more especially, while we are thinking of the Son of God\nincarnate in the womb of the Blessed Virgin. He has taken human nature,\nmy nature, and joined it to the Godhead. He has made Himself a partaker\nof my human nature in order that I may be a partaker of His divine\nnature. I must not only think, then, of His working in and through me,\nbut of my working in and through Him. Mary entered into and shared not\nonly His Acts of adoration and love and praise, but also the work He had\ncome to do, His plans for the Redemption of the world. \"They dwelt with\nthe King for His works, and they abode there\" (1 Paral. IV. 23). How\ntrue this was of Mary! It is in this that I must try to copy her. \"I\nwill abide in the Tabernacle of the Most High,\" and I will offer myself\nfor _His works_, His interests shall be mine, He shall feel that _one_\nsoul at least, sympathizes and cares and intends to co-operate in the\ngreat work He has come to do.\n\nLet me, then, as the season of Advent is fast passing, ask myself once\nagain: Am I doing all I can for the spread of the Kingdom which He came\nto this earth to set up? Am I trying to look at the world with the eyes\nof love with which He regarded it, when He first made Himself incarnate\nfor it? Am I helping His poor, tending His sick, instructing His\nignorant, bringing Home His sheep, loving His little ones, comforting\nHis sorrowful ones? Such are \"His works,\" and if I would do them, I must\ndwell with the King and learn to do them in His way--I must live an\ninterior life.\n\n\nPOINT III. ALL PASSES THROUGH MARY.\n\nIt is only those who do not understand the Incarnation who stumble over\nthis statement. What could be more natural? If He chose to redeem the\nworld through Mary, to do all His great works which depend on the\nIncarnation--such as the foundation of the Church with all her\nSacraments--through Mary, is it strange that when I want to help the\nKing in His works, I should do the same and put my little gifts for the\nKing into her hands? Rather would it be strange if I wanted to work on a\ndifferent plan from my King's. She is the _Janua coeli_, _the Turris\nDavidica_, _the Sacrarium Spiritus Sancti_; the Tabernacle where He was\nincarnate for me. Through her and by means of her, He hands me all the\ngraces I receive. What more natural than that I should make use of such\na messenger to take back my offerings? And do they lose in the\ntransaction? Surely they must gain, first because she will purify them\nand add to them her own merits and graces, and secondly because a gift\npresented by His own Mother cannot but be enhanced in value.\n\nBlessed Grignon de Montfort says: \"God has chosen her for the treasurer,\nsteward and dispenser of all His graces, so that all His graces and all\nHis gifts pass through her hands; and according to the power she has\nreceived over them, as St. Bernardine teaches, she gives to whom she\nwills, as she likes, and as much as she likes, the graces of the Eternal\nFather, the virtues of JESUS Christ and the gifts of the Holy Ghost.\" We\nmay, if we like, \"do all our actions with Mary, in Mary, by Mary, for\nMary, in order to do them more perfectly with JESUS, in JESUS, by\nJESUS, and for JESUS, our Last End.\"[1]\n\nIf I am a child of Mary in anything more than in name, I shall not\nhesitate to use this great privilege which is offered to me, knowing\nthat by so doing, not only will the value of my prayers and penances and\nactions be enhanced in God's sight, but my merits and graces will be\nincreased. Mary will see to it that her children who thus trust her have\na Benjamin's portion.\n\n_Colloquy_ with Mary, asking her to obtain for me during this waiting\ntime the grace to trust her with all my secrets for her Son.\n\n_Resolution._ To dwell \"with the King for His works\" to-day.\n\n_Spiritual Bouquet._ Janua coeli, ora pro nobis.\n\n\n\n\n\"THE LORD IS NIGH\"\n\n     \"Brethren, rejoice in the Lord always; again, I say rejoice.\n     Let your modesty be known to all men. The Lord is nigh. Be\n     nothing solicitous; but in everything by prayer and\n     supplication with thanksgiving let your petitions be made\n     known to God. And the peace of God which surpasseth all\n     understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ JESUS.\"\n\n                                            (Phil. IV. 4-7).\n             (The \"Epistle\" for the Third Sunday of Advent).\n\n\n_1st. Prelude._ Before the Tabernacle.\n\n_2nd. Prelude._ Grace to remember the Presence of God.\n\nThe Lord is nigh because by His grace He is within us, because by His\nomnipresence He is \"not far from every one of us\" (Acts XVII. 27),\nbecause in the Blessed Sacrament He is with us \"all days, even to the\nconsummation of the world\" (St. Matt. XXVIII. 20) and because it may be\n_to-day_ that He will come in judgment. In consequence of this nearness\nof our God to us, from whatever point of view we regard it, St. Paul\ntells us that there are certain practices which are incumbent upon us.\n\n\nPOINT I. \"REJOICE IN THE LORD ALWAYS.\"\n\nTo rejoice _always_--this is my duty, because the Lord is nigh. When joy\nis absent from me, it is because faith in His nearness is absent. When\nclouds hide the Sun of Justice, and I am disposed to be sad and\ndespondent, let me make an Act of Faith in His Presence: My God, I know\nthat Thou art within my soul, because I have reason to believe that I am\nin the state of grace. My JESUS, I believe that Thou art there in the\nTabernacle. My God, I believe that Thou art truly present behind every\nperson and every circumstance and every trial. My JESUS, I believe that\nit may be to-day that Thou wilt summon me to stand before Thee as my\nJudge.... I shall find that Acts of Faith, such as these, will help to\ndispel the despondency and send me on my way rejoicing. How can I do\nanything but rejoice when I think of the Divine Inhabitation? Can I be\nsad when I realize the presence of JESUS in the Blessed Sacrament of the\nAltar and all that means to me? Can I allow circumstances and trials to\ndepress and crush me when I know with what infinite love and care they\nhave been arranged for me by Him who hides _Himself_ in each one of\nthem? And if the thought that the Lord is nigh in judgment can hardly in\nitself be a thought that brings joy, yet, when I know how much value He\nsets on joy, I should like Him to find me rejoicing when He pays that\nalways unexpected visit to my soul. The Lord is nigh, therefore\n_rejoice_. To rejoice _in the Lord_ is always possible, it only means a\nrealization of the supernatural, and as soon as that is realized,\neverything is seen in a different light. \"In Thy light we shall see\nlight\" (Ps. XXXV. 10), and \"at Thy right hand are delights even to the\nend\" (Ps. XV. 11). It is just because the Lord is nigh that I cannot but\nrejoice, and it is only when I forget His Presence that the clouds have\nthe power to chill and depress me and rob me of my joy. St. Paul is\nafraid that I _may_ forget, and so he adds: \"_Again_ I say: Rejoice.\"\n\n\nPOINT II. \"LET YOUR MODESTY BE KNOWN TO ALL MEN.\"\n\nThe Greek word which is translated \"modesty\" means more, it means\nfairness, kindness, gentleness, moderation, self-restraint, not\ninsisting on strict justice. These are the qualities by which I am to be\nknown to all men, _because_ the Lord is nigh. He is within me--always if\nI will by His grace and often by the Blessed Sacrament. I may truly be\nsaid to \"bear God in my body.\" What follows? I am His representative to\nthe world; He is living His life in the world through me; if people want\nto know something about God and what He is like, they ought to be able\nto find out by watching my life.\n\nThe Lord is nigh--my gentleness has to recall this fact to others. \"The\nservant of the Lord must not wrangle, but be mild towards all men.\" (2\nTim. II. 24). He must not stand up for his rights, though strictly\nspeaking he may have them; he must not be wedded to his own opinions and\never anxious to give them; he must not argue and strive to show that he\nis in the right, which means that everybody else is in the wrong. No, if\nhe does these things, he is giving an altogether false representation of\nChrist Who is within him, of the Lord Who is so nigh.\n\nSome people are gentle by nature, but it is not this natural quality of\ngentleness, often a mark of weakness of character and will, which is to\nbe known to all men. It needs a strong will and much self-restraint to\nshow the gentleness of Christ; it means the temper kept in check when\nslighting, insulting or unkind words are said; it means keeping silence\nwhen misjudged or falsely accused because \"JESUS was silent;\" it means\nkeeping back the cutting word or the stinging sarcasm and letting them\ndie away before His Presence; it means giving up a cherished plan or\ndesire and letting no one except Him Who asks for the sacrifice know\nwhat it costs; it means being able to let a matter drop, though we may\nbe in the right--such is the gentleness of Christ, which we have to make\nknown so that by our behaviour others may be attracted to Him Who is so\nnigh. What a point it would give to our preparation for His Coming this\nAdvent, if each day found us striving to let our gentleness win others\nto Him and make them long to know the Babe of Bethlehem.\n\n\nPOINT III. \"BE NOTHING SOLICITOUS.\"\n\nTake no thought, for your Heavenly Father knoweth that you have need. Do\nnot be solicitous, careful, anxious about anything, there is no need for\nthe Lord is nigh. He knows what is best for His child. He can alter\nthings if He likes, leave all to Him. All worry and anxiety only come\nreally from want of faith. Does a child worry when its father is near?\nNo, it leaves everything to him without any care. The Lord is nigh, be\nnothing solicitous. The way may seem blocked, but it is not blocked to\nHim; the Lord is still nigh, \"He knoweth my way\" (Job XXIII. 10), is it\nnot enough?\n\nLet me love and trust and continually talk to Him Who is so near; let me\nremember that I am never alone, that the difficulties and problems and\nsorrows of life concern _two_, that the responsibility is _shared_,\nthat the important business of life is a _joint_ one. Surely with such a\nPartner, One who is never absent but always nigh, I need be in _nothing_\nsolicitous.\n\n\nPOINT IV. \"IN EVERYTHING BY PRAYER AND SUPPLICATION WITH THANKSGIVING,\nLET YOUR PETITIONS BE MADE KNOWN UNTO GOD.\"\n\nThe conclusion I arrived at in the last point is a just one, but I am\nnot on that account to do nothing. He must have my active co-operation\nand whether I am working for my own salvation or for the salvation of\nothers or, which ought to be the case, for both, I must in _everything_\nI do, let my petitions be made known unto God, that is, I must never act\non my own responsibility. I am going to see such and such a person, come\nwith me; I have this letter to write, tell me what to say; I have a\ndifficult matter to settle, give me the necessary wisdom and tact; I am\ngoing to rest, or to take my food or my recreation, I want Thee with me\nall the same--such must be my requests. What about my mistakes, the\nthings I forget and leave out, the faults that I mean with all my heart\nnot to commit, but which I am always falling into all the same? Ah, it\nis here that the inestimable benefit of having such an all-powerful\nPartner comes in. Instead of bewailing my incapability, which only makes\nme still less capable, I must make my requests known to Him. What sort\nof requests will these be? I have committed that fault, made that same\nmistake again, please forgive me and correct it; I have forgotten to say\nsomething I meant to say, please say it for me; I have been stiff,\nunyielding, ungracious, discourteous, harsh, severe, please make up for\nmy deficiencies and whatever happens do not let them judge Thee by Thy\nrepresentative, make them understand that He for whom I am working is\nnever anything but gracious and gentle, that He never breaks the\nbruised reed nor quenches the smoking flax; do not let me spoil Thy\nwork. Such are the prayers and supplications by which I should\ncontinually be making known my needs to Him Who is always nigh.\n\nAnd what about the thanksgiving? This is most necessary, otherwise,\nashamed though I am to confess it, I shall be attributing the successes\nto my own powers and skill and capability! It seems hardly credible, but\nunfortunately past experience tells me that it is all too true. In order\nto guard against such a distorted and absurd view of things, St. Paul\ntells us not to forget the _Thanksgiving_. The Lord is nigh, let me turn\nto Him and say: _Deo gratias_, for it is He Who has prevented my\nawkwardness from spoiling His work. He loves to be thanked and He\nnotices when He is not. Let me be thoroughly persuaded that the work\n_is_ all His, and that if anything succeeds that _I_ do, it is only\nbecause He has allowed _His_ success to pass through me, thus\nthanksgiving will not only be easy but natural. But who is ever going to\npersuade me that no glory is due to me? \"Who is sufficient for these\nthings?\" He Who condescends to be my Co-worker. He can do even that, if\nI love Him sufficiently to _want_ Him to have all the glory.\n\n\nPOINT V. THE RESULT--PEACE.\n\n\"The peace of God which passeth all understanding (shall) keep your\nhearts and minds in Christ JESUS.\" This will be the result, not of Our\nLord being nigh, but of our _realization_ of His nearness. A great peace\nwill _keep_, that is, take possession of, our hearts and minds.\nEverything will be right because it comes straight from God's Hands.\n\"_My_ peace I give unto you, not as the world giveth do I give unto you\"\n(St. John XIV. 27). God's peace passes the understanding of the world,\nit has nothing to compare with it. It passes the understanding of God's\nchildren too. It is one of the mysteries with which He blesses His own\nand makes life possible for them in a world of turmoil.\n\n_Colloquy_ with Him Who is nigh.\n\n_Resolution._ To remember that I am never alone.\n\n_Spiritual Bouquet._ \"The Lord is nigh.\"\n\nFOOTNOTE:\n\n[Footnote 1: \"The Secret of Mary unveiled to the devout soul\" by\nLouis-Marie Grignon de Montfort.]\n\n\n\n\nTHE INTERIOR LIFE. (1)\n\nHUMILITY.\n\n     \"I am Thy servant, I am Thy servant and the son of Thy\n     handmaid.\"\n\n                                              (Ps. CXV. 16).\n                                 Janua coeli, ora pro nobis.\n\n\n_1st. Prelude._ The Gate of Heaven.\n\n_2nd. Prelude._ Grace to enter that gate and learn.\n\nWe are going now to keep very close to Mary. She is passing all these\nprecious days in communion with her Son and He is teaching her what\nconformity to Himself means. But she has Him not for herself alone but\nfor all those for whom He has made Himself incarnate and has come to\ndie. The time passed within that \"Gate of Heaven\" was the first stage of\nHis earthly journey and He was there for me, for my learning. He was\nalready my Model. Let me go, then, to-day to the \"Gate of Heaven,\" go to\nMary and ask to be allowed to study some of those heavenly lessons which\nwere so dear to her heart. _Janua coeli, ora pro nobis._ \"Remember, O\nmost gracious Virgin Mary, that never was it known that any who\nimplored thy help or sought thy intercession were left unaided. Inspired\nwith this confidence I fly unto thee.... O, Mother of the Word Incarnate\ndespise not my petitions, but in thy mercy hear and answer me.\"\n\n\nPOINT I. THE HUMILITY OF JESUS.\n\nWe cannot contemplate this stage of Our Lord's life without being struck\nfirst of all by the humility and self-abasement of it, by the way in\nwhich in some sense He _annihilated_ Himself that He might do His\nFather's Will. St. Paul says: \"He emptied Himself ... being made in the\nlikeness of men\" (Phil. II. 7). He stripped Himself, robbed Himself of\nall that He possessed: _Semetipsum exinanivit_. We know that Mary, His\ncreated Home, was chaste and pure, that no breath of sin had ever\ntouched her, that the Holy Spirit Himself had overshadowed her and had\nundertaken the preparation and the adornment of the earthly Tabernacle\nof the Word; but pure and holy though she was, Mary was only a creature\nand He was the Creator. He was God and she was one of the human race.\nHis place was on the highest throne of Heaven and yet \"He abhorred not\nthe Virgin's womb\" but there lived hidden from the sight of all, like\nany other infant and yet wholly unlike, because He had full possession\nof His faculties and intelligence. In the manger He will be _seen_, and\nso will be loved, pitied and worshipped; there will be many consolations\nwhich will go far to lessen and soften His humiliations, but _here_, He\nis alone, hidden; His very existence not even suspected. He has\nannihilated Himself, made Himself nothing. He could have taken our\nnature, had He so wished, without all these humiliations; why then did\nHe despise not the Virgin's womb? Because this is to be His principle\nall through His life, He will love \"unto the end.\" He will leave\nnothing undone that He could possibly do. He came to do His Father's\nWill and He will do it thoroughly. He will bear all the humiliations\nbecause He wants to be my Model and to teach me that there is only one\nway of learning humility.\n\n\nPOINT II. THE HUMILITY OF MARY.\n\nMary, though she cannot see Him, is sharing intimately all His\nhumiliations. She knows as no one else can all He is going through; and\nbecause she is His Mother she feels more intensely than anyone could\nwhat His humiliations are, she can never forget them. She shares all\nwith Him and He lets her; her sympathy is His consolation. Of all the\nvirtues of the interior life, humility is the one which is the most\nstrongly marked in Mary, and perhaps more strongly during these nine\nmonths than at any other time. It was her humility which attracted the\nEternal Word from Heaven to take up His dwelling in His earthly\nTabernacle. It was her humility which made her visit her cousin\nElizabeth. It was her humility which made her sing in her _Magnificat_\nof the great things God had done for her and how He had regarded the low\nestate of His handmaid. It was her humility which made her ready to\nsuffer any humiliation rather than disclose God's secret to St. Joseph.\nIt was her humility which made her incapable of resenting all the\nhumiliations she had to bear at Bethlehem on Christmas Eve--and all this\nhumility, all this power to bear humiliations, came from the fact that\nshe was living an interior life, living a hidden life with her Son,\nlooking at everything from His point of view and not from her own.\n\n\nPOINT III. \"LEARN OF ME.\"\n\nNow let me turn from the interior life of JESUS and Mary to my own.\nJESUS lived His interior life for me. If He allowed Mary to share it, He\nwill allow me, for He said once that He counted as His Mother all those\nwho do His Will. His Will is quite clear: \"Learn of me for I am\n_humble_.\" Dare I go to the \"Gate of Heaven\" and say that I want to\nlearn to be humble, that is, that I want to copy JESUS and Mary in their\nhumiliations? It takes a great deal of courage to ask for humiliations,\nand perhaps it is almost impossible to do so without some pride lurking\nin the request; but what I can do is to be so anxious to learn to be\nhumble as He bids me, that I ask for strength to bear the humiliations\nthat He sends. How _do_ I bear them? Do I say: Oh well, it is a\nhumiliation, I must bear it! or, Oh well, I shall never learn humility\nwithout humiliations! or: I am always getting humiliations, some people\nare, but I gladly accept them! All such speeches have their source, not\nin humility but in pride. Can we imagine Mary talking like this?\nHumiliations will never do their blessed work of making me humble if I\nthus use them to attract attention to my supposed virtue. A humiliation\nis spoiled the moment it sees the light; it has no strength left in it\nwherewith to produce humility. Do I want to be humble? Then let me go to\nthat quiet retreat where JESUS is humiliating Himself for me, let me\ntake all my humiliations there. When I am left out, forgotten, despised,\nwhen my help is unasked, my opinion disregarded, when things are said of\nme that are hard to bear, when reflections are made on my actions, let\nme go at once to where JESUS is hidden and hide myself and my pain\nthere, my one fear being lest anyone but He should suspect my pain, and\nthis not from stoicism or natural self-restraint, so pleasing and\nconsoling to self, but because I am afraid of spoiling my chance and\npreventing the humiliation from doing its work. If I can only deposit it\nsafely in His Heart before another sees it and robs me of my jewel, all\nwill be well. He who suffered all those humiliations for me, will know\nhow to ease my pain, He will tell me what a consolation it is to Him\nthat His child understands and is trying to make a faithful copy.\n\n_Colloquy._ O Mary, \"Gate of Heaven\" keep the gate wide open and beckon\nme in whenever you see me in danger of falling through my pride. You\nknow the dangerous moments, please forestall them for me, and when I am\nsafe, and listening to the Sacred Heart beating for me, the pain of the\nhumiliation will be turned into joy and perhaps I shall make Him feel\nthat His humiliations have not been in vain.\n\n_Resolution._ To examine myself to-day on how I take my humiliations and\nto resolve how I will take them for the future.\n\n_Spiritual Bouquet._ \"Learn of Me for I am humble.\"\n\n\n\n\nTHE INTERIOR LIFE. (2)\n\nOBLATION.\n\n     \"Sacrifice and oblation Thou wouldest not, but a Body Thou\n     hast fitted to Me. Holocausts for sin did not please Thee.\n     Then said I: Behold I come. In the head of the book it is\n     written of Me, that I should do Thy Will, O God.\"\n\n                                              (Heb. X. 5-7).\n\n\n_1st. Prelude._ \"Thy holy Tabernacle, which Thou hast prepared from the\nbeginning\" (Wisdom IX. 8).\n\n_2nd. Prelude._ Grace to be generous.\n\n\nPOINT I. THE OBLATION OF JESUS.\n\nAs soon as the Word had taken possession of His earthly home, He began\nto live His new life--a life in all its fulness of knowledge and of\ngrace and which will ever remain at its highest point, a life of\ninfinite worth, a life lived for others, a life abounding in merits and\nsatisfactions, a life of contemplation and yet of activity, a life to be\nstudied carefully by all who seek to live an interior life and\nspecially by those who for the love of their Incarnate God hide\nthemselves in the cloister.\n\nThis new life was before everything else a life of _oblation_. The first\nact of the Word Incarnate was to offer Himself to His Father: Here I am;\nI have come to do Thy Will and I have come to do it not for Myself but\nfor all creation; I offer Myself to do what it cannot do and to satisfy\nThy claims. He made Himself, then, from the first moment of His\nexistence a _Victim_--a Victim laid on the altar. This was His first\nposture, and He will keep it not only during this first stage of His\nlife, but all through His life and all through His Sacramental life,\nwhether the Host is offered to God at the Holy Mass or is living Its\nlife of a Victim in the Tabernacle; and in Heaven He will still be \"the\nLamb as it had been slain.\"\n\nWith the oblation of Himself, so acceptable to the Father, the Victim\noffers all that concerns Him, all for which He has come to this earth,\nall His designs for man's salvation. He submits all His plans for His\ngreat building, the Holy Catholic Church, of which He offers Himself to\nbe the Chief Corner-stone, dwelling in it as its life throughout all\ntime. He offers Himself also to bear all the effects of His oblation and\nto drink the chalice to the dregs. He offers Himself as a Surety for the\nwhole human race and for it He offers all His merits and satisfactions.\nHe keeps nothing back--the whole of the life just begun is offered for\nthe glory of God and the salvation of the world. It is a whole\nburnt-offering, a holocaust offered at its very beginning to Him Who\n\"spared not even His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all.\" (Rom.\nVIII. 32).\n\n\nPOINT II. THE OBLATION OF MARY.\n\nMary lived her life with her Son and to her He communicated His secrets.\nIt is impossible to imagine that He did not reveal to her His plans and\ndesigns which were the reason of His coming to this earth, and how He\nwas going to carry them out. She knew, then, that she was the Mother of\na Victim; and when He offered Himself to God, she joined in, offering\nherself and her Son for all that He wished. \"Behold the handmaid of the\nLord!\" Here I am, I offer myself to Thee, do what Thou wilt with me.\nThis was Mary's attitude all through her life from the time when her\n_Fiat_ was a sign for the Incarnation to take place, till she stood on\nCalvary's Hill assisting at the offering of the Victim. Truly had the\nMother of Sorrows caught the spirit of her Son; all through her life she\nregarded Him as a Victim. When He was forty days old she formally\noffered Him to God, and her life though bound up with His was\nnevertheless detached from Him, as from something given to another. Now\nat this early stage of His life, Mary is learning her lesson and gaining\nher strength. She is doing it by leading an interior life, hidden with\nher Son.\n\nO my Mother, as I come to-day to the holy Tabernacle \"prepared from the\nbeginning\" where the Sacred Victim lies hidden, help me to make my life\none with His as thou didst, help me to detach myself from everything for\nHis sake and to say my _Fiat_ whenever He asks for it.\n\n\nPOINT III. LEARN OF ME.\n\nIf I want to live an interior life, I must model it on the life of JESUS\nhidden in the womb of His Mother. He wants me to lead it for He is ever\nsaying: Learn of Me Who led this life for you. An interior life must be\nessentially a life of oblation. This is its foundation: the offering of\nthe soul as a holocaust to God and then regarding itself as a victim,\nall it has and does and is and thinks and plans, belonging not to itself\nbut to God. It lies on the altar waiting to be consumed; it is not\nsurprised when it is treated as a victim and feels the flames, not\nsurprised, that is, when it is forgotten and thought nothing of; its\nlife is _hidden_, how should people remember it! If it has to suffer, it\nconsiders it the most natural thing in the world for a victim. If its\nplans are all frustrated, it knows that it is lying there on the altar\nto do God's Will, not its own, and that this is only the fire consuming\nthe victim; if it did _not_ happen thus the victim might indeed be\nsurprised and anxious, wondering whether God had accepted its sacrifice.\n\"Present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, pleasing unto God, your\nreasonable service\" (Rom. XII. 1). The sacrifice is ever _living_, and\never being consumed. The victim feels keenly all the many processes by\nwhich God shows that He has accepted the offering, but if it copies its\nModel, there will be no complaint, no drawing back of the offering, no\nwishing that it had chosen an easier course, no wondering whether it had\nmade a mistake in its vocation; rather will there be joy in its heart\nbecause in its humble way it is like its Master, and each fresh touch of\nthe fire will be to it a fresh proof that God has not forgotten it, but\nhas taken it at its word and counts on it to be all that it promised to\nbe. What is necessary for all this? Only one thing: _Love_. If I love, I\ncan do it. \"Walk in love as Christ also hath loved us and given Himself\nan oblation for us.\"\n\nO my little JESUS, hidden there for me and offering Thyself for me,\nteach me to be generous, teach me to love Thee as Thou deservest; help\nme to lie quietly and unresistingly on the altar. I am not alone. Thou\nart there, bearing all with me and giving me the necessary strength to\nbear all for Thee. Help me to sacrifice willingly all my cherished\ndesires and tastes, all my will. Thou didst withhold nothing from me,\nhelp me to withhold nothing from Thee. So shall I make Thee some\nreparation for all the time wasted in the past, for all the sins\ncommitted against Thy love; so only can I obey Thy command: \"Learn of\nMe,\" and make some little return for Thy infinite love.\n\n_Colloquy_ with JESUS and His blessed Mother.\n\n_Resolution._ To offer myself as a victim to-day.\n\n_Spiritual Bouquet._ \"Walk in love as Christ also hath loved us, and\nhath delivered Himself for us, an oblation and a sacrifice to God.\"\n(Eph. V. 2).\n\n\n\n\nTHE INTERIOR LIFE. (3)\n\nIMPRISONMENT.\n\n     \"I was in prison and you came to Me.\" \"Lord when did we see\n     Thee ... in prison?\"\n\n                                    (St. Matt. XXV. 36, 39).\n\n\n_1st. Prelude._ Turris Davidica.\n\n_2nd. Prelude._ Grace to visit Him in His prison.\n\n\nPOINT I. DEPENDENCE.\n\nOur blessed Lord's life, during the nine months, was a life of\nimprisonment. He chose for Himself a position of dependence,\nhelplessness and inability. He Who was the Light of the world chose to\nlive in darkness; He Whom the Heavens cannot contain chose a more\ncramped position than any prisoner has ever had to endure; He Who was\ninfinite allowed Himself to be confined; He Who was immortal took a\nmortal body. He endured all the sufferings that helplessness and\ninability and immobility entail; and we have to keep reminding ourselves\nthat He was fully alive to all His sufferings. We are not making an\nimaginary picture, but trying to realize what were the actual facts of\nthose nine months. His Mother understood, let us try to do the same.\nLet us go to the \"Tower of David\" where Our Lord is kept a prisoner and\nlet us remember that He is there for us. Let us not be amongst those to\nwhom He will have to say sadly: \"I was in prison and you did not visit\nMe.\" Later on, at the end of His life, He will allow His own people to\ntake Him prisoner and will stand still while they put the chains on His\nwrists and will allow Himself to be dragged where they wish. Later on\nstill He will choose to be imprisoned in the little Host and to make\nHimself to the end of time our Prisoner of Love.\n\nThy imprisonments were all voluntary, my JESUS, they were all suffered\nout of love and out of love for me. Oh, may these visits that I am\npaying Thee during the blessed season of Advent result in my imbibing\nmore of the spirit of my imprisoned Master. Mine too is a voluntary\nimprisonment; I am His captive because I said: I will be His servant, \"I\nwill not go out free\" (Ex. XXI. 5). I gave up my liberty, preferring to\nbe His prisoner rather than the devil's free man. Naturally He takes me\nat my word, but oh, sometimes prison-life is very hard to bear! He\nchains me to a bed of sickness, where I must lie still and see the work\nI long to do left undone or, what is perhaps harder still, badly done;\nHe gives me great desires and no means of fulfilling them; He fills me\nwith plans and schemes for His glory and then seems to make it\nimpossible for them to be realized; He trains me, as I think, for some\nparticular position and then detains me in another for which it seems to\nme I have not the least aptitude; He sets limits to my strength; He\nseems to keep me always in the background; He appears to use everybody\nelse except me for His work; He seems to cramp my efforts and allow me\nno scope for the talents He has given me.\n\nThe Divine Prisoner Himself answers my plaints: My child, all these\nthings only prove that you are My prisoner, that I have taken you at\nyour word and that I do with you as I wish. Your time is not lost any\nmore than Mine was. By doing My Will, however inscrutable it may seem to\nyou, you are doing far more for Me than if you were doing your own.\nTrust me, be patient, bear and suffer all for Me, Who am a Prisoner for\nyou. I love you to be dependent on Me, I love you to walk by faith, I\nlove you to trust Me, and so I am constantly doing little things to\nremind you that you are My prisoner. Strive to be a prisoner of love as\nI am, that is (1) one who is in prison for love of another, (2) one who\nloves his chains, (3) one whose every act in prison is done to please\nMe.\n\n\nPOINT II. DARKNESS.\n\nHow much darkness adds to the sufferings of prison life! It was a\nsuffering which JESUS living in Mary endured for me; and yet while He,\nthe Light of the world was there, her blessed womb was flooded with\nlight, with the light of Heaven itself.\n\nWhat light this thought throws on my interior life! The suffering of\ndarkness! It is a suffering which He inflicts upon many of His prisoners\nof love. \"Who is there among you that feareth the Lord, that heareth the\nvoice of His servant, that hath walked in darkness and hath no light?\nLet him hope in the name of the Lord and lean upon his God.\" (Is. L.\n10). If only I can make myself believe that the darkness is permitted by\nHim there will be a ray of light at once in the darkness because God is\nthere, \"Surely God is in this place.\" But how can I be sure that the\ndarkness is permitted by Him? If I am living the interior life, if my\nintention is to please Him in all that I do, and if, however badly I\nsucceed, I never willingly take back that intention, then _I am pleasing\nGod_; and if I am pleasing God, I am one of His own dear children, just\nas really as was His Son Who did always the things that pleased Him. If\nI am one of His children I know, for He has told me so, that _nothing_\ncan happen to me without His knowledge and His permission, yea His\narranging. So if I have to walk in darkness rather than in light, if\ndesolation is my spiritual lot and consolation is almost unknown to me,\nif a veil hides God's face and my continual cry is: \"Oh, that I might\nknow and find Him\" (Job XXIII. 3), if prayer seems impossible, if I have\na distaste, almost a repugnance for all spiritual things, if even Our\nLady seems to desert me, if at times I am on the brink of despair,\ntempted even to think that my soul will be lost, if, in short, darkness,\nthick darkness has settled down on my soul--what then? \"Let him _hope_\nin the name of the Lord and lean upon his God.\" But how can I hope in\ndarkness, how can I lean upon Someone Who is not there? By faith, that\nis by saying all the time: This darkness is _His_ doing, therefore it is\nwhat He wants for me. \"I, the Lord create darkness!\" That makes all the\ndifference.\n\nFaith, as it always does, lets a streak of light into the darkness; God\nis there and it is only to make the soul more sure of this that He\npermits the darkness. If the soul can find and recognize God in the\ndarkness then it knows Him very intimately and this is what God wants--a\nlove so great that it detects the Beloved One at once. Does darkness\nmake any difference to the intercourse of those who love? They rather\nprefer it, so that all may be shut out except each other. This is what\nGod wants from those whom He is teaching to be interior--He puts them\ninto prison and leaves them in the dark. Are they going to be unhappy,\nto repine and complain, longing for consolation and all the sweet things\nwith which God fed them when they hardly knew Him? Not if they have\nfaith; and if their faith is strong, they will hardly be able to\ndistinguish desolation from consolation, God's absence from His\npresence, yea the very darkness itself from the light! For is it not\ntheir God who is the cause of all that is happening to them, and is not\nthat enough for those who love? They only want His Will, not their own,\nand His Will is to keep them in prison and in the dark and so to unite\nthem more closely to Himself Who for their sake faced for nine months\nthe darkness of the womb. In the terrible moments when despair seems so\nnear us, let us hold on to the fact that we _want_ to please God and\ntherefore that we are His children and that He loves us and is arranging\neverything--this is the little ray of hope in the darkness, the line of\nlight, and in it we read the words: \"I give them life everlasting and\nthey shall not perish for ever; and no man shall pluck them out of My\nHand.\" (St. John X. 28).\n\n_Colloquy_ with JESUS, the Light of the world, imprisoned in darkness\nfor me.\n\n_Resolution._ To lean upon my God in times of darkness.\n\n_Spiritual Bouquet._ \"I form the light and create darkness.\" (Is. XLV.\n7).\n\n\n\n\nTHE INTERIOR LIFE. (4)\n\nHIDDENNESS.\n\n     \"Verily, Thou art a hidden God, the God of Israel the\n     Saviour.\"\n\n                                              (Is. XLV. 15).\n\n\n_1st. Prelude._ JESUS hidden in Mary.\n\n_2nd. Prelude._ Grace so to find Him that I may live the hidden life.\n\n\nPOINT I. \"THOU ART A HIDDEN GOD.\"\n\nHe was hidden in the womb of His Mother; all through His life and death\non earth, His Divinity was hidden except to a very few; in His\nEucharistic life He will hide Himself to the end of time in the little\nHost. He seemed to love hiding when He was on earth and when He did\nreveal Himself, it was something like a child playing at hide and seek.\nHe hid Himself from the Samaritan woman till He had heard all her story\nand then said suddenly: \"I am He (the Messias) Who am speaking with\nthee\" (St. John IV. 26). The blind man whom He cured had not the least\nidea Who He was till JESUS, hearing that he had been reviled and cast\nout of the Synagogue, went and talked to him about the Son of God and\nthen said in the middle of the conversation: \"Thou hast both seen Him,\nand it is He that talketh with thee\" (chap. IX. 37). From Mary Magdalen\nat the sepulchre He deliberately hid Himself under the form of a\ngardener that He might have the joy of suddenly surprising her with His\npresence. Perhaps the most touching story of all is that of the two\ndisciples going to Emmaus; out of His very love for them, He blindfolded\nthem and then made them look for Him, while He put them off the scent by\npretending that He knew nothing about all the things that had been\nhappening in Jerusalem; and then when His moment was come \"their eyes\nwere opened and they knew Him.\" (St. Luke XXIV. 31). He treats His\nchildren in the same way still, He constantly hides Himself from them,\nleaves them alone to fight and struggle in desolation, solitude and\nspiritual darkness, and then sometimes shows by His sudden presence how\nnear He has been all the time.\n\nLet me consider two questions:\n\n1. _How does He hide Himself?_ (1) Behind obstacles that He makes:\nsuffering, desolation, darkness, temptation, scruples, failure\n(spiritual as well as temporal), uncongenial people and\nsurroundings--all those many forms of the cross which the true disciple\nknows so well. Let us remember that _He_ is hidden in them, it will make\nall the difference. (2) Behind obstacles that we ourselves make. This\nis not so consoling. He has every right to hide Himself from me, but I\nhave no right to make His coming to me difficult by obstacles that I put\nin His path, and yet how often I do it! Self is the great obstacle. I am\ntaken up with myself, with my own shortcomings and miseries and failures\nand weaknesses, with my imagination (how it runs away with me, away from\nHim!) and my fears, my introspection--uselessly looking into myself to\nsee how I am advancing. What are all these but obstacles which keep God\nat a distance? The soul that attracts Him is the soul that is occupied\nwith Him, not with self.\n\n2. _Why does He hide Himself?_ Why does He deliberately set up obstacles\nwhich prevent the soul from seeing Him? Why does a mother hide from her\nchild? Is it not for the joy of seeing it look for her and for the\nconsolation she is going to give it in letting herself be found? It is\nthe same with our God Who hides Himself. He wants to make us look for\nHim, He wants to increase our love, our desire and our merit, He wants\nto make us strong in faith and confidence, while acknowledging our\nhelplessness and dependence and nothingness without Him.\n\n\nPOINT II. \"YOUR LIFE IS HID WITH CHRIST IN GOD.\"\n\nThough JESUS was hidden in Mary, He was never hidden from her. This was\n(1) because Mary never put any obstacle between herself and JESUS--her\nthoughts were all with Him and never with herself, and (2) because her\nfaith and love and desire were so strong that she at once overcame all\nobstacles, which He in His love and desire for her merit put in her way\nas was the case during the three days' loss. JESUS and Mary are the\nmodels of my interior life. Like Mary I must try to surmount all\nobstacles, welcome every sword that pierces, leave self and seek Him.\nLike JESUS in Mary I must strive to lead a hidden life.\n\nHow is it to be done? There is only one way--to have God always before\nmy eyes, and self only there to be sacrificed. If I make this my rule,\nit will simplify my life and be the quick solution of many problems. Why\nthis _dryness_ in prayer? To bring God to my mind and to give me an\nopportunity of sacrificing self with its love of spiritual consolation\nand sensible enjoyment. The very dryness makes me thirst after God: \"As\nthe hart panteth after the fountains of water, so my soul panteth after\nThee, O God. My soul hath thirsted after the strong living God; when\nshall I come and appear before the face of God?\" (Ps. XLI. 1-3). This is\nwhat God wants--to see the soul longing and thirsting for Him. That is\nwhy He puts the obstacle of dryness between Himself and the soul, and\nhides Himself behind it while He watches the soul struggling to forget\nitself and saying: \"O my soul why dost thou disquiet me? Hope thou in\nGod, for I will still give praise to Him\" (verse 12). This is how the\nfaithful soul overcomes the obstacles--not by praying to have them\nremoved, but by a firm faith that God is in them. So with\ntemptations--why these terrible temptations, when God could so easily\nremove them? Because He is the Master and He knows what is best. If the\ntemptations were removed, the soul would soon be wrapped up in\nself-complacency and self-satisfaction. Temptations properly used keep\nthe soul close to God, it sees God hidden in them and forgetting all\nabout its treacherous self, it turns to Him Who alone can save it from\nfalling, it keeps God only in view and makes the sacrifice of self. The\nsame principle holds good for all the many obstacles behind which God\nhides. If they are properly used they are no longer obstacles, but\nstepping-stones by means of which we pass to Him. God everywhere and\nself nowhere! God everything and self nothing! God, not self, the object\nof all I do and think and plan! And that not because I can feel Him and\nsee Him and enjoy Him, but because my faith tells me that though hidden\n_He is there_. This was the principle of Mary's life hidden with her\nSon. He was the cause, the direct cause, of all her troubles, of all the\nmany swords that pierced her most pure heart, yet never was there a life\nhidden with Christ as was Mary's and the reason was that she forgot\nherself and saw JESUS only.\n\n\"_Your_ life is hid with Christ in God.\" Are these words of St. Paul\ntrue about me? Let me read the whole verse and then I shall know: \"For\n_you are dead_, and your life is hid with Christ in God.\" _When_ self is\ndead, then I shall be able to say _God only_, and till then, God be\nthanked, I can hide my miserable self in Him and tell Him that I want it\nto be sacrificed though I so seldom have the courage to do it.\n\n_Colloquy_ with JESUS hidden in Mary.\n\n_Resolution._ To see my hidden God everywhere and self nowhere.\n\n_Spiritual Bouquet._ \"Why hidest Thou Thy Face?\" (Job XIII. 24).\n\n\n\n\nTHE INTERIOR LIFE. (5)\n\nPRAYER.\n\n     \"Behold I come that I should do Thy Will: O my God, I have\n     desired it, and Thy law in the midst of my heart.\"\n\n                                          (Ps. XXXIX. 8, 9).\n\n\n_1st. Prelude._ Vas spirituale. Vas insigne devotionis.\n\n_2nd. Prelude._ Grace to \"pray without ceasing.\" (1 Thess. V. 17).\n\n\nPOINT I. THE SPIRIT OF PRAYER.\n\nAmongst all the lessons that JESUS living in Mary teaches us, that on\nprayer must ever hold a foremost place. What is Prayer? \"The lifting up\nof the heart and mind to God,\" the Catechism tells us. To love God,\nthen, and to think about Him is to pray. JESUS lived in Mary uniquely to\ndo the Will of His Father. He and the Father were _one_--one heart, one\nmind. He took pleasure in all that concerned His Father: \"Hallowed be\nThy Name, Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done on earth as it is in\nHeaven.\" He taught us to pray in the same way, taking our thoughts away\nfrom ourselves to our Father, and when we do ask for something for\nourselves, letting it be just a short prayer for mercy or for help,\nacknowledging our weakness and misery and nothingness, while we keep our\neyes fixed on our Father--He God, I His creature; He everything, I\nnothing. \"God be merciful to me a sinner,\" this prayer contains all we\nneed.\n\nO my little JESUS, Who didst think of me in Thy communion with Thy\nFather, for Thou didst come to do His Will, and His Will was that I\nshould be saved, teach me to think of Thee and to love Thee so much that\nmy life, too, may be one perpetual prayer, that is, that communion with\nGod may be the attitude of my soul.\n\n\nPOINT II. MARY'S SPIRIT OF PRAYER.\n\nShe was ever holding colloquies with her God within her, pondering\nthings over in her heart, that is, talking them over with Him from Whom\nshe had no secrets and between Whom and her soul she put no obstacles.\nHer life was spent with Him; whatever her duties might be, everything\nwas done with Him, that is prayer. If duties or conservation demanded\nall her attention for a while, did it matter? No, for He was there all\nthe same. He, in her, carried on the blessed converse with His Father;\nthere was never any separation between Mary and the Blessed Fruit of her\nwomb, JESUS. She would come back to Him with all the more joy, and tell\nHim what she had been doing and saying. Oh, blessed life of union\nbetween JESUS and Mary! Teach me, my Mother, what prayer is. Thou didst\nunderstand it so well. It was prayer that made thy life interior for\nthou wast ever communing with Him Who was _within_ thee. \"O Mother of\nthe Word, despise not my words.\"\n\n\nPOINT III. \"LEARN OF ME.\"\n\nWhen we think of JESUS praying for nine months to His Father, when we\nthink of Mary's nine months' colloquy with JESUS, we begin to think that\nthere is something wrong about our methods of prayer, that they need\nre-modelling. Let us try to understand something of what His prayer was.\nWe think of Him, and quite rightly, as talking over with His Father all\nHis plans for man's salvation, praying for each individual thing that\nwould be connected with it through all time. We love to think that He\nprayed particularly for each one of us. But all this was not the\n_essence_ of His prayer, if it were, we might well be discouraged and\nfeel that we could never copy such a model; our distractions and\nfatigues, our ignorance and want of memory, to say nothing of our times\nof dryness and distaste for prayer would make such prayers, except\nperhaps now and again in times of consolation, impossible for us. Am I\nto turn away sadly then from Mary this time, saying: It is too hard for\nme, I cannot copy thy Son here? No, rather let me ask what was the\nessence of His prayer? What was it which lay behind all? It was the\n_intention_. And what was that? We have meditated upon it many times:\n\"_Behold I come to do Thy Will, O my God._\" The essence of His prayer\nwas: Thy Will be done and I am here to do it. Naturally there are many\ndifferent ways of doing that Will, and many degrees in the perfection\nwith which it is done; and that is why we are quite safe in picturing to\nourselves JESUS in the womb of His Mother forgetting no single detail;\nor perhaps a truer picture would be a union with His Father so perfect\nthat everything lay open before them both, and that there was no need to\ntalk about what was so evident. Now let me apply all this to myself and\nI shall find that instead of being discouraging it is most encouraging,\ninstead of making my prayers harder it will make them far easier. What\nis my intention in my prayers? Is it not to please God and to do His\nWill? What does my Morning Offering mean, but that the prayers, work and\nsufferings of the day are all offered to Him? I form then my _intention_\nfor the day, and as long as I do not deliberately take back that\nintention, it is there, even if I forget to renew it each morning. Now\nlet me see how this works out in practice. I pay a Visit to our Lord,\nperhaps I am too tired to think about Him, I may even sleep in His\npresence; perhaps I am so busy that I find it impossible to keep away\ndistracting thoughts; perhaps I am more taken up with the spiritual book\nI am reading than with Him--the time is up and I go, thinking, perhaps,\nwhat is the good of paying Him a Visit like that? There is great good\neven in that Visit which all the same might have been so much more\nperfect. What was my intention in paying it? Certainly to please Him.\nThen I _have_ pleased Him. It was a pleasure to Him to see me come in\nand sit with Him, even though I was occupied with my own concerns most\nof the time. We are too much taken up with asking _how_ we say our\nprayers, but the important question is _why_ do we say them. To go and\nsit in His presence, because He is lonely or because I am tired and I\nwould rather sit with Him than with anyone else is _prayer_, even if I\nsay nothing. What God is doing for me is of far more importance to my\nsoul than what I am doing for God; and all the time that I am there,\nwhether I am thinking of Him or not, He is impressing His image on my\nsoul, and this is true, if I am in the state of grace, not only of my\nstated times of prayer, but of all the day long and the night too. What\nGod wants in our prayers is simplicity. To help us to understand what\nsimplicity is, let us think of a little child with its mother. The\nmother gives it something to play with or something to do. Is she very\nmuch concerned about _what_ the child is doing or _how_ it is doing it?\nNot at all, that is of no consequence; nothing it does can be of any\nreal _service_ to the mother; but there is something that concerns her\nvery much, and that is whether her child loves her, is happy to be with\nher, and wants to please her. We are only children and God is more\ntender than the tenderest mother. It makes very little difference to Him\nwhat we are doing while we are with Him or even how we do it (how can\nour little services make any difference to Him!); but whether or no we\nlove Him, whether or no we care to be with Him, whether or no we want to\nplease Him, these things make all the difference.\n\n_Colloquy_ with JESUS and Mary about prayer.\n\n_Resolution._ To try to live more in the spirit of prayer.\n\n_Spiritual Bouquet._ \"Let nothing hinder thee from praying _always_\"\n(Ecclus. XVIII. 22).\n\n\n\n\nTHE INTERIOR LIFE. (6)\n\nZEAL.\n\n     \"Behold I come that I should do Thy Will. O my God, I have\n     desired it, and Thy law in the midst of my heart.\"\n\n                                          (Ps. XXXIX. 8, 9).\n\n\n_1st. Prelude._ JESUS living in and working through Mary.\n\n_2nd. Prelude._ The grace of zeal according to His methods.\n\nThere is a very close connection between prayer and zeal; the more\nperfect the prayer, the greater necessarily will be the zeal. Why?\nBecause prayer is identifying oneself with the mind and Will of God, and\ndoing everything with the unique intention of pleasing Him. What are the\nWill and pleasure of God? The salvation of the world for which He became\nincarnate--The closer we unite ourselves to God in prayer, the dearer\nwill His intentions be to us. The best workers are those who pray best,\nthose who enter most deeply into God's Will and plans. When we find our\nzeal flagging, it would be well to examine ourselves on our spirit of\nprayer.\n\n\nPOINT I. THE ZEAL OF JESUS LIVING IN MARY.\n\nThis zeal showed itself at once. No sooner had He become incarnate than\nHe inspired His Mother to take a difficult journey into the \"hill\ncountry\" to visit her cousin Elizabeth. The zeal of JESUS showed itself\nfirst of all, as it naturally would, on His Mother and filled her spirit\nwith the humility and charity and forgetfulness of self which were\nneeded for the journey. It then effected Elizabeth and filled her with\nthe Holy Ghost, but these were only the overflowings of His zeal on His\nway to make what Father Faber calls His \"first convert.\" The soul of\nJohn the Baptist, His chosen Precursor, was very precious to Him and as\nyet it lay unconscious at a distance from God in darkness and the shadow\nof death. One of the first acts of God Incarnate was to deliver that\nsoul from prison and let it see what great things He had in store for\nit. At the sound of the voice of the Mother with her Child, a change was\nwrought in that dark soul; it was set free from the curse of original\nsin, it was flooded with grace, it was brought nigh to God, the Holy\nGhost with all His gifts took possession of it and as a consequence, it\nleapt in the womb in joy and gratitude and adoration.\n\nThe voice of Mary directed by her Child had simultaneously worked two\nmiracles of grace. Elizabeth heard the salutation first, but it was the\nleaping of the Babe in her womb which made her understand that the\nIncarnation had taken place, and cry with a loud voice: \"Blessed art\nthou among women and blessed is the Fruit of thy womb.\"\n\nIf the zeal of JESUS was so powerful during the first hours of His life,\nwhat must it not have effected during the nine months! How many souls\nwithout knowing (as St. John the Baptist did) the cause, were brought\nnearer to Heaven by the presence of the Incarnate God in the world!\n\n\nPOINT II. MARY'S ZEAL.\n\nWe have no need to dwell at any length on the zeal of her whom JESUS\nused as His instrument during the nine months. Mary's was a zeal which\ncompelled her to spend and be spent in the service of those whom JESUS\nloved; and the secret of its force was the interior life which she lived\nwith her Son--a perfect union of will and purpose with His.\n\nLet me try to copy my Mother in her interior life and then I may hope\nthat her Son will use me too as an instrument of some of His zeal for\nsouls. He must use someone, for He has made Himself as dependent now in\nthe Tabernacle as He was during the time that He lived in Mary. He has\ndeliberately put Himself in the position of _needing_ instruments for\nHis work and He will naturally choose those who are most imbued with His\nspirit and who are willing to adopt His methods. Such an instrument was\nMary. She put no obstacles in His way, because she had no will apart\nfrom His, her zeal was only a reflexion of His.\n\n\nPOINT III. \"LEARN OF ME.\"\n\nIf I am to fashion my zeal after the pattern of the zeal of JESUS, I\nmust be careful to see that my methods are the same as His. What were\nHis?\n\n(1) _Solitude._ Such was His solitude that no one but Mary knew that He\nwas there. He chose solitude not only during this first stage but during\nthe greater part of His life on earth, and He chooses it still in His\nEucharistic life. It must then be a very necessary accompaniment to\nzeal. \"_Learn of Me._\" What am I to learn? That if my zeal is to be\nefficacious I must live a hermit's life far from the haunts of men? Not\nnecessarily. It would be possible to do this without finding the\nsolitude that begets zeal; and it is quite possible to find the\nnecessary solitude even in the midst of the world's tumult. To say that\nI have no opportunities for doing good because I am in uncongenial\nsurroundings, or because I am obliged by my circumstances to lead a\nlonely life or to live where there is apparently no scope for work for\nsouls is to fail to understand what zeal is. Why do people shut\nthemselves up in convents, cries the world, when they might do so much\ngood outside? Uniquely because of their zeal for souls--they have\nsufficient courage to adopt Our Lord's methods. If I am one whom He has\ntrusted with the trial of loneliness in my life, let me cultivate a\ndevotion to Him in His Mother's womb, and let me take heart and be of\ngood courage. All the activity in the world that is of any use is of use\nbecause of the prayer that is behind it. _Whose_ prayers who shall say?\nThey may be _mine_ if I live an interior life, for those who live in the\nretreat of their own heart with God have a limitless scope for their\nzeal.\n\n(2) _Silence._ Zeal for God and His work does not depend then, on words.\nI need not be troubled because I am not eloquent, or because I have an\nimpediment in my speech, or because I never know what to say. How could\nsuch things matter to God, the Omnipotent God! He could alter them in a\nmoment if necessary. The Word Himself Who could have spoken so\nattractively and with such power was silent for most of His life. The\ntime He chose for His Incarnation was \"while all things were in quiet\nsilence and the night was in the midst of her course\" (Wisdom XVIII.\n14); and He is silent still in the Tabernacle; He loves silence, and the\nmore the soul is interior, the more it will adopt His method of silence\nand the more it will understand what a marvellous help it is to zeal.\nHow can this be? Because the silence that we choose to keep for God\nmeans shutting out all else, that we may talk to Him alone. Could there\nbe a better method than this for making us zealous for the work so dear\nto His Heart?\n\n(3) _Obedience._ Think of His obedience in the womb of His Mother. His\nvery Incarnation was an act of obedience, He waited for Mary's _Fiat_.\nHis waiting for nine months was purely an act of obedience to the laws\nof nature, for His Soul and Body were perfect from the moment of His\nconception. All the time that He lived in Mary, He obeyed all whom she\nobeyed--St. Joseph, the Roman Emperor, the people at Bethlehem. He gave\nup His own Will to others.\n\nThis was His method of being zealous. This is how He did the work that\nHe had come to do. Can I adopt this method? It is not easy. I do so love\nto follow my own sweet will especially when I am working for the souls\nof others. I feel that no one has a right to dictate to me, that my work\nought to be spontaneous, not cramped nor confined nor limited nor any\nother adjective that the devil can persuade me to use, if only he can\nmake me believe that it is a blessed thing to be independent! If my zeal\nfor God is to be worth anything, let me follow the methods of God\nIncarnate in the womb of His Mother and be absolutely obedient to God,\nto His Holy Church and to those whom I ought to obey.\n\n(4) _Poverty._ \"You know the grace of our Lord JESUS Christ, that being\nrich, He became poor for your sakes, that through His poverty you might\nbe rich\" (2 Cor. VIII. 9). In His zeal for our wealth, He made Himself\npoor, He deliberately adopted poverty as one of His methods in His life\nof zeal. Poverty is the voluntary laying aside of all that we might\nhave, in order that our purpose may be single. All can do this whether\nrich or poor, for all have much that they would rather not lay on one\nside, and _all_ have _self_. Let us think what the Eternal Word was as\nGod, and then what He was in Mary's womb, and we shall understand what\npoverty means. If we are to be zealous in His service, we must not only\nunderstand, but copy.\n\n(5) _Patience._ Patience is a twofold grace, that of _waiting_ and that\nof _suffering_, both are a great aid to zeal. The Eternal Word's zeal\nfor the salvation of men had existed in all its perfection and all its\nfulness from all eternity, yet think how long He waited! When the\nconditions were changed and He had at length become incarnate, He still\nwaited patiently for nine months, and after that He waited for thirty\nyears! This was zeal, zeal in its _perfection_. Is my zeal tempered with\npatience? Am I patient with souls, patient with myself, patient above\nall when God says: _Wait_, do nothing?\n\nJESUS showed His patience in the womb of His Mother not only by waiting;\nbut by suffering, as we have already seen, all the inconveniences that\nwere incident to His new existence. He doubtless also forestalled all\nthe sufferings that were in store for Him and offered them all to His\nFather. Zeal without the aid of suffering cannot go far and it was one\nof the methods He chose. If I have not courage enough to _choose_ it, I\nmust, if my zeal is to be at all like His, be ready for it when He\nchooses it for me.\n\nIt will probably be seen one day that those whose lives have been lives\nof suffering, and who have never been able to do any active work for\nHim, are those whose zeal has effected the most for His glory and His\nKingdom.\n\nThose of us who are not entrusted with this wonderfully blessed gift of\nsuffering, can at any rate offer to Him for souls all the many little\ninconveniences and incommodities of our lives, and so copy to some small\nextent the life of JESUS hidden in Mary.\n\nO my little JESUS, help me, at whatever cost to self, to copy Thee.\n\n_Colloquy_ with JESUS hidden in Mary, asking Him for grace, so to adopt\nHis methods that He may use me as an instrument of His zeal.\n\n_Resolution._ Not to shrink from adopting His methods.\n\n_Spiritual Bouquet._ \"Every one that hath zeal ... let him follow Me\" (1\nMacc. II. 27).\n\n\n\n\nO SAPIENTIA!\n\n                                              December 17th.\n\n     \"O Wisdom Who camest forth from the mouth of the Most High,\n     reaching from end to end mightily, and disposing all things\n     sweetly, come and teach us the way of prudence!\"\n\n                                    (_Vide_ Wisdom VIII. 1).\n\n\n_1st. Prelude._ The Tabernacle of the hidden God.\n\n_2nd. Prelude._ The grace of prudence.\n\n\nFor seven days before the Vigil of Christmas, the Church makes use of\nseven solemn antiphons, commonly known as the \"Seven O's,\" because they\nall begin with \"O.\" One is sung every day at Vespers reminding us that\nOur Lord is to come in the evening of the world's history. They are a\nsort of cry or invitation of the Church, addressing her Bridegroom by\nsome spiritual title and begging Him to come. Before and after the\n_Magnificat_ is the time the Church chooses for these solemn antiphons\nin order to keep constantly before our minds the truth that He is coming\nby Mary. As the days of Advent draw nearer to their close, this truth is\nplainly marked in the Mass. The Epistle, Gospel and Communion for Ember\nWednesday (in the third week) are all full of Mary; the Gospel for Ember\nFriday gives the account of the Visitation; the Mass for the Fourth\nSunday of Advent, as if the Church were loath to leave her out, brings\nMary in at the Offertory and Communion; and that for the Vigil of\nChristmas devotes its Gospel to her. Let us then as we meditate on these\ngreat antiphons look in the direction of Mary where our King is as yet\nhidden, remembering that it is she who when Christmas comes, is going to\nshew unto us the Blessed Fruit of her womb JESUS.\n\n\nPOINT I. \"O WISDOM THAT PROCEEDEST FROM THE MOUTH OF THE MOST HIGH.\"\n\nHe is the _Eternal_ Wisdom, and He has now become the _Incarnate_\nWisdom. It is to Him that the Church is calling to-day. He is the\n\"Wisdom of God\" (1 Cor. I. 24) and the Source of all wisdom; and yet as\nman the Spirit of God has rested upon Him and filled His human Soul with\nthe seven-fold gifts, of which Wisdom is the first. This gift enabled\nHim as man to know all mysteries, all God's secret designs and plans,\nand to enjoy to the full all His perfections. The subject is so vast\nthat it seems impossible for me to meditate about it, but I will take\none of the many things which the Holy Scriptures say about Wisdom, one\nwhich will lead me again to the Sanctuary where I would be.\n\n\"God loveth none but him that dwelleth with Wisdom\" (Wisdom VII. 28). He\nso loved His poor fallen world that He gave His only begotten Son to be\nincarnate for it, and now all He asks from His children in return is\ntheir love and that they should show it by dwelling with Him. He came to\nbe _Emmanuel_, God with us. He tabernacled among us, and what His Father\nasks is that we should not shun Him and live far away from Him, but that\nwe should dwell with Him. Let me keep close then in spirit to His\nblessed Mother, the Tabernacle where my God is hidden, and let me keep\nclose in reality to the Tabernacle on the Altar where He is expecting my\nconfidences as surely as He expected those of His Mother; let me treat\nHim as my Friend to Whom I can tell everything that concerns me--how\nanxious I am to desire Him to come and yet how little desire I seem to\nhave. There is a way of dwelling with Him which is even closer still:\n\"He that eateth My Flesh and drinketh My Blood abideth in Me and I in\nhim\" (St. John VI. 57). This is the extension of the Incarnation, the\nway that Infinite Wisdom devised by which poor fallen man could\nnevertheless dwell with Wisdom.\n\nO Eternal Wisdom, help me to make better use of this Thy most wonderful\nplan for continuing the Incarnation! He was incarnate for me in the womb\nof the Blessed Virgin, but He is incarnate for me in a more special and\npersonal way each time that I receive Him in Holy Communion. By means of\nmy Communions and their effects I can dwell always without any\ninterruption in the tabernacle of the Most High, for it is of me that\nEternal Wisdom speaks when He says: \"My Father will love him, and We\nwill come to him and will make Our abode with him.\" (St. John XIV. 23).\n\n\nPOINT II. \"REACHING FROM END TO END MIGHTILY AND DISPOSING ALL THINGS\nSWEETLY.\"\n\nWisdom \"can do all things\" (Wisdom VII. 27) and it is God hidden in the\nwomb of Mary, Who is reaching from end to end of the earth and ordering\nthe whole world to be enrolled everyone in his own city. Why was this?\nBecause the Roman Emperor wanted to know the number of the subjects in\nhis vast empire just to satisfy his ambition? This is the answer the\nworld would give, but in this case the children of Light--the children\nof the Incarnate Wisdom know better. The world is being agitated, though\nit does not know it, not by the command of any earthly monarch, but by\nthe King of kings Who is about to be born and Who must fulfil a certain\nprophecy as to His birthplace. The prophet Micaias said of Him: \"His\ngoing forth is from the beginning, from the days of eternity. And thou,\nBethlehem Ephrata art a little one among the thousands of Juda; _out of\nthee shall He come_\" (chap. V. 2); and Mary, the mother who had been\ndestined from all eternity to give birth to Him Who was \"from the days\nof eternity,\" was living quietly at _Nazareth_ making all her\npreparations for His birth there. But could not God have devised means\nto send Mary to Bethlehem without disturbing the whole world? Yes, but\nHe would show to those who have eyes to see, that wisdom \"_can_ do all\nthings,\" that though He is to all appearances helpless, hidden and\ndependent, yet it is He and not any other Who is King of the whole\nworld, and that even now before His birth He can reach from end to end\nof it mightily and do what He will therein. And so \"there went out a\ndecree from Caesar Augustus that the whole world should be enrolled ...\neveryone in his own city,\" and Joseph and Mary went to Bethlehem and it\nso happened (as we should say) \"that when they were there, her days were\naccomplished, that she should be delivered\" (St. Luke II. 1-6) and the\nKing was born in _Bethlehem_. Sweetly He had ordered all things to suit\nHis divine purpose.\n\n\nPOINT III. \"COME AND TEACH US THE WAY OF PRUDENCE.\"\n\nCome, my little King, Who art nevertheless the Eternal Wisdom, come and\nteach me this heavenly prudence. I know Thy power and I know Thy\ngentleness. I know, that is to say, that Thou _canst_ do everything and\nthat Thou art disposing sweetly everything in my life; but I want Thee\nto come and teach me to put my knowledge into practice. If the whole\nworld could be set in motion by Thee just in order that one little\ndesire of Thy Divine Providence might be fulfilled, shall I not be ready\nto own that Thou art indeed the King, that whatever may happen in the\nearth, it is the Lord Who _reigneth_; and in my own life when things\nseem, as they sometimes do, inexplicable and beyond all human ken, Oh!\ncome and teach me that the way of prudence is to lie still like a little\nchild in its mother's arms, not to try to fathom nor to understand, but\nto say: I am in the Arms of the Eternal Wisdom, Who can do all things,\nWho loves me with an infinite love and Who is disposing all things\nsweetly, gently, mercifully for my sake.\n\nThis is the lesson the Child yet unborn would teach. His Mother\nunderstood, for, as we have seen, one principle guided the two lives;\nbut it was not easy for her to have all her plans disarranged, to hear\nthat she and her husband must take a long journey perhaps of two or\nthree days, to know that her Son could not be born in her own little\nhome so dear to her with all its hallowed memories, to know that she\ncould not lay Him in the little cradle that she had so lovingly prepared\nfor Him nor surround Him with the little comforts that she had been able\nto provide. All this would have been much even for a rich mother to give\nup, and Mary was poor and she knew that she and Joseph would have to\ntake just what they could get and no more. Yet in Mary's heart there\nwas no anxiety, no murmuring, no hesitation, no regret even. Why?\nBecause the Babe within her taught her prudence, taught her, that is,\nthat God's ways are best, that it was He Who was ordering all things\nsweetly, and that if her plans were upset, it simply meant that they did\nnot happen to be God's plans; and she willingly gave up hers for His.\n\nO Mary as I kneel before the Tabernacle where Thy Son as yet lies\nhidden, present my petitions to Him. Tell Him that, cost what it may, I\ndo want His Will to be done, I do want to realize that it is He Who is\nordering all things sweetly for me and that though the way is often\ndifficult it is _His_ way and therefore mine--\"the way of prudence.\"\n\n_Colloquy_ with the Incarnate Wisdom.\n\n_Resolution._ \"I purposed therefore to take her (Wisdom) to me to live\nwith me, knowing that she will communicate to me of her good things\"\n(Wisdom VIII. 9).\n\n_Spiritual Bouquet._ \"O Sapientia! ... come and teach us the way of\nprudence.\"\n\n\n\n\nO ADONAI!\n\n        December 18th. Feast of the Expectation of Our Lady.\n\n     \"O Adonai and Leader of the House of Israel! Who appearedst\n     to Moses in the fire of the flaming bush and gavest him the\n     law on Sinai. Come and redeem us by Thy outstretched arm.\"\n\n                           (Ex. VI. 3, III. 1-9, XX. 18-22).\n\n\n_1st. Prelude._ The Tabernacle of the Hidden God.\n\n_2nd. Prelude._ Grace to expect and desire with Mary.\n\n\nPOINT I. \"O VIRGO VIRGINUM!\"\n\nWe think again to-day of the Mother as well as of the Son. There is\nanother \"O\" which is in the Vespers of the Feast of the Expectation\ntogether with the \"_O Adonai_!\" and that is \"_O Virgo virginum_!\" We\nappeal again then to Mary asking her to show us how to wait, how to\ndesire, how to love, how to worship. Let us try to think what her\nfeelings must have been during these last few days. She is preparing for\nher journey, putting together the few necessaries that they could take,\npacking up the little \"swaddling clothes,\" and all the time thinking of\nnothing but her Son, Whose Face she is now so soon to see. The joy of\nthe expectation is so great that it overshadows all else--she can talk\nof and think of nothing but His birth, now so near, and it is to _Him_\nthat she talks. All her secrets, all her longings, all her hopes, all\nher words of love and joy are for Him. This is the interior life.\n\nAs the great day approaches is my interior life becoming more intense?\nAre all my desires centred on the little One Who is coming? Am I\ncontinually holding converse with Him, telling Him all that is in my\nheart? Is He the centre of all my preparations for Christmas? Is the\nreal Christmas joy, that is, the joy caused by the thought of His\nComing, so great that it puts into the shade all difficulties, sorrows,\ndisappointments and inconveniences? Mary's troubles were all caused by\nJESUS. If it had not been for the prophecy which said He must be born in\nBethlehem she would not have had to leave her home at such an\ninconvenient moment and at such an inclement season of the year.\n\nWhen shall I learn that all my troubles come directly from JESUS too,\nand from my union with Him? When I do, I shall have peace, the peace\nwhich Mary had and which a really interior life cannot fail to produce.\nIf I find that my peace is easily disturbed by passing events, let me\nexamine my conscience as to my interior life and I shall probably find\nthe reason.\n\n\nPOINT II. O ADONAI ET DUX!\n\nO Lord and _Leader_! \"Give ear, O Thou that rulest Israel, Thou that\n_leadest_ Joseph like a sheep!\" (\"Introit\" for Advent II and \"Gradual\"\nfor Advent III). This is the idea in the Church's cry to-day, she is\nsaluting her General. He it is Who though as yet hidden is nevertheless\nleading all. He it is Who slowly though surely has been leading the\nworld through many phases till it is ready for its Creator to come and\nlive upon it. He it is Who has led Joseph like a sheep--carefully\nwatched over the chosen nation, because He Himself, when the time came,\nwas to be born in it. He it is Who led the prophets, carefully guiding\ntheir hands to write of Him and making their prophecies more and more\nlucid as the day approached. He it is Who is now leading the whole world\nand placing everybody in his own city. He it is Who is leading Joseph\naway from Nazareth. He it is Who is leading His own Mother over every\nstep of that difficult and tiring journey, letting the joy in His own\nHeart overflow into hers; and He is _my_ Leader too. With such a\nGeneral, nothing will be overlooked in my life; everything will be\narranged in wisdom and love. I need have no fear, no anxiety on that\naccount; but such a Leader expects a whole-hearted, unswerving\nallegiance from His followers. He expects not only their obedience, but\ntheir loyalty and their love. Does He demand these by force? No, for He\nis a _Leader_, not a driver. \"He calleth His own sheep by name and\n_leadeth_ them.... He goeth before them and the sheep follow Him\" (St.\nJohn X. 3, 4). What are His methods? The Incarnation with all its\nconsequences. He made Himself a _man_, not an angel, because He wanted\nto attract man to Himself, to win his love. He identified Himself with\nman, because He wanted man to identify himself with Him. The church, the\nHoly Eucharist, the Tabernacle, Holy Communion, His Sacred Heart--all\nthese are to attract men to follow Him. He is there in each of these\ngoing before and leading men on. He is appealing to them now from the\nwomb of His Mother, suggesting to them that they should choose suffering\nand humiliation and the hidden life, because He chose them and loved\nthem and submitted to them for us; they were His methods, and His object\nin becoming incarnate for us was to win our love to such an extent that\nwe should take Him as our Leader and adopt His methods.\n\nOh! come, little Leader, come and redeem us. I for one am determined to\nfollow wheresoever Thou dost lead, \"in what place soever Thou shalt be,\nmy Lord King, either in death or in life there will Thy servant be\" (2\nKings XV. 21). \"Behold I have given Him for a Leader\" (Is. LV. 4).\n\n\nPOINT III. THE OUTSTRETCHED ARM.\n\nThe outstretched arm is a sign (1) of _power_. The little One Whom we\nare expecting, though so winning and gentle and loving, is nevertheless\nthe Almighty and All-powerful God. He it is Who said: \"I made the earth\nand the men and the beasts that are upon the earth by My great power and\nby My stretched out arm\" (Jer. XXVII. 5). He it is Who said of those who\nwould not acknowledge Him as their King: \"I will Myself fight against\nyou with an outstretched hand and with a strong arm\" (chap. XXI. 5). He\nit is Who \"with a strong hand and a stretched-out arm\" delivered His\npeople of old out of the land of Egypt (Deut. XXVI. 8). He it is Who\ngave the law on Sinai, when \"the thunders began to be heard and\nlightning to flash and a very thick cloud to cover the mount, and the\nnoise of the trumpet sounded exceeding loud and the people ... feared.\"\nWhy? Because \"the Lord came down upon Mount Sinai in the very top of\nthe mount\" (Ex. XIX. 16, 20). He came then in power to give with His own\noutstretched arm His commandments to His people; but now He is coming in\nthe silence of the night to win them by His love and no one will be\nafraid of a little Child.\n\nOh! come, and redeem us by Thy stretched out arm. Come in all Thy might\nto save us from our sins--our past sins and the evil habits they have\nleft, our present attachment to venial sins which we are ashamed of, but\nare obliged to confess lingers still; come and deliver us from our\ncountless imperfections: \"Lord if Thou wilt, Thou canst make me clean\"\n(St. Matt. VIII. 2).\n\nThe outstretched arm is also a sign (2) of _pity_, of _yearning_, of\n_longing_. A mother stretches out her arms to receive her babe taking\nits first tottering steps, to welcome her prodigal, to protect those in\ndanger, to help in every time of need.\n\nWhen God was longing to deliver His people of old from the cruel bondage\nin Egypt, He attracted Moses' attention by a burning bush, so that He\ncould tell him of His yearnings towards His people. Moses saw that the\nbush was on fire and was not burnt and he said: \"I will go and see why\nthe bush is not burnt\" (Ex. III. 2-3). That bush hid two mysteries which\nwere beyond Moses' power of reason, but God revealed them later to His\nSaints. The fire that burned was the Divinity and the bush which was\nimpregnated by the fire and yet not burnt was the Sacred Humanity.\nAgain, the bush was a figure of Mary who though she received the God-Man\ninto her sacred womb yet remained a virgin--the bush held the flame of\nfire which lighted the whole world and yet remained intact. Moses though\nhe did not see the things which we see, nevertheless saw a \"great sight\"\nand \"when the Lord saw that he went forward to see, He called to him out\nof the midst of the bush\" and told him not to come too near and to take\noff his shoes for the ground was holy. He then told him Who He was and\nwhy He had come: \"I have seen the afflictions of My people.... I have\nheard their cry ... and knowing their sorrow, I am come down to deliver\nthem\" (verses 7, 8). It was the Heart of God yearning for His children.\nHis Hands were stretched out in pity and love, but His hour was not yet.\nHe waited and \"when the fulness of the time was come, God sent His Son\"\n(Gal. IV. 4); and now we are kneeling before the Sanctuary wherein He\nhas still a few days to wait; we have turned aside to see the \"great\nsight,\" we know that we are treading on holy ground. \"_Rubum quem\nviderat Moyses incombustum conservatam agnovimus tuam laudabilem\nvirginitatem_; _Dei genitrix intercede pro nobis._\" In the bush which\nMoses saw unconsumed, we acknowledge thy admirable virginity preserved:\nintercede for us, O Mother of God. (Little Office. B. V. M.--A Christmas\nantiphon).\n\nAs we keep near to the Burning Bush we wonder more and more at the\nmystery; we ask why, but we never receive a satisfying answer, for who\ncan fathom the mystery of the love of God? The Word is silent yet. Could\nHe speak, we should hear the same words as Moses heard, for the Heart of\nGod changes not: \"I have seen the afflictions of My people.... I am come\ndown to deliver them.\" How intense were His yearnings! How great was His\nexpectation! Let me try to make Him some little return by my desires and\nmy yearnings for Him! Oh! come, little Saviour, come and redeem us by\nThy outstretched Arm!\n\n_Colloquy_ with Him Who is so soon to come.\n\n_Resolution._ To wait with His Mother to-day asking her to give me some\nof her desire.\n\n_Spiritual Bouquet._ \"A little Child shall lead them\" (Is. _XI._ 6).\n\n\n\n\nO RADIX JESSE!\n\n                                              December 19th.\n\n     \"O Root of Jesse! Who standest as the ensign of the people,\n     before Whom Kings shall keep silence and unto Whom the\n     nations shall make their supplication, come and set us free,\n     tarry now no longer.\"\n\n                       (Vide Is. XI. 10 and Apoc. XXII. 16).\n\n\n_1st. Prelude._ The Tree of Jesse so often seen carved on cathedral\nporches and painted on windows, and in Missals.\n\n_2nd. Prelude._ Grace to rally under the Standard of the Tree of Jesse.\n\n\nPOINT I. THE ROOT OF JESSE.\n\n\"There shall come forth a Rod out of the Root of Jesse, and a Flower\nshall rise up out of his Root; and the Spirit of the Lord shall rest\nupon Him: the Spirit of Wisdom and of Understanding, the Spirit of\nCounsel and of Fortitude, the Spirit of Knowledge and of Godliness; and\nHe shall be filled with the Spirit of the Fear of the Lord\" (Is. XI.\n1-3). St. Jerome says that the Branch is Our Lady and the Flower her\nSon, Who says of Himself: \"I am the Flower of the field and the Lily of\nthe valleys\" (Cant. II. 1); and a responsory dating from the middle ages\nsays: \"_R._ The Root of Jesse gave out a Branch: and the Branch a\nFlower; and on the Flower resteth the Holy Spirit. _V._ The Virgin\nMother of God is the Branch, her Son is the Flower, and on the Flower\nresteth the Holy Spirit.\"\n\nSo once again, if we would find the Flower we must first find the Branch\nwhich bears it. The Flower is still in bud but presently it will open,\nand its beauty and fragrance will fill the whole earth and attract all\nmen to it: \"What manner of one is thy Beloved of the beloved, O thou\nmost beautiful among women?\" \"My Beloved is white and ruddy, chosen out\nof thousands\" (Cant. V. 9, 10). I can understand that thy beautiful Lily\nis white, for I know that such is His purity that even the heavens are\nnot pure in His sight, but why is His apparel _red_? (Is. LXIII. 2).\nBecause He is \"clothed with a garment sprinkled with blood: and His name\nis called: _The Word of God_\" (Apoc. XIX. 13). Even now, before His\ndelicate petals are unfolded, they are marked with the Cross.\n\nO Root of Jesse, can ever tree compare with thine--one of whose branches\nwas found worthy to bear a Flower so fair! There are further beauties as\nwe gaze--a heavenly Dew is resting on the Flower, it is the Holy Spirit\nHimself, Who at that blest moment when He overshadowed the Branch poured\nout all His choicest gifts upon the Flower. As God, the seven-fold gifts\nwere His from all eternity, and directly the Humanity was united to the\nEternal Word, the divine perfections belonged to it, so that as man \"He\nwas made unto us the _Wisdom_ of _God_\" and could understand all\nmysteries. By the gift of _Understanding_ He knew and entered into all\nGod's plans for the Redemption of the world. The gift of _Counsel_\nshowed Him exactly what was the Will of His Father which He had come to\ndo. The gift of _Fortitude_ gave Him the strength to carry out His\nFather's Will and to say ever: Not My Will but Thine be done. His\n_Knowledge_ was so profound that He preferred poverty to riches, and to\nbe despised rather than to be honoured; He knew as Man the true worth of\nthe thing which as God He had created. The gift of _Piety_ established\nthat tender relationship between Him and His Father which He wished us\nto have when He taught us to say: _Our Father_; it included also His\nperfect relationship with His Mother and St. Joseph. The gift of _Fear_\ngave Him as Man a reverence and respect for the majesty of God. (_Vide_\nHeb. V. 7).\n\nIt was thus that the heavenly Dew rested on the heavenly Flower.\n\nO my JESUS, come and tarry no longer! I know that Thou hadst no need of\nany of these gifts; they rested on Thee because Thou art my Model and\nThou wouldst show me how to use them.\n\n\nPOINT II. THE ENSIGN OF THE PEOPLE.\n\nIt is the Tree of Jesse which stands as an ensign, about which Our Lord\nsays: \"I am the Root and Stock of David\" (Apoc. XXII. 16). He then is\nthe Standard-bearer and the Standard is His Cross. \"Bearing His own\nCross He went forth\" (St. John XIX. 17). He is the \"_sign_ which shall\nbe contradicted\" by His enemies (St. Luke II. 34), but when the sign of\nthe Son of Man shall appear in the Heavens (St. Matt. XXIV. 30) it will\nbring joy and hope to the hearts of all those who love His Coming (2\nTim. IV. 8). \"My beloved is white and ruddy, chosen out of thousands,\"\nor according to another translation: \"My beloved is white and ruddy a\n_Standard bearer_\" (Cant. V. 10 A. V. Margin), chosen for His strength\nas well as for His beauty. To Him shall the nations make supplication,\nfor He said: \"I, if I be lifted up from the earth will draw all things\nto Myself\" (St. John XII. 32).\n\nThere are only two standards in the world--that of JESUS Christ and that\nof the devil. Both leaders want me to enlist; both are trying to win me;\nbut by what different means! The devil strives to entrap me with the\nsilken threads of sin which seem so insignificant and harmless, but\nwhich if I allow myself to be trapped by them, he will twine into a\nthick rope and hold me fast; while JESUS draws me to Himself with the\ncords of love. Both are infinitely more powerful than I am, and yet all\ndepends on _me_, that is, on my will. The cords of love are far\nstronger than the cords of hate, so I need not be afraid of the devil's\ncapturing me against my will; but on the other hand JESUS will not draw\nme with the cords of love against my will. \"_If thou wilt_, ... come,\"\nis His method. There _are_ chains, there _is_ a cross, but all is love.\nA little Child holds the Standard, a little Child leads, and all He asks\nis that we should follow Him and do as He does.\n\nCome, then, little JESUS, set up Thy Royal Standard, come, tarry no\nlonger. I am longing to show Thee that I am not going to be a soldier in\nname only; longing to show Thee that I understand that a soldier who has\npledged himself to fight under Thy Standard must adopt Thy methods, that\nif I would be a soldier on whom Thou canst count, I must be really\nmortified, really poor, really ready to give up my own will and my own\nmethods, really anxious to have humiliations because I know that there\nis no other way of attaining the beautiful virtue of humility. I am\nlonging to show Thee that I understand that those who march under Thy\nStandard must be marked by the Cross. Oh! come, and set me free from all\nthat keeps me from offering myself whole-heartedly for Thy service. Come\nand cut all the many little cords that still bind me to the service of\nself. Thy Mother wants Thee, the Angels are longing to look upon Thy\nFace, the world wants Thee though it knows it not, and I am longing to\nwant Thee too. Oh! teach me to want Thee more.\n\n_Colloquy_ with the Branch and the Flower.\n\n_Resolution._ To examine myself to-day as to my attachments.\n\n_Spiritual Bouquet._ \"Come and set us free, tarry now no longer.\"\n\n\n\n\nO CLAVIS DAVID!\n\n                                              December 20th.\n\n     \"O Key of David and Sceptre of the House of Israel! Who\n     openest and no man shutteth; Who shuttest and no man openeth;\n     come and bring forth from his prison-house the captive\n     sitting in darkness and in the shadow of death.\"\n\n  (Isaias XXII. 22, Apoc. III. 7, Gen. XLIX. 10, Heb. I. 8).\n\n\n_1st. Prelude._ The little King with the Key and the Sceptre.\n\n_2nd. Prelude._ Grace to respond to the Key and the Sceptre.\n\n\nPOINT I. THE KEY OF DAVID.\n\n\"I will lay the Key of the House of David upon His shoulder\" (Is. XXII.\n22). \"To the Angel of the Church of Philadelphia write: These things\nsaith the Holy One and the True One, He that hath the Key of David, He\nthat openeth and no man shutteth, shutteth and no man openeth: I know\nthy works. Behold I have given before thee a door opened which no man\ncan shut, because thou hast a little strength.\" (Apoc. III. 7-8).\n\nThe Babe unborn has already had the Key laid upon His Shoulder. He\nalready has authority. Soon, very soon now, He will come to use it. How\nwill He use this Key and what is it? It is the Key of authority but it\nis also the Key of love. (1) He is coming to unlock the gates which hold\nthe human race fast in ignorance and sin, to be its Redeemer, to give it\n\"a door opened which no man can shut,\" to give it a chance if it will of\nwalking out of its prison-house into the liberty wherewith Christ alone\ncan make it free (Gal. IV. 31). (2) He is coming to put His golden Key\nof love into the hearts of men, to open those doors which are shut\nagainst Him and which none but He can open, for none but He can give\ngrace. Each little child whose heart is filled with grace at its Baptism\nis only able to receive it because the little Child with the golden Key\nhas opened its heart. \"Thou hast opened the Kingdom of Heaven to all\nbelievers.\" Come, then, O Key of David, come and begin Thy blessed work\non earth. Thou hast already put Thy magic Key into the heart of St. John\nthe Baptist and doubtless of many another; come and tarry not, come and\nfound Thy Church and pass on the wondrous power of the keys to those\nwith whom Thou wilt leave Thy authority. (3) He is coming to open with\nHis Key of love His own most Sacred Heart. None but He can open that\nvast treasure-house of love, and none but He can shut it. It will be\nthere for a refuge for all His children in all time--a standing memorial\nof His love. What does He ask in return? Only that when we hear Him put\nHis golden Key into our hearts, there may be a response: \"My Beloved put\nHis Hand through the key-hole and my heart was moved at His touch. I\narose up to open to my Beloved\" (Cant. V. 4-5). The rising up to let Him\nin is our part, He puts in His Key and unlocks, that is, He removes all\nobstacles by His grace, but we must respond to that grace for though He\nhas unlocked the door He will not force an entrance. \"Behold I stand at\nthe door and knock,\" and then He waits, waits for our correspondence and\nfor our love. \"My son, give Me thy heart,\" He wants it, He has used His\nKey of love to obtain it, but He will not take it, it must be a free\ngift of love.\n\nAt the last great Advent the door of His mercy will be shut against all\nthose who have refused Him an entrance into their hearts, and when He\nshuts, no man can open. \"Lord, Lord, open to us,\" and the answer will\ncome through the eternally locked door: \"I never knew you, depart from\nMe.\"\n\nOh! come, Divine little One, come with Thy Key while yet there is time\nand unlock the many hearts which still find no place for Thee, no time\nto attend to Thee waiting so patiently, no desire to give Thee an\ninvitation this Christmas; and give them grace to respond.\n\n\nPOINT II. THE SCEPTRE OF THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL.\n\nThe little One Who is to come not only has a Key on His Shoulder, but a\nSceptre in His Hand. The word used for Sceptre (_shebet_) in the Hebrew\nhas four distinct meanings and we can apply them all to our Lord and\nSaviour, JESUS Christ. It is:\n\n(1) a rod of _command_, a sign of _royalty_ (Esther IV. 11, Ps. XLIV.\n7);\n\n(2) a rod of iron, a rod of _correction_ (Ps. II. 9, Prov. XXII. 15);\n\n(3) the _shepherd's_ rod or wand (Lev. XXVII. 32);\n\n(4) the _flail_ which separates the grain from the chaff (Is. XXVIII.\n27).\n\n(1) _A sign of royalty._ He is my King--how much that says to me! He has\nauthority over me and a right to command me, a right to my service from\nevery point of view; but He will not exact it from me. He stretches out\nHis Sceptre of mercy in token of clemency. He wants my service, but He\nwants it to be the outcome of my love and so He uses His Sceptre to\nattract me. He brings Himself down to my level, He calls Himself my\nBrother, my Friend. He tells me that if I will throw in my lot with Him\nand do as He does, one day I shall share His Kingdom and reign with Him.\nSuch is my King and such is the meaning of His Sceptre. \"Where is He\nthat is born King of the Jews?\" Thou art as yet hidden, O my little\nKing, but Thou wilt be _born_ a king for \"Thy throne, O God, is for ever\nand ever, a sceptre of justice is the sceptre of Thy Kingdom\" (Heb. I.\n8). What is my response going to be to that Sceptre stretched out once\nagain? That of a loyal, whole-hearted, loving subject or that of one\nwho is still hesitating between the service of self and the service of\nthe King?\n\n(2) _A rod of correction._ For His enemies it is a \"rod of iron,\" but\nfor His children a rod of love, for what son is there whom the father\ndoth not correct? \"Whom the Lord loveth He chastiseth; and He scourgeth\nevery son whom He receiveth. Persevere under discipline. God dealeth\nwith you as with His sons.\" (Heb. XII. 6-7). We are not to \"faint\" nor\n\"be weary\" nor \"neglect the discipline,\" not to be inclined to give all\nup and choose an easier path; no, but to regard the discipline as a\n\"consolation,\" (verse 5) a proof of love, a sign that we are really the\nchildren with whom He does what He likes, instructing us according to\nHis own pleasure (verse 10).\n\nOh! my little King, come with Thy rod of correction, come and make me a\nsaint and do not spare me in the making. He that spareth the rod\nspoileth the child. I do not want to be a spoilt child, but a child on\nwhom Thou canst count, that is, a child to whom Thou canst say what Thou\nwilt and whom Thou canst criticize as thou wilt, by the mouth of whom\nThou wilt, a child whom Thou dost not _consider_ because Thou art sure\nof its love, sure, that is, that it loves Thee and Thy ways better than\nself and its ways.\n\n(3) _A shepherd's staff or crook._ As it had been prophesied of Him that\nHe should be a king, so it had also been prophesied that He should be a\nshepherd: \"I will save My flock ... and I will set up one Shepherd over\nthem and He shall feed them and He shall be their Shepherd\" (Ezech.\nXXXIV. 22, 23, and XXXVII. 24). \"He shall feed His flock like a\nshepherd, He shall gather together the lambs with His arms, and shall\ntake them up in His bosom, and He Himself shall carry them that are with\nyoung\" (Is. XL. 11). \"I am the Good Shepherd;\" even now while He is yet\nin the womb of His Mother He is counting His sheep, calling them out,\nknowing each one by name, thinking of the great fold which He is going\nto make, of the one shepherd to whom He will entrust the great work of\nfeeding His sheep, of the \"other sheep\" whom He \"must bring\" into the\nfold sooner or later. Even now He is planning to lay down His life for\nHis sheep \"that they may have life and have it more abundantly.\"\n\n(4) _The flail_ which separates the chaff from the good grain, the\n_tribulum_ which causes \"great _tribulation_\" on earth's threshing\nfloor, but which is used only for the good of the grain and ensures its\nbeing gathered into the heavenly garners. Oh! my little King, Who art\ncoming to bring peace make me understand that I shall never have peace\ntill I am fully persuaded that all my _tribulation_, all my troubles,\ntrials and afflictions are directly caused by Thee, that it is Thou\nThyself and no other Who dost use the threshing instruments to separate\nme from all that is not pleasing to Thee.\n\nCome then, and with Thy Key of love unlock the prison-house and bring\nforth the captive sitting in darkness and then with Thy Sceptre rule\nhim, correct him, guide him and afflict him.\n\n_Colloquy_ with Him Who has the Key and the Sceptre.\n\n_Resolution._ To rise up and open to my Beloved.\n\n_Spiritual Bouquet._ O Clavis David!\n\n\n\n\nO ORIENS!\n\n                         December 21st. Feast of St. Thomas.\n\n     \"O Orient! (Dawn of the East, Rising Sun. Dayspring)\n     Splendour of the Light Eternal and Sun of Justice, come and\n     enlighten them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of\n     death.\"\n\n                (Is. IX. 2, Zach. III. 8, VI. 12, Mal. IV 2,\n                                            St. Luke I. 78).\n\n\n_1st. Prelude._ \"The light of the morning when the sun riseth\" (2 Kings\nXXIII. 4).\n\n_2nd. Prelude._ Grace to tread always the \"Way of Peace.\"\n\n\nPOINT I. THE ORIENT.\n\n\"Behold I will bring my Servant the Orient.\" (Zach. III. 8). Now God has\nkept His promise for Zachary has already sung: \"The Orient from on high\nhas visited us.\" But where is He, this Servant of God Who has come to do\nHis Will, this Man Who is also God, this Splendour of the Light Eternal\nand Sun of Justice? As yet He is hiding His light, but \"fear not for on\nthe fifth day Our Lord will come unto you\" (Antiphon of the _Benedictus_\nfor to-day). He will come and He will not tarry; but when He comes He\nwill still hide His light under the swaddling clothes and the\nhelplessness and dependence of a little babe. Why is this, O Orient?\nThou art the Light Eternal and the Sun of Justice and yet Thy rising\nseems to make so little difference in the world. Hardly any know that\nThou hast risen. My child, it is true that I am the Light of the world,\ntrue that I am the bright and morning Star, but the light can only reach\nthe world by faith. Those who have faith like Zachary and his wife and\ninfant son know that I have visited them, not because they have _seen_\nme, but by faith. It is the same with my own sweet Mother: \"Blessed art\nthou that hast _believed_\" (St. Luke I. 45). It will be the same when I\nam born in a few days' time. Most will see nothing beyond a babe in\nswaddling clothes, but to a chosen few who have the gift of faith the\nSun of Justice will have risen, the Star will have appeared, their cry\nwill be: \"Behold a Man,\" even the Man-God, \"the Orient is His name.\" It\nwill be the same all through My life on earth, only the few will\nrecognize the Light of the world; most will not come to Me, but will\nprefer darkness rather than light. It will be the same with My\nsacramental life in the Church. I shall be there, but only the eye of\nfaith will detect Me. The Sun of Justice has risen with health in His\nWings, but only very gradually will He make Himself felt in a world that\nis sitting in darkness and in the shadow of death.\n\nAnd why, O Orient, Splendour of the Light Eternal, why dost Thou not\ncast Thy bright beams over the whole world at once that all may know and\nrecognize Thee as the Dayspring which has risen?\n\nBecause, My child, I love faith and it is by faith that I intend men to\nknow Me. I do enlighten \"every man that cometh into this world\" (St.\nJohn I. 9), that is I give to each sufficient light to save his soul, to\none more, to another less, and I shall judge according to the light I\nhave given; but what I want from all is co-operation, I want their\nfaith, I want them to believe, not because they can see and understand,\nbut because by means of My grace in their hearts and especially by means\nof the revelation given to My Church I enlighten their minds. Yes, the\nSun has risen with health in His Wings, and gradually He will increase\nin strength till the \"uttermost parts of the earth\" respond to His\nlight. It is a work of time just as it is a work of time in each\nindividual soul. The soul does not see clearly as soon as the light\nenters; there is a period when men seem like trees walking (St. Mark\nVIII. 24); but if only it will respond and hold on by faith, the time\nwill come when it will see all things clearly.\n\nO Orient, come and enlighten those that sit in darkness and in the\nshadow of death with the light of faith. It is faith that is needed on\nthe earth, it is faith that is needed in each individual soul. It is\nfaith that I need, more faith, more confidence in Thy dealings. Many\nshadows are still cast on my soul by sin--even a wilful imperfection\ncasts a shadow. Oh What need I have of Thee, O Orient from on high, to\ncome and visit me and chase away the shadows of the night! \"Till the day\nbreak and the shadows retire\" (Cant. II. 17, IV. 6).\n\n\nPOINT II. ST. THOMAS.\n\nIt is a coincidence, if not something more, that puts the antiphon _O\nOriens!_ on the same day as the Feast of St. Thomas. It was on account\nof St. Thomas' _doubt_ that the great principle was given to the Church:\n\"Blessed are they that have not seen and yet have believed.\" It is on\naccount of St. Thomas' _faith_ that countless Indulgences are granted\nevery day to the faithful who make use of his words: \"My Lord and my\nGod\" when their sight shows them nothing but a little Host elevated by a\npriest. It was St. Thomas' _zeal_ which made him go to the Indies and\nproclaim that the Orient had visited His people and that God had become\nincarnate for men. \"Thou didst make all the Indies shine with much\nlight\" (Hymn of the Greek Church to St. Thomas), and that light was the\nlight of faith in Him Whom they had not seen. It is St. Thomas who comes\nto-day to revive our flagging faith, to introduce us to the Babe of\nBethlehem and tell us that He is indeed the Orient though He is hiding\nHis light, to warn us to give no heed to temptations against the faith,\nto tell us that when we are contemplating the humility and nothingness\nof our God and the temptation comes to us, as it did to him to say:\nUnless I see for myself, \"I will not believe,\" to remember the words of\nthe Master: \"Blessed are they that have not seen and yet have believed.\"\n\nO blessed Saint Thomas! who art now in the land of light and vision,\nintercede for us that we may be as little children, believing all we are\ntold and quietly waiting till the day dawn and the Orient arises in all\nHis majesty and strength, _preparing_ as a giant to run His course, but\nfor the moment hiding everything under the form of a helpless babe. We\ndo not ask for sight but for the light which will lead us to Him, the\nlight of faith, so that when we see Him wrapped in swaddling clothes and\nlying in a manger we may cry out with you: \"My Lord and My God.\"\n\n\nPOINT III. THE WAY OF PEACE.\n\nThe Orient visited us not only \"to enlighten them that sit in darkness\nand in the shadow of death,\" but also \"to direct our feet into the way\nof peace\" (St. Luke I. 79). And what is the way of peace but the way of\n_faith_, which He is coming to light up? Nothing can bring peace to this\ndark and sin-stricken world but faith. The Sun of Justice is rising with\nhealth in His Wings and that health is faith. It is the remedy for all\nills. Men try every other remedy but they leave out God and His faith\nand the result is that the world remains in chaos. The Light has risen,\nthe Orient has visited us, but men shut their eyes to the light and\nprefer the darkness, because their deeds are evil.\n\nThe _Way of Peace_ is made by the Prince of Peace, it is the Highway to\nthe Heaven of Peace. Am I on it? Yes, for I am one of \"the household of\nfaith\" and can never thank Him sufficiently for having directed my feet\ninto the City of Peace. But this is not all. Many people, even those of\nthe \"household of faith\" have very little real peace in their lives.\nThey spend their time in complaints, regrets, criticisms, anxieties. Is\nthis what the King of Peace intends? Oh no! He is ever there waiting to\ndirect their feet towards the \"green pastures\" and \"the still waters,\"\nbut the Way of Peace is the way of faith, of trust and confidence. Until\nI can really trust Him, the peaceful pastures can never be mine, I can\nnever lie down in them and rest. I am His sheep, but I do not wholly\ntrust my Shepherd. If I did, I should believe that whatever He chose and\narranged for me was the best; I could not _complain_ of what He had\nplanned for me, however hard it might be. I could not criticize His\narrangements and want to make my own. May my trust be so absolute this\nChristmas that it is apparent to everyone that I possess the peace which\nthe Babe of Bethlehem comes to bring. O Orient come once more and\ndirect my feet into the way of peace.\n\n_Colloquy_ with the Orient.\n\n_Resolution._ \"Although He should kill me, I will trust in Him.\" (Job.\nXIII. 15).\n\n_Spiritual Bouquet._ O Oriens!\n\n\n\n\nO REX GENTIUM!\n\n                                              December 22nd.\n\n     \"O King of nations and their desired One and the Corner-stone\n     that makest both one, come and save man whom Thou didst form\n     out of slime!\"\n\n (Gen. XLIX. 10, Agg. II. 8, Isaias XXVIII. 16, Gen. II. 7).\n\n\n_1st. Prelude._ Mary and Joseph on the road to Bethlehem. \"Behold thy\nKing will come to thee.... He is poor and riding upon an ass.\" (Zach.\nIX. 9).\n\n_2nd. Prelude._ Grace to welcome my King.\n\n\nPOINT I. \"THE DESIRED OF ALL NATIONS SHALL COME.\"\n\nKing of nations He has always been, for He created them; in Him they\nlive and move and are. (Acts XVII. 2). He has been in His earth ever\nsince He created it, governing it, sustaining and preserving the life\nwhich He gave, co-operating always with His creatures. We must not think\nof Him as creating the world and then leaving it to do the best it could\ntill the time came for Him to be incarnate. That is a false idea. His\ndelights were _always_ to be with the children of men and though the\nOrient did not begin to dawn till the time of the Incarnation, the Light\nhad been in the world all along; the Sun of Justice had existed from all\neternity. \"He was in the world and the world was made by Him and the\nworld knew Him not.\" (St. John I. 10). But though it knew Him not, the\nworld had enough light to desire Him. Ever since God at the time of\nman's fall had made His great promise concerning the Woman and her Seed,\nHe that was to come had been to the nations \"their desired One.\" That\npromise had been carefully cherished, handed on from father to son till\nMoses came and recorded it in the book of Genesis; and though of\nnecessity one nation had to be selected to which the Woman and her Seed\nwere to belong, yet the promise was given to all nations and all claimed\ntheir share in it. The chosen _nation_ through whom all the others were\nto be blessed was Abraham's. Through him and his seed the great promise\nwas to be fulfilled (Gen. XII. 3). The _time_ was hinted at in the\npatriarch Jacob's blessing to Juda: \"The sceptre shall not be taken away\nfrom Juda, nor a ruler from his thigh, till He come that is to be sent\nand He shall be the expectation of nations\" (Gen. XLIX. 10). The house\nor _family_ which was to have the joy of realizing the promise was\nDavid's; the _place_ where the Woman was to bring forth her Seed was\nBethlehem. Here \"she that travaileth shall bring forth\" and here \"shall\nHe come ... that is to be the Ruler in Israel\" (Mich. V. 2-3). Each\nsubsequent prophecy or promise developed and enlarged the original one\ngiven in Eden, but in that one the nations had all that they needed upon\nwhich to build up their hopes and nourish their desires--the Woman and\nher Seed, the \"Child with His Mother\"--and though the promise _belonged_\nto the chosen nation (Rom. IX. 4), the first great promise had been\nhanded down through the other nations and they knew enough to make them\n_desire_, enough to find the Light if they sought it as did the Wise\nKings of the East.\n\nO King of nations, as I look back through the ages and see the Child and\nHis Mother so clearly set forth in promise and prophecy, in type and\nexample, when I think of Thy plans for the redemption of the world, made\nfrom all eternity and gradually unfolding as the fulness of time\napproached, when I think of the nations all desiring Thy coming, when I\nthink of the intense desire of Thy loving Heart, there is one thing that\nseems to jar and to be out of harmony with the rest, and that is the\nlamentable want of desire in my own heart! The time is very short now,\nthe Child with His Mother are already on the way to Bethlehem. Oh! Let\nme multiply my Acts of Desire that my little King when He comes may be\nindeed _my_ \"desired One\" too. \"I sat down under His shadow, Whom I\ndesired.\" (Cant. II. 3).\n\n\nPOINT II. THE CORNER-STONE THAT MAKETH BOTH ONE.\n\n\"Behold I will lay a stone in the foundations of Sion, a tried stone, a\ncorner-stone, a precious stone, founded in the foundations\" (Isaias\nXXVIII. 16), \"the stone which the builders rejected\" (Ps. CXVII. 22).\n\nThis is one of the promises confided to the chosen nation. Our Blessed\nLord claims it as applying to Himself (St. Matt. XXI. 42, St. Luke XX.\n17), and St. Peter and St. Paul both speak of it as if it were well\nknown. (Acts IV. 11, 1 Peter II. 6-8, Rom. IX. 33, Eph. II. 20).\n\nHe is the Corner-stone Who is coming to make both one (Eph. II. 14),\nboth the Jews to whom belongs the promise (Rom. IX. 4) and the Gentiles\nwho are \"co-partners of His promise\" (Eph. III. 6). He is coming to\npreach peace to them that are far off as well as to them that are nigh,\ncoming to make \"the strangers and foreigners\" feel that they are\n\"fellow-citizens with the saints and the domestics of God,\" coming to\nweld all together into one great building of which He Himself is to be\nthe chief Corner-stone, binding together the two walls (Jews and\nGentiles), supporting each stone and keeping each in its place, a holy\ntemple in the Lord, \"a habitation of God in the spirit.\" Such is the\npicture St. Paul draws for us (Eph. II), and such is the picture which\nthe antiphon for to-day brings before our minds. \"All one in Christ\nJESUS.\" He is the King of all nations, the Desired of all nations, the\nCorner-stone of the whole building; with Him there is neither Jew nor\nGentile (Gal. III. 28).\n\nLet me tell Him even now before He comes how I long to share in the\ngreat work so dear to His Sacred Heart, let me offer myself to\nco-operate with Him in His designs for the human race which He loves so\nwell.\n\nLet me be ready to labour, to suffer, to pray, to spend and be spent, if\nonly I may thus bring Him a few stones for His Holy Temple. I was\n\"sometime afar off\" but now have been \"made nigh by the Blood of Christ\"\n(Eph. II. 13). \"What shall I render?\" (Ps. CXV. 12).\n\n\nPOINT III. COME AND SAVE MAN WHOM THOU DIDST FORM OUT OF THE DUST.\n\n\"Their desired One\" Who has never been far from the hearts of His\nchildren, knows the need of the nations. He Who formed man out of the\ndust knows his need of a Saviour. What are the desires of the nations\ncompared with His desire? From all eternity He has desired the time to\ncome when by taking the nature of man He could fulfil their desires and\nbe to them both a King and a Saviour. Very soon now will the Angels be\ntelling the glad tidings to man: To you is born the Saviour. Very soon\nwill the heavenly choirs be singing the praises of the new-born King,\nand the question will be asked even by distant nations: \"Where is He\nthat is born King?\"\n\nOh! come, little King, come and fulfil the desires of all hearts. Thou\nhast given them and Thou also must satisfy them. Art Thou really the one\ndesire of my heart, around which all my hopes centre? If Thou wert not\nthere, I know that life would be nothing but a blank. Come and create a\ngreater desire than ever after the perfection Thou wouldst have, and\nthen show me how to follow after it. \"In what place soever Thou shalt\nbe, my Lord King ... there will Thy servant be\" (2 Kings XV. 21). To-day\nthen I will journey with Thy blessed Mother, for surely the closer I\nkeep to her, the greater must be my desires.\n\n_Colloquy_ with \"the desired One.\"\n\n_Resolution._ Grace to desire Him more ardently.\n\n_Spiritual Bouquet._ O Rex Gentium!\n\n\n\n\nO EMMANUEL!\n\n                                              December 23rd.\n\n     \"O Emmanuel, our King and Lawgiver, the Expectation and\n     Saviour of the nations! Come and save us, O Lord our God.\"\n\n        (Is. VII. 14, VIII. 8, XXXIII. 22, St. Jas. IV. 12).\n\n\n_1st. Prelude._ Mary and Joseph in the temple at Jerusalem.\n\n_2nd. Prelude._ Grace to worship with them.\n\n\nPOINT I. EMMANUEL, GOD WITH US.\n\nOn the way from Nazareth to Bethlehem lies Jerusalem and we may be quite\nsure that a happy event for Mary and Joseph on this long and tiring\njourney now nearing its end would be their visit to the Temple, near\nwhich Mary, and probably Joseph too, had spent most of her life. We may\nthink, then, of Mary to-day taking her Son into His own Temple. We may\nthink of the joy of the Angels as they lifted high the gates to let the\nhidden King come in. In the Holy of Holies of Solomon's Temple was the\nArk of the Covenant, inside which were the Tables of God's law and upon\nwhich was manifested the presence of the All-Holy. But here kneeling in\nthe Temple, in the women's court afar off, was the real Ark of the\nCovenant of which the other was only a type, hiding within her chaste\nwomb the new Lawgiver Whose Presence was known only to the Angels who\nwere worshipping round His Shrine, and to Mary and Joseph the only\nearthly worshippers in the Temple that day who understood.\n\nHere was the Virgin with her Son, the prophecy was fulfilled--God with\nus. \"His name shall be called _Emmanuel_.\"\n\nYet Mary and Joseph were not the only worshippers in the Temple that\nday--there was a Human Soul worshipping God as He had never been\nworshipped before. The Heart of Jesus now so near the end of the first\nstage of Its existence on earth was offering to God all Its homage and\nall Its love, offering to Him all the work that had been done during the\nnine months passed in the holy \"Ark of the Covenant,\" all the\nhumiliation and self-abasement, the silence and dependence, the\nsuffering and patience, the satisfaction and merit. He had been doing\nall the time the things that pleased His Father, the things that He had\nmade Himself man to be able to do. Now He is waiting--and the very\nwaiting is another Act of worship--waiting for the moment to come when\nHe can take the next step in His earthly journey, waiting with His\nMother whose intense desire is only second to His Own.\n\nO Emmanuel! God with us! I feel that I must go too to Thy Sacred Courts\nto-day and make one more worshipper before that Holy Shrine. Advent is\nnearly over, my time of preparation is well-nigh at an end. What have I\nto offer as I kneel in adoration? Feeble desires, broken resolutions,\nfailure again in the thing I did so want not to fail in this Advent,\ngood intentions, but little else. Dare I come and kneel there where all\nis so holy and so perfect? Yes, for He is _Emmanuel_, God incarnate for\nme. Let me hand Him through His Mother all my poverty and wretchedness\nand weakness and failure, together with my contrition and repentance\nand love, and in exchange He will hand me His forgiveness and the\npromise to offer my inadequate worship, together with His own Divine\nperfections, to His Father, Who will be satisfied. This is what\n_Emmanuel_ means.\n\n\nPOINT II. OUR LAWGIVER.\n\n\"The Lord is our Judge, the Lord is our Lawgiver, the Lord is our King\nHe will save us.\" (Is. XXXIII. 22).\n\nHe is our King, therefore He has a right to make laws for us. And who\ncould be a better Judge of how the laws are kept than He Who made them?\nAm I afraid at the sterner aspect which things seem to have taken? There\nis no need, for He is still our _Emmanuel_, but He can only be thus our\nFriend and Companion by being also the One Who has an absolute right to\nmake laws for us and to expect our obedience. \"You are My _friends_, if\nyou do the things I command you\" (St. John XV. 14). The reason for _all_\nHis titles is that He wills to _save_ us. He is first of all the Saviour\nand then, in order that our salvation may be accomplished, He makes\nHimself our King, our Lawgiver and finally our Judge. \"If you love Me,\nkeep My commandments.\" Such is our Lawgiver's appeal. Surely His\ncommandments are not grievous. He Who did always the things which\npleased His Father, asks us to try to do the same.\n\nO my little Lawgiver, accomplishing so silently and so perfectly the\nWill of Thy Father, command me and I will obey, give Thy orders through\nwhom Thou wilt; be they hard or easy, be they in accordance with my will\nor contrary to my whole nature! I will think of Thy perfect submission\nto Thy Father's Will during those nine months for me and will say: I,\ntoo, will do always the things which please Him no matter what they\ncost.\n\n\nPOINT III. THE EXPECTATION OF THE NATIONS.\n\nJESUS is waiting, Mary is waiting, the Angels are waiting, all nations,\nall the earth, and Heaven too is waiting--waiting for our Emmanuel to\ncome and save us. The empty manger speaks of the Church's expectation\nto-day. We can count the hours now, all things are ready. Oh! come and\nsave us! Come and begin Thy blessed work over again, come and save the\nmany who as yet know Thee not and who are expecting everything this\nChristmas _except_ a Saviour. May the sight of the empty crib remind me\nto look well into my preparations to-day to see that nothing is wanting\nin the welcome I am going to give to the King!\n\n_Colloquy_ with our Emmanuel. At the Incarnation, at Thy birth, all\nthrough Thy life, Thou didst dwell _with us_; on every altar Thou hast\npromised to be _with us_ all days; in Holy Communion Thou hast said I\nwill dwell _with them_; in the hour of death I will fear no evil for\nThou wilt be _with me_; and Thou hast secured Heaven for me by Thy\nprayer: \"Father, I will that those whom Thou hast given Me be _with Me_\nwhere I am.\" \"Emmanuel, _God with us_.\"\n\n_Resolution._ Grace to expect Him to-day in all that I do.\n\n_Spiritual Bouquet._ O Emmanuel!\n\n\n\n\nCHRISTMAS EVE.\n\n     \"This day you shall know that the Lord will come and save us:\n     and in the morning you shall see His glory.\"\n\n                     (Ex. XVI. \"Introit\" for Christmas Eve).\n\n\n_1st. Prelude._ The stable and the manger waiting for JESUS.\n\n_2nd. Prelude._ Grace to make my final preparations.\n\n\nPOINT I. MY PREPARATION--LAST TOUCHES.\n\nTo-day Mary and Joseph arrive at their journey's end. We think of them\nfootsore, weary, homeless; we think of the discouragement and rebuffs\nthat they meet with as they hear on all sides that there is no room for\nthem; but do we think enough of the intense joy that reigned in Mary's\nheart, a joy communicated to her by her Son? He is rejoicing that His\nhour is come; the very refusals of His people to receive Him and His\nMother are to Him a sign that His work has begun and is already being\nopposed. Mary shares His joy; she is absorbed by one thought--soon she\nwill look upon His Face--and that thought is so great that there is\nscarcely room for any other in her heart. And Joseph? Can we imagine him\nanxious and disturbed and worried? No, it is impossible--he is with\nJESUS and Mary, he has lived his life close to them for nine months, he\nhas imbibed their spirit. If his joy is not as intense as theirs, his\n_peace_ is unruffled; he has brought the Mother with her Child to\nBethlehem as he was told to do, and he knows that God will take care of\nHis own.\n\nMy first lessons, then, for to-day are apparent. In the morning I shall\nsee His glory; the point of Advent is reached, my preparation is nearly\nover. I was told to get ready for Him, I was told to come to Bethlehem,\nI have been trying to do so, trying to keep up with Mary and Joseph on\ntheir journey; often, I am obliged to admit it, it has been a following\nafar off, but still by God's grace, I _am_ following and I know that\nto-day He is coming to save us and that to-morrow I shall see His glory\nfor He will come to me in Holy Communion. He will be born again in my\nheart and make me understand once more that He is incarnate for me. Are\nmy joy and my peace so great that nothing has the power to touch them?\nThere are many occupations that must of necessity claim my time and my\nattention to-day, as there were many coming and going on the roads that\nled to Bethlehem; there are many things to be thought about in my last\npreparations for Christmas--it was so with Mary and Joseph too. Almost\ncertainly I shall have to-day, as they had, things that try and weary\nme, perhaps suffering, temptation, slights and even insults. Shall I\nreceive them as last and most precious opportunities for adding the\nfinishing touches to my preparation, for gaining a victory where I have\nperhaps so recently lost one, for making reparation to my King and for\nuniting myself more closely to Him and His Mother? Will the thought that\nHe is coming be so absorbing that the difficulties of the way are hardly\nnoticed or are welcome as a reminder that I too am journeying to\nBethlehem? If I cannot aspire to the joy of JESUS and Mary, I can at\nleast aim at the peace of St. Joseph.\n\n\nPOINT II. HIS PREPARATION.\n\n_His_ preparation is coming to an end too. Let me go over in my mind\nonce again all that He had to plan and to do by way of preparation\nbefore He could come to me in Holy Communion. It was for this that the\nIncarnation was a preparation. In order to feed me with His Flesh and\nBlood, He had to become incarnate. This is the point of Christmas, and\nit is the point of contact between JESUS and my soul. To-morrow Mary in\nan ecstasy of joy will look upon His Face and press Him to her heart;\nto-morrow Joseph, full of awe and wonder, will take Him in his arms;\nto-morrow the Angels will sing their _Glorias_ as they gaze upon their\nGod incarnate; to-morrow the shepherds will adore and offer Him their\ngifts; and to-morrow I too shall touch Him very closely for I shall\nreceive into my body and into my heart His Body and Blood, His Soul and\nHis Divinity. He will be with me and I with Him. It is for this that I\nhave been making my preparations and it is for this that He has been\nmaking His. How long has He been preparing? Not only during Advent, not\nonly during the nine months, not only since the great promise was given\nin Eden, not only since the time when there was war among the Angels\nbecause of the Incarnation--I am getting beyond time already and farther\nback than that I cannot go for my mind is finite; but His is infinite\nand just because it is infinite there never was a time when the\nIncarnation was not in His mind, and there never was a time when I, His\nchild, was not in His mind, and also there never was a time when He did\nnot see the blest moments when He should bring the two into contact and\nmake me understand personally what the point of the Incarnation is.\nThese blest moments are my Communions and surely one of the most blest\nmust be my Christmas Communion when He Who comes to me and Who feeds me\nwith Himself is the Child Who was born at Bethlehem, He Who had been so\nlong expected, the Seed of the Woman, the Orient from on high, the Star\nof the East, the Desired One of the nations, the Root of Jesse, the King\nof the Gentiles with His Key and His Sceptre, Emmanuel, God with us.\n\n_Colloquy._ I kneel at the door of the empty stable and offer Thee my\nheart, O my little JESUS! I have tried to make room for Thee; I have\nmade my poor little preparations with Thy blessed Mother; I have taken\nlong journeys to get to Thee; but my body is not fit to be Thy temple\nand my heart is treacherous and faithless. I am ashamed to have so poor\na shelter to offer Thee. If it were not that Thou didst ask for it, I\ndare not offer it. Oh! Thou Who didst not refuse the manger-bed, come to\nmy heart, look at the contrition and the humiliation and the reparation\nand the aching longing to be what Thou dost want, and forget the\nfaithlessness and the failures and the weakness. Come, my little King,\nincarnate for me, come and save me, if I were not a sinner I should not\nneed a Saviour.\n\n_Resolution._ To keep very near to Mary and Joseph to-day.\n\n_Spiritual Bouquet._ \"In the morning you shall see His glory.\"\n\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n    BOKSTEL--HOLLAND\n    ELECTRISCHE DRUKKERIJ WILHELM VAN EUPEN\n\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\nTranscriber's Notes:\n\nObvious spelling and punctuation errors were repaired, but unusual\nperiod spellings and grammatical usages were retained.\n\nHeadings and scripture references were inconsistently formatted and have\nbeen standardized, but variations in book titles and abbreviations were\nretained.\n\nWhere punctuation in contents page entries and chapter headings in\noriginal did not agree, the contents page entries were corrected.\n\nHe, Him, His, etc. when referring to \"Jesus\" and \"God\" are capitalized\nthroughout the original, and \"Jesus\" placed in small caps. The few\nexceptions have been changed to conform to the majority.\n\nContents page--ditto marks were used in the original. The marks were\nreplaced by actual repeated words as follows: chapters 8-11, St. John\nthe Baptist; chapters 16-20, The Interior Life; chapters 22-24 and\n26-28, December. Also, under Prayers, \"Sancta Dei Genitrix,\" for each\nline after the first, \"ora pro nobis\" replaces ditto marks.\n\nP. 5: \"few streaks of Thy Divine Light\"--original shows \"Th Divine\nLight\" with a gap after \"Th.\"\n\nP. 20: \"(3) The Sentences.\" The original labels the subheadings within\n(3) as (1) and (2). This format was retained. Also \"There are only two,\"\noriginal shows \"The are only two.\"\n\nP. 61: \"come to do Thy Will,\" original reads \"come do Thy Will.\"\n\nP. 64-65: \"example which you set. Teach me, too;\" original reads\n\"example which you set [page break] teach me, too.\"","title":"Ortus Christi: Meditations for Advent","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":44839}