“Verily Thou art a hidden God, the God of Israel, the Saviour” (Is. 45, 15).
First Prelude: Imagine yourself with Jesus in His solitude and hear His glorious instructions on the hidden life.
Second Prelude: O my Jesus, incite me to great zeal in the acquisition of the hidden virtues with which Thou dost favor interior souls.
First Point
Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, the Model of the Hidden Life
Who would think when beholding Jesus under the humble species, that He is the very God Who dwells in heaven in inaccessible light, who sits on a glorious throne, surrounded by countless hosts of angels and saints, incessantly offering Him their homage. Nothing is here discernible of His providence, wisdom and omnipotence. Here, in truth, He is solicitous for the souls of the just. In the Blessed Eucharist reigns silence, seclusion, abasement, patience, a retired and interior life. In truth, Jesus is here a wonderful exemplar of religious, who are called in a special way to lead an interior life. Would we imitate it, then we must strive to foster it by union with God and interior recollection.
The kingdom of God is within our hearts, where He has erected His throne. Souls loving God, should often retire to the seclusion of their hearts to occupy themselves with God as much as their external duties permit it and hold loving communion with Him. Provided our duties permit it we should likewise love exterior solitude because it is conducive to intimate union with God. As religious, we must be solicitous, above all, in so far as love and obedience suffer us, to conceal from the eyes of the world the little good that we may accomplish. “Vain self-complacency,” says St. Vincent de Paul, “and the desire to be lauded by others, to be praised for our deeds, is an evil which easily makes forgetfulness of God the result, and contaminates the best actions and aims a most disastrous blow at the interior life.” Let us, therefore, rejoice when an apparently insignificant office, an unobserved employment is allotted to us, when the paternal eye of God alone is witness to our labors and sacrifices. If we nourish such sentiments we shall find it easy to labor solely for God’s glory and thus to merit His divine pleasure.
Do I love and esteem the hidden life? Do I perform, with great exactness and solicitude, actions unobserved by others?
Second Point
Precious Fruits of a Hidden Life
Let us now consider the precious fruits that a hidden life produces in the soul. It is, above all, an easy and sure means to attain to great purity of conscience and to perfect detachment from creatures and from self. The curbing of our curiosity and vanity cuts off a multitude of opportunities to sin, and induces us to reflect upon the intentions and movements of our hearts. Thus, little by little, all our evil inclinations become weakened and the soul gradually attains to that purity of heart which culminates in intimate union with God in prayer.
The spirit of prayer, a second very valuable fruit of the interior life, is never found in souls who love intercourse with the world. How many complain of the difficulty of recollection at prayer. The faithful practice of the interior life would obviate all such difficulties and sweeten for us most powerfully the intercourse with God. As a rule, God rewards a life of union with Him with precious graces and sweet joys, infinitely better than all the joys of the world. Many pious souls who lead an interior life seem to be lonely and forsaken; the children of the world consider them as unhappy and cheerless, whereas in reality they enjoy the sweetest peace. The Apostle St. Paul observes: “We appear sad, but in reality we are always full of joy.” St. Jerome speaks of solitude with fondness, and St. Bernard says: “I am least alone when alone, for then my Lord is with me, Whose presence affords me greater happiness than intercourse with all the creatures of the world!”
Are these blessed fruits of the interior life not in a position to fill our hearts with pious desires? Will not the frequent pondering on them help us to conquer the resistance of our blinded self-love, and impel us cheerfully to make the little sacrifices that such a life entails upon us?
Affections: O my Jesus, I adore Thee in the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar, as master and exemplar of the hidden life. Let me duly recognize the precious fruits of this holy life, that I may strive to advance in it. Take out of my heart every desire to be seen and esteemed by men. Give me love for seclusion and imbue me with the desire to be unnoticed and forgotten by all. Grant me the spirit of recollection and prayer, that I may seek and find my consolation and happiness solely in intercourse with Thee, and attain to that intimate union with Thee, O my beloved Jesus, which Thou dost establish with truly interior souls. I beseech Thee, O holy Virgin, Mother of God, model of the interior souls, obtain this grace for me, and procure for us, by thy powerful intercession, a good life, a holy death, and a happy eternity.
Resolution: I will strive to acquire interior recollection and seek to hide my good works from the eyes of men.
Spiritual Bouquet: “The Kingdom of God is within you.”
O Jesus, living in Mary…
First Prelude: Imagine yourself with Jesus in His solitude and hear His glorious instructions on the hidden life.
Second Prelude: O my Jesus, incite me to great zeal in the acquisition of the hidden virtues with which Thou dost favor interior souls.
First Point
Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, the Model of the Hidden Life
Who would think when beholding Jesus under the humble species, that He is the very God Who dwells in heaven in inaccessible light, who sits on a glorious throne, surrounded by countless hosts of angels and saints, incessantly offering Him their homage. Nothing is here discernible of His providence, wisdom and omnipotence. Here, in truth, He is solicitous for the souls of the just. In the Blessed Eucharist reigns silence, seclusion, abasement, patience, a retired and interior life. In truth, Jesus is here a wonderful exemplar of religious, who are called in a special way to lead an interior life. Would we imitate it, then we must strive to foster it by union with God and interior recollection.
The kingdom of God is within our hearts, where He has erected His throne. Souls loving God, should often retire to the seclusion of their hearts to occupy themselves with God as much as their external duties permit it and hold loving communion with Him. Provided our duties permit it we should likewise love exterior solitude because it is conducive to intimate union with God. As religious, we must be solicitous, above all, in so far as love and obedience suffer us, to conceal from the eyes of the world the little good that we may accomplish. “Vain self-complacency,” says St. Vincent de Paul, “and the desire to be lauded by others, to be praised for our deeds, is an evil which easily makes forgetfulness of God the result, and contaminates the best actions and aims a most disastrous blow at the interior life.” Let us, therefore, rejoice when an apparently insignificant office, an unobserved employment is allotted to us, when the paternal eye of God alone is witness to our labors and sacrifices. If we nourish such sentiments we shall find it easy to labor solely for God’s glory and thus to merit His divine pleasure.
Do I love and esteem the hidden life? Do I perform, with great exactness and solicitude, actions unobserved by others?
Second Point
Precious Fruits of a Hidden Life
Let us now consider the precious fruits that a hidden life produces in the soul. It is, above all, an easy and sure means to attain to great purity of conscience and to perfect detachment from creatures and from self. The curbing of our curiosity and vanity cuts off a multitude of opportunities to sin, and induces us to reflect upon the intentions and movements of our hearts. Thus, little by little, all our evil inclinations become weakened and the soul gradually attains to that purity of heart which culminates in intimate union with God in prayer.
The spirit of prayer, a second very valuable fruit of the interior life, is never found in souls who love intercourse with the world. How many complain of the difficulty of recollection at prayer. The faithful practice of the interior life would obviate all such difficulties and sweeten for us most powerfully the intercourse with God. As a rule, God rewards a life of union with Him with precious graces and sweet joys, infinitely better than all the joys of the world. Many pious souls who lead an interior life seem to be lonely and forsaken; the children of the world consider them as unhappy and cheerless, whereas in reality they enjoy the sweetest peace. The Apostle St. Paul observes: “We appear sad, but in reality we are always full of joy.” St. Jerome speaks of solitude with fondness, and St. Bernard says: “I am least alone when alone, for then my Lord is with me, Whose presence affords me greater happiness than intercourse with all the creatures of the world!”
Are these blessed fruits of the interior life not in a position to fill our hearts with pious desires? Will not the frequent pondering on them help us to conquer the resistance of our blinded self-love, and impel us cheerfully to make the little sacrifices that such a life entails upon us?
Affections: O my Jesus, I adore Thee in the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar, as master and exemplar of the hidden life. Let me duly recognize the precious fruits of this holy life, that I may strive to advance in it. Take out of my heart every desire to be seen and esteemed by men. Give me love for seclusion and imbue me with the desire to be unnoticed and forgotten by all. Grant me the spirit of recollection and prayer, that I may seek and find my consolation and happiness solely in intercourse with Thee, and attain to that intimate union with Thee, O my beloved Jesus, which Thou dost establish with truly interior souls. I beseech Thee, O holy Virgin, Mother of God, model of the interior souls, obtain this grace for me, and procure for us, by thy powerful intercession, a good life, a holy death, and a happy eternity.
Resolution: I will strive to acquire interior recollection and seek to hide my good works from the eyes of men.
Spiritual Bouquet: “The Kingdom of God is within you.”
O Jesus, living in Mary…
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