507 part iv: meditations for weekly retreats Wicked and abominable is the poverty that is not practiced out of love. Faulty is the gentleness which is not begotten by love. Rigid is all perfection, virtue and action that is not warmed by love. Realize with regard to these things that it is impossible for us to carry out any work to a heroic degree without charity. And consider that it is why it happens that many remove their hand from the plough, stop at the middle way of perfection and dishonorably abandon their pious works; because charity does not help them, does not motivate them, does not support them, and does not strengthen them. I do not hesitate to assert that not even our good Savior would have been ready to accomplish the greatest work of human salvation without charity. Indeed, the case presents itself thus: how could He accomplish what He undertook for that reason, moved by the greatest motive of charity, without the same virtue? Whatever He did, underwent, and endured for our life, all this is to be ascribed to charity, which alone accomplished it. O charity, you most excellent leader of virtues and teacher of perfection! O holy charity, eternal ardor, salutary flame, feeder of souls, mother of peace, bond of peoples and minds, the one which unites our spirit to God! May you never, in relation to God the highest Goodness or my neighbor, weaken or die out in my heart! May you be present as my companion everywhere, in my every thought, resolution, intention, and action!247 May you never depart from me! Let learning, prophecies and revelations go away, but you, O charity, do not abandon me! May I enter with you into the abodes of the Blessed and into the kingdom of charity, from which, O most powerful virtue, you have brought the divine Offspring down to the world’s kingdom. Amen. 247 Cf. RL, pp. 59-60 (Ch. II, § 3).
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