Part V, Chapter II
Considerations on the Favor Which God Does Us in Calling Us to His Service, according to the Protestation Set Down Heretofore
Consider the points of your protestation. First, that you would forsake, cast away, detest, and renounce forever all moral sin; secondly, that you would dedicate and consecrate your soul, heart, and body, with all their faculties, to the love and service of God; thirdly, that, if you should chance to fail into any sin, you would immediately rise again by the help of God’s grace. Are not these just, noble, and generous resolutions? Consider well in thy soul, then, how holy and reasonable this protestation is, and how much to be desired.
2. Consider to whom you have made this protestation; for it is to God. If our word given to men bind us strictly, how much more when we have given it to God! “It is to thee, O Lord!” said David, “my heart hath spoken it, my heart hath uttered a good word. Oh, I will never forget it.” (Psalms 44)
3. Consider that you made this protestation in the presence of the whole court of heaven. Ah, yes! the Blessed Virgin, St. Joseph, your good angel, your holy patron, and all that blessed company, beheld you, and their hearts were filled with joy and exultation at your words; they saw, with the eyes of unspeakable love, your heart prostrate at the feet of your Saviour, consecrating itself to his service. As there was a particular joy on that occasion in the heavenly Jerusalem, so there will be now a commemoration of the same, if, with a sincere heart, you renew your resolutions.
4. Consider by what means you were induced to make your protestation. Ah! how good and gracious was God to you at that time! Oh, tell me sincerely, were you not invited to it by the sweet attractions of the Holy Ghost? Were not the cords, with which God drew your little boat to this blessed haven, composed of love and charity? How earnestly did he seek to allure you to it by the divine sweetness of the sacraments, spiritual reading, and prayer! Alas, dear Philothea! you were asleep, whilst God watched; he thought over your soul’s thoughts of peace, and meditated in your favor meditations of love.
5. Consider that God inspired you with these holy resolutions in the flower of your age. Ah! what a happiness it is to learn early that which we cannot know but too late! St. Austin, having been called at the age of thirty years, exclaimed, “O ancient beauty! whence is it that I have known thee so late? Alas! I saw thee before, but I considered thee not”; and you may well say, O ancient sweetness! why did I not relish thee before? Alas! you did not even then deserve it. However, acknowledging the special favor God has done you in attracting you to himself in your youth, say with David, “Thou hast taught me, O God, from my youth; and till now I will declare thy wonderful works.” (Psalms 70:17) But if this has happened in your old age, ah! Philothea, what an extraordinary grace, that, after having thus misspent all your former years, God should call you before your death, and stop the course of your misery at a time, in which, if it had continued, you must have been miserable for eternity!
Consider the effects of this vocation, and, comparing what you now are with what you have been, you will doubtless find in yourself a great change for the better. Do you not esteem it a happiness to know how to converse with God by prayer; to be inflamed with a desire of loving him; to have obtained a complete victory over the many passions with which you were troubled; to have avoided innumerable sins and perplexities of conscience; and, in fine, to have communicated so much oftener than you would have done, uniting yourself to that sovereign source of never-ending grace? Ah, how great are these favors! We must weigh them, Philothea, in the scales of the sanctuary; it is God’s right hand that had done all this. “The right hand of the Lord,” says David, “hath exalted me; I shall not die, but live, and shall declare with my heart, with my mouth, and by my actions, the wonderful works of the Lord.” (Psalms 117)
After all these considerations, which must doubtless furnish you with abundance of pious affections, conclude simply with an act of thanksgiving and fervent prayer, that you may make good use of them; retire with the most profound humility and the utmost confidence in God, deferring the making the effort of your resolutions till after the second point of this exercise.
About ReligiousBookshelf.com · A Supernerd Media project