not," says St. Augustine; the soul that loves God only finds it neither irksome nor painful to suffer, to pray, to mortify itself, to humble itself, and to detach itself from the pleasures of earth. The more it works and suffers, the more it is eager to do and to suffer: Jealousy is hard as Hell; the lamps thereof are fire and flames. [Cant. 8:6] The flames, of Divine love are like the flames of Hell, which never say it is enough. Nothing whatever satisfies a soul that -loves God. As for Hell no fire is sufficient, so for the loving soul its ardor is never satisfied.
Let us ask this great gift through the intercession of Mary, by whose hands (as was revealed to St. Mary Magdalene of Pazzi) Divine love is bestowed upon souls. She is God's treasure, the treasurer of all graces (especially of Divine love), as she was called by the Idiota, "The treasure and the treasurer of graces."
Affections and Prayers
My sovereign God and Redeemer, I was lost; Thou hast ransomed me from Hell, But, unhappy me! I have often afterwards lost myself anew, and Thou hast as often released me from eternal death: "I am Thine, save me." [Ps. 118:94] Since, as I hope, I am now Thine, suffer me never more to cast myself away by rebelling against Thee. I am resolved to suffer death, and a thousand deaths, rather than see myself ever again Thy enemy and the slave of the devil. But Thou knowest my weakness. Thou knowest my past treacheries. Thou must give me strength to resist the assaults which Hell will make upon me. I know that I shall be assisted by Thee in temptation whenever I shall have recourse to Thee, since I have Thy promise for it: Ask, and you shall receive. [John 16:24] Everyone that asketh receiveth. [Matt. 7:8] But
