This good Lord is ever seeking sinners, and saying to them: " Ungrateful ones, do not flee away from Me; tell Me why you flee? I love your good, and I have no other desire than to make you happy. Why therefore do you wish to be lost?" But, Lord, wherefore do all this? Why dost Thou exercise so much patience, and feel so much love for these rebellious ones? What good dost Thou hope from them? Does it not lessen Thy honour to show Thyself so compassionate towards these miserable sinners who fly from Thee? "What is man that Thou shouldst magnify him? and that Thou shouldst set Thine heart upon him?" (Job vii. 17.)
Affections and Prayers.
Behold, Lord, at Thy feet the ungrateful one who implores Thy mercy. I call Thee Father, because Thou wished that I should so call Thee. My Father, pardon me. I do not deserve compassion, because, since Thou hast been so good to me, I have been more ungrateful to Thee. Ah, because of Thy goodness, which has kept Thee from abandoning me when I fled from Thee because of that, receive me now that I come to Thee. Give me, my Jesus, a great grief for, the offences I have committed against Thee, and give me Thy kiss of peace. I repent more because of the evil I have committed against Thee, than because of any other evil. I detest and abhor it, and I join this my hatred to it with that which Thou, my Redeemer, didst feel for it in the Garden of Gethsemane. Ah, pardon me through the merits of that Blood which Thou didst shed for me in that garden. I promise Thee to strive never more to depart from Thee, and to drive away from my heart every affection that is not Thine. My Jesus, my Love, I love Thee beyond everything, and I wish ever to love Thee, and Thee only; but give me strength to do so, and make me wholly Thine.
Third Point.
The princes of the earth disdain even to look upon rebellious subjects who come to seek their pardon; but God does not so with us. " For the Lord your God is gracious and merciful,
