Part II, Chapter VII

Of the Conclusion and Spiritual Nosegay

Last of all, we must conclude our meditation by forming three acts, which must be done with the utmost humility. The first is to return thanks to God for the good affections and resolutions with which he has inspired us, and for his goodness and mercy, which we have discovered in the mystery of the meditation. The second is to offer our affections and resolutions to his goodness and mercy, in union with the death, the blood, and the virtues of his Divine Son. The third is to conjure God to communicate to us the graces and virtues of his Son, and to bless our affections and resolutions, that we may faithfully reduce them to practice. We then pray for the Church, our pastors, friends, and others, imploring for that end the intercession of the Blessed Virgin, and of the angels and saints; and, lastly, as I have already observed, we conclude by saying Our Father, and Hail Mary, which are the general and necessary prayers of all the faithful.

Besides all this, as I have already told you, you must gather a little nosegay of devotion. One who has been walking in a beautiful garden, departs not willingly without gathering a few flowers to smell during the remainder of the day; thus ought we, when our soul has been entertaining itself by meditating on some mystery, to select one, or two, or three of those points in which we have found most relish, and which are most proper for our advancement, to think frequently on them, and smell them as it were spiritually during the course of the day. This is to be done in the place in which we have been meditating, either remaining there in silence, or walking by ourselves for some time after.

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