have life."[1] He who loves God has the earnest and pledge of eternal life.
So S. Paul reasoned. His conversion, his call, his apostleship, his mission, were all pledges of the love of God, and of its immutability on God's part. But our love to God may be increased all our life long. Every act of piety towards Him receives an augmentation of love. Every true prayer of the heart kindles the grace of charity. All mental acts of contemplation and adoration bring an increase of love into the soul of the least and the humblest, in the busiest and the most overburdened life. How much more in the life of a priest and of a pastor, whose whole toil in thought, word, and deed is in and for the kingdom of God. Every Mass we say, every recital of the Divine Office, may be an act springing from love to God, and drawing down accessions of love into the heart. The augmentation of charity in our union with God may go on accumulating every moment. Every aspiration, every desire, every inward act of obedience, patience, submission, and longing after God unites us more closely in love to Him, and enlarges our heart with His love, turning our hope into confidence, and quickening our course. Viam mandatorum tuorum cucurri, cum
- ↑ S. John v. 40.
