Page:Meditations For Every Day In The Year.djvu/310

 substantially equal  to  the  glory  of  His  Father. Learn to detest  that  pride,  which  prompts  ignorant  man  to  ascend to heaven,  and  to  scan  the  power  and  works  of  the  Divinity.

II. This only  begotten  Son  of  God  loved  the  world  to such  a  degree,  that  He  surrendered  His  life  to  redeem  it "  For  us  men,"  says  the  Church  in  the  Nicene  Creed,  "  and for  our  salvation,  He  descended  from  heaven,  and  wa£ made  man." " God  became  man,"  writes  St.  Augustine, that we  might "  become  God,"  and  the  eloquent  St.  Leoremarks,  Christ  was  made  the  Son  of  Man,  that  we might  be  made  the  sons  of  God."  O  ineffable  and  incomprehensible mystery!

III. How are  you  to  requite  so  much  love? You are certainly bound  to  reverence  His  Divine  person  with  the most tender  devotion  and  respect. Love that  sacred: humanity, which  the  Son  of  God  assumed,  and  which was nailed  to  the  cross  for  your  sake. Say with  the devout St.  Bernard,  "  The  more  vile  this  Son  of  God'  has become  for  my  sake,  by  so  much  the  more  is  He  dear  ta me." Do not  alienate  His  affections  by  sinning  against Him. Though Jesus  Christ  be  infinitely  good  and  infinitely merciful,  He  is  still  infinitely  just.

I. The  Holy  Ghost  as  the  third  person  of  the  Holy Trinity proceeds  from  the  Father  and  the  Son,  but  is coeternal  and  consubstantial  with  them  both,  of  equal power and  wisdom  and  majesty. For in  the  language  of the  Church,  "  we  adore  a  distinction  of  persons  and unity  in  the  essence  and  an  equality  in  the  majesty."