Blosius, Ven. A book of spiritual instruction = Institutio spiritualis"

The horizon at six o'clock tonight.
Jupiter and full Moon
National Schools Observatory
http://www.schoolsobservatory.org.uk

COMMENT:   The Commentary, on the Gospel, by St. Augustine was most encouraging. 

The Commentary, Meditation of MAGNIFICAT, is very different. 'Redemption Near at Hand'
It is from Ludovic Blosius. 
The Text is from Archive.org.  http://www.archive.org/stream/bookofspirituali00bloi/bookofspirituali00bloi_djvu.txt
It makes an interesting study of the publishing dates.
The Apocalypse and the Gospel balance things, "No earth overwhelms that we are "invited to the wedding feast of the Lamb."

Thursday, 29 November 2012  

Thursday of the Thirty-fourth week in Ordinary Time   

Saint Luke 21:20-28V. 27-28. And then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory But when these signs begin to happen, stand erect and raise your heads because your redemption is at hand

Commentary of the day : 

Saint Augustine (354-430), Bishop of Hippo (North Africa) and Doctor of the Church 

Discourses on the Psalms, Ps 95[96], §14  

 

"Stand erect and raise your heads because your redemption is at hand"

“Then all the trees of the forest shall leap for joy before the Lord, for he comes, he comes to rule the earth” (Ps 96[95],12-13).    

of "A book of spiritual instruction = Institutio spiritualis"

DUQUESNE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

  http://www.archive.org/stream/bookofspirituali00bloi/bookofspirituali00bloi_djvu.txt  

A BOOK OF SPIRITUAL INSTRUCTION 

(INSTITUTIO SPIRITUALIS

By

Ludovicus Blosius (1506-1565), Benedictine monk and writer
National Portrait Gallery www.npg.org.u

LUDOVICUS BLOSIUS    

Translated from the Latin 

by Bertrand A. Wilberforce

of tlie Order of Saint Dominic

Nihil Obstat

F. VINCENTIUS M. McNABB, O.P., S.T.L.

F. HUGO POPE, O.P., S.T.L.

Imprimatur

HERBERTUS CARDINALIS YAUGHAN,

Archiepiscopus Westmonast.

Die Junii 20, 1899

CHAPTER III

Preparation for a holy Death, to be followed by eternal

Happiness

1. Mortification of concupiscence and resignation of our  own will form the best preparation for death.

 . . .

3. A certain friend of God was once asked what he  would do if he had lived for a long time in grievous sins.  He replied : "If I had done all prescribed to me by  a prudent and wise confessor, and had given up my sins  as I ought, I should wish never again to think of them,  nor to stain my heart with the remembrance of them;  but I would strive from that time to live so piously that  God might forget all my sins. For when we neither  desire nor commit sin, but turn clean away from it, then  God also forgets it. *

[Instruction 137 ]

" Yea, even if I had lived for the space of forty years  in sins, and now the hour of my death had come, if I had  sincerely confessed my sins, if I could, with perfect love, from the depth of my heart, even for the space of  one 'Hail Mary,' turn myself to God and betake myself  to Him, in order that I might turn utterly away from sin  and entirely to God, then I might go from this world as  a pure and innocent man. But if, on the other hand,  I had committed only one sin, and I went hence in  sorrow, contrition and grief of heart, then, indeed, I  should die as a penitent sinner."

On the other hand, many people who have not the  true fear of God are miserably deceived by flattering  themselves with the idea of God's immense mercy, while  at the same time they do not correct their evil life. Such  men think little of daily venial offences; yea, even  grievous sins do not much trouble them. They say to  themselves : " Directly we have sighed a little and  groaned over our iniquities, the inexhaustible mercy of  God will forgive them all, and we shall go hence by  a happy death."

 * This advice is meant to guide the timid and scrupulous,  who after confession, ought to abstain from an anxious remembrance of particular sins, especially of blasphemy, impurity  and such like, which, once confessed, are far better forgotten,  on account of the danger of despair and of relapse, and also to  avoid trouble of mind and depression. But this does not  exclude the penitent disposition of mind and humility for past  sin in general. *' My sin is ever before me " (Ps. 1, 5).