"A vow is a promise made to God on oath of performing some good act. There are two kinds of vows: the conditional vow, and that which is made without any condition. The condition once realised, the vow that has been made must be fulfilled; the absolute vow, or that which includes no condition, must always be performed. A vow is a thing very pleasing to God, and the actions performed under the obligation or necessity of a vow are more pleasing to God than others, because the engagement to perform them was voluntary. There is no sin in not making vows, but there is sin in not performing them, and the sin is so much the graver as the thing promised is grave and important, unless there has been an express reservation, to the effect that there is no obligation to fulfil the vow under pain of mortal sin. It is prudent never to make a vow without the authorisation of the confessor, and a confessor ought never to permit of vows in perpetuity and for life, until he has well convinced himself of the virtue, firmness, and energy of him who wishes to enter into such engagement. "What troubles a man creates for himself by vows lightly taken! What embarrassments he would have spared himself by not taking those vows! What graces a man draws down upon himself when he corresponds with the desire which God manifests to him that he should bind himself by vow. What aids he obtains for himself! Oh, blessed are they who resist the world and its riches by the vow of poverty, and who remain faithful in observing it. Blessed are they who resist the devil and his spirit of rebellion and pride by the vow of obedience, and who remain faithful in observing it! Blessed are they who resist concupiscence and impurity by the REWARD OF FIDELITY TO vows. 205 vow of chastity, and remain faithful in observing it! "I will be their riches in Eternity; I will be their glory in Eternity; I will be their happiness in Eternity. Our relations, begun in time, will endure for ever and ever. Have hope, My daughter; you will triumph over all. I will hide you like My dove in the hole of the rock; I will take you away from the world, and give you a place in the holy family consecrated to My Divine Heart then you will be wholly Mine, and I shall be wholly yours." : Love to Jesus for ever in the Sacrament of the Altar. Amen. BOOK XII. THE FOUR LAST THINGS. Glory and praise, love and thanksgiving be rendered unceasingly to Jesus in the Holy Sacrament of the Altar, to the Father, and the Holy Ghost for ever and ever. Amen. 1. Of life; natural, spiritual, and eternal. THE Saviour Jesus said to me one day: "My daughter, life is God, life is I Myself; I call Myself life, I am the life, I give life to every one who has it; I have given it to all which have possessed it from the beginning of time, and I shall give it to all which shall possess it in ages yet to come. My life is not like the life of creatures. Creatures have only a participation of life, whilst I possess life in all its reality and all its plenitude. My life is eternal; it never had a beginning and it will never have an end. The life of man is finite, it is limited, it has an end; but this life is not true life; it is but an adumbration of the life which he is to receive when this first life is lost to him. "The life of man after his resurrection will never have an end; it will endure for ever, and I will give him this boundless participation in the life which will make him the son of God, as I gave Myself the participation THE SUPERNATURAL LIFE. 207 in the life of man which made Me the Son of Man. It was by the abasement of My Divinity that I took part in the life of man, and became the Son of Man. It is by the elevation of his humanity that man will obtain a share in the life of God, and become like unto Him by that participation. "This is why I created man, to make him a sharer in My life; this is why I redeemed him, to make him a sharer in My life; this is why I bestowed My graces upon him, to make him a sharer in My life. "There are then three lives in man: the life for time, the natural life or the life of creation n; the life both for time and for Eternity, the supernatural life or the life of redemption; and the life of Eternity or of glory. "These three lives are given to man; he has no right to them, he has them from God. All ought to receive these three lives from God; this is God's will and desire, and yet all do not receive them. The first two lead on to the third, but only when they are employed in accordance with the law given to man by his God. If he breaks these laws man does not receive the eternal life of glory; he receives, indeed, eternal life, but in malediction and separation from God. "I have spoken to you, My daughter, of the supernatural life which I bestow upon men by My grace, the admirable life which raises man to the dignity of son of God and renders his actions meritorious for Heaven. This life is at once in the life of time and in that of Eternity. It is in the life of time by the natural life of man; it is in the life of Eternity by the life of glory. This is why, in speaking to you of the natural life and of the glorious life, I shall not separate from these two lives the idea of supernatural life, because it is found in both the one and the other. "The life of man in time is the work of an intelligent and reasonable being, meriting either the life of glory or that of a miserable Eternity. "This life is a labour, and therefore a trouble, a tribulation, a continual suffering. Tears, wailings, and groanings belong to this life. It is an exile, a place of passage and transition; it is a tent set up in a desert which has to be removed on the morrow. passes away like the shadow of a cloud scattered by the wind; it passes away like a dream, and the longest life, when it is about to end-what is it to him who loses it? It "Thus, My daughter, you must not attach yourself to this life, or set your heart upon it, and let yourself be captivated by it. All its happiness, if you will examine it, will appear to you only misery; but all its woes, all its afflictions, all its sufferings, will prove inestimable blessings, if you know how to receive them as I have taught you. "To what end, then, My daughter, have you received this life of time? To know God, to love Him, and to serve Him, and by this knowledge, love, and service, to attain to the life of glory in Eternity. "This is why you have received life. If you thus employ your temporal life, it will be good, for thus you will be born again to the only true life, the life which will never pass away. If you thus employ your life, you will not attach yourself to this life for itself, but for God, who gave it you; you will not attach yourself to this life in order to acquire the goods which it possesses, but to gain the goods which are prepared by God who gave it you; you will live the life |