The Circling Year

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MEDITATION FOR JANUARY 4TH

 

POVERTY OF JESUS IN THE CRIB

“And she brought forth her first-born Son and wrapped Him up in swaddling clothes, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn” (Luke 2-7).

First Prelude: Represent to yourselves the wretched stable and the hard crib in which the Divine Child reposes.

Second Prelude: O Divine Saviour, teach us by Thy example to esteem, and cheerfully to practice holy poverty.

FIRST POINT

JESUS TEACHES US TO ESTEEM POVERTY

Faith teaches us that this poor Child, bedded on straw, in the manger at Bethlehem, is He of Whom the Psalmist says: “The earth is the Lord’s and the fulness thereof: the world and all they that dwell therein” (Ps. 23, 1). Why is it that the Lord, Who has the wealth of all creation at His command, chooses poverty for His inseparable companion through life? Why does He despise all splendor, all excess, all convenience, to be the poorest among the poor? Jesus willed to sanctify poverty, since He wills it to be the portion of His elect in this life, that He might insure to them the riches of heaven. O precious virtue, up to the time of Christ but slightly recognized among men, how wert Thou exalted at the crib! How has Jesus, Himself, exalted thee and animated thousands for thee! How many, O my Jesus, have been taught, by Thy example, patiently to suffer poverty and privations and thus to enrich themselves for heaven! Countless souls, enamored of Thee, have voluntarily despised the goods of his world, to embrace Thy life of renunciation.

Animated by such an example, we will, with all our heart, renew our vow of poverty, at the crib of the Divine Child. We will thank Jesus for having called us to the practice of this virtue, which contains in itself the secret of sanctity. Earthly goods fetter the heart and hinder it from raising itself to God; but the heart free from all earthly desires and affections, cleaves to God and is inebriated with the delights that result from this loving and intimate union. We will thank our dear Saviour for having atoned for our sins, by a life of extreme poverty. Let us say with a great saint: “Thou wert poor, O Jesus, to enrich me—yea, to enrich me with graces and everlasting goods.” Do we manifest our esteem and love of holy poverty by cheerfully bearing all the privations met with in religious life?

SECOND POINT

JESUS TEACHES US HOW TO PRACTICE HOLY POVERTY

“Let us consider,” says St. Charles Borromeo, “the profound poverty and abasement that the King of Heaven chose at His birth.” His dwelling is poor; poor, His crib; Mary, His Mother, is poor, everything about Him breathes poverty, and, yet He shares His poorly shelter with the irrational creatures. Such is the advent of the Creator of the world, such the royal splendor of His holy Nativity. Religious poverty, which we have the happiness to profess, requires that we love it, especially in its effects—namely, hunger, thirst, cold, fatiguing labors, privations and the contempt that it frequently elicits from the world. This truly evangelical virtue requires many great sacrifices, but Jesus generously requites all that we suffer for love of Him, so that afflictions and privations are as naught. Therefore, St. Magdalen of Pazzi admonished her religious: “Rejoice in misfortune and affliction, because after a little while you will receive a crown of eternal glory, and for a slight privation you will enjoy bliss without end.” Are we animated with an ardent love of poverty at the sight of Jesus, Who in order to redeem and enrich mankind, subjects Himself to a life of suffering and privations? Though it is impossible for us to imitate Jesus in the excess of His poverty, yet love of our Divine Spouse, and love of that sweet bond that unites us with Him, ought to make us ingenious in choosing for ourselves what is least gratifying and most fatiguing to nature.

Are these my sentiments? Have I ever complained of the effects of the poverty I have vowed to God?

Affections: O my beloved Saviour, how little and poor art Thou for love of me! To elevate me, Thou dost abase Thyself; to enrich me with grace in this life, and with everlasting glory in the world to come, Thou art the poorest of all the children of men. Full of reverence and grateful love, I kiss, in spirit, Thy poor crib; and with all the fervor of my soul renew my holy vow of poverty renouncing all attachment to earthly things, and willingly, yea, cheerfully accepting the privations, discomforts and the apparent forgetfulness of creatures. By the merits of Thy poverty, O my Jesus, replenish me with the wealth of Thy divine wisdom and love; enrich me with graces and virtues, that Thou mayest be my sole good here and in eternity.

Resolution: I will deposit the little privations that I meet with today, as an oblation at the feet of Jesus in the crib.

Spiritual Bouquet: “He has become poor that He might enrich us through His poverty” (Cor. 2, 9).

Prayer: Take, O Lord . . .

MEDITATION FOR JANUARY 3RD

MARY AND JOSEPH AT THE CRIB OF JESUS

“And they found Mary and Joseph and the Infant, lying in the manger” (Luke 2, 16).

First Prelude: Behold Mary and Joseph in profound adoration at the crib of the Infant Saviour.

Second Prelude: O Jesus, grant me the grace to understand and to imitate the virtues of Thy holy Childhood.

FIRST POINT

MARY AT THE CRIB OF HER DIVINE CHILD

What a ravishing spectacle for the holy angels is Mary, the virginal Mother, at the crib of the Incarnate God! She is holier and more beautiful than all the angels and archangels, the cherubim and seraphim, and because of her nearness to God, was alone worthy to become the Mother of God! Let us, too, behold Mary and seek in some measure, at least, to fathom the joy that fills her purest heart when for the first time she sees her Divine Son, presses Him to her heart, and lavishes upon Him all the marks of her tender, maternal affection. How lively is her faith, and with what humble astonishment does she not oft repeat: This helpless Child is in truth the great God, the King of heaven and earth; the Saviour of the world, the Expected of the nations, the Salvation of Israel, and nevertheless, He is my Son! She ponders assiduously in her heart all that the prophets had foretold concerning this Child—what the angel had promised her, and what had already come to pass, thereby increasing her faith and love. Thus she preserved in her maternal heart as a precious treasure, the mysteries accomplished before her eyes, for according to the decrees of the Most High, Mary by becoming the teacher of the Apostles, was to transmit this treasure as a sacred heritage to the Church of Christ.

May the example of Mary animate us with an ardent desire to ponder the truths of our holy religion with lively faith and humble love. May all our thoughts, affections, and inclinations, like those of Mary, be ever directed to the Divine Child. And, lastly, we beg the Infant Saviour to regulate our interior and exterior in accordance with His example, that thus we may attain to an ever closer union with Him.

SECOND POINT

ST. JOSEPH AT THE CRIB OF JESUS

How could we contemplate Mary at the crib of the Divine Child without, at the same time, giving attention to St. Joseph! Like Mary, he, too, ardently longed for the Saviour. With loving hands he prepared, as well as his utter poverty permitted, the stable which the Son of God had chosen as His birthplace in preference to all the palaces of the earth. Now the sweet heavenly Babe has appeared, and the humble foster-father hardly ventures to gaze upon the countenance of Him Who is the Splendor of the Father. Joseph is, as it were, overwhelmed by the contemplation of the infinite love and mercy of God toward men manifested in this mystery, and by the thought of the great grace conferred upon him in being the chosen foster-father and protector of the Divine Child. His angelic purity and ardent love, his childlike simplicity, his living faith, and fear of God, his meekness, and all the virtues of his noble soul, are augmented by the contemplation of the Incarnate Word. How dear to him is his own retired, and, in the eyes of the world, despised, life, when he beholds the powerful God, Whose throne is heaven, and Whose foot-stool is the earth, profoundly abasing Himself, by choosing, as an outcast of human society, to be born in a cave and laid in a manger!

O precious poverty, O blessed seclusion, which merited for Joseph the happiness of witnessing all these miracles! In spirit, we will kneel beside the holy foster-father, and in all sincerity ask ourselves whether we love to be unknown to the world, and employed in the lowliest and most hidden services in the house? In such employments we are most certain of finding Jesus, in the company of Mary and Joseph.

Affections: O holy Virgin, Mother of my Saviour, and thou, St. Joseph, chosen foster-father of Jesus, in union with you, I prostrate myself before the crib of the Divine Child, and desire to participate in the sentiments of your loving hearts. Grant, that there I may learn to understand and imitate the virtues of His holy Childhood—His humility, silence, recollection, and above all, His perfect conformity with the Will of His heavenly Father.

Resolution: I will, in the course of the day, often recall the fruit of the morning’s meditation.

Spiritual Bouquet: “But Mary kept these words, pondering them in her heart.”

Prayer: O Jesus, living in Mary . . .

MEDITATION FOR JANUARY 2ND

 THE HOLY NAME OF JESUS

“His name was called Jesus, which was called by the angel before He was conceived in the womb” (Luke II, 21).

First Prelude: Consider that at the name of Jesus every knee shall bend in heaven, on earth, and under the earth.

Second Prelude: O my Jesus, grant me the grace to understand rightly the power of Thy holy name, that through It, my mind, my heart, and all my actions may be sanctified.”

FIRST POINT

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE HOLY NAME

As the Israelites received a name at Circumcision, so the Son of God, when in the form of a servant He submitted Himself to that painful ceremony, willed that St. Joseph and His spotless Mother should give Him a name. This was merely the fulfillment of the Divine Will manifested to Mary by the words of Gabriel: “Thou shalt call His name Jesus” (Luke I, 31), and to St. Joseph in the revelation: “And thou shalt call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins” (Matt. I, 21). The heavenly Father reserved to Himself the right and power to give to His incarnate Son a name that should designate the sublime nature of His Being and divine mission.

The name, Jesus, tells us what the Son of God is for us,—our Saviour and Redeemer. With the name, Jesus, began the work of our redemption. By His voluntary submission to the law, He offered Himself to His Eternal Father as a victim, eager to embrace the privations and sufferings of a life to be terminated by a cruel and bloody death on the cross. “He humbled Himself, becoming obedient unto death, even to the death of the cross,” says the Apostle; “for which cause God also hath exalted Him and hath given Him a name which is above all names” (Phil. II, 8-9). Let us thank our amiable Saviour for having assumed the name, Jesus, for love of us and having willed to shed the first drops of His Precious Blood, even in infancy. In grateful love, we will reverence His holy name during this new year by placing all our trust in Its infinite power. The Incarnate God, in the mystery of the Circumcision, has given to all mankind the sweetest and most joyous salutation in His own sweet name, Jesus—Saviour—and as a further pledge of His love, He has added to it the rarest gifts,—the example of the most perfect obedience, the deepest humility and the most complete sacrifice. Shall we leave such love unheeded by neglecting to imitate these virtues so dear to Him, and so necessary for us? By our special calling to the religious state, the sweet Saviour wishes to impart to us the fulness of His virtues, if we but surrender ourselves wholly to Him, by perfect conformity to His adorable Will. To the practice of which particular virtue does the love of my Divine Saviour incite me?


SECOND POINT

WE SHOULD DO ALL IN THE NAME OF JESUS

The Apostle St. Paul admonishes us in his epistle to the Colossians: “All whatsoever you do in work or in word, do all in the name of the Lord, Jesus Christ” (Col. 3, 17). In imitation of Jesus, Who, in the moment of His conception, offered to the Eternal Father solely for His honor and glory, His mortal life with all its privations and sufferings, and Who in His Circumcision gave His own Blood, as a pledge of His incomprehensible love for us, thus becoming in very truth our “Jesus,” we too will give our good God every day, hour and minute of this new year. In the name of Jesus, we will offer Him our thoughts, words, works and sufferings, that they may tend to His greater honor and glory. We will, in future, live and labor but for love of Him.

As the Spouse in the Canticle bore the name of her beloved on her arm, so we should bear the name of Jesus in our hearts, in our thoughts, and on our lips. “All for Jesus,” should be our motto,—naught for the world, and naught for self and selfish interests. All labor and rest, all joy and pain,—all shall be for Jesus. Such sentiments are befitting a soul consecrated to God, a soul espoused by the bonds of religious vows to the dear Saviour. Jesus should live and labor in us, and we, in all our thoughts, words and works, should live in Him. Our Saviour Himself has said: “He that abideth in Me and I in him, the same beareth much fruit” (John 15, 5). Let us permit the dear Saviour to produce in us these fruits of true virtue by our constant and intimate union with Him. Let us begin each day’s work, every occupation, with the invocation of His sweet name, “For there is,” says St. Paul, “no other name under heaven given to men whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4, 12). Do I always pronounce the holy name of Jesus with due reverence and devotion? Do I always strive to perform my actions with the invocation of this sweet name and in union with my dear Saviour?

Affections: O divine, O sweet, O glorious name, which the heavenly Father had known and pronounced from all eternity! Ah, impress Thyself upon our souls, that through Thee they may be made worthy of eternal salvation. Relying upon Thy power, we will begin the new year with the firm resolve to die to self, in order to live for Him, Who died for love of us. May Thy name, O dear Jesus, be incessantly in our hearts and upon our lips, that through It we may conquer our enemies and persevere in good to the end. Grant, O Jesus, that having tenderly loved and honored Thy glorious name on earth, we may be made worthy to unite with Thy angels and saints in singing Its praises throughout eternity.

Resolution: We will frequently pronounce the holy name of Jesus with love and confidence.

Spiritual Bouquet: “O Jesus, be to me Jesus, and save me.”

Prayer: O Jesus, living in Mary . . .

MEDITATION FOR JANUARY 1ST

 

THE CIRCUMCISION OF OUR LORD

“And after eight days were accomplished, that the Child should be circumcised, His name was called Jesus, which was given by the angel before He was conceived in the womb” (Luke 2, 21).

First Prelude: Contemplate Jesus at His Circumcision, offering His Precious Blood for us to the heavenly Father.

Second Prelude: Inflame my heart with Thy love, my dear Jesus, that I may begin the new year with zeal and generosity.

FIRST POINT

THE LOVE OF JESUS IN THIS MYSTERY

Love constrained our Saviour even at the Circumcision to shed His Precious Blood for our salvation. “The souls of men were most precious in His sight,” says St. Charles Borromeo, in a sermon on this mystery, “hence, He wished to redeem them from the servitude of Satan and establish a security against such slavery. Filled with ardent love and tender solicitude, Christ begins, on the day of His Circumcision, that work of redemption which He wills to consummate on Calvary.” What love on the part of our Divine Saviour! Here He manifests Himself as the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world. At the price of His Blood, the God-Man purchases for Him- self the sweet name, Jesus, and by sufferings, reveals to us the excess of His love.

If Jesus is so eager to shed His Precious Blood for us, can we hesitate to give Him our hearts? Let us return love for love, by offering ourselves to Him anew at the beginning of this year. The strength so necessary for this generous self-immolation Jesus wills to impart to us in the Sacrament of His Love, by means of that same Precious Blood which He begins to shed for us on this day. It will fortify us for that spiritual circumcision of the heart by which the faults and the inordinate inclinations are re- moved. Let us then daily unite the offering of ourselves with the oblation Christ made of Himself to His Eternal Father. In loving gratitude for His first sacrifice, let us offer Him, at least, all those sacrifices, which we are able to make with His grace. What is there in me that must still be removed by the knife of spiritual circumcision? Is it vanity, sensuality, pride, self-will, impatience, or sloth?

SECOND POINT

CHRIST’S HUMBLE SUBMISSION TO THE LAW OF CIRCUMCISION

At the very beginning of His earthly career, our Divine Saviour willed, by perfect obedience, to atone for the disobedience of Adam. He, the Supreme Lawgiver, although not bound by the law, fulfills even its minutest details, thus showing by His example that He had not come to dispense from the law, but to fulfill it. We will admire the humble obedience of Jesus and learn from Him, our sublime Model, to fulfill the Divine Will by perfect observance of our Holy Rule. Thus we shall become true religious. We will observe not only rules that are easy and agreeable, but also such as demand sacrifices. Knowing that human pride is the cause of all disobedience to the law of God, Jesus abases Himself in the mystery of the Circumcision, by submitting to a rite to which sinners alone are subject. Are we not confounded at the sight of such abasement? We who, being sinners, fear to be considered as such, and much more, to be treated accordingly? Is it not pride that renders the humble duties of our holy calling fatiguing and burden- some at times? Let us bear in mind that loving and persevering fidelity in the performance of ordinary duties constitutes true greatness. It is this fidelity that makes us pleasing to God and secures for us the fullness of graces and merits. In future, we will seek our joy and happiness in the prompt and perfect observance of our Holy Rule. Love, yes, ardent love for Him “Who also loved us and gave Himself for us” (Gal. 2, 20), shall ever animate us in our earnest endeavor.

Affections: O dear Jesus, to prove Thy infinite love for me Thou didst will to shed Thy Precious Blood. Should not the consideration of such love fill me with sincere gratitude, and cause me to exclaim: “Lord, I will give Thee love for love, sacrifice for sacrifice. Thou offerest for me today the first droplets of Thy Precious Blood, and I give Thee the first moments of the new year which, with the assistance of Thy grace, I resolve to spend in the earnest pursuit of genuine virtue and sanctity. Sup- port my good will, dear Jesus. May Thy holy name be my strength, my hope, my salvation, my consolation, and my life. In Thy name, I shall courageously undertake the battle against the enemies of my soul, and shall carry the yoke of Thy law with unflinching fidelity.”

Resolution: Animated with grateful love, I will begin a life of love and sacrifice.

Spiritual Bouquet: “I have said it: ‘Today I will begin.’”

Prayer: Take, O Lord . . .