|
Consider the Love with which our Dear Lord Jesus Christ bore so
much in this world, especially in the Garden of Olives and on
Mount Calvary; that Love bore you in mind, and through all those
pains and toils He obtained your good resolutions for you, as also
all that is needful to maintain, foster, strengthen and consummate
those resolutions.
How precious must the resolutions be which are the fruits of
our Lord's Passion! and how dear to my heart, since they were dear
to that of Jesus! Saviour of my soul, Thou didst die to win them
for me; grant me grace sooner to die than forget them.
Be sure, my daughter, that the Heart of our most Dear Lord
beheld you from the tree of the Cross and loved you, and by that
Love He won for you all good things which you were ever to have,
and amongst them your good resolutions.
Of a truth we have all reason like Jeremiah to confess that the
Lord knew us, and called us by our name or ever we were born, (1)
the more that His Divine Goodness in its Love and Mercy made ready
all things, general and individual, which could promote our
salvation, and among them our resolutions. A woman with child
makes ready for the babe she expects, prepares its cradle, its
swaddling clothes and its nurse; even so our Lord, while hanging
on His Cross, prepared all that you could need for your happiness,
all the means, the graces, the leadings, by which He leads your
soul onwards towards perfection.
Surely we ought ever to remember this, and ask fervently: Is it
possible that I was loved, and loved so tenderly by my Saviour,
that He should have thought of me individually, and in all these
details by which He has drawn me to Himself? With what love and
gratitude ought I to use all He has given me?
The Loving Heart of my God thought of my soul, loved it, and
prepared endless means to promote its salvation, even as though
there were no other soul on earth of which He thought; just as the
sun shines on each spot of earth as brightly as though it shone
nowhere else, but reserved all its brightness for that alone.
So Our Dear Lord thought and cared for every one of His
children as though none other existed. "Who loved me, and gave
Himself for me," (2) S. Paul says, as though he meant, "for me
alone, as if there were none but me He cared for."
Let this be graven in your soul, my child, the better to
cherish and foster your good resolutions, which are so precious to
the Heart of Jesus.
|