Meditation teaches us to know God and ourself;
it lays open to us our faults and vices, their source and fatal
consequences and the arms we should employ to combat them. Finally,
meditation contributes most efficiently to form our minds and purify
our hearts, to fortify the will and develop in us the habit of
reflecting.
The knowledge of God and ourself is such an important factor in the
work of our spiritual perfection that St. Augustin constantly prayed
for it, saying: _"Lord grant that I may know Thee and myself."_
The pagans themselves well understood the advantage of this most
important science, even for the securing of the happiness of this
life; since they had the following words inscribed, as a summary of
all human science, upon the frontispiece of the most celebrated
temple of Greece, _know thou thyself_. But, alas! this knowledge
is as rare as it is necessary; with a mind absorbed by distractions,
and a heart harassed by passions, we flee, so to speak, from God and
from ourselves.
Where is the Christian that knows God? Do you presume that you know
full well what He is, what He has done for you, and what He still
does for you every day? Every moment you receive His gifts: your life
is due to His beneficence and His love, you are carried in the bosom
of His providence as in the arms of your mother, He is continually
preoccupied with your welfare, He has done all, created all things
for your comfort and happiness; for your sake he has become man, to
participate in all the infirmities, weakness and miseries of our
humanity, in order to heal them and console us.
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