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133.1
First Point
This
queen had a very special virtue and piety. Her conduct was so reserved,
wise, and serious that no one could look at her without being inspired
with respect for her. Her love for prayer was so great that one might say
her principal occupation was to pray. Every night, after taking a little
rest, she would go to spend much time in church, where she would not allow
anyone to speak to her of any business matters. Ah! how solid piety is
when it is based on virtue; and how genuine and true virtue is when it is
accompanied by piety.
In your state you enjoy several means for practicing virtue and
developing piety. You have the opportunity to pray often and the ability
to pray well. Do you make use of all these means that God gives you to
save yourselves and to acquire the perfection of your state? If you are
not faithful to them, you deserve severe punishment from God for such
negligence.
133.2 Second Point
Saint
Margaret's principal care was to govern her household properly and to make
sure that all who belonged to it revered and loved God. She even became
the teacher for her children, teaching them herself to read. She devoted
herself to their education as her supreme duty, regarding it as the most
pleasing thing she could do for God. For the same reason this was likewise
the first object of her prayers.
This saint is a great example of what you should do for the
children God has entrusted to you. It is a queen who made her first work
to do what is essential in your state. Consider this an honor for you and
look upon the children God has entrusted to you as the children of God
himself. Have much more solicitude for their education and instruction
than you would have for the children of a king.
133.3 Third Point
Her
love for the poor was extraordinary. Every morning Saint Margaret spent
time instructing poor children, and afterward gave them food to eat.
Because she honored Jesus Christ in them, she knelt to serve them. She and
her husband fed three hundred poor people in their own dining room. It is
also said that she frequently got money from her husband, the king, to
give alms, and that he gladly gave it to her. She often sent him out into
the countryside to become informed about the sad state of the poor in
order to bring all his efforts to help them.
You are by your state obliged to instruct poor children. Do you
love them? Do you honor Jesus Christ in their persons? With this in mind,
do you prefer them to those who have a certain amount of material wealth?
Do you have more concern for the former than for the latter? This saint
gives you an example of this, and teaches you how you should look upon the
poor.
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