Pious Customs of Christ

Consider the thoughts of Our Lord. One of the uses of the material world, as we learn from Wisd. xiii. and Rom. I., is to instruct us about God and raise our thoughts to Him. Our Lord shows us how to read spiritual lessons in every natural event, and to use every object as an occasion for glorifying God. The seed-time and the harvest, the sparrows and the lilies, the weeds amongst the corn, a debtor imprisoned, the grafting of vines, the catching of fish, the tending of sheep - all these things He shows in a spiritual aspect.  

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Companions of Christ's Life

Being rich He became poor for your sakes, that through His poverty you might be rich (2 Cor. viii. 9). The first companion of Our Lord's life, and aid in His mission was Poverty. In this there were three degrees of privation. 

1. Our Lord gave up all the wealth and possessions of this world. He was born in a stable of the spouse of a poor artisan. He lived first by daily labour, and lastly by the offerings of the charitable. He died despoiled even of His garments, and was laid in another's sepulchre. 

2. He had no friendship or even acquaintance with great men, with the rich and noble, with chief-priests. His companions were poor ignorant fishermen. During His ministry He deprived Himself of the companionship of His Mother, the only being who understood Him and was in full sympathy with Him.

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Jesus in The Desert

Immediately after His baptism "Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert" (Matt. iv. I). Our Lord was subject to all the conditions of human life; and it was in accordance with law that He should prepare Himself by retirement and mortification for a great supernatural career, and for the temptation that is associated with it.

Learn hence that no one is exempt from being tempted, that sin has always a plausible appearance of according with reason and nature, and that when we sacrifice nature for the supernatural, God's angels will minister to us, even as to our natural requirements. 

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The Baptism of Christ

 All men were looking for the great Messias, and He stood in the midst of them, and they knew Him not. Then He approaches humbly to be baptized, as if in penance for former sins. Thus again on commencing His active mission, as in the Circumcision and the Presentation, Our Lord ranks Himself openly among sinners and shares their punishment. 

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Characteristics of Christ's Life

In The natural order we have in Our Lord the model of the perfect citizen, we have the commencement of order, progress, liberty, and our present civilization, and the only system which will secure the rights and happiness of all. 

Hold fast to Him from whom alone you receive all good things.

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The Occupations of Christ

 "Early in the morning He came again into the temple" After prayer came labour; and this was entirely for the alleviation of human miseries. There was no seeking for recreation, pleasure, or gain; He proclaimed the glory of God, the truths of religion, a perfect morality and spirituality; He comforted the miserable and relieved them by miracles from their bodily infirmities. He was continually in conflict with the hatred, and opposition, and misrepresentations of the Scribes and Pharisees.  

If He yielded to the necessities of His human nature and slept at times, still His soul was active, glorifying His Father as much as by actual prayer. Like the spouse in the Canticles He could say: "I sleep and my heart watcheth. You, in like manner, can serve God at times of repose and recreation. Do these things as necessities imposed on you by God and not as personal gratifications; regard them as duties, and as the means giving you strength for further work for God and men.

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The Childhood of Christ

 The Infant was carried into exile, as if too weak to meet the storm, and the efforts of Satain were effectually frustrated. So always; the Church of Jesus is waylaid by the dragon; its destruction seems imminent; it has no material strength for resistance; but God is with it, and it can never fail. Let nothing induce you to lose confidence in the arm of the Almighty and the success of His Church.

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