My Beloved Guide and Master

Retreat, First Day


"Come and rest awhile, my child,-away from the noise and tumult of the world.--Come and rest with Me.  Alone together let us talk over the needs of your dear soul,  the aspirations of your heart."

'Tis thus I hear Thee speak, my dearest Guide and Master, from out the depths of Thy much-loved Tabernacle.

Prostrate before Thee, my cherished Guide, I humbly beg the grace to pass these few days of prayer, in all reverence, recollection and love.

Divine Master, throw upon my heart the search-light of Thy all-seeing Eye that I may know the weaknesses that have made my life imperfect in Thy sight,-that I may see the spots of leprosy that so disfigure me and the ravages of the worm of pride that have gnawed into the fabric of my soul.

What has been the influence of other upon me?  What has been my influence upon them?

As I look back over my life, I see it full of pleasures, sprinkled here and there, with gayeties and frivolities of every kind,-or perhaps laden with  disappointments, worries, sorrows and annoyances .  A full life indeed!

In Thine Eyes has it been full, beloved Master?  This is the point,--This is the only point worthy of consideration.

Have these pleasures, these social duties with which my days are well-nigh full,--have they so weighed down my heart as to make it difficult for me to lift it to higher things?  Have they so dulled my  mind as to make me blind to my greater duties?  Have they so vitiated my taste as to leave me no relish for Holy Communion?

Or if my life has felt the pressure of the Cross, if trials have beset my path, have these burdens embittered me?  Have they weakened me?  Have they led me to seek comfort in more distraction, in the pleasures of the world?

The world can never sweeten the bitterness of the Cross.  The world can never smooth the edge of the trial.  I know all this dearest Master, yet when the sorrow weighs on me I turn for help to the paltry things of life.

What will it matter, a few years hence, whether or no I have been popular,--whether or no I have eked out of life all the pleasure it could give?  But it will matter if through the pleasure and through the pain, I have kept my soul untouched by sin and pleasing in Thy sight, my cherished Lord.

Lay Thy Hand upon my head, dearest Master, and bless my Retreat.  Give me the grace to drive  from my mind all thought of the world.  Let me spend these days retired, alone with Thee. Silent, too, that I may hear Thy Voice and listen to Thy dear Will in my regard.

Beloved Guide and cherished Master, help me to realize the responsibilities  of life,--my responsibilities.  Make me understand that I have a great work to do and that it is not by chance that I am here in this world.  I am here for the sole purpose of becoming good,--good as Thou dost understand goodness, not as the votaries of the world would have it.

It is not by chance that I am here for this Retreat.  It is a time of tremendous obligation as well as of tremendous grace, of deep-searching light, and of strength to do the right, no matter what the cost.

Let it then be to me, divinest Guide, a lifelong good, the opening to a life of holiness  and of familiar knowledge of the Master of light and love and understanding peace.