The Master: Meek and Humble of Heart
"Learn from Me, for I am meek and humble of Heart," [St. Matthew 11:29] said Jesus in the Gospel. It is therefore by contemplating Him that we can learn true humility.
It is a great illusion to want all you hear about and all you see in books, as well as to burden yourself with so many devotional practices. Read very few books and make a great study of Jesus Christ crucified. [L. 100]
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May the Heart of Jesus Christ be our school! Let us make our abode there . . . Let us study its movements and attempt to conform ours to them. Yes, O Divine Jesus, I want to live there and pour all my gall into Your Heart, which will rapidly consume it. I am not afraid that impatience will come to attack me in that retreat. There I will practice silence, resignation to Your Divine will, and invincible constancy. There I will go daily to pray to You and thank You for my crosses, and to ask Your forgiveness for those who persecute me. [Saint Claude de La Colombière suffered numerous and painful contradictions in his efforts to obtain what the Heart of Jesus desired: propagation of the devotion and the establishment of a special feast.] There I will labor once and for all at acquiring patience. I realize that this is not a short task, but it suffices for me to know that I can attain it by working at it. I ask for Your prayers, O sweet Jesus; You offered them for Your enemies, so do not refuse them to me, for I hope to love You, and love even the cross and my enemies for love of You. [Meditations on the Passion (M.P.), 3]
It is a great illusion to want all you hear about and all you see in books, as well as to burden yourself with so many devotional practices. Read very few books and make a great study of Jesus Christ crucified. [L. 100]
* * * * *
May the Heart of Jesus Christ be our school! Let us make our abode there . . . Let us study its movements and attempt to conform ours to them. Yes, O Divine Jesus, I want to live there and pour all my gall into Your Heart, which will rapidly consume it. I am not afraid that impatience will come to attack me in that retreat. There I will practice silence, resignation to Your Divine will, and invincible constancy. There I will go daily to pray to You and thank You for my crosses, and to ask Your forgiveness for those who persecute me. [Saint Claude de La Colombière suffered numerous and painful contradictions in his efforts to obtain what the Heart of Jesus desired: propagation of the devotion and the establishment of a special feast.] There I will labor once and for all at acquiring patience. I realize that this is not a short task, but it suffices for me to know that I can attain it by working at it. I ask for Your prayers, O sweet Jesus; You offered them for Your enemies, so do not refuse them to me, for I hope to love You, and love even the cross and my enemies for love of You. [Meditations on the Passion (M.P.), 3]
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