Page:Sermons for all the Sundays in the year.djvu/230

 earthly affections, there is no room for divine love. Let us therefore continually implore the Lord in our prayers, communions, and visits to the blessed sacrament, to give us his holy love; for this love will expel from our souls all affections for the things of this earth. ” When," says St. Francis de Sales, ” a house is on fire, all that is within is thrown out through the windows." By these words the saint meant, that when a soul is inflamed with divine love, she easily detaches herself from creatures: and Father Paul Segneri, the younger, used to say, that divine love is a thief that robs us of all earthly affections, and makes us exclaim: ” What, O my Lord, but thee alone, do I desire ?" 14.  ” Love is strong as death." (Cant. viii. 6.) As no creature can resist death when the hour of dissolution arrives, so there is no difficulty which love, in a soul that loves God, does not overcome. When there is question of pleasing her beloved, love conquers all things: it conquers pains, losses, ignominies. ” Nihil tam durum quod non amoris igne vincatur." This love made the martyrs, in the midst of torments, racks, and burning gridirons, rejoice, and thank God for enabling them to suffer for him: it made the other saints, when there was no tyrant to torment them, become, as it were, their own executioners, by fasts, disciplines, and penitential austerities. St. Augustine says, that in doing what one loves there is no labour, and if there be, the labour itself is loved. ” In eo quod amatur aut non laboratur, aut ipse labor amatur." IN this day’s gospel we find that Jesus Christ once said to his disciples: "Be ye merciful, as your Father also is merciful." (Luke vi. 36.) As your heavenly Father is merciful towards you, so must you be merciful to others. He then proceeds to explain how, and in what,