Second Meditation for the Fourth Week of Lent

Over the doors of every Cistercian monastery are the steering words: God Alone. Though it appears on the lintels of one of the world’s strictest Orders, it is a mandate that pertains to every Catholic. Not contemplation, not action, not works, not rest, not this or that particular thing, but God in everything. God in anything, God in His will, God in other men.

It is the toxic sin of pride which makes that summons so agonizing. From the time of our birth, pride makes its way into every crevice of our soul, every corner of our character, and every inch of our personality. By the time we realize its total penetration, its tentacles have wrapped themselves so deeply that they seem to be the real me. Pride creates a blindness, making it very difficult to see myself as God sees me.

Lent is a stripping. We must tear away all those tentacles that make it so difficult to carry out God’s Holy Will. Their number is legion – in each one of us. So it is that every day of our lives we take up the examination of conscience. For we can never rest, because Satan doesn’t. Each day he invents new lies to tell us about ourselves. The examen unmasks him.

Pray to St. Michael the Archangel, especially during Lent. He knows the Devil well. He once defeated him on eternity’s slopes. He knows Lucifer’s strategies, as any good soldier would. Pray especially that this mighty Archangel may never let us forget that we are daily enlisted in a battle. Too many Catholics have forgotten that. Have you?