313 part i: sunday meditations for the entire year and seriously consider with whom you unite, or for what reason. Call to mind all your faults and the blessings granted to you by God, so that you may give thanks for the gifts, arouse regret for your failings, and ask for the Lord’s forgiveness. Although you have offended Him gravely so many times, nonetheless, lay bare before Him, with great confidence, the illness of your soul and your other necessities, because He comes to you precisely in order to help you in both matters. [f.90v] After Holy Communion 1. “who had suffered from a hemorrhage” (Mt 9:20). O how happy the woman who had been afflicted by a hemorrhage considered that hour! At that hour she received a complete cure! She had waited twelve years for that hour. Thus, among the most blessed days you also are given the present day; when your soul, having received spiritual medicine, has been set free from the long-lasting illnesses that tormented it; perhaps since it attained the use of reason. Indeed, it was enriched with a new moral strength; because at the sacred table the Divine Goodness not only forgave your imperfections, as you may piously believe, but also granted you new graces by which you can: resist temptation in the future, mortify your passions, subdue bad inclinations, and even entirely demolish, abolish, and uproot them. O what a happiness! Hardly anything greater than this could happen to Christ’s servants in the world. Therefore, grateful for these graces, assume a new spirit of serving God more zealously, and striving after a greater perfection. 2. “Take heart” (Mt 9:22). Consider that you should not be frightened at all, even if challenged by the whole world and hell; and you should never lose the courage to fight because of fear, since the Lord has the power to help you and to free you. He never abandons you except to prove you for the sake of greater merit. Since you are enrolled in God’s army, realize that it is necessary for you to battle a variety of enemies, and to become stronger in virtue in that way.
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