Charity
The pivot of perfection
is charity. He who lives in charity lives in God, because God is
charity, as the Apostle says.
Charity which has not
truth and justice for its foundation is faulty. He who offends
against charity, offends the pupil of the eye of God.
To fail in charity is
like wounding God in the pupil of his eye. What is more delicate
that the pupil of the eye? To fail in charity is like failing against
nature.
Try always to advance
more in charity: enlarge your heart with confidence for the divine
gifts which the Holy Spirit is anxious to pour into it.
Always do a little work.
The wise man praises the valiant woman. Her fingers, he says, worked
the spindle. Your distaff is the sum of your desires. Spin a little
therefore everyday; make your design thread by thread till they are
all used up and you shall infallibly see their completion. But see
that you do not hurry, because you might twist the thread with knots
and you would entangle your spindle. Work therefore, and though you
keep on advancing slowly, you will nevertheless go a long way.
Charity is the queen of
virtues. As the pearls are held together by the thread, thus the
virtues by charity; and as the pearls fall when the thread breaks,
thus the virtues are loss if charity diminishes.
Humility and charity are
the master chords, all other depend on them. The one is the lowest,
the other the highest. The preservation of the entire edifice
depends on the foundation and the roof. If the heart keeps itself
directed in the exercise of these, no difficulty will be encountered
in the others. These are the mothers of virtue, the other follow
them as the chick to their mother.
No comments:
Post a Comment