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Theme for the
Week: Knowledge Of Jesus Christ
During this
period we shall apply ourselves to the study of Jesus Christ. What is
to be studied in Christ? First the God-Man, His grace and glory; then
His rights to sovereign dominion over us; since, after having renounced
Satan and the world, we have taken Jesus Christ for our Lord. What next
shall be the object of our study? His exterior actions and also His
interior life; namely, the virtues and acts of His Sacred Heart; His
association with Mary in the mysteries of the Annunciation and
Incarnation, during His infancy and hidden life, at the feast of Cana
and on Calvary.
From True
Devotion To the Blessed Virgin Mary, Nos. 61-62
61. Jesus, our
Saviour, true God and true man must be the ultimate end of all our
other devotions; otherwise they would be false and misleading. He is
the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and end of everything. "We
labour," says St. Paul, "only to make all men perfect in Jesus Christ."
For in him alone dwells the entire fullness of the divinity and the
complete fullness of grace, virtue and perfection. In him alone we have
been blessed with every spiritual blessing; he is the only teacher from
whom we must learn; the only Lord on whom we should depend; the only
Head to whom we should be united and the only model that we should
imitate. He is the only Physician that can heal us; the only Shepherd
that can feed us; the only Way that can lead us; the only Truth that we
can believe; the only Life that can animate us. He alone is everything
to us and he alone can satisfy all our desires. We are given no other
name under heaven by which we can be saved. God has laid no other
foundation for our salvation, perfection and glory than Jesus. Every
edifice which is not built on that firm rock, is founded upon shifting
sands and will certainly fall sooner or later. Through him, with him
and in him, we can do all things and render all honour and glory to the
Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit; we can make ourselves perfect
and be for our neighbour a fragrance of eternal life.
62. If then we are establishing sound devotion to our Blessed Lady, it
is only in order to establish devotion to our Lord more perfectly, by
providing a smooth but certain way of reaching Jesus Christ. If
devotion to our Lady distracted us from our Lord, we would have to
reject it as an illusion of the devil. But this is far from being the
case. As I have already shown and will show again later on, this
devotion is necessary, simply and solely because it is a way of
reaching Jesus perfectly, loving him tenderly, and serving him
faithfully.
Prayers for the Third Week
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