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Section 8 - God Reigns in a Pure Heart.
All the treasures of grace are the fruit of purity of heart and
perfect abandonment.
He, therefore, who wishes to enjoy an
abundance of all blessings had but one thing to do; to purify his
heart by detaching it from creatures, and to abandon himself
entirely to God.
In this purity and abandonment he will find all
that he desires. "May others, Lord, ask You for all sorts of
gifts, may they multiply their words and prayers; as for me, my
God, I only ask one single gift, I have only one prayer to
make - "give me a pure heart."
O pure heart! how happy you are; for
by the liveliness of your faith you see God as He is in Himself.
You see Him in all things and at every moment working within you
and around you. In all things you are His subject and His
instrument. He rules you and leads you. You have not to think
because He thinks for you. Whatever happens to you, or may happen
by His will, it is enough for Him that you will it also. He
understands your readiness. In your salutary blindness you try to
discover in yourself this desire, but you cannot see it,
nevertheless He sees it quite clearly.
How foolish you are! a
well-disposed heart is a heart in which God dwells. Seeing
therefore the good inclinations in this heart God well knows that
it will remain always submissive to His will; He knows also that
you are ignorant of what would be useful to you and therefore He
makes it His business to give you what is necessary.
It matters very little to Him whether you are thwarted or not. You
imagine you are going East, He makes you go West. You are about to
strike against a rock, He pushes the tiller and brings you into
port. Without either map or a compass, wind or tide, the voyages
you make are always fortunate. If you encounter pirates, an
unexpected puff of wind instantly wafts you beyond their reach.
O good will! O pure heart! Jesus well knew where to place you when
He ranked you among the Beatitudes. What greater happiness can
there be than to possess God, if He mutually possesses you? It is
a state full of charm and of joy, in which the soul reposes
peacefully in the bosom of divine Providence where it sports
innocently with the divine Wisdom, feeling no anxiety about the
journey which suffers no interruption, but in spite of rocks and
pirates and constant storms, ever continues as happy as possible.
O pure heart! O good will! the sole foundation of every spiritual
state, to you are granted the gifts of firm faith, holy hope,
perfect confidence and pure love, and by you are they made
profitable.
On your stem are grafted the flowers of the desert; in other
words, from you spring those priceless graces which blossom in
souls entirely detached, where God, as in an uninhabited dwelling,
takes up His abode to the exclusion of all else.
You are the
faithful source from whence flow those streams that water the
flower garden of the divine Spouse, and of His chosen one. Your
voice calls all the souls of men saying to them, "Look well at me;
it is I who impart fair love, that love which chooses the better
part and lays hold of it. It is I who give birth to that fear, so
gentle and efficacious, which produces a horror of evil, and makes
it easy to avoid; I, who bring to light those fine perceptions by
which are discovered the greatness of God and the value of virtue;
in fine it is from me that those ardent desires take their rise,
enkindled by holy hope.
It is I who cause virtue to be practised
in expectation of the promised reward - that divine Object of our
love, the possession of Whom will one day form the happiness of
faithful souls.
Invite them all to come to you to be enriched with
your inexhaustible treasures. All spiritual states and paths lead
back to you. It is from you that they derive all that is
beautiful, attractive, and charming, for all is drawn from your
depths. Those marvellous fruits of grace, and of every kind of
virtue that helps to nourish the soul, and that abounds on every
side, are produced by you. Milk and honey flow in your land. Your
breasts distil milk, and on your bosom is the bouquet of myrrh
from which, under the pressure of your fingers, the aromatic
liquid flows abundantly.
Let us go, then, let us run and fly to that ocean of love by which
we are attracted! What are we waiting for? Let us start at once,
let us lose ourselves in God, even in His heart, to become
inebriated with the wine of His charity. We shall find in His
heart the key of heavenly treasures. Let us begin at once our
journey to Heaven.
There is no passage that we cannot
discover, nothing is shut against us, neither the garden, nor the
cellar, nor the vineyard. If we desire to breathe the fresh
country air, we can go on our own feet and return when we please.
With this key of David we can enter and depart; it is the key of
science, and of that abyss in which are contained all the hidden
treasures of divine Wisdom. With this heavenly key we also open
the gates of mystical death with its sacred darkness. By it also
we descend into the deep pools and into the den of lions. By it
souls are thrust into those obscure prisons from whence they
emerge unscathed. By it we are introduced into that joyful place
where light and understanding have their dwelling, where the
Spouse takes the midday rest in the open air, and where He reveals
the secrets of His love to faithful souls.
O divine incommunicable secrets that no
mortal tongue can describe! Since every good thing that it is
possible to possess is given to those who love, let us love then,
in order to be enriched with them; for love produces sanctity with
all that accompanies it. It flows on every side, on the right hand
and on the left, into those hearts open to receive this divine
outpouring. O divine harvest for eternity! it is not possible to
praise you sufficiently. And why speak so much about you? How much
better to possess you in silence than to praise you with mere
words.
But what am I saying? You must be praised
but only because you take possession of us, for, from the moment
you enter into possession of a heart, then reading, writing,
speaking or silence are matters of complete indifference. One can
take or leave anything, live in solitude, or as an apostle; one is
well or ill, dull or eloquent, in fact anything that you will.
That which you dictate, your faithful echo, the heart, repeats to
all the faculties.
In that compound of matter and spirit, the
heart, which you regard as your kingdom, you reign supreme, and as
it has no other instincts than those which you inspire, all the
things that you present are equally agreeable. Those things that
nature, or the devil wish to substitute, cause nothing but disgust
and horror. If you allow it to be occasionally overcome, it is
only to make it wiser and more humble; but from the moment it
realises its mistake it returns to you with renewed love, and
clings to you with greater tenacity.
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