1883. Again, another year has passed into eternity! In like manner others will pass by, days follow each other until the one that puts an end to the short days of life on earth, and then begins the long life of eternity. Use every minute well, as each one of them is an opportunity to merit Heaven and escape Purgatory. Every action performed in the presence of Jesus merits an extra degree of glory in Heaven and a greater love for Him. Your actions thus performed forge a chain of love that unites the soul closer and closer to its Beloved. When the last link has been completed, Jesus breaks the feeble bonds that keep the soul, now full of merit, in the body, and it becomes united with Him for all eternity. Thus you understand how a life spent in the gradual absorption of the soul with Christ can really be a happy one. If in a few minutes, the soul can be elevated in ecstatic union with Jesus and forget all its past sufferings, what must a union of eternity be like? Oh, if you could only know! If you could understand it! You, to whom Jesus has given every possible means of attaining it, would work at your perfection without ceasing. Oh, if we here had only five minutes of the time that you waste thinking about yourself and wondering if what I say to you is true or false, what we, in turn, would do for Him for whom we yearn so ardently! It is the devil who blinds you sometimes and makes you disregard what I say. He knows well what the result would be. Avoid his tricks, throw yourself wholeheartedly into the work of your sanctification and let this year be the beginning of that perfect life that Jesus has been expecting from you all this while. Right at the beginning of this year, take as your practice not to say one useless word, do not express your opinion unless obliged to do so, speak little and do not raise your eyes out of curiosity. Your first look in the morning should be directed toward Jesus, your first thought for Him, and your first word, one of thanksgiving and love. Then at the foot of the altar, place your heart in that of Jesus for the whole day, and in spirit, speak with Him there until evening. Again in the evening, place yourself at the feet of Jesus with true sorrow for your faults and genuine thanksgiving for His graces. You remember what I have said to you on this subject. Be very faithful in these practices. Jesus wants from you an unlimited purity of intention. Do not spare yourself anything, the more a soul sacrifices herself the happier she is. It is a known fact that love is repaid by love, but love is also repaid by gratitude, the denial of self and the gift of oneself. Therefore, you must sacrifice yourself and offer yourself without reserve. Suffering always prepares the way for love. There is a degree of love which only those attain who have suffered much and suffered well, and in this, I mean mainly the sufferings of the soul. The greatest suffering that a soul really loving Jesus can endure is that of not being able to love Him as much as she desires.
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Topic: Purgatory (Read 47597 times)