"What are you going to do?" someone asked the superior of a house of the Religious of the Sacred Heart from whom an order of St. Sophie Barat had just taken a religious on whom the superior founded great hopes. "Oh," responded this true religious with quiet calm, "Sister X- did not carry off the key of the Tabernacle. "
In moments of weariness, of contradictions, or of trials, do I realize the value of recollection, of going to find Our Lord, to offer Him my affliction, to beg His help? Is not my first reaction to become sad, to pity myself, to withdraw within myself, to explain to others what has happened?
That is not a good method.
I always have the chapel where I can find Our Lord in the Tabernacle. What need have I of ruminating my miseries indefinitely, or telling others my troubles? Is not Jesus there? And from the depths of His tabernacle is He not eager to receive me; to accept the offering that I make to Him of my sorrow for His glory and for souls; to console me; to strengthen me? Come to Me you who suffer.
Someone once asked St. Ignatius what he would do if he were told that his little Society would be dissolved by order of superiors. "I would ask for a quarter of an hour for meditation to get the courage to accept."
Remember these beautiful examples and imitate them when the occasion calls for it. Whatever might happen, nothing can take from me my calm. I know where to go to find strength; I know in whom to trust. Were even the key of the tabernacle carried away and the tabernacle itself emptied and profaned, the God of the tabernacle is Himself invincible, and everywhere I can contact Him, everywhere claim His help, everywhere receive His succor.
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Adapted from Meditations for Religious
by Father Raoul Plus, S.J. (© 1939, Frederick Pustet Co.)
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