TAKEN FROM THE SERVANT OF THE SACRED HEART

Fr. George O'Neill, S.J.

With Nihil Obstat and Imprimatur, 1933

THE KINDNESS OF JESUS TO SINNERS

(1274, 1275, 1283)
I DO not see that there is any sinner in the whole Gospel story who was brought to
repentance otherwise than by kindness and by benefits. Our Lord drew to Himself St.
Matthew, Zacchaeus and other publicans by inviting Himself to eat with them and showing
that He did not spurn their company, ---- unlike the Pharisees who treated them as infamous
persons. He won the heart of Magdalen ---- not by severe reproaches, but by permitting her to
draw near to Him, praising what was praiseworthy in her action, taking up her defense
against the respectable people whom she scandalized. Any other but Jesus would have
pronounced against the woman taken in adultery the sentence of death written in the Law; but
He saved her by a miracle; He obliged the judges and the accusers to retire, and, when she
stood alone, He said: "Woman, has no one, then, condemned thee?" "No one, Lord," she
answered. "Neither, then, will I condemn thee. Go now and sin no more." He did not put to
shame the Samaritan woman by at once recalling to her what He knew concerning her sinful
life; He quietly won her to make her own confession; after that first step He so gained on her
that she admitted everything, recognized Him for what He was and made Him known to all
that city of Samaria. What did He not do to win back Judas? Everything, except to confound
or denounce him or speak to him harshly. He showed him clearly that He knew of his crime,
but spoke so that the others did not understand; He washed his feet and wiped them, He
suffered the traitor to kiss Him, He called him "Friend", He called him by his name, He
uttered no word of bitterness or anger. To move Peter to repentance He was content with a
look; and it was not a look that struck terror, but a look full of tenderness and affection.
Finally, to conquer the obstinacy of Thomas, He took the doubting Apostle's hand and gently
placed it in the wound of His pierced side.
If, when God seeks to convert us, He were striving for some interest or advantage of His
Own, I should not be surprised at His acting with such extreme moderation and clemency; but
since His zeal has no other end than to withdraw us from sin and death, we may well wonder
that He acts so delicately and so patiently spares us and yields to us. When a father sees his
child in danger of death by drowning or by fire, he does not consider whether he seizes him
by the foot or by the hand, whether he drags him into safety by his clothes or by his hair,
whether he hurts him or not, provided only he can rescue him from that extreme peril. But
God seems to have consideration for our weakness even in the extremity of our dangers; He
studies our humor, inclination, disposition, even our passions and bad habits, in order to seize
and draw us in the way that will pain us least. To the man that loves gain He offers the
treasures of Heaven; to the miser He suggests the terrible poverty in which he will find
himself in the next life; to the votary of pleasures He insinuates the peaceful joys of a life free
from guilt, from remorse and from the warfare of the passions; to one who shrinks from
suffering and pain He recalls the endless sufferings of the lost; to one who is of affectionate
and grateful disposition He recalls His benefits ---- the blessings that He has given, is giving,
and proposes in future to give.
But if this delicacy and ingenuity of your Lord in drawing you to Him has not powerfully

struck you, at least you cannot have failed to notice His constancy, His perseverance; for
surely we have, most of us, strangely tried and proved it! Were there not long periods during
which you heard but would not even listen to His voice? If you listened, how long did you
not deliberate as to whether and how far you would yield to His urgent and loving invitations!
When at length you were persuaded that it was best for you to give yourself wholly to Him,
how many battles were still required in order to induce your will, your heart, to follow the
light of your mind! How many delays, what compromises, what promises made and broken,
what good resolutions unfulfilled, what resistances and failures in the work of giving Him
what He asked of you!

Encouragement for the Prodigal

O my God, Thy love has been proof against this long, this insulting resistance! It did not
grow cold; Thou hast continued to pursue me, to call me, to entreat me, to cherish me. "Who
knows," Thou doth seem to have said to Thyself, "whether that heart will not at length let
itself be softened, after having been so long obdurate? I see that it will not be soon; I see that
the resolutions of today will not be kept better than the resolutions of six months ago; that
tomorrow and tomorrow will still be the date of its conversion; but perhaps also if I continue
to pursue, at length it will cease to fly from me.1 Gladly would I see it Mine this moment; but
I prefer to wait for it a long time rather than to lose it for ever."
God hates sin with a kind of infinite hatred, and the soul stained with sin necessarily brings
on itself something of that hatred. Yet God does not cease to love such a soul, to extend to it
His arms, to offer it the kiss of peace, to pursue it as if it were something perfectly beautiful.
"Whom do you pursue, O king of Israel?" said David long ago to Saul, and we might well
repeat what he said to that Divine love that concerns itself so with us. "Quem persequeris?
Canem mortuum persequeris?" After whom dost Thou run, O King of Heaven and earth.
Thou art pursuing a vile creature that, far from deserving Thine affection, is not worth even
Thine anger, and might well cause Thee merely feelings of disgust. And we, dear Christians,
from Whom do we fly? What can we mean by despising this Lover, trifling so long with His
patience, refusing the friendship and union that He offers and urges upon us? We know Who
it is that is calling us in the depths of our souls, and yet we are not afraid to allow the Master
of the Universe to come and knock at our doors, to keep Him waiting so long without
deigning to open or to answer. What ought I to wonder at most, O my God, Thy patience or
our obstinacy, Thy love or our hardness of heart? What will be the confusion of such an
ungrateful and audacious soul, whenever Thou doth open its eyes; how shall it dare to appear
in Thy presence after having so treated Thee? And if we have the courage to present
ourselves, will the Almighty deign to receive us? Yes, my brethren, so long as this life lasts
He will not fail to receive the sinner, if only, after his long wanderings, he will return
repentant to his duty and allegiance. Nay; I say more: that Divine love which impelled our
God to pursue us in our flight, leads Him also to anticipate and meet us on our return, and to
rejoice with an extraordinary joy when He once more clasps us in His arms.
Insensible, surely, is the sinner whom such patience, such indulgence, such love does not
draw to repentance. But more unhappy still is the sinner who defers repentance and resists the
Divine Love just because it is waiting for him with so much patience; who does not ask for
pardon just because God is always ready to grant it; who is evil because God is good; who
sins easily because He forgives easily; who is willing to displease because He is so unwilling
to punish.
2

O Lord, deign to perfect in each of us the work of Thine infinite mercy! Do not permit it to
become hurtful to us or useless to us; do not let us be lost in the very ocean of Thy
generosity! Grant that the infinite love Thou hast for the sinner may compel him to feel an
almost infinite hatred for sin; compel him to love Thee changelessly on earth that he may
come to love Thee changelessly in Heaven!
1. Many of these ideas have been anew and beautifully expressed in the poetry of Francis
Thompson's "Hound of Heaven".

NO MAN CAN SERVE TWO MASTERS

(1173-1179, 1181-1183)
AS there are but few Christians who aspire to perfect sanctity, so doubtless there are not
many who propose to spend their lives in complete defiance of God's commandments. The
great majority seem to desire a middle course between these two extremes. They wish to
reconcile within themselves conscience with concupiscence, some degree of piety with some
indulgence of their passions. Allow to one person gambling, to another vanity in dress, to
another a carnal attachment which is dangerous though not absolutely criminal; then they will
give the rest to God without much difficulty. There are those who desire to be good
Catholics, but are very anxious to live externally like those who are not good, to hold the
esteem of good and bad at once, to pass as devout among the devout and as worldly
amongst the worldly; who, while they profess a horror of sin, yet live, and that willingly, in
constant occasion of sin. You find good works on the one hand and frivolous dissipation on
the other; Mass and Holy Communion, followed by long hours at doubtful entertainments. A
man is correct in his outward behavior, but has little care to repress sins of evil thought and
desire. A woman prides herself on being above the reach of scandal, yet she knows very well
that she makes herself an occasion of sin for others. You are not so dishonest as to take and
keep what clearly belongs to others; but perhaps you spend so much on yourself that you
have nothing left to give to the poor. You refrain from calumnious and mischievous talking,
but you willingly listen to it. You would hate to be revengeful, but you cannot bring yourself
to love those who have injured you. Placed in an official position, you keep clear of glaring
injustices; but there are certain half-measures, certain accommodations that you allow
yourself to practice. As a man of business, you cannot be accused of dishonesty; but you are
wholly devoted to Mammon, you have no thought of doing good with your energy, your time,
or your money. You are at the head of a family, and you do not give bad teaching or bad
examples, but you pay no heed to the religious and moral training of your children; you
expose their souls to serious danger for the sake of worldly advantages.
In such dispositions, it would seem, too many people live; they are willing to give something
to the spirit and something to the flesh; to live as Christians, but luxuriously; to please God
without displeasing men; in short, they want to hold on a course which the Gospel does not
recognize ---- one equally removed from the broad way that leads to perdition and the narrow
way that leads to life; to build a city halfway between Jerusalem and Babylon ---- a city in
which self-love and love of God will share wealth, power and honors. This is what we may
well call serving two masters. Now our Lord warns us that that attempt is a vain one, and that
you will not succeed in pleasing either master. God is not satisfied with halt: He asks for all,
and the world is ever asking for more than you are giving to it.

Christians Aspire to Perfect Virtues

You do not forget, my brethren, what was the degree of virtue to which our Divine Master
bade His followers aspire. He required that our virtues should surpass those of the wisest and
best pagans, those even of the most observant Jews. The pagans have gratitude, He says; they
love those who show love to them but I ask something more of My disciples: I require them
to love those who hate them. The most reasonable of the Gentiles paid equal attention to the
study of wisdom and the care of their worldly well-being; this was much for them; but for
Christians it is nothing; the care of their salvation must be for them the one thing necessary;
to be solicitous about the earthly life of tomorrow is to risk sacrificing one's soul to the cares
of the body. Finally, the Pharisees and doctors of the law made great profession of virtue,
exactness and uprightness; but "your justice", said our Lord to His hearers, "must be more
abundant than theirs, else you shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven." To be content
with mediocrity is not to satisfy God: we must, in our Lord's words, strive to "be perfect,
even as our heavenly Father is perfect." Now perfection, holiness, above all that holiness of
God Himself which is put before us, includes everything; it is an assemblage of all virtues, a
holocaust of all that is faulty, a surrender of the whole man; perfection ceases to be itself if
anything is held back.
This doctrine is confirmed by the special commandments that God has laid upon us, and
particularly by the first and most important of all; that, namely, which regards our love for
Him. "You shall love Me," says the Lord, "with all your heart, with all your soul, with all
your strength and with all your mind." In other words all your deliberate thoughts, words,
affections and actions must be consecrated to Me.1

External Piety must Complete Internal

As external practices of piety without internal devotion are of no avail, so neither will it
suffice to honor God interiorly, if we do not consecrate to Him also our outward conduct. The
early Christians could have escaped tortures and death if they had found it in their
consciences to worship God secretly in their hearts while externally they offered a few grains
of incense to an idol. But no; they felt themselves bound, under pain of eternal damnation, to
suffer the most cruel torments rather than perform that external act of idolatry. Whatever
contempt those Christians may have felt for Jupiter or Venus, however they may have
intended to mock them by this formal homage, yet such homage would have drawn on them
the anger of God; He, looking on the heart before all else, yet would not be satisfied unless
the external conduct corresponded with the sentiments of the heart. How, then, can we justify
Christians who believe that, for fear of exciting the ridicule or disfavor of the world, they
may go on doing just as the worldly do; following the crowd as to their behavior, company,
amusements, dress, language; talking of religious matters as they know they ought not to [or
acting and speaking as if there were no such thing as religion to be taken into consideration]?

The World an Exacting Master

You are willing to give half to God, half to the world. Supposing for a moment that God were
to be satisfied with such a division, do you think the world will be? Will not times come
when it will ask of you not part but everything? Will not occasions arise when it is a question
of pleasing men on the one hand and of avoiding downright mortal sin on the other? What

then will you do? Will you at such a crisis be strong enough to trample under foot human
respect? A Saint would have that strength; but what of one who has grown into the habit of
unworthy condescensions, the practice of pleasing human opinion at any cost? Will he come
out victor, or may we not rather expect from such a Christian such conduct as that of Pontius
Pilate? That timid judge, quite able to recognize the innocence of the Prisoner brought before
him and the hostile passion that raged against Him, tried to avoid condemning the accused
without arousing the anger of the accusers. So we see him engaged in a series of miserable
expedients. He sends Christ to be judged by Herod, on the pretense that Christ was the
subject of Herod; but this artifice fails and the burthen of decision is again left on his hands.
Now, if he condemns Christ to death, he incurs the guilt of an enormous injustice; if he sends
him away acquitted, he incurs the anger of the whole synagogue. He tries again a middle
course: He will spare the Savior's life, but he will disgrace and torture Him. "I will chastise
Him and send Him away," he says. So he inflicts on the innocent victim the barbarous cruelty
of the scourging. But this is far from gratifying the enmity of the chief priests and the
Pharisees. They insist that the Man they hate is deserving of crucifixion, and that He must be
sentenced to nothing less. Then Pilate tries yet another subterfuge. He will not declare Christ
innocent, but will avoid pronouncing His condemnation; he will find the means in the
established custom of releasing one criminal named by the people at the festival of the
Passover. But here again he is disappointed. How his cowardly and crooked policy utterly
fails, how it brings its contriver to add crime to crime, ending in the blackest of all
conceivable crimes! Pilate grants at last all that is clamored for; he condemns to an
ignominious death the Son of God, in spite of all Divine and human laws, in spite of the
visions and fears and warnings of his wife, in spite of the reproaches of his own conscience.

Our Ceaseless Indebtedness to God

O men who naturally love reason and justice, men who boast that you are just towards all
men, will you not then be just towards your God? You who hate ingratitude and call it
unpardonable in others, will you be always ungrateful to Him? He has given you all, the
world has given you nothing, yet you are satisfied to honor equally the one and the other, to
divide your allegiance and your services between them. What have you that you have not
received from God? Or rather let me ask, what is there that God has not given to you?
Without reserve He has given to you Himself But you refuse to Him a part of your heart ---of that poor narrow heart of yours. You refuse to Him a part of the little span of time of
which you are at liberty to dispose. Now, if you can find a single day, an hour, a moment in
which God is not thinking of you, providing for you, working for you, in you and with you,
then I will allow that you too may interrupt the service you owe to Him. But if in fact He is
eternally devoted to supporting you, guiding you, providing for your needs, why should you
ever cease to recognize what He is doing for you?
If God treated you as you treat Him, would you not be the most unhappy of creatures? If, as
you pardon only some injuries, He pardoned only some of your sins; if, as you are content not
to take vengeance on your enemies, without resolving to do good to them, He likewise were
to refuse you actual graces, after He had restored you to His sanctifying grace, what would
become of you? If you resolve to avoid grave sins, but take no pains to avoid venial ones,
then if God on His side were to give you barely necessary helps, but not His more efficacious
graces, what would become of you? I will gratify, you will say, my sight in a sinful manner,
while restraining the other senses; what if God were to deprive you of sight, while leaving
you your other senses? Had we time without end and faculties of infinite power, these would
not suffice for rendering to God all that we owe to Him; we have in fact but a moment of time
5

and a breath of life; we have a limited mind, limited powers of love and of action; yet we will
not give half of these to make Him the return that is His due.
But, if any such division between God and the world is unjust, what shall we say of those
who reduce the share given to God to almost nothing: who, of all the thoughts and moments
of a day offer Him barely the first few; who, of all the days of the week, mark out for Him
only Sunday, and who, of the whole Sunday, give Him perhaps only so much time as suffices
for hearing one short Mass? What shall we say of those who think they have done enough for
God, if after spending a year in the business and pleasures of the world they come at Easter
time to give some proof of their being Christians? What, finally, of those who reserve to Him
the last years or even the last hours of their lives? Can such Christians say that they love God
with their whole heart, their whole soul, their whole strength and their whole mind? Alas, He
asks for nothing less than all, and these people think He can be satisfied with almost nothing!
O my God, if Thou wert indeed so to be satisfied, yet would not I be satisfied unless I gave
myself to Thee without reserve. I desire henceforth to give myself to Thee wholly! I am
willing to serve Him Who is the Lord of all creation: I will not be the slave of a slave. Thy
yoke is sweet and Thy burden light. Thou givest all that Thou exacts, Thou accomplisheth by
Thy grace all that Thou dost command; so that, magnificent as are Thy rewards, it is always
Thy Own gifts that Thou dost crown in us. And not only dost Thou make easy the doing of
Thy will, but Thou even doeth the will of those who obey Thee. Either Thou giveth what
pleases them or Thou maketh pleasing to them what Thou giveth. Here indeed is a service ---the only service ---- that raises us above all the miseries of the world and above all the
grandeurs of the world; a service that makes us sharers in the liberty of God Himself. Let us
then love, my dear brethren, this sweet yoke and this glorious servitude; let us give ourselves
without any reserve to the sole Master Who has a right to claim our services. "To serve God
is to reign", even in this life, and it makes us secure of a reign that shall last without fear of
change.
1. The Blessed Claude does not require, of course, an actual consecration at each moment: a
virtual or habitual intention suffices. Nor does he, in any part of this discourse, mean to
condemn a reasonable solicitude about our own temporal concerns or the affairs of others ---a solicitude that may sometimes be a matter of grave obligation. He means that all must be
referred to God by our being in the state of grace, by pure intention, and by due moderation
of desires and activities.

PRUDENCE IN ETERNAL AFFAIRS

(1191-1194)
WHEN any business arises in our lives that we judge to be of the utmost consequence for our
temporal interests, do we not often think over it, and in fact, until it is disposed of, find it
difficult to think of anything else? Do we not examine every means that may enable us to
arrive at a happy conclusion, and, besides using our own brains, seek to obtain light from
others and to act by the advice of the most skillful and experienced? And after we have
considered and compared the various means that seem suitable to bring us to the proposed
end, and have fixed our choice among them, are we ever so foolish as to prefer knowingly
and deliberately the weakest means to the more efficacious, the most roundabout to the
shortest, the most dangerous to the safest and surest? Surely not!

My brethren, when, after making this reflection, I cast my eyes upon the conduct maintained
by the majority of Christians in the affair of their salvation, I feel amazed. "No," I say to
myself;" assuredly these people have no notion of the importance of this affair; they do not
even rightly know what it means." And can it be denied that there are only too many who
during their whole lives have hardly given to it a serious thought? If they were engaged in a
lawsuit, they would think of it at rising, at bedtime, nay, during their sleep, during their
meals, their amusements, their prayers. Alas, many who are not unbelievers hardly give to the
business of salvation even those idle and spare moments in which they are left with nothing
else to do or to think about. They show no concern or anxiety about this business; they find
no leisure to think of the affairs of their souls.
That being so, it is not strange that so little trouble is taken to seek counsel and light about
those same affairs. If men will not consult even themselves, can we expect them to consult
helpful books or confessors? Then again, it is true that men cannot avoid sometimes weighing
and comparing the ways and means that lead to Heaven or away from it; but is this done in
order to take those that are safest and surest? No! Here we see something extraordinary that is
not found in any other kind of businessmen deliberating not to find the best ways, but rather
how to enter upon the most uncertain and dangerous. Can one be I saved in living in the
world according to the ways of the world, as well as in keeping aloof from the world?
Retirement from it, renunciation of it, is a safe, straight and easy way; to live in the world is
full of dangers, it is most difficult to live there as Christians; but when we see that it is not
impossible, that is enough for us; we ask no more. Can one frequent all the amusements and
dissipations of the world -dances, theaters and all the rest, without falling into mortal sin? If it
is possible, it is only by hairbreadth escapes, such as would be those of a vessel without sails
or helm left to drift amid winds and waves. But that satisfies us, and on such a chance as that,
we expose ourselves as confidently as if we were quite secure against any disaster. A man
who in any other kind of business would layout his life in such a fashion would be looked
upon as utterly absurd and foolish.
Again, when one is engaged in an affair of some importance, one does not take up and
manage other affairs of small importance without considering their possible interference with
the main concern that he has at heart. A man who is aiming at fixing himself in an important
and lucrative post not only has that purpose constantly in his mind, but regulates all his
comings and goings, his studies, visits, amusements, his very meals and his sleep, with an eye
to their influence for good or evil on that one matter that he thinks supremely important. If we
really understood and had firmly fixed in our minds what the affair of our salvation is, should
we not act in the same way? Would not this matter of supreme importance enter into all our
deliberations; would not the interests of our souls be the prime motive of our determinations;
would they not hold us back, or urge us on, in all sorts of situations? Is it so that men act, my
brethren? Is it so that we act ourselves? As regards the choice of a state of life, for example,
for ourselves or for young people who depend upon us, is it God's will, is it the soul's eternal
interests, that are considered foremost and above all? How often have we said with St.
Aloysius: "Quid hoc ad aeternitatem?" "What has this to do with eternity?"
It is clear, then, that God has bestowed on us in vain the gift of reason, if we do not use it for
gaining Heaven ---- the one final end that God intended in giving it to us. [It is in vain that
He has given us time ---- hours, days, weeks and years ---- if we employ none of it or too
little of it in the one business that is of importance for us.] Would it be too much to ask that
we should give a quarter of an hour daily to consider our spiritual condition ---- to take
thought concerning the evils that hold us back, the dangers that threaten us in the future, the
7

means that we are to take, the mistakes we are to avoid ---- asking seriously that question
asked long ago of Our Lord: "What am I to do that I may have eternal life?" [And, again,
would it be too much to ask that we should devote to the same investigation and the same
inquiry a few days of each year?]

PATIENCE OF THE HEART OF JESUS

(1607-1608)
LET us enter into the Heart of the Son of God and consider how it is disposed as regards His
enemies. Consider its meekness and humility. Nothing that He endures from His persecutors
prevents His doing justice ---- to say the least ---- to them; He recognizes that they are acting
in extreme ignorance; and, though in truth envy, human respect, self-interest, hatred, pride,
injustice mingle in the motives that urge them on, still the kindliness of His heart causes Him
to dwell on everything that diminishes the gravity of their sin rather than on what may render
them more guilty. How often have we occasion to behave in the same manner towards those
who offend or injure us! We ought to see how much more of thoughtlessness, of ignorance,
than of malice there is in the conduct that annoys us; we ought to make allowances in some
for a naturally hasty disposition, in others for the annoyances and embitterments they have
themselves to endure, in others, for mistakes and various natural defects. But alas, instead of
thus excusing our neighbor, we do the contrary; we exaggerate small matters into crimes and
gross injustices. We make much of injuries which, if it were the case of some other person,
we should treat as nothing. When there are many grounds for justifying, or at least excusing,
the words or deeds of our neighbor, we seek out the least favorable interpretation and prefer
to dwell on that. We are gratified by the misfortunes of those whom we regard as our
persecutors; we view with regret their success and prosperity. What weakness of soul all this
shows! What reason to feel ashamed of ourselves when we give way to such unworthy and
miserable thoughts and actions. Is not this to behave like unreasoning animals? Truly, my
God, if Thou wert to judge us in such a spirit, we should be lost.
But, as for our Divine Lord, not only is He just to all those who are unjust or cruel to Him,
but He regards them with a profound pity; He deplores their blindness and the evils they are
bringing on themselves; He laments with tears: "Oh, that thou hadst known the things that are
for thy peace! ---- but now they all are hidden from thee." He asks them to weep over their
own misfortunes rather than His: "Weep not for me, but for yourselves and your children."
He prays for His enemies, suffers for them, offers His Blood to save them; and His prayer
and sacrifice bear fruit. For amongst those who were converted by the first preaching of the
Apostles were those guilty ones.
"This man", said St. Peter in his sermon on the day of Pentecost, "you have crucified and
slain by the hands of sinners. You have rejected the just and holy one; you have asked that a
murderer should be given over to you; but the Author of life you have slain." "And that day
there were added to the Church three thousand souls."
How happy for us if we could thus save our enemies by our prayers; what a triumph in
Heaven for us, what everlasting gratitude on their part! We can imagine how the blessed
spirits feel towards the friends whose prayers and zeal will have brought them into Heaven;
but how far more intense must be the grateful affection they feel when they know that they
owe their eternal bliss to the generous prayers of souls whom they have persecuted!
[Such are the lessons given to us by the Sacred Heart of our suffering Lord.] "Learn of Me,"
8

He says, "not to create the world, not to bring into being all things visible and invisible, but
that I am meek and humble of heart." [So St. Augustine expands for us certain memorable
words of the Gospel.] To learn that great lesson let us go to school to that Divine Heart,
especially during the holy time of Lent and the Passion; let us strive to enter into It, abide
there, study Its movements, and learn to conform the movements of our own hearts to Its
example.
Yes, Divine Lord, I wish to dwell in Thy heart, and there to lose whatever of gall and
bitterness there is in mine; for in the love and sweetness of Thine all that will be quickly
consumed. I will study perfect patience in that retreat; there I will exercise myself in silence,
resignation to Thy Divine will, and invincible constancy. I will learn how to thank Thee for
the crosses Thou sends me, and to ask Thy blessings on any person that annoys or injures me.
To acquire Thy spirit of patience and meekness, Thy forgiving love, is not the work of one
day; but with Thy help it can be gained at last. Thou didst pray for Thy persecutors. O most
loving Jesus; Thou wilt not refuse Thy help to a soul that desires to love Thee; I desire ever to
love the cross, to love my enemies, for love of Thee. Amen.

ON THE SACRIFICE OF THE MASS

(498-1502)
MORE honor is paid to God by a single Mass than by all other actions of Angels and men,
even the most fervent or heroic. Yet how many are attracted to Mass by the intention of
rendering to God an honor so extraordinary? Are there many who reflect with pleasure on the
glory that the Almighty receives from this sacrifice, who rejoice at having it in their power to
honor God according to His greatness and His deserts; who give thanks to our Divine Lord
for having, while He abolished the ancient sacrifices, left us a Victim proportioned to the
benefits we need, a Victim sufficient to efface all the sins of men?1
If my own good works are weak, imperfect, nay, sometimes stained with venial sin; still
when I offer up the adorable sacrifice of the Mass, then, O my God, I can be full of courage
and confidence, I can challenge heaven itself to perform any action more pleasing to Thee.
Happy a thousand times are Christians, if they but knew how to make profit of their
advantages! But must we not admit that we often do not even think of the good things we
enjoy or might enjoy; we do not even deign to put our hand into the treasury that Jesus Christ
has left open for us?
With what intentions do we come to Mass, with what fervor and recollection do we assist at
it? Do you come through human respect, through custom, [just to avoid mortal sin on a
Sunday or holiday, and not at all on other days, though you well might]? Do you allow
yourself during Mass to be carried away by idle thoughts, keeping no control of your eyes
and your attention?
Have you, then, nothing to thank God for? Have you continued to thank Him sufficiently, as
warmly as He deserves? Take care lest by ingratitude you dry up the fountain of His
beneficence towards you, lest He divert to some more grateful recipient the blessings He
intended for you.
To occupy yourself during Mass, enumerate in your heart all the Divine benefits you have
9

received; so many dangers averted, so many sins forgiven, so careful a Providence watching
over you from birth to this day, securing you so many temporal and (still more) spiritual
advantages; Baptism, the knowledge of God's law and God's will in your regard; so many
graces drawing you away from evil, drawing you towards God. Even the benefits of one
single day ---- do they not merit your undying gratitude, are they not enough to occupy you
during the time of Mass? When you have dwelt on them, say boldly to the Eternal Father: "O
Lord, I see how much I have received from Thy bounty; but look upon this Victim, this
Divine Body, this precious Blood, this Sacrifice of infinite value; this is my offering in return
for so many benefits. I feel confident that through it I am presenting a worthy return for Thy
generosity. But again, O adorable Lord, what thanks can I render to Thee for having placed at
my disposal so marvelous an offering?
You say, dear Christian, that you find it hard to occupy yourself during Mass. Is there, then,
nothing that you need? Is there nothing that tries your patience? Jesus Christ, during Mass,
places Himself in our hands, as if a coin of infinite value that can purchase everything that is
good and desirable, everything, no matter how precious, that we ask in His name.
Have you not offended God, do you not offend Him daily? Think of those faults, think of
them sorrowfully, and ask of God to pardon them by the virtue of this all-holy Sacrifice.
"Without the Sacrifice of the Mass", says a holy doctor, "the world would have been
destroyed by the Divine justice many times; the Mass restrains the arm of the Divine
vengeance." That is why the demon endeavors to deprive us of the Mass by the efforts of
heretics [and of men who hate God]; for he sees that mankind would perish had it not this
bulwark to oppose to the offended justice of God. It is foreshadowed by the prophet Daniel
that Antichrist shall abolish the "perpetual sacrifice" at the end of the ages: Et robur datum
est ei contra juge sacrificium propter peccata. In accordance with this, the Martyr St.
Hippolytus is quoted by St. Jerome as saying that in the last days the Church shall be in
deepest mourning, because the Holy Sacrifice shall cease to be offered, the Body and Blood
of Christ shall not be on the altars; then shall the world come to an end and its judgment
begin. But the last calamities shall not occur so long as the spotless Lamb shall be offered on
our altars.

Why do we Neglect the Mass?

Strange, then, it is that the Lord cannot fill His temples without using a sort of violence,
without issuing commands and precepts, as if the profit we can draw from the sacrifices
offered up to Him were not enough to urge us to join in offering it. But men do not know of
its priceless value and therefore neglect it; and can any ignorance be more deplorable? Or is it
that the great number of Masses that are offered all over the world makes us think more
lightly of this mystery, and that the very liberality of God has the effect of making us the
more ungrateful?
In the Mass the Savior makes Himself not only our Intercessor with His Father, asking for us,
through His merits, whatever is beneficial for us; but, furthermore, He offers His Blood and
His Life as a payment for what we ask. What, then, can be so valuable as not to fall below the
value of this price that You offer? Why, then, do men lament and complain ---- one, of his
temporal miseries, another of his spiritual? Why do passions tyrannize over us, evil habits
enchain us, evil imaginations lead us into sin? Whence the dominion exercised by anger,
grief, despair? Whence our inability to cure the evil habits of others ---- those who are dear to
us, those on whom our own happiness depends? Tell me, have you asked for that grace, that
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favor at Mass? How many times have you offered Mass for that intention? Can you persuade
me that when you offered to God so noble a price, He has refused you a gift so much less
valuable, that He has not judged the Blood and the Life of His Son worth the grace, the
virtue, the temporal good that you longed to obtain, whether for yourself or for another? No; I
cannot believe it, and it seems impossible that you should believe it. The real obstacle must
be that you are not eager to assist frequently at Mass and that when that most precious
opportunity is yours, you neglect to represent earnestly to God your miseries and needs and to
beg earnestly of Him the mercies that you desire.
1. The Blessed Claude confines himself in the following remarks to the advantages to be
gained from devout assistance at Mass. All that he says applies, often with stronger force, to
the Masses that we cause to be offered up by a priest for our intentions.

UNBOUNDED CONFIDENCE IN GOD

(1298, 1304, 1305-1307)
MEN engage themselves to us in various manners, whether to do something or to give
something: they pledge something ---- their honor in a simple promise, their conscience in a
solemn oath, their property in tangible securities, finally their very liberty and lives in a
surrender of their own persons until such time as they shall redeem their promise. In all these
ways God [and His Son our Savior Jesus Christ] have bound Themselves to us ---- bound
Themselves to assist us in all our needs, to protect us in all our dangers, to grant us all that we
shall expect and ask from Their bounty. But I maintain, my brethren, that, even were this not
so, the mere fact of our confidence in God is a sufficiently strong reason to engage Him to us
in these various ways. There are two reasons to persuade us of this. The first is that we cannot
pay a higher honor to God than when we expect all manner of good from Him; the second,
that God cannot disappoint such an expectation on our part without dishonoring Himself.
The first reason seems clearly expressed in words spoken by God through the lips of the
Psalmist: "Call upon Me in the day of tribulation, saith the Lord; I will deliver thee, and thou
shalt glorify Me." How shall we glorify the Almighty? We shall glorify Him by our trust in
Him: we shall give Him the very highest honor by believing firmly that He is truthful in His
words, enlightened as to our needs, tender and compassionate towards our wants, powerful to
execute in our favor wonders surpassing the power of creatures, wise to accomplish His ends
by gentle and easy ways unknown to human prudence, faithful in coming to our aid,
promptly, constantly and unweariedly, generous in His bestowal of what we pray for, and, in
fine, so merciful that our sins do not arrest the downflow upon us of His mercies. All
Christians are supposed to believe in the truth of these propositions; but surely there is an
immense difference in the firmness and intensity with which they are held and realized by
one soul and by another!
A man really full of confidence in God believes them so that their influence is constantly
manifested in his conduct. On his belief he is prepared to risk everything; or rather he has no
sense of any risk while he looks to God as his support, refuge and strength. In the prayer
taught us by our Lord we address God as Our Father; it is easy and common for us so to
invoke Him; but do we use the words with attention, with a full acceptance of what they
signify? To consent to depend in every situation on His paternal Providence, to await His
help, even in the most trying situations, to rely upon His promises far more than upon any

human help, to sleep, so to speak, in His arms in the midst of the most violent storms ---- this
is to have a true faith in God as Our Father, this is to believe in God with a faith conformable
to His infinite greatness.
The second reason why our confidence in God binds Him so strongly to us is that it would be
dishonorable to God Himself if He were to fall short in His liberality of what our confidence
has led us to expect from Him. That the confident trust of a creature should have surpassed
the generosity of the All-Powerful, that a human creature should find the Divine goodness
falling short in effect of what he had supposed it to be; would not this be a stain on the name
of the Most High; would it not be something inconceivable in God? So much so that we find
the Fathers of the Church teaching that our hope is the measure of the graces we receive from
the Divine Treasury. St. Thomas says that hope is for us the principle of impetration just as
charity is the principle of merit: in other words, as we merit in proportion to the charity that
inspires our actions, so we obtain favors in proportion to the confidence that inspires our
petitions. And still more notable is the sentiment of St. Gregory Nazianzen, namely, that to
every soul that has prayed God is engaged by gratitude to give in return what has been asked
for [or else some gift more really desirable]; that it is not so much a favor He bestows as an
acknowledgment of a favor He has received.'1 How, then, could this good Father suffer a
child who honors Him so highly to be confounded; how can He refuse us His protection when
we cannot better glorify Him than by asking for His protection?
O my God, so assured do I feel that Thou dost watch over those who hope in The and that
nothing can be lacking to those who expect everything from Thee, that I am resolved to live
in future without anxiety and to rest the burthen of my cares upon Thee. "In peace I will lie
down and fall asleep at once; because Thou, O Lord, alone hast set me up in hope." Let others
expect their happiness from their wealth or their talents; let others place their reliance on the
purity of their lives, on the severity of their penance, or the abundance of their alms, or the
number and devotion of their prayers; Thou, O Lord, alone hast set me up in hope; the very
source of my confidence is my confidence; and that confidence has deceived no one; so the
inspired writer has assured us: "No one has hoped in the Lord and been confounded." I am,
then, assured that I shall be eternally happy, since I have a firm hope that I shall be so, with a
hope rooted in the goodness of God. I know, and, alas, it is but too true, that I am frail and
inconstant. I know what is the power of temptations against the most seemingly solid virtue; I
have seen fall the stars of heaven and the pillars of the firmament; but even these falls cannot
terrify me; so long as I shall hope, calamity shall not overtake me; and I am sure of hoping
always, because I keep on hoping that that hope will be granted to me by Thy boundless
liberality. In a word, I am deeply convinced that I cannot hope too confidently in Thy
goodness, and that what I shall obtain from Thee will always be more and greater than what I
shall have hoped. I hope, then, that Thou wilt hold me back from the most dangerous
precipices, defend me against the most furious assaults and enable my weakness to triumph
over the most powerful enemies; I hope that Thou wilt love me always, and that I on my part
will love Thee on without infidelity: I hope, crowning all my hopes, to obtain Thyself from
Thyself; O my Creator, for time and for eternity.
AMEN.
1. Cum a Dea beneficium petitur, beneficia affici se putat.