Epiphany

1. Let us consider the faith of the Magi, a faith which was willing, lively and active. They saw in the sky the star which heralded the Infant Jesus, and experienced the divine inspiration in their hearts. Immeditately, they went in search of Him. They were not even deterred by the long and hazardous journey which lay before them.

When they arrived at Jerusalem, they found Herod, who did not know what they were talking about. The star disappeared, and the priests replied coldly to the questions they asked. But all the time their trust in the divine call continued to grow. Eventually they reached a poor barn, where they found not an earthly King, but a little child who was crying on the straw bed of a manger. As a reward for their trouble and perseverance, a voice in their hearts told them that this was Jesus, the King of Kings and Saviour of the world.

Unfortunately, when we hear the divine call, no matter how clear and simple it is, we find a thousand excuses for delaying and perhaps for not responding to it at all. Let us humbly promise to be more generous in listening for it and more energetic in complying with it, regardless of the cost.

2. It was love which inspired the Magi. Love sustained them on their journey and made them fall prostrate in adoration before the Infant Jesus. Even before they offered Him material gifts they offered Him their hearts. As a reward for their faith and charity, God showered His graces upon them and an immense supernatural joy pervaded their souls. In that moment of adoration they received the highest possible reward for their hardships and perseverance. With deep interior joy they gave Jesus their hearts and never withdrew them. A pious tradition maintains that they became apostles and saints, and in fact the church venerates them as such. We should follow the example of the Magi and promise before the cradle of the Infant Saviour that we shall face any sacrifice, even death, rather than offend Him, and shall work in every way possible for His glory and our sanctification.

3. The Magi gave Jesus material gifts also as symbols of their complete dedication to Him. They gave Him gold because He was a King; incense because He was God; and myrrh because He was man. We often say that we love God and wish to serve and obey Him in all things. But when we see that this entails sacrifice, we forget our promises.

We must ask ourselves if we are prepared to offer Jesus gold, that is, to offer Him everything we possess for the promotion of His glory, for the spread of His Kingdom, and for the relief of His poor, in whom we ought always to see and love Christ Himself. We must examine ourselves thoroughly on this. It is easy to find excuses for not giving to God and to His poor in accordance with our means. We should offer also the incense of our adoration and unceasing prayer. There can be no sanctity without prayer. There can be no real Christians without sanctity. Finally, we must offer the myrrh of our mortification. Mortification, as St. Vincent de Paul has said, is the ABC of Christian perfection. St. Paul exhorts us to carry always in ourselves the mortification of Jesus. If we are not mortified we can never be holy and can never share the joy which the Magi experienced as they lay prostrate before the cradle of our Divine Redeemer.

Venial Sin*

1. Next to mortal sin, the greatest of all evils is venial sin. Sin is always an offence against the God of goodness. When we sin, we place our own will above His and put Him in a position secondary to ourselves. If mortal sin is spiritual suicide because it exstinguishes in us the divine life of grace, venial sin is an injury, more or less grave, to the soul. The former completely separates us from God; the latter moves us farther away from Him. Mortal sin means the death of the soul. Venial sin is a disease of the soul which reduces its supernatural powers and leaves it more open to the ever-increasing attractions of evil.

We cannot speak of small sins, as if sin could be a triviality. Sin is always something great and terrible, because it is an offence against our Creator and Redeemer, whom we should love, honour and serve with every impulse of our heart and with the whole strength of our will. It is the height of ingratitude, because in order to offend God we make use of the gifts He has given us --- our eyes, ears, speech and all our powers of soul and body.

Let us think seriously about this. We must firmly resolve to be more vigilant so that with the grace of God we may avoid ever committing a deliberate venial sin.

2. There is another motive which obliges us carefully to avoid ever committing a venial sin. The path of sin leads us down a smooth and slippery incline towards destruction. Once we begin to descend it is difficult to stop. Even to begin is a disaster:

He who wastes the little he has will be stripped bare. (Eccles. 19:1)
He who is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much;
and he who is unjust in a very little thing is unjust also in much. (Luke 16:10)

Whoever is faithful to God in little things, will receive from Him the grace to remain faithful also in greater things, but a man who despises the lesser falls rejects the divine assistance and so exposes himself to the danger of falling more seriously. If we reflect on such dangers, we shall have a real fear of venial sin and shall be always on our gurad against it.

3. The Gospel tells us that we must render an account of every idle word, and that nothing tarnished can be admitted into the splendour of Paradise. In the terrible torments of Purgatory we must pay the full price for all our faults, even the slightest. The thought of such fearful punishment should frighten us, but the love of God should keep us far from all shadow of sin. We read of some of the saints that throughout their lives they wept at the mere remembrance of their slightest negligence. If we loved God truly, we should shun the least suggestion of sin.

Sin

1. In that we prefer our own wayward whims to the law of God, sin is an abuse of liberty. It is a revolt against right reason, the dictates of which we refuse to obey. It is an offence against our Creator and Redeemer, whose commandments we despise and whose redeeming grace we reject by our actions. It is, moreover, an act of supreme folly, for it exstinguishes not only the supernatural splendour of grace, but also the natural light of reason. Through sin man is brutalised, and experiences in himself as his first punishment the confusion of his whole being.

In practice, the sinner denies God who has created and redeemed him. He upsets the natural order of things and is violently seperated from the source of all truth, beauty and goodness. As a result he experiences in himself the hell which he has constructed with his own hands --- a hell of emptiness, disgust and remorse. Unless the helping hand of God reaches out to rescue him from the abyss, all this is simply a bitter foretaste of eternal despair. God, as St. Augustine has written, has ordained from all eternity that every dissolute soul will be its own punishment. For the sinner hell begins on this earth. There can be no peace for the wicked.

When we realise the gravity, stupidity and dire consequences of sin, it seems impossible that a rational being, enlightened and enriched by divine grace, should continue to sin. Nevertheless sad experience teaches us that the lives of individuals, families and human society in general are often distorted by this evil, which is the root of all other evils.

2. In order to understand more clearly the gravity of sin, it is helpful at this stage to consider three things: ---

(a) The world with all its evils --- sorrows, diseases, wars, plagues and death. All these things do not come directly from the will of God, Who is the highest good, but happen with His permission. They are the effect of original sin and of the continuing transgressions of men.

(b) Hell, which is the handiwork of sin. God, infinitely good but also infinitely just, has ordained this terrible and everlasting punishment for the rebellious sinner.

(c) The Crucifix. To save us from sin the God-Man has suffered the cruellest of torments and death, but men go on offending Him with unbelievable ingratitude.

3. Now let us turn the spotlight on ourselves and think of our past lives. So many sins and abuses of God's grace! Such coldness and ingratitude! where has all this brought us? Spiritually, sin has deprived us of God and of the supernatural life which His grace gives us. Intellectually, it is an absurdity, a dishonour and a degradation. Physically, it is an inversion of the right order and often means total ruin. Let us humbly repent, therefore, and make resolutions so firm that we shall be read to face any sacrifice, even death, in order to put them into practice.

Making A Good Meditation

1. It is not enough simply to make a meditation. It ought to be made well. It is well made only when it results in an increase of solid virtue and sanctity. Meditation, moreover, should not be study, but mental prayer --- a raising of the mind to God, asking Him to illumine the darkness of our hearts, too often entangled with the things of the world, and to reinforce our wills, rescuing them from the violent attractions of evil and drawing them in the direction of virtue and sacrifice. To meditate is not to study, but to pray. Whoever loses himself in subtle investigations of Christian Doctrine in order to learn something or to be able to mystify others, is studying, not meditating. It would be even worse to let one's imagination wander off into a kind of pseudo-mystic daydream.

Let us be quite clear about this. Meditation is not a waste of time, but a very serious occupation. It consists in placing ourselves in the presence of God, in admitting to Him our misery and weakness, in thinking about the eternal truths so that our minds may be enlightened, and in aiming at a Christian self-renewal through the making and carrying out of good resolutions.

2. Some people claim that they cannot concentrate for any great length of time on meditation. In their case it is very helpful to combine mental and vocal prayer. Short ejaculations, and expressions of love for God and of an ardent desire for holiness, can restore the atmosphere of recollection, making the intellect more attentive, the heart more fervent, and the entire spiritual exercise more profitable.

When our minds wander or grow drowsy, we must pull ourselves together by placing ourselves once more in God's presence and beginning to converse with Him in a humble and loving fashion. We must remember how much we need Him and how anxious He is to inspire and help us. We are so poor and weak; He is infinitely powerful and strong. We are lost in darkness; He is the Light which illumines every man who is travelling through this world.

3. Alessandro Manzoni was once asked how he had managed to penetrate so deeply into the human mind. Newton was asked how he had succeeded in discovering the law of universal gravity. Manzoni's reply was: "By thinking about it." Newton's was: "By thinking intensely."

Now, in our meditations we must reveal ourselves to ourselves, which is a very difficult thing to do. It is nevertheless supremely important, because its purpose is not literary or scientific but is the eternal salvation of our souls. The attaining of such a purpose demands serious application on our part, as well as earnest prayer that God will guide us so that we may lead lives which will be in union with Him and directed towards their eternal goal, the enjoyment of the Beatific Vision of God. St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus always held that anybody who was careful to spend at least ten minutes every day in devout meditation was certain of salvation.

The Necessity of Meditation

1. "With desolation is all the land made desolate, because there is none that considereth in the heart." (Jer. 12:11)

Very often the world is plunged in the desolation of evil because there is nobody who will speak with God in the silence of his heart and try to regulate his life according to His holy commandments. It is in a particularly outstanding way today that the heresies of actionism and externalism dominate the great mass of mankind. To act, to rush, to arrive...above all, to arrive! But to arrive where? In this frantic, frenzied and tumultuous race, in which good people are often found competing, two very sure things are forgotten, namely, that we shall finally arrive at death, and that from death we shall pass on to eternity. The whole course of our lives, therefore, should be directed towards this end. But if we are to keep this end in view, prudent reflection is essential, especially meditation, made with the assistance of the Divine light, on the eternal truths.

Absorbed in the deafening din of the world around us, it is difficult to hear the voice of God. At least for a little while each day, we must create within ourselves a zone of silence in order to listen to His voice. Since God speaks readily in the silence of the heart, let us recollect ourselves before Him in this quiet oasis. At least a quarter of an hour of daily meditation is essential for the life of Christian. This should be the jumping-off board for all the actions of the day, if we wish these to be correct and productive of good.

2. The masters of the spiritual life assure us that without the practice of meditation it is almost impossible for the just man to persevere in virtue, or for the tepid to become fervent, or for the sinner to be converted. God, it is true, can work miracles. At times the grace of God can strike the sinner with the suddenness of a thunderbolt and convert him. But it is the ordinary rule of the spiritual life that meditation on the truths of eternity, especially on the last things, stirs up the soul and moves it, under the influence of Divine grace, to form good resolutions. Even though the first fervour diminishes, the daily repitition of this pious practice revives and strengthens such good resolutions, and causes them to be realised in activities which are in accordance with Christian teaching.

Sin and tepidity cannot co-exist with the practice of daily mental prayer, if this is carried out as it should be. If we keep our hearts united to God and listen willingly and attentively to His voice, we shall be able to effect in ourselves that total renovation of which St. Paul speaks: "But be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new man, which has been created according to God, in justice and holiness of truth." (Eph. 4:23)

3. There are various ways of meditating. Each one should choose whichever suits his own character and dispositions. It will always be necessary for him at the outset, however, to place himself in the presence of God, asking for light and strength from Him; then to reflect on certain truths in an effort to apply them to his own particular circumstances and needs; and finally to make the necessary resolutions and beseech God to bless them and make them fruitful.

It is very useful, moreover, to recall to mind frequently during the day the resolutions which have been formed, and to accompany these reflections with short prayers, ejaculations, and acts of love for God.

The New Year

1. This is a new gift which God in His infinite goodness gives to us. But every gift of God demands on our part a generous expression of gratitude, which should result in positive acts of virtue. Gratitude is an empty and short-lived sentiment unless it is accompanied by a sincere intention of performing good works.

Time is the price of eternity, because with time we can purchase an eternity of happiness or misery.

Consider this great truth. Every year is like a ladder in our lives. Now, it is necessary that this ladder should lead us, not perilously downwards towards evil, but upwards towards Heaven, even if with faltering footsteps.

The New Year opens today as a blank page in the diary of our lives. What do we intend to write there? The usual inanities and sins, perhaps? Let us reflect before God and in the light of the eternity which awaits us. This is the time for great decisions. It is necessary that we should offer our resolutions to God along with a humble and fervent prayer that He will strengthen us to comply faithfully with His grace.

2. During these days it is customary to exchange, verbally or in writing, good wishes for the New Year. But these poor greetings are often nothing more than conventional phrases. Men lack the power to transmute such good wishes into reality. God alone is the source of every material and spiritual good; therefore He alone can ensure that these benevolent expressions are translated into deeds of Christian renovation. Since today is the beginning of the New Year, it is especially important for us to ask God more fervently and insistently to bless the resolutions which we are making for ourselves and the good wishes which we are showering on our friends.

These wishes have no meaning, and these resolutions have no force, if they are not accompanied by fervent and persevering prayer.

3. It is suggested in The Imitation of Christ that if we were to get rid of at least one habit of sin every year, we should soon be holy. If we have not tried to do this in the past, let us propose to do it in the future. This year let us select the principal defect which we possess, the sin into which we are most accustomed to fall. Let us seek to eradicate it with all the strength of our soul, assisted by the grace of God which will certainly not be denied us. Let us request for this purpose the most powerful patronage of Mary Most Holy. Let us pass this day in close union with God and under the maternal mantle of our Heavenly Mother. Finally, let us promise earnestly that all the days of the New Year will follow the same pattern.

Preface

"Pray for me," the well-known spiritual writer, Father Cordovani, once wrote in a letter to a friend, "that I may not die without having led some soul to sanctity and without having written some book which will continue to preach the Gospel long after my voice has been silenced for ever."

In writing these pages I have desired likewise to do a little good, first of all for myself and secondly for those who may wish to read and reflect upon them. I hoped to accomplish something for myself in that I wrote down these short daily meditations in order to be able to remember them more easily and to be able to turn to them whenever the opportunity should arise. Then, on the advice of enlightened friends, I decided to publish them in the hope that they might prove useful to others.

It was my intention to produce an edifying rather than an erudite work. This explains the simple style and the repitition of certain ideas. I have found it convenient to return to these ideas at regular intervals in order to impress them more deeply on the mind and heart of the reader.

There are many well-written books of meditations, but they are either too long and therefore inaccessible to many classes of people who complain that they have not got time to read them, or they are written in an antiquated style which is not acceptable today. The result is that many persons, including some who are genuinely holy, never make a meditation at all, and this is a very great loss.

I have done my best to be concise and, at the same time, to offer an abundance of ideas, in the hope that the reader of these pages may derive from them material for useful reflections and for profitable resolutions.

May God and the Blessed Virgin bless my labour so that it may be the source of good for many souls.

- Antonio Cardinal Bacci

Introduction

These meditations of Antonio Cardinal Bacci (1885-1971) were first published in Italian in 1959 by Casa Editrice Marietti, Turin, Italy and translated in 1964 by Desmond Williams and Brian Powers for The Newman Press.

If it is found that I am infringing on copyright laws I will delete this blog right away but this book seems to be out of print so perhaps the greater good would exonerate me from any offense against a man-made law (I am completely open to correction).

Throughout the posts I shall put my own emphasis on certain passages in bold. I shall also provide titles for some of the meditations which did not have one in the original text. These titles will be followed with a star. Ultimately, I am hoping that these meditations will help others to continue growing in their union with God which is the most important matter this side of eternity.

"Mental prayer is nothing else, in my opinion, but being on terms of friendship with God, frequently conversing in secret with Him who, we know, loves us."

- St. Teresa of Avila