Untitled - Saints' Books

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Exhortation to
Young Students. 45 1
ing souls, said to them: To bring about great con
versions among souls it is better to be a man of much
prayer than a man of great eloquence; for the eternal
truths that convert souls are preached differently by
the heart than they are by the The
lips."
true minis
ters of the Gospel should, therefore, lead a life that
shows itself to be in agreement with what they teach;
they should, in a word, appear like men who, detached
from the world and the flesh, seek only to procure the
glory of God and to make him loved by
all. This is
the reason why Father Caraffa added: "
Bestow all your
care on giving yourself up to the exercise of divine
love; only the love of God, as soon as it
possesses our
heart, detaches it from all inordinate love, and renders
it
pure by stripping it of earthly A affections." pure
heart," says St. Augustine,
is a heart empty of all
In
Cupidity." fact, adds St. Bernard, he that loves
rod, thinks only of loving him, and desires nothing
else: "He that loves, loves and knows nothing
else."
When one. burns with the love for God, one knows not
how to devote one s self to the love of any earthly
object.
Hence, just as students should give from year to year
proofs of their advancement in the sciences, so those
that wish to sanctify themselves should labor to acquire
not only from year to year, but from day to day, a
great love for God. They should endeavor to increase
in themselves holy love by often repeating acts of love,
by offering to God every action that they begin, with the
intention of performing it only to please him, and by
always begging him to grant them the light and the
strength necessary to accomplish the good desires with
which he inspires them.
St. Thomas of Villanova used to say:
"To convert
2
1 "
Cor purum est cor vacuum ab omni cupiditate."
2 "
Qui amat, amat, et aliud novit nihil." In Cant. s. 83.