Lenten thoughts : drawn from the Gospel for each day of Lent

Introduction

I have often heard a wish expressed that there existed some small book which might supply matter for meditation during Lent, and a further desire that such matter might be drawn from the portions of the Gospels which occur in the Mass during that season. I have endeavoured, however inadequately, to supply the want of such a book. I do not pretend to have written anything new or complete, and my endeavour has simply been to bring together such thoughts as naturally arise from the contemplation of the subjects, and which may be rather suggestive than exhaustive.

The little book has been written chiefly for the use of those who require some aid to meditation, and who find it difficult, without some such help, to concentrate their thoughts upon a spiritual subject. It does

IV

INTRODUCTION not pretend to be a regular course of meditations, but, as will be seen, it is of a desultory nature, containing some repetition, and perhaps even what may appear redundant. Such as it is, and with whatever defects it may have, I give it to the public, with the hope and prayer that it may help some souls to love Jesus Christ more, and for His sake to endeavour to sanctify themselves.

LENTEN THOUGTHS

MEDITATION.

Picture to yourself our blessed Lord sitting upon the Mount ; His disciples near Him, listening eagerly to Him, and directing the attention of others to Him. See also the multitude of people who had followed Him from various parts, earnestly drinking in His heavenly teaching; and listen to His words in spirit, trying to feel as if you were there. ‘When you fast, be not as the hypocrites, sad ? (St. Matt. vi. 16).

How sweet it is to hear our dear Lord encouraging us to cheerfulness, even in the performance of a penitential act ! We may be quite sure that He does not recommend a worldly gaiety ; for let us look upon His dear face, and there we shall see no signs of it ; but in the place of it a sweet heavenly serenity, captivating even to the senses, and how much more so to the pure heart that enters, or tries to enter, into His feelings.

ii.

May we never be sad? We may, but not on account of the performance of any act of religion. True Christian sadness proceeds only from the contemplation of our sins, and is to be distinguished from that grief which arises from wounded affections, or from sympathy with others. Jesus wept when Lazarus died ; but He was truly sad in the Garden of Gethsemane, when the sins of the whole world came like spectres before His sight, and were heaped upon His sacred and pure soul, and seemed as if they were His own.

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Sadness in religion is opposed to the Spirit of God. ‘ Serve ye the Lord with joy.’ ‘ Come in before His presence with exceeding great joy.’

It is equally opposed to the spirit of the Catholic Church, and is detestable when united with hypocrisy. The Saints were cheerful and serene.

Do we accept the command to fast without sadness ? Do we not grumble and complain of its hardness ? Are we truly sad at the sight and thought of our sins ? And do we not let all sorts of little miseries make us sad, even so much so as to prevent us from doing our duty properly ? If we find any fault in these respects in ourselves, let us now resolve to amend, and to spend this Lent as we would do if we were in the visible company of our Lord. Jesus, aid me by Thy grace. Pater, Ave, Gloria.

^hursbag before Jfiret .Suitbag of gCent

St. Matt. viii. 5-13.

Follow in spirit our blessed Lord in His descent from the Mount, and enter among the crowd that surrounds Him. Keep in His company from place to place. Look at Him ; listen to Him ; and see His reception of the centurion who comes to beg for the restoration of his servant to health.

No sooner does the centurion make his petition than Jesus answers, ‘I will come and heal him/ How sweet is this readiness of our dear Lord ! And to show the greatness of His charity, He proposes to do more than is required, namely, to go to the centurion’s house, when a word, or mere act of His will might accomplish the cure. In fact, He anticipates the petition, for the centurion had simply stated the grievous affliction which had fallen upon his servant, when Jesus says, ‘ I will go.’ Oh ! dear Jesus ! how kind, how loving Thou art !

The centurion was very humble . ‘ Lord,’

he said, ‘I am not worthy that Thou shouldst enter under my roof ; but only say the word, and my servant shall be healed.’ He thought it too great an honour for a sinner that Jesus, so good, so holy, should cross his threshold.

hi.

He had great charity , as we see by his eagerness to secure a great benefit for his servant ; for we find (St, Luke vii.) that he had already sent two messages to our Lord, Who was approaching his house, before he himself made his request. And he had great faith in the power and goodness of Jesus, Who said to him, ‘ Go, and as thou hast believed, so be it done to thee’; and He had already said that He had ‘not found so great faith in Israel.’

Faith ; Charity ; Humility. Have we such faith that we always habitually turn to God in all our distresses ? Do we not rather, as a custom, turn to worldly sources of consolation? Let us amend this. „

Have we great eagerness in our charity to our neighbour? In the centurion it almost amounted to impatience. When are we impatient? When our neighbour requires aid, does every lost moment appear to us of immense importance? Are we not rather impatient that his trials should trouble us? And how impatient we are under our own trials !

Do we, like Jesus, act at once, when charity calls us? Or again, are we inclined, like Him, to do more than is absolutely asked of us ? Dear Jesus, increase our charity.

Do we reflect sufficiently on the immeasurable distance in worthiness that there is between us and God ? Or do we not rather accept all His gifts and graces as if they were our due? We have enough to make us humble if we would but think of all our natural and spiritual defects. Let us pray for an increase of Faith, Charity, and Humility. Jesus, aid me by Thy grace. Pater, Ave, Gloria.

Jfribat) before Jfir0t <Sunbat) of gent*

Our blessed Lord is preaching on the Mount, as described in the Gospel of this day ; represent Him then to yourself as preaching to you, and think that you are hearing His voice, while you contemplate His perfections as God and Man, and while He tells you to be 4 perfect as also your heavenly Father is perfect.’

i.

We have been chosen by Almighty God to be members of His Church, and therefore to be His faithful followers, His friends, His children, and His heirs. It is His great mercy and love for us that have brought us to this position, the most noble that we can conceive on earth. We therefore ought to endeavour to imitate the holiness and perfection of our heavenly Father. Jesus especially draws our attention to one way in which we ought to strive to attain perfection, namely, by loving our enemies, and in this to distinguish ourselves from the heathens. 4 1 say to you, love your enemies ; do good to them that hate you ; and pray for them that persecute and calumniate you.’

ii.

Although He alludes particularly to one way of being perfect, nevertheless His words are of general application, and we must seek after perfection in all virtues, otherwise we i shall not be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect. Perfection is both of command and of counsel ; that is, there is a perfection which we are obliged to seek after, and a perfection which we are advised to endeavour to attain. We are all obliged to seek after perfection in Christianity, and in the state in which we are placed, and to love our enemies, and observe perfectly all the other commands of God. We are advised to aim at perfection by the adoption of the evangelical counsels of voluntary poverty, perpetual chastity, and religious obedience. Happy those souls who receive a direct call from God to the religious state !

iii.

An excellent and most efficacious means of arriving at perfection is to examine carefully and impartially into the state of our soul, and to discover the predominant passion, the principal vice from which our other vices proceed, and to endeavour, with all our power, to root it out. Think what is your chief vice, what is the one that leads you into so much mischief, and induces you to commit so many sins. Is it pride? Vanity? Laziness? Falsehood? Disobedience? Love of pleasure? Impurity? Neglect of duty? Neglect of the Sacraments? Human respect? Or is it any other vice ? Find it out, and resolve to avoid it.

Do I love my enemies for God’s sake as I love my friends ? Is my love extended to all ? or only to those whom my natural inclinations lead me to love, or perhaps from whom I expect something ? Do I try to do all my actions, to speak my words, and entertain my thoughts with a view to perfection ?

Let me remember in my choice of a state of life that it is my dear Divine Saviour Who advises me to observe the evangelical counsels. Can I have a better adviser ? Will the world advise me so well ? Will my own bad inclinations advise so well as He does ?

Have I ever properly set to work in real earnest to discover the source of my evil actions ; and to endeavour, day by day, to weaken my chief vice by falling into the sins to which it leads me, less and less often ? I will begin now from this moment. Jesus, aid me by Thy grace. Pater, Ave, Gloria.

before Jfivst <Sunbag oi |Eent.

Picture to yourself the Apostles rowing in their boat across the Lake of Gennesareth.

The wind is against them ; the boat labours in the heavy sea, when Jesus walks forth from the shore upon the waters, and seems as if He would pass them by. They think it is a spectre, and cry out with fear, when His voice comes to them over the raging waves, bidding them have courage, for it is He.

The space of our life is like a sea which we must pass over in order to reach the happy shores of heaven. We have many obstacles to contend against in our voyage, which may be summed up in the words, the World, the Devil, and the Flesh. The opinions and prejudices of men ; their ridicule, their persecution, their unkindness, their very praises oppose us. Human respect singularly impedes us, we care so much about what men think and say. The devil raises storms against our salvation by his evil suggestions and temptations, and the flesh by the rebellion of our corrupt nature. If we truly wish and try to serve God we are sure to meet with these storms, we must expect them, and resolve to overcome them ; if we do not care about His service, all may seem to go on smoothly for a time, but in a moment we shall be lost for ever.

II

In the storms and trials of life, that is in our afflictions, in our temptations, in our sins even, Jesus comes towards us to save us, very often in such ways that, like the disciples, we do not recognise Him. Our hearts are blinded, and so we do not receive into them the inspirations of His grace. We do not see the use of mortification, of patience under trials, of bearing injuries and insults calmly, of submitting to all the wise and useful discipline provided for us by the Church. This is our own fault, and we must correct it.

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What sweet encouragement is in those words, ‘ It is I, fear ye not.' But we must deserve that they should be addressed to us by making use of the means at our disposal for drawing Jesus to our side. Those means are prayer, and the worthy reception of the Sacraments, combined with an exact observance of the commandments, and of the laws of the Church.

Do I ever neglect a duty, or commit a wrong action out of fear of the blame, or ridicule, or impertinent conduct of my fellowcreatures ? Am I ever ashamed of my religion, or of any religious practices, because they are contrary to the notions of those that I may meet, or who are about me ? Do I ever do good actions in order to acquire praise ? Do I, in fact, put the praise or blame of men above the praise or blame of God ?

Do I ever mortify myself voluntarily? Do I receive involuntary mortifications in the spirit of penance ? And do I comply willingly with all that the Church enjoins for the proper discipline of my soul? Am I fasting and abstaining during this Lent in a true Catholic spirit ? At all events, I will do so now, and I will correct all the faults that have come to my mind during this meditation. Jesus, aid me by Thy grace. Pater, Ave, Gloria.

4fit0t ot gent

Gospel. — St. Matt . iv. 1-11.

Our dear Lord has just come forth from the waters of Jordan, where He had been baptized by St. John the Baptist ; the heavens had been opened to Him ; He had seen the Spirit of God descending as a dove, and^ coming upon Him, and had heard a voice* from heaven, saying : ‘ This is My Beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased ’ (St. Matt, iii. 16, 17). And at once He is led by the

Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. See Him urged by the Spirit, and hastening to the desert, and follow Him with your heart in this momentous journey.

i.

It was not the evil spirit,, which afterwards tempted Him, that led Jesus into the desert, but the Spirit of God, the Spirit of holiness and truth, with which He was filled. Not a moment was lost after His baptism, but He must begin at once His career as an example to men. He is driven on by the burning ardour which the Holy Ghost enkindled in His heart, and hastens to the awful humiliation of a personal interview with the devil. Consider Him alone upon the side of that distant and barren mountain to which He fled, and in His deep solitariness fasting for forty days and forty nights. See His attitude expressive of sublime resignation to His Father’s will. Hear His sighs and prayers for the men whom He had come to save. Try to enter into the unspeakable beauty of the thoughts that fill His Sacred Heart, as He contemplates the infinite glory of His Eternal Father. Praying, watching, and fasting, for forty days and nights, He is alone in sublime solitude.

II.

But, suddenly, He is no more alone. There stands another in visible presence before Him. All wickedness is confronted with all holiness, all hatred with the ineffable love of God made man, the hideous monstrosity of sin with the calm beauty of the embodiment of heavenly virtue. Oh ! daring crime of Satan ! Oh ! wondrous humiliation of Jesus ! He does not fly, and so escape the torture of that odious presence. He stays, and meets the tempter face to face. Contemplate the calm, majestic dignity with which He answers Satan, striking and scathing him with the simple Word of God, until the conquered tempter leaves Him.

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But He is not now alone. See how from heaven come streaming down bright lines of Angels. See how they cluster about Him ; how in attitudes of adoration they minister to Him as their Creator and their Lord. Join with those angelic bands in sentiments of congratulation, love, and adoration.

Oh ! how I love Thee, my Jesus, for the humiliation of this temptation undergone for my sake ! How I admire Thee ! Yet how ofteri do I not forget the example Thou hast shown me ! Do I never listen, with only a half- will of resisting, to the tempter ? Let me think only of yesterday. Had I any temptations? What did I do when they came to me ? I am ashamed when I think of my conduct, and contrast it with Thine.

Again, so far from imitating my Lord, have I never rather followed the example of the devil, and dared to remain in the presence of God when my soul has been hideous to Him through mortal sin ? 1 cannot fly from His

presence, but I can cleanse my soul if I will, and make it pleasing in His sight by a good confession. Jesus, aid me by Thy grace. Pater, Ave, Gloria.

Jftonimg in the Jirst ®eek oi gCent.

Gospel. — St. Matt. xxv. 31-46.

Let us represent to ourselves the Son of Man, as our dear Lord loves to call Himself, coming in His Majesty, and all the Angels with Him, and seating Himself upon His throne of judgment. Then let us see all the nations of the earth — men who have been dead for thousands of years, and those who have only just been consigned to the tomb — trooping in countless multitudes towards the judgment-seat.

I.

We must look upon this scene as if we were mere spectators at a distance. We shall most certainly be among those who shall awaken at the sound of the trumpet of the Archangel. Our bodies will once more be united to our souls — those very bodies and souls which we now possess ; and we shall arise from our graves, from the sea, from places where our bones may have been scattered, and shall be urged by an irresistible force to go before the face of the Judge. It will be in vain to try to hide ourselves, and so escape the terrible scrutiny and exposure of that day. We shall be no longer our own masters. The exercise of free-will will be at an end ; and whether we will or not, we must be judged.

See how our Lord divides the good from the bad, even as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats on the hillside. On which side am I ? On which side do I now deserve to be ? On the right with the good, or on the left with those who are hurled to everlasting torments, and the loss of God and all good ? Let me think seriously on the state of my soul as it is now, and

2 — 2 consider with what face I could appear before the all-seeing scrutiny of the eyes of Jesus. I may die in a moment, as so many thousands have done who thought their chances of life as good as I now think mine. And if I die in mortal sin, I must be. judged in mortal sin.

hi.

Consider the law of love as the foundation of the judgment. How wondrous it is to see God’s judgment and His love brought into such close contact, and seem to have been made one! And love for the least of human kind ! ‘ Amen I say to you, as long as you

did it to one of these My least brethren, you did it to Me.’ How sweetly He identifies Himself with His creatures ! And in what alluring colours is not the judgment depicted to us, when, without this, its terrors would have been increased in an almost infinite degree. It is Love that judges upon that throne of Majesty.

I am confounded when I look into the state of my soul, and see how unfit I am to pass this great judgment of love. As I am, I dare not brave ‘ the wrath of the Lamb.’ O Jesus! I will ‘sweep my soul/ as holy David says; I will be charitable; I will let Thy love be supreme in my heart : and, for Thy sake, I will love my neighbour as myself. In all my transactions with men, I will consider that I am dealing with Thee. Jesus, aid me by Thy grace. Pater, Ave, Gloria.

‘Uuesbag in the Jirst SIteek of gCent.

Gospel. — St Matt. xxi. 10-17.

See our dear Lord passing through the inquiring crowds who hastened about Him in the streets of Jerusalem, all in commotion, asking one another, ‘Who is this?’ Regardless of their clamour, and of their questions and answers concerning Him, He goes straight on to the Temple, and, entering it, finds men there who bought and sold, and thus desecrated the holy precincts. In His zeal for His Father’s glory, He cast them out, overturning their tables and benches, and bitterly reproaching them.

The zeal which Jesus had for His Father’s honour and glory was proportioned to the intimate knowledge which He had of what that honour demanded, and of how it was assailed by the unworthy conduct of these men. Since that knowledge was perfect and most exact, we can form some distant idea of how great His indignation was, and how His Sacred Heart was pained when He saw that men forgot the holiness of His Father’s house, and turned that sacred Temple into a common market-place. His indignation is a holy indignation, without one particle of fault in it. Contemplate it, and consider how detestable to Him is any profanation of holy things.

ii.

The Temple of Jerusalem was the type of the Christian soul, which by Baptism is made the temple of the Holy Ghost, and by the Holy Communion becomes the dwellingplace of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. If the anger of Jesus was so great when He saw the material Temple profaned, what must be the pain of His Sacred Heart when He beholds an immortal soul in mortal sin ? — when He is forced, as it were, to enter into such a soul, a defiled temple, when He is unworthily received in the Communion ? Such a soul is to Him a den of thieves ; nay, worse, a den of devils. Into what fearful company the unworthy receiver forces the pure Lamb of God ! How terrible is the wrath of that Lamb, and the punishment which awaits such a soul !

III

The anger of Jesus did not take possession of Him so far as to make Him forget His mission of love and mercy, for we find that, while still in the Temple, the blind and the lame came clustering about Him, and He cured them. Contemplate our Lord in these acts of goodness, and imagine you hear Him speaking kind and encouraging words to these poor people, and see Him restoring to them their lost faculties. The hard-hearted and profane He casts away ; but the poor, the helpless, and afflicted, He gathers to His Sacred Heart.

Am I ever indignant ? Yes, truly, very frequently. Is it because God is offended, and out of pure zeal for His honour? No; it is because / am offended. It is when I am insulted ; when men undervalue me ; when they prefer others to me ; when they question or deny my claims to their consideration. Let me amend this.

Have I such great claims to the esteem of men when I have so often forfeited that of God by my sins ? Perhaps even I have gone the length of profaning the Sacraments, of making a bad confession and Communion. I will examine my conscience upon these points, and I will apply a remedy if I find anything wrong.

Again : I know that, as a Catholic, I have sometimes been indignant at words and acts which insulted the religion I profess. Has it been simply an indignation on account of God ? And has it ever made me forget the duty of charity? Has it ever so far upset my mind that I have been distracted through it, and allowed myself to be led by it into any fault ? I will search into this, and correct myself. Jesus, aid me by Thy grace. Pater, Ave, Gloria.

(Smber SEUimeebaj).

Gospel. — St. Matt. xii. 38- 50.

Imagine our blessed Lord surrounded by Scribes and Pharisees who try to tease and annoy Him by asking Him to perform a miracle for them. Admire His patience, and at the same time the outspoken and unflinching way in which He tells them that their generation is an evil one, and in which He proclaims His superiority to Jonas and to Solomon.

Patience and truth were most conspicuous in the conduct of Jesus. And, after His example, they have been very observable in the lives of all His Saints.

Patience means suffering, or waiting with calmness and resignation; and what Jesus had to suffer in the scene here recorded, was the importunate impertinence of malicious and hypocritical men. How trying this must have been to one Who saw into the depths of their hearts, and Who knew the motives which urged them to make their request !

Notwithstanding that He knew and measured their malice and hypocrisy, He does not disdain to give them instruction, but speaks out the truth plainly to them, telling them that the men of Ninive and the Queen of the South should rise up in judgment against them.

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The men of Ninive did penance on the preaching of Jonas, and the Queen of the South came from very distant lands to hear the wisdom of Solomon ; and, although they were Pagans, our dear Lord speaks in praise of them for what they had done well. It was their correspondence with a supernatural inspiration that called forth His praises. He is continually calling us to penance by the voice of His Church, and especially at this time of Lent ; and He would ever have us seek after the wisdom of Himself, Who is greater than Solomon, the wisdom of seeking after His love and His law before all things on earth, and our eternal salvation in the next life. What is all worldly wisdom when compared with that which the Saints sought and found in the study of His Sacred Heart ?

Am I patient habitually in all my dealings with God, and with my fellow-men ? If I desire to love God above all things, am I not impatient when 1 find that I do not succeed at once ? And does not this impatience show itself by a sort of petulant despair, so that I am tempted to give up trying to be virtuous or perfect ? Have I ever yielded to this ?

But if I am so imperfect as not even to have arrived at the sincere wish to serve God perfectly, how many things excite my impatience ! I cannot stand the slightest impertinence. I cannot bear that men should expect me to give any proofs of my truth, etc. And the insolence of men very often, perhaps, even deters me from announcing to them the truth, and makes me silent when in duty I ought to speak.

Let me take heed lest the very Pagans, and those who are not Catholics, who have done their duty as far as they know how, rise up in judgment against me, who have had so many graces, so many opportunities and chances of doing good. O Jesus ! I will do prance in time, and I will accept this Lent as coming from Thee, through Thy Church, for the due correction of my soul. Jesus, aid me by Thy grace. Pater, Ave, Gloria.

^hurshai) in the Jjirst Wink of gCent Gospel. — St. Matt . xv. 21-28.

Imagine in your mind Jesus walking with His disciples along the sea-coast of Phoenicia, near those ancient towns of Tyre and Sidon, and see the Canaanean woman, who comes, full of faith in His miraculous powers, to invoke His aid for the cure of her daughter.

Jesus did not answer a word to her first supplication ; He seemed to turn a deaf ear to her entreaty. In my case, would not this be enough to repel me altogether ? Should I not feel that my pride was wounded, and that I was made of no consideration ? How often has it not happened to me that I have prayed for favours, and have been discouraged, or even disgusted at their not being granted at once ? I will look upon the dear face of Jesus, and study His Sacred Heart, and I shall find that, all the while, He is full ot sweetness and mercy, that His Heart is yearning for me, that if there be any fault, it is all my own, and that the only thing to disgust me should be my own pride and impatience.

ii.

When the disciples asked Jesus to send her away because she was crying after them, His reply was that He was only sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. This answer, as excluding the Canaanean from His mission, would seem to be a terrible rebuff ; but it appears only to have induced her to approach nearer, to adore Him, and to beseech Him piteously, 1 0 Lord, help me/ Admire the strength of her desire that her petition should be complied with; and also the hidden motive of our dear Lord, Who wished to make a trial of, and to manifest publicly, her perseverance and her faith.