Page:Meditations For Every Day In The Year.djvu/147

 field is  your  soul,  which  is  capable  of  receiving  either good or  bad  seed. The seed  which  God  sows  in  it  consists of  grace,  holy  inspirations,  and  pious  affections, arising from  the  perusal  of  good  books,  from  attention to sermons  and  to  the  advice  of  spiritual  directors. The most precious  seed,  however,  is  His  own  body  and  blood in the  sacrament;  for  "  this  is  the  corn  of  the  chosen ones." (Zach. ix.  17.)

II. The soil  of  your  soul  is  in  itself  fruitless  and  barren, and  produces  nothing  but  the  weeds  of  vice  and passion. Sometimes, like  the  field  in  the  Gospel,  it  is covered  with  cockle,  that  is,  with  vices  bearing  the  resemblance of  virtue;  and  these  fill  the  mind  with  vain hopes of  future  fruit:  but  when  the  harvest-time  arrives, that is,  at  the  last  judgment,  they  will  be  cast  into  the fire. Purify your  soul  by  mortification  from  these  weeds of vice;  separate  the  cockle  from  the  good  grain;  distinguish real  virtue  from  its  resemblances,  that  the  seed of the  heavenly  sower  may  not  be  choked  in  your  soul.

III. How anxiously  you  ought  to  labor  in  the  affairs of salvation,  in  order  that  you  may  yield  fruit  proportionate to  the  divine  seed  which  God  sows  in  your  soul when you  approach  the  holy  sacraments! Beware lest you provoke  this  heavenly  husbandman  to  indignation, and force  Him  to  condemn  you  to  the  fire. " For  the earth,  which  drinketh  in  the  rain  which  cometh  upon  it, and  bringeth  forth  herbs  and  meat  for  those  by  whom  it is  tilled,  receiveth  blessing  from  God.  But  that  which bringeth  forth  thorns  and  briers  is  rejected  and  very near  to  a  curse,  whose  end  is  to  be  burnt." (Heb. vi.  7.)