God's love for us
Think how much Jesus Christ, our Lord, suffered in this world and especially in the Garden of Olives and Mount Calvary for loving you! Through all the hardship and the suffering, he obtained from God, the Father, good intentions and promises for your heart, and by the same means He also achieved what you need to maintain, nourish, strengthen and accomplish those purposes.
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From Francis de Sales
And you, how precious you are, because you are the son of a mother as important as the Passion of the Saviour! How does my soul love you, for you were so dear to the heart of my Jesus! Savior of my soul, you died to give me a purpose, grant me the grace to die rather than lose it! You see, my dear Philothea, it is certain that the heart of our dear Jesus saw yours from the altar of the Cross, and he loved it. Yes, dear Philothea, we can all say like Jeremiah, Lord, before I existed you looked at me and called me by name, and in his divine Goodness he prepared, in His love and in His mercy, all the general and specific means for our salvation, and therefore also our good intentions.
This is certain: as a pregnant woman prepares the cradle, the linen, the bands and also includes a nanny for her son that she hopes to have, although it is not yet born into the world, so our Lord, who carries you in his heart, is preparing everything for your salvation from the tree of the cross: your spiritual cradle, your clothing and your nanny, everything you need for happiness. All the means, inclinations, with which he wants to attract your soul to perfection.
My God, how we ought to impress all this deeply in us all!
Is it possible that I have been loved by the Savior with so much sweetness, so much so that he thought of me personally in all the little circumstances with which to attract me to him? How much should we then love, cherish and make good use all of this for our own good! It is really wonderful: a heart full of love of God was thinking of my Philothea, he loved you and gave you a thousand methods of salvation, as if he had not had any other soul in the world to think about, just like the sun that lights up a corner of the earth, as if it did not light up nothing else. Our Lord, in fact, believed and took care of all his children and thought of each of us as if he had not had to think about anyone else. St. Paul says, He loved me and gave himself for me, as if He did not have to think of anybody else..
GOD'S LOVE FOR US
Consider the eternal love that God has brought you, because, even before our Lord Jesus Christ, as a man suffered on the cross for you, His Divine Majesty, in his immense love, included you in his plans and loved you so much.
But when did he start to love you? Since he began to be God and when did he begin to be God? Never, because He has always been God, without beginning and without end, and so he has always loved you from all eternity, He was preparing you for the graces and favors which then He gave you. He made the Prophet say: I loved you (talking to you), with a love without end, I attracted you to me because I had mercy on thee.
He also thought to push you to serve Him. How wonderful are these intentions if God himself had them in mind, meditated, planned from all eternity! They must be dear and precious.
How much should we be willing to suffer rather than losing a shred only! Even if the whole world were to perish, because the whole world is worth less than a soul and a soul is worth nothing without its good intentions!.
