The Annunciation

"The angel Gabriel was sent from God ... to a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph . . . and the name of the Virgin was Mary" (Luke ii. 26, 27). Five hundred years before, the same archangel had foretold this event to the prophet Daniel, and that holy man fell prostrate before him. A few weeks before, he had appeared to Zachary in the temple, and struck him deaf and dumb in punishment of his incredulity. Now, for the first time, an angel of God bows before one of the fallen race, and speaks to her as the servant of a king might salute a powerful princess. The angel's message was to ask the consent and co-operation of the lowly Virgin in the great mystery of divine power and mercy. In her case, as in all others, God took account of human liberty, and made the divine operations dependent on her free consent. She had full power of choice; she deliberated, and at length acceded to that which God proposed to her. No scene so momentous had occurred since Eve consented to the tempter in Eden. And, until Our Lord first spoke, no word so meritorious, so full of promise of joy to men was pronounced by any human being: "Be it done to me according to Thy word" (Luke i. 38). God asks your consent to some designs of His grace. He wishes to do much in you. Strive to be faithful, obedient, generous in your consent, as was the Holy Virgin.

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The Espousals

"A virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David" (Luke ii. 27). The time arrived when, in the ordinary course, the Blessed Virgin had to leave the shelter of the temple and go forth into the world; the time was also at hand appointed for the appearance of the Son of God in human nature. God had prepared in advance not only a mother for the Messias, but also a faithful servant, who should be the representative of the Eternal Father on earth, in watching over, and providing for, and ruling the Child and His Mother. This was Joseph, a just man; he was the eldest male representative of the house of David, the rightful inheritor of the throne and of all the royal prerogatives; he was in some degree related to the Blessed Virgin, who was also descended from David by another line. To noble descent he united lowliness of position; he was a poor artisan working for his daily bread in an obscure village; a representative at once of the mighty and the humble. Divine Providence, ruling all things sweetly, arranged that the Holy Virgin should be given in marriage to this just man, who would subordinate himself to the designs of heaven, and respect the vow of perpetual virginity made by his spouse. He was the "faithful and wise servant, whom his Lord hath set over His family, to give them meat in season" (Matt. xxiv. 45). Admire the wonderful fidelity of this holy man. Strive like him to be faithful to whatever trust has been laid on you by Divine Providence.

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A True Story

ALTHOUGH the crowd was, as we have already stated, more particularly dense in the morning at the time of Bernadette’s arrival, it was not to be supposed that solitude reigned during the after part of the day at the Rocks of Massabielle.  All the afternoon there was perpetual going to and fro on the road leading to the Grotto, which, from that time, was to be so celebrated.  Every one examined it in all directions, many prayed in front of it, and some broke off fragments of it in order to keep them as pious souvenirs.  CLICK HERE TO CONTINUE

    

The Presentation of Mary

The law of Moses allowed men and women to make a vow and dedicate themselves, for a time or for life, to the service of God. So did Anna lend her son Samuel to the Lord to be employed about the Tabernacle. The Blessed Virgin also was presented in the temple by another Anne, her mother, in pursuance of a vow. At the age of three she was offered, and till her fifteenth year she remained in the quarters set apart for the widows and young maidens, "who departed not from the temple, by fastings and prayers serving night and day" (Luke ii. 37). The traditions of the Eastern Churches record that this child of grace was, as a special privilege, allowed to pray in the Holy of Holies, where no other but the High Priest once in the year could enter. Those Churches from the earliest times kept up the memory of these events in the Feast of the entry of Mary into the Temple; the Western Church celebrates it as the Presentation. Holy Scripture says: "After her shall virgins be brought to the King . . . they shall be brought into the temple of the King" (Ps. xliv. 15, 16). In imitation of the Blessed Virgin, hundreds of thousands of other virgins have sought a refuge from the world near the tabernacle of God, and dedicated their whole lives to the practice of austere virtue, and the service of God and man. How blessed is the Church in the holy example given by Our Lady, and in the inspiration and strength from the Holy Ghost which have enabled so many to follow in her foot steps ! Thank God for the abundant benefits resulting from this devotedness.

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The Nativity of The Blessed Virgin

"Who is she that cometh forth as the morning rising, fair as the moon, bright as the sun, terrible as an army set in array ?" (Cant. vi. 9). The Nativity of the Blessed Virgin was indeed like the dawn, caused by the sun, and announcing the approach of day. Mary appeared, the early reflection, by her grace and sinlessness, of the first beams of the Sun of justice. That dawn was eagerly looked for during the long night of the old dispensation, continually promised and prefigured. Our Lady is compared to the moon, fair and beautiful, a subordinate luminary, with no light of its own, but shining with a reflected brightness. She is also "the woman clothed with the sun" (Apoc. xii. 1), bright with the sun's brightness, with the glory of Jesus Christ, because she is the image of His virtues, and has her dignity from Him. She is terrible to the hosts of hell, as being the only one over whom they had never prevailed, and as the Mother of their Conqueror. As in every other case, the splendour of this work of God was shrouded in humility. Except the parents of Mary perhaps, none knew the greatness of this child of promise. The day which gave joy to the unseen world passed without notice in the sphere where it occurred. She herself did not suspect, till the angel announced it, the designs that God had for her. Consider how God regarded the day of Mary's birth; consider what it was to God the Son who was to be born of her; consider its importance to the world and to you.

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The Graces & Merits of Mary

Exemption from original sin carries with it a great many other privileges, for that sin involves a great many consequences. It causes a deterioration in soul and body, intellect, will, and every other faculty; it introduces into us ignorance, concupiscence, malice, and a propensity to every kind of evil. Even when we recover grace, many of the effects of sin still remain. The holiest of men is not exempt from weaknesses; and the greatest labour of his life is the unceasing struggle against his own semi-dormant passions. He attains success only through countless failures; and, at the best, he is but a restored and buttressed ruin. During this life, peril is never absent, victory never secure. The singular grace of God placed the Blessed Virgin on an altogether higher level. She was exempt from every one of the miseries and sad liabilities of sin from the very first. The last stage of the greatest saint's life is far inferior to Mary's first stage in grace. She began her ascent where the greatest saints left off: according to the prophet, "The mountain of the house of the Lord shall be prepared on the top of the mountains" (Isa. li. 2). All these exceeding graces, Mary's union with God, God's love for her, were only in proportion to the high office to which she was called; they were all required in preparation for the unexampled dignity of the Divine Maternity. The magnificence of God as exhibited in the universe which He has prepared for our habitation, exceeds all our calculations, and all our wonderful powers of investigation, and expression, and imagination even. Much more magnificent is the bounty of God in the supernatural order, and especially in that one being who is superior to all the other works of His hand. It is not only due to the Blessed Virgin, it is due to God that you should pay homage to such an exhibition of His infinite power and holiness.

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The Immaculate Conception, part 2

 Science teaches us that, where there is an apparent gap in the chain of life, there must be some being which fills it. There was one important deficiency; there was no example of a simple human being who was sinless and full of grace. The only two who were so created hastened promptly to disembarrass themselves of the great privilege at the mere word of the tempter. The completeness of God's work in Creation and Redemption required that there should be an example of what His grace was able to effect in human nature, a being that we could look up to as the ideal of simple creatures in the class below the Divine Man. Many had risen to great holiness by repentance for their sins, others by innocence which they never lost; Jeremias and John the Baptist had further been purified from sin before their birth. Still, in one remote corner of human life Satan had found a strong hold; all were, in the first moments of existence, subject to him by original sin. It was necessary in one case to drive him from that last retreat, and exhibit one being absolutely free from sin and full of all human perfection, For the glory of God, the Blessed Virgin was preserved from even the indeliberate inherited stain of sin; she was conceived immaculate. Honour her as the delight of the Almighty, the highest of His works, the fullest manifestation of His power and holiness, the example of perfect human life among mere creatures. 

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The Immaculate Conception, part 1

Adam and Eve came into existence immaculate, in the state of grace. This was to have been the birthright of humanity; but Adam, at the suggestion of Satan, chose the lower state of the mere natural existence, and so lost the power of transmitting what He had rejected. Thenceforth all men are born defective, deprived of supernatural life; and in that fallen state they resemble Satan in his inaptitude for God and propension towards evil. This privation of grace and the higher life is the state of original sin. From this the Blessed Virgin was preserved. She was antecedently liable to it, as being descended by ordinary generation from Adam. She was saved by the Redemption, as we are, but in a better way, by prevention, and not by cure. No act of hers nor of her parents, but the intervention of the merits of her Divine Son, saved her from the torrent which was about to descend upon her. She came into life then, like Adam and Eve, adorned with sanctifying grace, living with the supernatural life, possessing God with her. This is her Immaculate Conception. Our Lady can say, and she alone: "I am clean and without sin ; I am unspotted and there is no iniquity in me 1 (Job xxxiii. 9). Admire here the great goodness of God, the great power of the merits of Jesus, who is "wonderful in His saints"(Ps. Ixvii. 36), and most of all in His Mother. 

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The Predestination of Mary

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"The woman whom the Lord hath prepared for my Master's Son" (Gen. xxiv. 44). Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is the center of creation ; according to St. Paul, "the first-born of all creatures" (Col. i. 15). All things were made by Him, and in His image, and in order to lead up to Him; He is therefore the first conceived in the ideas of God. All that concerns Him is important; every such thing was foreseen and decreed from eternity. Adam, Abraham, David, the prophets, the people of Israel, were great, solely because of Him who was to spring from that stock. St. John the Baptist, who announced Him and prepared the way before His face, was sanctified from his mother's womb, and declared to be the greatest of men. There was one who stood nearer to the Messias than David, who prepared His way more than St. John, viz., the woman who bore to Him the closest of all possible relations, that of mother. Mary gave Jesus of her very substance; for nine months He lived with her life; her blood flowed in His veins, and passed from her heart to His. None could love Our Lord as His Mother did; He loved none as He did His mother. Wonderful were the privileges of the Magi, the shepherds, the Apostles; vastly more so were those of Mary. She was greater and holier, and therefore more efficiently predestinated than any other of the human race after her Child. Pay her the homage and love due to her singular and august position. 

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The Love of Jesus Christ

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Love is the last and highest service that man can render. All else leads up to love and ends in it. Faith itself is the basis only; it needs to be made perfect by charity, and to receive its practical and efficient form from charity. Jesus Christ is the image and manifestation of the Divinity; we see God in Him, and we love God in loving Him. As man, Our Lord is deserving of all our love, and He possesses in an eminent degree all those qualities which command human love. 

1. He has supreme beauty as human and as divine, on earth and in glory, in His person, His character, His life. "Thou art beautiful above the sons of men (Ps. xliv. 3). 

2. His words made the hearts of men burn within them while He was on earth. "Grace is poured forth in Thy lips" (Ps. xliv. 3). We have these words written in the Gospels, and whispered by Him in our souls. 

3. The works of Jesus towards men are full of benevolence, generosity, utility, grandeur. 

4. His magnificent gifts are another inducement to love Him. He has given us all that we have, and much more than we are as yet able to appreciate, He has given us Himself with all His infinity. None other has bestowed so much. Consider each of these points separately; see how they show the surpassing goodness of Our Lord, how much He deserves from you in return, and how little you have rendered to Him hitherto.

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The Ascension

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The day had come for Our Lord to conclude the long series of His mysteries, to return whence He came, and to take His place upon the throne of David for ever, on the right hand of His Father. Henceforth He appears no more on earth till He comes from heaven at the last day as the Judge of mankind. He went forth to His triumph humbly, as usual; He left Jerusalem on foot among His disciples, ascended the neighbouring Mount of Olives, and thence went up to heaven. But how great was the invisible glory of that day! Millions of souls came forth from their long detention, souls of Jews and Gentiles, who had served God according to their condition and desired His kingdom; the angelic host came forth to meet them, and with this double escort Christ ascended to His Father. We cannot picture to ourselves the jubilation that filled all the unseen universe, the surpassing splendour of the glorified Humanity of Jesus Christ the delight of the souls redeemed, the confusion of Satan and hell, the glory of the heavenly Father. Therefore is this a day of triumphant joy to the Church on earth. Turn your thoughts away from the miseries and dangers of this life, and be comforted at the thought of what awaits you.

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The Last Words of Christ

Meditations on Christian Dogma - 1898

"He upbraided them with their incredulity and hardness of heart" (Mark xvi. 14). It is remarkable how frequently the Apostles, after their long training, their knowledge of Scripture prophecies, their sight of miracles, disbelieved the evidence of the Resurrection, and how continually Our Lord had to reproach them on that account. This, however, was very different from the malignant incredulity of the chief priests and ancients; it arose from human weakness, instability and grossness of mind, and was without real malice. Therefore Our Lord renewed the proofs of His Resurrection again and again, with infinite patience and love, till all were finally convinced. The disciples were by no means excusable for their incredulity; they were resisting sufficient evidence, they were showing great want of confidence in Our Lord. From this we may learn that there may be serious faults in even good people, that grace does not destroy all the weaknesses of nature, and that, however much we may have received from God, there is still a fund of hard-heartedness in us. Be patient therefore with the slowness and incredulity of others; and be not so rash as to clash with the obstinate Pharisees those who are perhaps no worse than the disciples. Perhaps even now you are unfaithful, and resisting some unwelcome demand of God; and you may be giving occasion to Our Lord to reproach you. 

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The Manifestation of The Resurrection

"If Christ be not risen again, then is our preaching vain, and your faith also is vain" (1 Cor. xv. 14). There is no more important fact than the Resurrection. It was the greatest of Our Lord's miracles. He proposes it to the Jews as the final proof of His divine authority (Matt. xii. 39, 40). The Apostles considered themselves as appointed to witness to this in particular, and they rest the claim of their gospel on the fact that its author was Jesus, whom God raised from the dead the third day. They tell us too that all our hopes for this life and the next depend on the Resurrection; and that without it we should "be of all men the most miserable" (1 Cor. xv. 19). In consequence, we may call it the corner-stone of the Christian system, and of all that is built on Christianity, of the civilization of the world, and of all liberty, benevolence, morality, and well-being. The risen Christ not only lives now in His Human Nature, but He has a permanent life in the souls of His faithful followers. This life in us is a standing proof to the world of the truth and power of religion, it is one of the chief manifestations of God and recommendations of His law. Take care that Christ so live in you. Without this, your religion is vain as regards yourself, and powerless for any good influence in the world. 

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The Resurrection

"His sepulchre shall be glorious" (Isa. xi. 10). The extremity of Christ's abasement is the first beginning of His glory. Everything had appeared to be at an end. The shepherd was stricken and the flock dispersed (Zach. xiii. 7). One more was added to the multitude of lost causes. Evil had again triumphed over good. Satan and his instruments on earth were jubilant. Pilate was uneasy, but relieved that all was over. The chief priests felt that Judaism had escaped from the greatest peril that as yet had threatened it, and that it had taken a new lease of existence. The believers in Jesus had lost all heart; His name was to them no more than a memory of a disappointment, an illusion perhaps. There was only one who kept the faith in the silence of her heart, the Mother of Jesus. The tension of men s minds was relaxing; when suddenly the rumour ran that the Dead had risen, and evidence accumulated that He had been seen alive. Dread and awe and despair invaded the minds of Herod and Pilate, Pharisees and Chief Priests. Satan perceived that he was conquered at the moment of his greatest success. Never had there been so sudden and complete a revulsion, such a victory for the cause of God. That cause is yours. That history repeats itself continually in each man's life, and in the Church. To all the followers of Jesus will come similar disappointments and similar triumphs. Give glory to your Lord. 

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Matins - 1915

The Descent into Hell

David, speaking in the person of the Messias after death, says: "Thou hast made known to Me the ways of life" (Ps. xv. 11); and again it is written: "I will penetrate to all the lower parts of the earth, and will behold all that sleep, and will enlighten all that hope in the Lord" (Eccli. xxiv. 45). This earth is the smallest department of the world of mankind. There are other, far greater realms beyond, which were interested in the victory of the Redeemer over sin. To all these it was necessary that the Messias should be proclaimed as Lord of the living and the dead. The body of Jesus remained on the cross, still united with the Divinity though life had departed; the soul of Jesus, also united with the Divine Person of the Word, went at once to review all the other "ways of life" which it had not yet experienced. While darkness, horror, and grief prevailed around the dishonoured Body, the Soul of Christ proceeded, splendid with divine glory, living and vigorous, to assert His victory and supreme domination in the greater world of human souls. So will it be with you and all the elect of Christ. At the moment of death you will pass into a larger world, a fuller life of freedom, activity and glory. You can afford to wait patiently and suffer uncomplainingly, knowing what is in store for you. 

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The Cause of Christ's Death

" Our Blessed Lord s sufferings and death were voluntary; "He was offered because it was His own will" (Isa. liii. 7). He also said : "I lay down My life. . . . No man taketh it away from Me: but I lay it down of Myself, and I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again" (John x. 17, 18). Hence it may be concluded that the separation of His soul from His body was not the result of the physical violence He endured, but of His own direct volition. This view accords with Christ's supremacy as Lord of life and death, His power as God, and the fulness of deliberate choice with which He died for us. The Jews were not able to kill Him before the appointed moment arrived. During the Passion, and especially in the Agony of Gethsemani, He endured many times over, what was sufficient to have caused death, but He did not die till He had Himself pronounced the decree: "Father, into Thy hands I commend My spirit" (Luke xxiii. 46). Then He allowed His bodily and mental sufferings to take effect; He suspended the divine influx which made Him immortal; He allowed death to approach, as He had given permission to the temple-guards to seize Him in the garden. It will be a most meritorious act of virtue, if you, when dying, conform your will perfectly to the will of God, and surrender your soul in voluntary sacrifice, in union with the death of Jesus Christ. 

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Contrarieties in the Passion

Judy Garland in Summer Stock, 1948

Contrarieties in the Passion

"In the Passion of Our Lord there is a combination of sorrow and consolation. His sorrows were beyond all the united sorrows of the human race ; for He carried all the burden of our sins, the sole source of all our miseries, with the full sense of the weight of them, which is deficient in us at present. " Surely He hath borne our infirmities and car ried our sorrows . . . the chastisement of our peace was upon Him (Isa. liii. 4, 5). His afflictions were both of body and mind, they filled every sense and faculty of His Human Nature, and there was none capable of consoling Him or helping Him. " The waters have come in, even to My soul. ... I am come into the depths of the sea, and the tempest hath overwhelmed Me " (Ps. Ixviii. 2, 3). On the other hand, in the superior part of Our Lord s being, there was imper turbable calm and peace, arising from the Beatific Vision of the Godhead which He always possessed. In the midst of His baptism of fire, He had the peace of a good conscience, the comfort that God was with Him, the knowledge that He was accomplishing the Divine Will, the sight of the heroic constancy of His elect, their triumph over sin and hell, their salvation through His sufferings. So you may rejoice in Our Lord s Passion while sympathizing with His sorrows. In the bitterness of your own trials and disappointments you may yet possess peace and consolation ; you will find in Him the strength to bear them with patience, and dignity, and eternal profit. 

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Christ on the Cross

Judy Garland in Summer Stock, 1948

Christ on the Cross

"Consider the motives and thoughts of Our Lord. Always most perfect, they were especially so in His Crucifixion, the crowning act of His earthly life. 

1. Towards the Eternal Father He had a burning love, and He desired to render to Him an infinite sacrifice of praise and service, not only from Himself, but from the human race and all creation. He wished also to make atonement to Him for the wrongs inflicted by men, and to restore that glory of which He had been robbed. 

2. Jesus was moved by an ardent love for men and pity for their miseries. As God, in union with the Father and the Holy Ghost, He had created men; as Man, He was one of them. Mankind were thus doubly His; and He wished to make them still more His, by redeeming them to Himself, and gaining their love in return. 

3. Our Lord suffered a most bitter anguish at the sight of the sins of the world, of which He was bearing all the responsibility and the burden; but most bitter of all was the thought of human ingratitude, of the unprofitableness to so many of all that He was enduring, of their wicked folly in rejecting Him, and of their eternal obstinacy in the midst of most fearful misery. Strive to enter into Our Lord's sentiments, and to carry out His objects and intentions towards His Father and Himself, towards your self and your brethren.

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Christ's Death for All Men

Judy Garland in Summer Stock, 1948

Christ's Death for All Men

"He is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world" (1 John ii. 2). The magnificent superabundance of Our Lord's Redemption is shown in this, that He did not die for the elect only, but also for the reprobate; He suffered the penalties not only of the sins that we shall repent of, but of those which will remain unforgiven through our perverse obstinacy. No sinner, however atrocious, is excluded from Christ's love and the benefit of His death. He desires the salvation of all, and provides them with the means of obtaining forgiveness and eternal life. "He will have all men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth" (1 Tim. ii. 4). Some labour under particularly adverse conditions, but there is more abundant grace and more generous allowance for them. However great the disadvantages of a man's surroundings, however handicapped he may be by the prejudices of a bad education and an heredity of evil, he has, somehow, compensation for all this, and the means of saving his soul. So much has been done for us, that nothing remains undone which might have been done. We are saved almost in spite of ourselves. Nothing can outweigh Our Lord's propitiation except a man's own full and deliberate rejection of it. Only by persevering ill-will on our part can we fail of salvation. What immense confidence in Our Lord you ought to have for yourself and others!

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The Excess of the Passion

Judy Garland in Summer Stock, 1948

The Excess of the Passion

From one point of view it might seem unnecessary for Our Lord to go to the extreme of suffering so much and dying; for His smallest action was of infinite merit, so that it exceeded all the demerits of the world, and could have purchased life for all. Yet there is a beautiful appropriateness and fitness in the excesses of the Passion. The death of Christ is in accordance with that fundamental law, typified in all the ceremonies of the Old Testament, that "without the shedding of blood there is no remission" (Heb. ix. 22). Throughout nature we may trace the principle that death produces life. The spring is preceded by winter. "That which thou sowest is not quickened unless it die first" (1 Cor. xv. 36). Of old this was represented by the fable of the phoenix. After a hundred years of life it built itself a funeral pyre, and out of its ashes a new phoenix arose. Life, then, must be preceded by an adequate death. Death is a vivifying action, a creative action, we may say, and is itself the cure of death. The supernatural life of man, being a participation in the Infinite, must proceed from an infinite death. Our death in sin is irremediable, as far as we are concerned, and in a manner infinite. It requires to be remedied by a death which is productive of God in us. Therefore God died in His human nature. See then the great efficiency of the death of Jesus; and estimate rightly the greatness of the evil that sin inflicts, and the greatness of the boon bestowed on you.

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The Last Supper

Judy Garland in Summer Stock, 1948

The Last Supper

O In the Last Supper Jesus Christ exhibits His love, and proves Himself to be our best Friend. The account of it begins: "having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end" (John xiii. 1). This was the farewell banquet on the last evening of His earthly life; in it He delivered His Testament, His final word of love, and bequeathed us a keepsake and eternal memorial of Himself. This bequest was not His portrait, not even the most valuable of His created works, not an empty type or figure of Himself; it was Himself under the form of a simple creature, it was His own Body and Blood, it was the food of eternal life for our souls under the appearance of perishable bodily nourishment. This gift was not bestowed in its reality on the twelve alone, and as a mere historical remembrance for succeeding generations, but it was to be a personal gift for every human being to the end of time; it was to be the means of incorporating Christ, not merely with the human species in general, but with each individual soul. In this Supper Our Lord gives expression in act to that which He declared of old: "My delights are to be with the children of men" (Prov. viii. 31); and He literally fulfils that other promise: "Behold I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world" (Matt, xxviii. 20). This gift is the supreme expression of Christ's love for you: the devout reception of it is the supreme expression of your love for Him. You receive in it the full effects of His love, and you are able to make Him a full and adequate return.

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The Transfiguration

Judy Garland in Summer Stock, 1948

The Transfiguration

Our Blessed Lord was glorified by His Father and manifested at the beginning of His child-life, again at the beginning of His public life when He was baptized, and a third time at the beginning of the conflict which was to end in His Passion and Death. Each time a special humiliation was illumined by a corresponding glory. In the Transfiguration, Our Lord suspended for a moment the continual miracle which kept His glory concealed. Then He shone like the sun, His garments became brilliant as snow, He was elevated above the earth, and the Father declared Him to be His well-beloved Son. The mysteries of which Our Lord was the center or source were proclaimed, the Trinity, the Incarnation, the Passion, immortality and glory. Around Jesus were the representatives of the past and the future, of the Law, the Prophets, and the Gospel, Moses and Elias, and the three chief apostles. Such magnificence had never been seen on earth, nor will be till the last revelation of Christ as Judge. The Apostles were overwhelmed, they lost all sense of the world below, they knew not what they said for ecstasy. Thenceforth they had a new awe and veneration for their Lord. You have the light of the revelation of faith. This is enough to show you the divine splendour hidden under the lowly forms which Our Lord now assumes. When you enter His presence, forget the world and self, and lose your self in Him.

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