Bronchain Meditations: Friday After The Octave Of Corpus Christi

The Sacred Heart

Preparation. - That we may worthily celebrate the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, let us consider, first, the motives we have of loving Him and confiding in Him, and secondly, the graces we ought to draw from this ocean of all goods. We shall then resolve to take the Heart of Jesus as the model of ours, by loving what He loves and imitating His humility and meekness. "Learn of Me, because I am meek and humble of heart" (Mat. 11. 29).

I. Motives For Loving The Sacred Heart And Confiding In It.

The Heart of Jesus is the Heart of the Incarnate Word, the second Person of the Blessed Trinity. Being the consubstantial Image of the Father by His divinity, our Saviour possesses all perfections in Himself. He is meek, patient, generous, charitable, not merely like the saints, but in an infinite degree. "In Him," says St. Paul, "it hath well pleased the Father that all fulness should dwell" (Col. 1. 19).

Does not such a Heart deserve all our love? We love those creatures in whom we see united a noble character, goodness, kindness and generosity; how much more should we not love the Creator who possesses these qualities in an infinite degree, being their inexhaustible fountain! When we love what is earthly, we bind our affection to a vain and transitory shadow; why not rather unite ourselves with the uncreated Beauty that endureth forever, and is able to give us endless bliss? Let us, like the angels and saints, allow ourselves to be ravished by the ineffable charms of our God.

And with what confidence should His Heart inspire us? It is the Heart of Christ, the Head of regenerated mankind. From it proceeds the life of the Church and of souls, and in it are found gathered together all the benefits of the Redemption, of which it is the meritorious cause; from its bosom flow beneficent streams carrying every where to souls hope and life. How mercifully it purifies sinners, how lovingly it enlightens, strengthens and consoles the just, and helps them to make progress in virtue! Would it be in vain that Jesus called Himself our Brother? And does not a true brother have at heart the interests of his family? When Joseph was placed over Egypt, he endowed his brethren with the most fertile portion of the country. Jesus, still more generous, has promised His graces to all who pray to Him, were they even great sinners! (Luke 11. 10). How much more willingly will He not lavish them on His friends!

Let us then go with the utmost confidence to the Heart of our loving Saviour, making known to Him our wants, showing Him our wounds, and He will wash them in His blood. In our weakness let us beseech Him to re-animate our strength. If we are spiritually poor and lack every spiritual good, and if in spite of our efforts, we experience only dryness and distraction at prayer, let us humbly implore His assistance, saying: O Jesus, who art the resurrection and the life, enlighten my mind, purify my heart, raise up my depressed spirits, impart to me Thy holy inclinations, and enable me always to live with Thee, in Thee and for Thee.

II. The Graces To Be Drawn From The Sacred Heart.

What can we draw therefrom more useful to us than the knowledge of God, which is more precious than all temporal goods? It is, indeed, the root of eternal life (John 17. 3). "Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom," says the prophet, "and let not the strong man glory in his riches, but let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth Me" (Jer. 9, 23, 24). In the Heart of Jesus, "are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge" (Col. 2. 3). Christ imparts these treasures cheerfully to His servants, and especially to the little and the humble of heart. "Thou hast revealed them to the little ones" (Mat. 11. 25). If we wish to be more enlightened than the worldly wise, let us be devout to the Heart of Jesus, but with a devotion that induces us to love a hidden and humble life, a life of recollection and prayer.

In this way we shall gradually become perfect in holy love, of which the Heart of Jesus, being the incarnation of uncreated love, is the ever glowing hearth, for "God is love" (1 John 4. 8). "I am come," says our Lord, "to cast fire upon the earth, and what will I, but that it be kindled" (Luke 12. 49). And when does He kindle this divine fire, if not in holy Communion and the visits we pay Him at the foot of the altars, where He immolates Himself, and of the tabernacles wherein He dwells day and night for our salvation?

But in vain do we pretend to burn with holy love, if our heart is all steeped in earthly affections and self-love. Let us, then, firmly resolve, first, to mortify our senses, especially our eyes, so that we may always live in the presence of Jesus; and secondly, to repress our volatile imagination, and to bind all our passions under the Saviour's yoke, and we shall thus reach the perfection of divine love.

Most adorable Heart, so little dost Thou esteem worldly goods as to leave them to Thy enemies, but Thou reservest the heavenly treasures for Thy friends. Through Thy Blessed Mother's intercession, impart to me Thy wisdom and holiness; Thy wisdom, that I may the better understand Thy greatness and my nothingness; and Thy holiness, that I may be detached from myself and the world, and conform myself to Thy desires, Thy sentiments and Thy virtues. Grant, Lord Jesus, that we may put on the virtues and be inflamed with the affections of Thy most Sacred Heart.

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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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Friday After The Octave Of Corpus Christi

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Servant of God

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