Page:Thecompleteascet01grimuoft.djvu/507

 you should  become  attached  to  creatures  and  lose  him by whom  you,  too,  have  been  created. This was  the  practice of  the  saint. At the  sight  of  creatures  he  was accustomed to  raise  his  heart  to  God;  hence  he  exclaimed with  love:  Heaven  and  earth  and  all  things  tell me to  love  Thee. When he  beheld  the  heavens,  the stars, the  fields,  the  mountains,  he  seemed  to  hear  them say: Augustine,  love  God,  for  he  has  created  you  for  no other  end  than  that  you  might  love  him.

Thus, likewise,  St.  Teresa,  when  she  beheld  the  plains, the sea,  the  rivers,  or  other  beautiful  creatures,  felt as if  they  reproached  her  with  ingratitude  to  God. Thus also St.  Mary  Magdalene  de  Pazzi,  holding  in  her  hand a flower  or  an  apple,  and  looking  at  it,  became  enraptured with  divine  love,  saying  within  herself:  Then  my God  has  thought  from  eternity  of  creating  this  fruit  for my sake,  and  to  give  me  a  proof  of  the  love  that  he  bears me! It is  also  related  of  St.  Simon  Salo,  that  when  in walking  through  the  fields  he  saw  flowers  or  herbs,  he would  strike  them  with  his  staff,  saying:  "Be  silent!  be silent!  you  reproach  me  with  not  loving  that  God  who has  made  you  so  beautiful  for  my  sake,  that  I  might  be induced  to  love  him:  I  have  already  heard  you;  cease; reprove  me  no  longer;  be  silent."

4. The  fourth  and  most  perfect  means  of  remembering the divine  presence  is  to  consider  God  within  us. We need not  ascend  to  heaven  to  find  our  God;  let  us  be recollected  within  ourselves,  and  in  ourselves  we  shall find him. To treat  in  prayer  with  God  as  at  a  distance, causes great  distraction. St. Teresa  used  to  say:  "I never  knew  how  to  make  mental  prayer  as  it  ought  to  be made  till  God  taught  me  this  manner  of  praying:  in this  recollection  within  myself  I  have  always  found great  profit."