examination of the heart 344 Ask through the intercession of St. Casimir that God pour into you this ardor and love, and entrust to his protection your earthly Fatherland. After Holy Communion 1. “finds awake” (Lk 12:37). Just like a householder detests a lazy farmhand, and a master a sluggish servant, so God detests a negligent soul. Indeed, just as they promptly remove such men from their household and dismiss them from services, so God also keeps at a distance those who are sluggish and slothful in divine matters, according to the words: “So, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew you out of my mouth” (cf. Rev 3:16). On the contrary, promising certain beatitude to the fervent and diligent servants, He says: “Blessed are those servants, whom the Lord, when he comes,” and knocks at the door, “shall find watching” (cf. Lk 12:37). Therefore, take care lest you become tepid in the divine services, especially since He admits you to His Most Sacred Table so frequently and with such great graciousness. 2. “If he comes in the second watch” (Lk 12:38). Consider that a continuous ardor and, in time, a greater progress in virtues is required from you. For what commander would be so imprudent as to lavishly reward a soldier who was only good, industrious, and obedient at the beginning of his military service, but sluggish afterwards? God, wishing to bestow upon you eternal reward, wants you to watch continuously, to be zealous, to work, and to make progress. [f.106v] It is not only worthless, but downright degrading for God’s soldier to be fervent at first, to repel temptations bravely, to train himself promptly in all kinds of mortification and prayer, to practice every virtue, but to collapse shortly after, and to give the palm of victory to the enemy as if with powerless and restrained hands. great Marian piety of Casimir, that the hymn ‘Omni die dic Mariae’ is still known and sung by the faithful today.”
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