This Lent we are sharing a treasure for meditation- rare conferences not easily found in English, by a Visitandine Superior, Mother Marie-Philomène Maujoüan du Gasset, of Nantes France, (1818-1896) whom we wrote about as a mystic in a previous post. http://visitationspirit.org/2015/06/mystic-mother-marie-philomena-of-nantes/
In this first meditation,Mother Marie Philomene addresses humility as a key characteristic for our souls’ Lenten journey.
“In order that the good God may bless this holy time, on which we are entering today, we must become permeated with the spirit of Holy Church, while listening to the instructions she gives us.
She tells me that the time of Lent is a time of penance, and hence, we should commence this Holy Quarantine in sentiments of penitence, of contrition, of humility. These sentiments are not difficult to conceive, when we recall all the goodness of God, all that Our Lord has done for us, and our little correspondence to His graces.In seeing all that our Sovereign Master has done for your souls, each of you will find I assure you, wherewith to humble oneself in discovering that these graces have not produced what Our Lord had a right to expect. You have not drawn from them the profit that your souls should have received, advantages which were not small, as they were to be for Eternity.
To keep alive within yourselves these sentiments of contrition and humility, reflect upon these words that Holy Church recalls to us: “remember, man. That thou art dust and into dust thou shall return.”
What then is dust? And what account is made of it?
Poor dust! It is thrown out by everyone, no one wants it, see, as soon as it is perceived, it is removed, every means is taken to expel it, to remove it.
Yet, this dust is not guilty dust, yet the dust that our bodies will produce, after our death, will be the dust of a guilty person, the dust of one who has offended her God and who has offended Him so grievously, that to repair this offense, it required divine love entire, to make Our Lord resolve to become incarnate in His creature, to dwell among us, to suffer all the time that He spent upon earth, and to die upon the Cross.
See how guilty we are! We have caused the death of our God. Understand from this, the evil that sin does, not only to our soul, but also to the good God, in the manner possible.
Such are the sentiments with which Holy Church inspires me, sentiments of humility, lowliness and contrition,inspired by the recollection of our faults.
Decorate your soul with the ornament our Lord loves. This ornament is humility. Ornament yourselves with these virtues in order to please HIM.”