Twenty-sixth point. His love of god

Her answer on the twenty-sixth point was :

I have already said that I saw plainly, by the words and actions of our Blessed Founder, that his love for God held a sovereign authority and dominion over all his passions and affections. I believe, from what I have observed, that what ever may have been the failings of our Blessed Founder, they proceeded only from mere human frailty, or being taken suddenly by surprise. I believe, moreover, that his life was spent in the most exact observance of the divine commands of God, and in the keeping of the Evangelical Counsels and Maxims, as far as his condition and human weakness would permit. I think it is well known that all the actions of his life were go Saint Sane jF+ tie (ftfjantal's depositions the outcome and the token of that divine love which dominated his soul so powerfully. Our Blessed Founder composed an admirable treatise in twelve books on this subject, and in it I notice how simply and unconsciously he draws his own portrait.

On one occasion, speaking to a person whom he loved as himself, of that supreme love which he bore towards God, he said to him : " If God were to command me to offer you up in sacrifice, as he commanded Abraham to sacrifice Isaac his son, I would do it." And indeed by his actions he showed that he would have made this sacrifice to the Divine Will, with unexampled courage and love.

This love of God made him undertake in numerable labours to bring about the conversion of heretics for the divine glory, in which labours his life, as has been said, was often exposed to very great dangers. So many souls guided by him along the way of perfection, so many thousands of sermons preached by him in various places, all his toils in reforming monasteries and establishing the Order which he himself absolutely instituted, finally his entire devotion of himself to each and all that he might win them for Our Lord — all these things are truths which render an ample testimony to the most pure and perfect love of our Blessed Founder for God.

Once he wrote to me as follows : " This morn ing I have been thinking of nothing else but of that eternity of happiness which awaits us in

Point heaven; a happiness, however, which would be little or nothing, were it not for the unchanging, everpresent love of the great God, Who reigns there always. For truly I believe that paradise would be worth purchasing at the cost of all the pains of hell, if the love of God could be there; and if hell were a fire burning with the love of God, it seems to me that these torments would be desirable. All the delights of heaven are in my sight as nothing compared to this supreme love. Ah ! we must now at once, without delay, lift up our hearts to our immortal King, and live for Him alone. If you did but know how He deals with my heart, you would thank Him for His goodness, and entreat Him to give me the spirit of counsel and of strength, so that I may rightly fulfil those inspirations of wisdom and under standing which He bestows on me."

On another occasion he wrote as follows : " I end this year desiring not only greatly but passionately, with a longing which is almost pain, to advance more and more, and from this very moment, in that holy love which is always so dear to me. May God reign eternally over my heart ! I tell you that my heart is made for that only."

Again : " What lofty, ardent, eager longings I feel within me ! " he cries; " longings always strengthened by this divine love ! and indeed I speak the truth when I declare that this love so rules my heart that, notwithstanding its weak nesses, it is wholly dedicated to the Divine

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Majesty, and cares for nothing but His glory. Indeed we belong to God alone, and have no other ambition than to be His. If there were within me one single fibre that did not cling to Him in affection and did not come from Him, I would instantly tear it out. Yes, if there were one solitary spot in my heart unmarked by the Crucifix, I would have none of it."

Another time our Blessed Founder said : " Let me love God or die. Either let my heart be torn from me, or let it be filled with nothing but the love of God. Ah ! why are we not indeed full of it to overflowing ? You cannot imagine how fervently I desire this at the present moment. Oh my God ! why should we live through the coming year unless that we may love Thy Goodness better ? Let it take us out of this world, or else take this world away from us. Either let it bring us to our death, or else make us love His death better than our own life."

Our Blessed Founder's ordinary confessor told me — and I am myself convinced of the fact — that our dear Father never did anything for the sake of escaping hell, or of deserving heaven; but that he performed all his actions simply and solely for the love of God, Whom he feared because he loved Him, and whom he loved because He is so worthy of being loved and for the love of Himself. Therefore he said that the sovereign law of his heart was the highest glory of the love of God.

Shortly before his death he wrote to me thus :

" I can now say nothing about my soul except that more and more it is consumed with an ardent longing to esteem all things worthless save only the love of our crucified Lord."

Our Blessed Founder had a most tender love for the Passion of Our Saviour, and his heart was so penetrated with and steeped in the sweetness of this agony that he often cried aloud : " 0 Love, how sorrowful thou art ! 0 sorrow, how loving thou art ! "

I have seen him so much overcome by this emotion that he could scarcely speak or restrain his tears. " May the day of the sacred Passion of our Master," he would exclaim, " be ever the day dearest to our hearts ! "

Again : " Oh ! " he cried, " what consolation the thought of the death and burial of Our Saviour has brought to my mind ! Oh my God ! if this Saviour has done so much for us, what shall not we do for Him ! If He has poured forth His life for us, why should we not bring our own lives into entire subjection to His most pure service and love ? "

Our Blessed Founder gave these and innume rable other proofs of that divine love with which his heart burned and was consumed, and all these things were either told to me in his instruc tions, or I have seen and read them in his own handwriting.

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