On mortification as a means to surmount the obstacles to devotion to
the Sacred Heart
The best means of surmounting the obstacles to the devotion to the
sacred heart, is, interior and exterior mortification. From the former, no one
can be dispensed; it is that violence which one must incessantly do himself, in
order to bear away the kingdom of heaven. There is no person who cannot mortify
his humor, his desires, his inclinations; who cannot be silent when vanity
would prompt him to speak, or vivacity lead him to answer. Behold in what
interior mortification consists; by which one weakens and reduces self- love to
reason, and gets rid of his imperfections. In vain do we flatter ourselves that
we love Jesus Christ; if we be not mortified, the finest sentiments of piety, the
noblest practices, are suspicious without it. Hence, when St Ignatius was told
that such or such a person was a saint, “He will be such," he would reply,
“if he be mortified." It is not enough to mortify one's self for a time, or
in some things; but at all times, and in all things. One irregular gratification
con ceded to nature, renders it more stubborn and rebellious, than a hundred
denied to it, would have weakened it. This virtue is familiar to all who desire
to be perfect; there is nothing of which they do not make use to mortify their
natural inclinations. It is enough that they wish to look upon, or say
something to induce them to cast down their eyes, or be silent; a wish to hear
a piece of news, or to know what is passing, is to them a subject of
mortification so much the more meritorious, as it is more common, and that God
alone is the witness. To he often interrupted in a
serious occupation, and to bear it with patience and sweetness; to suffer the
inconveniences arising from places, persons, seasons, are so many occasions of
exercising this virtue; and it may be affirmed with truth, that the most
sublime sanctity commonly depends on the generosity and fidelity with which one
turns all these little occasions to profit.
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Come to me, all you
that labor, and are burdened, and I will refresh you. - Christ and St. Bernard
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And let no one say that a mortified
life is a painful and sad one: “The yoke of Jesus Christ is always sweet, and
his burden light." Were the saints deceived when they said, “I super
abound with joy in my tribulations?" “I am in a country," says St
Francis Xavier, in one of his letters, “where I want all the comforts of life;
yet I feel such interior consolation, that by force of tears I am in danger of
losing my sight." 'Let us have a little courage; it is the first step which
is the most painful. Try—the thing is worth little which does not value our
searching for it. If after fifteen days’ perfect and continual mortification we
taste not those sweets which others experience, said a great servant of God, we
may say the yoke of the Lord is heavy.
Say thrice: Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us.
Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us.
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