Patience - January 30

Patience
Thoughts on the Patient Endurance of Sorrows and Sufferings

VICTIMS WITH CHRIST [1]
[...Continued from yesterday]

But when Our Lord revealed Himself to St. Margaret Mary, and bade her promote the devo­tion to His Sacred Heart, He did not design to make of all these who should practice this devo­tion special victims; out on the broad fields of the world and in the narrower sphere of religion He meant to inflame ordinary Christian souls with divine love, and to appeal to them to make some reparation for the insults, the coldness and negligences, that He suffered from men in the Sacrament of His love.

There was one familiar way of serving Him, which our blessed Lord never tired of impressing upon St. Margaret Mary, the disciple and apostle of His Sacred Heart, in the midst of His revelations and direc­tions to her, and that was absolute fidelity to the duties of her state of life, unconditional, unex­ceptional obedience to rules and precepts, care­ful sanctification of every daily action.

When­ever His wishes and commands conflicted with those of the Mother Superior, Margaret Mary was always to obey the latter; she was to prefer the fulfillment of the slightest duty ordained by Rule, to the sacred joy of communing with Him in the Blessed Sacrament; strongly did He repri­mand and punish the least infraction of disci­pline, even though it were committed under the false idea of sanctifying herself or giving pleasure to her divine Spouse.

In this way He prepared her to instruct others and gradually to become herself a special victim of His love for souls.

Do we not desire to make reparation, at least for our own sins? Do we not also long to make ourselves pleasing to the Sacred Heart by discharging every debt that stands against us?

And is there anyone amongst us so cold, so devoid of apostolic spirit as not to wish to aid in saving the souls of his brethren?

Ah, then, let us labor to become faithful Christians, faithful observers of all the obligations of our state of life. Faith­ful observance of every duty implies a moral mar­tyrdom. Many saints lived ordinary lives and never attempted extraordinary things: their aim was to do ordinary things extraordinarily well.

In this wise we shall cancel many a debt, secure assistance for others and console the Heart of our Eucharistic Lord....[continued tomorrow]

[1] Adapted from Father Brinkmeyer's "Short Conferences on the Sacred Heart of Jesus."
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Compiled and Edited by Rev. F. X. Lasance
Author of "My Prayerbook," etc.
1937, Benziger Brothers
Printers to the Holy Apostolic See