<http://ecceagnusdei.blogspot.com/2006/03/saints-interpretation-of-meaning-of.html>A
saint's interpretation of the meaning of the
Cross and 14 rules to abide by in carrying our daily crosses
THE FRIENDS OF THE CROSS by St. Louis De Montfort (1673-1716)
Part II PRACTICES OF CHRISTIAN PERFECTION1
The Divine Master's Program
13. Christian perfection consists:
•1. in willing to become a saint: "If any man
will come after Me"; •2. in self-denial: "Let him
deny himself"; •3. in suffering: "Let him take up
his cross"; •4. in doing: "Let him follow Me. "
14. If anyone, not many a one, shows that the
elect who are willing to be made conformable to
the crucified Christ by carrying their cross are
few in number. It would cause us to faint away
from grief to learn how surprisingly small is their number.
It is so small that among ten thousand people
there is scarcely one to be found, as was
revealed to several Saints, among whom St Simon
Stylita, referred to by the holy Abbot Nilus,
followed by St Basil, St. Ephrem and others. So
small, indeed, that if God willed to gather them
together, He would have to cry out as He did of
yore through the voice of a prophet: "Come ye
together one by one" (Is. 27, 12), one from this
province and one from that kingdom.
I -- THE DESIRE TO BECOME A SAINT
15. If anyone wills: if a person has a real and
definite determination and is prompted not by
natural feelings, habit, self-love, personal
interest or human respect but by an all-masterful
grace of the Holy Ghost which is not communicated
indiscriminately: "it is not given to all men to
understand this mystery" (Matt. 13, 11). In fact,
only a privileged number of men receive this
practical knowledge of the mystery of the Cross.
For that man who climbs up to Calvary and lets
himself be nailed on the Cross with Jesus in the
heart of his own country must be a brave man, a
hero, a resolute man, one who is lifted up in
God, who treats as muck both the world and hell,
as well as his very body and his own will. He
must be resolved to relinquish all things, to
undertake anything and to suffer everything for Jesus.
Understand this, dear Friends of the Cross,
should there be anyone among you who has not this
firm resolve, he is just limping along on one
foot, flying with one wing, and undeserving of
your company since he is not worthy to be called
a Friend of the Cross, for we must love the Cross
as Jesus Christ loved it "with a great heart and
a willing mind" (2 Mach. 1, 3). That kind of
half-hearted will is enough to spoil the whole
flock like a sheep with the scurvy. If any such
one has slipped into your fold through the
contaminated door of the world, then in the name
of the crucified Christ, drive him out as you would a wolf from your sheepfold.
16. "If anyone will come after Me": for I have
humbled Myself and reduced Myself to mere
nothingness in such a way that I made Myself a
worm rather than a man: "I am a worm and no man"
(Ps. 21, 7). After Me: for if I came into the
world, it was only to espouse the Cross: "Behold
I am come" (Ps. 39, 8; Heb. 10, 7-9); to set the
cross in My heart of hearts: "In the midst of my
heart" (Ps. 39, 9); to love it from the days of
my youth: "I have loved it from my youth" (Wisdom
8, 2); only to long for it all the days of my
life: "how straitened I am" (Luke 12, 50); only
to bear it with a joy I preferred even to the
joys and delights that heaven and earth could
offer: "Who, having joy set before him, endured
the cross" (Heb. 12, 2); and, finally, not to be
satisfied until I had expired in its divine embrace.
II SELF-DENIAL
17. Therefore, if anyone wants to come after Me,
annihilated and crucified, he must glory as I did
only in the poverty, humiliation and suffering of
My Cross: "let him deny himself" (Matt. 16, 24).
Far be from the Company of the Friends of the
Cross those who pride themselves in suffering,
the worldly-wise, elated geniuses and
self-conceited individuals who are stubborn and
puffed-up with their lights and talents. Far be
they from us, those endless talkers who make
plenty of noise but bring forth no other fruit
than vain glory. Far from us those high-browed
devotees everywhere displaying the
self-sufficient pride of Lucifer: "I am not like
the rest!" (Luke 18, 11). Far be from us those
who must always justify themselves when blamed
resist when attacked and exalt themselves when humbled.
Be careful not to admit into your fellowship
those frail, sensitive persons who are afraid of
the slightest pin-prick, who sob and sigh when
faced with the lightest suffering, who have never
experienced a hair-shirt, a discipline or any
other penitential instrument, and who with their
fashionable devotions, mingle the most artful
delicacy and the most refined lack of mortification.
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Lord, may everything we do begin with Your
inspiration and continue with Your help,
so that all our prayers and works may begin in You and by You be happily ended.
We ask this through Christ our Lord.
Amen.
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Lord, may everything we do begin with Your
inspiration and continue with Your help,
so that all our prayers and works may begin in You and by You be happily ended.
We ask this through Christ our Lord.
Amen.
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