examination of the heart 388 FOR THE FEAST OF THE VISITATION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY Before Holy Communion 1. “Mary arose” etc. (Lk 1:39). Mary rose up, intending to be on her way to Elizabeth for this reason: to help her, the weaker one, and to offer to her cousin the greatest assistance of charity. As for you, likewise rise up to help your soul, for nothing should be closer and dearer to you than your soul. Therefore, visit it as quickly as possible, examine it and see what it needs, and at the same time, provide for its needs. But if you notice that it is filled with good desires, as if pregnant with them, ask Jesus, coming to you in the present Holy Communion, to sanctify, as He sanctified the Holy Infant in the womb of Elizabeth, your desires and to help and increase those already born. In fact, ask that He purify and justify you from all sins with the same grace by which He freed John from original sin. [f.123v] 2. “went with haste into the hill country” (Lk 1:39). Behold, the most Holy Virgin, the Mother of God, gives you two ways of striving for perfection which are mutually complementary. The first is to despise the low-lying valleys and to ascend the hill country; that is, to always choose a higher degree of perfection and try to reach it. The second is to work with haste for the salvation of yourself and your neighbor, and not allow, in a lazy delay, the loss of most precious time which is to be used only for meritorious deeds. But if the burdens of passions overwhelm you, and do not permit you to fly out to the highest summit of perfection, pray to Jesus, that, after He has come into your heart, He would set you free from all burdens just as He freed His Most Holy Mother walking through the hill country to such an extent that she, pregnant with the divine proof of love, finished the journey not feeling any burden.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjI2Mw==