Page:The Catholic prayer book.djvu/235

 mystic death. Delay not  then,  O loving  Father,  to come  and  meet  thy  repentant  child,  that  thou  mayst put an  end  to  my  misery,  reform  me  to  thy  image, and keep  me  for  ever  united  to  thee.

POSSESS thee,  O most  amiable  Father ! in my heart: what  a prodigy  of  love  and  forbearance ! But what  dost  thou  demand  in  return? "My child, give  me  thy  heart! ” (Prow,  xxiii.  26.)  To  this tender  invitation,  my  God,  what  shall  I answer? Can it  be  possible  that  thou,  beholding  its  misery,  should see  anything  in  it  worthy  of  thy  acceptance; rather are  there  not  many  things  in  it  which  should  cause thee  to  reject  it? But  thou  demandest  it  even  with a degree  of  jealousy, and  threatenest  me  with  thy heaviest  judgments  if  I refuse  to  give  it  to  thee. Receive  it,  then,  my  God; I can  no  longer  refuse  it; to  whom  else  can  I give  it? What  has  it  ever  found or  what  can  it  ever  look  for  out  of  thee,  but  emptiness, agitation  and  bitterness! I recall  with  grief those  days  of  darkness,  when  this  miserable  heart was  far  removed  from  thee,  straying  from  the  path of  rectitude.  To  what  a deplorable  state, was  it reduced,  when,  drawn  away  by  the  seductions  of  the world, it  yielded  to  its  false  joys,  and  was  inebriated with its  fatal  pleasures: when,  criminally  attached  to the  earth,  it  thought  only  of  accumulating  its  perishable goods,  and  seemed  to  lose  sight  of  those  which were eternal: when  domineered  over  by  its  criminal passions, it  yielded  to  their  guilty  suggestions,  erecting an  idol within itself,  to  which  it  sacrificed  its repose, its  liberty,  its  conscience,  its  religion,  and  its God. But as  a criminal  state  can  be  no  other  than