Charity

54. The strength of the soul lies in its faculties passions, and desires ; if these be directed towards Goc by the will, and withdrawn from all that is not God, th< soul then keeps its strength for Him and loves Him witl all its might, as our Lord commands us.

55. Charity is like a fine robe of many colours which lends grace, beauty, and freshness, not only to the white garment of faith and the green vesture of hope but also to all the virtues ; for without charity no virtu* is pleasing in the sight of God.

56. The worth of love does not consist in high feel ings, but in detachment : in patience under all trial* for the sake of God Whom we love.

57. God has a greater esteem for the lowest degree of purity of conscience, than for the greatest work yoi: can do for Him.

58. To seek God in Himself is to be without ever} consolation for His sake ; an inclination to the choice of all that is most unpleasing, whether in the things oi God or in the things of the world ; this is to love God.

59. Do not imagine that God is pleased with manj good works, so much as with the doing of them with a good will, without self-seeking or human respect.

60. Herein a man may know whether he really loves God: is he satisfied with anything less than God?

61. As the hair which is frequently dressed is the cleaner, and is the more easily dressed upon all occa sions, so is it with the soul which frequently examines its thoughts, words, and works, doing all things for the love of God.

62. As the hair is to be dressed from the top of the head if it is to be thoroughly cleansed, so our good works must have their beginning in the highest love of God, if they are to be thoroughly pure and clean.

63. To restrain the tongue and the thoughts, and to set the affections regularly upon God, quickly sets the soul on fire in a divine way.

64. Study always to please God ; pray that His will may be accomplished in you ; love Him much, for it is His due. (See 311.)

65. All our goodness is a loan : God is the owner ; God worketh, and His work is God.

66. We gain more by the goods of God in one hour, than in our whole life by our own.

67. Our Lord has always manifested the treasures of His wisdom and His Spirit to men ; but now that wickedness manifests itself the more, He manifests them still more.

68. In one sense the purification of a soul from the contradictions of desire is a greater work of God than its creation out of nothing ; that nothing offered no resistance to His Majesty : not so the love of the creature.

69. That which God intends is to make us God by participation, He being God by nature : as the fire changes everything into fire.

70. At the close of life you will be examined as to your love : learn then to love God as He wishes to beloved, and give up all that is your own.

71. The soul that seeks God wholly, must give itself wholly to Him.

72. New and imperfect lovers are like new wine, easily spoiled until the scum of imperfections has been cleared away, and the fervour with the coarse satisfaction of sense has died out.

73. The passions rule over the soul and assail it in proportion to the weakness of the will in God, and to its dependence on creatures ; for then it rej oices so easily in things which do not deserve to be rejoiced in ; hopes for that which is of no profit, and grieves over that in which perhaps it ought to rejoice, and fears where there is nothing to be afraid of.

74. They provoke the divine Majesty to anger exceedingly, who, while seeking for spiritual food, are not content with God only, but will intermingle therewith carnal and earthly satisfactions.

75. He who loves any other thing together with God makes light of Him, because he puts into the balance with Him that which is at an infinite distance from Him.

76. As a sick man is too weak for work, so the soul that is weak in the love of God is also too weak for the practice of perfect virtue.

77. To seek self in God is to seek for comfort and refreshment from God ; that is contrary to the pure love of God.

78. To regard the gifts of God more than God Him self, is a great evil.

79. Many there are who seek their own pleasure and comfort in God, and gifts and graces from Him ; but they who seek to please Him and to give Him something at their own cost — setting their own pleasure aside — are very few.

80. Few spiritual persons — even among those who think themselves most advanced — attain to a perfect resolution in well-doing, for they never entirely lose themselves on some point or other connected with the world or self, despising appearances and the opinions of men, so as to make their good works perfect and in detachment from all things for the sake of Christ.

81. Self-will and self-satisfaction in the works they do so prevail among men, whether ordinary or more advanced Christians, that scarcely one is to be found who works simply for God without looking for some consolation or comfort or other advantage in his work. -.

82. Some souls call God their Bridegroom and Beloved ; but He is not really beloved by them, because their heart is not whole with Him.

83. What will it profit you if you give God one thing when He asks something else ? Consider what God wills, and do it, for so will you satisfy your heart better than by doing that to which you are inclined yourself.

84. To find all satisfaction in God you must be satisfied with Him only, for in heaven itself, if you did not bend your will to His will, you would never be satisfied ; so is it here, if your heart is set upon any thing else.

85. As aromatic spices exposed to the air gradually lose their fragrance and the strength of their perfume, so the soul, not recollected in the love of God alone, loses the heat and vigour of virtue.

86. He who seeks nothing but God walks not in darkness, however mean and poor he may be in his own estimation.

87. For a man to suffer for God is a sign that he has given himself up to Him, and that he loves Him.

88. He who in the midst of dryness and abandonment is painfully anxious about the service of God, and afraid that He does not serve Him, offers Him a sacrifice that pleaseth Him well.

89. When God is really loved^ He hears most readily the cry of the soul that loves Him.

90. The soul defends itself against its fleshly enemy by charity ; for where there is a real love of God neither the love of self nor the love of creatures can enter in.

91. The loving soul is meek, gentle, humble, and patient ; the soul that is hardened in self-love hardens itself still more. If Thou, O good Jesus, in Thy love dost not make the soul gentle, it will persist in its natural hardness.

92. The soul that loves is neither wearied nor wearies.

93. Behold the infinite wisdom and the hidden mysteries ; Oh ! the peace, the love, the silence of the divine bosom ; Oh ! the deep science God is teaching there ; it is that which we call anagogic acts — ejaculatory prayer — Oh ! how they set the heart on fire.

94. The perfect love of God cannot subsist without the knowledge of God and of self.

95. Perfect love naturally seeks nothing, and claims nothing, for itself, but all for the beloved ; if this be so with earthly love, how much more with the love of God?

96. The old friends of God scarcely ever fail Him, because they are raised above all occasions of failure.

97. True love accepts prosperity and adversity with an even spirit, that of joy and delight.

98. The soul that labours to divest itself of all that is not God for God's sake is immediately enlightened, and transformed, in God, in such a way that the soul seems to be God Himself, and to possess the things of God.

99. Satan fears a soul united with God, as he fears God Himself.

100. The soul, in the union of love, resists even the first impulses.

101. Purity of heart is nothing less than the love and grace of God. Hence our Lord says : Blessed are the pure in heart ; that is, those who love ; for blessedness is given to nothing less than love.

102. He who truly loves God is not ashamed before men of what he does for God ; neither does he hide his good works out of shame, though the whole world may condemn them.

103. He who truly loves God thinks it a great gain to lose all he has, and his own life, for God.

104. If the soul had but one glimpse of the beauty

/ of God, not only would it desire to die that it might see Him for ever, but it would joyfully undergo a thousand most bitter deaths to see Him again, if only for a moment.

105. He who acts out of the pure love of God, not only does not perform his actions to be seen of men, but does not do them even that God may know of them. Such an one, if he thought it possible that his good works might escape the eye of God, would still perform them with the same joy, and in the same pureness of love.

106. It is a great matter to be much exercised in love ; in order that the soul, made perfect and con summated therein, may not be long detained, either in this life or the next, from the vision of God.

107. A pure and perfect work, wrought for God in a pure heart, makes a perfect kingdom for its Lord.

108. To the pure in heart high things and low are profitable, and minister to their greater purity ; while to the impure, by reason of their impurity, both the one and the other are occasions of greater evil.

109. The pure in heart find in all things the know ledge of God, sweet, chaste, pure, spiritual, joyous and loving.