April 29th
Chapter Three
Desiring to Pray Always

You are not asked to apply your mind continually to the thought of God or to put aside the fulfillment of your work.  Nothing else is required than to act toward God, in the midst of your day, as you act toward those who love you and whom you love.

When you awake in the morning, let your first thoughts be of God; offer all your actions of the day to God.  Turn to Jesus and ask Him to be with you.  Turn to Mary and ask her to be at your side.  Acquire the habit of retiring to the 'room of your heart,' there to be united with God alone.

Upon entering or leaving a room, or sitting down to eat a meal, what ever you do, do it for God.  Make frequent offerings of yourself to God:  Here I am, Lord, do with me what You will.  Tell me what to do for You and I will do it.

Know that God is ever beside you -- indeed Your God is within you.

O Spirit of God, grant me the gift of prayer.  Come into my heart and give me the strength not to abandon the practice of prayer even though I sometimes grow weary of it.  Give me the spirit of persevering in prayer, the grace to pray continually.  

Mother of beautiful love, you are my advocate and refuge.  Mary, of all creatures you are the most beautiful, the most loving, and the most beloved of God.  Your only desire is to see God loved.  By the love you bear to Jesus, pray for me and obtain for me the grace to love God always and with my whole heart.  This I hope for and ask from you.

April 28th
Chapter Two
Praise for the Gifts of Creation

God knows that we are won by kindness and so has determined to captivate our hearts by lavishing on us all the gifts of creation....Whenever you see beauty in the fields, flowers, fruits, or when you view the sea, reflect upon God who has given these numerous gifts to you out of love and as a promise of future happiness.... When you hear the singing birds, let your heart sing in praise of God.  When you hear a cock crow, recall that you, too, have denied Jesus, and ask forgiveness....Let the sea remind you of the immensity and greatness of God.

God was not satisfied with giving us so many lovely things in creation and associating us with so many beautiful people.  God has gone to great lengths to give us the greatest gift:  Jesus Christ.

O my beloved God, You are beauty itself, goodness itself, and love itself.  How can I love anything but You!  How foolish I have been.  In my past, I have offered numberless insults to You; and I now promise and desire to repeat every moment of my life that I desire You only, O my God, and nothing more.

O Mary, my mother and my hope, beg of your Son that I may be no longer mine, but that I may belong to Jesus entirely and forever.

April 27th

Chapter One, continued

Friends in this world spend hours in conversation together, but they also have times of separation.  Such is not the case with you and God; for if you desire, there will be no separation at all.

Consider that God loves you more than you can possibly love God in return.  God cares for you and tells you:  "Cast all of your cares upon me."  Remember, too, that god will never turn away from you.

O my God, why have you loved me so much?  What good do you find in me?  Have you forgotten my sins and offences?  Since you have treated me with so much love, and given me graces without number, I will love you from now on, and forever.  You alone are and always will be the God of my heart, my only good, my heaven, my hope, my all.  Mary, my mother, pray for me.

April 26th
Chapter One, continued

Converse with God with the greatest possible confidence.  In return, God will speak with you and you will hear audible words in your ears, or words that you will clearly understand in your heart.  These may be feelings of peace, hope, interior joy, or sorrow for sin...gentle knockings at the door of your heart.

These movements to a closer relationship in love are readily understood by those who seek nothing but God and the things of God.

April 25th              Praying to God as a Friend, St Alphonsus Liguori

Chapter One
Prayer as Friendship with God

Consider that no one, friend or lover, father or mother, sister or brother, loves you more than your God....so special is God's love that God seems to love no one but you....

Realize that God does not wish to be feared as a terrible tyrant, but wishes to be treated like a most affectionate friend.  Therefore, God desires that you speak often with familiarity and with no restrictions.

April 24th
Book Four, Chapter 18
That Man Should Not be a Curious Searcher Into This Sacrament, but a Humble Follower of Christ, Submitting His Sense to Holy Faith

You must beware of curious and useless scrutiny into this most profound Sacrament, if you would not sink into the depth of doubt....If you neither understand nor comprehend those things which are beneath you, how may you comprehend such as are above you?  Submit yourself to God, and humble your sense to faith, and the light of knowledge will be given you, according as shall be advantageous and necessary for you....Go forward, therefore, with a simple and undoubting faith, and with lowly reverence approach the Sacrament; and whatsoever you are not able to understand, securely commit to God the Omnipotent....If the works of God were such that they could easily be comprehended by human reason, they could neither be called wonderful nor unspeakable.

April 23rd
Book Four, Chapter 17
Of an Ardent Love and Vehement Desire to Receive Christ

With great devotion and ardent love, with all affection and fervor of heart, I desire to receive You, O Lord, as many saints and devout persons, who were most pleasing to You in holiness of life and in the most burning devotion, have desired You when they communicated....

Let all peoples, tribes, and tongues praise You, and magnify Your holy and most sweet Name, with the highest jubilation and ardent devotion.  And my all, whoever reverently and devoutly celebrate Your most high Sacrament, and receive it with full faith, at Your hands deserve to find grace and mercy, and humbly to pray for me, a sinner.

April 22nd
Book Four, Chapter 16
That we Ought to Lay Open Our Necessities to Christ, and Crave His Grace

To You do I come for remedy, to You do I pray for consolation and relief; I speak to Him who knows all things, to Whom my whole interior is manifest, and Who alone can perfectly console and assist me....

Behold, I stand before You poor and naked, begging grace and imploring mercy.  Feed Your hungry beggar, inflame my coldness with the fire of Your love, enlighten my blindness with the brightness of Your Presence.

Raise up my heart to You into heaven, and suffer me not to wander upon earth....Oh, that with Your Presence You would totally inflame, consume, and transform me into Yourself, that I may be made one spirit with You by the grace of internal union, and by the melting of ardent love!

April 21st
Book Four, Chapter 15
The Grace of Devotion is Acquired by Humility and Self-Abnegation

Whoever, therefore, with simplicity of heart shall raise up his intention to God, and disengage himself from all inordinate love or dislike of any created being, he shall be the most apt to receive grace, and worthy of the gift of devotion.  For the Lord bestows His benediction there where He finds vessels empty.  And the more perfectly one forsakes the things below, and the more he dies to himself by contempt of himself, the more speedily grace comes, enters in more plentifully, and the higher it elevates a heart that is free....

Behold, thus shall the man be blessed who seeks God with his whole heart, and takes not his soul in vain.  Such a one, in receiving the Holy Eucharist, obtains the great grace of Divine union; because he does not regard his own devotion and consolation, but above all devotion and consolation he regards the honor and glory of God.

April 20th
Book Four, Chapter 14
Of the Ardent Desire of Some Devout Persons Towards the Body of Christ

Be merciful to me, O good Jesus, sweet and gracious, and grant Your poor mendicant to feel, sometimes at least, in the sacred Communion some little of the cordial affection of Your love, that my faith may be more strengthened, my hope in Your goodness increased; and that charity, once perfectly enkindled, and having tasted the manna of heaven, may never die away.  Powerful, indeed, is Your mercy to give me also the desired grace, and in Your great clemency, when the time of Your good pleasure arrives, to visit me with the spirit of fervor.  For though I burn not with so great desire as Your specially devout servants, yet by Your grace, I have a desire of this same greatly inflamed desire, praying and wishing that I may be made partaker with all such fervent lovers, and be numbered in their holy company.

April 19th
Book Four, Chapter 13
That a Devout Soul Ought to Desire, With the Whole Heart, to be United to Christ in This Sacrament

For this I pray, this I desire, that I may be wholly united to You, and that I may withdraw my heart from all things created; and by Holy Communion, and often celebrating, I may more and more learn to relish things heavenly and eternal.  Ah, Lord God, when shall I be wholly united to, and absorbed in You, and altogether unmindful of myself?...You are in truth a hidden god, and Your counsel is not with the wicked, but Your conversation is with the humble and the simple.  Oh, how sweet, O Lord, is Your Spirit, who, to show Your sweetness towards Your children, vouchsafes to refresh them with that  most delicious bread which comes down from heaven!...But what shall I render to the Lord for this grace, for charity so remarkable?  There is not anything that I can present to Him more acceptable than to give up my heart entirely to God, and closely unite it to Him.

April 18th
Book Four, Chapter 12
With How Great Diligence he Who is to Communicate Ought to Prepare Himself for Christ

I am the Lover of purity and the Giver of all sanctity.  I seek a pure heart, and there is the place of My rest....If you will have Me to come to you and remain with you, purge out the old leaven, and make clean the habitation of your heart.  Shut out the whole world and all the tumult of vices; sit as a sparrow solitary on the house-top, and think of your excesses in the bitterness of your soul....

But you ought not only to prepare yourself for devotion before Communion, but also carefully to keep yourself therein after the reception of the Sacrament.  Neither is watchfulness less required after, than a devout preparation before; for strict guardianship afterwards is the best preparation for again obtaining a greater grace....Beware of much talk; remain in secret and enjoy your God; for you have Him whom all the world cannot take from you.  I am He to whom you ought to give your whole self; so that henceforth you may live not in yourself, but in Me, and free from all solicitude.

April 17th
Book Four, Chapter 11
That the Body of Christ and the Holy Scriptures are Most Necessary to a Faithful Soul

 For in this life I find there are two things especially necessary for me, without which this miserable life would be to me insupportable.  While detained in the prison of this body, I acknowledge that I need two things, viz.: Food and light.  You have, therefore, given to me, weak as I am, Your Sacred Body for the nourishment of my soul and body, and You have set Your word as a light to my feet.  Without these two I could not well live; for the Word of God is the light of my soul, and Your Sacrament is the bread of life.

April 16th
Book Four, Chapter 10
That the Holy Communion is not Lightly to be Forborne

You ought often to have recourse to the fountain of grace and of divine mercy, to the fountain of goodness and all purity; that you may be healed of your passions and vices, and may deserve to be made stronger and more vigilant against all the temptations and deceits of the devil....How happy is he, and how acceptable to God, who so lives and keeps his conscience in such purity, as to be prepared and well disposed to communicate every day, were it permitted to him, and he might pass without observation!...And when, indeed, he is lawfully hindered, he should yet always have a good will and a pious intention of communicating, and so he will not be without the fruit of the Sacrament.  For every devout person may every day and every hour, without any prohibition, approach to a spiritual communion with Christ with much profit.

April 15th
Book Four, Chapter 9
That we Must Offer Ourselves and All That is Ours, to God and Pray for All

Lord, all things are Yours that are in heaven and upon earth.  I desire to offer up myself to You as a voluntary oblation, and to remain forever Yours.  Lord, in the simplicity of my heart, I offer myself to You this day, as Your servant for evermore, for Your homage, and for a sacrifice of perpetual praise....Deal with me according to Your goodness, not according to my impiety and wickedness....Take, O Lord, from our hearts all suspicion, indignation, anger, and contention, and whatever else may wound charity and lessen brotherly love.  Have mercy, O Lord, have mercy on those that crave Your mercy; give grace to the needy; and grant us so to live that we may be worthy to enjoy Your grace, and that we may attain life everlasting.

April 14th
Book Four, Chapter 8
Of the Oblation of Christ on the Cross, and of the Resignation of Ourselves

Whatsoever you give except yourself, I regard not; for I seek not your gift, but yourself....Offer yourself to Me, and give your whole self for God, and your offering shall be accepted....But if you will stand upon yourself, and not offer yourself freely to My will, your offering is not complete, nor will there be an entire union between us.  A spontaneous oblation of yourself into the hands of God ought to precede all your works, if you would obtain liberty and grace.

My sentence stands sure:  Unless a man renounce all that he possesses he cannot be My disciple.  You therefore, if you desire to be My disciple, offer up yourself to Me with all your affections.

April 13th
Book Four, Chapter 7
On the Examination of our own Conscience, and of a Resolution of Amendment

Examine diligently your conscience, and to the best of your power cleanse and purify it by a true contrition and humble confession....For there is no oblation  more worthy, no satisfaction greater, for the washing away of sins, than to offer yourself purely and entirely to God, together with the Oblation of the Body of Christ, in the Mass, and in the Communion.  If a man does what lies in him, and is truly penitent, as often as he shall approach to Me for pardon and grace, I live, says the Lord, and I will not the death of the sinner, but rather that he be converted and live; wherefore I will no longer remember his sins, but all shall be forgiven him.

April 12th
Book Four, Chapter 6
A Self-Interrogation Concerning the Exercise Proper Before Communion

When I consider Your dignity, O Lord, and my own vileness, I am frightened exceedingly, and am confounded within myself.  For if I do not appeal to You, I fly from life; and if I intrude myself unworthily, I incur Your displeasure.  What, then, shall I do, O my God, my Helper and Counselor in necessities?  Teach me the right way; set before me some short exercise suitable for the Holy Communion.  For it is well to know after what manner, indeed, I ought devoutly and reverently to prepare my heart for You, for the profitable receiving of Your Sacrament, as well as for celebrating so great and divine a Sacrifice.

April 11th
Book Four, Chapter 5
On the Dignity of the Sacrament, and of the Priestly State

If you had the purity of an angel, and the sanctity of St. John the Baptist, you would neither be worthy to receive nor to handle this Sacrament.  For this is not due to man's merits, that a man should consecrate and handle the Sacrament of Christ, and receive for food the bread of angels.  Great is the Mystery, and great the dignity of priests, to whom is given that which to the angels is not granted.  For priests alone, rightly ordained in the Church, have the power of celebrating and consecrating the Body of Christ.

April 10th
Book Four, Chapter 4
That Many Benefits are Bestowed on Those who Communicate Devoutly

Raise up my heart towards You, and deliver me from oppressive slothfulness.  Visit me with Your saving mercy, that I may taste in spirit Your sweetness, which plentifully lies hid in this Sacrament as in a fountain.  Illuminate also my eyes, to behold so great a Mystery, and strengthen me to believe it with an undoubting faith.  For it is Your work, and not man's power; Your sacred institution  not the invention of man.  For no one can be found capable of himself to conceive and understand these things, which transcend even the intelligence of the angels.

April 9th
Book Four, Chapter 3
That it is Profitable to Communicate Often

Without You I cannot exist; and without Your visitation I am unable to live.  Therefore must I often come to You, and receive You as the medicine of my salvation, lest perhaps I faint in the way, should I be deprived of this heavenly food....Necessary, indeed, is it for me, who so often fall and commit sin, so quickly grow torpid and faint, that by frequent prayers and confessions, and by the sacred receiving of Your Body, I may again be renewed, cleansed, and inflamed, lest, perhaps, by longer abstaining, I fall away from my holy purpose....For if now I am so often negligent and lukewarm, whenever I communicate, what would it be if I did not take this remedy, and did not seek so great a help?

April 8th
Book Four, Chapter 2
That the Great Goodness and Love of God are Shown to Man in This Sacrament

Rejoice, O my soul, and give thanks unto God for so noble a gift, and so singular a solace left to you in this valley of tears.  For as often as you repeat this Mystery and receive the Body of Christ, so often do you perform the work of your redemption, and are made partaker of all the merits of Christ....Therefore you ought to dispose yourself for this by an ever-recurring renovation of spirit, and weigh with attentive consideration the great mystery of salvation.  And as often as you celebrate or hear Mass, it ought to seem to you as great, new, and delightful, as if Christ that very day first descending into the Virgin's womb was made man; or hanging on the Cross, suffered and died for man's salvation.

April 7th
Book Four

Come to Me, all you that labor and are burdened, and I will refresh you, says the Lord.

The bread that I will give is My flesh, for the life of the world.

Take and eat; this is my body, which shall be delivered for you; this do for the commemoration of Me.

He that eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him.

The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.

Chapter 1
With how Great Reverence Christ Ought to be Received

 Many run to different places to visit the relics of the saints, and wonder to hear of their remarkable deeds; they behold the spacious buildings of their churches, and kiss their sacred bones, enveloped in silk and gold:  And behold, You are here present to me on the altar, my God, the Saint of saints, the Creator of men, and the Lord of angels....Here, in the sacrament of the altar, You are wholly present, my God, the man Christ Jesus; where also is derived, in full copiousness, the fruit of eternal salvation, as often as You are worthily and devoutly received....Thanks be to You, O good Jesus, eternal Shepherd, who has vouchsafed to feed us poor exiles with Your precious Body and Blood, and to invite us to the receiving these mysteries, even by an address from Your own mouth, saying: "Come to Me, all you that labor and are burdened, and I will refresh you."

April 6th
Book Three, Chapter 59
That all Hope and confidence is to be Fixed in God Alone

You are the fountain of all good, the height of life, and the depth of wisdom; and to trust in You above all things is the strongest comfort of Your servants.

To You do I lift up my eyes; in You, O my God, Father of mercies, I put my trust.

Bless and sanctify my soul with heavenly benediction, that it may be made Your holy habitation and the seat of Your eternal glory; and let nothing be found in the Temple of Your divinity that may offend the eyes of Your majesty.

According to the greatness of Your goodness and the multitude of Your tender mercies, look down upon me, and give ear to the prayer of Your poor servant, a far-distant exile in the region of the shadow of death.

Protect and preserve the soul of Your poor servant amid so many dangers of this corruptible life, and direct him by Your accompanying grace, along the path of peace, to the land of perpetual light.  Amen.

April 5th
Book Three, Chapter 58
Of not Searching into High Matters, nor Scrutinizing the Secret Judgments of God

Beware of disputing about high matters and of the hidden judgments of God: why this man is so forsaken, and that other raised to so great grace: or why this person is so much afflicted, and that so highly exalted.  Such things exceed all human comprehension, nor is any reason or disputation competent to investigate the divine judgments.

When, therefore, the enemy suggests such to you, or certain curious men inquire into them, answer you with the Prophet:  You are just, O  Lord, and Your judgment is right.  And again: The judgments of the Lord are true, justified in themselves.

My judgments are to be feared, not to be discussed, because they are incomprehensible to human understanding.

April 4th
Book Three, Chapter 57
That a Man Should not be too Much Dejected When he Falls into Some Defects

Patience and humility under adversity please Me more than much consolation and devotion in prosperity....All is not lost, though you feel yourself often afflicted or grievously tempted.  Man you are, and not God; you are flesh, not an angel.  How can you continue ever in the same state of virtue, when this was wanting to the angels in heaven, and to the first man in paradise?  I am He who raises up to safety them that mourn; and them that know their own infirmity I promote to My own divinity.

April 3rd
Book Three, Chapter 56
That we Ought to Deny Ourselves, and Imitate Christ by the Cross

As much as you can go out of yourself, so much will you be able to enter into Me.  As the desiring nothing exteriorly brings peace, so does the relinquishing yourself interiorly unite you unto God.  I will have you learn the perfect renunciation of yourself, according to My will, without contradiction or complaint.  Follow Me:  I am the way, the truth, and the life.

April 2nd
Book Three, Chapter 55
Of the Corruption of Nature and of the Efficacy of Divine Grace

I often make many good purposes, but because grace is wanting to help my weakness, through a light resistance I recoil and fall off.  Hence it comes to pass, that I know the way of perfection, and see clearly enough what I ought to do, but pressed down with the weight of my own corruption, I rise not to the things that are more perfect.

Oh, how supremely necessary for me, O Lord, is Your grace, to begin that which is good, to go forward with it, and accomplish it.  For without it I can do nothing; but I can do all things in You, when grace strengthens me.

O grace, truly celestial, without which our own merits are nothing, neither are the gifts of nature to be esteemed!...for the gifts of nature are common to the good and to the bad; but grace or divine love is the proper gift of the elect, with which they are are adorned are esteemed worthy of eternal life....

I beseech You, O Lord, that I may find grace in Your eyes; for sufficient for me is Your grace, though I obtain none of those things which nature desires.

April 1st
Book Three, Chapter 54
Of the Different Motions of Nature and Grace

Grace teaches, therefore, to restrain the senses, to avoid vain complacency and ostentation, humbly to hide those things which are worthy of praise and admiration; and from everything, and in every knowledge, to seek the fruit of utility, and the praise and honor of God.

She desires not to have self, or what belongs to self, exalted; but wishes that God may be blessed in His gifts, who bestows all things through mere love.  This grace is a supernatural light, and a certain special gift of God, the proper mark of the elect, and pledge of eternal salvation; which elevates a man from earthly things to love such as are heavenly, and from carnal makes him spiritual.

Wherefore, as nature is the more kept down and subdued, with so much the greater abundance is grace infused; and every day by new visitations the interior man is reformed according to the image of God.