DAILY MEDITATION (FRIDAY, AUGUST 21)
MEDITATION OF THE DAY
Love’s Greatness
In order that…Christ may be formed in all, be it remembered that no means is more efficacious than charity. For the Lord is not in the earthquake (1 Kgs 19:11)—it is vain to hope to attract souls to God by a bitter zeal…. True, the Apostle exhorted Timothy: Accuse, beseech, rebuke, but he took care to add: with all patience (2 Tm 4:2). Jesus has certainly left us examples of this. Come to me, we find him saying, come to me all ye that labor and are burdened and I will refresh you…. What gentleness was that shown by the Divine Master! What tenderness, what compassion towards all kinds of misery! Isaiah has marvelously described his heart in the words: I will set my spirit upon him; he shall not contend, nor cry out; the bruised reed he will not break, he will not extinguish the smoking flax.
This charity, patient and kind, will extend itself also to those who are hostile to us and persecute us. We are reviled, thus did Saint Paul protest, and we bless; we are persecuted and we suffer it; we are blasphemed and we entreat (1 Cor 4:12-13)…. Who will prevent us from hoping that the flame of Christian charity may dispel the darkness from their minds and bring to them light and the peace of God? It may be that the fruit of our labors may be slow in coming, but charity wearies not with waiting….
May God, who is rich in mercy, benignly speed this restoration of the human race in Jesus Christ for it depends not upon man’s will or exertion, but upon God’s mercy (Rm 9:16). And let us, in the spirit of humility, with continuous and urgent prayer ask this of him through the merits of Jesus Christ. Let us turn, too, to the most powerful intercession of the divine Mother, [especially] by the public recitation of the Rosary in all churches; with the further exhortation that…appeal be also made to the most pure Spouse of Mary, the Patron of the Catholic Church, and the holy Princes of the Apostles, Peter and Paul.
Saint Pius X
Saint Pius X († 1914) reigned as pope from 1903 to 1914, and was canonized on May 29, 1954. [From Encyclical E Supremi, # 13, 15. Used with permission of the Libreria Editrice Vaticana. www.vatican.va.]
