Text of St. Ignatius. Man was created to praise and adore the Lord his God, and in serving Him to save himself. This is his end.

This meditation comprises three great truths, which are the foundation of the exercises: I come from God—I belong to God—I am destined for God; that is, God is at the same time my first beginning, my sovereign master, my last end.

First Truth / I come from God

1. Where was I a hundred years ago? I was in nothingness. Oh, how many centuries there were when not any one thought of me! For, can nothing be the subject of thought? How many ages that an insect, an atom was more than I, for it possessed existence!

Yet I exist today; I possess intelligence, a heart, senses, body, soul. Who gave me all this? Was it not God and God alone?

1. God is, then, my Creator. And what wonderful circumstances in my creation!

God created me; and it was by a pure impulse of His love; for my existence was not necessary either to His happiness or His glory.

God created me; and the decree of my creation is eternal like Himself. During an eternity, then, He was occupied with me; He was thinking of me; He loved me who was as yet nothing.

God created me; and, in creating me, He preferred me to an infinite number of creatures equally possible, and that He will never call into existence.

God created me; and, in creating me, made me the noblest creature of the visible world. All my being bears the stamp of His divine perfections.

Finally, God created me; and He continues and renews His work in every moment of my existence. As many moments of life as I count, so many times He makes me a present of life.

Second Truth / I belong to God

1. I come from God, therefore I belong to God. All that I am comes from Him; what I have, then, belongs to Him. To deny this consequence, would it not be to deny reason itself?

2. What do I think of all the rights of a master over his servant, of a father over his child, of a workman over the work of his hands? Does not God possess over me, in the highest degree and by the most sacred titles, all the rights of men over creatures, since there is nothing in me that is not the fruit of His own resources, and hence His own property?

3. Thus, God has dominion over me. Essential dominion: God will cease to be God, if, being my Creator, He ceased to be my sovereign and my Master. Supreme dominion: men have no rights over me except such as the Lord gives them; their rights, then, must be subordinate to the rights of God. Absolute dominion: God, then, can dispose of me at His pleasure; and my duty is to receive everything from His hand with submission. Eternal dominion: it will last as long as I shall. Irresistible dominion: willing or unwilling, I must glorify Him either by free submission or by inevitable chastisement.

Third Truth / I am destined for God

1. A God infinitely wise must have proposed to Himself some end in creating me. A God infinitely perfect could only create me for His glory; that is, to know Him, love Him and serve Him.

2. Everything, both within and without me, agrees in revealing to me this great truth. My religion—all its mysteries, all its precepts, all its promises, only recall my end, which is God. My reason shows me that the infinite perfection of God alone can be the object of a mind and a heart ever craving to know and to love. Creatures proclaim to me by their nothingness that they are too insignificant to be the end of my being. My heart seeks a happiness without alloy, without limit; that is, it requires nothing less than God Himself. My experience speaks the same language. Away from God, what have I found? Trouble, remorse, chastisements for order violated. Faithful to God, what have I found? Peace of heart, the fruit and recompense of order faithfully observed.

3. Hence, a God to know, to love and to serve—behold my final end; and, by the same law, behold my duties, my greatness, my felicity.

SENTIMENTS

Sentiments of gratitude for a God, my Creator.

Sentiments of submission to a God, my Sovereign and Master.

Sentiments of love for a God, my last end.

Pater. Ave.

Text. All other things that are on the earth are made for man, that is, to aid him in arriving at the end for which he was created.

First Consideration / Creatures belong to God

Creatures have the same beginning as myself. They were drawn from nothing, like me, and He who drew them from nothing was God. They cannot have the same beginning as I have without having also the same master. Hence, they are from God, and belong to God. It follows from this that I ought to make use of creatures—

1. With a spirit of dependence, according to the Divine order and will, not as a master who disposes as he pleases, but as a steward who must give an account.

2. With a spirit of gratitude; like a poor man who has of himself no right to the use of the things of this world and who holds all from the liberality of God, to whom all belongs.

3. With a spirit of fear; because, on one side, corrupt nature inclines us incessantly to the abuse of created things; and, on the other, God will rigorously punish this abuse, which overthrows all the economy of creation.

Is it in this spirit that I have hitherto made use of creatures?

Second Consideration / Creatures are for God by means of man

Like me, creatures have an end, which is the glory of God; for God could not create anything but for His glory. Creatures without intelligence cannot connect themselves or be brought into relation with God. They are not, then, made to glorify God in a direct manner; they are made to serve man, who, in exchange for their service, must lend them his intelligence and his heart to praise and love God, and thus refer them to the glory of their common Creator.

This, then, is the order of my connection with God and creatures: I am for God, creatures for me. Hence it follows that I cannot place my end in creatures without rendering myself guilty and miserable.

(1) Guilty: guilty toward myself—it would be to degrade myself; toward creatures—it would be to turn them from their end and do violence to their nature; toward God—it would be to usurp His dominion. (2) Miserable: miserable in eternity—I should lose at once God, from whom I should be separated forever, and creatures, who would become my torment forever; in time—what can creatures do toward my happiness? They have so limited an existence! What a void they would leave in my heart! They are so full of imperfections! What a source of disgust! So frail! What a source of regret! So inconstant! What a source of distrust!

Third Consideration / How creatures glorify God in leading man to God

I am made to know, love, serve, possess God; and creatures teach me—

1. To know God. Thus the order of the world reveals His wisdom to me, the firmament His power.

2. To love God. It is the bounty of God that has given creatures to me; it is His love that serves me in each one of them. What a motive for loving Him!

3. To serve God. Consider, O my soul, how all creatures obey the will of their Creator; with what promptitude! Shall I be the only one to refuse to serve God? Shall I be the least faithful of His servants because I am the most indebted?

4. To merit the possession of God. For there is not anything that may not be the occasion of some virtue and by the same rule the subject of some merit. There are created things the use of which is necessary, those, for example, that are destined to sustain my existence. What an occasion for practicing temperance and detachment!

There are some to the use of which we must submit and that nature shrinks from; for example, sickness and poverty. What an occasion to practice patience and humility!

There are some that of their nature lead to God, such as assistances of a supernatural order. What an occasion to practice piety and faith!

Finally, there are some that would turn me away from God. What an opportunity for sacrifice!

AFFECTIONS

Praise God in the name of His creatures. Grieve for having made so bad a use of them hitherto. Resolve to attach ourselves to God only.

Pater. Ave.

Text. We must use or abstain from created things according as they lead us to, or take us away from, God. This is why we must preserve ourselves in a state of indifference toward all creatures the use of which is left to our free-will; so that, as far as it depends on us, we would not seek health or riches in preference to sickness or poverty, but in everything seek what will lead us most surely to our end.

All creatures are given to men to conduct them to their end. How is it, then, that they so often lead us away from God? It is that our nature, degraded by original sin, seeks or rejects them according as they flatter or mortify our corrupt passions. The purpose of this meditation is to reform the disorder of our attachments and our aversions by establishing in us perfect indifference. This indifference consists in neither seeking nor rejecting of our free and deliberate will any created thing for itself but solely as it brings us nearer or removes us farther from God.

First Consideration / Motives as regards God for this indifference

1. The sovereign dominion of God. Without this indifference, I dispose of my affections according to my own will, not according to the Divine will. Among different situations, I choose, not that which God destines for me, but that which pleases myself; I establish myself as my own arbiter and proprietor. Is this not to attack the rights of God?

2. The sovereign perfection of God. To love God above everything and to love nothing but for Him is what the infinite perfection of God requires. And without this indifference I shall love creatures for themselves, for the pleasures they procure me; perhaps soon I shall love them above God. Is not this the great disorder of my past life? Is it not this want of indifference that has so often made charity languish, perhaps even die out in my heart?

3. The providence of God. God, who created me for Himself, never ceases to conduct me to my final end by His providence. Shall I fear that this providence, infinitely good, wise, powerful, will not desire or will not be able to procure my greatest good? No, certainly. But without this indifference I derange all its plans. Perhaps God may take from me health, honor, fortune; perhaps He may try me by sickness, poverty or tribulation. Is it not to render myself culpable toward the providence of God, to refuse to accept what He has sent me and to leave the path He has traced out for my salvation?

Second Consideration / Motives as regards myself for this indifference

This indifference is necessary to me in order—

1. To acquire solid virtue. What is virtue? It is in fact the spirit of sacrifice—of abnegation: “If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself” (Luke 9:23). Can there be a spirit of sacrifice where there is not indifference?

2. To obtain peace of heart. Without this indifference, what fears, disgust, remorse! On the contrary, with this indifference, what sweet assurance! “The Lord ruleth me, and I shall want nothing” (Ps. 22:1). What joy even in the midst of tribulations! “I exceedingly abound with joy in all our tribulations” (2 Cor. 7:4). What plenitude of peace in the depths of the heart! “Hadst thou hearkened to My commandments, thy peace had been as a river, and thy justice as the waves of the sea” (Is. 48:18).

3. To ensure my salvation. What perils threaten the salvation of my soul! Perils from the world; perils from the devil; perils from within me—my heart, imagination, memory, senses; perils from without—friendships, business, pleasures, employment, solitude, society. All these perils are reduced to one, that of making a bad use of creatures. Let me endeavor to arrive at perfect indifference; I shall have nothing more to fear and my salvation will be assured.

RULES FOR THE PRACTICE OF INDIFFERENCE

1. In the use of creatures, only to esteem and desire what leads to God.

2. In the use of creatures to be firmly resolved to fly from all that God forbids, that is to say, from sin and the occasions of sin.

3. In the use of indifferent creatures—that is, such as directly lead us neither nearer to God nor farther from Him—to be indifferent toward them only according to the rule of the will of God and His good pleasure.

Pater. Ave.

Preparatory prayer.

Ask of God the grace to refer to His glory and service all the powers and operations of your soul.

First prelude. Represent to yourself, during the first point, Lucifer falling from the heights of heaven to the depths of the abyss; in the second, Adam cast out of the terrestrial Paradise into this vale of tears; in the third, a lost soul in the midst of the flames of hell.

Second prelude. Ask of God feelings of shame and repentance at the sight of so many souls expiating by eternal suffering the sin you have committed so frequently.

First Point / The sin of the rebel angels

Consider—

1. The angels before their sin. The excellence of their being; the light of their intelligence; the rectitude and innocence of their will; their dwelling, which is heaven, where, without yet seeing the Lord face to face, they have no other life than thinking of Him and loving Him; the happiness of their destiny—that is, a few moments of trial, and then the sight and possession of God for all eternity.

2. The sin of the angels. These noble spirits were masters of their liberty, and it proved their ruin; God gave it to them that they might merit, and they abused it to destroy themselves. Lucifer, the highest of all, dared to refuse to God the obedience due to Him; and he drew a third of the angels into his rebellion. Meditate attentively on the circumstances of this sin, and see if you do not find them in great part in your own sins; a sin committed in heaven; a sin committed with great lights; a sin committed after great benefits from Divine grace; a sin of scandal.

3. The punishment of the rebel angels. The justice of God falls on them like lightning. They are cast into the depths of hell, and in the midst of flames they suffer in an eternity of torment the sin of a moment. Meditate well on this terrible vengeance of God, which regards neither the multitude of the culprits nor the dignity of the victims; neither the rank of the angels nor the high place that they occupied in His friendship; neither the service these angels if repentant and restored to grace might render Him nor the nature of their sin; it is their first sin and the sin of a moment. “Who shall not fear Thee, O King of nations?” (Jer. 10:7). “How incomprehensible are His judgments, and how inscrutable His ways!” (Rom. 11:33).

Second Point / The sin of Adam

Consider—

1. Adam before his sin. The excellence of his being; made in the image of God; the reign of truth in his intellect, of justice in his heart; his empire over his passions and his senses; the profound peace of his soul; the delights of the terrestrial Paradise where God had placed him.

2. Adam’s sin. God had forbidden him to touch the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Adam did not obey. Tempted by the serpent, Eve tempts her husband, who by a fatal complaisance becomes a sinner. Meditate on the characteristics of this sin—imprudence, sensuality, cowardice, blindness, contempt of God. In the fall of our first father do you not recognize all your past falls?

3. The punishment of Adam after his sin. The loss of original justice and grace; disorder in all his being, in his intellect, in his heart, in his senses; change in nature—inclemency of the seasons, barrenness of the earth, the revolt of the animals; tribulations of Adam during his whole life—labor, sickness, desolation at the death of Abel, all the troubles of his mind and heart; and, after 900 years of penitence, death. Finally, consider the anger of God avenging this first sin on all the descendants of the first sinner: pestilence, war, famine, desolation of the earth; so many disasters, so many violent deaths, so many tears shed, so many crimes committed, so many children forever deprived of the sight of God, so many souls cast into hell. What consequences and what chastisements for one single sin!

End by recalling your own state, and comparing Adam’s sin with your own personal sins.

On Adam’s side. One single sin, committed before the Incarnation, before he had experienced the justice of God; above all, as in which he expiated by 900 years of penitence.

On your side. Sins so numerous, committed by a nature sanctified by Jesus Christ, in face of the cross and of hell, and perhaps sins not expiated and for which you only feel but feeble repentance.

Third Point / On a particular sin

Consider that at the moment that you on earth are meditating on the malice of mortal sin, there is, perhaps, in the depths of hell a soul that God has eternally condemned for such or such a mortal sin committed one single time, or at least for sins less numerous and less serious than yours.

Represent to yourself this soul forever deprived of the sight and the possession of God, plunged into hell among demons, delivered up to remorse, to despair, to flames, for a wretched eternity.

Ask yourself what this God is who punishes a single mortal sin in this manner. He is a God infinitely wise, infinitely just, infinitely merciful—a God who has loved this soul so much as to die for it. What an evil, then, is one single mortal sin!

Finally, reflect upon yourself. How long is it since you first committed mortal sin? Why did not God strike you dead after this first sin? Why has God spared you till now, when everything demanded your condemnation? The interest of His perfections, which you outraged; of His graces, which you trampled underfoot, of the souls whose loss you caused by your scandals. If God had called you before His tribunal on such a day, at such an hour, after such a fault, where would you be at this moment, and in what state? “It is of the mercies of the Lord that we are not consumed” (Jer. 3:22).

COLLOQUY AT THE FOOT OF THE CRUCIFIX

Address yourself to Jesus Christ crucified present before you. Ask of your God why He has deigned to become incarnate, to suffer, to die for you. Ask yourself what you have done for Him up to this time that deserves mentioning; what you will do, and what you ought to do, for Him for the future. Fix your eyes upon the cross, and say to Him all that your heart suggests.

Pater. Ave.

Preparatory prayer.

First prelude. Present yourself before God in the state of a criminal who appears before His tribunal and is going to hear his sentence.

Second prelude. “I groan in Thy sight as one guilty; shame hath covered my face, because of my sin; spare me, a suppliant, O my God.”

First Point / Recall all the sins of your life

Sins of infancy, sins of early youth, sins of more mature age. Examine all your years; what day was there that had not its sin? Question the different places you have inhabited, the societies, the employments, all the scenes of your pleasures; where do you not meet with memories of sin? Ask all the laws of God; is there a single one that you have not transgressed? Ask all your past temptations; are there many before which you have not fallen? Ask all your faculties; which is there that has not been guilty? Ask all your senses; which is there that has not served as an instrument of iniquity?

Second Point / Consider the malice of all these sins in themselves

1. What deformity! They must be ugliness itself, since they are infinitely opposed to supreme beauty, which is God.

2. What ingratitude! You hold all from God and yet you dare to say to Him, “Go from me: withdraw Thyself from my senses, which only live by Thy power; retire from my heart, which has received feeling only to love Thee; withdraw from all my being, which I only received to serve Thee.”

3. What audacity! You have dared to say to God, “I will not serve, I will not obey”; and you have said it to God in face of Himself, on the borders of the grave, on the brink of hell, where He holds you suspended by a slender thread called life.

4. What folly! You have left God, God your Father, God your supreme beatitude; and for what? For a perfidious master, for a cruel tyrant, for Satan.

5. What malice! You have sinned, and it was with so much eagerness and passion, with so much reflection and liberty, with so much show and scandal. And you have remained at rest in your sin, notwithstanding so many lights, so many solicitations of grace; notwithstanding the voice of conscience and remorse.

Third Point / Consider what you are that have thus offended God

What are all the angels before God? What are all men compared to the angels? What am I in comparison with the whole human race? What a leaf is in an immense forest, a drop of water in a stream, a grain of sand on the shores of the ocean, an atom in the immensity of the universe! And it is I, vile and worthless dust, that have not feared to declare myself a rebel against God!

Fourth Point / Consider what this God is that you have offended

Against whom, my God, have I rebelled when I committed sin? I, weakness itself rebelled against strength! I, baseness itself, rebelled against sovereign greatness! I, malice itself, rebelled against sovereign goodness! I, who am only corruption and darkness, rebelled against essential wisdom and holiness! I, a nothing, rebelled against the Being of beings!

Fifth Point / Conclude by addressing God and creatures

Be astonished that, after so many iniquities, creatures have not armed themselves against you, that they continue to serve you when you never ceased to insult their God and yours.

Be astonished that God has not withdrawn His gifts, that He has left you this fortune, this credit, these talents, this mind, this heart, this life, which you abuse to offend Him. Then ask pardon of all the perfections of God that you have offended: “Pardon, O justice of my God, for having so long braved your thunders! Pardon, O holiness of God, for having so long sullied by my crimes your purity! Pardon, O mercy of my God, for having so long forgotten your voice!”

COLLOQUY

Give thanks to the mercy of God, and protest at the feet of Jesus Christ that you will never more offend Him.

Pater. Ave.

Preparatory prayer. and preludes. As before.

First Consideration / God offended by man

Consider attentively—

1. The greatness of God who has been offended. What is God? Who is like to Him in greatness, in power, in holiness, in justice, in wisdom, in goodness? Who is like to God? His age is eternity, His empire everything that exists, His palace the light, His garments beauty and glory, His subjects and ministers the angels. And this is He whom the sinner dares to offend!

2. The nothingness of the sinner. What is man? Flesh full of pollution, dried grass ready to fall under the scythe, a leaf the sport of the winds, a vapor scarce formed and already dispersed in the air, a little dust and ashes. And it is this man who dares to say to God, “I will not obey.” “Thou hast lifted thyself up against the Lord of heaven, and said, I will not serve” (Dan. 5:23; Jer. 2:20).

3. The matter of the sin. A law of God transgressed; a law infinitely delightful, infinitely wise, the accomplishment of which was so easy, to which were attached such consoling promises and such terrible threats.

4. The motive of the sin. To whom have you compared Me? Says the Lord: “To whom have you likened Me?” (Is. 46:5). To a passion at which you blush; to some low interest, to a pleasure that passes so quickly: “Be astonished at this. They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living water, and have digged to themselves cisterns, broken cisterns” (Jer. 2:12, 13).

Second Consideration / God offended by man and offended in all His attributes

What is it you do when you are so unhappy as to commit mortal sin? By a single sin you outrage God in all His titles and in all His perfections. You outrage God the Father. You profane the supernatural being He gave you in holy baptism. You outrage the Word incarnate; you break the bonds that unite you to Him; you renew His passion in your heart; you render His blood and death useless. You outrage the Holy Ghost—you grieve, you resist Him, you extinguish Him within you.

You outrage God in all His titles. As Creator, in rebelling against His supreme dominion; as Legislator, as Redeemer, as your Friend, as your King, as your Father.

You outrage God in all His perfections. In His unity: you adore as many gods as you have passions. In His infinite perfection: you prefer a vile creature before Him. In His wisdom: you overthrow the order He has established, in turning creatures away from their end. In His immensity: you do not blush to sin in His presence, under His eyes. In His justice, which you brave. In His mercy, which only encourages you in your impenitence. In a word, you become guilty of deicide!

Third Consideration / God offended by man in spite of so many motives to urge him not to offend

How many motives there are that ought to engage you to remain obedient to God!

1. Your respect for your fellow creatures. You are so numbly submissive before a sovereign, a protector, a powerful enemy. How is it that you are bold only against God, the first of sovereigns?

2. What you exact from others. You are so tenacious of your authority, your honor, your rights, your sentiments, your will. How is it, then, that you have so little respect for the authority, the honor, the rights of God?

3. The sacrifices you make for the world. When the world speaks, do you not obey at any price—at the price of your repose, of your pleasures, of your liberty, sometimes even of your life? Why is it that, when the Lord commands, He is not obeyed in this manner? Why is it that then alone sacrifices are painful and appear impossible?

4. Your vows to God. You glory in respecting your pledged word; you would rather die than fail in your sworn faith. But has not God received your vows a thousand times—in baptism, at the sacred tribunal, at the holy table? Or is it that the oath that has such strength to bind man to man has none to bind man to God?

5. The benefits received from God. You hold all from God—talents, fortune, life. You can only sin by means of His benefits. What ingratitude, then, not only to forget such a benefactor, but also to render Him evil for good! To make use of His gifts to insult Him! To force Him to act against Himself and to turn against His glory His own goodness and His own power, which preserve you!

COLLOQUY

Place yourself at the foot of the crucifix, as a rebel subject, as a perjured friend, as a parricide son; and humbly ask of Our Lord the pardon of your sins.

Anima Christi. Pater. Ave.

Preparatory prayer.

First prelude. Present yourself before God as a criminal loaded with chains, taken from a dungeon and led to the tribunal of his judge.

Second prelude. Beg of Our Lord that He will deign to show you the sad state of a soul that has mortally sinned.

First Consideration / Mortal sin makes us lose the friendship of God

When you were in a state of grace God dwelt in your soul; the most august bonds united you to Him; He called you His people, His friend, His child, another self. But what a change since mortal sin has entered into your soul! God has withdrawn Himself from you; the ties that united you to Him have been broken; and with His friendship what have you not lost!

Second Consideration / Mortal sin robs us of all the gifts of Grace

1. It destroys the beauty of the soul. Before sin, this soul was so beautiful a sight that it delighted the heart of God; since its sin, it is as if disfigured by a hideous leprosy, which makes it an object of horror to the Lord and His angels.

2. It deprives the soul of all its merit: alms, prayer, sacrifices, good works; one single mortal sin suffices to destroy all.

3. It deprives the soul even of the power of meriting. As long as you are in a state of mortal sin, all your good works are useless for heaven. Bestow your goods in alms; embrace the most rigorous austerities; convert the universe, if possible; give your body to the flames—St. Paul assures you that all this is useless for salvation if there is a single mortal sin in your heart: “If I have not charity, I am nothing” (1 Cor. 13:2).

Third Consideration / Mortal sin enslaves our liberty

Are you in the grace of God? You are free: “Where the spirit of the Lord is there is liberty” (2 Cor. 3:17); the sweetest liberty, the most honorable, the only one that human power cannot take away. But have you had the misfortune to sin mortally? You are a slave: “Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin” ( John 8:34). All in you is enslaved—the faculties of your soul, your senses, your talents, your fortune. The devil deals with you as the centurion in the Gospel with his servants: “I say to one, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it” (Luke 7:8). He cries to you incessantly, “Bring, bring” (Prov. 30:15). Again this passion, again this sin; and always he is obeyed. What degrading slavery!

Fourth Consideration / Mortal sin deprives us of peace of heart

The sinner carries with him everywhere a trembling heart and a soul a prey to trouble and grief. Remorse is as a barbed arrow in his heart, as a gnawing worm; his conscience always pursues him; sometimes in the midst of the most serious cares, like David; sometimes in the midst of pleasure, like Baltassar; sometimes in the pains of sickness, like Antiochus; almost always in the silence of solitude, like Cain. Sometimes it reproaches him with a pleasure bought at the price of a long repentance; sometimes it recalls his ingratitude, the malice of his sin; sometimes it represents to him the sword of God’s justice suspended over his head. O sinner, how much you are to be pitied, if conscience pursues you in this manner! But how much more if it leaves you at rest! For the peace of a guilty conscience is the sure sign of the great wrath of God.

Fifth Consideration / Mortal sin kills the soul

The soul is the life of the body, and God is the life of the soul. Sin, then, kills the soul in separating it from God. And what difference is there between a corpse and a soul in mortal sin? The dead no longer see. Everything ought to strike the eyes of the sinner—the state of his soul, death that approaches, judgment, hell; and he sees nothing. The dead no longer hear. Everything speaks to the sinner—conscience, grace, events, ministers of religion; and he hears nothing. The dead are insensible. God moves heaven and earth to touch the sinner, and the sinner remains insensible. The dead exhale an infectious odor; in like manner, the sinner spreads death around him by the contagion of his scandals. O fatal death! Who will give us tears to weep over thee?

Affections at the foot of the crucifix.

Pater. Ave.

Preparatory prayer.

First prelude. Represent to yourself in imagination the length, the width, the depth of hell.

Second prelude. Ask of God a lively fear of the pains of hell, so that if ever you have the misfortune to lose the feeling of Divine love, at least the fear of torments may deter you from sin.

CONSIDERATIONS

1. The habitation of the damned. It is hell. But what is hell? The Holy Ghost calls it the place of torment; a region of misery and darkness, where disorder dwells; the lake of the anger of God; a burning furnace; the depths of the abyss; the winepress of the fury of the Almighty, under which God will trample and crush His enemies.

2. The society of the damned. In hell, a triple society will form the torment of the damned soul. (1) The society of his body, which will unite to the infectious corruption of a corpse all the sensibility of a living body, and of which all the members have their torment and their pain. (2) The company of devils, whose sole occupation is to torture the damned; who, not being able to revenge themselves on God for their reprobation, revenge themselves on man, His image, and pursue Him in the condemned with all the fury that can enter the heart of a demon. (3) The society of an infinite number of reprobates like himself. Represent to yourself this assembly, so hideous that nothing like it can be found in the dungeons and galleys of human justice; represent to yourself these miserable creatures bound together like a bundle of thorns, or like a heap of tow thrown into the flames, accusing, cursing themselves, tearing one another.

3. The torment of the damned in the powers of his soul. His imagination, which represents to him with irresistible clearness the delights of his past life on earth; the horror of his present sufferings in hell; the eternity of his future sufferings; the happiness of the elect of which he might have partaken and that he has lost forever. His memory, which recalls all his sins, all the graces he received in time, all the warnings that were given him during his life. His understanding, which incessantly shows him the deformity of sin, the greatness and beauty of God, the justice of the punishments of hell. His will, torn at the same time by regret, remorse, jealousy, desire, hatred of God and of himself.

4. The torment of the damned in all his senses. Torment of sight: the flames, the devils, the damned, his companions in torture, the cross of Jesus Christ imprinted on the roof of hell. Torment of hearing: blasphemies, imprecations, reproaches, cries of rage calling on death and annihilation. Torment of the smell: the infection exhaled from so many bodies, which preserve in hell all the corruption of the tomb. Torment of taste: a maddening hunger, the violence of which will force the damned to devour his own flesh; a devouring thirst, and for refreshment worm-wood and gall. Torment of the touch: this fire, which surrounds the damned like a vestment, and penetrates all his members—fire lighted by the breath of God Himself; fire that preserves its victim, and at the same time every moment exhausts and renews his sensibility, so as to render his pain eternal; fire armed with all the attributes of God to avenge them on the damned; fire that identifies itself with the damned, which boils in his veins, escapes and enters at every pore, which makes his body but one burning coal in the midst of the furnaces of hell.

5. The torment of eternity. “Always,” “Never.” Always regrets and despair, always the company of devils, always flames; never any end, never any interruption, never any remission of the pains and tortures. “Which of you can dwell with devouring fire? which of you shall dwell with everlasting burnings?” (Is. 23:14).

COLLOQUY

Address yourself to Jesus Christ; recall at His feet, that the causes for which these men are damned are either for having refused to believe in His coming or for not having obeyed His precepts. It is the crime of men damned before His coming on earth, of those who lived in His time and of those who came into the world after Him. Then attach yourself to Him forever in mind and heart, that He may save you from eternal death. Finish by returning Him the most lively thanks that He has not permitted you to fall into this terrible abyss but that He pursues you even to this day, not by His vengeance, but by His immense goodness and infinite mercy.

Pater. Ave.

Preparatory prayer.

First prelude. Transport yourself in thought to the bedside of a dying person, or beside a grave ready to receive a coffin or into the middle of a cemetery.

Second prelude. Ask of Our Lord a salutary fear of death and the grace to be prepared for it every day.

1. What is it to die? It is to bid adieu to everything in this world—to fortune, pleasures, friends, family; a sad adieu, heart-rendering, irrevocable. It is to leave my house, to be thrown into a deep narrow pit, without any garment but a shroud, without any society but reptiles and worms. It is to pass to the most humiliating state, the nearest to nothingness, where I shall become the prey of corruption, where I shall fall to pieces, where I shall decompose into an infectious putrefaction. It is for my soul to enter in the twinkling of an eye into an unknown region called eternity, where I shall go to hear from the mouth of God in what place I am to make that great retreat that will last forever, whether it be in heaven or in the depths of hell.

2. Must I die? Most certainly. And what assures me of it? Reason, faith, experience. Yes; notwithstanding all precautions, all cares, all the efforts of physicians, I shall die. Where are those who preceded me in life? In the grave, in eternity. And from this grave, from this eternity, they cry to me, “Yesterday for me, and to-day for thee” (Ecclus. 38:23).

3. Shall I die soon? Yes. Why? Because ever since my birth I have been only dying. An action continued without interruption is soon accomplished. All other actions have some cessation; business, study, pleasure, sleep—all these have intervals; death is the only action never interrupted. How can I be long dying when I have been dying ever since I was born and every moment of the day and night? Where is now that portion of my life that death has already taken from me? As death has taken the past from me, so it will take the future; with the same rapidity, with the rapidity of lightning.

4. When shall I die? At what age? In old age? In mature age? Will it be after a long illness? Will it be from a fall, from a fire, beneath the knife of an assassin? In what place? In my own house or in a strange house? At table, at play, at the theatre, at church, in my bed, on a scaffold? What day shall I die? Will it be this year? this week? Tomorrow? Today? In what state shall I die? Will it be in a state of grace, or in that of sin? To all these questions, Jesus Christ answers me, “Watch; for ye know not the day nor the hour” (Matt. 25:13).

5. How often shall I die? Once only; therefore, any error in this great action is irreparable. The misfortune of a bad death is an eternal misfortune. And on what does this bad death depend? On a single instant. It only requires a moment to offend the Lord mortally. It, then, only requires a moment to decide my eternity. If I had died this year, on such a day, such an hour of my life, when I was the enemy of God, where should I be now?

AFFECTIONS

Fear; desire; resolution.

COLLOQUY

Represent to yourself Our Lord dying on the cross, and recommend the hour of your death to Him.

Pater. Ave.

First Contemplation / Your agony

Preparatory prayer.

First and second preludes. The same as in the preceding.

APPLICATION OF THE SENSES

1. Application of the sight. Contemplate: (1) Your apartment dimly lighted by the feeble gleam of a lamp; all the objects that surround you and seem to say, “You are leaving us, and forever.” (2) The persons who surround you—your servants, your family, the minister of Jesus Christ. (3) Yourself laid on a bed of pain, and violently struggling against death. (4) At your side, devils and holy angels, who dispute for your soul.

2. Application of the hearing. Listen to the noise of your painfully interrupted breathing, to the stifled sobs of the assistants, to the prayers of the Church recited in the midst of tears: “From an evil death, from the pains of hell, from the snares of the devil, deliver him, O Lord.” “Depart, Christian soul, in the name of God the Father Almighty, who created thee; of Jesus Christ, who suffered for thee; of the Holy Ghost, who sanctified thee.” The holy words that the priest suggests to you: “Lord Jesus, receive my soul; Mary, mother of grace, mother of mercy,” and so on.

3. Application of the taste. Represent to yourself all the bitterness of the agony of a dying man. For the present—what bitterness in this separation from your possessions, your family, your body; in the weariness, the fears that precede the last sigh! For the past; what bitterness in the memory of your infidelities, of your resistance to grace! For the future—what bitterness in the thought of the judgment you are about to undergo!

4. Application of the touch. Imagine yourself holding between your hands the crucifix that the priest presents to you. Touch your own body on the point of dissolution; those icy feet, those rigid arms, that chest laboring painfully with interrupted respiration, that heart beating with an almost imperceptible movement. It is in this state that your relations and friends will see you before very long. Make now on yourself the reflections that your agony will soon inspire in those who witness it.

End by a colloquy with our dying Lord: “Into Thy hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit.”

Second Contemplation / Your state after death

Preparatory prayer.

Preludes. The same.

1. Application of the sight. Consider, (1) Some moments after your death: your corpse wrapped in a shroud; at your side the crucifix, the holy water, relations and friends; a priest praying for you; the public officer writing in a registry of deaths the day, the hour of your decease; the servants occupied with the preparations for your funeral. (2) The day after your death: your inanimate body in the coffin, taken from your apartment, laid at the foot of the altar; then taken to its last home, the grave. (3) Sometime after your death: contemplate that stone already blackened by time and under this stone the sad state of your body; the putrefied flesh, the separated limbs, the bones consumed by the corruption of the grave.

2. Application of the hearing. Again, go over the different scenes where you yourself are the spectacle: the dismal sound of the bells asking prayers for you, the prayers recited at the foot of your deathbed, “De profundis clamavi”; the discourse of the servants, who speak freely of you; the friends and relations, who communicate to each other their reflections on your loss; the attendants called in to arrange your funeral; the chants of the Church during the funeral ceremony: “Deliver me, O Lord, from eternal death in that dreadful day, when the heavens and the earth shall tremble; when Thou shalt come to judgment—a day of wrath, calamity and misery—that great and bitter day”; the conversation of the persons attending your funeral; what is said of you in society after your death.

3. Application of the smell and the touch. Imagine that you respire the odor that your body exhales after your soul has abandoned it—the infection it would spread if taken from the coffin a few months after your death. Imagine that you touch the damp earth where you have been laid, the shroud in rags, the bare skull, the separated limbs, the mass of corruption enclosed in a grave, after a few months the sight alone of which is horrible.

In the presence of this sad scene, ask yourself what the world is, and what is life? “Vanity of vanities, and all is vanity” (Eccles. 1:2). End by a colloquy with Our Lord dying: “Into Thy hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit.”

Pater. Ave.

Preparatory prayer.

First prelude. Represent to yourself the tribunal of Jesus Christ and your soul led to the presence of its Judge to give an account of all its works.

Second prelude. “Remember, O most loving Jesu, that for me Thou didst humble Thyself to this mortal life. Let me not be lost, I beseech Thee, on that great day.”

CONSIDERATIONS

1. The time and the place of the judgment. The time will be the moment you render your last sigh. Represent to yourself your relatives and your friends around your deathbed, examining your lips, your heart, to discover a breath, a throb, which may still betoken life. While they are yet asking whether you belong to time or to eternity, you are already before the tribunal of your Judge. And where is this tribunal? In the very place where you have just expired, beside your deathbed, in presence of those who surround your inanimate remains and who assist at this terrible scene without desiring it and probably without thinking of it.

2. The accused. It is your soul; but your soul alone with its works; your soul suddenly enlightened on all its obligations; on all the graces it has received, on all the iniquities it has committed; your soul in presence of its God, without power to escape this formidable sight. What a situation! A worldly soul in presence of that God it has never loved—a voluptuous soul in presence of that God thrice holy, who has witnessed its disorders and who is about to punish them!

3. The accusers. Satan, who recalls your baptismal vows so often renewed, so often broken; the holy angels; your guardian angel, who reproaches you with his inspirations that you rejected; the angels entrusted with the souls of your brethren, who reproach you with your scandals; the angels who watch over the holy altars, and who reproach you with that indifference that kept you away from the holy table; your conscience, which places before your eyes all your past life, produces all your works, which cry out, “Dost thou recognize us? We are thy works.”

4. The Judge. It is Jesus Christ who is your judge, Jesus Christ once your father, your spouse, your friend, your brother; but who now is your judge only—a judge infinitely holy, a judge infinitely clear-sighted, a judge infinitely just, a judge without appeal, a judge all powerful. What have you not to fear from His justice! “What shall I do when God shall rise to judge?” ( Job 31:14).

5. Your defense at the tribunal of God. If you present yourself before the tribunal of Jesus Christ in mortal sin, what will you reply to the accusations brought against you? Will you excuse yourself by your ignorance? But you had the lights of conscience and of faith; on your weakness? But you had grace; on your temptations? But you had prayer and the Sacraments; on the scandals that have led you astray? But you had so many holy examples to instruct you. Leaving excuses, will you have recourse to the inter-cession of holy Mary and of the saints? They can no longer do anything for you; to the mercy of Jesus Christ? He is henceforward the God of justice, and no longer the God of clemency: “My eyes shall not spare them, neither will I show mercy” (Ezech. 8:18).

6. The sentence. To the just will be said: “Come, O ye blessed of My Father, and possess the kingdom prepared for you from the beginning of the world” (Matt. 22:34). But to the sinner will be said: “Begone, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels” (Ibid., 41). Be gone! That is, every tie between us is broken; go far from Me, unnatural child; I am no longer thy father—go far from Me, wandering sheep, I am no longer thy pastor; thou art cursed in thy senses, which shall each have its torment—in thy understanding, in thy heart, in all thy being. Be gone into everlasting fire, to that fire where thy only dwelling shall be a furnace, thy food flames—to that fire that shall last as long as I am God; be gone to the fire prepared for Satan and his angels. I take heaven and earth to witness that it was not prepared for thee. I protest that I have done everything to save thee from this eternal fire; but since thou wouldst not profit by My grace and friendship, be gone from Me, and be gone for all eternity.

Affections. Fear; desire; resolution.

COLLOQUIES

1. At the feet of Jesus Christ crucified: “O most just Judge, grant me, I beseech Thee, the gift of pardon before that great day of reckoning. Behold, I groan in Thy sight as a guilty sinner; shame covereth my face because of my iniquities. Spare me, O God, crying to Thee for mercy.”

2. At the feet of an image of Mary: “O Mary, at once the Mother of God and the Mother of the sinner, Mother of the Judge and of the criminal; let not God your Son condemn your son the sinner.”

Pater. Ave.

Preparatory prayer.

First prelude. Represent to yourself the prodigal son returning to his father after long wanderings.

Second prelude. Ask of Our Lord the grace to imitate the repentance of the prodigal and like him to obtain pardon for the past.

PARABLE OF THE PRODIGAL

“A certain man,” and so on (Luke 15:11–24).

First Point / The wandering of the prodigal

Consider all the circumstances.

1. He is young. The passions of youth, that is, love of pleasure, independence; these are the causes of his wandering. Have not yours arisen from the same cause?

2. He asks of his father his portion of the inheritance. What ingratitude, what injustice, what temerity, in this conduct of the prodigal! Is not all this to be found in the steps that have led you from your God?

3. He goes into a distant country. An image this of your wandering when you gave yourself to the world. Is it not true that you have fled as far from yourself and from God as possible, for fear that grace should find you and restore you to your heavenly Father in spite of yourself?

4. Away from his father, the prodigal squanders all his fortune. And you, away from God, what treasures of grace have you not wasted! Recall all these losses, and weep over them with tears of blood—loss of the friendship of God, loss of your past merits, loss of your Christian education, of your inclinations so favorable to piety, of that taste for virtue, of that delicacy of conscience, of that uprightness of heart—loss of those talents prostituted to your passions—loss of reason—perhaps of faith. Oh, what a fatal use of the gifts of God!

5. The prodigal is soon reduced to want in a country desolated by famine. Obliged to place himself in the service of a hard master; condemned to take care of filthy animals; to envy, without obtaining, their degrading food.

Behold the fruits of sin:

(1) Indulgence. The world in this country is a prey to a cruel famine. This hunger is the devouring hunger of the passions, which cry incessantly, “Bring, bring” (Prov. 30:15). And this want is the deep craving of a soul tormented by the desire of happiness, and finding in creatures only endless regrets, disgust and sorrow. (2) Slavery. Like the prodigal, the sinner is a slave, not of one master alone, but of numberless tyrants—of the devil, of the world, of his own inclinations and habits. (3) Degradation. There is no pleasure, however base, from which a soul separated from God will not seek happiness. It will even envy the most disgraceful sinners their most shameful excesses; sometimes even envy the condition of the brutes, so as to desire to have like them no law but instinct, no other destiny than the satisfaction of his senses: “Man when he was in honour did not understand; he hath been compared to senseless beasts, and made like to them” (Ps. 48:21).

Second Point / The return of the prodigal

1. The prodigal, deserted by the world, returns to himself. He begins to reflect on his sins and his misfortunes. What subjects of reflection does he not find within himself! O God, what have I gained by forsaking Thee? What repose, what happiness, have I found in the world? Was it necessary to sacrifice Thy friendship, peace of conscience, my eternity, for pleasures so transient, so empty, so degrading?

2. The prodigal compares his state with that of his father’s servants and envies them their happiness. Faithless soul, what a difference between your state and that of the servants of God! What peace, what joy in their hearts! In yours what troubles, what bitterness!

3. The prodigal takes a courageous resolution. “I will arise,” said he, “and I will go to my father.” He does not stop at words and desires; he does not defer his return; he does not draw back, either before the rail-lery of the world or the sacrifice of his attachments. What an example of solid conversion!

4. The prodigal hopes, by the acknowledgment of his faults, to regain his father’s favor. Let this be also the first step in your conversion. Cast yourself at the feet of Jesus Christ, present in the person of the priest and say to Him, “Father, I have sinned against Heaven and before Thee. I am no longer worthy to be called Thy child; too happy if Thou wilt deign to receive me among Thy servants.”

Consider the welcome the prodigal receives from his father.

1. His father sees him afar off and is immediately moved with compassion. Thus, at the first feelings of repentance that arise in the sinner’s heart, God is moved with pity; He forgets his past ingratitude; He only sees his misfortunes and his sorrow.

2. The father of the prodigal fell upon his neck and embraced him. Recognize in these facts the goodness of God when, abandoned by creatures, we return to Him. Did not God owe it to His glory, His holiness, His justice, to reject us? And yet he meets us; He offers us pardon; He embraces us and presses us to His sacred heart.

3. The father of the prodigal orders him to be immediately reestablished in all the prerogatives of his rank. So the Lord treats the sinner that returns to Him. With His friendship He restores to him all he had forfeited by sin—innocence, peace, merits, right to heaven, all his dignity as a man and as a Christian.

4. Finally, the father of the prodigal orders a splendid feast to celebrate the return of his son and invites all his household to take part in the joy of this feast. So our Heavenly Father celebrates the return of the sinner by a solemn festival, in which He gives him His own body. He invites the angels to rejoice in his spiritual resurrection. He wills that the day of his conversion should be a day of gladness and feasting for all His family, that is, the Church. After this, why do we delay returning to the arms and the heart of this good Father?

COLLOQUY

Throw yourself at the feet of Jesus Christ, like the prodigal at his father’s feet, and promise never more to forsake Him.

Anima Christi.