19 January 2022
Wednesday of the Second Week in Ordinary Time
“Life would become unbearable for me if I discovered anything lurking in my soul which was human, and not, in every particle, divine.” This quotation from St. Ignatius Loyolaappears in a 17th book called Scintillae Ignatianae, Ignatian Sparks. The book has daily quotations from St. Ignatius, together with meditations from Fr. Gabriel Hevenesi, SJ. Here is the text of Fr. Hevenesi’s meditation for January 19.
The good arises from the entirety of the cause, but evil arises from a defect of the cause. You will have no happiness, then, until you either despise or possess everything entirely. Happiness is delicate, because any defect makes you wretched. There is no easier way of obtaining happiness than loving God alone.
Whoever has tasted just once what God is easily pushes aside everything else. So filled is he by the courses of divine delights that his stomach turns at the mention of the paltry bread of this earth.
A small feather is heavy. So is a single droplet. Neither of them can arise. Even if they be lifted up on high by the wind, their innate heft brings them down to earth again. Likewise the soul cannot fly up to heaven under the weight of the slightest earthly affection.