hast stolen from me! O useless visits, company-seeking, gambling, sleep! what have you brought me in, when I could have given to God, my soul and heaven, to my great advantage, the time sacrificed for your sake? Ah, my regrets are too late; the time is past! In vain should I rely on future time, for I cannot promise myself that I shall see it. Therefore I will be all the more diligent and fervent in using what I have—the present. “I have said: Now have I begun,” such is my firm resolution. Heavenly Father, who hast created time by Thy Almighty power! Christ Jesus, who hast redeemed it by Thy precious blood! Holy Ghost, who hast sanctified the good use of it! give me the grace to use it in future as becomes such a Creator, such a Redeemer, such a Sanctifier! O most Blessed Trinity! I now offer Thee all the years, months, weeks, days, hours, and moments of the rest of my life. Perhaps my offering is very small indeed; for it may be that the time of my life will be very short; but small as it is, in any case I devote it wholly to Thee! With firm confidence I trust in Thy help to carry out this resolution of mine, so that not a moment may ever again be given to idleness, vanity, or sensuality, to the service of the devil and sin, but that all may be for Thee alone and Thy honor and glory. Then having sown the good seed during this short life, I may garner in the desired fruit in a long and joyful eternity. Amen.
Another introduction to the same sermon for Sexagesima Sunday.
Text.
Dum seminat, aliud cecidit secus viam, et conculcatum est.—Luke viii. 5.
“As he sowed, some fell by the wayside, and it was trodden down.”
Introduction.
The parable of the sower and the seed needs no special explanation; for Our Lord Himself applies it very clearly to the word of God, which is sown in the hearts of those who hear it, and, according to their disposition and character, produces either no fruit at all, or very little, or else brings in a most abundant return. Yet the holy fathers, who have received a special light from God to interpret the gospels, apply this parable also to the
