Page:ThePathToHeaven.djvu/566

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works, I devote to the adorable Heart of my divine Master, and of his most holy Mother, all that I am and all that I have, for time and for eternity. Amen.

Meditation on the Love of our Lord Jesus.

Oh, that we understood the love of our Lord Jesus towards us! So tenderly has he loved us, that if all the men, all the angels, and all the saints, were to unite with all their strength, they could not attain to the thousandth part of the love our Lord Jesus bears towards us. He loves us infinitely more than we love ourselves; he loves us to excess. For what greater love, than that God should die for us, his own creatures! He has loved us to the end. (St. John xiii. 1.) There has not been a moment from eternity in which God has not loved us, and thought of us, one by one. "I have loved thee with an everlasting love.” He afterwards became man for the love of us; and for our sake chose a life of suffering, and the cruel death of the cross. Hence, after sacrificing all to shew his love for us, he has loved us more than his own honour, repose, and life. Oh, excess of love, at which even the angels are astonished! Yet this is not enough; for, through his exceeding love, he is further pleased to stay with us in the blessed Sacrament of the altar; there he abides, motionless, and, as it were, senseless; he appears to do nothing but to love men. Love induces a desire of the constant presence of the object beloved. Hence our Lord Jesus is pleased to remain constantly with us in the blessed Sacrament. It seemed to him too little to stay with men three-and-thirty years on earth; hence he is pleased to tarry with them, in the blessed Sacrament, from age to age. It is true that while on earth he completed the work of redemption; why, then, should he continue to remain with us? Surely, it is to prove his exceeding love for us; he cannot endure to separate himself from us, for his “delights are with the sons of men.” (Prov. viii.) This love leads him to make himself the food of our souls, in order to unite himself with us, and make our hearts and his Heart one and the same. “He that eateth my