sexta-feira, 20 de dezembro de 2019

Beloved Jesus, have mercy on me, do not allow me to live more ungratefully in your love; give me light, give me strength to overcome everything, to do your will.

natale2015

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MEDITATION IV.

Dolor meus in conspectu meo semper (Ps. XXXVII, 18).

Consider how at that first moment when the soul of Jesus Christ was created and united to his small body in the womb of Mary, the Eternal Father told his Son his will that he should die for the Redemption of the world; and at that same point he presented him in front of him the entire gloomy scene of the suffering that he must suffer to the point of death to redeem men. Then he showed him all the travails, despises, and poverty which he must suffer throughout his life, as he did in Bethlehem, and in Egypt, and in Nazareth, and all the sorrows and ignominations of his Passion, and the scourges, and the thorns, and the nails, and the cross

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the sadness, the agonies, the agonies, and the abandonment of life on Calvary. - Abraham, taking his son to death, did not want to afflict him by giving him advance notice for the little time he had to reach the mountain. But the LORD Father willed that his Son incarnate, that he should be a victim of our sins for his righteousness, should suffer all the punishments which he should suffer in his life and in his death. So that the sadness that Jesus suffered in the garden, enough to torment his life, as he said, "Tristis est anima mea usque ad mortem1 , he suffered it continually from the first moment he was2 in the womb of his Mother. So that from then on he understood and suffered the united weight of all the pains, vicissitudes that awaited him. All the life of our Redeemer and all his years were life and years of sorrow and tears: Defecit in dolore vita mea, et anni mei in gemitibus (Ps. XXX, 11). His Divine Heart did not have a moment free from suffering. Either it watched or slept or struggled or rested or prayed or talked, it always had before its eyes this bitter representation which tormented its most holy soul more than the holy martyrs tormented all their sorrows. The martyrs suffered, but helped by grace they pativated with joy and fervour: Jesus Christ suffered, but always suffered with a heart full of tediousness and sadness; and all he accepted for our love.

men, and these men don't even pity you. O divine love! O human ingratitude! - O men, men, look at this little innocent lamb, who is agonizing for you, to satisfy the divine justice for the insults you have done to him. See how he is praying and interceding for you after the LORD Father, look on him, and love him. O my Redeemer, how few are they that think of your sorrows and your love. O God, how few are they that love you! But woe unto me, who also have lived so many years forgotten of you. You have suffered so much to be loved by me, and I have not loved you. Forgive me, my Jesus, forgive me, that I want to amend myself and love you.

Poor me, Lord, if I resist your grace any longer, and to resist I am given! All the mercies you have used on me, and especially your sweet voice that now calls me to love you, would be my greatest pains in hell. Beloved Jesus, have mercy on me, do not allow me to live more ungratefully in your love; give me light, give me strength to overcome everything, to do your will. Exhaust me, I pray you, for you deserve your Passion. To this I trust everything; and to your intercession, O Mary, my dear Mother, help me; you are the one who have impaled upon me all the graces I have received from God; I thank you for them, but if you do not continue to help me, I will continue to be unfaithful, as I have been in the past.