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Collecta at St. Peter ad Vincula. Station at St. Mary Major. The spring Ember Week coincides with the first week of Lent. It was instituted for the purpose of consecrating to God the new season (of Spring), and by fasting and prayer to draw down Heavenly graces on those who on Saturday are to receive the Sacrament of Holy Orders…
He that reposes in the Divine will is like a man placed above the clouds: he sees the lightning, and hears the rolling of the thunder, and the raging of the tempest below, but he is not injured or disturbed. And how can he ever be disturbed when he always desires whatever happens? He that desires only what pleases God always obtains whatsoever he wishes, because all that happens to him, happens through the will of God. Salvian says that Christians who are resigned, if they be in a low condition of life, wish to be in that state; if they be poor they desire poverty; because they wish whatever God wills, and therefore they are always content. If cold, or heat, or rain, or wind come, he that is united to the will of God says: I wish for this cold, this heat, this rain, and this wind, because God wills them
Life in his good will (Ps xxix. 6). Our entire salvation and perfection consists in loving God. Have charity which is the bond of perfection, says the Apostle, but the perfection of Charity consists in conformity to the Divine Will.
The Divine Priest, Jesus Christ, Who was both Priest and Victim, by the sacrifice of His life for the salvation of men completed the Sacrifice of the Cross and accomplished the work of the world’s Redemption. By His death Jesus Christ stripped our death of its terrors. Until then it was but the punishment of rebels; but by grace and the merits of our Saviour it becomes a sacrifice so dear to God that when we unite it to the death of Jesus, it makes us worthy to enjoy the same glory that God enjoys, and to hear Him one day say to us, as we hope: Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord! (Matt. xxv.21).
Carissimi: Today’s Mass; Impression of the Stigmata of St Francis of Assisi
In order to acquire a facility in doing, on all occasions, the holy will of God, we must beforehand offer ourselves continually to embrace in peace whatever God ordains or wills. Such was the practice of holy David. He would say: My heart is ready, O God, my heart is ready (Ps. cvii. 2). And he continually besought the Lord to teach him to do the Divine will. Teach me to do thy will (Ps. cxlii. 10). He thus deserved to be called a man according to God’s own heart. I have found David the son of Jesse, a man according to my own heart, who shall do all my wills (Acts xiii. 22). And why? Because the holy king was always ready to do whatever God wished him to do.
We see that the truly wise are those who know how to acquire Divine grace and Heaven. Let us pray the Lord to give us the wisdom of the Saints which He bestows on those who ask it of Him. She gave him the knowledge of holy things.
St. Bernard says that when we look upon the afflictions of our Lord, we shall find our own lighter to bear. And in another place he says: “What can be other than sweet to thee when thou takest to thyself all the bitterness of the Lord.” St. Eleazar, being one day asked by his good wife, Delphina, how he bore so many injuries with a calm mind, replied: “When I see myself injured I think on the injuries of my crucified Saviour, and cease not to think of them until I am calmed.” “Sweet is the ignominy of the Cross to him who is not ungrateful to the Crucified,” says St. Bernard.
He who soweth sparingly shall also reap sparingly (2 Cor. ix. 6). They who are ungenerous with God well deserve that God should not be liberal with them. To such souls the Lord will give graces common to all, but will probably withhold His special assistance; and without this, as we have seen, they cannot persevere in the state of grace. God Himself revealed to Blessed Henry Suso that, for tepid souls who are content with leading a life exempt from mortal sin, and continue to commit many deliberate venial sins, it is very difficult to preserve themselves from mortal sins.
The man sick of the palsy besought Jesus Christ to restore the health of his body; but before doing so the Lord first restored health to his soul. Be of good heart, son, thy sins are forgiven thee. (Matt. ix. 2). The pain will not be removed till the thorn has been taken out.