INTRODUCTION TO THE DEVOUT LIFE

PART V: 01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 | 08 | 09 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18

PART V, Chapter 2: Consideration On The Favour Which God Shows Us In Calling Us To His Service According To The Firm Resolution(1)

Reflect on the points of your First Resolution. First of all, you have forsaken, rejected, detested and renounced for ever all mortal sins. Secondly, you have dedicated and consecrated your soul, your heart, your body, and all your powers to the love and service of God. thirdly, if you happen to fall into any evil action, you will rise again at once with the help of God’s grace. Are not these beautiful, just, worthy and generous resolutions? Enter into your own self and consider how holy, reasonable and desirable this Firm Resolution is.
Consider to whom you made this Resolution: it was to God. if we are strictly bound by the reasonable promises we make to men, how much more by those which we have made to God. lord, said David, my heart said to you: my heart has uttered this good word: no never will I forget it (Ps. 26:8; 45:1; 119:16).
Think in whose presence you made your Resolution. It was made before the whole heavenly court. The Holy Virgin, St. Joseph, your Guardian Angel, St. Louis, the whole company of the blessed beheld you and approved your words with signs of joy. With eyes of unspeakable love they saw your heart prostrate at the feet of the Saviour consecrating itself to his service. There was a special joy over this in the heavenly Jerusalem. Now there will be a commemoration of it if you renew your resolutions with a good heart.
Realise by what means you made your Resolution. How loving and gracious God was to you at that time. But tell me truly, were you not drawn to it by the gentle attraction of the Holy Spirit? Were not the cords with which God drew your little boat to this safe harbour, cords of love and charity? (Hosea 11:4). How he attracted you by his divine sweetness: the Sacraments, reading and prayer! Dear Philothea, while you were asleep God was watching over you and thinking of your heart with thoughts of penance (Jer. 29:11) and considering you with thoughts of love.
Be aware when God drew you to these great resolutions. It was in the prime of your life. What happiness to know early what we cannot know but too late! St. Augustine converted at the age of thirty, cried out: “O Ancient Beauty, too late have I come to know you. Alas, I saw you, yet I did not think of you.[2]” You may say in your turn: “O ancient sweetness, why did I not taste you sooner?” Alas! You did not even desert it then. Acknowledge now the great favour God has shown you in drawing you in your youth. Say with David: “My God, you have enlightened me and touched me from my youth, and I will declare your mercy for ever (Ps. 71:17). If you have been drawn in your old age, Philothea, what a grace it is. After you had wasted the preceding years, God had called you before your death. He has stopped you on the path of misery. It was at a time when you would have been eternally unhappy, if you had continued in it.
Remember the effects of this call. I think that you will find in yourself a change for the better, comparing what you are and with what you were. It s indeed a blessing, to know how to speak with God in prayer, to have the desire to love him, to have brought calm and tranquillity to may of the passions which were disquieting you, to have avoided many sins and burdens to your conscience, and finally to have received Holy Communion so frequently, uniting yourself to the supreme source of eternal grace. How great are these favours! Weigh them, dear Philothea, with the exact weights of the sanctuary. The Powerful hand of God has done all this. David says: The loving hand of the Lord has brought strength, his right hand has exalted me I shall not die but live and declare with my heart, my mouth and by my works, the wonders of his goodness (Ps. 118:16-17).

Having made all these reflections which, as you see, provide you with many good movements of the will, you must conclude quite simply with a prayer of thanksgiving. Also make a prayer that is full of love to draw great profit from these considerations. Conclude with humility and a great confidence in God. The task of making resolutions is to be taken up after the second point of this exercise.

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[1] See Part I, Chapter 20

[2] Confessions, Book 10, Chapter 27.

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