are there prepared for us, in order to meditate on them, to inflame our desires for them, and to encourage ourselves to serve God zealously. And, my dear brethren, this is but right; for heaven truly deserves our frequent consideration, our unceasing desires. Nay, this is even necessary for us if we really desire to enter heaven, as I now proceed to show.
Plan of Discourse.
We should often think of heaven and desire it; it is only right that we should do so. This I shall prove in the first part. We are forced to do so if we wish to enter heaven; as I shall prove in the second part.
Heavenly Father, we sigh and pray to Thee in the words of Thy holy Catholic Church, “that Thou wouldst raise up our minds to heavenly desires.” We beseech Thee to hear us through the intercession of Mary, the Queen of heaven, and the princes of heaven, our holy guardian angels.
Everything has a natural tendency towards the place to which it belongs.
Everything has a natural inclination and tendency to the place to which it belongs and for which nature has intended it. Wild beasts always seek their caves and deserts; the birds frequent the lofty regions of the air, and although they may be comfortable and well-fed in a cage, they have neither rest nor peace until they find some opening by which they may escape and fly into the air again. Fish cannot live except in the water. A stone falls with the utmost velocity towards its centre on the earth. Fire always seeks its centre on high; if you try to confine it, it will force a passage for itself with violence, and overthrow the loftiest tower, as we know by experience to be the case when powder is exploded. The rivers flow back to their origin in the sea. And if all these creatures had reason, they would think and desire nothing but the end proposed for them; nor would they find rest or peace until they have actually reached the place intended for them by nature. Almost all men like to live in their native land, where they are well off; and if one has sometimes to seek a foreign shore, he often thinks and speaks of the town in which he was born, and eagerly listens to what others have to tell him of it. The whole year long students are looking forward to the holidays, when they can again go back to their father’s house. What sailor does not long for the harbor when his ship is tossed about by the waves? What traveller does not wish to return to