the afflicted. when your crosses and trials seem too hard for you, and you are on the point of losing patience and giving way to cursing or desperation; think and say with Father Nierenberg, ah, this is net fire! It is not the fire of hell! It is not an eternal fire! How well God means with me in punishing me as a father here by this cross, so that He may spare me hereafter in eternity. Shall I then, by my impatience, turn this temporal suffering into an eternal one? No, Lord! whatever Thou sendest me, I shall willingly receive from Thy hand, and readily suffer it; I have deserved much more! “Here burn, here cut, that Thou mayest spare me in eternity!”
Conclusion for the Just who formerly sinned grievously. And finally, you just and pious souls, who have probably in the past committed grievous sins for which you have done sincere penance, think and say with me: O good Lord and God! what do I not owe Thee? I had at that time, as Thou well knowest, deserved that terrible everlasting fire! How many are burning therein who have committed the same, and perhaps fewer sins than I have! Why am I not burning with them? If Thou hadst allowed me to die while in that miserable state, alas, I should now be with them in hell! Oh! “The mercies of the Lord I will sing forever.”[1] With Thy Prophet David I will praise that great mercy which has spared my life, given me time for grace and repentance, and saved me from everlasting fire. If, O Lord! Thou wert to do what Thou never wilt do, and release a lost soul from hell, and bring it again to life, how grateful would not that soul be to Thee! No penance so great, no punishment so severe, no torment so long that he would not endure it with joy until the last day. And how he would praise, bless, honor, and love Thee! How carefully and exactly he would guard against offending Thee again by even the least sin! How humble he would be even towards the lowliest! How zealously he would serve his beneficent God and Saviour! Ah, my Lord and my God! am I less bound to Thee now? Hast Thou not released me, and that often too, from hell, which I have merited as well as any lost soul? Can I then dare to be in the future cold and tepid in Thy service? Should I not shudder at the thought of offending Thee even by a deliberate venial sin? Should I ever complain that the crosses Thou sendest me here on earth are too heavy and severe? Should I not love Thee above all things with my whole heart? Yes, I acknowledge it, O God of mercy! My
- ↑ Misericordias Domini in æternum cantabo.—Ps. lxxxviii. 2.
