b. Earnest meditations;
c. Spiritual readings that speak to our hearts;
d. Careful examinations of our spiritual progress.
Colloquy with our dear Lord, asking for a thorough renovation of Spirit.
MEDITATION II
In What Perfection Consists
1st Prelude. See God enthroned in Heaven, and all the Saints lovingly looking up to Him.
2nd Prelude. Beg grace to understand in what perfection really consists.
POINT I. A thing is good if it answers fairly well the purpose for which it is made; it is perfect if it answers that purpose as well as is desirable. Thus a pen is perfect if it is every way suitable to write with, a watch is perfect if it always keeps time. Now man is made to love God; he is therefore perfect if he devotes himself entirely to the love of God. That perfection consists formally in Charity is expressly stated by St. Paul, who writes to the Colossians: “Above all things have charity, which is the bond of perfection” (iii, 14).
To attain perfection, therefore, we must accustom ourselves to be totally taken up with God and God’s interests, for God’s sake. This is the main purpose aimed at by Father Faber in his excellent book “All for Jesus.” Read for instance, pages 48, 49. Much of this may be in many men merely sentimental, or poetical. To make it actual in us, real in our conduct and the dispositions of our will, seeking God in all things, is true sanctity. At this we must steadily aim. It is in fact the motto of our Society: Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam, “To the Greater Glory of God.” A perfect man is a man of one idea, the idea of the greater glory of God.
POINT II. Such devotedness to God requires detachment from all creatures; this detachment is not itself perfection, but it is a necessary condition to attain this entire devotedness, in which perfection consists. We must act like the man who had found a treasure hidden in a field, who to secure it went and sold all he had to buy that field; and like him who, to buy the precious pearl, went and sold all he had (St. Matth. xiii, 44-46). We must be detached. Our hearts are so narrow that we cannot give a part of them to one object without detracting from our love for another, except only if we love the former solely for the sake of the latter. Thus we should love all for God. Therefore we start on the road to perfection by leaving all things to follow Him. It must not prevent us from taking interest in many things, else we become wooden saints. With a St. Ignatius, a St. Francis Xavier, a St. Catherine of Sienna, etc., we must cherish eager desires of many projects, but only in as much as they promote God’s glory and the salvation of souls.