Convocation of the Faithful
You will excuse a man who can know no other science, no other style, no other language, than that of Jesus Christ crucified, and who, in the midst of a multitude of occupations which, through the mercy of God, are the affairs of His Master and His Church, has great difficulty in finding a leisure moment
His glory only, His interest only, His love only, is sufficient for us. It is this love which I ask of you, it is to this love that I would exhort you ; if you have this love, though you possess nothing, you have all ; you are therefore very rich. If you have it not, you have nothing, though possessing all things : all consists in loving God, all is vanity which is deprived of that love. The passage we read in Job : Erat vir simplex et rectus ; " He was a simple and upright man is rendered by Saint John Chrysostom and Origen : " Erat ille homo verus." " He was a true man ; because,'* says the learned Origen, " he who does not love God is not a true man, because he ceases to be reasonable ; all reason convincing us that we are only made for the honour and love of the Divinity. "
We read a very remarkable thing on this subject, in the history of Normandy, where we see that, in former times, men were so strongly persuaded that it was the most shameful thing in the world not to love God, that at that time it was a signal affront
to the Love of the Holy Sacrament.
and insult to a person to say to him: "You do not love God this obliged Prince Richard, who was duke of that province, to make a law, by which he condemned to a fine all persons who made use of this reproach.
Here we have great reason to sigh, when we consider what passes in our days ; times have indeed changed their aspect, and are far removed from all resemblance to that more happy period.
After all, the God whom we adore is unchangeable ; He is always the same, consequently He is always worthy of the same respect and the same love. Let us therefore, O faithful souls, go all together, to offer Him our prayers and our adoration, let us irrevocably give up our wills to Him, consecrate our hearts to Him, dedicate our love to Him. Rape ad eum quos potes, et die eis : Hunc amemus, hunc amemus,
"Take," says St. Augustine, " and seize all the hearts you can for Him, tell them they must love God, and it is sweet to repeat it : say it, O pastors, to the souls that are under your care ; say it, fathers and mothers, to your children ; say it, masters, to your servants."
Let us all say to one another : Let us love God, let us love God. Dic eis ista, ut plorent in convalle plorationis, et sic eos rape tecum ad Deum. " Tell
General Convocation of the Faithful
them this," that holy Father goes on to say, " that they may weep and groan in this vale of tears, so that by their tears they may wash out the faults they have committed against the divine love, and henceforth belong only to Him." State cum eo, et stabitis ; requiescile in eo, et quieti eritis. Quo itis in aspera ? Quo itis ? Bonum quod amatis, ab illo est. Non est requies ubi queer ites earn. Qucerito quod quceritis ; sed ibi non est ubi queer itis. If you attach yourselves to God by love, you will be unwavering; if you rest in Him, you will find peace. Why do you torment yourselves by wandering amongst creatures ? If you seek true happiness, it is He alone who can give it You will never find it where you are seeking it. Seek it as you will, but it is not to be found where you would seek it If you really love God, you will find it, for all is given to those who love. Only love God, and all is gained.
We read in the Lives of the Fathers of the Desert that one day, a good anchorite was giving an account of his spiritual exercises to the holy abbot Joseph, and he asked him what he ought to do to walk safely in the way of perfection. The holy old man, standing up, raised his hands to heaven and his fingers shone miraculously, like ten flames of fire. " It is such," replied he, " that you ought to be, to go truly to God ; a man all on fire,
to the Love of the Holy Sacrament.
totally consumed in the flames of pure love." O faithful souls, that is what I have to say to you. You must be full of the love of God only, and how should it be otherwise, when you meditate on the infinite love of our sweet Saviour in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar!
THE BOOK
OF
PERPETUAL ADORATION,
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FIRST TREATISE,
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FIRST MOTIVE.
JESUS IS IN THE MOST HOLY SACRAMENT OF THE ALTAR.
Vere Dominus est in loco isto, et ego nesciebam. — Indeed the Lord is in this place, and I knew it not. — (Gen. xxviii. 16.)
These words of the Patriarch Jacob do not mean that this holy man was ignorant of the truth known even to infidels, that God, by His immensity, fills heaven and earth; but (says the holy Bishop of Geneva, St. Francis of Sales) by these words, "the Lord is in this place, and I knew it not," he means that he did not realize His presence as it deserved.
O Catholic soul ! I have no doubt you know that the God of all greatness is hidden under the appearance of bread and wine; that He reposes lovingly in our Ciboriums; and, by an excess of immense mercy, He remains in our Tabernacles. He, who is truth, has said it, not by my mouth,
The Book of Perpetual Adoration.
but even by His own ; yet, after all, we believe it in such a way, that it would seem as though we believed it not..
One of the fatal effects of sin is to shut the eyes of the sinner's soul to the brightest lights of our holy religion; to throw it into an infinitely deplorable sleep, and to render it insensible to the most touching attractions of holy love. For is it not true that we must be in a strange lethargy, to be so little moved by the real presence of the Great and Eternal God in the Divine Eucharist? Truly, it is inconceivable !
O God of love, how strangely astonished is a soul when, being guided by divine light, she discovers so penetrating a truth in these heavenly rays ! The mind is overcome, beholding in this light a mystery surpassing all thought ; it loses itself in an abyss of admiration; its life is now nothing but a life of astonishment; and reflecting on the hardened, frozen hearts of men, she would be ever crying out to them : Oh, blindness ! Were that soul asked what her thoughts are on such an adorable truth, she would be unable to utter anything but these words : Wonder, wonder, wonder ! For she knows that though a creature should speak the language of men and angels, she would not be able to express the goodness of the God of Mercy in choosing to dwell amongst us in the Most Holy Sacrament. It is this which so often draws deep sighs from her heart, as she thinks of the darkness in which men
The Book of Perpetual Adoration.
are living. It is this which makes her weep inconsolably, knowing that God is so little loved. It is for this, that solitude has such attractions for her, that she may have leisure to sigh over such extreme misery. This produces in the soul an aversion to the world that knows not God, according to the witness of God Himself, and shows, by so many proofs, the world's unhappy state of darkness concerning its Creator, its Saviour, its Chief Good. O Lord! fulgura coruscationem : Thou who art the source of all light, send down from the Light inaccessible where Thou dwellest, some bright rays upon the children of men, to open their eyes and awaken them from their deplorable sleep.
It is on this subject, O Catholic soul ! that the least of creatures "writes
