First Prelude: In spirit transport yourself into heaven, behold the angels veiling their countenances before the Infinite Majesty and hearken to their hymns of praise in honor of the Triune God.
Second Prelude: Grant, O most Holy Trinity, that by a life consecrated wholly to Thy honor, I may even here below join in the hymns of praise of the heavenly hosts.
First Point
IT IS THE WILL OF GOD THAT WE STRIVE FOR SANCTITY
The prophet Isaias heard the voices of the Seraphim around the throne of God, in eternal jubilation crying to each other: “Holy, holy, holy!” The church sings this hymn of praise in the Preface of the Mass and recites it daily in the Divine Office. The sanctity of God is here extolled as the most beautiful of all His perfections. We should, above all, imitate God in sanctity because it is the most worthy homage that we can offer our heavenly Father. God invites us to holiness in the Old Testament, “For I am the Lord your God; be holy because I am holy. Defile not your souls by any creeping thing, that moveth upon the earth” (Lev. 11, 44). Our Divine Saviour admonishes us in the Gospel, “Be ye perfect as your Father in heaven also is perfect,” and the Apostle St. Paul speaks to the First Christians; “This is the will of God, your sanctification.” That we might better understand how we are to imitate the infinite holiness of God, the Son of God appeared on earth and by His example showed us the way to true sanctity. We must, therefore, constantly have our Divine Model before our eyes and strive earnestly to become like Him; for the more we conform to the sentiments and actions of our Divine Saviour, the higher the degree of sanctity we shall attain.
Is not striving for perfection the chief duty of religious? Holy Church therefore, bestows upon religious her most tender care and solicitude and furnishes them, in the Holy Rule, with the surest means of following Jesus in a more perfect, yet comparatively easy manner. Let us, therefore, rejoice in the sublime dignity to which God’s infinite goodness has called us. Let us gratefully use the means so liberally offered us for sanctification. What responsibilities should we not incur by indifference and infidelity! How unworthy of our noble calling would such indifference render us! Let us daily meditate, renew the firm resolve to become a saint, and that too, at the price of all sacrifices.
Which of the means offered for my sanctification have I thus far most neglected?
Second Point
WE SHOULD IMITATE THE GOODNESS AND THE MERCY OF GOD IN OUR HOLY VOCATION
When the Psalmist says: “The Lord is sweet to all; and His tender mercies are over all His works” (Ps. 144, 9), he wills to encourage us to place implicit trust in His infinite goodness. Holy Church, likewise, directs our attention to this attribute of God when on the feast of the most Blessed Trinity, at three different times during the Mass she extols the mercies of the Lord, and in the last Gospel addresses to us the touching words of our Blessed Saviour; “Be ye, therefore, merciful as your Father is also merciful” (Luke 6, 28).
By holding up to us the love of the heavenly Father, the Saviour exhorts us to practice merciful love. How sublime our vocation! We should not only rejoice in His goodness and confide in His paternal Providence, not only enjoy the infinite mercy of God for the benefit of our own soul, but we should be the channels through which God wills to pour out upon others the streams of His mercy. God, as it were, deposits in our custody the treasures of His liberality and makes us their dispensers. Of our Divine Saviour it is said that through Him the goodness and kindness of God our Saviour appeared (Titus, 3, 4), that He went about on earth, doing good (Acts 10, 3).
Likewise the religious, as faithful imitators of their Divine Master, should proclaim the mercies of the Lord by zealously exercising the duties of their vocation, by their goodness, mildness, patience, and forbearance. They should encourage others to have confidence, to love and to be grateful toward an infinitely good God; they should incite them to obey His commands and to submit to His paternal directions. If we discharge our duties with such sentiments we shall draw, in ever fuller measure, the plenitude of Divine Mercy upon ourselves and others. Let us beseech the Heart of Jesus, our sublime Ideal, to make our hearts rich with grace, love and mercy, that we may glorify God our Father and promote His honor and glory, to the best of our ability.
Do I aim at rendering myself a fit instrument of Divine Mercy, by fervor and zeal in the discharge of my duties?
Affections: Most Blessed Trinity, Thou holy, powerful, immortal God, we adore Thy immeasurable perfections in the splendor of Thy infinite glory! With profoundest humility we join in the eternal canticle of the Seraphim: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of Hosts,” and in union with Holy Church we cry, “Praised be God the Father, the only begotten Son of God, and the Holy Ghost; for He has shown mercy to us!” No, O my God, who in infinite love and mercy hast called us to sanctity, and in Thy adorable Son hast given us the model of consummate holiness, grant that we may glorify Thee by imitating Thy virtues, by exercising the works of mercy and thus gaining many souls to Thee, that through them Thou mayest be honored, praised and glorified through all eternity. O Mary, Mother of Mercy, delight of the everlasting, ever adorable Trinity, infuse into our hearts the love of thy virtues, inflame them with the blessed fire of the love of God, that we may walk holily in all our actions.
Resolution: I will strive for sanctity with all possible zeal, that I may glorify God and render my labors for the salvation of souls fruitful.
Spiritual Bouquet: “Be ye holy, because I, your God, am holy.”
Prayer: Our Father…
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