Meditations

The Salvation of the Soul

1.-I am in the world that I may work out my salvation. Do you realize that, O my soul? I am not in the world to amuse myself, to eat, to rest, much less to commit sin; I am in the world only to save soul. What advantage would it be to possess the whole world, if afterwards I were to lose my soul? Kings, statements, soldiers, philosophers, what did your power, your fame, your wisdom, and intellectual gifts avail if you have not succeeded in saving your souls?

2.-Moreover, this affair of salvation is most uncertain. It cannot be bought with gold. It is accomplished by doing violence to oneself; it is lost by even a sin of thought. To save oneself, it is not enough to have been holy and innocent once; it is necessary to persevere until death. What assurance have I that I shall save my soul? My past life is stained with sins; my present life is a maze that I fail to comprehend. My future life; of what character will it be? God alone knows.

3.-Finally, this is an irreparable work. If I fail in a battle, if I lose my health, there is still hope of remedy. But if I lose my soul even once, it is lost for all eternity. If one hand be cut off there still remains the other. If one of my eyes be taken out, I can get on with the other. But I have only one soul, and that one alone is saved or lost. And yet I think so little about saving my soul! I live on contentedly, undisturbed by fear; nevertheless, if I were to die now, I do not know if I should be saved!

Practice.-Resolve to attend faithfully all the exercises of the mission or retreat ; to observe silence for those few days as much as possible. For the salvation of your soul, determine to keep away from the occasion of sin: any person, place, or thing which is likely to lead you into sin.

PRAYER.-Mary, most glorious Virgin and Mother of God, how fearful and how dreadful is uncertainty of our eternal salvation! But if we lift up our eyes to thee, O Mary, and think of thee, of thy goodness, and of the efficacy of thy meditation, that thought very soon calms the anxiety of our hearts, comforts and cheers us, likean expected ray of light in the obscure night. Yes, O Mary, after Jesus, thou art our hope! Pray for us, dear Mother, that we may be given grace to live such a life as will work out the salvation of our souls. Do not permit that even one of thy children should perish; but grant that all of us united to honor thee on earth may, through thu mercy, be united one day to honor and praise thee in the realms of heaven above. Amen.

MORTAL SIN

1.-Have you ever sinned? Do you know what a crime, you commited? You did your best to annihilate your Creator, your Father, your Redeemer, your Spouse, your God, your all! What disobedience, what rebellion, what ingratitude, what an offence! You lost the grace of God, the merits of your past life, and the heirship to the kingdom of heaven, and you placed yourself at the brink of hell!

2.-Are you still in sin? Poor soul! Do you know whose child you are? The child of the devil. You play, go for a walk, sleep, laugh! But if God so wills, in an instant you die and are damned. Thousands of angels went down to hell for a single sin of thought. With so many sins, do you think you are safe?

3.-But if you are not in sin, nevertheless you are always in danger in falling into it. A violent temptation, an unexpected opportunity, may cause you to fall when you least expect it. Angels sinned in heaven! Adam sinned in Paradise! Judas and Peter sinned in the company of Jesus! Do not forget that you likewise, from being an angel, an apostle, or in the state of innocence, may in a moment become a demon.