Bronchain Meditations: Pentecost Saturday

The Gift Of Piety

Preparation. - Piety is the highest of the gifts perfecting the will. Let us consider its effects, first, with regard to God, and secondly, with regard to our neighbor, and then we shall examine whether we look upon and treat God as a father, with love and submission; and whether we are not harsh, disagreeable and uncivil towards our neighbor. Let us correct these defects with the help of the gift of piety, for "godliness is profitable to all things, having the promise of the life which now is, and of that which is to come" (1 Tim. 4. 8).

I. Effects Of Piety With Regard To God.

According to St. Thomas, the gift of piety is a holy and habitual disposition, which induces us to honor god as our Father, inspires us with a childlike affection towards Him, and causes us to love Him even in our neighbor, who was created, as well as we, in His image and likeness. Hence this gift produces sentiments of a loving respect and sweet tenderness towards the Lord. We then glory in having Him as our Father, Far from being ashamed of Him before men, we speak of Him with pleasure and rejoice in seeing Him honored and loves. These sins committed against Him grieve us more than those committed against us; we regret causing Him displeasure, but without losing out interior peace, for we know He is a true Father and forgives the repentant. How noble and desirable are the thought inspired by piety!

They enable us to take an interest in all that concerns divine worship. The ceremonies of the Mass, the pomp of feasts, the singing of psalms and hymns, all that sets off the majesty of religion, ravishes and enraptures us. How happy we then feel to praise, exalt the grandeurs, the unspeakable and infinite perfections of God! What a joy we experience at the thought of the homages rendered Him by the heavenly court! And the heavenly court itself is the object of the special veneration of pious souls. All that is intimately connected with the Lord is always extremely dear to them. They pray for the Church suffering and for the Church militant. They revere in a special manner the ecclesiastical hierarchy, the sacraments, the doctrines and precepts of the Church.

Are these our sentiments and dispositions? Are we not insensible to the glory of God, the honor of the Blessed Virgin and of the angels and saints, and to the sorrows of our Mother, the Church? Are we moved by the beauties of the liturgy and the honors paid to the Blessed Sacrament? Do we ever grieve over the outrages Jesus receives therein from unbelievers and wicked Christians?

O my God, Spirit of love, give me a relish for prayer and the unction to pray well, so that I may in all things and every where render Thee the homages of a dutiful child to his well-beloved Father. Enable me, especially during mental prayer, to make, first, acts of adoration and love concerning Thy infinite perfections; secondly, acts of gratitude for Thy continual benefits, and thirdly, frequent invocations to obtain the light and assistance so necessary to my soul.

II. Effects Of Piety With Regard To Our Neighbor.

When we meet a monarch's prime minister or one of his chief functionaries, we testify our esteem to him on account of the monarch himself. What should not we do with regard to the living images of the Lord of heaven and earth? One of the effects of the gift of piety consists in filling us with benevolence and affection towards all men, and why? Because they are not only the servants, but the friends and children of our heavenly Father, and the brethren of Jesus, the King of glory. Clothed with Him at baptism, nourished with His sacred flesh in the Eucharist, they participate in His grandeurs and merits, and are destined to share one day His kingdom for all eternity. Should not such thoughts awaken in us feelings of love for our neighbor?

Hence the fruits of kindness, benignity and meekness which the gift of piety causes our soul to produce, and also the works of spiritual and temporal mercy, which Jesus will reward at the last day, when saying to the elect: "Come, ye blessed of My Father, possess the kingdom prepared for you, for I was hungry, thirsty, a stranger, naked, sick, in prison," and you assisted Me (Mat. 25. 34-36).

O how often is he who lacks the gift of piety, harsh, inhuman and merciless towards his fellow-men! How his unfeeling and disdainful humor contrasts strikingly with the humility and kindness of our Saviour and the saints! Devoid of the spirit of self-denial, which sacrifices personal tastes and overcomes unevenness of temper, he is unable to show himself pleasant and civil to others. He belongs to those men mentioned by St. Paul as "lovers of themselves covetous, haughty, proud, without affection, without kindness" (2 Tim. 3. 2-4), and without charity.

Let us examine whether we act towards our superiors with childlike docility, deference and submission, being ever ready to obey. Do not our words and manners towards our neighbor often betray our haughtiness, our melancholy, or our habits of impatience, ill-feeling and complaint?

O my God, I am so little inclined to forgive, to please others, to sympathize in their sorrow! Thou, who knowest my wretchedness, deign, first, to cure me of all bitterness, coldness and indifference towards my fellow-men; and secondly, make me meek, affable, compassionate and condescending towards all men.

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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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