Newest Releases
Bookstore
Library Catalog
Mar. Lib. Class.
Special Articles
VLC Information
VLC Readings
Resources & Queries
Marianist Links
Programs
Internship
Who's Who
FAQs
|
From A Full Heart |
Thoughts from Father Chaminade
"How
I wish you to become a saint! Let us count as s
ynonymous the expressions saint
and child of Mary!
May the paternal blessing I am giving you here, from a full heart, produce this happy effect!"
(Chaminade Letters, no. 188).
Compiled
by
Francis J.
Greiner, SM
(Click here to read Preface and Forward)
To locate a specific quote, on the toolbar at the top of the page click "edit," then "find on this page." To select daily quotes, click below.
| Jan. | Feb. | March | April | May | June | July |
| Aug. | Sept. | Oct. | Nov. | Dec. | Holy Week | Index |
My dear children, I have no wish to live but for you; I want to lead you to Jesus Christ and his august Mother. To you I have consecrated, and do consecrate anew on this New Year’s Day all the labors and all the moments of my life. I desire that between our hearts there be complete correspondence, that all of us constitute but one and the same family, intimately united by mutual sentiments of friendship and religion (Spirit 2, § 731).
JANUARY 2
As the pseudo-reform of Luther and his accomplices was met by an order justly renowned, assuming the name and standard of Jesus, so too Providence will now assign to its militia the name and standard of Mary, enabling the knights of the new crusade to hasten to and fro at the beck of their Queen, to diffuse her worship and, by the fact, to extend the Kingdom of God in souls (Spirit 2, § 136).
JANUARY 3
At the beginning of the year, let the interior man in you be renewed, and gather strength enough to combat the old man, to hold him in continual subjection, until you succeed in crucifying him; in a word, may you become a man of faith (Spirit 1, § 369).
JANUARY 4
An unruly tongue is a dangerous wound to religious life. It is a plague of communities. We cannot portray all the evils it is accountable for! It is a two-edged sword wounding the hand that wields it and the person it aims at, as also the witness to the deed (Spirit 2, § 770).
JANUARY 5
You will be real religious since you will make the vows of religion and must practice the virtues that they require and which support them. Mary, the great Mother of Jesus, must be your model as she also is your patroness. Hence, the various essential practices of religious life (Spirit 1, § 75).
JANUARY 6
We have the source of all graces in Jesus Christ who is within us, who belongs to us, and we have the means of drawing from this source: this means precisely faith. We also have the means of increasing our faith, of rendering it always more active, and this means good works. Good works have something long-lived in them, something proper to becoming the food of faith. When you once get to understand these first principles, you will no longer say: “It is difficult” (Letters, no. 598).
JANUARY 7
For the true religious, interior life is a continual mental prayer, and I cannot understand how anyone can arrive at this stage without making good meditations (Spirit 1, § 256).
JANUARY 8
Those who have had the happiness of being called to the religious state must be persuaded that God has withdrawn them from the world, not simply to live in peace in community; in reality, he has called them to a complete detachment from the things of the world, and in particular, to die constantly to their own will (Spirit 1, § 410).
JANUARY 9
Vocation to the religious state in general is a grace, but the dispensation of Providence which calls a religious to a life of manual labor, is a grace of predilection, both because such a special vocation withdraws the religious still farther from the world, and because that intercommunion with God which all true religious love so well, becomes much easier (WJC, 383).
JANUARY 10
Mental prayer is “the pivot upon which the whole Christian and religious life turns” (Spirit 1, § 257).
JANUARY 11
It has always been noticed in the past and the future will always teach, that for the religious to maintain himself in fervor and regularity, it is necessary to be faithful to his vow of poverty (Spirit 2, § 549).
JANUARY 12
Let solid religious instruction be the basis of faith and virtue
(Spirit 1, § 65).
JANUARY 13
Oh, if you could but all attain the virtue and the perfection to which you are called, every year of your life would be a happy one and the eternity to follow unspeakably so (Spirit 1, § 43).
JANUARY 14
The real poor are heard in prayer before they move their lips; the good Lord will at all times hear the prayer of the poor. In the world we ask the poor to obtain the grace of God for us; we also ask the prayers of good religious whose hearts are detached from the riches of this world, because God can refuse them nothing (Spirit 2, § 500).
JANUARY 15
Devotion to the Most Holy Sacrament is a virtue dear to every Christian; it ought to be more conspicuous in the religious, the faithful imitator of Mary
(1839 Const., art. 91).
JANUARY 16
We must provide against all species of spiritual wants, and we must fulfill a thousand duties towards God: mental prayer is intended to meet these two ends (Spirit 1, § 260).
JANUARY 17
Let us observe silence and we shall be recollected; let us meditate faithfully and we shall burn with the flame of the divine love; let us watch over our looks and our affections and God will impart to us his own delights; let us detach our hearts from every object, even as trifling as a picture, and we shall enjoy a great peace (Spirit 2, § 746).
JANUARY 18
Even whilst teaching other branches, the religious will habitually think that the pupils have been confided to him to inspire them with the fear and love of God, to preserve and turn them from vice, to attract them to virtue and make good Christians of them (Spirit 1, § 64).
JANUARY 19
All members of this family of Mary love each other tenderly and are habitually united to the heart of the august Mary. If the difference of characters, if the appearance of some personal defects should at times cause friction between them, to restore peace, union, and charity they need but remember that they are all brothers, all engendered in the maternal womb of Mary (Spirit 2, § 657).
JANUARY 20
Be really faithful to the Lord, not as a slave through fear, but as a good son through love. Often penetrate yourself with the thought of all that he has done and suffered for you, as well as of all the graces he has accorded you. May he always reign in you! May you always love to depend entirely upon him and to do nothing except it be for him and his good pleasure. Always keep yourself in the company of the Blessed Virgin, but especially during your prayers, your meditations and at Holy Communion (Letters, no. 1042).
JANUARY 21
. . . A man of mental prayer never permits himself to be disheartened by trials and afflictions and knows how to overcome the greatest obstacles; he never loses the peace of his soul; the blows he receives make but a passing impression on him, and he at once regains his calmness; he finds mildness and peace of heart, as soon as he has recourse to mental prayer. Therefore the most violent temptations cannot defile a soul that continually purifies itself by mental prayer, which keeps itself pure and holy by keeping at a distance whatever could in any way defile it (Spirit 1, § 262).
JANUARY 22
The real means of success is to empty yourself of yourself, and to give yourself entirely over to the spirit of the Lord. The protection of the most Blessed Virgin will be of the greatest utility to you in this twofold task (Letters, no. 966).
JANUARY 23
Mary and Joseph were too intimately united on earth to be easily separated in our devotions. Their lives were passed in the sweetest intimacy, and their souls, as though bound into one by their love of Jesus, blended harmoniously in their union of thoughts and sentiments (Spirit 2, § 989).
JANUARY 24
Always apply yourself assiduously to meditation, and to good meditation: without mental prayer what outlook for success can there be for yourself and for others? . . . Endeavor to advance in mental prayer: for thence you will draw courage and strength and whatever else you stand in need of (Spirit 1, § 253).
JANUARY 25
Fulfill your duties, try to please God, and remain at peace!
(Letters, no. 677).
JANUARY 26
What a powerful incentive to resemblance with Jesus Christ it is to have for Mother the very Mother of Jesus Christ! (Spirit 1, § 456).
JANUARY 27
. . . You will never fulfill so well the whole round of your duties as when you pray well, and when you make your exercises of piety with great recollection and faith (Spirit 1, § 256).
JANUARY 28
. . . Devote enough time to mental prayer: there only will you find that adequate peace of soul which you should never lose: there you will learn resignation and patience under the manifold difficulties and contradictions which are not wanting in any establishment that is to do much good (Spirit 1, § 256).
JANUARY 29
[Let us] remain closely united. Our strength will be in our union because the good God will bless it. He will bless it, especially if it has as principle, charity and humility, which are the first fruits of faith (Letters, no. 557).
JANUARY 30
The temptations, the dryness during mental prayer, the involuntary distractions, even the involuntary sleep, will in no way harm your meditations and especially their efficacy, if you always unite yourself to our Lord Jesus Christ. It is he, my dear son, who prays for us and who is himself our prayer. Keep yourself always close to the Blessed Virgin in her love and confidence. All your happiness is in your union with our Lord Jesus Christ by faith and love. Do not desire consolations, nor this fervor which is so delicious. Our Lord doubtless sees that you would be proud if he gave you these, but be invariably faithful to him and remain in peace (Letters, no. 854).
JANUARY 31
You believe that God is your last end; that he created you only for himself, and that only in him can you find the supreme and eternal happiness that your heart desires. Love the design of your Creator in your creation, as well as in the preservation of your being; but at the same time, love the duties which this blessed destiny entails; all your thoughts, all your actions, and all the concerns of your life, must be referred to the last end of your creation (Spirit 1, § 215). (return to title page)
Nothing is more capable of maintaining fervor among the Children of Mary than the reading of pious books (Spirit 2, § 1013).
FEBRUARY 2
It is incontestable that, among all the elect, Mary enjoys preeminence in the power of her intercession for us (Spirit 1, § 126).
FEBRUARY 3
I desire that the love of God continue to grow in your heart, in such a way that you no longer see yourself only a miserable nothing or the most unworthy of creatures. You will find no exaggeration in the expression “the most unworthy of creatures,” when you better recognize the goodness of God in your regard and your modicum of love, of gratitude towards him (Letters, no. 1137).
FEBRUARY 4
An excellent means of leveling all pride is to place yourself in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament in a true spirit of humiliation and annihilation in which the Sacred Humanity of Jesus is found in the Holy Eucharist before the divine Majesty. Nothing will arouse in you the desire of humiliation and the horror of human esteem more than your union with Jesus annihilated. Then you will bring forth true acts of adoration (Spirit 2, § 614).
FEBRUARY 5
Faith is the root of all virtues; it is from it that they draw the sap which makes them sprout and grow, as the root supplies the tree with the sap which gives it life. The more the roots spread themselves, the stronger the tree grows, so the greater our faith, the stronger our virtue becomes. Let us multiply our acts of faith during the day (Spirit 1, § 221).
FEBRUARY 6
Every form of infidelity and impurity places an obstacle to union with the good God. To succeed in making mental prayer, try, while beginning it, to renounce every form of worldly affection, unite yourself to Jesus Christ, as our Head and Mediator before God, so as to pray by him and with him. Unite yourself also with the Most Holy Virgin, who will dispose her adorable son to serve as your Mediator (Letters, no. 761).
FEBRUARY 7
True humility . . . is the result of the love of God, or of faith animated by charity. Thus, love God to the point of complete contempt for yourself; love God, and you will be pleased to be despised by all, firmly convinced that they do justice to you in despising you; love God to the point of receiving with pleasure any ill treatment to which you might be subjected (Spirit 2, § 614).
FEBRUARY 8
You tell me that you would need the patience of an angel. Well, I shall add that you need a divine patience: Christian patience is a participation in the patience of Jesus Christ (Spirit 1, § 380).
FEBRUARY 9
Your Institute is the way which is to lead you [to heaven]. The preparation virtues are, in the Institute, what has formed great saints elsewhere. The virtues of purification are proposed to the predestined: the third order of virtues; the virtues of consummation, are the virtues of Jesus Christ and of Mary
(Letters, no. 186a).
FEBRUARY 10
By faith, our enlightened mind no longer thinks but as Jesus Christ thinks: it is Jesus Christ who unites himself to our heart; by faith our guided will no longer acts but as Jesus Christ acts; it is Jesus Christ who united himself to our will. Thus the new man is formed within us (Spirit 1, § 243).
FEBRUARY 11
We may venture to assert that the entire body of the elect, which is naught else but the mystical body of Christ, was conceived first of all in Jesus Christ, then in Mary, by the fact that Jesus would have everything transpiring in him first to transpire in his Most Holy Mother, thus making her participant in all his mysteries (Marian Writings, vol. 1, § 75).
FEBRUARY 12
What immense treasures we have in Jesus Christ! We unite ourselves to Jesus Christ by the faith we have in him; we draw from these treasures by this faith, since these treasures are ours. Do we stand in need of humility, of patience, etc.? After having recognized our pride, our impatience, etc., let us perceive in our treasury the humiliations and the love of humiliations, the suffering and the love of suffering of our Lord Jesus Christ (Spirit 1, § 224).
FEBRUARY 13
You are to conduct yourself throughout your life, according to the evangelical maxims, as a little child who willingly does without any reasoning or questioning what he is ordered to do. Obedience, practiced in a spirit of faith, attacks pride directly. You are busy, for example, with some kind of work. You are not doing it to attract to yourself the esteem of men, from the time that you do it through obedience, but to obey God who asks it of you through your superiors
(Letters, no. 924).
FEBRUARY 14
The spiritual life consists of living as Jesus, of Jesus, and in Jesus
(Spirit 1, § 380).
FEBRUARY 15
We must love what we believe. We have all-powerful motives for credibility—to submit our reason to faith; all we need is to be reasonable. This submission is already a great gift of God; but it does not more than precede the submission of the heart, and the heart becomes submissive only when it loves. At least, this is the way I see the thing, and it would seem to me very dangerous not to see it so in actual practice (Letters, no. 661).
FEBRUARY 16
If you would come to Jesus, the practice of mortification well understood will give you a fair start, will continue the work, and will crown it with success. But above all, it must have these two qualities: it must be constant and universal (Spirit 1, § 375).
FEBRUARY 17
Give them only examples of exactitude and fervor. This duty of yours is a blessed obligation (Letters, no. 260).
FEBRUARY 18
Silence is one of the supporting columns of the temple of the Lord. We cannot construct this temple but upon an exact observance of silence, and it will fall into ruins as soon as we leave its holy practice (Spirit 2, § 769).
FEBRUARY 19
Strengthen yourself in the practice of true virtue, especially in the spirit of mental prayer and of faith, and in self-denial (Spirit 1, § 370).
FEBRUARY 20
Let us all lay hands to the work of the Lord with genuine self-abnegation! (Spirit 1, § 369).
FEBRUARY 21
The incense of mental prayer sends forth its perfume only through the fire of mortification (Spirit 1, § 370).
FEBRUARY 22
You speak the truth if you are mortified, especially with interior mortification: and if you are a man of mental prayer—and you can never be the one without the other—you will supply for all your deficiencies (Spirit 1, § 370).
FEBRUARY 23
All the graces with which we are favored bear some relation to our duties of state; we cannot therefore expect to make progress in perfection if we do not profit by all the graces that we receive (Spirit 1, § 461).
FEBRUARY 24
Our bishops, successors of the Apostles, are the Apostles of the time in which we live. They have a high mission. . . . There only remains for me to answer as in the time of the apostles—and God wants it thus! This is obeying and giving to the summons everything in my power (Letters, no. 230).
FEBRUARY 25
Strive to possess your soul in peace; remember that generally the sword wears out the sheath rather than that the sheath spoils the sword
(Spirit 1, § 406).
FEBRUARY 26
Patience, which makes us endure the ills that we cannot avert, gives us strength to persevere in our state; it is so necessary both in private and common life (Spirit 1, § 423).
FEBRUARY 27
Do all that depends upon you to enter completely into the peace of God and to adore in all things the dispositions of Providence. Men’s views are narrow and uncertain. Let us abandon ourselves to the amiable providence of God. Let us try to realize as best we may those of his views which he deigns to make known to us, and let us dwell in peace (Spirit 2, § 633).
FEBRUARY 28
Spiritual reading is the aliment of mental prayer . . . We should listen interiorly to what we are reading as to an exhortation coming from Jesus Christ (1937 Const., arts. 109, 111).
FEBRUARY 29
It is through contradiction that we learn to overcome ourselves, and to distinguish true and solid virtue from that which is apparent or illusory (Spirit 1, § 422).
It is impossible to separate the devotion of St. Joseph from that of the divine Mary, his august spouse (Spirit 2, § 988).
MARCH 2
Our cooperation is required, not our success. All the glory to God; all the pain and confusion to us, miserable co-workers (Spirit 2, § 633).
MARCH 3
God shows clearly the necessity of contradiction and trials by placing before us his divine Son crucified, and telling us that Christ had thus to suffer in order to enter into his glory. If therefore we wish to enter into his glory by following the Spouse, we must, after his example, suffer and suffer valiantly and generously whatever may be pleasing to him, without choice or condition on our part (Spirit 1, § 422).
MARCH 4
Mortification must consist essentially in not following any of the inclinations of corrupt nature. If some of these inclinations may be in the order of Providence, however, you do not follow them because they are natural, but because God orders it. Such are, for example, the inclinations to eat, to drink, to sleep, etc. These you mortify by means of privations of whatever might be excessive or ill-regulated in their regard; and, otherwise you sanctify them by means of the good sentiments and ideas with which you follow them
(Letters, no.1029).
MARCH 5
You will never do anything in the way of salvation without the spirit of prayer, and with this spirit you can succeed in all things (Spirit 1, § 424).
MARCH 6
The spirit of humility, which is truth and justice, shows the Christian heart its lowliness, incapacity, powerlessness, and even, original and personal unworthiness; on the other hand, the spirit of faith, which is a spirit of total trust in the grace of Jesus Christ, buoys us up, overcomes obstacles unconquerable by nature, pushes on and gains the victory by the grace which accompanies obedience (Spirit 2, § 611).
MARCH 7
When a soul follows Jesus completely, when it desires only Jesus, seeks and loves him only, and wishes only to live of Jesus, and for Jesus, and sacrifices all to him, then Jesus Christ is all to it, and the soul is all unto him. The soul then rejoices only in Jesus Christ, and speaks, thinks, and acts solely for him. The soul has Jesus Christ reigning in it, and, by the constant practice of every virtue, retraces within itself the very virtues of Jesus Christ
(Spirit 1, § 446).
MARCH 8
Always take courage, and let this courage be sustained by the pure love of God. We shall live eternally in the bosom of God, and by his love, the very love with which he loves himself. For this reason the saints led a most divine life. Here on earth we must strive to lead the life that we shall lead in heaven
(Spirit 1, § 450).
MARCH 9
Humility is truth. In heaven we shall find the reign of perfect humility, because in heaven no one reflects on himself, all concentrating on God alone (Spirit 2, § 604).
MARCH 10
The children [of Christian schools] generally make such rapid progress and become so docile and Christian that they carry the good odor of virtue and religion into their respective families. The children become, as it were, apostles to their parents, and their apostolate always produces some happy fruit. That is what makes me call the schools a means of reforming people (Letters, no. 203).
MARCH 11
The name of Joseph shall be our protection during all the days of our life; but above all at the moment of death we shall say: Jesus, Mary, Joseph
(Spirit 2, § 1091).
MARCH 12
Mary is depository of all graces, but who can better induce her to open the celestial treasury, than Joseph, her glorious spouse? A servant of Mary will therefore have a tender devotion to St. Joseph, and by his pious homage of respect and love, will endeavor to merit the protection of this great saint. He will beg of him the grace of dying as he himself did, with the kiss of Jesus and in the arms of Mary (Spirit 2, § 989).
MARCH 13
The glorious functions with which God entrusted St. Joseph, and the rare examples of humility, wisdom, patience, fidelity, obedience, and submission which this great saint has left us, ought to inspire us with an exalted idea of his holiness and with a great devotion to him (Spirit 2, § 989).
MARCH 14
Having been chosen by God to cooperate in the execution of his eternal designs, Joseph was placed in the Holy Family as the guardian of the chastity of his spouse, as the fosterfather of Jesus, and as the support and protector of Mary. The Mother and Son were subject to him here below—what must be today the power of his influence in heaven! (Spirit 2, § 989).
MARCH 15
Our destiny is in the hands of St. Joseph. What a motive for hope, and what a happy foreboding! Joseph! The guardian of his Lord and the spouse of his queen! Joseph! The fosterfather of Jesus and the head of the Holy Family! Joseph has deigned to accept us as his children and to permit us to call him our father! (Spirit 2, § 998).
MARCH 16
St. Joseph gives to the Incarnate Word the name Jesus which was brought from heaven; it is he who directs, commands, etc. . . Is he less powerful, now that he is in heaven? (Spirit 2, § 1091).
MARCH 17
Let us pray to St. Joseph with fervor and confidence. Great power has been given to him in heaven and on earth. He can obtain for us from the august Mary all that we stand in need of, even in the temporal order, and he wishes us all possible good. Let us therefore have a truly filial devotion to him, and may his blessed name be ever in our hearts and on our lips with those of Jesus and Mary (Spirit 2, § 998).
MARCH 18
We must point out clearly how Saint Joseph is the father of all Christians, a prerogative which he does not share with any other, and which alone would suffice to sanction the particular devotion which the Church has to Saint Joseph (Spirit 2, § 1091).
MARCH 19
Who among the sons of men was ever chosen for a more elevated position! For St. Joseph was made the guardian and protector of God’s own Mother, and he was to share with the Almighty the honor of being called father by the Eternal Son of God (Knowledge, 11).
MARCH 20
When we are wanting in the practice of these virtues of poverty and mortification, we must humiliate ourselves for the fact asking pardon of God, taking the resolution of greater watchfulness over ourselves, but of not worrying and thinking we have failed against the obligation of tending towards perfection. We must, in general, preserve a great liberty of mind and heart in the practice of the Christian and religious virtues (Letters, no. 924).
MARCH 21
The Rule is a secure path and assured pledge of holiness: Look to the faithful observance of our holy rules, that you and your brethren may thus become true religious of Mary! (Spirit 2, § 741).
MARCH 22
By depriving us of grace, sin took from us the supernatural life. By his death on the cross our divine Savior gave back this life to us, and thus became the father of our souls (Knowledge, 47).
MARCH 23
Let us strive to raise ourselves to the faith of Abraham, and to believe against all hope. Besides, we work really only when we work for God
(Spirit 1, § 226).
MARCH 24
No one can promise himself a serene and cloudless life, and even those who revel in wealth and honors are often the most unfortunate (Spirit 1, § 426).
MARCH 25
What a sublime vocation was that of Mary, destined as she was from all eternity to give birth to Jesus Christ! But take note . . . God does not make use of her for this glorious ministry simply as a channel, but as a voluntary intermediary that contributes towards its fulfillment, not only by her superior qualifications, but furthermore by a direct act of her will . . . her charity. God suspends the enactment of his decrees until Mary consents. O blissful “Fiat”!
(Spirit 1, § 106).
MARCH 26
What is a true religious? . . . A religious is one who by vow, has renounced the world and all it contains, lives only for God, and occupies himself only with things eternal (Spirit 1 §373).
MARCH 27
. . . The end that we propose to ourselves [is] to multiply Christians, to propagate above all the true principles of religion and of virtue . . .(no source cited).
MARCH 28
The saints in heaven, and good religious on earth, lead the life of the Spirit, I mean the Spirit of Jesus Christ, with this difference, however, that the saints live of the Spirit of Jesus in his glory, and religious, of the Spirit of Jesus on the cross (Spirit 1, § 445).
MARCH 29
The religious transforms his soul into a temple of the Lord; he there erects an altar, upon which he offers to God the sacrifice of his will; he never loses sight of the divine presence, but entertains himself sweetly and familiarly with God, who has established his resting place there. The religious, furthermore, consecrates his heart to Mary, as a sanctuary, whence arise most fervent prayers addressed to her (Spirit 1, § 179).
MARCH 30
You may join to the practice of the Three Hail Mary’s that of pronouncing nine times the holy name of Mary in honor of the nine months that the Most Blessed Virgin had the happiness of carrying the divine Child in her chaste womb (Spirit 1, § 149).
MARCH 31
If the illusions of nature and of the senses obscure the vivid light of faith in the soul; if the taste for spiritual things is blunted; if the Bread of Life, the practices of piety, and the religious exercise excite in us only disgust; if the wind of tribulation blows; if misfortune pours out its cup of bitterness—Mary is present (Knowledge, 57-8).
I shall not terminate this answer without exhorting you to be more patient, and to try to understand that it is in the general order of Providence that founders and co-founders of the great works of God had much to suffer and that their perspiration, their pious sighs before God, are as the dew that is to cause the seeds to germinate and to spring forth (Letters, no. 1225).
APRIL 2
Have courage and work steadily at the mission you have received, yet without prejudice to the interior life which you are to lead and in which you are to make steady progress. A superioress who would be guided wholly by human wisdom, in an Institute such as the one you have embraced, would hardly get very far (Letters, no. 76).
APRIL 3
The devil, a special enemy of Mary, is the same for all her children. Still, do not fear (Letters no. 77).
APRIL 4
Continue your way of making mental prayer, since it is analogous to your physical and moral qualities, but always in union with our Lord Jesus Christ and with Mary (Letters, no. 905).
APRIL 5
Obedience shall free you from many an interior trouble. When a question has once been decided, do not bring it up anew. You ought at all times to act in conformity with the maxims of the Holy Gospel, as a child that willingly and without further reasoning does whatever it is told (Spirit I, § 428).
APRIL 6
Since fervor is much more an interior than an exterior quality, we must particularly try to produce in the depth of our hearts most ardent acts of love of God (Spirit I, § 434).
APRIL 7
I was pleased to learn from your letter that at times you must put up with much contempt. I was pleased, not because you had to suffer (God knows that I wish you to be happy!), but because opportunities have thus been thrust in your way to overcome human respect, which is one of our greatest enemies (Spirit I, § 425).
APRIL 8
All of us have but one and the same aim, the same purpose, the same interest, which is to work with all our might at the maintenance and the propagation of the faith, each one in the position assigned to him for the purpose. We must always remain perfectly united (Spirit 2, § 692).
APRIL 9
Now is the time to cling fast to the buckler of faith; it alone is impervious to the darts of our enemies, whatever their nature or force (Spirit 1, § 425).
APRIL 10
Let us rejoice, and let us display our joy; but let it ever be holy. Let us rejoice only in the Lord (Spirit 2, § 792).
APRIL 11
We shall never be happy or have peace of soul, unless our wills are in absolute conformity with the will of God. May submission and resignation to the workings of Providence secure in us an unruffled calm under whatever circumstances! (Spirit 1, § 425).
APRIL 12
Let not natural activity injure that interior life which leads us to seek God and God alone in all things (Spirit 1, § 425).
APRIL 13
That which seems to distress you and to reduce your energy should, on the contrary, inflame your charity and your zeal. I do not disapprove of the consciousness of your inability and of your natural and acquired defects, but I disapprove of the discouragement that this feeling seems to evoke in you
(Spirit 1, § 76).
APRIL 14
Let us be united with Mary in our meditation, praying to her who knew her Son so well and who studied him so thoroughly, who gathered and preserved so religiously in her heart all the words he uttered, to make him known to us
(Knowledge, 90).
APRIL 15
It is in the Holy Eucharist that the soul acquires, even better than on Calvary, the practical science of the cross (Spirit 2, § 1061).
APRIL 16
In choosing us as instruments of his mercies, the good God arranges all for our own salvation, and that is the main reason for this continual alternation of trials and consolations, of successes and reverses (Letters, no.193).
APRIL 17
Become the slave of the Lord, the special son and the missionary of the august Mary, you are abundantly participating in the liberty of the children of God, and you are experiencing with delight the precious effects of the consecration of your being to his service (Letters, no. 1202).
APRIL 18
I might as well tell you that I shall never cease to annoy you, until I see you smile at poverty, suffering, and humiliations. You will reply: Do you consider these three terrible sisters so amiable? (Spirit 1, § 425).
APRIL 19
From the cradle to the grave, from childhood to old age, in joy and in sorrow, the Christian owes everything to Mary. He receives from her maternal kindness the grace of baptism and of a religious education, the grace of conversion or of perseverance, the grace of strength and courage in the struggle, the grace of protection and defense in temptation, the grace of refuge and consolation in misfortune, the grace of counsel and of wisdom in the choice of a state of life and in the transaction of business affairs, the grace to do good and to avoid evil, in a word, all that he needs to sustain or restore within him the life of Jesus Christ (Knowledge, 57).
APRIL 20
We call generosity and sacrifice devotedness to God, as if the soul were able to lose something in giving itself to the one who gives himself to it in exchange! It is then not a sacrifice, but an acquisition that you are going to make, and what an acquisition: Heaven, divinity itself, and its ineffable joys here below! (Letters, no. 1190).
APRIL 21
No man is perfect . . . However, he has been working a long time at the correction of his imperfections. One must not expect anything else in this world, for it is with this that God does everything. He does the good with very imperfect instruments. I perhaps realize this truth more than anyone else (Letters, no. 408).
APRIL 22
Grace, which unites us, is a bond by far stronger than nature. We must reproduce in ourselves the union of the Father with the Son, and of the Son with the Father (Spirit 2, § 676).
APRIL 23
I must admit, nevertheless, to the glory of Saint Joseph, that there is no piece of misfortune that does not result in some good. Prayers continue every day, and for some time there has been an extraordinary fast each Wednesday (Letters, no. 108).
APRIL 24
In vain do we flatter ourselves as loving God, if we do not practice fraternal charity toward one another. Reciprocally, all the good that we might do to our neighbor would not be true charity if it were not done for God’s sake, and if it did not proceed from love of him (Spirit 2, § 677).
APRIL 25
How often and with what zeal did not our Lord urge us to watch and to apply ourselves to prayer! How powerfully St. Mark exhorts us when he tells us to take heed and reflect carefully upon our dispositions! And again he exhorts us often to consider these truths, paying special attention to the point of view of faith! (Spirit 2, § 1030).
APRIL 26
I have put all into the hands of St. Joseph, of him who is gifted with such a high degree of supernatural prudence. I have placed into his hands persons as well as things—you especially, so that by his mediation you may no longer act by yourself nor for yourself and that you may seek the very works of God, but only for God and in the manner he asks them to be done (Letters, no. 674).
APRIL 27
It grieves me to know that you are so much influenced by your sensibility and allow difficulties and contradictions to overcome you. What we need is self-possession and the control of our imagination (Spirit 1, § 419).
APRIL 28
The part that Mary took in the mystery of the Incarnation is the motive that impels us to have recourse to her at all times and for all kinds of graces. It was Mary’s love that made her cooperator in the plan of salvation, by giving the world a redeemer (WJC, 213).
APRIL 29
The first means of practicing fraternal charity is no longer to see anyone but Jesus Christ in the person of our neighbor, to whom he has ceded all his rights. Jesus will have us render to our brethren all the services that he does not need himself, but which he knows to be necessary to our neighbor. He promises to consider as done to himself whatever is done to our neighbor (Spirit 2, § 674).
APRIL 30
The second means of preserving fraternal
charity is patiently to suffer other people’s defects. Being convinced that
there will always be defects in ourselves and in others, we make up our minds to
bear with them, for we cannot hope to correct them all; nevertheless, it is not
permissible to hate anyone on account of his defects. Therefore there is
absolute need of bearing with them patiently (Spirit 2, § 678).
The Church spreads the cult of Mary with all the eagerness of filial love. No human tongue will ever be able to reveal to us the fullness of Mary’s exalted dignity and greatness. “Let us praise her, and never cease to praise her,” we may say with one of the greatest doctors of the Church, “and spread ourselves in glorifying the Mother of God, without fear that our praises will ever equal her incomparable greatness, for she is above all praise” (Knowledge, 72).
MAY 2
And how consoling to the true child of Mary is the realization, that our century presents the evidence of a real and genuine movement towards the cult of Mary! In all the world today the sweet and powerful impulse of the Spirit of God is leading the nations to the feet of our heavenly Queen. In very truth we must say, “the finger of God is there” (Knowledge, 6).
MAY 3
God has placed the treasury of graces procured by his blood into the hands of Mary, who, as the mother of a great family, distributes them according to our needs, our circumstances, and our fidelity. Thus nothing comes to us from heaven except through the mediation of the Blessed Virgin. She is the channel that receives and transmits to us the beneficent waters of divine grace (Knowledge, 56-7).
MAY 4
In the enthusiasm of our gratitude, our hearts burst forth into a glorious hymn of love and admiration. Who indeed could adequately praise Mary? Or should anyone fear to exceed due limits in exalting a creature so supremely privileged? (Knowledge, 73).
MAY 5
Oh, if we could but realize the exalted dignity of the Mother of God; if we could but grasp the full extent of the maternal solicitude with which she looks down upon us, her children, whom her divine Son has confided to her care; if we could but read in her Immaculate Heart all the designs of her loving tenderness for saving the world from the universal deluge that menaces the faith and morals of the nations; we should be more intensely devoted to her service, her name would be more frequently and more lovingly in our hearts and on our lips, and we should experience, with great joy and thankful remembrance, the wonderful effects of her magnificent power and love (Knowledge, 7).
MAY 6
We are accused of pompously eulogizing Mary and are blamed for the honor we render her . . . Can we really assert too much, do too much, provided that we do not declare her equal to the Divinity, provided that we make a distinction between worship of her and that of the Divinity? What hath God said of Mary? What hath he done for her? He is our model! (Spirit I, § 143).
MAY 7
Mary is present. She is watching over us with maternal solicitude, making herself all to all, and apportioning her help according to our needs. She is the strength of the weak, the foot of the lame, the eye of the blind, the ear of the deaf. She enriches the poor, protects the timid, disarms the angry, touches the heart of the ungrateful, and never abandons anyone. Virtue, it is true, is the object of her complacency; yet the sinner finds in her a shelter and a refuge against the wrath of heaven (Knowledge, 58).
MAY 8
One of the earliest doctors of the Church has truly said: “There is no father like God.” May we not borrow his words and say of the august Virgin Mary that there is no mother like Mary? (Knowledge, 54).
MAY 9
The secret of success in any work, whether it be for one’s own perfection or for the support of religion and the propagation of the faith, is to interest the Blessed Virgin in it, to refer all the glory of it to her in accordance with the views and sentiments of our Lord Jesus Christ (Knowledge, 92).
MAY 10
Let us therefore join with heart and mind in the universal homage that is being paid to Mary. Let us honor her, let us kneel in deepest reverence before her altars, and pour out our humble supplication with filial confidence in her powerful mediation (Knowledge, 6).
MAY 11
Happy those who, not content to belong to Mary like the rest of men, consecrate themselves soul and body to her special service! How her heart abounds in love and joy to see them enroll under her banners! What a tenderness and predilection she feels for them! How she lavishes upon them with profusion the treasures of grace and faith! (Knowledge, 68).
MAY 12
Mary is presented to us as the copy of the divine Exemplar, a copy that we must endeavor to reproduce in ourselves. It follows from this that by the imitation of Mary we shall imitate Jesus; for, he alone shall resemble the Son who shall be like the Mother. It follows furthermore that he alone shall be saved who shall have imitated Mary in that measure of perfection which has been marked out for him by divine justice (Knowledge, 62).
MAY 13
The Church, the Fathers, Catholic tradition—all bid us look up to Mary as our advocate and mediatrix. Thus the Church always applied to Jesus the example of the great King Solomon who, in the days of his glory and his wisdom, entrusted to his mother the exercise of his royal authority. Likewise, throughout the centuries, Christians have ever regarded Mary as their Queen, their helper in every need, their life, and their hope (Knowledge, 62).
MAY 14
Mary has the greatest and dearest claims to our homage and praise. She is not the mother of a mortal king, but the Mother of the Prince of the eternal empire. She is the Mother of mankind, the Co-Redemptrix of men, the salvation of the world. She is a descendant of David, and royal blood flows in her veins; yet this title to greatness which would be permanent in any other mortal, fades into nothingness in Mary, being eclipsed by her dignity and her divine prerogatives
(Knowledge, 73-4).
MAY 15
Never before was Mary’s powerful mediation manifested more strikingly than in our day, and never perhaps, did she show herself more truly the Woman who was to crush the head of the infernal serpent. Religious hatred and indifference assault her in vain: she will triumph over these today, as she has so gloriously triumphed over them in the past (Knowledge, 5).
MAY 16
It is this grace of the Incarnation that makes us Christians, children of God, brothers of Jesus Christ, heirs of heaven. Neither earth nor heaven counts any just souls whose justice and glory is not attributed to Mary. God, so to say, subordinated the execution of the mystery of the Incarnation to the will, to the charity of Mary; we are thus all debtors to this incomparable Virgin (Spirit I, § 106).
MAY 17
Let us entrust all to the protection of Mary to whom her divine Son has reserved the last victories over hell: “And she shall crush thy head.” Let us be, in all humility, the heel of the Woman (Notice historique, 7).
MAY 18
Mary, Mother of God! Mary, the New Eve, and, as such, cooperating with the New Adam at the regeneration of man, consequently, too, the Mother of Christians, fulfilling the mother’s duty in their regard! Mary, our mediatrix with her divine Son! Finally, Mary raised, because of her virtues, to the most exalted heights of which a creature is capable! Such are her prerogatives that we must ponder over and admire (Spirit 1, § 104).
May 19
The tender heart of Mary must have been deeply moved by the sweet appellations of Mother of Christians, Mother of the Predestined, applied to her throughout the ages. Heaven is ever in her bosom, ever budding forth and growing the wheat of the elect. But at the present day, it is in a manner a new glory given to her in the new title that innocent souls are eager to attribute to her: how often each day is not this Spotless Maid invoked under the loving title Mother of Youth! (Spirit 1, § 107).
MAY 20
Did we but know Mary, did we but understand her tender solicitude for the children whom God confided to her care, could we but divine all the tender ingenuity of her loving heart to avert the universal deluge menacing the faith and morals of mankind, we should be far more devoted to her; her name would more frequently and more hopefully pass our lips, and with keener delight would we partake of her sweet bounty (Spirit 1, § 104).
MAY 21
“Serve ye the Lord with gladness.” For who has better reason to be and to appear happy and content than the man consecrated to God under the auspices of Mary? (1937 Const, art. 230).
MAY 22
If the penitent sinner owes his conversion to Mary, the just man owes to her his perseverance in justice. All the saints form her crown because she contributed in a most active manner in making them what they are today (Knowledge, 67).
MAY 23
Unite yourself ever more closely to our Lord and to the Blessed Virgin. Keep yourself constantly in the company of the Blessed Virgin, especially in your prayers. But this union, be it with our Lord or with the Blessed Virgin, must proceed more from the heart than from the mind. It is in this union that you are to place all your confidence against the perversity of your nature, and against the temptations of the devil (Letters, no. 897).
MAY 24
Mary, the Mother of God! Indeed, the divine Maternity of Mary is a profound and incomprehensible mystery. To think that it was given to a feeble creature to call God her son, and to share not indeed with a mortal spouse, but with the Eternal Father himself the propriety, I dare say, of receiving the homage and filial tenderness of Jesus Christ. Yet this is the teaching of faith: Mary is the Mother of Jesus. Let us learn, then, through the Son to know his Mother (Knowledge, 34-5).
MAY 25
Ours is a great work, a magnificent work. If it is universal, it is because we are missionaries of Mary, who has said to us: “Whatever he shall say to you, do ye” (Letters, Circular Letter no. 1163).
MAY 26
Daily we speak of Mary, we flock to her altars; we glory in being her children; yet whatever we do know of her is but a trifle, a faint idea of what she is in reality regarding God and ourselves, in the order of faith (Spirit 1, § 104).
MAY 27
In proportion as your devotion to Mary increases, you will become more skillful in inspiring others with it (Spirit 1, § 145).
MAY 28
We must win clients for the Blessed Virgin . . . and let those with whom we live understand how sweet it is to belong to Mary . . . For such must be our zeal that, whilst working at our own perfection, we also induce others to follow in our footsteps (Spirit 1, § 145).
MAY 29
What appears to me to be without precedent among the known institutions is, I repeat, that it is in the name of Mary and for her glory that we embrace the religious life; it is in order to consecrate ourselves, all that we have and are, to her to make her known, loved, and served, in the intimate conviction that we shall not bring men back to Jesus except through his Most Holy Mother, because with the holy doctors we believe she is our only hope—tota ratio spei nostrae—our mother, our refuge, our strength, our help, and our life (Letters, Circular Letter no. 1163).
MAY 30
We must conclude that Mary is our Mother not merely by adoption, but also and above all, by spiritual regeneration. It follows likewise that she became our Mother when she conceived the Son of God. The Incarnation, therefore, considered in its necessary result, is the necessary fruit of the divine espousal of the Holy Ghost and the august Virgin (Knowledge, 50-1).
MAY 31
In the womb of Mary, Jesus Christ prepared her, by a profusion of grace, to become the Mother of his mystical body, as she was the Mother of his natural body; for he wished us to receive through her the life of his body; that we depend on her for the maintenance and increase of our spiritual life, as he depended on her for the maintenance and increase of his corporal life. What a fortunate dependence! (Spirit 1, § 106).
It is solely in the Sacred Heart of Jesus that we must seek the reason and the motives for his sufferings. It is neither the treachery of a disciple, nor the envy of the priests, nor the fickleness of the people, nor the weakness of Pilate, nor the cruelty of the executioners that put him to death: it is his love. That divine love which consumes his heart is the only flame that kindles the pyre upon which he is to immolate himself (Spirit 2, § 985).
JUNE 2
Let us work, with all our strength at the work of the Lord, but let us not forget ourselves! Let us often recall the counsel of St. Bernard to Pope Eugene, his former disciple: “Be a reservoir and not a channel” (Letters, no. 752).
JUNE 3
. . . A general exercise helpful towards progress in the virtue of penance, mortification, and humility, is to be united in a spirit of faith and love with the Sacred Heart of Jesus, suffering, mortified, and humbled (Spirit 1, § 380).
JUNE 4
When the substantial union ceases in him who has communicated, faith preserves a moral union so intimate between the wills that it is not at all astonishing that the mutual influences form a continual and very real spiritual communion; and that is precisely the consequence of a very lively faith in the Blessed Sacrament, the victim immolated on the cross (Spirit 1, § 224).
JUNE 5
For a long time, I have breathed and lived only for the spread of the worship of this august Virgin, and thus to have her family ever increase and multiply (Letters, no. 381).
JUNE 6
“Mary of whom was born Jesus.” Nourished and reared by her, he did not leave her during the whole course of his mortal life; he was subject to her, and he associated her with all his labors, with all his sorrows and with all his mysteries. Devotion to Mary is, therefore, the most salient point in the imitation of Jesus Christ (Spirit 1, § 440).
JUNE 7
The Blessed Virgin Mary is undoubtedly our model and this because she is a very exact and perfect copy of Jesus her divine Son. It is the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ which leads to the knowledge of Mary, as truly as the knowledge of the Blessed Virgin Mary leads to the higher knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ (Spirit 1, § 440).
JUNE 8
Let us seek in Jesus Christ himself the motives of that humility which we mean to have in our hearts. The life of Jesus Christ is altogether a life of humility. Let us behold him in the crib, at his coming into the world; let us behold him especially at his leaving the world, girding himself with a cloth, washing the feet of his apostles, and wiping them on his knees, not excepting Judas, although he knew him to be a traitor at heart. And let us hear him saying that he has not come to be served, but to serve (Spirit 2, § 601).
JUNE 9
Slight breaches weaken the strongest walls. Say three words during silence time today and tomorrow you will say twenty; and soon afterwards you will have lost the habit of silence. The soul relaxes, its buoyancy lessens; and if grave difficulties arise, it cannot or will not withstand them (Spirit 2, § 746).
JUNE 10
Mary will introduce you to this adorable heart, and studying the heart of Jesus you will learn how we should love and honor Mary (Spirit 2, § 982).
JUNE 11
Accustom yourself to watch over your heart. Direct all its movements towards God alone, and toward his holy service, not by an intense application of your mind, but through love (Spirit 1, § 182).
JUNE 12
Advance in the love of God and the contempt of yourself, i.e., of the child of Adam in you. Enter more and more into the beautiful paths of the perfect love of God by complete self-denial; may you become a pliant and faithful instrument in the hands of God to do the work ordained by him for the glory of the Incarnate Word and his august Mother (Spirit 1, § 379).
JUNE 13
Our hearts beat between two spirits that try to capture us by contrary impulses; our hearts are constantly drawn one way and the other; it seems as if the spirit of God and the spirit of Satan are contending for the possession of our hearts . . . Never will you make any worthwhile progress in virtue if you do not learn how to recognize the spirit that draws you . . . (Believe, 144).
JUNE 14
Persistent patience is . . . the most salutary means we can use to bear up to the end under all opposition to natural inclinations, and at the hour of death we shall rejoice at having been able thus to have merited the crown of life. Then perfect compensation will be ours; and if, after all, we could have a regret, it would be not to have suffered more (Spirit 1, § 422).
JUNE 15
Make a law unto yourself, never to begin any action without making some act of faith . . . and offer your action to God (Believe, 11).
JUNE 16
In heaven, the saints, separated from the false goods of the earth, enjoy God solely, and in God only they generally find all that is good: Omne bonum. God is their life, their glory, their joy, their treasure, and in general, he is everything to all and to each of them: Omnia in omnibus (Spirit 2, § 465).
JUNE 17
Revive your faith; make many acts of faith daily. If you habitually follow the course it marks out for you, it will infallibly lead you to heaven, and throughout the entire way or journey to your destination, you will enjoy the greatest peace of mind (Spirit 1, § 205).
JUNE 18
When rising in the morning the thought of our perfection should be before us; and when retiring in the evening the same thought should occupy our minds (Spirit 1, § 43).
JUNE 19
Surely, you need both physical and moral repose. The bow that is constantly bent will lose its elasticity. Take advantage of this time and use it well . . . But let me remind you that in all this you must be guided by faith and sound reason (Circ., 18).
JUNE 20
The care we should take of our
reputation does not require that we seek applause of men, or even that we desire
some sort of recompense for virtue in this world; such views should be far
removed from our minds while tending towards Christian perfection. The object of
this essential care is to glorify God in this world and to edify our neighbor,
whilst forgetting ourselves. It is from this point of view that we do good
before the world in all times and in all places
(Spirit 2, § 1115).
JUNE 21
Despite the difficulties that might occur, you must save your soul, you must serve God in the manner he asks of you, and you must endeavor to make amends for the past (Spirit 1, § 43).
JUNE 22
Take heed lest temporal affairs encroach upon the spiritual. Of what avail is temporal prosperity if you fail to advance in the Christian and religious virtues? (Spirit 1, § 43).
JUNE 23
The greater the amount of work, or the number of occupations and the bulk of business of every kind: the greater also the need of prudence, patience, meditation, and recollection (Spirit 1, § 182).
JUNE 24
Since God delights in giving his graces during prayer, we must profit by these sweet moments to ask for help in all our spiritual and temporal needs; we ought especially to ask for a lively faith, for it is faith that raises us to the throne of God (Spirit 1, § 198).
JUNE 25
Henceforth we shall advance together upon the narrow path that leads to life. Jesus Christ is this path, as he is also the door leading to it: we shall strive to follow Jesus Christ, but always in the company of our august Mother, the divine Mary (Spirit 1, § 133).
JUNE 26
Blessed be the name of Jesus! Blessed be the name of Mary, forever and ever! To thee, O Lord, I look for refuge; never let me be ashamed of my trust. To thee, O Lady, I look for refuge; never let me be ashamed of my trust!
(Spirit 1, § 128).
JUNE 27
I never feared; my confidence in God never failed. But, without worry or anxiety, we must do whatever lies in us, not to tempt Providence . . . Courage! We need means; it is true. But you know our principal resource, go and draw frequently from it . . . It is not our business with which we are engaged, but that of our Savior and his Blessed Mother (Spirit 1, § 7).
JUNE 28
The grace of a retreat is a grace of predilection. In his infinite mercy, God has special designs in regard to those whom he calls to a retreat (Spirit 2, §1079).
JUNE 29
The more faith you have in Jesus Christ, God and man, a faith that approaches that of Saint Peter when he answered our Lord who had questioned his apostles: “Thou art Christ, the son of the living God,” the more you will penetrate yourself with his annihilations, especially in the Most Holy Sacrament where he is God and man in complete reality (Letters, no. 1210).
JUNE 30
Let us follow the order of Providence in peace, and all will go well (Letters, no. 291).
Let us hope for all kinds of success from the protection of our Mother. Under her auspices we have here succeeded in matters far more difficult (Letters, no. 35).
JULY 2
A sermon on the protection of Mary may be thus divided; part first, the efficiency of Mary’s protection; part second, the willingness of the heart of Mary to protect us. There is no need of going beyond the mystery of the Visitation to prove both: Mary is both able and willing to protect us (Spirit 1, § 170).
JULY 3
Wherever you may be, honor the perfect moderation of the august Mary, whose name you bear and may the whole universe know that we are true children of Mary, especially by our purity (Spirit 1, § 125).
JULY 4
The Church of Jesus Christ is composed of groups varying greatly, still closely united with one another; she is an army exceedingly well organized and happily battling under the standard of the cross . . . Unto death all must follow the standard under which they have enrolled (Spirit 1, § 82).
JULY 5
In the ordinary design of Divine Providence the works of God will be opposed, attacked, and assaulted on all sides. Do we not, both you and I, deserve chastisement from the great Master whom we serve? Let us be submissive and adore his designs. Let us profit by it all. If the good Master is satisfied with us, we should also be satisfied with him (Spirit 1, § 419).
JULY 6
Perfection consists in putting off the old man and putting on the new. Now, what is the old man? It is our corrupt nature, which we have received from our first father as an inheritance. This nature must be annihilated, and put off entirely to make room for the new Adam, that is, Jesus Christ (Spirit 1, § 432).
JULY 7
The spirit of the Institute is the spirit of Mary: this explains all. If you are children of Mary, imitate Mary (Spirit 1, § 125).
JULY 8
The spirit of faith will become a spirit of confidence in God, a spirit of zeal, a spirit of courage and of generosity, etc. (Letters, no. 271).1
JULY 9
It is humility of the heart that the Lord demands of us. “Learn of me because I am meek and humble of heart.” I look upon humility as one of the first fruits of faith of the heart. Humility makes progress in proportion to growth in faith (Letters, no. 661).
JULY 10
I have no other policy than that of having daily recourse to the Blessed Virgin (Letters, no. 575).
JULY 11
In centuries gone by the corruption had attacked only the heart; but today, mind and heart are gangrened, and the distemper of the mind is infinitely more dangerous and incurable than that of the heart. In this time of desolation . . . the yet unborn generation, as also others yet to come, are threatened with destruction by irreligion and impiety . . . How it must fascinate a soul thirsting for the glory of God and the salvation of men! (Spirit 1, § 69).
JULY 12
When Rebecca of old, the mother of Jacob, wished to obtain the blessing of Isaac, she clothed her beloved son in the garments of Esau. In like manner, Mary is unceasingly striving to clothe us in the semblance of Jesus Christ, by endeavoring to inculcate into our hearts the thoughts and sentiments of Jesus, and to bring us to a realization of our title as Christians, that is as disciples and imitators of Jesus Christ (Knowledge, 60).
JULY 13
In the performance of my duties, I shall be guided by motives derived from religion, never by vanity or mere habit (Spirit 3, § 160).
JULY 14
The Lord afflicts us in diverse ways; let us profit by all our tribulations. Let nothing shake our confidence and fidelity; it is amid contradictions and tribulations that the works of God prosper, are purified and strengthened
(Spirit 1, § 419).
JULY 15
God is strong for our defense; but we must desire to be defended. Your salvation and your peace are in his hands; ask for them (Spirit 2, § B495).
JULY 16
When Mary consented to the Incarnation of the Word, she evidently understood the work and plan of redemption to the fullest extent, and as such she lovingly accepted it. She understood that in conceiving Jesus she conceived him in his entirety, that is to say, in his natural as well as his mystical Body. She could not separate him from what was to form one with him (Knowledge, 47-8).
JULY 17
May the thought of that perfection which God desires of us stimulate our courage and our faith. In the morning upon awakening, far from giving way to our natural levity, let us say to ourselves: “O my soul, consider your work of this day; God calls you to perfection; through his intimate union with you he wishes to make you a participator of his divinity. What an honor and what a glory! O my God! I shall hasten and I resolve to employ well this new day which you are about to grant me” (Spirit 1, § 432).
JULY 18
I shall make the most strenuous efforts to remain in the state of grace, and try to sanctify each day as if it were the last one of my life (Spirit 3, § 160).
JULY 19
We do not pretend that much is to be expected of men; on the contrary, we acknowledge that all our help is in the name of the Lord, with whom the Blessed Virgin Mary, his divine Mother, is our great intermediary; we look upon men merely as the objects upon whom we can fully exercise our charity (Spirit 1, § 26).
JULY 20
God in his goodness vouchsafes to strew our labors with trials and tribulations. Blessed be his holy name! (Spirit 1, § 419).
JULY 21
Jesus deigned to assume a form resembling ours, and we should in turn shape ourselves to his likeness, conform our morals to his, our inclinations to his inclinations, our life to his life (Knowledge, 93).
JULY 22
You meet with contradictions; well, who does not experience them, particularly in great enterprises? (Spirit 1, § 418).
JULY 23
We repeat and confirm what has already been said that the second object, zeal for the salvation of souls, proceeds directly from the first with which God has inspired us, namely, with his grace, to imitate Jesus Christ and to offer ourselves to Mary as her most humble servants and ministers (Spirit 1, § 51).
JULY 24
Never, do I think, have I so ardently
prayed for you to the Blessed Virgin, as ever since the time that I know you to
be ensnared in the toils of self-love and of Mary’s enemy who is ever alert to
fan it and to justify it by all manner of illusions. Watch and pray (Spirit
1, § 140).
JULY 25
The religious life is to Christianity what Christianity is to humanity. It is just as imperishable within Christianity as Christianity is imperishable in the world. Without the religious life the Gospel could never be applied in its entirety to human society (WJC, 280).
JULY 26
May you become a pliant and docile instrument in the hands of God for the works he ordains for the glory of the Incarnate Word and his august Mother! (Spirit 1, § 147).
JULY 27
We are dealing with a jealous God, who will not share our souls with anyone else, since he had no associate when creating us or when redeeming us: the extent of his rights is the foundation of his jealousy (Spirit 1, § 48).
JULY 28
Let this thought encourage us: let us not be vanquished by our weakness, but let us vanquish it. If our work frightens us, then let the eternal reward promised give us new vigor (Spirit 1, § 422).
JULY 29
I went to see a good priest who was my Director, and when I asked him how I was to act, he told me: “Our Lord would not have done that . . . Our Lord did this.” Indeed, this was an excellent answer (Spirit 1, § 442).
JULY 30
Faith, especially this faith of the heart, is a great gift of God. It is for this reason that we always need to say: “Lord, increase my faith.” God, so to say, easily grants this grace, when we devote ourselves to works of faith. “The just man lives by faith.” What happiness for us if we walk for the rest of our lives on the beautiful pathways of faith, acting only by faith, and living only by faith! (Letters, no. 661).
JULY 31
It is fortunate that we do not work for men or for our own interests, but for our great Master and the honor of his august Mother (Spirit 1, § 147)
We have been consecrated to the cross through the grace of baptism . . . To bear the cross with Jesus must be for the Christian not merely a duty but an honor and a glory (Spirit 1, § 426).
AUGUST 2
The assistance of our divine Patroness will not fail you; love to work for the glory of her adorable Son, and to make the Blessed Virgin known and loved wherever you can (Spirit 1, § 145).
AUGUST 3
In general, we must maintain a great freedom of mind and heart in the practice of the Christian and religious virtues. The laws of Jesus Christ are not laws of servitude; however strict they may be, they are the laws of grace and of love. “We have been called,” says St. Paul, “to the liberty of the children of God” (Spirit 1, § 428).
AUGUST 4
O truly happy life! God grant that we may live and die of love. This ought to be the ultimate purpose of all our prayer and all our actions (Spirit 1, § 432).
AUGUST 5
We expect wisdom in our counsels from the grace of the Lord and the protection of the Holy Virgin for whose glory we desire to labor till death calls us. Ad majorem Dei gloriam Virginisque Deiparae (Spirit 1, § 147).
AUGUST 6
Jesus Christ is the exemplar for all the saints: his life is the pattern for all that is to happen to the Church in general and to each of the faithful in particular to the end of time (Spirit 1, § 442).
AUGUST 7
The path of perfection is narrow and difficult for the worldly-minded only; the servants of God find it broad and comfortable . . . The yoke of the Lord is sweet, if we take it upon ourselves generously and bear it with constancy
(Spirit 1, § 433).
AUGUST 8
The path of perfection is not so well frequented as the way of the Commandments, but it is far safer (Spirit 1, § 433).
AUGUST 9
The path of perfection is the shorter way to salvation (Spirit 1, § 433).
AUGUST 10
Our perfection, as God understands it, does not consist in doing many, or extraordinary things; the perfection to which God calls us depends on the care with which we perform our most ordinary actions (Spirit 1, § 433).
AUGUST 11
To perform all our actions well we must be exact, fervent, and persevering (Spirit 1, § 433).
AUGUST 12
Fervor consists: 1) In fulfilling all our duties well; 2) In performing supererogatory works; 3) In turning to advantage every opportunity for good, as a skillful merchant does for profit; 4) In employing our time well; 5) In performing our actions in the right spirit, and as well as we can. Since fervor is much more an interior than an exterior quality, we must particularly try to produce in the depth of our hearts most ardent acts of the love of God (Spirit 1, § 434).
AUGUST 13
The imitation of Jesus Christ consists in forming Jesus Christ within us . . . Blessed is he who bears the character and livery of Jesus Christ! (Spirit 1, § 442).
AUGUST 14
The august Mary, you may be sure, will derive great glory from your generous sacrifice. God had predestined you for the service of his divine Son, under the banner of his Most Holy Mother. To Mary Jesus presents you as his faithful minister and valiant soldier (Spirit 1, § 139).
AUGUST 15
The King of heaven enrolls you forever in the bodyguard of the Queen. Henceforth you will serve him by serving her whom he associated in his crown and in his glory, and you shall be in a special manner a soldier and missionary of Mary Immaculate for the people of God (Spirit 1, § 49).
AUGUST 16
You no longer belong to yourself, but to God, to the Blessed Virgin and to religion. Follow without fear; follow with joy, what such masters ask of you (Letters, no. 273).
AUGUST 17
We must belong entirely to God just as the saints belong entirely to him, to think only of him, to love him alone, to live for him only (Spirit 1, § 449).
AUGUST 18
What does it mean to love God with one’s whole heart? It means to prefer him to all creatures, to love him alone, to act and suffer for him alone (Spirit 1, § 463).
AUGUST 19
What does it mean to love God with one’s whole soul? It means to love him as long as we live; it means to be ready to sacrifice one’s life in his service, rather than to disobey; it means to bring the sacrifice of all the passions
(Spirit 1, § 463).
AUGUST 20
The knowledge of Jesus Christ, we know, is of absolute necessity for attaining salvation, for he is our Mediator with God the Father, and his words are “the words of eternal life.” Without, however, detracting from this fundamental principle, it is our firm belief that the intimate knowledge of Mary is most useful for the attainment of our salvation, for she is, in the beautiful words of St. Bernard, “our hope, our sweetness, and our life” (Knowledge, 2).