Just for Today, December 31

Be pure and free interiorly, without being entangled by any creature. Thou must be naked and carry a pure heart to God, if thou wilt attend at leisure, and see how sweet the Lord is.

And indeed thou wilt never attain to this, unless thou be prevented and drawn by His grace; that so thou mayest all alone be united to Him alone, having cast out and dismissed all others.
-Bk. II, ch. viii.
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One morning after Holy Communion, Our Lord made me understand these words of the Canticle of Canticles: Draw me: we will run after thee in the odour of thy ointments (Cant. i, 3). When I pray: draw me, it is not necessary to add and draw all those I love. When a soul is led on by the sweet odour of Thy ointments, she does not run alone; the souls she loves are inevitably drawn after her. As a torrent carries down to the sea what lies in its path, so does the soul take with her all that she treasures when she casts herself into the boundless ocean of Thy love. Thou knowest, Lord, that my treasures are the souls Thou hast entrusted to me, and to whom my soul is closely knit.

I know not when my exile is to end, I may yet sing many times my evening hymn in praise of Thy tender mercies; but when my last day draws to its close, may I be allowed to make my own Thy words on the last evening of Thy mortal life:

I have glorified thee on the earth, I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do, I have manifested thy name to those whom thou hast given me, thine they were, and to me thou gavest them. Now they have known that all things which thou hast given me, are from thee: because the words which thou gavest me, I have given to them, and they have received them, and have believed that thou didst send me (John xvii).

-The Story of a Soul (L'Histoire d'une Âme)
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For more information, see this post.
Adapted from Just For Today(©1943 Burns & Oates)
Nihil Obstat: Reginaldus Phillips, S.T.L.,Censor deputatus
Imprimatur: Edwardus Myers, Vic. Cap.