Fr Norris contemplations on St Ignatius spiritual exercises.

You recognize your weakness, how faithless you are how helpless you become when Jesus leaves you for a moment. Now you must understand that nothing happens that is not good for your good. Try and see all trails in this light and anyway what a debt you owe the most Sacred Heart. Realize that you were born a child of the fall, therefore incapable of being saved. But you don’t realize fully enough the value of the Incarnation. As a result of this wonderful event and our Lords life and death you are able to become a child of God by Baptism, also the wonderful gift of faith. Although your soul was cleansed you are still prone to evil. Your nature had as it were a definite bias towards evil. Now as you grew older you forgot your dignity as a child of God and you squandered your inheritance, the beautiful gifts of Baptism by serious sin. Not only once but again and again. You can see that as a result of your evil nature and repeated habit of sin your correct view of things has been changed. Your mind is perverted, sin means little to you and your soul is darkened and blunted. To clean the soul and give it the correct natural view on creatures needs much effort and prayer and grace. You have fallen from your pedestal as a brother of Jesus Christ into the mud and to get back again needs much washing, straightening and since we are so weak, much help.

To whom do we go then for help. To whom does a child go when in trouble? To its mother, and it is to Mary that you must go. Since her soul is spotlessly pure she sees and knows clearly the way to the Sacred Heart of her Son. The haven of rest and peace. She is the mould of Jesus, pure and undefiled. So then you must do everything in her, with her, for her so that we may be assured of keeping upon the right road. Now since we don’t know the way but are trusting to her to guide us we must not flinch when she uses painful means. She is your doctor and Mary knows that the Cross is the best means of purification. On your part self-denial is another good means. Cooperate with her by prayer and a manly will and be generous. How much did the Sacred Heart of Jesus suffer for you?