Thirty-third meditation. Detachment, and the conclusion of the retreat

First point.

Reflect what a favor God has bestowed upon you in this retreat, by giving you so many good inspirations and lights for your welfare. All should be directed to this one end, total self -detachment, so that you may hereafter be able to say truly and efficaciously: " Naked came I from the womb of my mother, and naked shall I return thither. The Lord gave [me life], the Lord hath taken [it] away. Blessed be His holy name! "

Second point.

Consider the happy condition in which perfect detachment from all things places the soul, namely, that she sighs only for her Jesus. It is the glory of the Sulamitess to be alone with her King. She exclaims: "My Beloved to me, and I to Him." Thus may we keep our affections so pure and so firmly fixed upon God, that nothing may attach itself to us, and we may attach ourselves to nothing whatsoever.

Third point.

Eeflect what an injury you do your soul, if you allow it to be attached to anything; for if Our Lord should find you in the amiable and holy detachment of the children of God, He will take you into His arms as He did St. Martial in order to bestow upon you the utmost perfection of His love. Blessed, therefore, are detached souls, for Our Lord will clothe them with Himself!

Affections.

Behold, O Lord! a poor, miserable, and insignificant creature before the throne of Thy divine mercy, conjuring Thy paternal goodness to accept these little, though at the same time great, renunciations. Take from me all that clings to my soul, O Lord. I except nothing, tear me from myself. Yes> self, I leave you forever, with no desire to take you back again, unless Our Lord expressly commands me to do so. O desires! O affections! O creatures! O all things! I divest myself entirely of you.

O most sweet Jesus! who didst come naked into the world, and who didst die naked upon the cross, what else hast Thou taught me except to live detached from all things and to sing unceasingly in desire and deed, " Live Jesus, destitute of Father and Mother on the cross! Live His most holy detachment! live Mary, deprived of her Son at the foot of the cross! Live her most holy renunciation! " Yes, Lord Jesus! may my heart remain entirely divested of all things, even of goods the most spiritual, that Thou mayst be simply and absolutely all things to it.

My soul, proceed henceforth like your divine Model on the path of this world, destitute of all things. From the moment that you find your heart desiring to attach itself to anything whatever, cast all at the feet of Jesus, and there renew the general and particular resolutions of your retreat, so that being clothed with Jesus Christ, you may live in newness of life. Amen.