Chapter IV
Principal Subjects of Meditation
by Saint Alphonsus Liguori
Doctor of the Church
1759
The Holy Spirit says, "In
all thy works remember thy last end, and thou shalt never sin"
- Ecclesiasticus 7:40. He who often
meditates on the four last things-----namely,
death, judgment, and the
eternity of
Hell and Paradise will
not fall into sin. But
these truths are not
seen with the eye of the body; the
soul only perceives
them. If they are not mediated
on, they vanish from the mind;
and then the pleasures of the senses
present themselves, and those who do
not keep before themselves the eternal truths
are easily taken up by them; and
this is the reason why so many abandon
themselves to vice, and are
damned. All Christians know
and believe that they must die,
and that we shall all be judged; but because they do not think
about this, they will live far away from God.
If we, moreover, do not meditate
especially on our obligation to love God
on account of His infinite perfections
and the great blessings that
He has conferred upon us, and the
love that
He has borne us, we shall hardly detach ourselves from the
love of creatures in order to fix our
whole love on God. It is in the time
of prayer that
God gives us to understand
the worthlessness of earthly
things, and the value of the good
things of Heaven; and then it is that
He inflames with His love
those hearts that do not offer
resistance to His calls.
After all, the good rule is that we preferably
meditate on the truths
and mysteries that touch us more, and
procure for our soul the most
abundant nourishment. Yet the
subject most suitable for a person that aspires to
perfection ought to be the
Passion of Our Lord.
Louis Blosius relates that Our Lord revealed to several holy
women-----to Saint Gertrude, Saint Bridget,
Saint Mechtilde, and Saint Catherine of Siena-----that
they who meditate on
His Passion
are very dear to Him. According to
Saint Francis de Sales, the Passion
of Our Redeemer should be the
ordinary subject of the meditation
of every Christian. Oh, what an excellent book is the
Passion of
Jesus! There we understand,
better than in any other book, the malice of
sin, and also the mercy
and love of God for
man. To me it appears that
Jesus Christ has
suffered so many different
pains-----the
Scourging, the
Crowning with thorns, the
Crucifixion, etc.-----that, having before our
eyes so many painful
mysteries, we might have a variety
of different subjects for meditating
on His
Passion, by which we might excite sentiments of
gratitude and
love.
|
