Day #30: The Presence of God
MARY: Wherever you turn, God sees you! Whether you ascend into the heavens, whether you sink into the abyss, God always sees you! He sees you, but his glance is infinite love because he is present to sustain your life, to help you, to fill you with the graces of which you yourself are not even aware.
God sees you, even more, in him you are and you move; this is a great mercy. You ought to exult in the thought of being always in the presence of your God and in the meantime you forget it completely.
You not only forget him, but you live as if God did not exist, even under his glance, with the strength which he gives you, with the freedom which he grants you, you offend him and you insult him! What an outrage and what black ingratitude!
God sees you and you ought to remember this in order to love him and to refer to his glory all that he grants you. You are his creature, his temple, you are like a living altar, and with what delicate reverence you ought to care for your spiritual cleanliness, the internal order of your soul, the blazing torch of your love which burns in the presence of God!
God sees you and what an ugly sight you present him of yourself! … Oh, if you could see yourself as he sees you! … You are like a house blackened with smoke, all full of soot, all full of debris and dirt … And yet you know that God dwells in your heart! Get your house in order, live with the Eucharistic Jesus, live from him so that the glance of God is detained with delight on his divine Son!
You complain all too often that you are alone in the world and aspire to heaven! And yet you are not alone: God is around you, and within you, and living with you! Love him, then, with all your soul, with all your heart, with all your strength. Walk in his presence and be perfect; live before him with the trust of a son, with the simplicity of a small child.
ASPIRATION: I adore you, my God, here present, and I thank you that you look upon me with so much love.
LITTLE WORK: Resolutely eliminate from your soul, from your books, from your effects, all that could offend the gaze of God.
About the Meditations
The daily School of Mary meditations come from the book, A Month with Mary, written by a holy Italian priest Father Dolindo Ruotolo (1882-1970). Originally written as spiritual thoughts to his spiritual daughter, the work is comprised of thirty-one meditations for the month of May.
Father Dolindo wrote A Month with Mary on pocket-sized pages joined into small fascicles of 8 to 12 pages. He sent them to Laura de Rosis every two to three days and later transcribed them with some modifications in volume III of his autobiography: The Story of My Life in the Plan of the Great Mercy of God, pp. 1140ff (cf. Epistolario 1:212n, 218n). This work is from 1912: one of those years which passed in the life of Father Dolindo with the cadence of a ?Way of the Cross? ? But he, serene as ever, loved Christ the more, loved Our Lady the more and reflected on this love in these few pages to which he wished to give the significant title: A Profound Reform of Heart in the School of Mary. These meditations are written in the style of the Imitation of Christ. (90pp. laminated gloss, saddle stitch)
To obtain a copy of A Month with Mary or other books published by the Academy of the Immaculate, visit our on-line bookstore at http://www.marymediatrix.com/bookstore/academy
Ave Maria!
