Sunday

CHRIST  (point of view):
MY CHILD, so often your thoughts are on unimportant things. You do not center them
enough on Me nor on your greatest need. After a few moments of recollection, your
thoughts go right back to useless distractions. As a result you rarely get a good look at
yourself and your actions. You hardly know your real worth because you take so little
notice of your desires, motives, and intentions. You fail to be impressed by your many
faults because you are blind to what is going on within your heart. Your interior motives
are often selfish and corrupt. Consequently, your external actions are very imperfect and
unsatisfactory. From a pure heart come the

Prayer: Hail Mary, full of Grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners now and in the hour of our death.

Monday
2. External activity proceeds from internal vigor. If you serve Me only by external
observances, you are no true follower of Mine. You must apply the ax to the root of your
troubles. Learn to control this selfish nature of yours, and you will possess My peace. I
daily offer you My grace for this divine purpose. Do not keep looking at your weakness.
Do not be afraid to make the attempt. Nothing is impossible to Me. Fix your eyes on Me
and make a sincere effort to follow My Will. Your difficulties will gradually vanish.

3. Try as you will, you will always make a number of unavoidable mistakes. Still, with a
little violence to yourself, you will gradually be able to serve Me with more ease. If you
rooted out of your life one single fault each year, you would soon become a perfect man.
Nowadays, however, people seem to be at their best at the beginning of their conversion.
They consider it a great accomplishment if they do not become worse with time

Prayer:  O my God I am heartily sorry for having offended Thee, and I detest all my sins, because I dread the loss of heaven and the pains of hell, but most of all because they offend Thee, my God, who art all-good and worthy of all my love. I firmly resolve, with the help of Thy grace, to confess my sins, to do penance, and to amend my life.
*Act of Contrition

 

Tuesday
MY CHILD, learn wisdom from the folly of worldly people. See how hard they take their
worldly losses! For an earthly gain men will labor and suffer so much, but their spiritual
losses are so easily forgotten. They are often interested in matters which have little or no
value, and they negligently pass over matters which are important. Their entire attention is
often absorbed by external affairs. Unless you fight to control your thoughts, you too will
be enslaved by the passing events of the present moment.

 

Prayer:   Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God of Hosts, the whole earth is filled with Thy Glory.

 

Wednesday

2. How foolish are those who do not realize their miserable condition, making this passing
earthly life the only object of their desires! Some cling so to this life that, if they could
remain here forever, they would not care at all for the Kingdom of God. They would prefer
to stay on earth even though they might have to strain and struggle for the bare necessities
of this earthly existence.

3. How foolish and blind these people are! They lie buried so deep in earthly things that
they enjoy only the pleasures of the senses. In a short while, they will come to the end of
their earthly life. Then they will have a bitter realization of the uselessness and nothingness
of what they loved.

Prayer:   Christ with me, Christ before me,
Christ behind me, Christ in me,
Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ on my right, Christ on my left,
Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down,
Christ when I arise,
Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me,
Christ in every eye that sees me,
Christ in every ear that hears me.
(St. Patrick’s Breastplate prayer excerpt)

Thursday
The best way to realize the quickly-passing value of earthly attractions, is to look at them
in the past. Where are the enjoyments of last year? What became of the glory for which I
struggled so hard five years ago? What’s left of last summer’s pleasures? Gone! All finished
and gone! Do I want to go on living for that kind of happiness or do I want perfect, allsatisfying-
never-ending happiness? Only a fool would hesitate in answering this question.

Prayer:  Soul of Christ, sanctify me, Body of Christ, save me Blood of Christ, inebriate me, Water from Christ’s side, wash me, Passion of Christ, strengthen me, O good Jesus, hear me, Within Thy wounds hide me, Suffer me not to be separated from Thee, From the malicious enemy defend me, In the hour of my death call me, And bid me come unto Thee, That I may praise Thee with Thy saints, and with Thy angels, Forever and ever, Amen.

Friday
The Four Last Things
FEW THINGS in this earthly life are absolutely certain. The most undebatable of these is
death. Every man, even the atheist, will admit this much. Death, however, is not the very
last event in this life of ours. Right after death, we shall be judged. Our private judgment
will be repeated on the Day of judgment, when all men will know us for what we are.
Our judgment will depend on how we live this earthly life of ours. If we have honestly
done our best and followed the commandments of Christ, we shall be rewarded with the
perfect life of Heaven. If, however, we have disregarded His loving directions and refused
to make use of His generous help, we shall be condemned to hell.

Prayer:    O Come let us worship and fall down before Christ, O Son of God, Who didst rise from the dead, save us who chant unto Thee, Alleluia.

 

Saturday

Death, judgment, Heaven, and hell-these are the four last things toward which we are
moving each hour of the day and night. They will never frighten us if our conscience is
clear. If we love God in our daily life, that is, if we are sincerely trying to know and follow
His holy Will, we have no reason to fear.

By keeping this eternal goal ever before us, we shall think straight when life’s problems and
difficulties face us. In making the following meditations, we must strive to become
eternity-minded. We must seek to guarantee to ourselves, as far as is in our power, the
unending success and unmarred happiness of Heaven.

Prayer:  O come, let us worship God our King.
O come, let us worship and fall down before Christ our King and God.
O come, let us worship and fall down before Christ Himself, our King and God.