Tuesday, July 01, 2008

Meditation for July 2, The Visitation

A short respite from the earth to find in the depths of heaven the unchangeable Majesty of God; surcease from our petty struggles, our narrow views, our little conflicts, our little miseries, and our mean oppositions; to admire in the light and in the calm the infinite sovereignty of God - to this unusual sweetness does the Magnificat of Mary invite us.

To desire, if it were possible, to add to God's greatness; to ex­perience ecstasy even now before enjoying the vision of His Om­nipotence and Immensity; to dream - as did St. Theresa of Avila when she heard in the Credo of the Mass the Cujus regni non erit finis - of God's Kingdom begun in the very beginnings without beginning of the unfathomable Eternity of the past, and destined to perpetuate itself beyond all time into the mysterious, limitless un­folding of the Eternity to come - all this Mary's soul expressed in answer to the greeting of Elizabeth.

Does it not often happen, particularly when events make me suffer, that I attach too great an importance to them, an impor­tance which makes me forget their relationship to the commands and permission of God? Earth, above all when it is dreary, hides heaven from me; the pygmies here below prevent me from seeing God.

I will forget my difficulties, rise above them, rise above myself to become imbued with the spirit of the Magnificat. God, nothing but God! I will relinquish all that is little, and thirst for what is truly great. I will seek admittance only to the Inaccessible, establishing myself there so that all below will seem too remote and stripped of interest for my attention.

O Mary, give me something of your taste for the greatness of God.
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Adapted from Meditations for Religious
by Father Raoul Plus, S.J. (© 1939, Frederick Pustet Co.)

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