The Wonders of the Holy Name – Fr Paul O’Sullivan, O.P. – “Revealing the Simplest Secret Ever of Holiness and Happiness.” Final Part – 24 July
Previous – here: https://anastpaul.wordpress.com/category/the-holy-name/
The Awful Crime of Ingratitude:
We thank our friends most effusively for any little favour they do us but we forget or neglect to thank God for His immense love of us, for becoming man for us, for dying for us, for all the Masses we can hear and the Holy Communions we can receive – and do not receive. What black ingratitude!
By repeating often the Name of Jesus we correct this grave fault and thank God and give Him great glory and joy. Do you not wish to give joy to God? You do. Then dear friend thank, thank God. He is waiting for your thanks. God loves each one. We have said that Our Lord in the dreadful sufferings of His Passion, in the Agony in the Garden, when He was hanging on the Cross, saw us all and offered for each one every pang of pain, every drop of His Precious Blood. Can it be possible that God is so good that He thinks of each one, that He loves each of us so much? Our poor hearts and minds are small and mean and find it hard to believe that God can be so good, that He troubles Himself about us. But God, as He is Omnipotent, as He is infinitely wise, He is also infinitely good and generous and loving. To understand how God thought of each one of us in the Passion, when He was hanging on the Cross, we have only to remember what happens in the millions of Holy Communions received every day. God comes to each one of us with all the plenitude of the Divinity; He enters into each one as fully and entirely as He is in Heaven. He comes into each one as if that one were the only one who received him that day. He comes with infinite, personal love. That we all believe. And how does He enter into us? He does not merely come into our mouths, our hearts, He comes into our souls, He unites Himself to our souls so intimatelv that He becomes one with us. Let us think for a moment of how the Great, Almighty, Eternal God is in our very soul in the most intimate possible way, that He is there with all His infinite love, that He remains there and this not once but every morning if we so wish. If we think and understand this it will be easy to see how He offered all His merits and all His sufferings for each one.
The Devil:
The great, great evil, the great danger that threatens each of us every day and every night of our lives is the Devil. St Peter and St Paul warn us in the strongest language to beware of the Devil, for he is using all his tremendous power, his mighty intelligence to ruin us, to harm, to hurt us in every way. There is no danger, no enemy in the World we have to fear as we should fear the Devil. He cannot attack God so he turns all his implacable hate and malice against us. We are destined to take the thrones he and the other Angels have lost. This lashes him into wild fury against us. Many foolish, ignorant Catholics never think of this; they take no care to defend themselves and so allow the Devil to inflict on them infinite harm and cause them untold sufferings. Our best, onr easiest remedy is the Name of Jesus. It drives the Devil flying from our sides and saveS us from countless evils. Oh dear readers say constantly this all-powerful Name and the Devil can do you no harm. Say it in all dangers, in all temptations. Wake up if you have been asleep. Open your eyes to the terrible enemy who is ever seeking your ruin. Priests should preach frequently on this all-important subject. They should warn their penitents in the confessional against the Devil. They counsel them to avoid bad companions, who make them lead bad lives. Incomparably more dreadful is the influence of the Devil on them. Teachers, Catechists and Mothers should constantly warn their children against the Devil. All their efforts will be only too little.
Lord Jesus, I love You with all my heart and soul, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Amen
(via AnaStpaul – Breathing Catholic)