Ave Maria Meditations
It is through this Lord of ours that all blessings come. He will show us the way; we must look at His life — that is our best pattern. What more do we need than to have at our side so good a Friend, Who will not leave us in trials and tribulations, as earthly friends do? Blessed is he who loves Him in truth and has Him always at his side.
Let us consider the glorious Saint Paul, from whose lips the name of Jesus seems never to have been absent, because He was firmly enshrined in his heart. Since realizing this, I have looked carefully at the lives of a number of saints who were great contemplatives and I find that they followed exactly the same road. Saint Francis, with his stigmata, illustrates this, as does Saint Anthony of Padua with the Divine Infant. Saint Bernard, too, delighted in Christ’s Humanity, and so did Saint Catherine of Siena and many others…This withdrawal from the corporeal must doubtless be good, since it is advised by such spiritual people, but my belief is that it must be practiced only when the soul is very proficient.
The Lord was deprived of all consolation; they left Him alone in His trials. Let us not leave Him; for His hand will help us to rise more effectually than our own efforts. And He will withdraw Himself when He sees that it is good for us and when He is pleased to draw the soul out of itself. God is well pleased to see a soul humbly taking His Son as Mediator, and yet loving Him so much that, even if His Majesty is pleased to raise it to the highest contemplation, it realizes its unworthiness, and says with Saint Peter: “Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.” I have proved this, for it is in this way that God has led my soul. Others will take another and a shorter road. What I have learned is this: that the entire foundation of prayer must be established in humility, and that, the more a soul abases itself in prayer, the higher God raises it.il then, it is clear, the Creator must be sought through the creatures.
+St. Teresa of Jesus (feast day is October 15th)
Beautiful insightful and glorious prayers. Thank you