CHRIST IN THE HOME
http://www.ewtn.com/library/FAMILY/CHRISTH1.TXT
BY RAOUL PLUS, S.J.
a Translation from the French
FREDERICK PUSTET CO., INC. Publishers NEW YORK AND
CINCINNATI
Nihil Obstat:
JOHN M. A. FEARNS, S.T.D., Censor Librorum
Imprimatur:
+FRANCIS CARDINAL SPELLMAN,
Archbishop of New York
New York, June 19, 1951
INTRODUCTORY READINGS
MY PERSONAL VOCATION
NOTHING is more interesting and at the same time more stirring than
to study my particular role in the eternal destinies of the world . .
. what God from all eternity has planned for me . . . what kind of
saint He wants me to be . . . by what combination and sequence of
circumstances He established me where I am . . . all He has given
me--a Christian country, a Christian family, a Christian education,
numberless graces exterior as well as interior, the Sacraments,
interior inspirations, invitations to mount spiritually--and then to
discover in what degree He intends to use me to lead other souls to
salvation and perfection.
Religion in spirit and in truth--what is it? It consists in
participating in the very sanctity of God Himself in my own personal
life, and in cooperating with God to bring grace into the lives of
others and to help keep them to grow in the divine life.
There is no question then of eternity forcing its way into my
existence without my opening the door to it; it permeates me from
within in keeping with the freedom I give it.
Nor must I be aiming only at my own sanctification. I have the
responsibility of souls, not only the souls of my own but of
multitudes who are in some way connected with my soul. The salvation
of the world depends in part on the saint that I become.
One author puts this thought very well. "Each being in the universe
must act with the consciousness of having been chosen for a task that
he alone can accomplish. As soon as he discovers what this task is
and he begins to dedicate himself to it, he can be sure that God is
with him and that He watches over him. Let him be full of confidence
and joy! He is associated with the work of creation." And we might
add "with the work of redemption." This ought to be a continual
marvel to him that weak and sinful though he knows himself to be he
is nonetheless called, unquestionably called, to an action of unique
value, to the exaltation of the divine in himself and the propagation
and the extension of the divine in humanity!
I ought to try to realize ever more deeply the tremendous
significance of my personal vocation; to consider the degree and the
kind of sanctity to which I am called; to measure the extent of the
field where my zeal for souls is to labor--the family, the parish, the city....
Everything in my life should be referred to God. As Saint Augustine
said, "Totum exigit te qui fecit te, He from whom you received all
things demands all." I must therefore make the gifts He bestowed on
me serve for His glory alone. I should not deny these gifts, nor
store them away; on the contrary, I should exploit them, but for Him.
To quote Saint Augustine again, "Let everything useful that I learned
as a child be consecrated to Your service, O my God. Let it be for
Your service that I speak, that I read, that I write, that I count!"
He did not renounce the use of his mind, the exercise of his
intelligence, the application of his profane sciences but he
subordinated all to spreading the glory of God and extending his
apostolate for souls.
I can be inspired to a like rule of life. I can use human gifts as
well as divine gifts to attain the highest peak of my vocation. I am
not what my neighbor is and my neighbor is not what I am. I have a
role to fill and no one else but me can fill it.
I must know my capital and prudently determine my investments.
WHAT KIND OF SOUL AM I?
SOMEONE has said, "All beings receive the same light but all accept
it unequally. Some are like white surfaces and they shed the light
all about them; these souls have the most innocence. Others are like
black surfaces and they enfold the light in their own darkness; these
souls are like closed coffers. Then again some divide the light
keeping part for themselves and reflecting the rest as do surfaces of
variegated colors and, like these same colored surfaces, change the
intensity of light and shadows according to the time of day; these
are the most sensitive souls. There are others who like transparent
surfaces let all the light pass through them retaining nothing of it;
these souls are nearest to God. Some might be compared to mirrors in
which all nature and the people who look at them never cease to see
themselves and to reflect themselves; these souls are nearest us and
their presence alone suffices to judge us. Some make us thing of
prisms in which the white light is spread out into the rainbow colors
of the spectrum...."
In which class do I belong?
I need not indulge in morbid or vain introspection but try merely to
get a clear view of God's intentions concerning me. I know the
Parable of the Talents. I must not envy the riches of another but
determine exactly the capital that God asks me to exploit for His
greater glory, for my own sanctification, for the good of all souls
with whom my sanctification is bound up, from those nearest to me
even to the most distant at the other end of the world. Tu quis es?
"Who are you?" the judges asked Our Lord, Et quid dicis de teipso,
"and what do you say of yourself?"
Who am I? The mystery of each personality! It is a mystery which even
the most perfect and most intimate union with another personality
cannot completely pierce, as for example in marriage. There is a
limitless diversity in personalities, since God made all souls
originally without ever copying any previous model. How delightful
this variety is: rose, anemone, violet; an extraordinary medley,
gradations without limit of cut or of color....
Who am I? What are my resources? What are my good points? What are my
faults? What is the color of my desires, the force
of my will, the intensity of my religious need, my thirst for an
integrated life, my Christian fervor, the value of my fidelity?
Who am I? That is a different question from what I say I am or what I
give to understand that I am. No, I am not a hypocrite; I do not seek
to deceive for the sake of deceiving. But I am like everybody else
and, without wanting to, without directly saying it, I fix up the
pages of my country's history--I try to let myself be seen only under
the most glorious aspects. People believe me to be better than I am.
In any case they have a different opinion of me from what I really am.
Who am I? And what difference is there between what I am actually and
what I let others discover of my person and my intimate self?
Saint Augustine prayed, "Lord, let me know myself, let me know Thee."
He desired nothing else. I want to make that my prayer too.
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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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on your Mobile <*}}}><
<*}}}>< <http://www.halfthekingdom.org/wordpress/>Half the Kingdom!
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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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