“The soul cannot know peace unless she prays for her enemies. The
soul that has learned of God’s grace to pray, feels love and compassion
for every created thing, and in particular for mankind, for whom the
Lord suffered on the Cross, and His soul was heavy for every one of us.
The Lord taught me to love my enemies.
Without the grace of God we cannot love our enemies. Only the Holy
Spirit teaches love, and then even devils arouse our pity because they
have fallen from good, and lost humility in God.
I beseech you, put this to the test. When
a man affronts you or brings dishonor on your head, or takes what is
yours, or persecutes the Church, pray to the Lord, saying: “O Lord, we
are all Thy creatures. Have pity on Thy servants and turn their hearts
to repentance,” and you will be aware of grace in your soul. To begin
with, constrain your heart to love enemies, and the Lord, seeing your
good will, will help you in all things, and experience itself will shoe
you the way. But the man who thinks with malice of his enemies has not
God’s love within him, and does not know God.
If you will pray for your enemies, peace
will come to you; but when you can love your enemies – know that a great
measure of the grace of God dwells in you, though I do not say perfect
grace as yet, but sufficient for salvation. Whereas if you revile your
enemies, it means there is an evil spirit living in you and bringing
evil thoughts into your heart, for, in the words of the Lord, out of the
heart proceed evil thoughts – or good thoughts.
The good man thinks to himself in this
wise: Every one who has strayed from the truth brings destruction on
himself and is therefore to be pitied. But of course the man who has not
learned the love of the Holy Spirit will not pray for his enemies. The
man who has learned love from the Holy Spirit sorrows all his life over
those who are not saved, and sheds abundant tears for the people, and
the grace of God gives him strength to love his enemies.
Understand me. It is so simple. People
who do not know God, or who go against Him, are to be pitied; the heart
sorrows for them and the eye weeps. Both paradise and torment are
clearly visible to us: We know this through the Holy Spirit. And did not
the Lord Himself say, “The kingdom of God is within you”? Thus eternal
life has its beginning here in this life; and it is here that we sow the
seeds of eternal torment.
Where there is pride there cannot be
grace, and if we lose grace we also lose both love of God and assurance
in prayer. The soul is then tormented by evil thoughts and does not
understand that she must humble herself and love her enemies, for there
is no other way to please God.
What shall I render unto Thee, O Lord,
for that Thou hast poured such great mercy on my soul? Grant, I beg
Thee, that I may see my iniquities, and ever weep before Thee, for Thou
art filled with love for humble souls, and dost give them the grace of
the Holy Spirit.
O merciful God, forgive me. Thou seest
how my soul is drawn to Thee, her Creator. Thou hast wounded my soul
with Thy love, and she thirsts for Thee, and wearies without end, and
day and night, insatiable, reaches toward Thee, and has no wish to look
upon this world, though I do love it, but above all I love Thee, my
Creator, and my soul longs after Thee.
O my Creator, why have I, Thy little creature, grieved Thee so often? Yet Thou hast not remembered my sins.
Glory be to the Lord God that He gave us
His Only-begotten Son for the sake of our salvation. Glory be to the
Only-begotten Son that He deigned to be born of the Most Holy Virgin,
and suffered for our salvation, and gave us His Most Pure Body and Blood
to eternal life, and sent His Holy Spirit on the earth.
O Lord, grant me tears to shed for
myself, and for the whole universe, that the nations may know Thee and
live eternally with Thee, O Lord, vouchsafe us the gift of Thy humble
Holy Spirit, that we may apprehend Thy glory.”
No comments:
Post a Comment