Consecration Aids: 8: First Impressions!
Fr. Christopher Lee, SMM
S ome people tell me they can sleep soundly on trains. I never could. At times I am fortunate if I can sleep at all. That’s why I often wonder why they call Pullman sleeping cars.
Well, anyhow, I’ve learned that it sometimes pays not to be able to sleep on trains, even at such an unearthly hour as five-twenty-five in the morning. In my case it paid off, at least once.
It all started from a simple conversation I overheard one such morning as I lay wide awake amid the jostle and rumble of a Chicago-bound express train. I was deliberating as to whether I should say my morning prayer in bed or wait until I was up and dressed. The porter will be here any minute now, I thought, as I glanced at my watch for the umptieth time. It was five-twenty-five and I had asked the porter to awaken me at five-thirty. Our train was due in Chicago early and I wanted to get my prayers and meditation finished before we arrived.
Suddenly I heard two porters brushing past the curtains of my berth. They were both whispering, it is true, but loud enough for me to follow the drift of their conversation above the din and rattle of the train. Said one porter to the other: ”What’s the best way to wake ’em up, Sam? What’s the first thing you say to a Reverend, this early in the morning?” (Evidently he was referring to me! )
”I’ll tell you, Joe,” said the other, ”with my forty-five years of experience on Pullmans, I’ve never found a better way to awaken a man up than by just saying: ’Good morning! Time to get up!’ You see, it’s polite and it makes a good impression. And if you make a good impression that early in the morning, well, you’ve got your man! . . . You won’t have to worry about the tip because it’s going to be a fat one! . . . Get me?”
”Sure do, Sam . . . It’s the first impressions that count, eh? … Thanks for the tip-off, partner . . . Watch me make a good impression on this gentleman, Sam. In five minutes from now I’m going to greet him with the finest ‘Good morning’ he ever was greeted with in his life!” Both men were laughing heartily now as they unsuspectedly walked away and were soon out of ear-shot.
”It’s the first impressions that count.” Now that’s real clever, I thought, and as practical as any horn-rimmed psychological theory on ‘how to make friends’ ever propounded from the rostrums of our universities. What’s more, it’s so elementary that even a child can understand it.
As I lay there playing possum (for I didn’t want to miss this performance of servile courtesy toward me, for anything in the world!), I began thinking of my morning prayer again. This time I viewed it in the light of the ”first impressions” I wanted to make on God that day. The words of Old Sam, whispered though they had been, still resounded in my ears: ”If you make a good impression that early in the morning, well, you’ve got your man!”
Author: Fr. Christopher Lee, SMM
This is the eighth in a series of articles covering Consecration Aids.
Why shouldn’t I look upon my morning prayer as the ”first impression” (and perhaps the most important one) I want to make on God, today?
True, Sam and Joe were looking at this thing from a very interested view-point. They were out for a big fat tip and nothing else. But, wasn’t their reasoning sound, though? Isn’t it true a pleasant, cheerful ’Good morning’ can do wonders to a person? Isn’t it perfectly true, also, that the first impressions are usually lasting ones?
If this be true of our relations with our fellow travelers, in this vale of tears, I thought, why shouldn’t it be true also of our relations with God? Why shouldn’t I look upon my morning prayer as the ”first impression” (and perhaps the most important one) I want to make on God, today? Why shouldn’t I consider my morning prayer as a means of ”getting” my God, as Joe was told to ”get” his man?
As I mused over these things, I began to think of the beautiful morning prayer I, as a slave of Mary, had been taught to say each day. I refer to the LITTLE CROWN OF OUR LADY, composed by St. Louis de Montfort and familiar to Our Lady’s slaves of love. What manner of greeting, what prayer, I thought, could make a better ”impression” on God, this early in the morning, than to praise Him in and through His holy Mother?
Then I wondered how many slaves of Our Lady actually do recite the LITTLE CROWN every day. How often I had said it carelessly and with distractions. But, oh, this morning I’m going to recite it with fervor because now I realize as never before that it is a perfect ‘Good morning!’ to God because it praises Him through Mary.
Yes, I told myself, this morning I’m going to offer Mary her three CROWNS with more fervor than ever. Her CROWN OF EXCELLENCE, her CROWN OF POWER and her CROWN OF GOODNESS : three crowns each studded with four price-less gems. What a perfect way to greet my King each day, I thought. Isn’t this what the Church teaches me to do when, in the Hail Mary, she makes me first ”bless” Mary and through her the Fruit of her womb, Jesus?
Clever? I may be somewhat prejudiced in my own regard but I definitely believe that it’s more clever than Sam’s and Joe’s idea of courtesy. The reason? Well, my morning prayer is not a mere act of servile courtesy, it is the sincere greeting of a slave of love to His God and King!
I was suddenly awakened from my reverie by a familiar voice: ”Good morning! Time to get up! It’s five-thirty!” Of course it was Joe capitalizing on his soft, plush voice. ”Thank you!” I answered with deep sincerity. But I am sure that Joe never suspected all the gratitude that went into- that ‘Thank you’ for he had un-wittingly helped me to understand the importance of first impressions.
Editors Note: The Little Crown may be found in your copy of the Preparation for Total Consecration (gray book) and is also separately available from Montfort Publications
