@OldRomanTV #TheOldRoman
Carissimi: Today’s Mass; St Evaristus of Rome
Today’s ✠Challoner Meditation
Carissimi: Today’s Mass; SS. Chrysanthus & Daria, Martyrs
Today’s ✠Challoner Meditation
Carissimi: Today’s Mass; Feast of Saint Raphael the Archangel
Almost all our rebellious passions spring from unguarded looks; for, generally speaking, it is by the sight that all inordinate affections and desires are excited. Hence, holy Job said: I made a covenant with my eyes, that I would not so much as think upon a virgin (Job, xxxi, 1). — Why did he say that he would not so much as think upon a virgin? Should he not have said that he made a covenant with his eyes not to look upon a virgin? No; he very properly said that he would not think upon a virgin; because thoughts are so connected with looks, that the former cannot be separated from the latter, and therefore, to escape the molestation of evil imaginations, he resolved never to fix his eyes on a woman.
So far is the Blessed Virgin Mary from disdaining to assist sinners, she ever takes pride in her office as Advocate of Sinners. “Next to the dignity of Mother of God,” she herself once said, “there is nothing I value so much as my office of Advocate of sinners.”
The first means is Mental Prayer, and particularly Meditation on the claims God has on our love, and on His love for us, especially in the great work of our Redemption. To redeem us, God even sacrificed His life in a sea of sorrows and contempt; and to obtain our love, He has gone so far as to make Himself our food. To inflame the soul with the fire of Divine love, these truths must be frequently meditated upon. In my meditation, says David, a fire shall flame out (Ps. xxxviii. 4). When I contemplate the goodness of my God, the flames of charity fill my whole heart. St. Aloysius used to say, that to attain eminent sanctity a high degree of mental prayer is necessary.
There is no means that can more surely kindle Divine love in us than to consider the Passion of Jesus Christ. St. Bonaventure says that the Wounds of Jesus, because they are the Wounds of love, are darts which pierce the hardest hearts, and flames which set on fire the coldest souls. “O wounds, wounding stony hearts and inflaming frozen minds!”
An ardent desire of perfection is the first means we should adopt if we wish to acquire sanctity and to belong wholly to God. To hit a bird in flight, the sportsman must take aim in advance of his prey, so, too, a Christian, to make progress in virtue, should aspire to the highest degree of holiness which it is in his power to attain. Who will give me wings like a dove, says David, and I will fly and be at rest? (Ps. liv. 7).