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125.1 First Point
Today
the Church celebrates the memorial of the apparition of Saint Michael on a
mountain in Italy, to let it be known that this place was under his
protection and that God wished it to be consecrated in honor of Saint
Michael and the holy angels. For this reason the bishop went there in
procession with all the clergy and all the people to consecrate a church
there under the name and patronage of Saint Michael. On several occasions
this saint has appeared in a striking manner to show that he took under
his protection places and people whom he honored by his presence.
We cannot do better than to entrust ourselves to this saint in all
that concerns our salvation, for he will help us a great deal to achieve
it. Once, by God's command and acting out of zeal for God's glory, he
overcame and hurled into hell Lucifer and his followers.[i]
He is still always ready to oppose him and to help us fight against him
and overcome the temptations that he suggests to us.
Have recourse, then, to this holy Archangel; beg him to help you in
the struggles you may have to endure in your state and to guide you
directly to God with certainty in the path marked out for you by your
rules. Be faithful to them, and this saint will protect you.
125.2
Second Point
You
enjoy something similar to the apparitions of Saint Michael in the
inspirations that come to you to renounce the world and to give yourselves
entirely to God, for these lead you to raise yourselves above all created
things and to give yourselves to God alone.
The name Michael tells us that nothing is like unto God. It was
given to him to indicate that this holy Archangel was destined by God to
defend his glory and to exalt his infinite excellence above all creatures.
We must believe that all the inspirations that come to us to
consecrate ourselves to God with an entire disengagement from all
creatures are given to us from God through the ministry of Saint Michael.
His role in our regard is to detach us from all things and to induce us to
give ourselves entirely to God.
So then, when you feel your mind filled with worldly thoughts and
you experience distaste for your state and your spiritual exercises, beg
Saint Michael to help you realize that the God whom we serve is superior
to all else, and that nothing outside of him truly deserves our affection.
Let us also pray to this saint to inspire us with horror for the world,
which wishes to take God's place in our hearts, and to banish from our
minds all worldly ideas by those awesome words he spoke in his combat
against Lucifer, Who is like unto God?
125.3 Third Point
The
first effect that should be produced in us by the inspirations God gives
us through the ministry of Saint Michael is to have an entire detachment
from all the things of earth, which comes from the contempt we have for
them through a deep understanding of their emptiness and of the limited
quality and permanence of the pleasure found in them, because they are
nothing and God is everything.
Another effect these inspirations should produce in our soul,
following from the first, is an interior taste for God. This leads you to
seek only God and to give yourselves entirely to him because he is the
only being worthy to be adored and loved. If there is anything loveable in
creatures, it comes only from their relationship with God, as an overflow
of God himself and his perfections.
From this day on, let this be your disposition, to desire only God
and to belong entirely to him, for our hearts, says Saint Augustine, can
be at rest only when they rest in God.
Have you no attachment to anything, so that you can say that you
would have no trouble to give it up? Do you have more esteem for one
creature than for another? When you are deprived of something of finer
quality and given something else less fine, are you satisfied? It is by
such experiences that you can judge if you are attached to anything and if
you have contempt for all creatures.
Do you have a taste for prayer and the interior exercises because
these bring you to God? Do you gladly occupy yourselves with thoughts of
God and talk about God? Is there anything besides what concerns God that
matters to you and that touches you? Does a sin, for instance, however
slight it might seem, cause you more grief than anything you could suffer?
In your work, do you prefer the task of inspiring piety in the children
above everything else, no matter what? It is by such indications that you
will know if you seek only God and if you seek him in truth.
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This
feast was established to celebrate the dedication of the shrine in honor
of Saint Michael the Archangel on Mont Gargano. Today the feast has been
suppressed in favor of the feast of Saint Michael on September
29 (Meditation 169).
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