thou understood by those who are the objects of thy tenderness! how little impression has the infinite love of God made on the hearts of his creatures ! Consider seriously, whether you be not amongst the number. Are you not perhaps at this moment unmoved by the love Jesus manifests in choosing you to become his temple? Search into the cause of your insensibility; is it not your neglect of that serious meditation on the benefits of God, in which, as the Prophet says, the fire of charity is enkindled? Are not your affections, which should belong to God, thrown away on creatures, which are the work of his hands? If so, it is not surprising that you are a stranger to that ardent love which animated the Saints, and enabled them to do so much for the divine honour. Beg of that God of love Who came to cast fire upon the earth, to give you that sincere, generous, ardent love, which you cannot have without his assistance. O adorable Benefactor of my soul! I now feel that I was made to love thee, and that my heart can never find true Test but in thee. “ O eternal beauty! too late have I known thee. O infinite goodness! too late have I loved thee.” Ah ! my good God! thou didst form my heart, thou alone canst inflame its affections. I beg of thee, by all the love thou hast ever felt for man; and in particular, by that infinite charity which invites me to approach thy altars, that thou wouldst give me, as the fruit of this meditation, the most lively and ardent charity. I resolve most seriously, to endeavour on my part to obtain that most precious gift, by making henceforward frequent acts of thy love — by performing all my actions through a motive of love — by detesting and avoiding, for thy love, all that displeases thee. Give efficacy, O Lord! to these resolutions, for on
