Part 26
O my Lord, Thou Who alone art most worthy of my love, behold me standing before Thy divine presence utterly overwhelmed by the many grievous injuries I have done Thee. I ask Thy pardon for them with my whole heart, repenting of them purely for love of Thee, and, at the thought of Thy great goodness, hating and loathing them above all other evils of this life. As I would rather have died a thousand times than have offended Thee, so now I am most firmly resolved to lose my life rather than offend Thee again. My crucified Jesus, I firmly purpose to cleanse my soul as soon as possible by Thy most precious blood in the Sacrament of Penance. And thou, most tender Virgin, Mother of mercy and Refuge of sinners, do thou obtain for me the pardon of sin by virtue of thy bitter pains; whilst praying according to the mind of so many holy Pontiffs in order to obtain the indulgences granted to this, thy holy Rosary, I hope thereby to obtain remission of all pains due to my sins. Amen.
First Dolor: The prophecy of Simeon. One Our Father and seven Hail Marys.
Second Dolor: The flight into Egypt. One Our Father and seven Hail Marys.
Third Dolor: The loss of Jesus. One Our Father and seven Hail Marys.
Fourth Dolor: Her meeting Jesus carrying His cross. One Our Father and seven Hail Marys.
Fifth Dolor: Her standing beneath the cross on Calvary. One Our Father and seven Hail Marys.
Sixth Dolor: Her receiving on her lap the sacred body of Jesus. One Our Father and seven Hail Marys.
Seventh Dolor: Her witnessing the burial of the sacred body of Her Son. One Our Father and seven Hail Marys.
In honor of the tears shed by Our Lady in these dolors, three Hail Marys.
_V._ Pray for us, O most sorrowful Virgin.
_R._ That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.
_Let Us Pray._
Grant, we beseech Thee, O Lord Jesus Christ, that the Blessed Virgin, Thy Mother, may intercede for us with Thy clemency, now and at the hour of our death, who in the hour of Thy Passion was pierced in her most holy soul by the sword of sorrow; grant this, O Jesus Christ, Saviour of the world, who with the Father and the Holy Ghost, liveth and reigneth, world without end. Amen.
OCTOBER. THE ANGELS.
Both in the Old and in the New Testaments the Holy Scriptures teach us that the angels exist and protect us: many examples are cited and facts related, from which we may conclude that this is so. True, we do not see the angels, and rare are the actual manifestations of their power, or their existence; hence some people deny that order of spirits.
But by a merciful dispensation of divine Providence, we know that the angels are active among us, that they shield us from evil, and draw heavenly favors upon us. They are ever ready to serve God; there are also spirits who care for each individual on earth—guardian angels.
Suarez is of opinion that Our Lord, in His adorable humanity, had a number of angels to wait on Him. Our guardian angel does his work not less effectively, for Our Lord tells us to be in dread of scandalizing a child, because of his angel who is always at his side.
At the time of the birth of Our Lord a multitude of the heavenly choir sang, “Glory to God on high, and peace to men of good‐will.” During this month we celebrate the feast of the angel guardian; it has been considered so important that the whole month is set aside to the devotion of the angels. The Church encourages us in this devotion, for in the breviary she has authorized a votive office in honor of these heavenly spirits, on every Monday when there is no special festival to be celebrated, so that we may be continually reminded of the great truth that our guardian angel is always at our side.
Considerations and Prayers for Every Day.
First Day.
The name angel means a messenger; this name is given to these spirits because they have been used by almighty God for that duty; they have been sent by God to disclose His will to man. God could, of course, do His will by His own power. He needs no angel, but for that matter He needs no creature. Still, in His infinite kindness, He called rational creatures into existence, and has given them a most honorable employment. Their ordinary work is like what our own will be, or like that of the saints now in heaven: “to see, love, bless, and enjoy God forever by a blessed immortality.” Penetrate, then, in your mind, the eternity of time, when God in His love created pure rational creatures, who had a spirit like His own, intelligence unencumbered with a body, and having no necessities. He placed them near His throne in heaven, and now they announce in their celestial adornments the omnipotence, love, and wisdom of their almighty Creator. They sing perpetually of the sanctity of God, and render Him glory. “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God of armies.” Hence the Council of Lateran teaches authoritatively, “God created together, at the beginning of time, out of nothing, both classes of creatures, spiritual and corporal, the angelic and material, and then the human.”
Prayer.
O angel of God, my guardian dear, To whom His love commits me here. Ever this day be at my side, To light, to guard, to rule, and guide.
Second Day.
God, says the great preacher Bossuet, wished to create spirits like Himself, pure and immaterial, living by intelligence and love. Spirits that would know and love Him as He knows Himself and loves Himself, and who would be happy in simply knowing and loving this first great Being. For that very reason they bear on their natures a divine character, after God’s image and likeness. O God, who can doubt that Thou could create spirits without a body? or is there need of a body that one might understand, love and be happy? Thou, O God, Who art Thyself a pure spirit, art Thou not incorporal and immaterial? Are not intelligence and love spiritual and immaterial operations, which can be exercised without a body? The creation of the angels, then, was a manifestation of God’s omnipotence, as it is also omnipotence to call human individuals into existence, and to give them knowledge, so that they can serve and glorify God.
Prayer.
O angel of God, etc., etc.
Third Day.
The angels are part of the universal creation outside of God, and were created in the beginning of time. St. Thomas, the great theologian, says “The angels are a part of the universal creation, and form a regular grade in that creation.” Now no part can be perfect when separated from its belongings, and we are sure God’s works are perfect; but the angelic world would have stood by itself, separated and isolated from the rest of creation, if it had been made before the sensible world. The number of angels is very great. God did not stint Himself in giving lavishly of His benefits. These pure spirits inhabit space, and move about in choirs of immense numbers. “Thousands upon thousands ministered to Him, and ten thousand times a hundred thousand stood before Him.”—Dan. vii. 10. These figures certainly point to an almost infinite number. Count if you can the sands on the seashore, the stars in the firmament, and when you think you have reached a definite calculation, you are far below the real existing number. God pours out lavishly the abundance of His omnipotence and love. Prodigality is a characteristic of all the divine works. We cannot meditate on the countless multitude of the angels without astonishment.
Prayer.
O angel of God, etc., etc.
Fourth Day.
God has not made all the angels alike. We know from the Scriptures that there are distinctions which we do not exactly understand. Some are angels, others archangels, others dominations, virtues, etc. St. Jerome writes, “Among the invisible creatures there is a manifold and an indefinite diversity.” It is natural to suppose that not only did God exert His omnipotence in the production of myriads of beautiful spirits, not only did He make them the most perfect of their kind for the purpose for which they were intended, but that He also diversified them. God almighty not only gave these intellectual beings existence, but He also gave them a knowledge by which, with their own intelligence, they could rise to a most exalted contemplation of His infinity. What glory do not these intelligent beings bring to God’s throne! What beautiful homage do they not pour forth in His presence! What exultation there must be in their study of God, constantly discovering something new and unnoticed, going deeper and deeper into the depths of the wonders of God! Let us also rejoice with the angels, and love to study the adorable perfections of God: let us be fond of reading of and hearing about God.
Prayer.
O angel of God, etc., etc.
Fifth Day.
The angels speak to one another, and their conversation is concerning holy things. The Scriptures tell us that the seraphim cry “one to another, Holy, holy, holy, the Lord God of hosts.”—Isa. vi. 3. The angels also speak to God in prayer and adoration; they praise His power, they extol His majesty, they beseech His clemency, they consult His wisdom. And they can also speak to men, as the archangel Gabriel did to Mary. Faber tells us, in wonderful words, what he thought of the power of the angels: “Cast your eye over that outspread ocean, whose shores lie so faintly and far off in the almost infinite distance. It gleams like restless silver, quivering with life, and yet such multitudinous life! It flashes the light with intolerable magnificence. Its unity is numberless, its life is purest light. Into the bosom of its vastness the glory of God shines down, and the universe is illuminated with its refulgence. It is an ocean of life. Who can count the sum of being that is there? Who but God can fathom its unsearchable caverns? What created eye but is dazzled with the blazing splendor of its capacious surface? Grand storms of voiceless praise hang over it forever, whose very silence thrills the soul of the human saints.”
Prayer.
O angel of God, etc., etc.
Sixth Day.
The power of the angels is immense. The Scriptures tell us that they destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, by raining fire and brimstone upon them. They destroyed the army of Sennacherib, when every soldier felt the keen edge of the angel’s sword; they strangled the first‐born of the Egyptian people in one night. The devil, by permission from God, raised storms that tore down the houses in which Job’s sons and daughters were feasting, burying all in the ruins. He afflicted Job with a most filthy disease, and robbed him of all his possessions to try to make him revolt against God. When Our Lord freed those who were possessed by the devil, the evil spirit asked to be permitted to enter a herd of swine, and when it had received the permission the swine rushed headlong down the hill into the sea and were destroyed. If then, the power of these spirits is so great for evil, the angels are more powerful for good. We will be friends with our good angels whom God has sent to perform favors for us—favors both temporal and spiritual; we will hate the devil, and with the help of God’s grace resist his power.
Prayer.
O angel of God, etc., etc.
Seventh Day.
The angelic world is most beautiful. St. Augustine says in his “City of God,” “The angelic world in its natural dignity surpasses all other things the Lord has made. Consider this intelligence by which they know so many things so perfectly, the great power by which they can do good to their fellow‐creatures, the brightness of those wonderful spirits shining like the glorious luminaries of our universe, the wonderful gifts which almighty God furnished them, and we have a picture of such harmonious glory that all the beauty of the world, all the magnificent actions of the human kind, dwindle into insignificance before this great creation of angelic spirits.” In Ezechiel we read of the admirable beauty of the devil that had fallen: “Thou wast the seal of resemblance, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty. Thou wast in the pleasures of the paradise of God: every precious stone was thy covering ... gold the work of thy beauty: ... Thou wast a cherub stretching out thy wings and covering, and I set thee in the holy mountain of God, thou hast walked in the midst of the stones of fire. Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day of thy creation, until iniquity was found in thee.”—Ezech. 12‐15. And Isaias the prophet exclaimed with regret at the fall of Lucifer, “How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, who didst arise as the morning.”
Prayer.
O angel of God, etc., etc.
Eighth Day.
Faber speaks in the following terms of the rational creatures of God, including men and angels: “God became a King by becoming a Creator. Thus He gained an empire over which His insatiable love might rule.” Nature is very beautiful, whether we think of angelic or human nature. Created nature is a shadow of the uncreated nature, so real and so bright that we cannot think of it without exceeding reverence. Yet God created neither men nor angels in a state of nature. This is, to my mind, the most wonderful and most suggestive thing which we know about God. He would have no reasonable nature, even from the very first, which should not be partaker of His divine nature. This is the very meaning of the state of grace. He would not have it to breathe for one instant in a merely natural way. The very act of creation was full of fondness, of paternal jealousy. O that majesty of God, which seems clothed with such wonderful tranquillity in the eternity before the creation!
Prayer.
O angel of God, etc., etc.
Ninth day.
Not only do the angels praise almighty God, pray to Him, and converse with Him, but they do it much more effectually than we do because of their greater purity, and because they know God better than we do. Hence the question might be asked, what do the angels know of God, and of religion as it is among us? The answer is that they know what we know, and much more; still there are some things too great because too infinite, even for the intelligence of angels. Can the angels understand God? No, indeed. God is infinite, and no finite mind can comprehend Him. They know that God is one, because even we, in our inferior intelligence, know that there can be but one God; they know too, that there are three divine persons, but it will ever remain a mystery to them as well as to us, because it is a truth of such infinite dimensions; but they understand it much more distinctly than we do. It is probable that the angels knew the mystery of the incarnation by divine revelation, and they believed in it. St. Thomas and other theologians are of opinion that the bad angels fell because they would not submit to the belief in the hypostatic union. It was therefore fitting, for the glory and honor of the Son of God, Who was to be made flesh, that the angels should know this mystery.
Prayer.
O angel of God, etc., etc.
Tenth Day.
Father Faber speaks thus of their knowledge of the precious blood during their term of probation: “The angels wonder more than man at the goodness of God in sending us His divine Son to die for us, because they understand it better. From the very first He invited the angels to adore it. He made their adoration a double exercise of humility—of humility towards Himself, and of humility towards us, their fellow‐creatures. It was the test to which He put their loyalty. He showed them His beloved Son, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, in His sacred humanity, united to a nature lower than theirs, and in that lower nature crowned their King and Head, to be worshipped by them with absolute and unconditional adoration. The Son of a human Mother was to be their head, and that daughter of Eve to be herself their Queen. He showed them in that blood the source of all their graces.” The precious blood was as the dew of the whole kingdom of the angels. Well, then, may the angels claim to sing the song of the Lamb: to Whose outpoured human life they also owed so much.
Prayer.
O angel of God, etc., etc.
Eleventh Day.
The angels merited the crown of a happy eternity in union with God: “For he also, that striveth for the mastery, is not crowned except he striveth lawfully.”—Tim. ii. 5. Such is the law of God, not only for men but for angels also. Pope Gelasius says, “That the angels were so constituted as to merit an increase of eternal glory, is sufficiently indicated by the fact that they stood in need of nothing more, that none of them could have committed evil.” And St. Prosper says of their trial, “It was the action of the will of the holy angels, that while their companions with their own free will rebelled, they themselves remained faithful in the dignity wherein God had placed them; and hence it came to pass by a divine and most just judgment, that what was only up to that a holy desire of remaining with God, became thereafter a voluntary and a most blessed necessity of remaining with Him forever.” We too should strive continually to merit our crown in heaven; we are placed on trial here on this earth, a place of pilgrimage, and we should remain faithful to the conditions of that trial until our journey is over.
Prayer.
O angel of God, etc., etc.
Twelfth Day.
Almighty God loved His angels, and made them His friends and favorites. The Blessed Virgin is placed above them all, as the Church on the day of her assumption proclaims: “She is exalted above the choirs of angels in the heavenly kingdom.” Here we have to adore the liberality of almighty God, and the mysterious and adorable way in which He distributes His gifts. He fashions the angels in a natural order, and endows them with greater natural perfections than others. Next He raises them in the first instant of creation to the supernatural order by the gift of sanctifying grace. Then comes the time of probation, and He confirms the good forever in glory, bestows on them the beatific vision, happiness, enlightenment, and splendor according to their acts, but still more in proportion to the natural powers, dignity, and excellence of His own divine hand. Here indeed is the potter and the potter’s clay spoken of by St. Paul. To man God acts differently: “But the foolish things of the world hath God chosen that He may confound the wise: and the weak things of the world hath God chosen, that He may confound the strong ... that no flesh should glory in His sight.”—2 Cor. i. 27‐29.
Prayer.
O angel of God, etc., etc.
Thirteenth Day.
Oh, what a glory, what a happiness and consolation, were granted to the angels when they had done the will of God! God received His faithful followers with goodness and love, and introduced them into His place of glory, and there He manifested Himself to them and will do so for all eternity. And so the beautiful life of the angels in heaven may furnish us with ample materials for meditation. Our Lord calls our attention to them when He bids us pray that we may do His will on earth, as do the angels in heaven. Faber says, “Grace is a better portion than nature for loving God; by grace God can communicate Himself to us supernaturally, by it He gets more love from us, and makes us more able to love Him. O that we had the hearts to know the meaning of this! Surely His love of us should be our measure of love for Him. Well might St. Francis run about the woods crying out, ‘Oh, God is not known! God is not loved!’ ” The angels will ever remain in heaven, loving and honoring God, in supreme happiness, in the infinite light of God Himself. Let us also, as some saints have done, offer to God the love of the first choir of seraphim in reparation for all the outrages going on in the world.
Prayer.
O angel of God, etc., etc.
Fourteenth Day.
We have seen the great reward the good angels received for remaining faithful to God. What did the bad angels lose by their infidelity? It was to them a final impenitence, which means the loss of the power of ever turning to God; which will in its turn be an eternal regret at the loss of God. Listen to the sentence of the reprobate: “Depart from Me, ye accursed, into everlasting flames, which was prepared for Satan and his angels.” In Holy Scripture we often read of the worm that gnaws and dies not; by this is meant the continual anguish and grief of a soul which has lost God—a passionate regret that will seize on it, and never leave it, because the loss is an everlasting one. God spoke, and the depths of hell sprang into existence. Bossuet says that the curse of God against the reprobate contains within itself an imprecation against the unhappy soul, which tears out from the minutest fibres of its being all the capacity it once had to receive enjoyment from bliss, as well as the power to perform the least good action capable of meriting any mercy. This example of the fall of the angels should strike terror into our hearts, and should incite us to pray to the good angels, especially to our guardian angel, so that we may ever remain faithful to the service of God.
Prayer.
O angel of God, etc., etc.
Fifteenth Day.
It is an inexhaustible subject, the marvels which theology teaches of the holy angels; who can properly describe the power of these pure spirits, the greatness of their intelligence, the fire of their holy love? Their graces, their powers, their gifts, their operations, their works, are so diversified that it is with difficulty the mind of man can conceive them and intelligibly speak of them. In several places in the Scriptures we read of the choirs of angels, archangels, principalities, powers, virtues, dominations, thrones, cherubim, seraphim. Dionysius teaches that there are three orders of angels—three superior, three inferior and three middle: the superior, cherubim, seraphim, and thrones; the middle, dominations, principalities, and powers; the inferior, virtues, archangels and angels. These names are given to them, not for their own sake but for ours; and the individual orders are called from the gifts of grace which they possess. O that we realized that our future eternity is to be with the angels in heaven; that our glory depends on our life here; greater glory for greater work! We should strive to deserve a great place in heaven for the glory of God.
Prayer.
O angel of God, etc., etc.
Sixteenth Day.
The angels are engaged in praising and loving God; what this really includes who can tell?—or it means a variety of occupation and the greatest liberty of using their free will for the glory of God. The angels occupy themselves according to the meaning of their names. God, in His relations to Himself, is represented by seraphim, cherubim and thrones—angels that are devoted to His service particularly; who rejoice not so much in doing their own will, as they are happy in the close association with the splendor of God in heaven. A seraph is a great, pure angel, who shines and burns in honor of God. He represents the love of God; that great love for His creatures which is forever active in our behalf. The seraphs are put in the highest place, as created representations of that wonderful attribute, the charity of God for Himself. The cherubim are placed second; they represent knowledge and wisdom: “He was the true light, which enlighteneth every man that cometh into this world.” This is Jesus, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, represented by the cherubim. The thrones represent God in His majesty, sitting on His throne of glory in heaven.
Prayer.
O angel of God, etc., etc.
Seventeenth Day.