They are delighted to go with Jesus on Mount Tabor and contemplate
Him in the splendor of His glory; but when there is question of
participating in His ignominy on Calvary they most shamefully abandon
Him. And when He asks them to aid Him to carry His cross they do it,
if at all, as reluctantly as did Simon of Cyrene. They willingly
multiply prayers and exterior practices of piety, which flatter
natural inclinations; they frequent the Sacraments, and this
furnishes them the occasion and means of producing those lively and
tender sentiments upon which the heart loves to feast.
Their doleful condition is rendered still more deplorable by the use
of the most sacred things to nourish their self-love and sensibility.
Grace, according to their views of the spiritual life, is only a
means to render natural sensibility more delicate and refined. Thus,
led on from one delusion to another, such women come to the end of
their life, rich in foliage and flowers, but without ever having
produced any fruit.
I hope, dear reader, that such may not be your case; but, to avoid
all error on a point of such vital interest, meditate constantly on
the divine instructions that Jesus has left us in the Sacred
Scriptures, and on those also with which He inspired the pious author
of the "Following of Christ," their most perfect commentator.
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