examination of the heart 440 to you. If you despair of being successful in your cause, assume as your Patroness the Refuge of sinners. But if you are still not secure, summon from the family of Christ the saints, women and men, who are former sinners: they will sponsor your cause. Neither ignorant of evils, nor lacking the experience of faults, they will hasten to help the miserable; they will strive to make the fallen rise. The most holy from among them, David, promises help saying: “Then I will teach transgressors [Y]our ways, and sinners will return to [Y]ou.” (Ps 51:13). 3. “the son of David” (Mt 1:1). Consider, that David is mentioned here before Abraham, the sinner before the righteous. This is so that you may know that sinners, if they do a worthy penance, are not only restored to grace, but afterwards they are not held in the lowest honor but rather are seated on high thrones in Heaven. For as the will of the proud angels, obstinate in wickedness, deserved and obliged that they be plunged into the deepest hell, thus on the contrary, the humble confession of contrite sinners carries them up to the lofty thrones of heavenly glory. Realize [f.141r] that this happens so that you, being burdened with evil deeds, do not despise the remedy of penance because you consider God as an excessively severe Judge. The truth is that He mercifully calls everyone to Himself and does not will to be the author of anyone’s condemnation, but desires that everyone be saved. He helps those who strive for perfection and is very merciful to those who repent. After Holy Communion 1. “Abraham was the father of Isaac” (Mt 1:2). Consider, that both Abraham and Isaac were very devoted to the virtue of obedience. The first, being called by God, departed from his native land, leaving behind his friends, relatives, and close acquaintances (cf. Gen 12:1-5). The other, being led out by his father to Mount Moriah, offered himself as a victim to be slain in sacrifice, in order to be obedient both to God and to his
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