Page:PracticeOfChristianAndReligiousPerfectionV1.djvu/33

very efficacious; for let the duties be ever so difficult in themselves, a strong attachment to them makes them easy and sweet. For example, how comes it to pass, that a religious should feel so little pain on quitting the world, and entering religion, but because he desired with his whole heart to become religiouB? God had inspired him with an exceeding great desire thereof, which is the grace of vocation, and plucked out of bis heart all attachment to the world, planted therein a love of retirement and religion, and everything became easy. On the contrary, the very same thing appears extremely painful to persons in the world, because they have not been favoured by God with the desires, and the grace of vocation, you have been favoured with. As, then, what rendered our entrance into religion so easy and pleasant, was the fervour we had at the time, and that determined will, which nor parents, nor friends, nor the Whole earth together, could change, or pervert; in like manner, it is by persevering in this original fervour we shall advance in virtue, and render the practices of devotion easy and delightful. So long as this fervour shall last, the performance of all religious duties will become easy; but this once cooling, they will seem painful and insupportable. What, think you, is the reason, why the same man is, at one time, dejected and disgusted, and at another time is content and at ease in the performance of his religious duties? Let him not attach the blame thereof to the duties themselves, nor to the superiors, but let him impute this inconstancy to himself, and to the little relish he has for virtue and mortification. A strong, healthy man, says Father Avila, will, with ease, carry that burden, which a child or sick person cannot raise from the ground. It is only then from the different dispositions of our souls, that the difficulty springs. The duties are always the same. They seem to us, for a time, so easy, that they cost us no trouble; and if they appear different now from what they had been before, we are to blame ourselves, who, instead of being perfect men, as long since we ought to have been, are still children in virtue — are fallen sick, and have suffered that fervour to cool, which we had on entering religion.

---