Meditations on “The Little Way” of Following Jesusنموونە

The Way of Love

Just as a torrent carries into the depths of the sea all that it meets on its way, so, my Jesus, does the soul who plunges into the shoreless ocean of Your love bring with it all its treasures.

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To me, He has given His infinite mercy, and it is in this ineffable mirror that I contemplate His other attributes. Therein all appear to me radiant with love. His justice, even more perhaps than the rest, seems to me to be clothed with love. What joy to think that our Lord is just, that is to say, that He takes our weakness into account, that He knows perfectly the frailty of our nature! Of what, then, need I be afraid?

Will not the God of infinite justice, who deigns so lovingly to pardon the sins of the Prodigal Son, be also just to me “who am always with Him”? [See Luke 15:31.]

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He wishes me to love Him because He has forgiven me not only much but everything. Without waiting for me to love Him much, as St. Mary Magdalene did [see Luke 7:47], He has made me understand how He has loved me with an indescribable love and forethought, so that now my love may know no bounds.

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Fully sweet is the way of love. It is true one may fall and be unfaithful to grace; but love, knowing how to profit by everything, quickly consumes whatever is displeasing to Jesus, leaving in the heart only a deep and humble peace.

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I had never before fathomed these words of our Lord: “The second commandment is like to the first: Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself” [Matthew 22:39]. I had set myself above all to love God, and it was in loving Him that I discovered the hidden meaning of these other words: “It is not those who say, Lord, Lord! who enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father” [Matthew 7:21].…

…I know now that true charity consists in bearing all our neighbors’ defects—not being surprised at their weakness but edified at their smallest virtues.

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I asked Jesus to draw me into the fire of His love and to unite me so closely to Himself that He may live and act in me. I feel that the more the fire of love consumes my heart, so much the more I shall say, “Draw me!” and the more also will souls who draw near me run swiftly in the sweet fragrance of the Beloved. [See Song of Solomon 1:3–4.]

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Because [my heart] has loved [God] only, it has grown, little by little, and now it can give to those who are dear to Him a far deeper and truer love than if it were centered in a barren and selfish affection.

Thought: Jesus, Jesus! If the mere desire of Your love awakens such delight, what will it be to possess it, to enjoy it forever?