General affections upon the foregoing considerations, and conclusion of the exercise.
O dear resolutions! you are the fair tree of life which God hath planted with His own hand in the midst of my heart, and which my Saviour would water with His blood to make it fruitful: rather a thousand deaths than suffer any wind to uproot it. No, neither vanity, nor delights, nor riches, nor tribulations shall ever make me change my purpose.
Alas! Lord, it is Thou Who hast planted this fair tree, and Who hast kept it eternally in Thy paternal bosom, only afterwards to place it in my garden: ah! how many souls have not been favoured in like manner; and how then could I ever sufficiently humble myself beneath Thy mercy?
O fair and holy resolutions! if I preserve you, you will preserve me: if you live in my soul, my soul shall live in you. Live then for ever, O resolutions which are eternal in the mercy of God! be and live eternally in me, and may I always be faithful to you.
After these affections, you must particularise the means proper to maintain you in your dear resolutions, and protest that you intend to make constant use of them. These means are the habit of prayer, the frequent use of the sacraments, good works, the amendment of your faults, such as you recognised them in the second point, the avoidance of evil occasions, and faithfulness in following the counsels given to you.
O dear resolutions! you are the fair tree of life which God hath planted with His own hand in the midst of my heart, and which my Saviour would water with His blood to make it fruitful: rather a thousand deaths than suffer any wind to uproot it. No, neither vanity, nor delights, nor riches, nor tribulations shall ever make me change my purpose.
Alas! Lord, it is Thou Who hast planted this fair tree, and Who hast kept it eternally in Thy paternal bosom, only afterwards to place it in my garden: ah! how many souls have not been favoured in like manner; and how then could I ever sufficiently humble myself beneath Thy mercy?
O fair and holy resolutions! if I preserve you, you will preserve me: if you live in my soul, my soul shall live in you. Live then for ever, O resolutions which are eternal in the mercy of God! be and live eternally in me, and may I always be faithful to you.
After these affections, you must particularise the means proper to maintain you in your dear resolutions, and protest that you intend to make constant use of them. These means are the habit of prayer, the frequent use of the sacraments, good works, the amendment of your faults, such as you recognised them in the second point, the avoidance of evil occasions, and faithfulness in following the counsels given to you.
Having done this, take breath once more and revive your strength, and protest a thousand times that you will persevere in your resolutions; then, as if you held your heart, your soul, and your will in your hands, dedicate them, consecrate them, sacrifice them, and generously offer them up to God, protesting that you will take them back no more, but leave them in the hands of His divine Majesty, to follow in all things and everywhere His holy ordinances. Pray God that He renew you entirely, and that He bless and sustain this renewal by the power of His Spirit. Invoke the Blessed Virgin, your angel, Saint Louis, and other saints.
In this disposition of a heart moved by grace, go then to the feet of your spiritual father; confess the principal faults that you shall have noticed yourself to have committed since your general confession, and receive absolution as you did the first time. After this, pronounce your protestation before him, and sign it; and finally go to unite your heart, thus renewed, to its source and its Saviour, by receiving the most holy sacrament of the Eucharist.
In this disposition of a heart moved by grace, go then to the feet of your spiritual father; confess the principal faults that you shall have noticed yourself to have committed since your general confession, and receive absolution as you did the first time. After this, pronounce your protestation before him, and sign it; and finally go to unite your heart, thus renewed, to its source and its Saviour, by receiving the most holy sacrament of the Eucharist.