Our Lord descending into Limbo and freeing souls

Sanctification of Our Actions – Twelfth Day of August

The Sanctification of Our Actions.

“He hath done all things well.” — St. Matt. 7:37.

TWELFTH DAY. 

The Divine Office is one of the most excellent of actions. In reciting it we celebrate the praises of God, which is the ministry which belongs to the angels. We should not then acquit ourselves of this duty through habit and without piety, but with all the devotion and religion of which we are capable. — St. Magdalene of Pazzi.

This saint could not hear the signal for recitation of the Divine Office without being filled with joy.

It sufficed for Father Suarez to take in his hands his breviary to be plunged in recollection.

A holy religious always said at the commencement of each psalm: Pater cœlestis, du mihi spiritum, “Heavenly Father, fill me with Thy spirit.”

St. Bonaventure, during this time, imagined that he was among the angels and was one of their choir.

A very worthy priest never commenced the Office before renouncing the capital sins and all distractions, and after having made an act of contrition and of the love of God. He offered it for some special end, renewing his intention at the end of each psalm in pronouncing Gloria Patri. He said interiorly, “I love Thee,” at these words: Dominus, Deus, Jesus. After the recitation of his Office he thanked God for the graces he had received, asked pardon for the faults he had committed, and finished by these words: “Psallam spiritu, psallam et mente.”

Another religious had an excellent practice against voluntary distractions. She imagined to herself her angel guardian on one side of her, who wrote down all the verses she recited with devotion, on the other side the demon, who listened attentively to note down all the distractions and indevotions of which she was guilty.

St. Catharine of Bologna said: “Is it possible to be in the midst of the angels, to sing psalms with them, and then to have voluntary distractions, to have the heart attached to the things of earth?”

Prayer.

My God, teach me to praise Thee; grant that I may praise Thee worthily. I will unite my praises to all the just of the earth and the saints of heaven. It is by Jesus Christ, with Jesus Christ, and like Jesus Christ that I would praise Thee on all occasions, in all my works.

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