Page:MyPrayerBookHappinessInGoodness.djvu/56

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"God is charity. By this hath the charity of God appeared toward us, because God hath sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we may live by Him. ...

"My dearest, if God hath so loved us, we also ought to love one another. . . . Let us love God because God first hath loved us. And this commandment we have from God, that he, who loveth God, love also his brother " (i John iv).

"And this is charity, that we walk according to His commandments" (2 John vi).

"Before all things have a constant mutual charity among yourselves: for charity covereth a multitude of sins" (1 Peter iv. 8).

"Love is the fulfilling of the law" (Rom. xiii. 10).

"All the law and the prophets depend upon the law of love" (Matt. xxii. 40).

A rightly ordered love moves us to the observance of every law. A loving soul is most obedient to the law. Love is the spring of its actions. Its love impels it to obey. St. Augustine understood this so well, that he hesitated not to say: "Dilige et fac quod vis": "Love, and do what you will." — St. Augustine, Tract. vii, in Epis.

"The end of the commandment is charity from a pure heart, and a good conscience, and an unfeigned faith" (1 Tim. i. 5).

And this is the "game of love". "By how much the more a man dies to himself, by so much more he lives to God." — St. Catherine Sien., Dialogue on Perfection.

All good things, all great things, in the world, have been accomplished through self-denial and self-control.

St. Teresa says: "Love spurs us on to do great