Meditation 20
THE ANNUNCIATION
OUR LADY'S RETIREMENT
THE ANNUNCIATION
OUR LADY'S RETIREMENT
1. A Life of Recollection.
Such is the life of the one who says goodbye to everything external and makes use of it only in so far as it is indispensable for his interior life. How little we understand the interior life! What a confusion of ideas prevail when we believe that what matters is to work much, to do much, with a good intention of course, but only externally, without giving proper importance to the real life of our soul, namely, to the interior life. An external work will never be fruitful, either for you or for others, if it is not well grounded on the interior life. Nobody can give what he does not possess. And how could you give a life of fervor and sanctity to others, if you do not have it yourself? God gives Himself to souls only in retirement and recollection. His voice, says the Holy Scripture, is like a murmur of a soft breeze. In the tumult of external occupations, that Voice is not heard. That is why nobody is so keen on promoting that din and tumult of external things as the devil, who thus can silence the Voice of God.
Moreover, virtue flourishes like plants in a green-house, well protected against the rigors of the weather. How can virtue grow in the midst of the noise of worldly bustle?
Such is the life of the one who says goodbye to everything external and makes use of it only in so far as it is indispensable for his interior life. How little we understand the interior life! What a confusion of ideas prevail when we believe that what matters is to work much, to do much, with a good intention of course, but only externally, without giving proper importance to the real life of our soul, namely, to the interior life. An external work will never be fruitful, either for you or for others, if it is not well grounded on the interior life. Nobody can give what he does not possess. And how could you give a life of fervor and sanctity to others, if you do not have it yourself? God gives Himself to souls only in retirement and recollection. His voice, says the Holy Scripture, is like a murmur of a soft breeze. In the tumult of external occupations, that Voice is not heard. That is why nobody is so keen on promoting that din and tumult of external things as the devil, who thus can silence the Voice of God.
Moreover, virtue flourishes like plants in a green-house, well protected against the rigors of the weather. How can virtue grow in the midst of the noise of worldly bustle?
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