A Better Me: Day 2

Todays quote comes from "The Life of St. Gemma Galgani"

written by her spiritual director, Venerable Fr. Germanus.


“In meditation, the soul must often labor much in the exertion of its power-memory, understanding and will. In contemplation she only has to gaze and admire the beauty of the object that God shows her. She does not then exercise herself in reflections, application, reasonings, etc., but remains, as it were, in mental suspense before the great things that draw her out of herself in admiring wonder. We may say that the contemplative does here on earth in a limited degree what the blessed do in Heaven.”

St. Gemma

Ven. Fr. Germanus



I must have read these words a million times, but it has been a while so I thought it would be nice to revisit. St Gemma was quite the contemplative.  God was constantly drawing her out of herself and blessing her with such graces. Her experiences went way beyond even contemplation however, as she had attained complete mystical union and espousal to God.

This quote means a lot to me because it put into words and explained something which I experienced but didn't understand. The best way I can describe it, is to say it is indescribable. I am sure some of you know, but bare with me as I do my best to share one such encounter with you. 

It was 2007, the day after Christmas. I had the day off, so was home all alone and slept in nice and late. I arose immediately thinking of Jesus and offered my morning offering. I knelt and thanked God for the day and for the sweet dreams I had that night. I went out to the living room and knelt on the floor for a bit and was thinking about Christmas and how wonderful it was. Then God started to draw me. He spoke into my heart and showed me His Sacred Heart. To be short of it, for the next two hours, no other thoughts entered my mind, and all I could do was dwell there with Jesus. He offered to me His Heart; I had never seen anything so beautiful. I kissed it and fell more in love with Him. I didn't want it to end. Afterwards I felt such a great joy. When I read the above quote, I more understood what God did with me. I know He let me experience this because He knows how weak I am. He knows how fleeting my love can be and He was "wooing" me, bidding me to not let my love grow cold. It made such a longing in my soul for Heaven, because just the small glimpse that I felt was, well undescribable.

Today while thinking about this quote I thought a lot about the moments of contemplation I have been blessed with. They are consolations for me when things are hard. I just think of the feeling of Heaven and nothing else matters.

Dear sweet Jesus has been so kind to me.

With all He's blessed me with,

I owe so much more of my life than I am currently giving to Him.

He is deserving of all my love,

and in return He will give me to grace to love those around me.

Thus for those I love, I need to let Jesus reignite the flame of love

which I fear has grown too cold.