Volume I, Treatise VIII, Chapter XXXIII

How Much This Exercise Is Recommended To.us in Holy Scripture

Tux diligence the holy Scripture uses in frequently recommending: to us this exercise, may serve to show the merit and excellency of it, and affords us at the same time matter to practise it, and to employ ourselves more therein. The Psalmist expressly invites us, in these words, “Rejoice ye just in our Lord, and conceive a joy and gladness; and be glorified in him ‘all ye who have an upright heart.” (Psalms 31:11) «Let the just exult in our Lord.” (Psalms 32:1) ‘Place your joy in our Lord, and he will grant you the petitions of your heart.” (Psalms 36:4) Or rather, he will grant you all you can desire, and all you stand in need of. For it is a sort of prayer wherein, though you demand nothing, he hears and grants whatever your heart can covet or petition. The apostle, writing to the oy 2u2 Philippians, says: ‘Rejoice without intermission in the Lord” (Philippians 4:4): and imagining it a point worthy of being inculcated more than once, he immediately adds; “TI tell you again rejoice.” It was with such holy joy the Blessed Virgin found herself replenished, when she said; “My soul is ravished with joy in God my Saviour.” (Luke 1:47) And it was with this sort of joy wherewith our Lord Jesus Christ was transported, when his disciples being returned from the mission upon which he had sent them, the gospel says, “he rejoiced in the Holy Ghost.” (Luke 10:21) The Royal Prophet affirms, that when he considered the immensity of God’s glory, and how worthy God is, that all the world should rejoice at the infinite good he possesses, the joy he felt in his soul passed even to his body. ‘‘ My heart and my flesh,” says he in one place, ‘are transported with joy in the living God.” (Psalms 83:2) And in another place, taking more particular notice of the superabundance of joy: ‘My soul,” says he, “shall rejoice in our Lord, and shall delight itself in my Saviour. All my bones shall say, O Lord! who is like to you?” (Psalms 34:9,10) In like manner the Church, which is governed and directed by the Holy Ghost, knowing how sublime this love of God is, invites us at the beginning of the canonical hours to love him in this manner, using for this end the words of David: “Come let us rejoice in our Lord; let us sing forth hymns to God our Saviour; let us present ourselves in his sight, by acknowledging the benefits we have received from him, and let us sing canticles of praise. For our God is a great Lord and a great King above all other gods. Because the sea is his and he created it, and the dry land his hands have founded.” (Psalms 14:1) It is also for this very same reason, and with the same intent, that at the end of every psalm the Church adds always this verse: ‘“‘ Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.” See here what is meant by these words, “enter into the joy of your Lord” (Mat. xxv. 21): which is to participate in this manner of the infinite joy of God, and to rejoice with him at his glory, his power, his wisdom, and all the other attributes he possesses.

For the better entertaining ourselves in this spiritual joy, and the more to incite us to the love of this exercise, it is very requisite to apply ourselves to consider how great the goodness, the beauty, and the glory of God are: which are in themselves such, that we only want the sight thereof to make us happy. And in case the damned could but have a sight thereof, all their pains would cease at the same moment, and hell would become a paradise. ‘For eternal life,” as Jesus Christ himself affirms, <‘ consists in the knowledge of God.” (John 17:3) It is this knowledge and this sight which makes the happiness of the blessed: and which make it not for a day only, or a year, but for all eternity. So that without ever being tired of the sight of God, they feel therein a content and satisfaction, according to the words of St. John in the Apocalypse—“And they shall sing as it were a new song.” (Apocalypse 14:3) It seems that this conveys a sufficient idea of the goodness, beauty, and infinite perfection of God; and yet, notwithstanding, more, and a great deal more, may be said upon the subject. God is so beautiful, so perfect, and so full of glory and majesty, that he renders himself happy in contemplating himself; and that, because he contemplates and loves himself. Let us now consider, whether we have not sufficient reason to place all our joy in one only thing, which causes the eternal happiness of the blessed; and which also causes that of God himself, by reason of the knowledge he has of his own being, and the love he bears himself.

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