Page:Meditations For Every Day In The Year.djvu/429



I. It  is  recorded  in  the  gospel  of  to-day,  that  Christ raised a  young  man  from  death  to  life. He is  the  true life of  your  soul  according  to  the  expression  of  St.  John, "I am  the  resurrection  and  the  life;  he  that  believeth  in Me,  although  he  be  dead,  shall  live." (John xi.  25.)  "As the  body  dies,"  writes  St.  Augustine,  "when  it  is  abandoned by  the  soul,  which  is  its  life,  so  does  the  soul  die when  by  sin  it  loses  God,  Who  is  its  Life." Ponder the benefit of  spiritual  life,  by  comparing  it  with  that  of the  body,  for  the  soul,  when  deprived  of  God's  grace, is in  the  sight  of  God,  what  a  deformed,  loathsome  and useless carcass  is  in  the  eyes  of  men.

II. Christ "with  Whom, is  the  fountain  of  life"  (Ps. xxxv.  10),  gives  life  to  dead  souls,  by  the  Sacrament  of Penance,  and  preserves  and  increases  that  life  by  the Holy Eucharist. " He  that  eateth  Me,"  He  says,  "  the same  shall  also  live  by  Me,"  and,  "he  that  eateth  this bread  shall  live  forever." (John vi.  58.)  You  ought, therefore, to  expect  with  a  longing  desire,  the  sacred hour in  which  this  fountain  of  life  will  visit  you. Say with the  Psalmist,  "As  the  hart  panteth  after  the  fountains of  water,  so  my  soul  panteth  after  Thee,  O  God, my  soul  hath  thirsted  after  the  strong  living  God." (Ps. xli.  2.)

III. This spiritual  life  is  only  bestowed  on  those  who ask it  with  great  devotion. " He  asked  life  of  Thee  and