what lesson for the amendment of your life you will find in this truth, or in this mystery. Search for it, and as soon as you have arrested it, you will pass on to the consideration of some motives, which may move your heart and engage you to put it in practice.
2. Examine also very carefully how much you esteem a truth so important for your salvation as that which engages your attention; whether you are in the habit of regulating your conduct by what it inculcates, or whether you are negligent with regard to it. Admit your negligence; acknowledge your faults. What is the cause of your errors? What means will you employ to avoid them?
C. The Will:
1. Pious affections are aroused. These affections differ as the subject varies, or in accordance with the dispositions of the soul and the motions of the Holy Spirit — confusion, shame, and contrition; distrust of ourselves; confidence in God; thanksgiving; offering of ourselves; sacrifice of whatever obstructs or retards perfection; resignation; abandonment to the will of God.
2. The will makes strong resolutions, with regard to a certain virtue, for instance, humility, or, with regard to certain occasions and certain means, tending to greater perfection.
3. You will make some colloquies, especially toward the end of the meditation.
III. Colloquy.
This is a direct prayer; so make acts of faith, hope, charity, etc., as they are suggested by the subject of your meditation. This part of the meditation should occupy perhaps one-fifth of the whole time alloted to the exercise.
The colloquy may also be called a familiar and respectful address to God, in which we praise Him, thank Him, beg His pardon, ask Him for some grace, some
