Who can tell the treasures of joy contained in the single thought, "the state of grace"? To resemble the angels! To hold God within! If I suffer, to suffer for Him; if I weep, to feel that He consoles me; if I am ill, to have Him at my bedside; if I die, to go with Him to Heaven.
Pleasures lead to disgust and weariness; human joys, even the purest, lose in the long run the savor of their first transports. But in this union of the soul with God, there are joys unceasingly renewed.
He who does not bear within himself this divine harmony, sanctifying grace, cannot enjoy to the full the beauties of nature. Oh! to love You, my God, to love You in looking up to the sky, to behold You in everything, to hear Your Name in every passing sound, and to sing to You in my heart a hymn of ever-increasing beauty; such are the true delights of the Christian upon earth!
"My God, for myself, for all those I love, I ask but one single happiness, the state of grace." (Marie Jenna.)
During this whole time of Advent I will try to live more prayerfully in the living tabernacle of my soul; I will unite myself with the recollection of Mary awaiting the birth of Jesus who takes form within her chaste womb.
Jesus living in Mary during those nine months between the Annunciation and the Nativity was a real Presence. The Holy Spirit dwelling in me throughout my life by the state of grace is a Presence just as real. In Mary, however, it was a corporeal Presence, the Presence of Jesus, the Man-God. In me it is a Presence solely spiritual - the Holy Trinity has no body - but it is a decidedly Real Presence.
I will endeavor to accustom myself to the reality of the Real Presence within me.
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Adapted from Meditations for Religious
by Father Raoul Plus, S.J. (© 1939, Frederick Pustet Co.)
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