Serious Hours of a Young Lady | Page 8

soul is swayed by a pure and generous
sentiment, and when the natural weakness of their sex gives place to an
energy which few men are capable of displaying, their ardor in doing
good is truly admirable. God alone knows all the treasures of virtue
stored up within them daily, by charity, maternal love, filial piety,
devotedness and compassion, but He alone also knows the malicious
excess to which a sentiment, bad in its nature or in its source, may lead
them.
Oh, if while standing between these two abysses of good and evil, you
could sound their depth, and behold the ineffable joy and glory that
women have secured by the practice of virtue, the sorrow, disgust,
humiliation and shame that evil doings have brought upon them (faults
which at first sight did not seem capable of entailing such fatal
consequences) horror and admiration should dispute the possession of
your soul; you would indeed tremble on beholding the consequences of
neglecting your vocation, while you would be astonished at the sublime
elevation that fidelity to grace would secure to you in heaven.
God desires to accomplish great things through your instrumentality,
and in order to secure your services with greater certainty he has placed
around you barriers which you cannot pass without an effort that does
violence to nature, still necessity makes it a duty to break them down,
and necessity has no law. When the first step is taken nothing can
impede the will in the execution of your designs, be they good or bad.
Hence the great importance of making your first step in the right
direction, as it will be the prelude to countless others.
If you wish to possess your own heart and insure to yourself a life

exempt from trouble and remorse, attach it firmly to God; accustom it
to always prefer duty to pleasure and to propose to itself in all its
movements an end worthy of your sublime destiny. Remember that
God alone can satisfy it--no creature being able to give it that peace
which it so ardently craves. O, my child, if you knew the gnawing
desires, the vain hopes, the false joys, the troubles, the regrets and
bitterness that fill the heart in which God does not dwell! If your eyes
were not screened by the veil of candor and simplicity preventing you
from foreseeing the torments to which that woman's life is exposed,
who has not learned in early youth to regulate the desires and affections
of her heart, you would better understand my words, and the necessity
of laboring energetically and efficiently to direct your own, and to
check all its irregular movements. Learn now, and profit by the
experience of others. Hearken to the voice of God addressing you in
these words: "The flowers have appeared in our land, the time of
pruning is come; the voice of the turtle is heard in our land; the vines in
flower yield their sweet smell. Arise, my love, and come. Catch us the
little foxes that destroy the vines, for our vineyard hath flourished."
(Cant. ch. ii. 12, 13, 15). The foxes of which the sacred writer speaks
here are those defects which, although they appear small, still assail the
soul with great virulence, and will leave no virtue intact unless you
hasten to destroy them.
The time for pruning is the time of youth, age truly precious wherein
you can still lop off useless branches which absorb a portion of the sap,
depriving the others of that strength which they need in order to
produce an abundance of savory fruit. You should attack not only those
gross and manifest defects which disfigure the soul, but also those
imperfections which are slight in appearance, but which, if left alone,
will in time become pernicious inclinations. You should even watch
over certain natural dispositions, which, though good in themselves,
and even often esteemed above their true merit by the world, might
easily, on that account, divert the thoughts of the mind and the efforts
of the will from more important objects; dispositions very often
dangerous for those who possess them, because it is easy to abuse them,
and because they flatter and nourish self-love, or the other passions that
flesh is heir to. You should imitate those intelligent gardeners who pay
a daily visit to their garden, pruning knife in hand, and cut off branches

that might exhaust or overcharge the tree--not sparing them for the
beauty of their foliage or the brightness of their flowers.
If you wish to cultivate your heart and make it produce all the fruit and
virtue that it is capable of producing, suffer nothing useless or
superfluous to grow therein, choosing what is best, measuring your
esteem of certain things, and your application of certain duties