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THE SECOND SUNDAY AFTER EPIPHANY ~ THE MARRIAGE FEAST OF CANA

(Read John ii, 1-11.)

CONSIDER FIRSTLY the promptness, with which the Blessed Virgin provided for the lack of wine at the marriage feast of Cana even though unasked. Hence you may infer her far greater solicitude and readiness for providing for the spiritual needs of each one, ever since her divine Son declared her as she stood beneath the cross to be the Mother of us all. As our Mother then, her eyes are ever bent upon our needs, her heart is always sympathising with them, her hands are ever relieving them with all a Mother’s tenderness.

APPLICATION: If this be so, why have you not recourse to her in all your wants with reverence and with filial trust? How many benefits and graces has she gained for you even without your asking? Do you doubt then that she will help you when you ask for things that are necessary for your salvation?

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: Come ye, children, hearken unto me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord. (Ps. xxxiii, 12.)

CONSIDER SECONDLY that the Blessed Virgin is ever powerful, and ready to obtain for you help and graces from heaven. When at the marriage feast of Cana, she asked Jesus to provide for the wine that failed, He answered her shortly, saying that His hour for working miracles was not yet arrived, My hour is not yet come. Nevertheless the fervour of her prayer so prevailed with Him that He anticipated that hour and changed the water into wine. How much more powerful will be the prayers she now makes for us to her Son, seated as she is at His right hand, Queen of heaven, proclaimed as treasures of the divine bounties, directress of His mercies and the guardian of the salvation of all men. He has so willed that all should come to us through Mary, says glorious St. Bernard.

APPLICATION: If then her power be so great and such be the readiness to do us good, why do you doubt that you will be heard through her intercession?

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: On thy right hand stood the queen, in golden raiment, wrought about with variety. (Ps. xliv, 10.)

CONSIDER THIRDLY the words the Blessed Virgin spoke to the servants in order to obtain from her Divine Son this miraculous gift: Whatsoever He shall say to you, do ye. Do you also exactly as Jesus commands you and you will have all the graces you need.

APPLICATION: Imagine then that she says to you: If you would that my prayers for you should be efficacious, see that you fulfil all that our Lord requires of you as of one of His faithful followers. For as the merits and prayers which Jesus as your advocate offers for you to the Father will not suffice for your salvation without your own co-operation, so neither without the same will avail you the prayers which the Blessed Virgin offers for you. Often have recourse to our Blessed Lady in your needs, but if you be not heard the fault is yours because you neglect things which would make your prayers efficacious.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: Show us thy mercy, O Lord, and grant us thy salvation. I will hearken what the Lord shall say within me. (Ps. lxxxiv, 8-9.)

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MONDAY AFTER THE SECOND SUNDAY AFTER EPIPHANY ~ TIME AND ETERNITY

Seek first the kingdom of God and all these things shall be added unto you. Be not therefore solicitous for to-morrow.  (Matt. vi, 33-34.)

CONSIDER FIRSTLY how wholesome a thought it is seriously to dwell upon the past that has already gone by, and of the eternal years that are yet to come. This is perhaps the most useful thought that can occupy your mind. As you think of the days gone by, you will see with what speed they have slipped away, and of the eternal years you will remember that they will never end.

APPLICATION: O what a salutary thought is this! Let it then be often in your mind. Examine yourself and see whether hitherto you have sufficiently dwelt upon it.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: I thought upon the days of old, and I had in my mind the eternal years. (Ps. lxxvi, 6.)

CONSIDER SECONDLY why this thought will be so greatly to your profit. It is because in thinking of the past  you will learn to have greater esteem for eternity, while the reflection of the eternal years will show you how little you should esteem those days that have already passed so quickly away, and those few that still remain to you in this life. If you would truly know of how little worth is all that passes away, compare it with that which never changes, saying to yourself: Were I still to live for more than a hundred or a thousand years, what would that be in comparison with eternity? It would be even as nothing. If on the contrary you would value eternity aright, compare it with the past, and say within yourself that when millions and millions of years have gone by they will still begin again and thus never end.

APPLICATION: How can I on the one hand can I prefer those few years of life that remain to me to the unending years of eternity, or on the other how esteem of less account that good which will never end than one that perishes so quickly?

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: A thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday which is past. (Ps. lxxxix, 4.)

CONSIDER THIRDLY that, speaking precisely, the time of our life has no present; it has only a past and a future. It is like the flowing waters of a river that swiftly follow one another. We can say this of mortal life: We all die and like waters that return no more we fall down into the earth. (2 Kings xiv, 14.) Our life is more rapid than any stream. The moment you call the present has already become the past.

APPLICATION: Now see to what a narrow span is reduced that time or life you call your own. To a moment only, or a single point: for the past no longer lies within your power, the future you know not how it will be with you. In eternity alone is found the true present which never passes away and which will never end. Think then seriously whether it be better to rejoice in this short life and to suffer then for all eternity, or to rejoice for ever in eternity and suffer a little while in the present life.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: Man is like to vanity; his days pass away as a shadow. (Ps. cxliii, 4.)

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TUESDAY AFTER THE SECOND SUNDAY AFTER EPIPHANY ~ LIFE ON EARTH A PILGRIMAGE

Lay not up to yourself treasures upon earth. (Matt. vi, 19.)

CONSIDER FIRSTLY that men live in this world either as citizens thereof, or as strangers, or as pilgrims. If as citizens only, they are those weal Christians who recognise no country except this world, and live as did the Gentiles, who had no hope. If as strangers, they are those who recognise perfectly that heaven is their country and they aspire to it, but yet in the meantime are far more occupied with things of this world than with those of the next. If as pilgrims, they are those who recognise heaven as their home and aspire to it, desiring to have here upon earth holy what is needful for them from day to day.

APPLICATION: Ask yourself to which of these three classes you belong. As a true follower of Jesus Christ you should undoubtedly life here as a pilgrim, often reminding yourself of the word of St. Paul: We have not here a lasting city, but we seek one that is to come. (Heb. xiii, 14.)

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: One day in thy courts is better than a thousand. (Ps. lxxxiii, 11.)

CONSIDER SECONDLY that he who would live as a stranger, and still more as a pilgrim upon earth, even as he must keep himself from desires of earthly things such as great possessions and reputation, so too must he refrain himself from all carnal desires, for these above all make us live as if we were bound down to this world and darken the intellect by making us lose all thought of things to come. I beseech you, says St. Peter, as strangers and pilgrims, to refrain yourself from carnal desires which war against the soul. (1 Pet. ii, 11.)

APPLICATION: Lay home to yourselves these words of the Apostle. Observe well that he is insistent that we should abstain not only from the deeds of the flesh but also from all dangerous desires. It is a danger that must be met in its very beginnings, for such desires have often their origin in some reading from sheer curiosity, in an unguarded remark, or in some thought which is not checked at once. Of one spark cometh a great fire. (Ecclus. xi, 34.)

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: Behold, I have longed after thy precepts; quicken thou me in thy justice.  (Ps. cxviii, 40.)

CONSIDER THIRDLY that the Apostle does not bid his disciples be altogether free from such desires, but to restrain them, for few there are even among the holiest entirely exempt from such. This much however is necessary, that as soon as ever evil thoughts arise within the soul, we must chase them away, resist them, and avoid the danger by flight, and by turning our thoughts elsewhere. They are more easily conquered by flight than by fight.

APPLICATION: Examine how far you avoid all occasions of evil, by keeping a watch over your sense, and by mortifying the body, for here is the chief source whence come all our evil desires. Whence come, asks the Apostle St. James, wars and contentions among you? Are they not hence from your concupiscences, which war in your members? (James iv, 1.)

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: Turn away mine eyes lest they behold vanity. (Ps. cxviii, 37.)

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WEDNESDAY AFTER THE SECOND SUNDAY AFTER EPIPHANY ~ TEPIDITY

No man putting his hand to the plough and looking back is fit for the Kingdom of God. (Luke ix, 62.)

CONSIDER FIRSTLY that the tepidity which is so displeasing to God is not that of the man who, abandoning the coldness of a bad life , is about to pass to the warmth of a well-regulated one, but it is the tepidity of one who, leaving his first fervour, goes back from the warmth of a devote life to the coldness of a tepid one. It is a lesser evil, at least in its consequence, not to have known the service of God or embraced it, than having once known and entered upon it with fervour, then to neglect it; he who does so will always go from worse to worse, until at last he perishes. A vessel of water once heated when removed from the fire becomes little by little entirely cold.

APPLICATION: You also if you leave the fire of your first fervour by neglecting your prayers, giving up self-denial, and little occasions of mortification, omitting your regular observances, will gradually go from bad to worse, and make yourself displeasing to God.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: Behold, they that shall depart from thee shall perish; Thou hast destroyed all them that are faithless to thee. (Ps. lxxii, 27.)

CONSIDER SECONDLY why this tepidity of one who goes from hot to cold is so displeasing to God. The reason is for one who till now has not embraced the better thing, because he knew it not, it is no great matter of surprise if God shows him great mercy, by then drawing him on to great fervour of spirit. But as for one who has abandoned God’s service after having embraced it, what claim can he have on our Blessed Saviour’s mercy? Many sinners have become great saints, but how few are those who have fallen away and then return to the ways of holiness, seeing that when a habit is once lost, ordinarily there is never more a return to it.

APPLICATION: What wonder is it that God would rather you had remained cold as you were before your conversion, then that you should become tepid by falling away from Him? If by tepidity you begin to forsake the friendship of God, He will banish you from His Heart.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: God remembered that they are flesh, a wind that goeth and returneth not. (Ps. lxxvii, 39.)

CONSIDER THIRDLY what this rejection by God with which He threatens your tepidity means. It consists of His no longer having the same loving care of you that He had at first, nor visiting you with His sweet spiritual consolations, allowing you to be overcome by weariness, by sadness, by temptations, and finally delivering you up to a reprobate sense, as St. Paul says (Rom. i, 28.), which invariably leads to perdition. And all this comes to pass by little and little.

APPLICATION: If then our Lord has not yet entirely cast you off, as certainly He has not, repent without delay, and renew your resolution of serving Him well, and renew your fervour, for He says, I will begin to cast you off, in order to give you time so to act now, that He may never again have reason to reject you.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: I said: Now I have begun; this change is of the right hand of the Most High. (Ps. lxxvi, 11.)

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THURSDAY AFTER THE SECOND SUNDAY AFTER EPIPHANY ~ DIVINE CONSOLATION

Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you; not as the world giveth, do I give unto you. (John xiv, 27.)

CONSIDER FIRSTLY that there is the same difference between heavenly consolations and earthly delights as there was between manna from heaven and the fruits of the earth. The manna was for its excellence called angels’ food, because it gave strength to the Hebrew people and preserved them from sickness, affording them the sweetness of every taste. Serving every man’s will it was turned to what every man liked. (Wisdom xvi, 21.) Thus they wished not to seek for other food.

APPLICATION: Heavenly consolations are like this manna, for they too are angelic food which keeps the soul in health, and imparts sweetness that surpasses all other, so much so that he who has once experienced it will care for no other joy. The consolations of this world, on the contrary, are a food that is common to all creatures. They not only do not prevent bodily and spiritual ills but often cause them, and in spite of all their variety of tastes can never satisfy us. Which of these two consolations seems to you the more desirable? The manna was given to the Hebrews in place of the food of Egypt, of which they deprived themselves in order to follow their God into the desert. These heavenly consolations are only giving to him who denies himself earthly delights in order to serve God. Consequently if you wish to enjoy in abundance the relish of heavenly things, cast away entirely that which is of earth.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: Thy comforts have given joy to my soul. (Ps. xciii, 19.)

CONSIDER SECONDLY that the manna failed the Hebrews directly they began to eat of the fruits of the land. So too is our Lord custom to withdraw His consolations from one who begins to turn back to the empty delights of the world.

APPLICATION: When God called you to come out of the Egypt of the world to a devout and to a higher life, He so strengthened and comforted you with consolation and hope, that cheerfully you renounced the world and its pleasures. If then you no longer enjoy those consolations, the fault is your own, because you have strayed after earthly delights. God will not give you to taste of His royal table if you seek for your food amid the pleasures of the sense.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: Thou hast prepared a table before me against them that afflict me. (Ps. xxii, 5.)

CONSIDER THIRDLY that our Lord sometimes leaves the soul, in order to prove and to sanctify her, deprived of all consolations and even the prey of severe trial: He hath filled me with bitterness. (Lam. iii, 15.) But generally this does not last for long. God then compensates us interiorly with a comfort less sweet perhaps but more substantial, like the bread of Elias baked under the ashes. This His remedy do replete with lively faith and certain hope, comforts more than all earthly pleasures. Whosoever tastes and sees how precious is the gift, would not exchange it for all the delights the world can offer.

APPLICATION: Learn then to despise pleasures of earth or of sense, if you desire that God should grant you to taste the sweetness of His manna or of that still more substantial food, the consolations of His grace.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: Thou shalt make them drink of the torrent of thy pleasure. (Ps. xxxv, 9.)

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FRIDAY AFTER THE SECOND SUNDAY IN ADVENT ~ JESUS CHRIST OUR SURETY

Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. (Luke xxiii, 34.)

CONSIDER FIRSTLY how Jesus Christ has in His intense mercy and love for you become your surety. When He saw you eternally lost because of your utter inability to satisfy the divine justice He offered Himself in your stead to become your surety, to pay the debts you had contracted with God, nay to cancel them by so many humiliation and so many sufferings, even to the outpouring of His most Precious Blood. He was nowise bound to bestow so immense a benefit; He was moved to it solely by His goodness and mercy. He delivered the poor man for whom there was no helper. (Job xxix, 12.)

APPLICATION: If then your heart retains any sense of true gratitude, forget not the kindness of your surety. (Ecclus. xxix, 19.) Be no longer unmindful as you have hitherto been of so loving a Benefactor.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS:The Lord hath heard and hath had mercy upon me; the Lord hath become my helper. (Ps. xxix, 11.)

CONSIDER SECONDLY that among men, all who go surety for a friend, do so in the confidence that the friend will do his best to pay the debt or because they hope to be made good the sum put down. If before becoming surety they foresaw that it would never be repaid, then they would not bind themselves to so great a favour. Jesus alone is a surety who took upon Himself our debts, knowing for certain that on Himself would devolve the payment. He offered Himself to the rigorous justice of His Father for a debtor so unutterably poor as to be incapable of ever repaying the debt.

APPLICATION: Reflect than how He has become not only your surety, but has laid down far more than an equivalent of your debt, in order so to encourage you and to render the way of salvation easy for you. Do you not then feel bound in the strictest justice to correspond to the utmost of your power with the goodness of so loving a surety and so kind a benefactor?

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits who redeemeth thy life from destruction. (Ps. cii, 2 and 4.)

CONSIDER THIRDLY how you in turn must act. Even as a poor debtor towards a friend who has satisfied and paid all his securities for him, so must you do. You must recognise the benefit, acknowledge it, render thanks for it, and strive to make the best return you may. Seeing that Christ has poured out for you an ocean of tears and of blood, will you not shed at least one tear for Him in return? If Christ has borne for you so many insults and outrages, are you not willing for His sake to put up with some small ridicule or slight? If Christ went so far as to die for you on the tree of the Cross, will you not live your life for Him?

APPLICATION: Resolve then to live for Christ, try to please Him, and to work for His greater glory so as never to appear ungrateful to your surety, Who loved you and delivered Himself for you. (Gal. ii, 20.) This He did in order to rescue you for terrible and eternal evils, and at the same time to enable you to rejoice in blessings without end through all eternity. God grant that you never be one of those who turn their backs upon Him: He that is of an unthankful mind will leave Him that delivered Him. (Ecclus. xxix, 21.)

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: To Him my soul shall live. (Ps. xxi, 31.)

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SATURDAY AFTER THE SECOND SUNDAY AFTER EPIPHANY ~ JESUS CHRIST THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD

I am the light of the world; he that followeth me walketh not in darkness. (John viii, 12.)

CONSIDER FIRSTLY that Jesus Christ came into the world in order to rescue men from the darkness of intellectual error and from the rebellion of the will, by raising them up into the admirable light of His divine teaching, and of true virtues. Few however there are who profit by this divine light, because many resolutely close their eyes against it, as unbelievers who are rebellious to the light (Job xxiv, 13.), and as many even among the faithful who accept the light of faith so far as to believe, but do not accept the light of the commandments in order to good works and the fulfillment of their duty.

APPLICATION: Would to God that among so-called Christians, followers of Christ, there were none of these lovers of darkness, who keep the windows of their soul barred against the light so that they may not see the obligations of their state of life of of their duties, nor feel the sting of their conscience. Such indeed are in danger of eternal death, for not only are they in darkness, but they rest and repose in the same. They sit in darkness and in the shadow of death.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: The words of his mouth are iniquity and guile; he would not understand that he might do well. (Ps. xxxv, 4.)

CONSIDER SECONDLY that among Christians there are others again, who keep the windows of their soul neither altogether closed nor yet wholly open to the light. They desire the light, but yet not too much thereof, thinking they cannot correspond. They are in fact of those who love the light, but love the darkness better~ They loved darkness rather than light. (John iii, 19.) Such as these neglect to have frequent recourse to God, in order to be enlightened by Him, neglect the reading of good books, waste their time in needless diversion and in useless conversation.

APPLICATION: If you be one of these, see what great wrong you do to God and what great harm you do yourself, for God wants to give you His light only to lead you without stumbling along the way of salvation, as without it you cannot follow it either clearly or safely.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: Direct my way in thy sight. (Ps. v, 9.)

CONSIDER THIRDLY the happiness of those who keep the windows of their soul open to the Divine Sun. They know that all the good they can do will be in proportion to the light they receive. Consequently they yearn for it, and are ever begging for it with burning fervour. They desire to live as free as may be from worldly distractions; they listen more willingly to the things of heaven than to the news of the world; they desire to receive counsel, to be constantly exercised in the practice of virtue, more particularly applying themselves to all those things in which our Lord has more clearly communicated His light to them.

APPLICATION: Now you may see what you should do in order to obtain abundant light. Open the windows of your soul as widely as you can to God, and keep them as firmly closed to the things of earth and of the world.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: Enlighten my darkness, O my God. (Ps. xvii, 29.)

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