Vigils Reading

IN GOD’S ETERNAL DESIGNS

From the writings of St Charles de Foucauld3

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My Lord Jesus, you are with us even to the end of the world.’ Not only in the Holy Eucharist, but also in your grace. Your grace dwells in the Church, it dwells also in every faithful soul. The Church is your spouse, and so also is the faithful soul your spouse.

Your grace works in them, conforming them to yourself. It works without ceasing in the Church to perfect her. She grows more perfect by the increasing number of her saints. Always new ones are being added to the old ones, and the crown of saints is completed every day by new jewels; she grows more perfect through her dogmas being more and more clearly defined… she grows more perfect through the fresh crosses which you lay upon her daily and the victories she wins daily against the Prince of this world. She grows more perfect by the persecutions that she bears in one century after another, and in her suffering she grows more and more like to her Spouse; she grows more perfect through the merits of her members added daily to the merit of past days. A sum of holiness growing unceasingly, a sum which glorifies God anew, adding itself always to the ancient glory which is ever living before the Lord.

She grows more perfect by the multitude of masses, by the tabernacles, by the communions in which Jesus is daily offered on earth to God, fresh offerings adding themselves to former ones; she grows more perfect because the grace of today added to the past graces cannot fail to carry the spouse from height to height ever nearer to her Lover. Jesus is the soul of the Church, he gives to her what the soul gives to the body — life. He gives her immortal life so that she shall never be destroyed, he gives her light, making her infallible in declaring the truth; he works through her and carries on through her the work that he began whilst he lived amongst men. He works for the glory of God through the sanctifying of man. This work is the aim of the Church as it was the aim of Christ; through her Jesus accomplishes it unceasingly through the centuries.

You dwell in the souls of the faithful, Lord… You become, as it were, the soul of their soul, your grace supports it in everything, enlightens its intellect, directs its will; it is no longer the soul that acts, it is you who work in her. You give her life, the life of grace, sowing the seeds of the glorified life with increasing abundance; you give her the truth and you establish it in her, you make her understand it, you unbind her eyes and make her see all things with the eyes of faith; you set her thus in the divine life high above the shadows of the world. You continue your work in her.

The end of all men, as it is the end of the earth, and your own aim, my Lord Jesus, is the glory of God, that is to say, the outward manifestation of his glory, and the sanctification of men. You love us: therefore the more perfect we are the greater is your consolation; we should desire with all our might to please you, for you tell us to love you with all our strength. It is our duty to desire to be as perfect as possible. Make then our thoughts, words, actions, like to yours, live in us, reign in us that it may no longer be we that live, but you, my God, that live in us, and who, using our bodies and our souls, which we give to you without reserve, may continue through them your life and your work in this world. That work is the glory of God and the salvation of men in that measure which you have decreed yourself in your eternal designs; in you, by you, and for you