heart with a decided horror for every kind of impurity, that I may not only detest it, but may also carefully shut up all the avenues by which it might seek to insinuate itself into my soul. This I am resolved to do, with the assistance of your protection, and of the patronage of the most holy Mother of God. May my heart become undefiled, that I may never be confounded. Amen.
Prayer.
O FAITHFUL servant of God, Aloysius, who have deigned to take me under your protection! how greatly must you be shocked at the pointed difference which you cannot but perceive between your dispositions and mine! Your soul was ever so pure, and so disengaged from the things of the earth, and mine is a slave to earthly sentiments, and longs only for the false goods of this world. You were always closely united with God; and, to my shame, I seek only to estrange myself from him. Alas! when I consider the frivolous goods which engross all the affections of my heart, I feel that I ought to be ashamed of my misery and weakness. You will doubtless tell me that I am so miserable and weak, only because I do not think of God. You will say to me what the Prophet Isaias said to the unfaithful Jews: “You have forgotten your Saviour, and you have not called to mind the God who is your strength and your support.” I must own that I justly merit this reproach; but I address myself with confidence to you, and beseech you to obtain for me some part of that divine grace which united you so closely with God. May the eternal truths ever force themselves, in a manner, upon my mind, and may my mind always remain fixed and absorbed in the contemplation of
