529 part iv: meditations for weekly retreats so much more gentle, friendly, and favorable on account of your penitential acts. 3. Being aware of your reconciliation with the God of the highest goodness, throw yourself at last into His embrace. Wonder at the patience with which He awaited your conversion and improvement; be amazed at the kindliness with which He drew you to Himself; praise the goodness and kindness with which He received you when you were returning, the son who was worse than the lost prodigal son from the Gospel. Oh, how great is the kindness of the Savior, Who received you intoHis grace and presented youwith salvation although the fairest Judge could most rightly condemn and thrust you into the infernal fires. How oftenmen commit some greater offense and then, when justice is brought upon them, no treasures, no power of prayers, no intercessions of friends could deliver them from death. You, on the other hand, with evil deeds of infinitemalice, assailed, offended and angered the Lord of infinite goodness, your Creator and Redeemer. Although youmerited eternal death for this reason, He did not punish you by it, but rather promised and will surely give you the immortality gained by His most cruel death, if now you cease at last to offend Him and begin to love Him. What a lasting memorial of such great divine goodness and love towards you it is! Oh, why do you not cling wholeheartedly to such a merciful, generous, and most gracious Lord? Why do you not die of love in His bosom? Why are you not wholly His so that He might be wholly yours? Why do you not repay love with love? May Christ, Who is the Love of all men and the Savior of all mankind, teach and instill this love in you! MEDITATION XVIII BEFORE ANY HOLY COMMUNION 1. Consider that our Lord and Savior [f.172v] Jesus Christ, the only Son of the true and only God, personally instituted the Most Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist. It happened in Jerusalem, at
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