Spiritual Gems of Elizabeth Ann Seton: the Love of God
Oh, well may I love my God! and well may my whole soul strive to please Him, for what but the strain of an angel can ever express what He has done and is constantly doing for me? While I live, while I have my being, in time and through eternity, let me praise my God.
From eternity to eternity Thou art my God. All shall perish and pass away, but Thou remainest forever.
Oh, omnipotent Jesus! Give me what Thyself commandest; for though to love Thee be of all things most sweet, yet it is above the reach and strength of nature. But I am inexcusable if I do not love Thee, for Thou grantest Thy love to all who desire or ask it. I cannot see without light, yet if I shut my eyes to the noonday light the fault is not in the sun, but in me.
Scarcely the expended heart receives its longing desire, when, wrapt in His love, covered with His righteousness, we are no longer the same. We are transformed by adoration, thanksgiving, love, joy, peace, contentment.
This union of my soul with God is my wealth in poverty and joy in deepest affliction.
Can there be any actual sorrow in the soul that confidently says: "My God and my All"?
At all events, happen now what will, I rest in God.
Let us always whisper His name of love as an antidote to all the discord that surrounds us. We cannot say the rest. The harmony of heaven begins for us while, silent from all the world, we again and again repoeat, "Jesus, Jesus, Jesus!"
My Father and my God, while I live let me praise, while I have my being let me serve and adore Thee!"
I am an atom! You are God!
Let me always hear and love Thy voice, and follow Thee as a meek and quiet lamb, making it the care of my life to keep near my beloved Master, and if ever I should lose my way, or for a moment be so unhappy as to disobey They commands, oh, call Thy wanderer home.
Only reflect, if we did not know and love God, if we did not feel the consolation and embrace the cheering hope He has set before us, and find our delight in the study of His blessed word and truth, what would become of us?
I have been reading of the high and holy One who inhabits eternity... How the world lessens and recedes! How calm and peaceful are the hours spent in such solitude! They are marked down for useful purposes and their memory remains.
Oh, let our souls praise Thee, and our all be devoted to Thy service. Then at the last we shall praise Thee day without night, rejoicing in Thy eternal courts. By the light of Thy celestial glories all our darkness, pains and sorrows will be forever dispersed. Those clouds and griefs which now opporess and weigh down the souls of poor, erring creaures will be gone and remembered no more, those thorns which now obstruct our path, all shall be done away.
Why care for anything personal? The little remaining moment all too little, indeed, for penance, much less for reparation of love.
