Thought for the Day – 6 February – Meditations with Antonio Cardinal Bacci (1881-1971)
Solitude
“A little solitude is necessry for everone but, “it is dangerous to concentrate our attention too much o ourselves if, having discovered our own weakness, we do not raise our thoughts towards God to implore His mercy” (Mariano Cordovani OP, Breviario Spirituale p 14).
It is disastrous, if solitude leads to laziness or to futile mental rambling.
Solitude should be active and fervent.
It should be an ascent towards God.
It should help us to form the habit of continual conversation with God, so that nothing can break our union with Him.
A man who only prays when he is on his knees, prays very little.
The Gospel says that we ought always to pray.
Solitude of the heart, enables us to obey this precept.
“Of what us is the solitude of the body,” asks St Gregory the Great, “without the solitude of the heart?” (Moralia, Bk XXX, Xh 52).
If we wish to have this spiritual solitude which will keep us close to God, our hearts must be detached from worldly affairs. “If a glass vase is filled with earth,” writes St Alphonsus, “the light of the sun cannot penetrate it. Similarly, the divine light cannot penetrate a heart which is preoccupied with the love of pleasure and of honours” (Al Divino Servizio, III, 2).
Let us love solitude then.
Let us look for it whenever it is possible but, above all, let us keep our hearts free from earthly attachments and united to God.”
Antonio Cardinal Bacci
Part One here:
https://anastpaul.com/2020/05/26/thought-for-the-day-26-may-solitude/
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