Collection of texts from Saint Thomas Aquinas, organized by father Dennis Mezárd in a form of meditation for everyday of the lent.

Meditations for Lent

Meditations for Lent from the texts of Saint Thomas Aquinas

Thursday in the Third week of the Lent

The preaching of the samaritan woman

Already considered a classic for meditation among the Carmilites, helps to initmate union with God by considerations of holy truths.

Divine Intimacy

With the kind permission of "The Carmelites of Boston", we are making their translation to English of "Intimità Divina" available in this website.

"Intimità Divina" or "Divine Intimacy" as it was translated to English is, arguably, the most beloved meditation book among catholics in North America, it applies the Theresian method not only in its 3 steps format (1. Presence of God, 2. Meditation, 3. Colloquy), but on every paragraph you can see it.

On Authors own words:

> Teresian spirituality is the spirituality of divine intimacy, that is, it tries to nourish in souls the ideal of intimacy with God and it directs them toward this ideal, principally by means of mental prayer.   Mental prayer should be attuned, therefore, to this great and lofty aspiration. This is the "tone" we have tried to give our meditations, and the title, Divine Intimacy, indicates our intention to help souls as far as possible to attain this great end. [^1]

Although the *tone* of meditations are, many times suiting the consacreted souls, it is nevertheless recommended to all, including laity, as noted by Cardinal Angello Dell'Acqua:

> Priests, seminarians, contemplative souls, those dedicated to the apostolate, and finally the laity of every social class have meditated these pages and found encouragement and spiritual profit. [^2]

What is very notable in this book, is that, instead of proposing the soul to have horror of sin and fear of God, it offers a more positive view of love of God and admiration of virtue. 

This is not accidental, but it is the very goal of the author:

> Not all meditation books are adapted to souls thirsting for divine intimacy, simply because they are too much imbued with a spirit of fear. Not, indeed, that fear is not profitable for certain souls, but since there are so many books of this type, we judged it timely to publish a collection of meditations in which love would be united to filial, reverential fear, instead of servile fear, while not denying that this latter can be very salutary. This is also the reason we have by preference emphasized the positive topics of virtue and spiritual progress rather than the negative ones of vice and sin. [^3]

The book can be found online in the following links:

- [The Catacombs Forum](https://thecatacombs.org/showthread.php?tid=3012) [^4]
- [Arhicve.org](https://archive.org/details/divine-intimacy-meditations-o-gabriele-di-santa-maria-maddal-8407) [^5]

[^1]: Divine Intimacy, Tan Books, 1996, pp. 14
[^2]: Divine Intimacy, Tan Books, 1996, pp. 5
[^3]: Divine Intimacy, Tan Books, 1996, pp. 15
[^4]: We have sourced a few meditations from here
[^5]: We also have sourced a few meditations from here



Divine Intimacy - Meditations on the Interior Life for Every Day Of The Liturgical Year

Tuesday after Ascension`s Sunday

Mary's Apostolate

After the Bible the most widely read book, consisting in a collection of thoughts aiming on Christian perfection.

Imitation of Christ

The Imitation of Christ, is a Catholic devotional book written around 1420, with emphasis in the interior life and withdrawal from the mundanities of the world. It is considered the most read book in the Christianhood after the Bible.
 
Many Saints profited from its reading. 

Saint Francis de Sales, recommends this book for meditation in his Introduction to Devout Life (Filoteia), as well as Dom Chautard in "The Soul of All Apostolate". 

Saint Therese of Liseux tells us (in History of a Soul) that "for many years" this was the only book she was able to get spiritual progress. It is also known that Saint Thomas More and Saint Ignatius of Loyola read this book frequently.
 
It is definitely an excellent book for meditation.
 
In our site, we took the liberty to divide the chapters, one for each day in the calendar year. The book has only 114 chapters, so it get 3 cycles in the calendar year:
 
1. From January 1st to April 24th
2. From April 25th to August 16th
3. From August 27th to December 7th
4. A partial run from December 8th to December 31st
 
Sources:
- [New Advent - Catholic Enclyclopedia](https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07674c.htm)
- [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Imitation_of_Christ)
- Book Introduction to Devout Life by Saint Francis de Sales
- Book History of a Soul by Saint Therese of Liseux

Book 2 - Chapter V

Of self-esteem

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