to acknowledge the benefit, to praise God for it, and to offer to Him some service. [1]
POINT I.
First, I will ponder in my heart the manifold benefits that I have received in this holy sacrament; of which the prophet David made a brief catalogue by way of praise in the 102nd Psalm, and they may be reduced to six: —
i. The first is, to pardon me all my sins, not only confessed, but also the forgotten sins, and those which without my fault I could not have knowledge of.
ii. The second is to heal the spiritual " diseases " of my soul, as are vices and passions, dejections and fears, and other afflictions, putting a moderation in all, according to reason.
iii. The third is to " redeem " my" life from destruction" to which I was condemned by my sin, and from the most bitter death, which the privation of God's grace brings with it.
iv. The fourth is to crown me " with mercy " and the works of mercy, favouring me to gain the victory of temptations with which I have been and shall be assaulted; delivering me from other innumerable miseries, and offering me His aid that 1 may no more return to them.
v. The fifth is to satisfy my " desire with good things," giving me His grace and charity with the rest of the virtues, or new augmentation of them.
vi. The sixth is to renew my " youth like the eagle's?' unclothing me of the works and customs of " the old man," and clothing me with those of " the new man," and restoring unto me the first fervour of spirit, with new gladness of heart, to execute new works of virtue with great perfection. These benefits our Lord for His part grants to those that confess
- ↑ S. Th. 2, 2, q. cvii. art. 2.
