Thought for the Day – 3 January – Making a Good Meditation

Thought for the Day – 3 January – Meditations with Antonio Cardinal Bacci (1881-1971)

Making a Good Meditation

“It is not enough, simply to make a meditation.
It ought to be made well.
It is well made only when it results in an increase of solid virtue and sanctity.
Meditation, moreover, should not be study but mental prayer – a raising of mind to God, asking Him to illumine the darkness of our hearts, too often entangled with the things of the world and, to reinforce our wills, rescuing them from the violent attractions of evil and drawing them, in the direction of virtue and sacrifice.
To meditate, is not to study but to pray.
Whoever loses himself in subtle investigations of Christian Doctrine in order to learn something or to be able to mystify others, is studying, not meditating.
It would be even worse, to let one’s imaginations wander off into a kind of pseudo-mystic daydream.
Let us be quite clear about this – Meditation is not a waste of time but a very serious occupation.
It consists in placing ourselves in the presence of God, in admitting to Him our misery and weakness, in thinking about the eternal truths, so that our minds may be enlightened and in aiming at a Christian self-renewal, through the making and carrying out, of good resolutions.“

Antonio Cardinal Bacci