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The Time After Pentecost
God alone is to be our final end: God the Father, the unfathomable source of divinity; God
the Son, the eternal, resplendent Word; God the Holy Ghost, the eternal and blessed expression
of the mutual love of the Father and the Son; the blessed humanity of Jesus; the Sacred Heart of
Jesus. In God we will find our joy and our rest. The mighty and holy God entered our souls at the
hour of our baptism, and He lives there within us in order that we may enjoy Him, possess Him,
and share His divine life with Him. He gives Himself to us as a loving Father, with whom we may
speak with the greatest confidence and trust. He gives Himself to us that we may live with the
living God in our souls and find our joy and our habitation in Him rather than in anything else
that is not God. Happy are we, the sons of the Church, who know Christ, who possess Him as
our offering in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, as the food of our souls in Holy Communion, as
our friend and companion in the tabernacle, as the life-giving vine, to which we are engrafted as
branches through the mystery of the communion of saints. He has given Himself to us for our
enjoyment, that we might find happiness and rest in Him. As we pass through life, in everything
we meet on the way, in everything the day may bring, welcome or unwelcome, we see Him, His
continual presence, His holy will, His wisdom, His goodness, His love, and His providence. In
all our labors, trials, sufferings, and temptations, we see God before us and the working of His
love in us. Thus we rest in God’s good pleasure, in His wisdom, His goodness, and His eternal
love for us. Therefore we are not disturbed by the injustice and injuries done to us by other men.
Neither are we too concerned about our health, our existence, or our earthly goods; for we have
found peace in God. But this is only a small beginning and a foretaste of the blessed peace that
we shall enjoy when we attain the final and complete possession of God.
“The time is short. It remaineth that they also who have wives be as if they had none; and they
that weep as though they wept not; and they that rejoice as if they rejoiced not; and they that
buy as though they possessed not; and they that use this world as if they used it not; for the
fashion of this world passeth away” (1 Cor 7:29, 31).
We are to pass by all created things. They have been given to us only as instruments and
means for attaining God. We are to use them only for the purpose for which they were given;
we may use them only so long and to the extent that they are useful to us in the service of God.
In a holy freedom of the spirit and the heart, we must lift ourselves above created things and
never allow ourselves to become the slaves to them. We are to possess God alone, Christ Jesus
alone, and therefore we must seek only those things that are dear to Him and lead to Him.
Prayer
O God, the protector of all who hope in Thee, without whom nothing is strong, nothing is
holy; multiply Thy mercies upon us, that having Thee for our ruler and Thee for our guide,
we may so make use of temporal goods that we lose not those which are everlasting. Through
Christ our Lord. Amen.
Friday
Octave of the Feast of the Sacred Heart
“To me, the least of all the saints, is given this grace, to preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable
riches of Christ” (Epistle). With these words the Apostle addresses us. These unsearchable
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