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"These are the fruits and the works which I seek from
the soul, the proving, namely, of virtue in the time
of need.
"And yet some time ago, if you remember, when you
were desirous of doing great penance for My sake,
asking, 'What can I do to endure suffering for You,
oh Lord?' I replied to you, speaking in your mind, 'I
take delight in few words and many works.'
"I wished to show you that he who merely calls on me
with the sound of words, saying: 'Lord, Lord, I would
do something for You,' and he, who desires for My
sake to mortify his body with many penances, and not
his own will, did not give Me much pleasure; but that
I desired the manifold works of manly endurance with
patience, together with the other virtues, which I
have mentioned to you above, intrinsic to the soul,
all of which must be in activity in order to obtain
fruits worthy of grace.
"All other works, founded on any other principle than
this, I judge to be a mere calling with words,
because they are finite works, and I, who am
Infinite, seek infinite works, that is an infinite
perfection of love.
"I wish therefore that the works of penance, and of
other corporal exercises, should be observed merely
as means, and not as the fundamental affection of the
soul. For, if the principal affection of the soul
were placed in penance, I should receive a finite
thing like a word, which, when it has issued from the
mouth, is no more, unless it have issued with
affection of the soul, which conceives and brings
forth virtue in truth; that is, unless the finite
operation, which I have called a word, should be
joined with the affection or love, in which case it
would be grateful and pleasant to Me.
"And this is because such a work would not be alone,
but accompanied by true discretion, using corporal
works as means, and not as the principal foundation;
for it would not be becoming that that principal
foundation should be placed in penance only, or in
any exterior corporal act, such works being finite,
since they are done in finite time, and also because
it is often profitable that the creature omit them,
and even that she be made to do so.
"Wherefore, when the soul omits them through
necessity, being unable through various circumstances
to complete an action which she has begun, or, as may
frequently happen, through obedience at the order of
her director, it is well; since, if she continued
then to do them, she not only would receive no merit,
but would offend Me; thus you see that they are
merely finite. She ought, therefore, to adopt them as
a means, and not as an end. For, if she takes them as
an end she will be obliged, some time or other, to
leave them, and will then remain empty.
"This, My trumpeter, the glorious Paul, taught you
when he said in his epistle, that you should mortify
the body and destroy self-will, knowing, that is to
say, how to keep the rein on the body, macerating the
flesh whenever it should wish to combat the spirit,
but the will should be dead and annihilated in
everything, and subject to My will, and this slaying
of the will is that due which, as I told you, the
virtue of discretion renders to the soul, that is to
say, hatred and disgust of her own offenses and
sensuality, which are acquired by self-knowledge.
This is the knife which slays and cuts off all
self-love founded in self-will.
"These then are they who give Me not only words but
manifold works, and in these I take delight. And then
I said that I desired few words, and many actions; by
the use of the word 'many' I assign no particular
number to you, because the affection of the soul,
founded in love, which gives life to all the virtues
and good works, should increase infinitely, and yet I
do not, by this, exclude words, I merely said that I
wished few of them, showing you that every actual
operation, as such, was finite, and therefore I
called them of little account; but they please Me
when they are performed as the instruments of virtue,
and not as a principal end in themselves.
"However, no one should judge that he has greater
perfection, because he performs great penances, and
gives himself in excess to the slaying of his body,
than he who does less, inasmuch as neither virtue nor
merit consists therein; for otherwise he would be in
an evil case, who, from some legitimate reason, was
unable to do actual penance.
"Merit consists in the virtue of love alone, flavored
with the light of true discretion, without which the
soul is worth nothing. And this love should be
directed to Me endlessly, boundlessly, since I am the
Supreme and Eternal Truth. The soul can therefore
place neither laws nor limits to her love for Me; but
her love for her neighbor, on the contrary, is
ordered in certain conditions.
"The light of discretion (which proceeds from love,
as I have told you) gives to the neighbor a
conditioned love, one that, being ordered aright,
does not cause the injury of sin to self in order to
be useful to others, for, if one single sin were
committed to save the whole world from Hell, or to
obtain one great virtue, the motive would not be a
rightly ordered or discreet love, but rather
indiscreet, for it is not lawful to perform even one
act of great virtue and profit to others, by means of
the guilt of sin.
"Holy discretion ordains that the soul should direct
all her powers to My service with a manly zeal, and,
that she should love her neighbor with such devotion
that she would lay down a thousand times, if it were
possible, the life of her body for the salvation of
souls, enduring pains and torments so that her
neighbor may have the life of grace, and giving her
temporal substance for the profit and relief of his
body.
"This is the supreme office of discretion which
proceeds from charity. So you see how discreetly
every soul, who wishes for grace, should pay her
debts, that is, should love Me with an infinite love
and without measure, but her neighbor with measure,
with a restricted love, as I have said, not doing
herself the injury of sin in order to be useful to
others.
"This is St. Paul's counsel to you when he says that
charity ought to be concerned first with self,
otherwise it will never be of perfect utility to
others. Because, when perfection is not in the soul,
everything which the soul does for itself and for
others is imperfect. It would not, therefore, be just
that creatures, who are finite and created by Me,
should be saved through offense done to Me, who am
the Infinite Good. The more serious the fault is in
such a case, the less fruit will the action produce;
therefore, in no way should you ever incur the guilt
of sin.
"And this true love knows well, because she carries
with herself the light of holy discretion, that light
which dissipates all darkness, takes away ignorance,
and is the condiment of every instrument of virtue.
Holy discretion is a prudence which cannot be
cheated, a fortitude which cannot be beaten, a
perseverance from end to end, stretching from Heaven
to earth, that is, from knowledge of Me to knowledge
of self, and from love of Me to love of others. And
the soul escapes dangers by her true humility, and,
by her prudence, flies all the nets of the world and
its creatures, and, with unarmed hands, that is
through much endurance, discomfits the devil and the
flesh with this sweet and glorious light; knowing, by
it, her own fragility, she renders to her weakness
its due of hatred.
"Wherefore she has trampled on the world, and placed
it under the feet of her affection, despising it, and
holding it vile, and thus becoming lord of it,
holding it as folly. And the men of the world cannot
take her virtues from such a soul, but all their
persecutions increase her virtues and prove them,
which virtues have been at first conceived by the
virtue of love, as has been said, and then are proved
on her neighbor, and bring forth their fruit on him.
"Thus have I shown you, that, if virtue were not
visible and did not shine in the time of trial, it
would not have been truly conceived; for, I have
already told you, that perfect virtue cannot exist
and give fruit except by means of the neighbor, even
as a woman, who has conceived a child, if she do not
bring it forth, so that it may appear before the eyes
of men, deprives her husband of his fame of
paternity.
"It is the same with Me, who am the Spouse of the
soul, if she do not produce the child of virtue, in
the love of her neighbor, showing her child to him
who is in need, both in general and in particular, as
I have said to you before, so I declare now that, in
truth, she has not conceived virtue at all; and this
is also true of the vices, all of which are committed
by means of the neighbor."
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