January 8

Second Sunday in Advent

Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them, that thy profiting may appear to all. 1 Timothy 4:15.

HOLY meditation is needful to deepen in us what we believe. There are times which especially call us to meditation. When we kneel down to pray at night, and bring together all those proofs of our weakness and nothingness which the day has brought to light, side by side with the awful holiness of Him before Whom we come, after prayer, after we have been speaking with the Lord, and at last have drawn our thoughts and feelings together and have forgotten in some measure this world, and have felt that there is nothing for us but God, nothing between us and God, then it is most healthful, after we have finished speaking, to pause before we rise, and think and feel ourselves before Him, and with Him, before and with Whom we trust to be for ever. Before receiving the Holy Communion we are called upon not only to examine ourselves, and to confess and pray, but to think what we are preparing to do, to think that we are seeking to have Him in our hearts Whom the heaven of heavens cannot contain, to eat His Flesh Whose Hands, Whose Feet, Whose sacred Head were pierced by us, and to drink the Blood of those His blessed wounds. And after receiving, "be with God and thyself," says a saint, "enjoy, feel, tell over in thy heart what, rather Whom, thou hast received." When we are waiting in church before and after service, or when we awake in the stillness of the night, holy meditation comes to us of itself, we should cherish it in our breasts.

Till in the strength of holy love We see things in the light in which they're seen above.