Page:Complete ascetical works of St Alphonsus v6.djvu/391

Rh ''war in your members? You covet, and have not.'' The first war springs from the appetite for sensual delights. Let us take away the occasion; let us mortify the eyes; let us recommend ourselves to God, and the war will be over. The second war arises from the covetousness of riches: let us cultivate a love of poverty, and this war will cease. The third war has its source in ambitiously seeking after honors: let us love humility and the hidden life, and this war too will be no more. The fourth war, and the most ruinous of all, comes from self-will: let us practise resignation in all things which happen by the will of God, and the war will cease. St. Bernard tells us that whenever we see a person troubled, the origin of his trouble is nothing else but his inability to gratify self-will. "Whence comes disquiet," says the saint, " except that we follow self-will?" Our Blessed Lord once complained of this to St. Mary Magdalene of Pazzi, in these words: "Certain souls desire my Spirit, but after their own fancy; and so they become incapable of receiving it."

We must therefore love God in the way that pleases God, and not that pleases us. God will have the soul divested of all, in order to be united to himself, and to be replenished with his divine love. St. Teresa writes as follows: "The prayer of union appears to me to be nothing more than to die utterly, as it were, to all things in this world, for the enjoyment of God alone. One thing is certain, that the more completely we empty ourselves of creatures, by detaching ourselves from them for the love of God, the more abundantly will he fill us with himself, and the more closely shall we be united with