Lenten Meditation - March 21, 2006

Meditation is the withdrawal of oneself into the very depths of one’s being, to that point where, as theologians tell us, amid the silence of outward things, we find God; where you will find the source of all good, strength, and beauty (and this is God), where you will steep yourself in the thought of what is eternal in preparation for the strife of this world; and where you will understand, as your ideal becomes daily more clearly defined, both your own weakness and all that you can do here below in the cause of righteousness. A very definite subject must be taken for meditation, which otherwise is apt to become vague and dreamy, and, in that case, the remedy would be worse than the evil. Meditation should end in a practical resolution that can be applied at once; and it should be made every day, all the more when one is disinclined for it. It is in time of sickness that one most needs a physician.

- Elisabeth Leseur (1866-1914), The Secret Diary of Elisabeth Leseur: Living the Spiritual Life, a letter to an unbeliever