Chapter XXII: The Love for Jesus

The Obligation of a Religious to Love Jesus Christ.

THE sole object of a religious in this life should be to love her most amiable Spouse, Jesus Christ. The first and principal command that the Lord imposes on us is to love him with our whole heart. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart.¹ Because he loves us intensely, he wishes to be loved ardently by us. Hence, he so pressingly demands our love, and calls for our heart: My son, give Me thy heart.² And what, says Moses, does the Lord demand of you, but that you love him with your whole heart. What doth the Lord thy God require of thee, but that . . . thou love Him, and serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart?³ To our love he promises himself as a reward. I am thy reward exceeding great.⁴ To their faithful subjects the monarchs of the earth give riches and honors; but to those that love him our God gives nothing less than himself. But though our love should receive no other reward, for us it should be enough to know that God loves those that love him. He frequently declares in the Scriptures that he loves all who love him. I love them that love Me.⁵ In another place he says: He that abideth in charity, abideth in God, and God in him.¹ And Jesus Christ has said: “He that loveth Me, shall be loved by My Father; and I will love him.²

All our perfection, then, consists in the love of God; for, as St. Augustine says, love is the only virtue that unites us to God.³ All other virtues, without charity, profit us nothing; but charity brings with it all virtues; for, as the Apostle teaches,⁴ it is patient, it is kind, it is not puffed up, it is not ambitious of honors, it seeks not its own interest, but suffers all things, believes all things, and hopes for all things. Love, says the same Apostle, is the fulfilment of the law.⁵ Hence, St. Augustine said, “Love, and do what you wish.”⁶ He that loves another is careful not to give him the least displeasure, and studies to do everything in his power to please him. Hence, also, the soul that loves God abhors as death the smallest offence against his divine majesty, and endeavors to the best of her ability to please him.

Let it be remembered that perfect charity consists in loving God for himself. To love God as the author of our felicity is the love of concupiscence, which, strictly speaking, belongs not to charity, but to hope; to love God because he deserves to be loved, because he is infinite goodness, is the love of friendship, or true charity. But it is necessary to observe that hope is in no way opposed, nor any obstacle to perfect charity. In admitting a state of charity that excluded all hope the Bishop of Cambray fell into an error which was condemned. We love God, because on account of his perfections he deserves to be loved, and we would love him though there were no reward for loving him; but since he wishes to give us a reward, and even commands us to hope for it, we are bound to hope for it and to desire it. Besides, to desire paradise in order to possess God, and to love him better, is true and perfect charity; for eternal glory is the consummation of love. There the soul, entirely forgetful of herself, and divested of all self-love, loves God with all her strength, and with a most pure love; it is thus that the saints in bliss happily lose themselves in God.

If we knew that in an earthly kingdom there was a prince, beautiful, holy, and learned, kind and merciful, surely he would win our affection, though he had conferred no favor upon us. But what are the amiable qualities of such a prince compared with the perfections of God? God possesses all perfections, and possesses them in an infinite degree. He has all the qualities that could render him amiable; he is infinite goodness, infinite beauty, infinite wisdom, and infinite mercy. Hence his goodness of itself merits all our love. In the lives of the Fathers of the desert it is related that in the desert there were two monks who were brothers; to one of them the devil said that the other was doomed to perdition: the simple monk believed the fiend, and was greatly afflicted. Being asked one day the cause of his affliction, he answered, that it was revealed to him that his brother was doomed to hell. The brother humbly answered: “If such be the will of the Lord, may it be forever blessed; but still I will love him to the utmost of my power in this life, for I love him neither through fear of hell, nor through the hope of heaven, but only because he deserves to be loved.” On the following night an angel appeared to the deluded monk and told him that his brother’s name was written among the number of the elect.

¹ “Diliges Dominum Deum tuum ex toto corde tuo.”—Deut. vi. 5.

² “Præbe, fili mi, cor tuum mihi.”—Prov. xxiii. 26.

³ “What does the Lord your God ask of you, except that . . . you love him and serve the Lord your God with your whole heart?”—Deut. x. 12.

⁴ “Ego protector tuus sum, et merces tua magna nimis.”—Gen. xv. 1.

⁵ “Ego diligentes me diligo.”—Prov. viii. 17.

¹ “Qui manet in charitate, in Deo manet, et Deus in eo.”—1 John, iv. 16.

² “Qui diligit me, diligetur a Patre meo, et ego diligam eum.”—John, xiv. 21.

³ “Charitas est virtus conjungens nos Deo.”

⁴ 1 Cor. xiii. 4.

⁵ “Plenitudo ergo legis est dilectio.”—Rom. xiii. 10.

⁶ “Ama, et fac quod vis.”

We should, therefore, love God because he deserves to be loved on account of his infinite perfections. We should love him, at least through gratitude for the love that he has borne us.

If the affections of all men, of all the angels, and of all the saints, were united together, they would not equal the smallest part of the love that God bears to a single soul. St. John Chrysostom says that God loves us more than we love ourselves. I, says God himself to each of us, have loved you from eternity, and through pure love have drawn you out of nothing, and have placed you in this world. I have loved thee with an everlasting love.¹ Our parents have been the first to love us in this world; but they have loved us only after they had known us; but God loved us before we had existence. Our fathers or mothers were not yet born, and God loved us; the world was not yet created, and God loved us; and how long before the creation of the world did he love us? Perhaps a thousand years, or a thousand ages? It is useless to multiply years and ages; for God loved us as long as he has been God; he has loved us as long as he has loved himself. Hence the holy virgin St. Agnes had reason to say, “I am prevented by another lover.”² When the world and creatures sought her love, she answered: No, I cannot love you; since my God has been the first to love me, it is but just that I consecrate my whole heart to him only.

Our God, then, has loved us as long as he has been God; and through pure love has drawn us out of nothing; and among so many possible beings that he could but will never create, he has chosen us, and has placed us in this world. For the love of us, he has also created so many other beautiful creatures—the heavens, the hills, the seas, the fountains, and all other creatures that are on this earth. But he was not content with giving us these creatures: his love was not satisfied till he gave us himself. He hath loved us and delivered Himself for us.¹ From the ruin caused by sin he took occasion to show his love; accursed sin had robbed us of the divine grace, had closed paradise against us, and made us the slaves of hell. The Lord could redeem us from these evils in many ways; but he chose to come in person on this earth, in order to become man, to redeem us from eternal death, and to obtain for us the divine friendship and heaven, which we had lost, exciting by such a prodigy of love, the astonishment of heaven and creation. How great the wonder which an earthly monarch would excite were he, through love for a slave, to become a slave, or for the sake of a worm, to become a worm? But our wonder should be infinitely greater at the sight of the Son of God humbled so as to become man, for the love of man: He emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, and in habit found as man:² at the sight of a God clothed with flesh: And the word was made flesh.³

But the wonder increases when we see all that this Son of God has done and suffered for the love of us miserable worms. To save us it was enough for him to have given a single drop of his blood, to have shed a tear, or to have offered a prayer; for a tear or prayer offered to the eternal Father, by a Man-God, for our salvation, would have been of infinite value, and therefore sufficient to save the world, and an infinite number of worlds. But no; Jesus Christ wished not only to save us, but through the immense love that he bore us, he wished to gain all our love. Hence, to make us understand the extent of his love, he chose a life of pain and ignominy, and a death the most cruel and shameful of all deaths. He humbled Himself, becoming obedient unto death, even to the death of the cross.¹

O God! had our Saviour not been God, but an equal and a friend, what more could he do than give his life for us? Greater love than this no man hath, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”² What do you say? Do you believe it? Can you then think of loving any other object than Jesus Christ? A certain author says that before the incarnation of the Word, man might be able to doubt whether God loved him with a tender love; but after the incarnation and death of Jesus Christ, how is it possible to doubt it? How could he show us greater tenderness of affection than by suffering so many torments, so many insults, and by dying on a cross? Alas! we have heard of the incarnation of the Redeemer, of a God born in a stable, of a God scourged, of a God crowned with thorns, and dying on a cross. O holy faith, enlighten us, and make us understand the excess of love which made our God become man, and die for the love of us!

But the desire that Jesus Christ had to suffer and die for us should be a subject of still greater astonishment. During his life our Saviour used to say: I have a baptism wherewith I am to be baptized: and how am I straitened until it be accomplished?³ I am to be baptized with the baptism of my own blood, not to wash myself, but to cleanse men from their sins; and how am I straitened until my desire be accomplished. O God! Jesus Christ is not loved by men, because they will not even think of the love that the amiable Redeemer has borne them. How is it possible for a soul that thinks on his love to live without loving him? The charity of Christ presseth us.¹ St. Paul says, that a soul that reflects on the love of Jesus Christ feels itself as it were constrained to love him. In meditating on the Passion of the Saviour, the saints were inflamed with love, and sometimes broke out into exclamations of wonder and tenderness. “We have seen,” exclaimed St. Laurence Justinian, “the author of wisdom become foolish through excess of love.”² We have seen a God, as it were, foolish through love for us. St. Mary Magdalene de Pazzi, being one day rapt in an ecstasy, took an image of Jesus crucified into her hands, and cried aloud that he was foolish through love. “Yes, my Jesus,” she continued to exclaim, “thou art foolish through love. I say, and I will always say, O my Jesus, that Thou art foolish through love.”

Had not faith assured us of this great mystery of redemption, who could ever believe that the Creator of the universe should voluntarily suffer and die for his own creatures. O God, if Jesus Christ had not died for us, who among men would dare to ask a God to become man, and save us by his death? Would it not have appeared folly even to think of it? And in reality when the Gentiles heard the apostles preaching the death of Jesus Christ, they regarded it as a fable, and as St. Paul attests, called it incredible folly. We preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews indeed a stumbling block, and unto the Gentiles foolishness.³ Yes, says St. Gregory, it appeared to them folly that the author of life should die for man.¹ How, said the Gentiles, can we believe that a God, who has need of no one, and is most happy in himself, should descend from heaven to earth, assume human flesh, and die for men, his miserable creatures? This would be to believe that a God had become foolish for the love of men. But it is a truth of faith that Jesus, the true son of God, for the love of us, his miserable and ungrateful creatures, has abandoned himself to torments, to ignominies, and to death. He hath loved us, and hath delivered himself for us.”²

And why has he done so? He has done so, says St. Augustine, that man might understand the immense love that God bears him.³ And long before Jesus himself said: I am come to cast fire on the earth, and what will I but that it be kindled?⁴ I have, he says, come on earth to kindle the holy fire of divine love, and I only desire to see the hearts of men burning with its blessed flames. In contemplating Jesus in the garden, captured as a criminal by the soldiers, St. Bernard, turning to his Lord, exclaimed, “My Jesus, what hast Thou to do with cords and chains?”⁵ These belong to us slaves and sinners; but Thou art the King of heaven, Thou art holy. And what has reduced Thee to the condition of a malefactor, the vilest and most wicked among men? “And what has effected all this? Love, which is regardless of dignity when there is question of gaining the affection of the beloved.”⁶ In a word, concludes the saint, God, whom no one can conquer, has been conquered by love; his love for man has made him take human flesh, and consume his divine life in a sea of sorrows and reproaches. “Love triumphs over God.”¹ In another place the same St. Bernard contemplates our Redeemer condemned to death by Pilate, and asks of Jesus Christ:² “Tell me, O my beloved Lord, who art innocence itself, what evil hast Thou done to merit the barbarous sentence of condemnation to the death of the cross?” But, adds the saint, I understand the cause of Thy death; the crime Thou hast committed is Thy love.³ Thy offence is the love Thou hast borne to men; it is this, and not Pilate, that condemns Thee to death, and makes Thee die. But, O Lord, exclaimed holy Job, what is man, that Thou shouldst magnify him? or why dost Thou set Thy heart upon him?⁴ My God, what is man whom Thou hast so highly honored? What benefit has he ever conferred upon Thee that Thy whole heart should, as it were, be occupied in seeking his welfare, and in endeavoring to make known to him the affection Thou dost bear him? St. Thomas says that God loved man “as if man were his God; as if without him he could not be happy;”⁵ as if God could not be happy unless man were also happy. And, dear sister, had you been the God of Jesus Christ, what more could he have done for you than spend so many years in pains and toils, and afterwards submit to a cruel death? Had Jesus Christ to save the life of his own Father, what more could he have done than he has done for you? But, O God, where is your gratitude? Had one of your servants suffered what your Spouse has endured for your salvation, could you ever forget his sufferings, or live without loving him? Ah! at the thoughts of the death of Jesus Christ each of us should be, as it were, foolish through love for him, and should exclaim with St. Paschal: “My love has been crucified for me: my love has died for me.”

But what we have not as yet done we may now do. God gives us time to do it. Jesus has died for us, that by his love for us he might gain the entire dominion of our hearts. To this end, says St. Paul, Christ died . . . that He might be the Lord both of the dead and of the living.¹ He has died that we might live no longer to ourselves, but only to that God who has given his life for us. Christ died for all, says the same Apostle, that they also who live may not now live to themselves, but unto Him who died for them.”² Contemplating the death of Jesus Christ, and the love with which he died for men, the saints esteemed it little to forfeit, for his sake, property, honors, and life. How many grandees, how many kings and queens and empresses, have renounced their kingdoms to shut themselves up in a cloister, and live only for the love of Jesus Christ! How many millions of martyrs have esteemed themselves happy to be able to sacrifice their lives for him amid the most horrible torments! How many young and noble virgins, renouncing the nuptials of the first monarchs of the earth, have gone with joy to death to make some return of love for the love of a God who had died for the love of them!

And do you, dear sister, think that you have as yet done anything for the love of Jesus Christ? What proof or token have you as yet given of the love that you bear him? It is certain that as he has died for the saints, for St. Lucy, for St. Agatha, for St. Agnes, so he has also died for you. Consider also the special graces that he has bestowed on you, and that he has withheld from so many of your companions who had as good a claim to them as you had. How many noble ladies, how many princesses, have been born among infidels and heretics, and live miserably in the state of perdition, bereft of the sacraments, of sermons, and of the other helps necessary for salvation? And to you he has given the grace to be born in the bosom of the true Church. He has also given wealth to your parents, that you might have more opportunities and means of acquiring eternal salvation. He has also chosen you for his spouse from among so many of your companions, whom he has left in the midst of the dangers of the world; from these dangers he has rescued you (and perhaps against your inclination), and has brought you into his own house, where he assists you continually by his lights and interior calls, by the sacraments, by sermons, by the example of your good sisters, and by so many other helps to salvation. Consider also ‘the many mercies he has shown you, in pardoning so many offences that you have committed in the world and in religion. It was enough for him that you repented and asked forgiveness: he instantly pardoned you; you ungratefully offended him again, and he with the same love pardoned you, and instead of inflicting chastisements on your multiplied offences, he has multiplied graces, lights, calls, and consolations. And behold, at this moment, while you read this book, he continues to call you to his love. What are your thoughts? what resolutions do you make? what do you wait for? perhaps you intend to wait till the Lord calls you no more, and abandons you. 10

¹ “In charitate perpetua dilexi te; ideo attraxi te.”—Jer. xxxi. 3.

² “Ab alio amatore præventa sum.”

¹ “Dilexit nos, et tradidit semetipsum pro nobis.”—Eph. v. 2.

² “Exinanivit semetipsum, formam servi accipiens . . . et habitu inventus ut homo.”—Phil. ii. 7.

³ “Et Verbum caro factum est.”—John, i. 14.

¹ “Humiliavit semetipsum, factus obediens usque ad mortem, mortem autem crucis.”—Phil. ii. 8.

² “Majorem hac dilectionem nemo habet, ut animam suam ponat quis pro amicis suis.”—John, xv. 13.

³ “Baptismo autem habeo baptizari; et quomodo coarctor, usquedum perficiatur?”—Luke, xii. 50.

¹ “Charitas enim Christi urget nos.”—2 Cor. v. 14.

² “Vidimus Sapientiam amoris nimietate infatuatam.”—Serm. de Nat. D.

³ “Nos autem prædicamus Christum crucifixum, Judæis quidem scandalum, Gentibus autem stultitiam.”—1 Cor. i. 23.

¹ “Stultum visum est, ut pro hominibus Auctor vitæ moreretur.”—In Evang. hom. 6.

² “Dilexit nos et tradidit semetipsum pro nobis.”—Eph. v. 2.

³ “Propterea Christus advenit, ut cognosceret homo quantum eum diligat Deus.”—De catech. rud. c. 4.

⁴ “Ignem veni mittere in terram; et quid volo nisi ut accendatur?”—Luke, xii. 49.

⁵ “Quid tibi et vinculis?”—De Pass. D. c. 4.

⁶ “Quis hoc fecit? Amor, dignitatis nescius.”

¹ “Triumphat de Deo amor.”—In Cant. s. 64.

² “Quid fecisti, innocentissime Salvator, quod sic condemnareris?”

³ “Peccatum tuum, amor tuus.”

⁴ “Quid est homo, quia magnificas eum, aut quid apponis erga eum cor tuum?”—Job, vii. 17.

⁵ “Quasi homo Dei Deus esset, et sine ipso beatus esse non posset.”—De Beatit. c. 7.

¹ “In hoc enim Christus mortuus est, . . . ut et mortuorum et vivorum dominetur.”—Rom. xiv. 9.

² “Christ died for all, so that those who live may now live no longer for themselves, but for him who died for them.”—2 Cor. v. 15.

Prayer. My dear Redeemer, I see that Thou hast placed me under too many obligations to love Thee. My soul has cost Thee too high a price; I should be ungrateful if I loved anything but Thee; or if I loved but little a God who has given his blood and his life for me. If Thou, O my Jesus and my Spouse, hast died for me, Thy miserable servant, it is but just that I die for Thee, my Lord and my God. I renounce the love of all creatures, and consecrate my heart only to the love of Thee. I choose Thee for my only Good, my only Love. I love Thee, O my love, I love Thee. I repeat, and wish always to repeat, I love Thee, O my love, I love Thee. Thou dost wish that I love Thee ardently, and that I love nothing but Thee. My Saviour, I wish to content Thee; I wish to love Thee ardently; I wish only for Thee: yes, to love Thee only, my God, my treasure, my all. Assist me for the sake of Thy mercy, and grant that I may fully satisfy Thee.

O Mary, my mother, do thou, too, assist me; thou art the dispenser of all the gifts of God, and particularly of the great gift of divine love. This gift I ask thee to obtain for me; through thee I hope for it.

The Means of Acquiring Divine Love, and the Acts of Love that a Religious should Practise towards Jesus Christ.

The Lord commands all men to love him, and to love him with their whole hearts.¹ But he wishes in a special manner that religious, his chosen spouses, should love him with all their affections. Hence he has favored them with so many lights and spiritual graces, that they may seek to love nothing but this most loving Spouse. St. Teresa used to say that God bestows a great favor on the souls he calls to his love. You, dear sister, are one of these fortunate souls; but to consecrate yourself entirely to the love of your Spouse, as he desires, you must resolutely adopt the means.

¹ “Diliges Dominum Deum tuum ex toto corde tuo.”—Deut. vi. 5.

I. The first means is, to desire ardently to attain that perfect love that will make your heart entirely belong to him. Ardent desires are the wings with which the saints flew to unite themselves with God by perfect love. If you have not this desire, at least ask it of God; for without it you will never be able to arrive at any degree of holiness, but with the aid of such desires you will soon attain sanctity. St. Teresa has left her spiritual children many excellent lessons on this subject. In one place she says: “Let our thoughts be great: from great thoughts our good shall come.”¹ In another place she writes: “We must not debase our desires, but must trust in God: for by continual efforts we shall, with the divine aid, gradually arrive at the perfection that the saints have attained.” She attests that she had never seen a cowardly soul make as much progress in many years as generous souls make in a few days. Hence she said: “The Lord is as much pleased with our desires as if they were already executed.” St. Gregory says² that he who pants after God with his whole heart finds him; but to wish for God with the whole heart, the soul must be stripped and emptied of worldly affections.

II. The second means necessary to love God with the whole heart is, detachment from all love that is not for God. He wishes to have the exclusive possession of our whole hearts; he will admit no companion. St. Augustine relates³ that the Roman Senate, after adoring thirty thousand gods, refused to adore the God of the Christians, saying that he was a proud God, who wished to be worshipped alone, without companions. But this our Lord justly claims; for he is the only and the true God; and our only true lover, who, because he loves us tenderly, wishes that we should love him with our whole hearts. To love God with the whole heart implies two things: it implies, first, the expulsion from the heart of every affection that is not for God.

The enamoured St. Francis de Sales said: “If I knew that there was a single fibre in my heart that was not for God, I would instantly pluck it out.”¹ If the heart is not emptied of earthly affections, the love of God cannot enter. But in a heart detached from creatures, the fire of divine love burns and always increases. St. Teresa used to say: “Detach the heart from creatures; seek God, and you shall find him.”² The Lord is good . . . to the soul that seeketh Him.³ He gives himself entirely to those that leave all things for his sake, as he once said to St. Teresa: “Now that you are all mine, I am all yours.”⁴ He says the same to you, if you divest yourself of all things in order to belong entirely to him. Father Segneri, the younger, wrote to a spiritual soul: “Divine love is a thief that robs the soul of all her affections, so that she can say: What else do I wish for than thee alone, O my Lord?” And St. Francis de Sales has said: “The pure love of God consumes all that is not God, in order to convert everything into itself; for all that is done for the love of God is love.”⁵ In the life of the Venerable Joseph Caracciolo, of the Order of Theatines, we read, that after the death of a brother, being in company with his relatives, he said: “Ah! let us reserve our tears for a better occasion; to weep over the death of Jesus Christ, who has been to us a father, a brother, and a Spouse, and has died for the love of us.” Every religious should reserve all her tenderness and compassion for Jesus, her Spouse.

¹ Life, ch. 13.

² In Evang. hom. 30.

³ De Cons. Ev. l. 1, c. 18.

¹ Spirit, ch. 9.

² Admonitions, 36.

³ “Bonus est Dominus . . . animæ quærenti illum.”—Lam. iii. 25.

⁴ Life, ch. 30.

⁵ Lettres, 531, 203.

St. Joseph Calasanctius used to say that she is a true religious who can say: “My God and my all;”? my God, Thou art my all. Remember, dear sister, that when you were espoused to Jesus Christ, you said: “The kingdom of the world and all ornaments of the earth I have despised for the love of Jesus Christ; whom I have seen, whom I have loved, in whom I have believed, towards whom my heart inclined.”¹ I have renounced the world and all its pomp for the love of my Spouse, whom I know to be the most amiable of all spouses, and therefore in him I have placed all my affections and all my hopes. And when creatures seek to enter your heart, dismiss them, saying that you have given your heart to Jesus Christ, and that there is no room for them. It is divine love that makes a monastery the reverse of the world in which all despise what the world esteems, and love what the world hates.

Above all, to love Jesus Christ with our whole heart it is necessary to deny ourselves by embracing what is painful to self-love, and by abstaining from what self-love seeks. St. Teresa once refused to taste a dish that was brought to her in sickness. The infirmarian entreated her to eat it, saying that it was well dressed. The saint replied: “It is because it is well dressed that I do not wish to taste it.”² Hence we ought to abstain from things that are agreeable because they please us. We should, therefore, turn away the eyes, and not look at certain objects of curiosity because they gratify the sight. We should also abstain from such an amusement because we feel a predilection for it; we should serve an ungrateful sister because she is ungrateful; we should take such a medicine because it is bitter. Beware, says St. Francis de Sales, lest self-love should seek to have part in things the most holy, and should make it appear to us that nothing is good in which we do not feel satisfaction. Hence the saint used to say that even virtues should be loved with detachment.¹ For example, we ought to love mental prayer and solitude; but when obedience or charity takes us away from meditation or solitude, we must not be disturbed, but must embrace with peace whatever happens by the will of God, however repugnant it may be to our own inclinations. The Venerable Father Balthasar Alvarez used to say that our Lord often commands creatures to turn their back upon us, and abandon us that we may run to him; but let us be careful to leave them and unite ourselves to God before they forsake us,

The path of the just, as a shining light, goeth forwards, and increaseth even to perfect day.”² The Wise Man says that the life of the just always increases to perfect day. But who arrives at this perfect day? He that, without inclining to anything until he knows the divine will, wishes, or wishes not, what God wills or wills not. Hence we should pray in the words of the same Father Alvarez: “Lord, grant me the grace to find peace in whatever thy divine will shall appoint for me; for my part, I ask neither more delights nor fewer afflictions.” Oh! how happy the life of the nun that lives detached from all things! Let us be persuaded that there is no one more content in this world than the man who despises all its goods, and wishes only for God. Hence each of us should live on this earth as in a wilderness, saying: Here there is no one but myself and God. And with this spirit of detachment endeavor, dear sister in the Lord, to renew every day the religious vows of poverty chastity, and obedience; intending to divest yourself of all attachment to property, to pleasure, and to self-will. Make this renewal of the vows in a few words, that you may make them more easily and more frequently. It is enough for you to say, My Jesus, for the love of Thee I renew my vows, and purpose to observe them with exactness; I entreat Thee to grant me the grace to be faithful to Thee.

III. The third means of obtaining the perfect love of Jesus Christ is to meditate frequently on his Passion. St. Mary Magdalene de Pazzi used to say that after being made the spouse of a crucified God, a religious, during her whole life, and in all her actions, should have nothing before her view but Jesus on the cross; and should have no other occupation than the contemplation of the love that this divine Spouse has borne her. Were a person to suffer for a friend insults, stripes, and imprisonment, how great the pleasure he would derive from hearing that his friend frequently remembered his sufferings! But if, when his sufferings are mentioned, the friend should endeavor to change the subject of conversation, and should refuse even to think of them, how great the pain that he would feel at such ingratitude! Such the pain given to the heart of Jesus by the souls that think but little on the sorrows and ignominies that he suffered for the love of them. But, on the other hand, he is greatly pleased with all those that continually remember and meditate on his Passion. I say that the only object of all the meditations of a religious ought to be the Passion of Jesus Christ; she should make at least one meditation on it every day.

To me it appears, as I have observed in another place, that it was to supply different mysteries for the meditations of his beloved spouses that our Redeemer wished to suffer different species of pains and reproaches, chains, buffets, scourges, thorns, spittle, and nails; it was for this end that he wished to represent himself to us suffering in so many different ways: at one time sweating blood in the garden, at another bound and captured by the soldiers, now. clothed with a white garment, the badge of a fool; again, torn with scourges, now crowned with thorns as a king of sorrows and mockery, and again going to death with the cross on his shoulders; at one time suspended by three nails on a cross, and at another hanging dead on that bed of sorrow with his side opened. But remember that we should not meditate on the Passion of Jesus Christ in order to enjoy spiritual consolations, but for the sole purpose of inflaming our souls with the love of our Redeemer, and of learning from him what he wishes us to do; offering ourselves to suffer every pain for his sake, because he voluntarily suffered so much for the love of us. Our Lord once revealed to a holy solitary that there is no exercise more apt to kindle in us the divine love than the meditation on his Passion.

IV. The fourth means to attain perfect love is to make frequent acts of love. As fire is kept alive by fuel, so love is nourished by acts. 1.

He that loves, in the first place, rejoices at the welfare and happiness of his beloved: this is called love of complacency. Rejoice, then, dear sister, in the infinite felicity of your God, and delight in it more than if it were your own; for you should love your Spouse more than yourself, and your greatest joy should consist in the thought that your beloved wants nothing, and will not for all eternity want anything necessary for infinite beatitude. Hence you ought to feel consolation in ‘knowing that so many millions of angels and saints love him perfectly in heaven. You should also rejoice whenever you hear that any soul on this earth loves Jesus Christ with a tender love. He that loves desires to see his beloved loved by all: such love is called the love of benevolence, which you should practise by desiring to see Jesus Christ ardently loved by all men. Hence you would do well to speak frequently to others of his love in order to kindle it in the hearts of all those with whom you converse. You should, moreover, desire to see your Spouse known and loved by all that neither know nor love him. And to you the contempt with which he is treated by so many Christians should be the only source of pain. Would she be considered an affectionate spouse who should behold with indifference an insult offered to her husband, or a wound inflicted on him? You should grieve still for the offences that you remember to have hitherto given your Spouse; for these you should constantly make acts of contrition—this is called sorrowful love. 3.

He that loves prefers his beloved to all other objects, and this is the love of preference with which God principally wishes us to love him. The first degree of this love consists in being prepared to lose all things rather than forfeit the grace of God. Does the Lord demand too much of us when he requires that we prefer him to everything in this world? And what are creatures compared with God? The Emperor Domitian tempted St. Clement to worship idols by presenting to him, as the reward of his impiety, gold, silver, and precious stones. The saint heaved a deep sigh, and began to weep when he saw his God compared with earthly goods. We should be ashamed to say to God, Lord, I love Thee above all things. For to speak in this manner to God would be the same as if we said to a king, My sovereign, I esteem you more than chaff and mire! But our God is content with being loved above all creatures, which, compared with his sovereign majesty, are infinitely less than chaff or mire is in comparison with the first monarch of the universe. Father Vincent Carafa, of the Society of Jesus, used to say that were the whole world in his possession he would surrender it in an instant at the bare name of God. It is necessary, then, to live always in such a disposition of mind that we would forfeit property, character, life, and all things sooner than lose God. We must say with St. Paul: Neither death nor life, nor height, nor depth, shall be able to separate us from our God.¹ He that feels he cannot live without God possesses a great treasure; but he that aspires to his perfect love should not only be ready to die a thousand times rather than offend him by mortal sin, or even by a deliberate venial sin, but should also prefer the pleasure of God before all self-indulgence, and should be prepared to suffer every pain in order to please his Lord. Consider, O sister! that Jesus Christ has preferred your salvation before his own life; in you, then, it is not much, nay, it is nothing, to prefer his pleasure to every personal good. 4.

They that love, refuse not, on the contrary, they rejoice, to suffer for their beloved, in order to give him proof of their love. It was thus that Jesus Christ has shown his love for us. He that desires to suffer for Jesus desires, or at least embraces in peace, the occasions of suffering. For loving souls, tribulations, as it were, are the way to union with God; for in sufferings they unite themselves with him by stronger love. Father Balthasar Alvarez used to say, “that he who in afflictions peacefully resigns himself to the divine will, runs to God.” In a word, every event, whether it causes joy or sorrow, tends to unite the soul that loves more closely to her God. To them that love God, all things work together unto good.”² It is certain that all his arrangements are intended for our good. Our Lord said one day to St. Gertrude: “With the same love with which I created man, I ordain for his good all the prosperity or adversity which I send him.”

¹ “Deus meus, et omnia.”

² “I have despised the kingdom of the world and every ornament of the age for the love of Jesus Christ, whom I have seen, whom I have loved, in whom I have believed, whom I have loved.”—Offic. S. Martyr. tantum, Resp. viii.

¹ Lettre 738.

² “Justorum autem semita, quasi lux splendens, procedit et crescit usque ad perfectum diem.”—Prov. iv. 18.

¹ Rom. viii. 38.

² “Diligentibus Deum omnia cooperantur in bonum.”—Rom. viii. 28.

Be particularly careful, dear sister, to unite yourself to God in the time of sickness. Infirmities prove the true lover. In sickness you must be obedient to the physician and to the infirmarian. Ask for nothing, and take the remedies prescribed, however nauseous and painful. Do not complain of anything; be meek and thankful to all. Resign yourself entirely to the will of God, and offer yourself to suffer whatsoever he sends, uniting yourself to Jesus on the cross, desiring not to descend from it so long as it is not his will, content even to leave your life upon it, if such be his will. Fix your eyes on the crucifix, and when you see that your sufferings are far less than those that Jesus suffered for your sake, you will bear the pains of sickness with greater peace. “Love your Spouse,” says St. Francis de Sales, “in consolations and tribulations: he is as lovely when he consoles as when he afflicts you, because he does all for your welfare.”¹ If you love Jesus Christ, love contempt, love correction; and entreat the confessor and Superior to correct and chastise you in the way that they deem most profitable to you. The same St. Francis de Sales used to say that the monastery is like a hospital, to which the sick come to be cured, and in which they cheerfully submit to the nauseous medicines and painful operations that may be prescribed.² Hence you should ask your spiritual physician not to exempt you from any remedy necessary for your recovery. 5.

He that loves, always remembers his beloved. Thus the soul that loves God always thinks of him, and always endeavors to show him its affection by ardent sighs and ejaculations of love. This is called the love of aspiration. Endeavor frequently, by day and night, in the cell and out of the cell, in solitude and in company, to say frequently to your crucified Spouse, My God, I wish for nothing but Thee. My God, I give myself entirely to Thee. I wish whatsoever Thou wishest. Dispose of me as Thou pleasest. It will be enough to say to him, My God, I love Thee: or, my God, my all. A loving sigh, an elevation of the heart, a look towards heaven, an affectionate glance at the crucifix, or at the most holy sacrament, will be sufficient, even without words. Such acts are, perhaps, the most useful, because they can be made more easily and more frequently, and sometimes they are the most fervent. [See Aspirations of love, page 220.]

In the Old Law, the Lord commanded that fire should burn unceasingly on his altar. And the fire on the altar shall always burn.¹ St. Gregory says² that these altars are our hearts, on which God commands that the fire of his divine love should always burn. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart. These words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thy heart, . . . and thou shalt meditate upon them sitting in thy house, and walking on thy journey, sleeping and rising. And thou shalt bind them as a sign on thy hand, and they shall be, and shall move before thy eyes. And thou shalt write them in the entry, and on the doors of thy house.³ Mark the earnestness with which the Lord inculcates the precept of loving him. I wish, he says, that this command be always within your heart, that you meditate upon it continually, sitting in your house, walking on your journey, in bed and out of bed. I wish that you keep it printed on your hands, and present to your eyes: I wish that you write it on the entrance, and on all the doors of your house, in order to remember it always, and fulfil it by acts of love. Hence theologians justly teach, that though it is probable that we are not bound to make acts of faith and hope more than once a year, still we are obliged to make an act of charity at least once a month; some say that we ought to make it more frequently.

Father Balthasar Alvarez used to call monasteries of religious hospitals of persons wounded with divine love; furnaces of love, in which the hardest rocks are reduced to ashes. Such they ought to be: all men should burn continually with the love of Jesus Christ. But alas! few, very few, have this ardent love. I say, that if Jesus Christ could weep at present, and were capable of sadness, his greatest sorrow would arise from seeing himself so little loved by his spouses. Do you, then, dear sister, who have been made his spouse, love him; love him at least through compassion, at the sight of your God who is so little loved, and particularly by religious. Tell me, were a mighty prince of noble birth, of immense wealth, of extraordinary beauty and holiness, to take for his spouse a poor, ignorant, deformed, ill-dressed peasant, and were he, by making her his spouse, to render her rich, noble, wise, and happy, what would she not do for such a spouse? How great the affection and respect that she would feel for him, at the thought of his greatness and her own vileness! She would do nothing else than thank him continually for his goodness towards her. With what care would she labor to gratify his inclinations, and to please him in all things? How careful would she be to execute, without reply, all his wishes? And should it be necessary to suffer any pain for his sake, with what promptness and joy would she submit to it; how happy would she esteem herself in giving him such a proof of her affection and gratitude? And should she see him despised by his subjects, would she not weep continually? Were she, even through her own negligence, to offend him, how great would be her sorrow, and with what humility would she cast herself in tears at his feet, and ask pardon? Should she be at a distance from her spouse, oh! would she not count the hours and moments of her absence from him? How great the happiness that she would feel in thinking of her former and present state. Apply what has been said to yourself, dear sister; Jesus Christ has made you, a miserable sinner, his own Spouse.

Love, then, your Spouse; but know that unless you love him with your whole heart, he will not be satisfied. Love him not only with affections of the heart, but love him also by works. Some that are friends only in name, say to their friends: Friend, you are master of all that I possess; but in effect they give him little or nothing. But others that are real friends, give to their friend the better part of their possessions, and offer him the rest. A religious soul that resolves to give herself to God without reserve, divests herself of all earthly things to which she sees her heart attached; she resolves to subject all her inclinations to holy obedience; she resolves to mortify herself in all that gratifies self-love, to disregard self-esteem, and to embrace with joy derision and contempt. Oh! with what security does such a resolution make her walk! What confidence in God does it inspire! how prompt does it render the soul to bear crosses and contradictions! It makes her perform all her actions with a pure intention; it impels her to pray to Jesus and Mary for help to execute her purposes, and makes her firm and resolute in seeking, in all things, only what is pleasing to God. When difficulties occur, the same resolution animates her to say with courage, I have to please God; let pleasure be given to him, though death should be the consequence. Should she sometimes fall into a defect, the resolution she has made prevents dejection, inspires hope, and gives her courage to attend with greater care, for the future, to what she had before neglected. But this resolution must be frequently renewed in meditation, at Communion, in the visits to the Blessed Sacrament; and at rising in the morning it is particularly necessary to make the following protestation: My Jesus, I again give myself to Thee, and I promise to endeavor to do always what I shall know to be most pleasing to Thee. I unite this oblation of mine to the perfect unreserved oblation of Thyself, which Thou hadst made to Thy Eternal Father. Give me strength to be faithful to Thee. Thy Passion is my hope; Thy merits, Thy promises, Thy love, are my hope. O Mary, my mother, pray to Jesus for me; obtain for me holy perseverance, and the love of Thy Son.

If, dear sister, you wish to acquire the great treasure of the love of God, I recommend you to ask it continually, saying: My Jesus, give me love; Mary, obtain for me the gift of divine love; my holy angel guardian, my holy advocates, obtain for me the gift of love. It will be sufficient to say, love: God will be always pleased with it, and will always infuse some new sentiment of devotion, will kindle some new flame, and will excite some holy desire in your heart. Our Lord is liberal in dispensing all his gifts, but particularly in granting the gift of love to those that ask it; for this love is what he demands of us above all things. But let us ask not so much for a tender as for a strong love, that will make us conquer all human respect, and all the repugnances of self-love, and render us prompt in doing, without delay or reserve, the things that are pleasing to God; and let us therefore accustom ourselves to seek what is most pleasing to God in all, even in small things; for we shall thus be prepared to do great things. And when you are molested with the apprehension of not having strength to overcome yourself in some extraordinary difficulty, trust in God, and say, I can do all things in him who strengtheneth me.¹ Say, What I am of myself unable to do, I shall be able to do with the aid that I expect from God. Read the summary of virtues [see page 213].

St. Augustine says that all the time that is not spent for God is lost time. At death, we shall receive consolation only from having loved Jesus Christ. O God! how great the consolation that they who have loved him shall enjoy in being able to say, with their eyes fixed on the crucifix: Jesus crucified has been my only love. Even in this life, what greater happiness can a soul enjoy than to say: I give pleasure to God: I am in the company of God. But we must give ourselves to God, not for our own gratification, but to please him, altogether forgetful of ourselves, saying with the spouse in the Canticles: He brought me into the cellar of wine: He set in order charity in me: stay me up with flowers, compass me about with apples: because I languish with love.¹ By wine, is signified holy charity; for as wine deprives men of their senses, so that they no longer see or hear, but are, as it were, dead; so the soul inflamed with divine love lives as if it no longer had any sense of earthly things, and, forgetful of created objects, wishes for nothing but God; and therefore it asks the flowers of holy desires, and the fruits of holy works, which support the spiritual life, that is, divine love, with which and for which it lives. But this can be said only by the soul that truly gives itself entirely and without reserve to Jesus Christ. What do you say, dear sister? Have you as yet given yourself to him, as he desires you to do? Do you still resist? Has he not done enough to merit all your love? Jesus Christ gave himself to you without reserve -once on the cross, and frequently in holy Communion; what more do you expect from him? What more can he do in order to make you belong entirely to himself? Will you wait till he abandons you, and calls you no more, in punishment of your ingratitude? Arise, then, instantly; resist no longer; say to him:

¹ Entret. 3.

² Spirit, ch. 23.

¹ “Ignis autem in altari semper ardebit.”—Lev. vi. 12.

² Mor. l. 25, c. 7.

³ “You shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart. And these words shall be . . . in your heart; . . . and you shall meditate upon them, sitting in your house and walking on the way, sleeping and rising; and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be and shall move before your eyes; and you shall write them on the threshold and on the doors of your house.”—Deut. vi. 5.

¹ “Omnia possum in eo qui me confortat.”—Phil. iv. 13.

¹ “He brought me into the wine cellar; he set charity in order in me. Support me with flowers; surround me with apples, because I languish with love.”—Cant. ii. 4, 5.

Prayer. Yes, my Jesus, my Spouse, behold me; I will no longer resist Thy love. My beloved to me, and I to Him.¹ Thou hast given Thyself entirely to me, I give myself entirely to Thee. I would deserve to be cast off in punishment of my ingratitude in resisting so many calls, but the desire that Thou dost now inspire, of being Thine without reserve, makes me hope that Thou dost accept me. Accept me, O my Jesus! for the sake of the love with which Thou didst love me on the cross, when Thou didst die for me. My dear Lord, were I now in hell, which I have deserved, I could no longer love Thee. But since Thou givest me time to love Thee, I wish to love Thee, and I wish to love nothing but Thee. Ah! my beloved Saviour, how is it possible for him that thinks of Thee in the manger of Bethlehem, on the cross of Calvary, or in the sacrament of the altar, not to be enamoured of Thee. Whom will I love when I see that a God has died for me? I love Thee, O my Redeemer, my love, my all. Increase Thy holy love in my heart. Remind me always of what Thou hast done, and suffered for me, and do not permit me to be ever more ungrateful to Thee. O blessed flames of love that consumed the life of my Jesus on the altar of the cross, come and take possession of my whole heart, and destroy every affection to creatures. O my love, I give myself entirely to Thee, and if I know not how to give myself to Thee as I ought, take me and make me all Thine. Grant that I may speak of nothing but Thy love, sigh for nothing else than to love Thee and to give Thee pleasure. My Jesus, I hope for all things through Thy merits.

I also trust in thee, O Mary, my hope, that thou wilt obtain for me the grace to love nothing henceforward but thy Son, my Spouse, and thee, my Mother.

¹ “Dilectus meus mihi, et ego illi.”