I am in a moment the friend of God." Because whoever wishes, with a true and resolute desire for the friendship of God, instantly obtains it.
I say with a true and resolute desire, for little profit is derived from the fruitless desires of slothful souls, who always desire to be saints, but never advance a single step in the way of God. Of them Solomon says: The sluggard willelh and willeth not.[1] And again: Desires kill the slothful. The tepid religious desires perfection, but never resolves to adopt the means of its acquirement. Contemplating its advantages, she desires it; but reflecting on the fatigue necessary for its attainment, she desires it not. Thus "she willeth and willeth not." Her desires of sanctity are not efficacious; they have for their object means of salvation incompatible with her state. Oh! she exclaims, were I in the desert, all my time should be employed in prayer and in works of penance! were I in another convent, I would shut myself up in a cell to think only of God! if my health were good, I would practise continual mortifications. I would wish, I would wish, she cries, to do all this; and still the miserable soul does not fulfil the obligations of her state. She makes but little mental prayer, and is even absent from the common meditations; she neglects Communion; is seldom in the choir, and frequently at the grate and on the terrace; she practises but little patience or resignation in her infirmities; in a word, she daily commits wilful and deliberate faults, but never labors to correct them. What, then, will it profit her to desire what is inconsistent with the duties of her present state, while she violates strict obligations? Desires kill the slothful. Such useless desires expose the soul to great danger of everlasting perdition;
- ↑ Prov. xiii. 4.
