Saint Stanislaus Papczynski Selected Writings

489 part iv: meditations for weekly retreats the emotion moving you to Him; and you will hasten to offer Him a loving thanksgiving with your whole heart. For why should you not love Him, Who has loved and still loves you so greatly that He never removed from you His most gracious and most benevolent eye? 3. Bring back to memory the gifts, charisms and all the favors that the Lord has bestowed on you up to this point. Consider their greatness, multitude, value, and excellence; and blush with shame because [f.162r] not only do you not repay Him, but you also do not even show due gratitude. Remember Teresa, the saint who loved God so much, she who upon considering the divine benefits bestowed upon her, cried out and begged that they be limited. Do not forget all that God, the most provident Creator, has supplied so abundantly and sufficiently for your bodily needs and amenities without any concern or effort on your part. Hence, stir up in your soul a great desire to repay Him by any possible means so that you do not allow the benefits of the infinite and most merciful Benefactor to pass you by. Let your colloquy contain expressions of thanksgiving and resolutions to strive for more perfect things and to apply yourself better and more perfectly to the works of charity. 1 Our Father. 1 Hail Mary. MEDITATION III THE EXAMINATION OF CONSCIENCE TO BE MADE CONCERNING VIRTUES Firstly: On Obedience 1. Consider that only a pure conscience shall fear nothing on the last day, the Day of Judgment. Since you do not know at what moment you will be carried away from the living and pass through the door of eternity; shall you not apply yourself wholeheartedly in this most blessed time, granted to you solely for putting your conscience in a holy order, as to free it from any fear? Yet, since

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