Page:Meditations For Every Day In The Year.djvu/336



I. "And  when  He  had  passed  forty  days  and  forty nights,  He  was  afterwards  hungry." (Matt. iv.  2.)  Christ joins fasting  and  mortification  to  His  prayer  in  the desert, for prayers  and  mortification  are  two  sisters  that  wish never to  be  separated. Prayer excites  mortification,  and mortification refines  prayer  as  fire  refines  gold. In this manner, Christ's  prayer  "  ascended  from  the  desert,  like  a pillar  of  smoke  of  aromatical  spices,  of  myrrh  and  frankincense." (Cant. iii.  6.)  Endeavor  to  pray  in  such  a  manner that  your  prayers  may  ascend  in  so  grateful  a  manner to  the  throne  of  God. Remember that  "  prayer  is good  with  fasting  and  alms." (Tob. xii.  8.)

II. Our Lord  observed  this  rigorous  fast,  at  the  commencement of  His  preaching,  to  teach  His  followers that the  first  act  of  a  spiritual  life,  much  more  of  an apostolic  life,  is  to  tame  and  subdue  the  sensual  appetites. Hence the  ancient  Fathers  ordained,  as  Cassian informs us,  that  the  taming  of  these  appetites  should  be the  first  lesson. which was  to  be  given,  for  he  who  cannot master  the  palpable  and  grosser  vices  will  not  be able  to  subdue  those  which  are  of  a  more  subtile  and secret nature. Examine your  conscience  on  this  point, and ponder  the  expressions  of  the  Wise  Man:  "He  that loveth  good  cheer  shall  be  in  want;  he  that  loveth  wine and  fat  things  shall  not  be  rich." (Prov. xxi.  27.)  The man who  does  not  subdue  his  sensuality  will  always  be spiritually  poor.