Tenth Day
" We have been predestinated according to the purpose of Him Who worketh all things according to1 the counsel of His will, that we may be unto the praise of His glory."2 It is St. Paul who speaks thus — St. Paul, inspired by God Himself. How can we fulfil this great dream of the heart of our God, this immutable desire regarding our souls — in a word, how can we respond to our vocation and become a perfect " praise of the glory " of the most Blessed Trinity ? In heaven, every soul is a praise of the glory of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, because each soul is grafted unchangeably in pure love, and lives no longer its own life, but the life of God. Then, as St. Paul says, it knows Him as it is known by Him.
The "praise of glory" is a soul that dwells in God, with the pure, disinterested love which does not seek self in the sweetness of His love ; a soul that loves Him above all His gifts, and would have loved Him as much had it received nothing ; which wishes well to the object of its tenderness.\ But how can we wish well to God, except by accomplishing His will, since this will ordains all things for His greater glory ? Such a soul should surrender itself fully, blindly, to this will, so that it cannot possibly wish otherwise than as God wishes.
The " praise of glory " is a silent soul, a lyre beneath the touch of the Holy Spirit from which He can draw sweet harmonies. Knowing that suffering is a chord which emits still more exquisite tones, this soul rejoices at giving it forth, that it may impress the heart of its God more pleasingly.
The " praise of glory " is a soul that contemplates God in faith and in simplicity ; it reflects His whole being and is a fathomless abyss into which He can
SECOND RETREAT 3°3 flow and outpour Himself; it is a crystal through which He can shine and view His own perfections and splendour. A soul which thus permits the divine being to satisfy within it His craving to communicate all He is and has, is truly the "praise of glory " of all His gifts.
Finally, the "praise of glory" is one who is always giving thanks ; whose acts, movements, thoughts, aspirations, while more deeply establishing her in love, are like an echo of the eternal Sanctus in the heaven of glory. The blessed rest not day or night, saying, "Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty . . . and falling down, adore Him that liveth for ever and ever."3 The " praise of glory " begins now, within the heaven of her soul, the task that will be hers for all eternity. Her chant is uninterrupted ; she acts beneath the influence of the Holy Ghost, although she may sometimes be unconscious of it, for human weakness prevents souls keeping their attention fixed on God without distractions. She sings and adores perpetually, and has, so to speak, gone out from self and become absorbed in praise and love, in her passion for the glory of her
God.
Let us, in the heaven of our soul, be a homage of glory to the Blessed Trinity. One day the veil will be withdrawn, and we shall be brought into the eternal courts : there we shall sing in the bosom of infinite Love, and God will give us "the new name " promised to him that overcometh. What will that name be ? Laudem Gloria.
Footnotes
Chapter 10 of 10