Pope St John XXIII (b.1881 d.1963)
‘Journal of a Soul’, published eight months after the death
of Pope John XXIII, comprises the diaries, notes, and spiritual thoughts and
prayers, recorded by the Pope himself from the age of fourteen until a few
months before he died. These notes were recorded in diaries and on loose notepaper, some hand-written some typed, and
kept near at hand by the Pope wherever he happened to be. Over a period of
nearly seventy years this accumulated collection represented a vast and unique
history of his life and thoughts, reflecting his deep love for his family and
friends, and above all for Jesus Christ and His Church. His humility, humanity,
deep spirituality and holy simplicity, are reflected in his writings and in
this ‘Journal’ which he allowed to be published only after his death. The
responsibility for this was given to his private secretary, Don Loris
Capovilla, who as Cardinal Capovilla, died in May this year aged 100.
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We hear much of the
so-called ‘rigidity’ of the traditional laws and practices of the Catholic
Church, ‘seeing God not as love and
fatherhood, from whom all fatherhood derives, but only as the Judge who
pronounces eternal judgments on the frailty of the creature, a breath of wind
that passes and comes no more. Yet this kind of spirituality produced Pope John
XXIII, and the tree is to be judged by its fruit.’ This rigorously constructed spirituality, recognising and loyal to the letter of the law, is not just this, for within it lives and from
it soars a great conception. ‘Every ‘technique’ degenerates if it remains
purely mechanical, that is, isolated from all noble inspiration. On the other
hand no great conception can be realized without a rule, without a discipline.
Now there is evident in Pope John’s ‘Journal’, a powerful and exalted
evangelical impulse which dominates his whole existence, and preserves this
constant examination of his own life from any puritanical or pharisaical
contamination. His confessions are too precise, too detailed, too intent on
calling everything by its right name, ever to become a stale habit or, worse
still, a mask or a pose. Today, too many rebels publish their confessions,
shameless exhibitions before a public greedy for scandal, and destined merely
to disguise their shame. Here, instead, all is real: the simplicity, the
awareness of being a creature, scrupulous moderation and reserve, extreme human
sensibility, above all, the will to aspire to the fullness of Christ.
The ‘Journal’
records constant, one might almost say, obstinate growth, in step with the very
slow rhythm of nature and grace. It is a
growth in understanding and knowledge of God’s purpose, and an increasing
embodiment of this purpose in his personal life and ecclesiastical office.
God’s design for us, being eternal, keeps pace with us; it grows with us and we
grow with it.’
Ack. Meditation and
Introduction to ‘Journal of a Soul’ – written by Giulio Bevilacqua, Cong. Orat.
Brescia, January, 1964.’ (Bevilacqua
was a life-long friend of Pope John)
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Bishop Roncalli
The following extracts were taken from a Retreat attended by
Mgr Roncalli, titular Archbishop of Mesembria and Apostolic Delegate to Turkey
and Greece,
between 25 November and 1 December
1940, at Terapia on the Bosporos, the Villa of the Sisters of Our
Lady of Sion. The Retreat master was Father Paolo Segneri, and the Penitential Psalm, the Miserere, was the
source of this particular spiritual exercise.
V2. ‘And according to the multitude of thy
tender mercies blot out my iniquity.’
The Lord is said to be ‘merciful and gracious’. His mercy is not simply a feeling of the
heart; it is an abundance of gifts.
When we
consider how many graces are poured into the sinner’s soul along with God’s
forgiveness, we feel ashamed. These are: the loving remission of our offence;
the new infusion of sanctifying grace, given as to a friend, as to a son; the
reintegration of the gifts, habits and virtues associated with the grace; the
restitution of our right to heaven; the restoration of the merits we had earned
before our sin; the increase of grace which this forgiveness adds to former
graces; the increase of gifts which grow in proportion to the growth of grace
just as the rays of the sun increases as it rises, and the rivulets are wider as
the fountain overflows.
V 3. ‘Wash me yet
more from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin’: holy confession.
Three
verbs: to blot out, to wash, and to cleanse, in this order. First the iniquity must be blotted out, then
well washed, that is, every slightest attachment to it is removed; finally the
cleansing, which means conceiving an implacable hatred for sin and doing things
which are contrary to it, that is making acts of humility, meekness,
mortification, etc., according to the diversity of the sins. These three
operations follow one another but to God alone belongs the first. To God, in
cooperation with the soul, the second and the third: the washing and the cleansing.
Let us, poor sinners, do our duty; repent and with the Lord’s help, wash and
cleanse ourselves. We are sure that the Lord will do the first, the blotting
out; this is prompt and immediate. And so we must believe it to be, without
doubts or hesitations. ‘I believe in the forgiveness of sins’. The two
processes which depend on our co-operation need time, progress, effort.
Therefore we say: ‘Wash me yet more ….. and cleanse me…..’
This
mysterious process of our purification is perfectly accomplished in holy
confession, through the intervention of the blood of Christ which washes and
cleanses us. The power of the divine
blood, applied to the soul, acts progressively, from one confession to another.
‘Yet more’ and ever more. Hence the importance of confession in itself, with
the words of absolution, and of the custom of frequent confession for persons
of a spiritual profession, such as priests and Bishops. How easy it is for mere
routine to take the place of true devotion in our weekly confessions! Here is a
good way of drawing the best out of the precious and divine exercise: to think
of Christ who, according to St Paul,
was created by God to be ‘our wisdom , our righteousness, sanctification and
redemption’ (1 Cor. 1:30)
So, when I
confess, I must beg Jesus first of all to be my wisdom, helping me to make a
calm, precise, detailed examination of my sins and of their gravity, so that I
may feel sincere sorrow for them. Then, that He may be my justice, so that I
may present myself to my confessor as to my judge, and accuse myself sincerely
and sorrowfully. May he be also my perfect
sanctification when I bow my head to receive absolution from the hand of the
priest, by whose gesture is restored or increased sanctifying grace. Finally,
that he may be my redemption as I perform that meagre penance which is set me
instead of the great penalty I deserve; a meagre penance indeed, but a rich
atonement because it is united with the Sacrament to the blood of Christ, which
intercedes and atones and washes and cleanses, for me and with me.
This ‘wash
me yet more’ must remain the sacred motto of my ordinary confessions. These
confessions are the surest criterion by which to judge my spiritual progress.
Return of the prodigal son.
V 5. ‘Against thee only have I sinned, and have done evil in
thy sight, that thou mayst be justified in thy sentence and blameless in thy
judgment’
Sin is an
offence against God, and for this alone a grave evil. The other considerations
are all secondary in comparison with this: a wife raped and a husband killed
are things of small account compared with an outraged God. This is what David
understood and what we must understand too. How differently this world thinks!
People are sorry, not for having offended the Lord, but because they have
suffered disgrace, loss or misfortune.
The saints
did not feel that way. ‘I said, “O Lord, be merciful to me, heal my soul for I
have sinned against thee.” (Psalm 40 (41):4)
Another
thought; ‘I have done evil in thy sight’. Sin, even if directed against one’s
neighbour and against oneself, directly violates God’s holy law. But it is graver
because it is committed in God’s sight. ‘God sees me’: our humble grandmothers
used to work this motto into their samplers of rustic embroidery: it still
hangs on the old walls of our houses and it contains a stern reminder which
serves to give a character of decency to all our behaviour. What a profound
truth this is of the omnipresence of God, of his searching glance which
penetrates even the secret recesses of our privacy. A whole treatise of ascetic doctrine could be
written about this truth from which is derived the purest beauty of sanctified
souls, as clear as crystal, as pure as well-water, using no deceit with others
or with themselves (for it happens sometimes that we are insincere even with
ourselves, surely the height of folly!) even at the risk of seeming of little
worth. ‘The simplicity of the just man is derided.’ What a fine passage this is
from St Gregory the Great!
V 7. ‘For behold thou hast loved truth: the uncertain hidden
things of thy wisdom thou hast revealed to me.’
First of
all, the Psalmist wished to justify the Lord’s words spoken to him by the
prophet: ‘that thou mayst be justified in thy sentence’, and to exalt the
triumph of his judgment: ‘that thou mayst be blameless in thy judgment’.
Now he
proclaims that his God is a lover of truth. In fact truth is in God as in its
source and God is all truth; as Jesus, the divine Word, said himself: ‘I am the
truth’. A declaration of this sort would seem that of a madman had it not come
from the lips of God made man. The Roman governor was much puzzled by this
declaration of Christ’s and asked him; ‘What is truth?’
The truth,
says Father Segneri, is a transcendent virtue which enters into all
well-ordered human affairs and, according to the diversity of these, assumes
different names. In the schools it is called science, in speech veracity, in
conduct frankness, in conversation sincerity, in actions righteousness, in
business dealings honesty, in the keeping of promises loyalty, and in the
courts of law it has the noble title of justice. This is the Lord’s truth which
‘abides for ever’.
'What is truth?' by James Seward
The love of
truth. On the day of my Episcopal consecration the Church gave me a particular
mandate concerning it: ‘Let him choose humility and truth and never forsake
them for any flattery or threats. Let him not consider light to be darkness, or
darkness light; let him not call evil good, or good evil. Let him learn from
wise men and fools, so that he may profit from all.’ I thank the Lord for
having given me a natural inclination to tell the truth, always and in all
circumstances and before everyone, in a pleasant manner and with courtesy, to
be sure, but calmly and fearlessly. Certain small fibs of my childhood have
left in my heart a horror of deceit and falsehood. Now, especially as I am
growing old, I want to be particularly careful about this: to love the truth,
God helping me! I have repeated this
many times, swearing it on the Gospel.
The
revelation of the uncertain and hidden things of divine wisdom, comes by
itself. The love of truth means perpetual childhood, fresh and joyful. And the Lord reveals his most sublime
mysteries to children and conceals them from the learned and the so-called wise
men of this world.
V 9. ‘To my hearing thou shalt give joy and gladness; and
the bones that have been humbled shall rejoice.’
When we
hear that we are forgiven: ‘The Lord has put away your sin’, we are full of joy
and gladness. We have felt this so often when after the absolution we rise from
kneeling before our confessor, especially when we are in retreat or on some
other more solemn occasions in our life. The joy is in our understanding, the
gladness in our heart. This two-fold sensation is expressed also in the renewed
physical vigour and energy of our bodies: ‘The bones that have been humbled
will rejoice.’ There are some most moving references to this in the Bible:
Isaiah tells us ‘your heart shall thrill and rejoice’ (Isaiah 60:5), and we
read in Proverbs: ‘a glad heart makes a cheerful countenance’ Prov.15:13)
The mystery
of spiritual joy, which is a characteristic of saintly souls, is seen here in
all its beauty and charm. The Lord leaves us uncertain about our eternal
salvation but gives us signs which suffice to calm our souls and make us joyful.
‘It is the
Spirit himself bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God’
(Romans 8:16). I ask you: is this a
small thing, to feel we are God’s children? This confidence, which is often in
our hearts without our being able to account for it, is the inexhaustible
source of our joy, the most solid foundation of true piety, which consists in
desiring everything that is full and loving service to the Lord. The essential
is that this desire of ours should be prompt and effective. That it should be a
source of enjoyment also, that is, of tender affection, sweetness, delight and
joy – this is also important, but accidental and secondary. The realization of
Our Lord’s goodness to us, and of our worthlessness, makes us happy and sad at
the same time. But the sadness is lessened as it becomes an encouragement for
our apostolate in the service of all that is sublime and noble, to make Jesus
known, loved and served, and to take away the sins of the world.
The thought
of holiness, smiling amidst trials and crosses, is always with me. Interior
calm, founded on the words and promises of Christ, produces the imperturbable
serenity which may be seen in face, words and behaviour, the expression of
all-conquering charity. We feel a renewal of energies, physical as well as
spiritual: sweetness to the soul and health to the body.(Prov.16:24). To live
in peace with the Lord, to hear that we are forgiven, and in our turn to
forgive others, gives the soul that feast of ‘marrow and fat’ of which the psalmist
sang, and brings the Magnificat constantly to our lips.’
The Visitation, from alterpiece of the Virgin. By Jacques Daret 1434. 'My soul doth magnify the Lord ......'
