New Meditation Series Starting

While the previous series of meditations was aimed primarily toward priests, it nevertheless provided sufficient reflections for the lay person whose understands that all baptized Catholics who are not members of the ministerial priesthood, are still called to the "priesthood of faithful" and, as such, they should benefit from the reflections offered to our priests.

This new series of reflections, Meditations for Religious, likewise presents an opportunity to grow in one's faith and understanding, not only for priests and religious, but also for the those lay people who are also members of a "religious community" - one's local parish and diocese.

With God's grace and blessing, a person can, indeed, grow in virtue and faith by setting aside a short period of time for prayer, meditation and reflection. It is for this reason that I will be offering this new series of reflections. This will me an aid for me as well as for my brothers and sisters in Christ as we continue our pilgrimage to our heavenly home to be with our Lord. And Providentially it seems, the first meditation will be for the Feast of Our Blessed Mother's Assumption into heaven.

Until that meditation is posted this evening, please feel free to read the Introduction of the book "Meditations for Religious" by Father Raoul Plus, S.J.

Introduction

"Be not conformed to this world, but be reformed in the newness of your mind that you may prove what is the good, and the acceptable, and the perfect will of God." Romans 12:2.

That is the life task of every religious. The principal tool in its accomplishment is the daily hour of meditation wherein the soul is made ready for the reception of Divine Grace and disposed for complete cooperation with it. The method of meditation is mastered in the novitiate. As the years pass, the novelty of the regular life wears off. The points of meditation repeated annually fail to stimulate. External activity and accumulating years fatigue the body and make prayer more difficult. Dormant faults and weaknesses of character slyly reassert themselves as the soul tends to drop off into spiritual lethargy. Zeal is replaced by discourage­ment, generosity by self-indulgence based on a thousand natural excuses. The apostolate is ineffective because spirit and convic­tion are lacking. The Divine Spouse is allowed to climb the steep ascent of Calvary alone and to bear the full weight of His heavy cross. These dangers threaten every religious.

Yet convents the world over* are filled with generous, self-­sacrificing religious who for twenty-five, fifty, and even sixty years have not only kept the zeal and enthusiasm of the novitiate, but have increased their fervor from day to day. Timely spiritual food has expanded their souls in spite of external influences. They keep their eyes fixed on their Divine Spouse. They walk close to Him and lend Him the support of their love and labor.

Meditations for Religious by the Rev. Raoul Plus, S.J., is a veritable storehouse of solid nourishment for the religious soul; it presupposes, however, a deep knowledge of the Gospel. The medi­tations are founded on the Mass of the day and the liturgical seasons. Applications are suggested which are refreshingly origi­nal and often startling; there is no attempt to soothe into self-­satisfaction, to condone half-hearted service because of physical or temperamental weaknesses. The thoughts are cast before the reader like a challenge - brief almost to the point of incoherence, but arousing the soul and firing it to heroic generosity.

The book is not for beginners. It does not present completed meditations. A young soul, however, will find stimulation and motivation in the ideas suggested. The religious whose spirituality is already on a higher plane will find plenty of material to incite, promote, and stabilize that divine union which becomes the object of the soul's strivings as it advances in the way of perfection.

Where the author has appended a prayer to the consideration, that prayer is primarily suggestive. Father Plus considers as an intrusion any attempt to formulate the intimate conversation of the soul with God. That is too individual, too personal, too sacred.

The meditations are arranged in the order of the months begin­ning with December first. [We shall begin August 15] This permits the considerations for fixed feasts to occur on their proper date but necessitates setting a definite date for the cycle of movable feasts. The first Sunday of Lent has been placed on the first of March, and the Easter season is brought to a close with the feast of Pentecost on May thirty-first. There is a special group of meditations for the Sundays after Pentecost. Chronological and subject indexes facilitate the adap­tation of the meditations to the liturgical seasons.

The author has aimed at a maximal development of the spirit of the liturgy. Thus, in Advent the coming of the Redeemer is the central thought while the time of Lent is spent in the contem­plation of the Passion.

Father Plus needs no introduction to English-speaking religious. He needs no recommendation. It is sufficient merely to present this work of his written specifically for religious.

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From Meditations for Religious
by Father Raoul Plus, S.J.
Copyright 1939