Bronchain Meditations: July 12

The Service Of God

Preparation. - That we may esteem obedience more and more highly, we shall meditate tomorrow, first, how glorious it is to obey and serve God, and secondly, how much peace and happiness there is in so doing. In this manner we shall be convinced of the truth that our solid greatness and real bliss consist in conquering our passions and submitting to God. “It is a great glory to follow the Lord” (Eccli. 23.38).

I. How Glorious Is The Service Of God.

What renders the service of a master honorable in the eyes of worldlings, is the nobility of the person served. If he is wealthy, honored, famous, a prince or a monarch, it is a glorious thing to be in his service. What shall we say of the King of heaven, of the King of glory? he is not only rich, noble and exalted, but He is the Lord of the universe; being God, He is innately noble; He is infinitely great, and before Him all created greatness and dignities are but mere shadows. What is more honorable than to serve Him? He treats us, not as His servants, but as His friends: Henceforth “I shall call you friends (John 15. 14). Moreover, He causes us to share in His divine Sonship: “behold what manner of charity the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called and should be the sons of God” (1 John 3. 1).

Does not such a favor, secured to all the servants of God, surround them with a halo of glory more splendid than all earthly glories? To serve God, infinitely great and perfect, is to raise ourselves above the earth, above ourselves, above the very heavens. Worldlings are the slaves of pride, covetousness and sensual pleasure that kill souls; the true faithful, on the contrary, enjoy the liberty of the children of the heavenly Father, that holy liberty, that sublime liberty, which dilates and ennobles the heart, and renders it superior to the passions, and intimately unites it to the infinite Majesty. Are we not kept back, perhaps, by some defect, some earthly tie, or some little thread of affection, which prevents us from belonging wholly to God? “Self-love,” says St. Vincent de Paul, “often makes us believe we are serving the Lord, even when we seek our own satisfaction.”

O Jesus, how many times do I listen to my inclinations or repugnances in the accomplishment of Thy precepts! I abhor humiliations, instead of accepting them for Thy sake; I yield to self-complacency in my works, instead of giving Thee glory for all. Enable me to follow the steps of the apostles, the martyrs and the other saints, who deeply abased themselves and served Thee, at their expense, without self-interest, human respect, seeking not human esteem, but solely to glorify Thy infinite perfections. Enable me to imitate them and their fidelity in obeying thee in all things; for in this consists solid greatness and true royalty. “To serve God is to reign.”

II. The Happiness Of Serving God.

A servant’s happiness depends on his master’s goodness. But what master is comparable to God who permits us to call Him “our Father,” and who is truly a Father to us, for His love for us has no equal. All His action, or Providence, in this world constantly tends to procure our welfare.

He forbids us to sin, because He considers sin as the greatest of evils and the most opposed to our interior peace. He commands us to practice the virtues, because He knows them to be efficacious means of making us happy, notably in the next life but in this also. He requires us to be patient in trials, because resignation sweetens them and renders them meritorious. He recommends prayer and the sacraments to us, because they are inexhaustible fountains of light, strength and consolations. Hence nothing is more true than Christ’s saying: “My yoke is sweet, and My burden is light” (Mat. 11. 29).

The service of God has, undoubtedly, an austere appearance. It is serious and requires recollection, the avoidance of dangerous pleasures, and the practice of mortification of the senses and the passions; but this exterior, which terrifies the worldling, conceals ineffable joys and sweetness. In order to understand this mystery, it behooves us to strive after solid piety, for God communicates Himself and His happiness to us only in proportion to our fidelity. He who gives but little, receives but little; but divine favors and bliss abound in the heart that loves God undividedly. “Taste ye and see.”

Let us examine what prevents us from belonging entirely to Jesus. Is it vanity, dissipation of mind, love of the world, of esteem? Or else, is it attachment to transitory pleasures, to an effeminate, idle and sensual life? To serve God with fervor, we should exercise ourselves in mental prayer, watchfulness, and self-denial under the guidance of grace and of those who direct soul.

O my Jesus, I am happy in Thy service, but not so much as I would be, were I constantly faithful and wholly detached. Through the intercession of Thy most holy Mother Mary, extricate me from my own self and from all that is created, and if I am not yet able to love suffering and mortification as the saints did, do not permit at least that I should shirk inconvenience, labor, hardships and sufferings in the performance of my duties.

Method

Show/Hide

Servant of God

Charles Louis Laurent Bronchain was born of excellent parents, September 4, 1829, at Frameries, near Mons in Belgium. From his early boyhood he was distinguished for his piety. As an altar boy he was modest and recollected, and was wont after serving Mass to remain as close as possible to the priest. Being asked why he acted thus, he replied: "I do this, because I wish to be nearer to the good God." When he saw people going to holy communion, he was filled with a holy envy, and would say to himself: "When shall I also have the happiness of receiving our Lord?" We may easily imagine his joy and happiness when this favor was vouchsafed to him for the first time. When out walking with his playmates, he always managed to bring them near a church and induced them to enter it with him to pay homage to our divine Saviour in the Sacrament of His love.

During the six years he studied at the "Petit Seminaire de Bonne Esperance," he was universally admired and respected for his modesty, piety, charity, and other virtues. Heeding the divine call to a more perfect life, he, with the consent of his parents, renounced the world and the brightest prospects of success, and entered in 1850 the Redemptorist Novitiate at St. Trond. The following year he made his profession and was sent to Wittem to prosecute his studies. As novice and student, Louis Bronchain was a model to his companions in regular observance, charity, love of prayer, and study, and self-denial. After his ordination in 1857, he labored zealously for some years in the ministry and in giving missions.

In 1865 he was appointed Master of Novices. To his novices he was ever a tender and loving father, giving them the example of every virtue. His life was practically a continual prayer. Rising very early every morning to be able to devote more time to it, he would spend hours in meditation before the Blessed Sacrament. Though very severe towards himself and addicted to corporal austerities, he, like a true saint, was always cheerful and full of charity and condescension towards others, and of solicitude in supplying the wants of his novices. His health failing, he was relieved of his heavy burden in 1870. From that time until his death, his life was one of continual suffering, borne with wonderful patience and resignation. As long as he was able he labored for his fellow-religious, and for the salvation of souls. Being an able spiritual director, he enabled his many penitents to make great progress in the spiritual life. As for himself he was an “interior man,” such as he describes in his “Meditations.” He died June 2, 1892, in the odor of sanctity.

Father Bronchain spent his years of suffering in composing spiritual works, which passed through many editions during his lifetime and have done incalculable good to souls. They are, like the works of St. Alphonsus, whose spirit he possessed in a remarkable degree, noted for the solidity of their doctrine, the simplicity and popularity of their language, and especially for that sweet unction which induces the practice of virtue, horror of sin, and especially the love of Jesus and Mary.

Index

by Date

by Subject

by Keyword

July 12

Method

Servant of God

Links