Untitled - Saints' Books

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396 Material for Instructions. [PART n.
to please himself. I will offer up to Thee holocausts full
of marrow? says David. Works performed without the
proper intention, are victims without marrow, which
God rejects. In the oblations made to him he regards
not the value of the offering, but the affection with
which it is presented. God," says Salvian, looks not
so much at the value of the offering as at the disposition
with which it is offered." Of our Saviour 5
it was justly
said: He hath done all things well* For in all his actions
he sought only the pleasure of his eternal Father: /
seek not my own will, but the will of Him that sent me*
But, alas! only few of our works are perfectly pleasing
to God; because few are done without some desire of
our own glory.
It is rare," says St. Jerome,
to find a
faithful soul that never acts out of vain-glory."
8
How
many priests on the day of judgment shall say to Jesus
Christ: Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied, and cast out
devils in Thy name, and done many miracles in Thy name ? 8
Lord, we have preached, we have celebrated Masses, we
have heard confessions, we have converted souls, we
have assisted the dying. The Lord shall answer: /
never knew you
:
depart from Me, you that work iniquity?
He shall say: Begone,
I have never known you as my
ministers, for you have not labored for me, but for your
own glory or interest.
Hence Jesus Christ exhorts us to conceal the works
1 "
Holocausta medullata offeram tibi." Ps. Ixv. 15.
2 "
Oblata Deo, non pretio, sed affectu placent."
Adv. Avarit. 1. i.
3 "
Bene omnia fecit." Mark, vii. 37.
4 " Non
quaero voluntatem meam, sed voluntatem ejus qui misit me."
John, v. 30.
5
Rarum "
est, fidelem animam inveniri, ut nihil ob gloriae cupiditatem
facial."
6 "
Dial. adv. Lnciferianos.
Domine, nonne in nomine tuo prophetavimus, et in nomine tuo
daemonia ejecimus, et in nomine tuovirtutes multas fecimus?" Matth.
vii. 22.
7
"Nunquam novi vos; discedite a me, qui operamini iniquitatem."