ACCRM’s 40 Days With Christ For Lent: Day Twenty-Four
Man’s Greatest Treasure
[exerpts from “My Daily Bread” by Anthony J. Paone, S.J. [1954]
CHRIST:
1. MY CHILD, only in Me will you find what is best and most precious for you. God is far greater and better than all things created. I am the Most High. No one else is all-powerful. God alone is perfectly charming and full of consolation. In Me you will find perfect beauty and all-satisfying love. Most noble and most glorious above all things is the Maker of all.
2. Beg often for the grace to find your joy in Me above all things created; above health or beauty; above glory and honor; above power and dignity; above all knowledge and cleverness; above all praise and admiration; above all arts and enjoyments; above all material comforts and wealth; above all hopes and promises; above all human consolation and appreciation. Treasure Me more than the gifts and rewards which I bestow on men. In Me you will find more than in everything else.
3. Whatever I give, whatever is not God, is too little and insufficient for you. I made you for Myself, the Perfect Good. Your heart will not find true rest until it rests in Me, the Perfect Giver and the Perfect Gift.
THINK:
No matter what I like or love, unless it is God Himself, it can never give me the perfect happiness which my soul desires. So many who reached earthly success, finally took their own life. Why? Because they came to realize that nothing on earth could give them the happiness which they wanted. They should have turned at last to God, but they had forgotten Him in their foolish quest for earthly joy.
PRAY:
Dear Lord, I cannot live for a joy that is doomed to fade away. Though I hope for a reasonable joy on earth, I shall never turn my back on You by sin. Earth’s good things only reflect Your beauty, Your goodness and Your power. I will never abandon the Glorious Reality for the sake of Its reflection. When I am tempted to sin for some earthly attractions, give me the grace to remember Your goodness, greatness and love. Amen.
