Be you therefore perfect, as also your heavenly Father is perfect.(Matt 5:48)
O my God, what unspeakable sufferings our souls have to
endure because they have lost their liberty, and are not their own
masters! What tortures come on them through that! I sometimes
wonder how I can live through such agony of soul as I myself suffer. God
be praised who gives me His own life in my soul, so that I may escape from so
deadly a death! My soul has indeed received great strength from His
Divine Majesty. He has had compassion on my great misery, and has helped
me. Oh, what a distress it is for my soul to have to return to hold
commerce with this world after having had its conversation in heaven! To
have to play a part in the sad farce of this earthly life! And yet I am
in a strait between two. I cannot run away from this world. I must
remain in it till my discharge comes. But, meantime, how keen is my
captivity; how wretched in my own soul am I. And one of my worst
distresses is this, that I am alone in my exile. All around me people seem
to have found their aim and end in life in this horrible prison-house, and to
have said, Soul, take thine ease. But the life of my soul is a life of
incessant trouble. The cross is always on my shoulder; at the same time I
surely make some progress. God is the Soul of my soul. He engulfs
into Himself my soul. He enlightens and strengthens my soul. He
attends to my soul night world, and to lay up their treasure in those
things which God hath prepared for them that love Him. May it please His
Majesty that the great munificence with which He has dealt with my soul,
miserable sinner that I am, may have some weight with some of those who read
this, so that they may be strong and courageous to give up everything at once
and most willingly for such a God! (Santa Teresa an Appreciation: On the Soul)
The souls of the just are in the hand of God, and no torment shall touch them.
They seemed, in the view of the foolish, to be dead; and their passing away was thought an affliction
and their going forth from us, utter destruction. But they are in peace.
For if before men, indeed, they be punished, yet is their hope full of immortality;
Chastised a little, they shall be greatly blessed, because God tried them and found them worthy of himself.
As gold in the furnace, he proved them, and as sacrificial offerings he took them to himself.
In the time of their visitation they shall shine, and shall dart about as sparks through stubble;
They shall judge nations and rule over peoples, and the LORD shall be their King forever.
Those who trust in him shall understand truth, and the faithful shall abide with him in love: Because grace and mercy are with his holy ones, and his care is with the elect. (Book of WIsdom 3:1-9)
Picture from public domain
Posts
