271 part i: sunday meditations for the entire year he is ashamed to beg alms from door to door, he is ashamed to be a beggar. Rejoice in your voluntary poverty and desire that you arrive at such a state that, while begging, a piece of bread would be refused to you, and that there would be no one from whom you could receive it. For you profess yourself to be a poor one of that Lady119 [f.72r] who, having just brought forth the Son of God, “laid [Him] in a manger, because there was no place for [Him] in the inn” (cf. Lk 2:7). You glory that you are a servant of that King who, when He came into the world subject to Him, as created by Him, did not have even a quiet corner to lay His infant head comfortably (cf. Mt 8:20; Lk 9:58). Therefore, do not be ashamed to beg. NINTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST Before Holy Communion 1. “seeing the city, [H]e wept over it” (Lk 19:41) [DRB]. Consider that, if Christ the Lord, foreseeing and predicting the future destruction of the city of Jerusalem, was not able to restrain Himself from profuse tears because of the great pain, then with what sadness He is struck, how intensely He is pained and with what lamentation He is shaken, when He foresees the fall of your soul, or sees that already it has fallen into ruin and is devastated and not reformed. For your soul is the city of the Most High: its inhabitants are the senses; the buildings the members; the ornamentation the virtues; the city walls the body; the city gates the eyes and ears; the heart is the royal throne, the fortified citadel, and the fortress. Therefore, O my soul, bring relief to your Jesus, who is weeping for you! For thus you may hope that you will avoid ruin, or if it has 119 This is said to the Piarists, members of the Congregation “of the Poor of the Mother of God.”
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