The Great Affair of Salvation

The affair of our eternal salvation is of all affairs the most important. But how comes it that men use all diligence to succeed in the affairs of this world, leave no means untried to obtain a desirable situation, to gain a lawsuit, or to bring about a marriage, reject no counsels, neglect no measures by which to secure their object, neither eat nor sleep, and yet do nothing to gain eternal salvation, — nothing to gain it, but everything to forfeit it, as though hell, heaven, and eternity were not articles of faith, but only fables and lies?

O God! assist me by Thy divine light; suffer me not to be any longer blinded, as I hitherto have been.

If an accident happen to a house, what is not immediately done to repair it? If a jewel be lost, what is not done to recover it? The soul is lost, the grace of God is lost, and men sleep and smile1 We attend most carefully to our temporal welfare, and almost entirely neglect our eternal salvation ! We call those happy who have renounced all things for God; why then are we so much attached to earthly things?

O Jesus ! Thou hast so much desired my salvation as to shed Thy blood and lay down Thy life to secure it; and I have been so indifferent to the preservation of Thy grace as to renounce and forfeit it for mere nothing ! I am sorry, O Lord ! for having thus dishonored Thee. I will renounce all tilings to attend only to Thy love, my God, who art most worthy of all love.

The Son of God gives his life to save our souls; the devil is most diligent in his endeavors to bring them to eternal ruin: and do we take no care of them? St. Philip Neri convicts that man of the height of folly who is inattentive to the salvation of his soul. Let us arouse our faith: it is certain that, after this short life, another life awaits us, which will be either eternally happy 0r eternally miserable. God has given us to choose which we will. Before man is life and death . . . that which he shall choose shall be given him. (Ecclesiastes 15:18) Ah ! let us make such a choice now as we shall not have to repent of all eternity.

O God! make me sensible of the great wrong I have done Thee in offending Thee and renouncing Thee for the love of creatures. I am sorry with my whole heart for having despised Thee, my sovereign good; do not reject me now that I return to Thee. I love Thee above all tilings, and for the future I will lose all things rather than forfeit Thy grace. Through the love which Thou hast shown me in dying for me, succor me with Thy help, and do not abandon me. O Mary, Mother of God! be thou my advocate.