Love of Neighbor

Love does not suffer self-justification, does not exalt itself, is not puffed up.

In order to test yourself, whether you love your neighbor in accordance with the Gospel, pay attention to yourself at the time when others offend you, abuse you, mock at you, or do not render you the respect due to you, and which is customary in social intercourse, or when your subordinates err against the rules of the service, and are negligent. If you remain calm on such occasions, are not filled with the spirit of enmity, hatred, impatience — if you continue to love these persons as much as previously, before their offences or negligence, then you do love your neighbour in accordance with the Gospel; but if you become irritable, angry, agitated, then you do not do so. "If ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others?"[792]

Seeking True Knowledge

"This is life eternal, that they might know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent."—St. John xvii. 3.

THOU, O God, hast opened wide to me Thy truth and I Thy verity. By instructing me in the sciences, Thou hast opened to me all the riches of faith, of nature, and of human understanding; I have learned Thy word— —the Word of God—"piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit." (1) I have studied the laws regulating the mind of man, its love of wisdom, the formation and the beauty of speech; I have penetrated in part into the mysteries of Nature, into her laws, into the abyss of the creation of worlds and their revolution; I know the population of the terrestrial globe; I have acquainted myself with its different peoples, with the celebrated persons, and their works, who have passed in turn through this world ; I have in part studied the great science of self-knowledge and of how to draw nigh to Thee; in a word, I have become cognisant of many, many things—"for more things are shewed unto thee than men understand,"(2) and hereafter I shall yet learn much. I have many books of very varied contents; I have read and re-read them, but still I am not yet satisfied. My spirit still thirsts for further knowledge and my heart is unsatisfied ; it hungers, and from all the knowledge thus acquired by the intellect, it cannot gain full happiness. When will it be satisfied 1 It will be satisfied, when "I will behold Thy face in righteousness : I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with Thy likeness."(3) Until then I shall hunger. " Whosoever drinketh of this water (of worldly wisdom) shall thirst again: but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life,"(4) said the Lord.

1 Hebrews iv. 12.          2 Sirach iii. 23.          3 Psalm xvii, 15. 4 St. John iv. 13 and 14.

The Fervour of Faith

If the fervour of faith in the heart is not sometimes stirred up, then in time, through negligence, faith may become entirely extinguished in us; and Christianity with its Sacraments may entirely die for us. The enemy takes pains to attain this end, and tries to extinguish faith in our hearts and to bury in oblivion all the truths of Christianity. That is why we see men who, being Christians, are only such in name, while by their actions they are quite heathen.

The Church Cleanses Us

In the Church especially is accomplished the mystery of the cleansing from sins. Reverence, therefore, the place where your soul is cleansed from all impurities, where you are reconciled to God, where you receive the true life of the spirit. How many times the Lord has here granted me the cleansing from my sins, without which I could not have enjoyed God's gifts— the greatest of life's gifts, the gifts of peace and joy, and earthly blessings besides! Glory to Thee, Jesus Christ, the Son of God. " He is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world."1
1 I John ii. 2.

On Prayer

If the Church has composed and transmitted for general use prayers and psalms to God the Trinity and to His saints, then this sigaifies that God hears our prayers and is always near those who pray. But people mostly pray as if there were no God with them, or as if He did not heed their prayers. Let us ascribe to the Lord at least the same amount of attention that good parents show to the requests of their children, at least that provident and attentive love which good parents have for their children. So the Lord Himself teaches: " If ye then," says He, " being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in Heaven give good things to them that ask Him ?" 3 Thus our requests or prayers will also be fulfilled if we pray with our whole heart. This is true. This is from daily experience.