The anima divota, or, Devout soul

Front matter

IWibi-l Cbstat,

DOMINICUS GAZZOEA,

Prow hist. Ch.

Contents

Page

A Short Sketch of the Author’s Life - vii

I. On the love of Jesus Christ for us in the

I

A loving father never shows so much tenderness and affection towards his dear children as when in his last moments he beholds them sorrowing and weeping at his bedside, and remembers that in a short time he must leave them, without a hope of seeing them again in this world. Summoning up his expiring strength and stretching out his feeble arms, he looks upon them with eyes full of love and says : “ Dearest children, come to my heart for the last time.” And embracing them one by one and mingling his tears with

B theirs, he blesses them, and having distributed among them his most valued treasures, he continues : “ My children, I am dying ; we can no longer remain together in this world ; take then these keepsakes and let them remind you of the love I bear you.”

Could Jesus Christ then, O Devout Soul, treat us with less love ? Could our true Father, a Father such as the world has never seen and will never see, could He treat us with less affection and tenderness ? Having ardently loved us during His whole life and given us a thousand proofs of this love, at the close of His days He would give us a still stronger pledge of it. On that memorable night, the last of His life on earth, He assembled His disciples around Him, and with a heart full of love and tenderness said : 44 Behold, the day is arrived when I must leave you, the day when I must return to My Father. Fear not, nor let your hearts be sad. I will not leave you orphans, for, besides the other Comforter whom I will send to you, the Spirit of Truth who shall teach you all things and remain with you always and teach you those things which you could not as yet understand, I will Myself remain with you and with those who shall believe in Me until the consummation of all things. Remember how often I told you whilst preaching to you and to the multitude, that I would give you bread from heaven to eat quite different from the manna which your

First Consideration fathers ate and are dead, which bread shall preserve unto eternal life all those who partake of it. The time is come for Me to fulfil this promise and to give you a pledge of the love I bear you. Take, this is My body ; take, this is My blood ; take, eat and drink, and do this in remembrance of Me. But My heart will not let this great gift be restricted to you alone, I will that all My followers in succeeding ages shall partake likewise. I therefore make you priests and give you power to ordain others, that in memory of Me they may do the same to the end of time. Thus shall I satisfy My love which delights to be with the children of men.”

O what a miracle of love ! What wonderful condescension of God towards man ! A God, an omnipotent God, who has heaven for His throne and earth for His footstool, to whom angels minister, and who has the stars of heaven for His crown ! An all-wise God, w7ho, seated on a throne blazing with light, sees the most secret things, surveys the highest realms, and penetrates into the lowest depths ! A God so immense that heaven itself cannot contain Him ! A God so great, so sublime, so powerful, becomes the food and the drink of men that He may never be separated from them ! “ He whom the world cannot circumscribe becomes our captive,’ * savs St. Bonaventure. Ah, my God ! my God ! what marvels are these ?

II

How then, O Devout Soul, are you affected by the depth of the love of Jesus Christ for us ? Who could have imagined that He would carry it to such an excess ? If in the time of servitude and fear, when God called Himself the Lord of Hosts and the God of Vengeance ; when He spoke to His people only amidst flashes of lightning, the rolling of thunder, and the bursting of thunder-bolts ; when the murmurings and rebellions and other crimes of the discontented multitude were instantly punished by war, famine, and pestilence ; when the earth opened to swallow them alive ; when fire descended from heaven to consume them ; and when horrible fiery serpents were sent to devour them ; if, I say, some one then had spoken thus to this people : “ Know that this God who is now so terrible will show Himself, when the fulness of time comes, so mild, so loving, so tender towards men, that clothed in human flesh, He will not only die for their love, but, more miraculous still, will become their food, will enter into their breast, will nourish them with His body, will refresh them with His blood, and deify them, as it were, with His divinity ; ” who would have given credit to his words? Yet we see in these days what to this people would have seemed impossible — Jesus Christ, true God and true man, is in the midst of us ; night and day He remains on our altars ; He

First Consideration makes Himself our food, and we may daily partake of His feast. O unheard-of condescension ! O incomprehensible love ! O my God, my God, what is man that Thou art so mindful of him as to give him even Thyself, as if Thy heart could not rest satisfied without him ? “ What is man that Thou art

mindful of him, or the son of man that Thou regardest him ?” What are we but dust and ashes, and worms, and rottenness ? O that our souls were faithful to Thy love and grateful to Thy heart ! But, alas ! in by far the greater number of us Thou findest only unfaithfulness, and opposition, and hatred, for all Thy love.

O love Him, Devout Soul, who has loved you so much. Study, I would say in the words of a holy man, to increase daily in love towards the Beloved, in that love which is strong as death, strong to separate you from all creatures, from all that men regard, from all that the world admires, from your appetites, from yourself, that there may be nothing left in you which shall hinder your living for Jesus in every thought, and desire, and affection of your heart. Let your heart beat for His love alone ; let your will have no other object but Jesus, and let all your thoughts be directed to Jesus. Let the hand labour and the foot move only in His love and for His love. To obtain this love of loves renounce all those things which you once loved, honour, ease, comfort ; protest that

Tiie Devout Soul you will have no honour but His ignominy, no riches but His grace, no ease but His cross, no object but Him alone, your Spouse, your only joy. Have nothing to do with creatures but to call upon them with all your heart to love the Beloved One. Fly all conversations which savour not of Him ; cease all labour but that which pleases Him ; avoid every action which does not turn to His glory. The more you think of Him in all things the more He will think of you and fill you with His grace, as He said one day to St. Catherine of Siena : “ Daughter, think of Me, and I will think of thee.” This is what He means when He says to His sacred Spouse : “ My beloved to Me and I to him.”