for
it, like the Spouse in the Canticles, "I think that I have given
nothing."[11] After so many graces, may I not sing with the
Psalmist that "the Lord is good, that His Mercy endureth for
ever"?[12]

It seems to me that if everyone were to receive such favours God
would be feared by none, but loved to excess; that no one would
ever commit the least wilful fault--and this through love, not
fear.

Yet all souls cannot be alike. It is necessary that they should
differ from one another in order that each Divine Perfection may
receive its special honour. To me, He has given His Infinite
Mercy, and it is in this ineffable mirror that I contemplate his
other attributes. Therein all appear to me radiant with Love. His
Justice, even more perhaps than the rest, seems to me to be
clothed with Love. What joy to think that Our Lord is just, that
is to say, that He takes our weakness into account, that He knows
perfectly the frailty of our nature! Of what, then, need I be
afraid?

Will not the God of Infinite Justice, Who deigns so lovingly to
pardon the sins of the Prodigal Son, be also just to me "who am
always with Him"?[13]

In the year 1895 I received the grace to understand, more than
ever, how much Jesus desires to be loved. Thinking one day of
those who offer themselves as victims to the Justice of God, in
order to turn aside the punishment reserved for sinners by taking
it upon themselves, I felt this offering to be noble and generous,
but was very far from feeling myself drawn to make it. "O my
Divine Master," I cried from the bottom of my heart, "shall Thy
Justice alone receive victims of holocaust? Has not Thy Merciful
Love also need thereof? On all sides it is ignored, rejected . . .
the hearts on which Thou wouldst lavish it turn to creatures,
there to seek their happiness in the miserable satisfaction of a
moment, instead of casting themselves into Thine Arms, into the
unfathomable furnace of Thine Infinite Love.

"O my God! must Thy Love which is disdained lie hidden in Thy
Heart? Methinks, if Thou shouldst find souls offering themselves
as victims of holocaust to Thy Love, Thou wouldst consume them
rapidly; Thou wouldst be well pleased to suffer the flames of
infinite tenderness to escape that are imprisoned in Thy Heart.

"If Thy Justice--which is of earth--must needs be satisfied, how
much more must Thy Merciful Love desire to inflame souls, since
_"Thy mercy reacheth even to the Heavens"_?[14] O Jesus