GUIDELINES FOR
SALVATION
Your indifference to whatever state you find yourself in and to
the success or otherwise of your good deeds reveal your right intention.
When human nature wills something, it demands it at all costs, but when
motivated by God's grace, you remain detached to its desires since you want only what God
wills.
There is nobody more powerful than the person who prays. No
one can live according to God's heart without prayer. You must know that the lips toil in vain
unless the heart prays. Who does not pray will be lost and damned
forever.
Persuade yourself that it is impossible to live without bearing
your cross. Wherever you go, you will always find
your cross waiting for
you. Consequently, when you come across adversity, say to yourself.
"It must needs be so, it must needs be so!" Resign yourself and
do great good to yourself.
God created everything for Himself, and He directs and governs
everything according to His will. Once you know this truth, would you dare put up the
least resistance, particularly when you know that nothing happens
at random and that
everything occurs in the way God wants? Has there ever been anyone who resisted
God's will and found
peace?
If you want to discern God's will, see whether there is anything
sinful. Everything except sin, comes from God's will. Only
sin goes against the will of God; yet what comes out as an effect of sin may
not be sinful at all, and as such it is willed by God.
However hard you strive, all your work will be futile if the Lord
God does not pour from heaven the dew of His Grace. In vain the sentries
watch, if God does not guard the city; in vain do the workers toil, if God
Himself does not build the house.
God is spirit, and whoever adores Him, must adore Him in spirit
and in truth. Such are the persons
whom God seeks to adore Him. You are adoring God in spirit and in truth,
if, when you become aware of evil, you reject it, and when
you prefer God's will to
everything else.
Seek a good friend, if you do not have one already, a friend who
would get you closer to God. For if you find a good friend, you have
found a treasure. Hold dear to your heart those persons who get you closer to God, and
flee from those who lead you away from Him, for these surely jeapardise your
peace of heart.
Know well that you do not possess true peace of heart if you still
desire something of this world with which you satisfy yourself. True peace means you do not
wish for anything, for your heart is already full. A tumbler full to the brim cannot have more
water poured into it.
One's god is what has the greatest attraction
for one. Study well and make sure that your God is the God of
Abraham and not a creature or a thing. St. Paul spoke of those who live
like beasts, and says
that they make their belly their god. (Phil.3.19)
From the writings of
St.George Preca, the Maltese saint.
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