Meditation for August 11, In The World

In the world but not of the world. How little soever my contact with the world may be, I must deal with it, and consequently I am faced with the problem of determining in what measure the world, the spirit of the world, and the action of the world influence my religious life.

I have interaction with my family, I come into contact with strangers, business men, pupils and their parents. Such contacts are not drawbacks if I have the proper spirit of faith, of detach­ment and of obedience. They can even be advantageous for me in enlightening me on practical realities, in giving me a new outlook.

But they can entail grave drawbacks if I seek them through thoughtlessness, or because of a taste for adventure, a spirit en­tirely different and opposed to the religious spirit.

When the Jewish people released from the Egyptian yoke wished to enter the Promised Land, they had to traverse the country of Edom. Moses sent a messenger to the king of the country asking the right to cut through the land.

And we beseech thee that we may have leave to pass through thy country. We will not go through the fields, nor through the vineyards, we will not drink the waters of thy wells, but we will go by the common highway, neither turning aside to the right hand, not to the left, till we are past thy borders.--Numbers xx, 17. I shall guard myself against useless or poisonous water; from tempting fruit; from unhealthy curiosities. I am on my way to my Father's house, only the King's road interests me.

"Grant me grace, O Jesus, never to deviate to the right or the left but to follow You, only You, Who art the One and only Way."

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Adapted from Meditations for Religious
by Father Raoul Plus, S.J. (© 1939, Frederick Pustet Co.)