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Method
Before Meditation
Invocation of the Holy Ghost
Come, Holy Ghost, fill the hearts of Thy faithful, and enkindle in them the fire of Thy love. Send forth Thy Spirit, and they shall be created. And Thou shalt renew the face of the earth.
O God, who hast taught the hearts of the faithful by the light of Thy Holy Spirit, grant us, by the same Spirit, to have a right judgement in all things, and evermore to rejoice in His consolation. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Act of Faith
O my God, I believe that Thou art here present, and I adore Thee with my whole heart.
Act of Humility
Lord, on account of my sins I should now be in hell; but O Infinite Goodness, I repent with my whole heart of having offended Thee.
Act of Petition
My God, for the love of Jesus and Mary, enlighten me and enable me to derive profit from this meditation.
Then say a Hail Mary to the Blessed Virgin Mary and a Glory Be to the Father in honor of St. Joseph, our Guardian Angel and our holy Patron, that they may help us to make a good meditation. We now turn to the subject of the meditation.
During Meditation
Our reflections on what we have read should produce three fruits: affections, prayers or petitions, and resolutions; for when we have reflected on a truth, and God has spoken to our heart by its means, we should also speak to Him,
1. With affections, such as, acts of faith, thanksgiving, humility, hope, and especially acts of love and contrition. St. Thomas says that every act of love deserves for us grace and eternal bliss. The same may be said of acts of contrition. We may make acts of love as follows: "My God, I love Thee above all things." - "Lord, I will do Thy will in all things." - "My God, I rejoice at Thy infinite happiness." We may thus make an act of contrition: "O infinite Goodness, I am sorry for having offended Thee."
2. With prayers, or petitions, for we should ask God for the light we need, for humility, patience, or some other virtue, a good death, eternal salvation, and especially for the forgiveness of our sins, divine love, the spirit of prayer and final perseverance. If we are spiritually very dry and unable to meditate, let us often earnestly repeat such aspirations as these: "My God, help me." - "Lord, have mercy on me." - "My Jesus, mercy." Were we then to do nothing else during the time of meditation, our time would be well and profitably spent.
3. With resolutions. These should be specified and practical, such as, to avoid some dangerous occasion, to bear patiently some defect of our neighbor, to correct a certain fault, and the like.
After Meditation
We should finish our meditation, 1. by thanking God for the light He imparted to us; 2. by purposing to make use of the proper means for keeping our resolutions; and 3. by praying to God, for the love of Jesus and Mary, to give us the grace to be faithful to our resolutions.
St. Francis de Sales recommends that we choose some thought that especially struck us during our meditation, in order to recall it to mind now and then during the day.
We conclude by reciting the Hail Holy Queen, and one Our Father and one Hail Mary for the souls in purgatory, our Holy Father the Pope, bishops and priests, religious, poor sinners, our relatives and all who have been recommended to our prayers, and all for whom we are bound to pray.
N.B. The points of the morning meditation should be prepared already on the eve. Hence those who make use of these Meditations, should, after their night prayers on the eve, read attentively the "Preparation" of the next morning's meditation; and on the following day begin their meditation at once with the First Point.
Invocation of the Holy Ghost
Come, Holy Ghost, fill the hearts of Thy faithful, and enkindle in them the fire of Thy love. Send forth Thy Spirit, and they shall be created. And Thou shalt renew the face of the earth.
O God, who hast taught the hearts of the faithful by the light of Thy Holy Spirit, grant us, by the same Spirit, to have a right judgement in all things, and evermore to rejoice in His consolation. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Act of Faith
O my God, I believe that Thou art here present, and I adore Thee with my whole heart.
Act of Humility
Lord, on account of my sins I should now be in hell; but O Infinite Goodness, I repent with my whole heart of having offended Thee.
Act of Petition
My God, for the love of Jesus and Mary, enlighten me and enable me to derive profit from this meditation.
Then say a Hail Mary to the Blessed Virgin Mary and a Glory Be to the Father in honor of St. Joseph, our Guardian Angel and our holy Patron, that they may help us to make a good meditation. We now turn to the subject of the meditation.
During Meditation
Our reflections on what we have read should produce three fruits: affections, prayers or petitions, and resolutions; for when we have reflected on a truth, and God has spoken to our heart by its means, we should also speak to Him,
1. With affections, such as, acts of faith, thanksgiving, humility, hope, and especially acts of love and contrition. St. Thomas says that every act of love deserves for us grace and eternal bliss. The same may be said of acts of contrition. We may make acts of love as follows: "My God, I love Thee above all things." - "Lord, I will do Thy will in all things." - "My God, I rejoice at Thy infinite happiness." We may thus make an act of contrition: "O infinite Goodness, I am sorry for having offended Thee."
2. With prayers, or petitions, for we should ask God for the light we need, for humility, patience, or some other virtue, a good death, eternal salvation, and especially for the forgiveness of our sins, divine love, the spirit of prayer and final perseverance. If we are spiritually very dry and unable to meditate, let us often earnestly repeat such aspirations as these: "My God, help me." - "Lord, have mercy on me." - "My Jesus, mercy." Were we then to do nothing else during the time of meditation, our time would be well and profitably spent.
3. With resolutions. These should be specified and practical, such as, to avoid some dangerous occasion, to bear patiently some defect of our neighbor, to correct a certain fault, and the like.
After Meditation
We should finish our meditation, 1. by thanking God for the light He imparted to us; 2. by purposing to make use of the proper means for keeping our resolutions; and 3. by praying to God, for the love of Jesus and Mary, to give us the grace to be faithful to our resolutions.
St. Francis de Sales recommends that we choose some thought that especially struck us during our meditation, in order to recall it to mind now and then during the day.
We conclude by reciting the Hail Holy Queen, and one Our Father and one Hail Mary for the souls in purgatory, our Holy Father the Pope, bishops and priests, religious, poor sinners, our relatives and all who have been recommended to our prayers, and all for whom we are bound to pray.
N.B. The points of the morning meditation should be prepared already on the eve. Hence those who make use of these Meditations, should, after their night prayers on the eve, read attentively the "Preparation" of the next morning's meditation; and on the following day begin their meditation at once with the First Point.
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.
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