Meditation for December 2, The Life of Union

Yesterday, in considering my preparation for Christmas in union with Mary awaiting Jesus, I meditated upon my call to intimacy as one consecrated.

But there is another and more weighty reason for this intimacy, namely, that through baptism I have become a living tabernacle of the Most High.

God has not destined human beings to be merely human beings and nothing more. Over and above my human nature, my soul and body, a life transcending nature has been given me, a supernatural life. This supernatural life consists not only in the presence of a certain something within me, something that purifies my cognitive faculties, but rather in the mysterious yet very real presence of that great Someone who is God Himself.

Why will the Word come to the manger? For His own pleasure? No, indeed, but to restore to the intimate manger of my heart that ineffable Presence of God which original sin banished.

Every soul in grace is a living shrine of the Most High. Every soul in the state of grace, whether in the cloister or in the world, is by virtue of baptism alone called to a magnificent intimacy with God. It is my duty to ponder well this beautiful mystery of God present in my soul.

"O Holy Trinity, dwelling within me, make known to me this great secret, that I may not be ignorant of the gift of God which delighted the happy Samaritan woman at the well of Jacob. Let me seek daily to penetrate ever better this splendid reality of Your Presence in me. I wish to live in this nearness to You; to share with You my thoughts, my joys, my sufferings, be they great or small. Since I am never alone, but there are always two, You and I, is it not right that I associate You with all that happens to me and with all that I do?"

Here, then, is the first condition of the life of union, complete awareness of this sublime duality.
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Adapted from Meditations for Religious
by Father Raoul Plus, S.J. (© 1939, Frederick Pustet Co.)