Page:Spiritualcombat.djvu/196

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
OF PREPARATION FOR COMMUNION
181

are so great, that nothing greater can be conceived by the human mind.

Thirdly, God was not drawn to love us through any necessity or constraint, but His Own Intrinsic and Natural Goodness alone moved Him to love us with so great and so incomprehensible an affection.

Fourthly, no work of ours or merit could have preceded this love, so as to induce this mighty Lord to show such amazing love towards our baseness; but it must be owing to His free Bounty alone that He has given Himself wholly and entirely to us, His most unworthy creatures.

Fifthly, if you direct your thoughts to the purity of this love, you will see that it is not, like the world's love, mixed with any self-interest. For the Lord has no need of our goods, being, without us, in Himself Alone most Blessed and most Glorious; and He sheds forth His unspeakable Love and Beneficence upon us simply for our benefit, and not for His.

Consider well this truth, and you will say in your heart, "How is it that a God so Great sets His Heart on so vile a creature? What could be Thy design, O King of Glory? What dost Thou look for from me, who am but a little dust? I see well, O my God, by the light of Thy burning Charity, that Thou hast but one design, which reveals to me most plainly the