The nun sanctified by the virtues of her state
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| 4. St. Joseph Calasanctius used to say that she is a true religious who can say: My God, and my all; my God, you are my all. Remember, blessed sister, that when you were espoused to Jesus Christ, .you said: "The kingdom of the
418 THE TRUE world, and all ornaments of the earth, I have despised for the love of Jesus Christ; whom I have seen, whom I have loved, in whom I have believed, towards whom my heart inclined." I have renounced the world and all its pomp for the love of my spouse, whom I know to be the most amiable of all spouses, and therefore in him I have placed all my affections and all my hopes. And when other creatures seek to enter your heart, dismiss them, saying that you have given your heart to Jesus Christ, and that there is no room for them. It is divine love that makes a monastery the reverse of the world, in which all despise what the world esteems, and love what the world hates. 5. Above all, to love Jesus Christ with our whole heart, it is necessary to deny ourselves by embracing what is painful to self-love, and by abstaining from what self-love seeks. St. Teresa once refused to taste a dish which was brought to her in sickness. The infirmarian entreated her to eat it, saying that it was well dressed. The saint replied: "It is because it is well dressed that I do not wish to taste it." Hence, we ought to abstain from all things that are agreeable because they please us. Hence, we should turn away the eyes and not look at certain objects of curiosity, because they gratify the sight. Hence, we should abstain from such an amusement because we feel a predilection for it; we should serve an ungrateful sister because she is ungrateful; we should take such a medicine because it is bitter. Beware, says St. Francis de Sales, lest self-love should seek to have part in things the most holy, and should make it appear to us that nothing is good in which we do not feel satisfaction. Hence, the saint used to say that even virtues should be loved with detachment. For example, we ought to love mental prayer and solitude; but when obedience or charity takes us away from meditation or solitude, we must not be disturbed, but must embrace with peace whatever happens by the will of God, however repugnant it may be to our inclinations. The venerable Father Balthassar Alvarez used to say that our Lord often commands creatures to turn their back upon us, and abandon us, that we may run to him; but let us be careful to leave them and unite ourselves to God before they forsake us. 6. " The path of the just, as a shining light, goeth forwards, and increaseth even to perfect day" — Prov. iv. 18. The wise man says that the life of the just always increases to perfect day. But who arrives at this perfect day? He who, without inclining to anything until he knows the divine will, wishes, or wishes not, what God SPOUSE OF OHRIST. 419 wil.s or wills not. Hence, we should pray in the words of the same father Alvarez: "Lord, grant me the grace to find peace in whatever thy divine will shall appoint for me; for n>y part, I neither ask more delights or less afflictions." Oh ! how happy the life of the nun who lives detached from all things. Let us be persuaded that there is no one more content in this world than the man who despises all its goods, and wishes only for God. Hence, each of us should live on this earth as a wilderness, saying: Here there is no one but myself and God. And with this spirit of de- new every day the religious vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, intending to divest yourself of all attachment to property, to pleasure, and to self-will. Make this renovation of the vows in a few words, that you may make them more easily and more frequently. It is enough for you to say: My Jesus, for the love of thee I renew my vows, and purpose to observe them with exactness: I entreat thee to grant me the grace to be faithful to thee. 7. The third means of obtaining the perfect love cf Jesus Christ is to meditate frequently on his passion. St. Mary Magdalene de Pazzi used to say that after being made the spouse of a crucified God, a religious during her whole life, and in all her actions, should have nothing before her view but Jesus on the cross; and should have no other occupation than the contemplation of the -love which this divine spouse has borne her. Were a person to suffer for a friend insults, stripes, and imprisonment, how great the pleasure he would derive from hearing that his friend frequently remembered his sufferings. But if, when his sufferings are mentioned, the friend should endeavour to change the subject of conversation, and should refuse even to think of them, how great the pain which he would feel at such ingratitude. Such the pain given to the heart of Jesus bv the souls that think but little on the sorrows and ignominies which he suffered for the love of them. But, on the other hand, he is greatly pleased with all who continually remember and meditate on his passion. I say that the only object of all the meditations of a religious ought to be the passion of Jesus Christ: she should make at least one meditation on it every day. 8. To me it appears, as I have observed in another place, that it was to supply different mysteries for the meditations of his beloved spouse, that our Redeemer wished to suffer different species of pains and reproaches, chains, buffets, scourges, thorns, spittle, and nails; it was for this end that he wished to represent himself to us suffering in tachment, endeavour, O blessed 420 TRfi TRUE so many different ways: at one time sweating blood in the garden, at another, bound and captured by the soldiers; now clothed with a white garment, the badge of a fool; again, torn with scourges; now crowned with thorns as a king of sorrows and mockery, and again, going to death with a gibbet on his shoulders; at one time suspended by three nails on a cross, and at another, hanging dead on that bed of sorrow with his side opened. But remember that we should not meditate on the passion of Jesus Christ in order to enjoy spiritual consolations, but for the sole purpose of inflaming our souls with the love of our Redeemer, and of learning from him what he wishes us to do; offering ourselves to suffer every pain for his sake, because he voluntarily suffered so much for the love of us. Our Lord once revealed to a holy solitary that there is no exercise better calculated to kindle in us the divine love, than the meditation of his passion. 9. The fourth means to attain perfect love is to make frequent acts of love. As fire is kept alive by fuel, so love is nourished by acts. He who loves, in the first place, rejoices at the welfare and happiness of his beloved: that is called love of complacency. Rejoice, then, O blessed sister, in the infinite felicity of your God, and delight in it more than if it were your own; for you should love your spouse more than yourself, and your greatest joy should consist in the thought that your beloved wants nothing, and shall not for all eternity want anything necessary for infinite beatitude. Hence, you ought to feel consolation in knowing that so many millions of angels and saints love him perfectly in heaven. You should also rejoice whenever you hear that any soul on this earth loves Jesus Christ with a tender love. Secondly, he who loves desires to see his beloved loved by all: such love is called the love of benevolence, which you should practice by desiring to see Jesus Christ ardently loved by all men. Hence, you would do well to speak frequently to others of his love, in order to kindle it in the hearts of all those with whom you converse. You should, moreover, desire to see your spouse known to, and loved by all who neither know nor love him. And to you, the contempt with which he is treated by so many Christians should be the only source of pain. Would she be considered an affectionate spouse, who should behold with indifference an insult offered to, or a wound inflicted on her husband ? You should grieve still for the offences which you remember to have hitherto given your spouse; for these you should constantly make acts of contrition — this is called sorrowful love. SPOUSE OF CHRIST. 421 10. Thirdly, he who loves, prefers his beloved to all other objects, and this is the love of preference, with which God principally wishes us to love him. The first degree of this love consists in being prepared to lose all things rather than forfeit the grace of God. Does the Lord demand too much of us, when he requires that we prefer him to everything in this world ? And what are creatures compared with God? The emperor Domitian tempted St. Clement to worship idols, by presenting to him, as the reward of his impiety, gold, silver, and precious stones. The saint heaved a deep sigh, and began to weep, when he saw his God com. pared to earthly goods. We should be ashamed to say to God : Lord, I love thee above all things. For to speak in this manner to God, would be the same as if we said to the king: My Sovereign, I esteem you more than chaff and mire ! But our God is content with being loved by all creatures, which, compared with his Sovereign Majesty, are infinitely less than chaff or dung is in comparison of the first monarch of the universe. Father Vincent Caraffa, of the Society of Jesus, used to say, that were the whole world in his possession, he would surrender it in ah instant at the bare name of God. It is necessary, then, to live always in such a disposition of mind, that we would forfeit property, character, life, and all things sooner than lose God. We must say with St. Paul: " Neither death, nor life, nor height, nor depth, shall be able to separate us from God." The soul that feels she cannot live without God, possesses a great treasure; but the soul that aspires to his perfect love should not only be ready to die a thousand times rather than offend him by mortal sin, or even by a deliberate venial sin, but should also prefer the pleasure of God before all self-indulgence, and should be prepared to suffer every pain in order to please her Lord. Consider, O sister ! that Jesus Christ has preferred your salvation before his own life: in you, then, it is not much, nay, it is nothing, to prefer his pleasure to every personal good. 11. Fourthly, they who love, refuse not; on the contrary, they rejoice to suffer for their beloved, in order to give him proof of their love. It was thus that Jesus Christ has shown his love for us. He who desires to suffer for Jesus, desires, or at least embraces in peace the occasions of suffering. For loving souls, tribulations, as it were, plane the way to an union with God; for in suffering they unite themselves with him by stronger love. Father Balthassar Alvarez used to say, " that he who in afflictions peacefully resigns himself to the divine will runs to God." In a word, every event, whether it causes joy or sorrow, tends to unite 422 THE TRUE the soul that loves more closely to her God. " To them that love God all things work together unto good"' — Rom. viii. 28. It is certain that all his arrangements are intended for our good. Our Lord said one day to St. Gertrude: "With the same love which I created man, I ordain for his good all the prosperity or adversity which I send him." Be particularly careful, O blessed sister ! to unite yourself with God in the time of sickness. Infirmities prove the true lover. In sickness you must be obedient to the physician and to the infirmarian. Ask for nothing, and take the remedies prescribed, however nauseous and painful. Do not complain of anything; be meek and thankful to all. Resign yourself entirely to the will of God, and offer yourself to suffer whatsoever he sends, uniting yourself with Jesus on the cross, desiring not to descend from it, until it shall be his pleasure, content even to leave your life upon it, if such be his will. Fix your eyes on the crucifix, and when you see that your sufferings are far less than those which Jesus suffered for your sake, you will bear the pains of sickness with greater peace. " Love your spouse," says St. Francis de Sales, "in consolations and tribulations: he is as lovely when he consoles as when he afflicts you, because he does all for your welfare." If you love Jesus Christ, love contempt, love correction; and entreat the confessor and superior to correct and chastise you in the way which they deem most profitable to you. The same St. Francis de Sales used to say, that the monastery is like an hospital to which the sick come to be cured, in which they cheerfully submit to the nauseous medicines and painful operations which may be prescribed. Hence, you shall ask your spiritual physician not to exempt you from any remedy necessary for your recovery. 12. Fifthly, he who loves always remembers his beloved. Thus, the soul that loves God, always thinks of him, and always endeavours to show him her affection by inflamed sighs and ejaculations of love. This is called aspirative love. Endeavour frequently, by day and night, in the cell and out of the cell, in solitude and in company, to say frequently to your crucified spouse: My God, I wish for nothing but thee. My God, I give myself entirely to thee. I wish whatsoever thou wishest. Dispose of me as thou pleasest. It will be enough to say to him: "My God, I love thee; or, my God, my all." A loving sigh, an elevation of the heart, a look towards heaven, an affectionate glance at the crucifix, or at the most holy sacrament, will be sufficient, even without words. Such acts are, perhaps, the most useful, because they can be SPOUSE OF CHRIST. 428 made more easily and more frequently, and sometimes they are the most fervent. 13. In the Old Law, the Lord commanded that fire should burn unceasingly on his altar. "And the fire on the altar shall always burn" — Lev. vi. xii. St. Gregory says that these altars are our hearts, on which God commands that the fire of his divine love should always burn. " Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with thy whole heart. These words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thy heart and thou shalt meditate upon them sitting in thy house, and walking on thy journey, sleeping and rising. And thou shalt bind them as a sign on thy hand, and they shall be, and shall move before thy eyes. And thou shalt write them in the entry, and on the doors of thy house" — Loc. cit. v. 6. Mark the earnestness with which the Lord inculcates the precept of loving him. I wish, he says, that this command be always within your heart, that you meditate upon it continually, sitting in your house, walking on your journey, in bed and out of bed. I wish that you keep it printed on your hands, and present to your eyes: I wish that you write it on the entrance, and on all the doors of your house, in order to remember it always, and fulfil it by acts of love. Hence, theologians justly teach, that though it is probable that we are not bound to make acts of faith and hope more than once a year, still we are obliged to make an act of charity at least once a month; some say that we ought to make it more frequently. 14. Father Balthassar Alvarez used to call monasteries of religious, hospitals of persons wounded with divine love; furnaces of love, in which the hardest rocks are reduced to ashes. Such they ought to be; all men should burn continually with the love of Jesus Christ. But, alas ! few, very few, have this ardent love. I say, that if Jesus Christ could weep at present, and were capable ot sadness, his greatest sorrow would arise from seeing himself so little loved by his spouses. Do you, then, blessed sister, who have been made his spouse, love him ; love him at least through compassion, at the sight of your God who is so little loved, and particularly by religious. Tell me, were a mighty prince of noble birth, of immense wealth, of extraordinary beauty and holiness, to take for his spouse a poor, ignorant, deformed, ill-dressed peasant, and were he, by making her his spouse, to render her rich, noble, wise, and happy, what* would she not do for such a spouse ? How great the affection and respect which she would feel for him at the thought of his greatness and her own vileness ! She would 424 THE TRUE do nothing else than thank him continually for his good ness towards her. With what care would she labour to gratify his inclinations, and to please hiin in all things ? How careful would she be to execute, without reply, all his wishes ? And should it be necessary to suffer any pain for his sake, with what promptness and joy would she submit to it; how happy would she esteem herself in giving him such a proof of her affection and gratitude ? And should she see him despised by his subjects, would she not weep continually ? Were she, even through her own negligence, to offend him, how great would be her sorrow, and with what humility would she cast herself in tears at his feet, and ask pardon ? Should she be at a distance from her spouse, oh ! would she not count the hours and moments of her absence from him ? How great the happiness which she would feel in thinking of her former and present state ! Apply what has been said to yourself, O blessed sister ! Jesus Christ has made you, a miserable sinner, his own spouse. 15. Love, then, your spouse; but know that unless you love him with your whole heart, he will not be satisfied. Love him not only with affections of the heart, but love him also by works. Some, who are friends only in name, say to their friends: Friend, you are master of all I possess; but in effect give him little or nothing. But others, who are real friends, give to their friend the better part of their possessions, and offer him the rest. A soul that resolves to give her soul to God without reserve, divests herself of all earthly things to which she sees her soul attached; she resolves to subject all her inclinations to holy obedience; she resolves to mortify herself in all that gratifies self-love, to disregard self-esteem, and to embrace with joy derision and contempt. Oh ! with what security does such a resolution make her walk ! What confidence in God does it inspire; how prompt does it render the soul to bear crosses and contradictions ! It makes her perform all her actions with a pure intention; it impels her to pray to Jesus and Mary for help to execute her purposes, and make her firm and resolute in seeking in all things only what is pleasing to God. When difficulties occur, the same resolution animates her to say with courage: I have to please God, let pleasure be given to him, though death should be the consequence. Should she sometimes fall into a defect, the resolution she has made prevents dejection, inspires hope, and gives her courage to attend with greater care for the future to what she had before neglected. But this resolution must be frequently renewed in meditation, at com- SPOUSE OF CHRIST. 425 munion, in the visits to the blessed sacrament; and at rising in the morning it is particularly necessary to make the following protestation: My Jesus, I again give myself to thee, and I promise go endeavour to do always what I shall know to be most pleasing to thee. I unite this oblation of mine with the perfect unreserved oblation of thyself, which thou hadst made to thy Eternal Father. Give me strength to be faithful to thee. Thy passion is my hope; thy merits, thy promises, thy love, are my hope. O Mary, my mother, pray to Jesus for me; obtain for me holy perseverance and the love of thy Son. 16. If, blessed sister, you wish to acquire the great treasure of the love of God, I recommend you to ask it continually, saying: My Jesus, give me love; Mary, obtain for me the gift of divine love; my holy angel-guardian, my holy advocates, obtain for me the gift of love. It will be sufficient to say love; God will be always pleased with it, and will always infuse some new sentiment of devotion, will kindle some new flame, and will excite some holy desire in your heart. Our Lord is liberal in dispensing all his gifts, but particularly in granting the gift of love to them who ask it; for this love is what he demands of us above all things. But let us ask not so much a tender as a strong love, which will make us conquer all human respect, and all the repugnances of self-love, and render us prompt in doing, without delay or reserve, the things that are pleasing to God; and let us, therefore, accustom ourselves to seek what is most pleasing to God in all, even in small things; for we shall thus be prepared to do great things. And when you are molested with the apprehension of not having strength to overcome yourself in some extraordinary difficulty, trust in God, and say: "I can do all things in him who strengtheneth me." Say: What I am of myself unable to do, I shall be able to do with the aid which I expect from God. 17. St. Augustine says, that all the time which is not spent for God is lost time. At death we shall receive consolation only from having loved Jesus Christ. O God ! how great the consolation which they who have loved him shall enjoy in being able to say, with their eyes fixed on the crucifix: Jesus crucified has been my only love. Even in this life, what greater happiness can a soul enjoy than to say: I give pleasure to God; I am in the company of God. But we must give ourselves to God, not for our own gratification, but to please him, altogether forgetful of ourselves, saying with the spouse in the Canticles, " He brought me into the cellar of wine; he set in order charity in me; stay 426 THE TRUE me up with flowers, compass me about with apples; because I languish with love" — Cant. ii. 4, 5. By wine is signified holy charity; for as wine deprives men of their senses, so that they no longer see or hear, but are, as it were, dead; so the soul inflamed with divine love lives as if she no longer had any sense of earthly things, and forgetful of created objects, wishes for nothing but God; and, therefore, she asks the flowers of holy desires, and the fruits of holy works which support the spiritual life, that is divine love, with which, and for which, she lives. But this can be said only by the soul that truly gives herself entirely and without reserve to Jesus Christ. "What do you say, O blessed sister ? Have you, as yet, given yourself to him, as he desires you to do ? Do you still resist ? Has he not done enough to merit all your love ? Jesus Christ gave himself to you without reserve once on the cross, and frequently in the holy communion; what more do you expect from him ? What more can he do in order to make you belong entirely to himself ? Will you wait till he abandons you, and calls you no more, in punishment of your ingratitude ? Arise, then, instantly, resist no longer — say to him: — PRAYER. Yes, my Jesus, my spouse, behold me; I will no longer resist thy love. "My beloved to me, and I to him." Thou hast given thyself entirely to me, I give myself entirely to thee. I would deserve to be cast off in punishment of my ingratitude in resisting so many calls, but the desire which thou dost now inspire of being thine without reserve, makes me hope that thou dost accept me. Accept me, O my Jesus ! for the sake of the love with which thou lovedst me on the cross when thou didst die for me. My dear Lord, were I now in hell, which I have deserved, I could no longer love thee. But since thou givest me time to love thee I wish to love thee, and I wish to love nothing but thee. Ah ! my beloved Saviour, how is it possible for him who thinks on thee in the manger of Bethlehem, on the cross of Calvary, or in the sacrament of the altar, not to be enamoured of thee? Whom will I love when I see that a God has died for me? I love thee, O my Redeemer, my love, my all. Increase thy holy love in my heart. Remind me always of what thou hast done and suffered for me, and do not permit me to be ever more ungrateful to thee. O blessed flames of love which consumed the life of my Jesus on the altar of the cross, come and take possession of my whole heart, and destroy every affection to creatures. O my love, I give myself entirely to thee; SPOUSE OF CHRIST. 427 and if I know not how to give myself to thee as I ought, take me and make me all thine. Grant that I may speak of nothing but thy love, sigh for nothing else but to love thee and to give thee pleasure. My Jesus, I hope for all things through thy merits. I also trust in thee, O Mary, my hope, that thou wilt obtain for me the grace to love nothing henceforward but thy Son, my spouse, and thee, my mother. Amen. |