9781644135945

The Time After Pentecost
see Him living in us, we can use His love of the Father, His virtues, His merits, His sufferings
and death, His blood, and His heart as our own. We offer Him as our sacrifice to the Father.
We can offer His pure and loving heart to the Father in reparation for our deficiency in charity
and purity. All we need is a living faith; in such a faith we are immensely rich. God grant “that
Christ may dwell by faith in [our] hearts,” that we may see Him in ourselves through faith and
know our inestimable riches.
Why do we so often turn to the creatures which are about us? Must we not fear that every
moment we are separated from Christ we are in danger of being lost, since He is not living and
working in us? A single look upon Him heals our weakness, banishes the darkness, drives away
sadness, and fills the soul with unspeakable joy. Are we depressed because of our sinfulness, are
we afraid of the difficulties which accumulate before us? Then let us look upon Jesus, who lives
and works in us, and we shall find peace. Should we lose heart or give up the struggle because
of our instability and weakness? We should remember that “I can do all things in Him who
strengtheneth me” (Phil 4:13).
“The Lord is nigh. Be nothing solicitous, but in everything, by prayer and supplication
with thanksgiving, let your petitions be made known to God. And the peace of God which
surpasseth all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus” (Phil 4:5–7).
Prayer
Let Thy grace, we beseech Thee, O Lord, ever go before us and follow us, and may it make us to
be continually zealous in doing good works. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Thursday
“The Father of our Lord Jesus Christ [grant that you be] . . . rooted and founded in charity”
(Epistle). In the last analysis everything depends on charity. “And now there remain faith, hope,
and charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity” (1 Cor 13:13).
“Love therefore is the fulfilling of the law” (Rom 13:10). “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God
with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind, and with thy whole
strength. This is the first commandment” (Mk 12:30). “If I speak with the tongues of men
and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal.
And if I should have prophecy and should know all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I
should have all faith so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.
And if I should distribute all my goods to feed the poor, and if I should deliver my body to
be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing” (1 Cor 13:1–3). “God is charity;
and he that abideth in charity, abideth in God, and God in him” (1 Jn 4:16). “Now the end
of the commandment is charity, from a pure heart and a good conscience and an unfeigned
faith” (1 Tm 1:5). All good deeds are deeds of charity. It is the root, the life, the soul, the
sum of all virtues, the first and last of the virtues; it is perfection itself. Where love fails, all
fails; where love is, there is everything. It fulfills the commandments and the will of God,
not out of fear, not out of force, not for the sake of reward, but to please Him to whom it
is devoted. It gives the least of our actions an immense value in the sight of God, which by
591