Meditations For Each Day (compact edition)

This third edition is published in a smaller trim size. For the sake of greater readability, we have retained the editorial changes introduced in the previous edition. Scripture citations have been incorporated into the body of the text; the lengthy Latin passage from St. Bernard of Clairvaux has been translated into English; and several editorial notes have been added to clarify points of doctrine that might otherwise prove confusing to the reader. We have also corrected errors that escaped our notice in the previous edition.

This book consists of a series of daily meditations written by the eminent Latinist Antonio Cardinal Bacci (1885-1971), who served for more than forty years as one of the Vatican's foremost Latinists. The English edition had been out of print since 1965.

In these meditations, Cardinal Bacci ranges widely over the principles of the Catholic spiritual life, drawing upon Sacred Scripture, the writings of the saints-with particular emphasis on St. Thomas Aquinas-the Church Fathers, numerous passages from Thomas à Kempis's The Imitation of Christ, and other masters of the spiritual life.

In writing these pages I have desired likewise to do a little good, first of all for myself and secondly for those who may wish to read and reflect upon them. I hoped to accomplish something for myself in that I wrote down these short daily meditations in order to be able to remember them more easily and to be able to turn to them whenever the opportunity should arise. Then, on the advice of enlightened friends, I decided to publish them in the hope that they might prove useful to others.

It was my intention to produce an edifying rather than an erudite work. This explains the simple style and the repetition of certain ideas. I have found it convenient to return to these ideas at regular intervals in order to impress them more deeply on the mind and heart of the reader.

May God and the Blessed Virgin bless my labour so that it may be the source of good for many souls.

Antonio Cardinal Bacci