To Pope Eugene IV, one of his monks who had been raised to the sovereign pontificate, St. Bernard wrote, "When you belong to the whole world, be then, at least, one of those to whom you belong. "
St. Bernard feared that Eugene IV, called to govern the Church, absorbed in the heavy and pressing affairs of the highest charge in the world, might forget something of the care of his interior life, and that is why he said to him, "Since you have to attend to all souls, do not forget to place in that number your own soul. You cannot say we if someone is missing. What a pity if that someone would be you!"
If by reason of any assigned office, I need not concern myself at all with my neighbor, the duty of belonging to myself in the sense that St. Bernard meant it is easier, but not less imperative.
If I must on account of my state concern myself with others, I must always solicitously guard against letting the care of others impinge upon the essential duties I have towards myself. Some souls find a certain amount of difficulty in striking the happy balance between the cares of the apostolate, or sometimes simply occupational duties, and the duty of prayer and religious recollection.
Above all if I am by nature active, I must be on my guard in this respect. I must thank God for the gift of activity that He has given me, but avoid using it out of season and to the detriment of those things which the interior exercises of my religious life demand.
"My God, teach me to belong to myself, not certainly by withdrawing into myself through an unreasonable selfishness, but the better to give myself to You; the better to give myself to You, first of all, in prayer, and become thereby the better able to give myself to others, since the greater my holiness, the more efficacious my work."
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Adapted from Meditations for Religious
by Father Raoul Plus, S.J. (© 1939, Frederick Pustet Co.)
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