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Archive for the ‘01 Daily Meditations’ Category

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“Renew your joy for the struggle”

In 01 Daily Meditations on 2012/05/09 at 9:11 AM
Sometimes you feel that you are beginning to lose heart and that everything is getting on top of you. This kills your good desires, and you can hardly manage to overcome this feeling even by making acts of hope. Never mind: this is a good time to ask God for more grace. Then, go on! Renew your joy for the struggle, even though you might lose the odd skirmish. (Furrow, 77)

There are many who repeat that hackneyed expression ‘while there’s life there’s hope’, as if hope were an excuse for ambling along through life without too many complications or worries on one’s conscience. Or as if it were a pretext for postponing indefinitely the decision to mend one’s ways and the struggle to attain worthwhile goals, particularly the highest goal of all which is to be united with God.

If we follow this view, we will end up confusing hope with comfort. Fundamentally, what is wrong with it is that there is no real desire to achieve anything worthwhile, either spiritual or material. Thus some people’s greatest ambition boils down to avoiding whatever might upset the apparent calm of their mediocre existence. These timid, inhibited, lazy souls, full of subtle forms of selfishness, are content to let the days, the years, go by sine spe nec metu,* without setting themselves demanding targets, nor experiencing the hopes and fears of battle: the important thing for them is to avoid the risk of disappointment and tears. How far one is from obtaining something, if the very wish to possess it has been lost through fear of the demands involved in achieving it! (Friends of God, 206-207)

* ‘Neither hoping nor fearing’

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“Make the lives of others more pleasant”

In 01 Daily Meditations on 2012/05/02 at 9:11 AM
For as long as you are convinced that others should always live as if they depended on you, and for as long as you delay the decision to serve (to hide yourself and disappear from view), your dealings with your brothers, colleagues and friends will be a constant source of disappointment, ill-humour and pride. (Furrow, 712)

When you find it difficult to do a favour or a service for someone, remember that he or she is a child of God, and that the Lord has asked us to love one another. Furthermore, go deeper into that evangelical precept every day; do not remain on the surface. Draw the right conclusions from it — it is quite easy to do so. Then adapt your conduct, on every occasion, to those requirements. (Furrow, 727)

May you know how to put yourself out cheerfully, discreetly and generously each day, serving others and making their lives more pleasant. To act in this way is to practice the true charity of Jesus Christ. (The Forge, 150)

If we let Christ reign in our soul, we will not become authoritarian. Rather we will serve everyone. How I like that word: service! To serve my king and, through him, all those who have been redeemed by his blood. I really wish we Christians knew how to serve, for only by serving can we know and love Christ and make him known and loved.

And how will we show him to souls? By our example. Through our voluntary service of Jesus Christ, we should be witnesses to him in all our activities, for he is the Lord of our entire lives, the only and ultimate reason for our existence. Then, once we have given this witness of service, we will be able to give instruction by our word. That was how Christ acted. “He began to do and to teach” [1]; he first taught by his action, and then by his divine preaching. (Christ is passing by, 182)

[1] Acts 1:1

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“Do no be sorry to be nothing”

In 01 Daily Meditations on 2012/05/02 at 9:11 AM
Don’t worry if they see your defects; the offence against God and the scandal you may give; that is what should worry you. Apart from this, may you be known for what you are and be despised. Don’t be sorry to be nothing, since then Jesus will have to be everything for you. (The Way, 596)

‘No man,’ St John writes, ‘has ever seen God; but now his only‑begotten Son, who abides in the bosom of the Father, has himself revealed him,’ appearing to the astonished gaze of men: first, as a new-born babe, in Bethlehem; then, as a child just like other children; later on, in the Temple, as a bright and alert 12-year old; and finally in the lovable and attractive image of the Teacher who stirred the hearts of the enthusiastic crowds that accompanied him.

We have only to consider a few traits of God’s Love made flesh and our souls are touched by his generosity; they are set on fire and feel gently impelled to contrition for having been petty and selfish on so many occasions. Jesus does not mind lowering himself in order to raise us from our destitution to the dignity of being children of God and brothers of his. You and I, unlike him, often pride ourselves stupidly on the gifts and talents we have received, to the point of making them a pedestal from which to impose our will on others, as if the merits of our few relatively successful efforts derived from ourselves alone. ‘What do you have that you have not received from God? And if what you have, you have received, why do you boast as if you had not received it?’

When we think of God’s self‑giving and the way he humbled himself — I am saying this so that each one of us can meditate on it and apply it to himself — then the vainglory and presumption of the proud man stands out as a truly hideous sin, for the very reason that such conduct is poles apart from the model given us by Jesus Christ. Think about it slowly: He, being God, humiliated himself; man, puffed up with self‑love, tries to build himself up at any cost, without recognizing that he is but a creature of clay, and poor clay at that. (Friends of God, 111-112)

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“Are you sad, my child?

In 01 Daily Meditations on 2012/04/25 at 9:11 AM
Never lose heart if you are an apostle. There is no obstacle that you cannot overcome. Why are you sad? (The Way, 660)

True virtue is not sad or disagreeable, but pleasantly cheerful. (The Way, 657)

If things go well, let us rejoice, blessing God who makes them prosper. And if they go badly? Let us rejoice, blessing God who allows us to share in the sweetness of his Cross. (The Way, 658)

You ask me to suggest a cure for your sadness. I’ll give you a prescription from an expert adviser, the Apostle Saint James: Tristatur aliquis vestrum, are you sad, my son? Oret! Pray! Try it and you will see. (The Way, 663)

Don’t be gloomy. Let your outlook be more ‘ours’,–more christian. (The Way, 664)

‘Laetetur cor quaerentium Dominum. Let the hearts that seek Yahweh rejoice’. There you have light, to help you discover the reasons for your gloominess. (The Way, 666)

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“Be a Eucharistic soul”

In 01 Daily Meditations on 2012/04/25 at 9:11 AM
Be a Eucharistic soul!  Of the centre around which your thoughts and hopes turn is the Tabernacle! then, my child, how abundant the fruits of your sanctity and apostolate will be! (The Forge, 835)  
Jesus has remained within the Eucharist for love… of you. He has remained, knowing how men would treat him… and how you would treat him. He has remained so that you could eat him, so that you could visit him and tell him what’s happening to you; and so that you could talk to him as you pray beside the Tabernacle, and as you receive him sacramentally; and so that you could fall in love more and more each day, and make other souls, many souls, follow the same path. (The Forge, 887)


When you receive Our Lord in the Holy Eucharist, thank him from the bottom of your heart for being so good as to be with you. Have you ever stopped to consider that it took centuries and centuries before the Messiah came? All those patriarchs and prophets praying together with the whole people of Israel: Come, Lord, the land is parched! If only your loving expectation were like this. (The Forge, 991)

Build up a gigantic faith in the Holy Eucharist. Be filled with wonder before this ineffable reality. We have God with us; we can receive him every day and, if we want to, we can speak intimately with him, just as we talk with a friend, as we talk with a brother, as we talk with a father, as we talk with Love itself. (The Forge, 268)

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“Help them unobtrusively”

In 01 Daily Meditations on 2012/04/18 at 9:11 AM
The thought of death will help you to grow in the virtue of charity, for it might be that this particular instant in which you are together with one person or another is the last one. They, or you, or I, could be gone at any moment. (Furrow, 895)

You might tell me, ‘Why should I make an effort?’ It is not I who answer you, but St Paul: ‘Christ’s love is urging us ’[1]. A whole lifetime would be little, if it was spent expanding the frontiers of your charity. From the very beginnings of Opus Dei I have repeated tirelessly that cry of Our Lord: ‘By this shall men know that you are my disciples, if you love one another’ [2]. I did this to encourage generous souls to put it into practice in their own lives. This is precisely how we shall be recognized as Christians, if we make charity the starting point of everything we do…

I would like to help you realize that, even after twenty centuries, the Master’s commandment is still as strikingly new as ever. It is, as it were, a letter of introduction proving that one is truly a son of God. Ever since I became a priest I have very often preached that, for so many people alas, this commandment continues to be new, because they have never, or hardly ever, made an effort to put it into practice. It is sad to have to say this, but it is true. Nevertheless the Messiah’s words are quite clear. He stresses, once and for all, ‘by this you will be known, by the love you have for one another!’ This is why I feel I must remind people constantly about these words of Our Lord. St Paul adds, ‘bear one another’s burdens; then you will be fulfilling the law of Christ’ [3]. Think of the amount of time you have wasted, perhaps with the false excuse that you could easily afford it, and yet you have so many brothers, your friends about you, who are overworked! Help them unobtrusively, kindly, with a smile on your lips, in such a way that it will be practically impossible for them to notice what you are doing for them. Thus they will not even be able to express their gratitude, because the discreet refinement of your charity will have made your help pass undetected. (Friends of God, 43-44)

[1] 2 Cor 5:14
[2] John 13:35
[3] Gal 6:2

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“Take courage, Jesus said, it is myself; do not be afraid”

In 01 Daily Meditations on 2012/04/18 at 9:11 AM
The Lord’s calling – vocation – always presents itself like this: “If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” Yes: a vocation demands self-denial, sacrifice. But how pleasant that sacrifice turns out to be — Gaudium cum pace, joy and peace — if that self-giving is complete. (Furrow, 8)

If you agree to let God take command of your boat, if you let him be the master, how safe you will be!… even when he seems to have gone away, to have fallen asleep, to be unconcerned; even though a storm is rising and it’s pitch dark all around you. St Mark tells us how once the apostles were in just such circumstances and Jesus ‘when the night had reached its fourth quarter, seeing them hard put to it with rowing (for the wind was against them), came to them walking on the sea… Take courage, he said, it is myself; do not be afraid. So he came to them on board the boat, and thereupon the wind dropped’ [1].

My children, so many things happen to us here on earth!… I could tell you so many tales of sorrow, of suffering, of ill treatment, of martyrdom — and I mean it literally — of the heroism of many souls. In our mind’s eye we sometimes get the impression that Jesus is asleep, that he does not hear us. But St Luke describes how the Lord looks after his own. ‘When they (the disciples), were sailing, he slept. And there came down a storm of wind upon the lake and they began to ship water perilously. They came and awakened him saying, Master, we perish! But Jesus arising, rebuked the wind and the rage of the water. And it ceased and there was a calm. And he said to them, Where is your faith?’[2]

If we give ourselves to him, he will give himself to us. We must trust the Master completely, place ourselves unreservedly in his hands; show him by our actions that the boat is his; that we want him to do as he pleases with all we possess. (Friends of God, 22)

[1] Mark 6:48,50-51
[2] Luke 8:23-25

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“My daughter, God is counting on your help”

In 01 Daily Meditations on 2012/04/11 at 9:11 AM
My daughter, you have set up a home. I like to remind you that you women – as you well know – have a great strength, which you know how to enfold within a special gentleness, so that it is not noticed. With that strength, you can make your husband and children instruments of God, or demons. You will always make them instruments of God: he is counting on your help. (The Forge, 690)

Women are called to bring to the family, to society and to the Church, characteristics which are their own and which they alone can give: their gentle warmth and untiring generosity, their love for detail, their quick‑wittedness and intuition, their simple and deep piety, their constancy… A woman’s femininity is genuine only if she is aware of the beauty of this contribution for which there is no substitute and if she incorporates it into her own life.

To fulfil this mission, a woman has to develop her own personality and not let herself be carried away by a naive desire to imitate, which, as a rule, would tend to put her in an inferior position and leave her unique qualities unfulfilled. If she is a mature person, with a character and mind of her own, she will indeed accomplish the mission to which she feels called, whatever it may be. Her life and work will be really constructive, fruitful and full of meaning, whether she spends the day dedicated to her husband and children or whether, having given up the idea of marriage for a noble reason, she has given herself fully to other tasks. Each woman in her own sphere of life, if she is faithful to her divine and human vocation can and, in fact, does achieve the fullness of her feminine personality. Let us remember that Mary, Mother of God and Mother of men, is not only a model but also a proof of the transcendental value of an apparently unimportant life. (Conversations with Monsignor Escrivá, 87)

A woman with adequate training should find the field of public life open to her at all levels. In this sense it is impossible to point out specific tasks that correspond to women alone. As I said earlier, in this field what is specific is not the task or position in itself, but the way in which the work is done. There are values which a woman more readily perceives, and her specific contribution will often, therefore, change the whole approach to a problem, and can lead to the discovery of completely new approaches. (Conversations with Monsignor Escrivá, 90)

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“He has triumphed over death”

In 01 Daily Meditations on 2012/04/10 at 9:11 AM
The risen Christ, Christ in glory, has divested himself of the things of this earth, so that we men, his brothers, should ask ourselves what things we need to get rid of. (The Forge, 526)

“Christ is alive.” This is the great truth which fills our faith with meaning. Jesus, who died on the cross, has risen. He has triumphed over death; he has overcome sorrow, anguish and the power of darkness. “Do not be terrified” was how the angels greeted the women who came to the tomb. “Do not be terrified. You are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen; he is not here.” “This is the day which the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.”

Easter is a time of joy — a joy not confined to this period of the liturgical year, but to be found really and fully in the Christian’s heart. For Christ is alive. He is not someone who has gone, someone who existed for a time and then passed on, leaving us a wonderful example and a great memory.

No, Christ is alive. Jesus is the Emmanuel: God with us. His resurrection shows us that God does not abandon his own. He promised he would not: “Can a woman forget her baby that is still unweaned, pity no longer the son she bore in her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you.” And he has kept his promise. His delight is still to be with the sons of men.
(Christ is passing by, 102)

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“The mystery of Holy Thursday”

In 01 Daily Meditations on 2012/04/05 at 8:22 AM
We should dwell on those words of Jesus, and make them our own: I have longed and longed to eat this Passover with you. There is no better way to show how great is our concern and love for the Holy Sacrifice than by taking great care with the least detail of the ceremonies the wisdom of the Church has laid down. This is for Love: but we should also feel the “need” to become like Christ, not only inside ourselves but also in what is external. We should act, on the wide spaciousness of the Christian altar, with the rhythm and harmony which holy obedience provides, the holy obedience that unites us to the will of the Spouse of Christ, to the Will of Christ himself. (The Forge, 833)

“Now before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.” The reader of this verse from St John’s Gospel is brought to understand that a great event is about to take place. The introduction, full of tender affection, is similar to that which we find in St Luke: “I have earnestly desired,” says our Lord, “to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.”

Let us begin by asking the Holy Spirit, from this moment on, to give us the grace to understand every word and gesture of Christ. Because we want to live a supernatural life, because our Lord has shown his desire to give himself to us as nourishment for our soul, and because we acknowledge that only he has “words of eternal life.”

Faith makes us profess in the words of Peter that “we have come to believe and to know that you are the Christ, the Son of God.” It is this faith, together with our devotion, that leads us to emulate the daring of John, to come close to Jesus and to rest on the breast of the Master, who loved those who were with him ardently, and who was to love them, as we have just read, to the end.

Any words we might use to explain the mystery of Holy Thursday are inadequate. But it is not hard to imagine the feelings of Jesus’ heart on that evening, his last evening with his friends before the sacrifice of Calvary. (Christ is passing by, 83)