Page:Complete ascetical works of St Alphonsus v6.djvu/402

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
400
Practice of the Love of Jesus Christ.

and heal whatever wounds remain in my poor soul from its past disloyalties towards Thee. I resign myself wholly into Thy arms, O my Jesus; I will be wholly Thine; I will suffer everything for love of Thee; and I ask of Thee nothing but Thyself!

O Holy Virgin and my Mother Mary, I love thee, and I rely on thee; succor me by thy powerful intercession!

CHAPTER IX.

CHARITY THINKETH NO EVIL, REJOICETH NOT IN INIQUITY, BUT REJOICETH WITH THE TRUTH.

(Charitas non cogitat malum, non gaudet super iniquitate, congaudet autem veritati.)

He that loves Jesus Christ only wishes what Jesus Christ wishes.

Charity and truth always go together; so that charity, conscious that God is the only and the true good, detests iniquity, which is directly opposed to the divine will, and takes no satisfaction but in what pleases Almighty God. Hence the soul that loves God is heedless of what people say of it, and only aims at pleasing God. The Blessed Henry Suso said: "That man stands well with God who strives to conform himself to the truth, and for the rest is utterly indifferent to the opinion or treatment of mankind."

As we have already more than once asserted, the sanctity and perfection of a soul consists in renouncement of self and in submission to the will of God; but now it will be well to enter more into detail.

I.

The Necessity of Conforming to the Will of God.

If, then, we would become saints, our whole endeavor must be, never to follow our own will, but always the