146. You give me the impression you are carrying you heart in your hands, as if you were offering goods for sale. Who wants it? If it doesn't appeal to anyone, you'll decide to give it to God.
Do you think that is now the saints acted?
147 Creature for you? Creatures for God. If for you, let them be yours for his sake.
148 Why stoop to drink from the puddles of worldly consolation if you can satisfy your thirst with waters that spring up into life everlasting?
149. Detach yourself from creatures until you are stripped of them. for the devil, says Pope St. gregory, has nothing of his own in this world, and he goes into battle naked. If you are "clothed" when you fight with him, you'll soon be pulled to the ground, because he will have something to grab on to.
150. It's as if your angel were saying to you, " You have your heart so full of human attachment."... is that what you want your guardian angel to watch over?
151. detachment. How hard it is! How i wish that I were fastened only by three nails and had no more feeling in my flesh than the cross!
152. Don't you sense that more peace and more union await you when you have corresponded to that extraordinary grace that requires complete detachment?
Struggle for him to please him, but strengthen you home.
153. go, generously, and like a child ask him, "What are you going to give me when you ask "this' of me?"
154. You're afraid of becoming distant and cold with everyone - you want so much to be detached!
Get rid of that fear. If you belong to Christ - completely to Christ - He will give you fire, light and warmth for all men.
155. Jesus is never satisfied "sharing". He wants all.
156. You don't wnat to submit yourself to the will of God...and instead you adapt yourself to the will of anybody and everybody.
157. Don't twist things around! if God gives himself to you, why are you so attached to creatures?
158. Now it's tears! It hurts, doesn't it? Of course, man! That's what it was meant to do.
159. Your heart weakens and you reach out for something on earth to support you. Good, but take care that what you grasp to stop you from falling doesn't become a dead weight that will drag you down, a chain that will enslave you.
160. Tell me, tell me: This....is it friendship or a chain?
161. YOu squander your tenderness. And I tell you: "Charity toward neighbor, yes: always." But listen closely, apostolic soul: that feeling which our Lord himself has placed in your heart is Christ's and Christ's alone.
Besides, when you opened one of the locks of your heart - which needs at least seven locks- isn't it true that more than once a cloud of doubt remained over your soul and you asked yourself, worried in spite of the purity of your intentions, "Haven't i gone too far in my outward show of affection?"
162. Put your heart aside. Duty comes first. But, when fulfilling your duty, put your heart into it. It helps.
163. "If your right eye scandalizes you, pluck it out an cast it from you1" poor heart....that's what scandalizes you!
Grasp it, hold it tight in your hands - and don't give it any consolation. And, when it asks for consolation, full of noble compassion say to it slowly, as if confiding "Me heart...heart on the cross, heart on the cross!"
164. How goes your heart?...Don't be worries. The saints who were perfectly ordinary, normal beings like you and me also felt those natural inclinations. And if they had not felt them, their supernatural reaction of keeping their heart - body and soul - for GOd, instead of giving it to creatures, would have had little merit.
That's why, once the way has been seen, the weakness of the heart should be no obstacle for a soul filled with determination and completely in love.
165. You, who for an earthly love have endured so many degredations, do you really believe that you love Christ when you are not willing to suffer-for HIm! that humiliation?
166. YOu write me: "Father, I have... a 'toothache' in my heart". I won't laugh, because I realize that you need a good dentist to make a few extractions.
If only you'd let him....
167. "Oh, if only I had broken it off at the start!" you said to me. May you never have to repeat that belated exclamation.
168. "It made me laugh to hear you speak of the 'account' our Lord will demand of you. No, for you he will not be a judge - in the harsh sense of the word. He will simple be Jesus." These words, written by a holy bishop, have consoled more than one trouble heart and could very well console yours.
169. Suffering overwhelms you because you take it like a coward. Meet it bravely, with a Christian spirit, and you will esteem it like a treasure.
170. HOw clear the way! How obvious the obstacles! What good weapons to overcome them! and yet, how many times you go astray and how many times you stumble! isn't it true?
That fine thread - a chain, a chain forged of iron - which you and I know about and which you don't want to break: that is what draws you from the way and makes you stumble and even fall.
What are you waiting for? Cut it...and advance.
171. Love...is well worth any love!
No comments:
Post a Comment