Lord, have pity on us.

Let us adore the Holy Trinity in the abysses of eternity, itself sufficing to its own proper happiness. Let us adore the Word in God, the manifestation of his wisdom and of his goodness, and let us meditate upon the words of St John— “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was in God, and the Word was God.”

1st POINT. — THE COMPLAISANCE WHICH THE FATHER EXPERIENCES IN HIS WORD.

The first condition of the happiness of God is that he should have the conscience of his own perfections. Every thought, is a conception of the mind, God sees and contemplates himself; this thought, this contemplation is a real, perfect, eternal conception, producing by itself something perfect, eternal, substantial and living. It is the eternal operation of the Father, engendering his Word. Moreover, when beholding the Face of this uncreated Word, the splendor of his glory and the image of his substance(1), in an ecstasy which has nothing in it of the past, the present or the future, he recognizes his son, who is, as it were, an other self through all his perfections; and he repeats unceasingly, with the most real paternity, those words which the echoes of heaven once allowed us to hear on earth— “Thou art my Son, I have engendered thee to-day. This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”

Let us adore this profound mystery, which the angels themselves cannot penetrate, and let us ask of God at least to enable us to understand the teaching it contains.

2nd POINT. — THE COMPLAISANCE WHICH THE CHRISTIAN OUGHT TO FEEL IN THE FACE OF THE WORD.

Oh adorable Face of the Word of God, I am incapable of penetrating in thought the inaccessible light of the divine essence; permit me at least to repeat with the profound sentiment I have of my nothingness, and with the angels who contemplate thy Face with holy trembling whilst veiling their faces with their wings— Holy, holy, holy is the Lord. Solomon tells us that thou art the splendor of the eternal light, the spotless mirror of the majesty of God and the image of his goodness(2). Be thou to my soul the light shining in the midst of the darkness of my exile, in order to dissipate it. Be for me, oh divine Word, the mirror of all the virtues, be also for me the image of that merciful goodness, which, after having drawn me out of nothing, gives me also, by thy merits, the means of working out my salvation. Oh divine Word, oh resplendent Face of my God, lead me to thy light; be thou the light of the faculties of my mind, and of the aspirations of my heart. Purify also my senses, so dealing with them, that they may he raised with thy holy humanity to the eternal glory of heaven.

SPIRITUAL BOUQUET

Speculum sine macula Dei majestatis et imago bonitatis illius.

For the Face of the Word is the brightness of eternal light, and the unspotted mirror of God’s majesty, and the image of his goodness. (Wisdom, vii, 26.)

SAINT VERONICA UPON THE WAY TO CALVARY

The learned author Piazza, in a work published in 1713 and entitled Emerologio di Roma, relates, under date of the 4th of February, which is the feast of St Veronica, the following tradition— At the moment when Jesus, coming forth from the praetorium, was proceeding on the way to Calvary, laden with his cross and covered with the blood which welled from the wounds which he had received during the flagellation and those inflicted upon him by the crown of thorns, and had taken four hundred and fifty steps, he approached a house which formed the angle of a street. Then Veronica, perceiving him from afar, came, full of compassion, to meet him, and having taken off the veil which she wore on her head, she presented it to him, that he might make use of it to dry his Face, which was covered with blood and with sweat. Christ, having received it gratefully, applied it to his adorable Face, and then gave it back to her, leaving upon it, as a gracious recompense, the features of his Face imprinted so graphically upon it, that there could even he discerned on it the mark of the fingers of the man who gave him the sacrilegious blow. Glad at heart to possess so precious a treasure, Veronica took it back to her house, and preserved it with pious care.

The Church, filled with admiration for this sublime act, proposes the meditation of it to the faithful at the 6th Station of the Way of the Cross, and one of our old ascetic authors, Father Parvilliers, does not hesitate to place it above the most beautiful examples of virtue which have ever been given to the world. — “Heroic woman,” he exclaims, “thou art indeed incomparable. Thou hast not thy equal upon earth! At a time when the whole universe conspired against the life of its Savior; at a time when his Father seemed to abandon him into the hands of sinners; at a time when the angels of peace wept bitterly without being able to give him any help; at a time when his Apostles had forsaken, betrayed and denied him; at a time when the whole of Jerusalem persecuted him to death and condemned him to the torture of the Cross; at a time when it was sacrilege for the Jews to recognize him even as a good man, thou didst revere him as thy Messiah, thou didst adore him as thy God, thou didst give him refreshment and consolation in the midst of his greatest enemies. Thou didst, of a truth, merit an immortality of glory in time and in eternity; and therefore the Savior made thee the richest present he has ever made to any creature in the world: he gave thee His divine portrait.

“Extend this veil before the four quarters of the universe, make all men to see the disfigured Face of a suffering God. By means of it, preach the Passion of Jesus Christ, to a greater distance and in more places than were visited by the Apostles. As for me, I promise that I will hold thee in veneration all my life long, on account of the heroic act of thy charity, and whether living or dying, I will always bear in my mind the remembrance, and in my mouth the name of the incomparable Veronica.

INVOCATION

Oh adorable Face of Jesus, so miraculously imprinted upon the veil of Veronica, impress thyself also on my soul. May it, like a pure veil, perfumed by the odor of virtues, receive and preserve thee, in order that I may often contemplate thy features, and apply myself more and more to resemble thee, through a compassionate and reparatory affection.

(1) Hebr. i, 3.

(2) Wisdom, vii, 26.