CHAPTER XIII. The Love which Jesus Christ bears to us.

CONSIDER the Love with which our Dear Lord Jesus Christ bore so much in
this world, especially in the Garden of Olives and on Mount Calvary;
that Love bore you in mind, and through all those pains and toils He
obtained your good resolutions for you, as also all that is needful to
maintain, foster, strengthen and consummate those resolutions. How
precious must the resolutions be which are the fruits of our Lord’s
Passion! and how dear to my heart, since they were dear to that of
Jesus! Saviour of my soul, Thou didst die to win them for me; grant me
grace sooner to die than forget them. Be sure, my daughter, that the
Heart of our most Dear Lord beheld you from the tree of the Cross and
loved you, and by that Love He won for you all good things which you
were ever to have, and amongst them your good resolutions. Of a truth
we have all reason like Jeremiah to confess that the Lord knew us, and
called us by our name or ever we were born, [208] the more that His
Divine Goodness in its Love and Mercy made ready all things, general
and individual, which could promote our salvation, and among them our
resolutions. A woman with child makes ready for the babe she expects,
prepares its cradle, its swaddling clothes and its nurse; even so our
Lord, while hanging on His Cross, prepared all that you could need for
your happiness, all the means, the graces, the leadings, by which He
leads your soul onwards towards perfection.

Surely we ought ever to remember this, and ask fervently: Is it
possible that I was loved, and loved so tenderly by my Saviour, that He
should have thought of me individually, and in all these details by
which He has drawn me to Himself? With what love and gratitude ought I
to use all He has given me? The Loving Heart of my God thought of my
soul, loved it, and prepared endless means to promote its salvation,
even as though there were no other soul on earth of which He thought;
just as the sun shines on each spot of earth as brightly as though it
shone nowhere else, but reserved all its brightness for that alone. So
Our Dear Lord thought and cared for every one of His children as though
none other existed. “Who loved me, and gave Himself for me,” [209] S.
Paul says, as though he meant, “for me alone, as if there were none but
me He cared for.”

Let this be graven in your soul, my child, the better to cherish and
foster your good resolutions, which are so precious to the Heart of
Jesus.
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[208] Jer. i. 5.

[209] Gal. ii. 20.
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