Ave Maria Meditations
When God said, “Let us make man to our likeness,” (Gen 1:26) He thereby bestowed on him reason and the use thereof, so that he would be able to discuss and consider good and evil, distinguishing one from the other, and know which things should be chosen and which rejected.
By the use of reason, man can remain firm and constant amid all the various events and accidents of this mortal life. Let the weather be fine or let it rain, let the air become calm or let the wind blow, the wise man pays no attention to it knowing well that nothing in this life is stable and permanent and that this is not a place of rest.
In affliction, he does not despair but waits for consolation; in sickness he does not torment himself but waits for health, or if he sees that his illness is such that death must follow, he thanks God hoping for the repose of the immortal life that follows this one. If poverty overtakes him, he does not distress himself, for he knows very well that riches do not exist in this life without poverty. If he is despised, he knows well that honor here below has no permanence,but is generally followed by dishonor or contempt. In short, in all kinds of events, in prosperity or adversity, he remains firm, steadfast and constant and his resolution to aspire and to strain after the enjoyment of eternal blessings.
But we must not only consider this variety, changeableness, and instability in the transitory and material things of this mortal life: we must also consider them and their relation to the events of our spiritual life in which firmness and constancy are all the more necessary as a spiritual life is raised above the mortal and bodily life.
Saint Francis de Sales (Feast Day is January 24th)
