It is
necessary that this disposition has been constant, that is to say,
that it has not suffered from frequent or long interruptions. A
transitory taste appearing to-day and vanishing to-morrow, a volatile
inclination frequently appearing and just as frequently disappearing,
merits no consideration in an affair that involves the Christian's
happiness both for time and eternity.
However, if the aptitude which you feel in your soul for a given
state of life has lost much of its vivacity, or even when it should
have frequently vanished in the course of your life; you are in duty
bound to study the causes and circumstances of this change,
especially when, with the disappearence of that inclination, piety
and fervor in God's service have also diminished in the soul.
If, as often as you felt the sweet impulse of divine grace in prayer
and holy communion this inclination became also aroused in the soul;
if you felt it increase in proportion as you gave yourself to God,
you may safely conclude that it is the indicator of God's will in
your regard, and that its vascillating or enfeebled condition was the
work of your own perverse will.
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