Patience - January 31

Patience
Thoughts on the Patient Endurance of Sorrows and Sufferings

VICTIMS WITH CHRIST [1]
[Continued from yesterday]

...Those who are devoted to the interests of the Sacred Heart of Jesus should ever keep in mind one thing that He asks of them, and that is their help in the work of saving souls.

Many a human being is this moment on his death-bed. On the cot of a hospital ward, in a den of sin, on the prairies of the west, in the woods of Africa, out on the rough waves of an ocean-storm, perhaps unknown, alone, uncon­scious, a sinner is slowly breathing out his life. A few moments more, and all will be over for a never-ending eternity. Oh, how many of the dying are dead in sin! how many there are whose souls are laden with deeds of darkness! how many cold and reckless, how many struggling in de­spair!

Shall our Lord's blood bear no ransom; shall His Heart have loved in vain; shall He be deprived of the glory that He so justly claims?

Oh, pray with Him, suffer with Him. Have you the courage of love? Then offer yourself a victim to Him. Let the lamp of your life be burnt out for Him. Let sorrow darken your pathway and thorns be strewn over its sod. Let anguish of spirit be yours, since so often it was His. One day the good Master will meet you with a welcome and rest your weary head upon His bosom, and there let you be inebriated with the joy of His own living Heart.

[1] Adapted from Father Brinkmeyer's "Short Conferences on the Sacred Heart of Jesus."

The path of sorrow, and that path alone,
Leads to the land where sorrow is unknown;
No traveler ever reach'd that blest abode,
Who found not thorns and briers in his road.
-Cowper.

PRAYER

O God, grant that I may be ever mindful of the eternal years and that, as a pilgrim destined for the Heavenly Jerusalem, I may adhere un­flinchingly to the royal road of the cross, pushing onward and upward bravely and cheerfully, keeping my eyes uplifted to the everlasting hills, trusting in Thee, and looking for help from Thee, O holy God, O good God, O strong God.
____________________
Compiled and Edited by Rev. F. X. Lasance
Author of "My Prayerbook," etc.
1937, Benziger Brothers
Printers to the Holy Apostolic See