He leaves us the fruits of his benefits...

 

The Pearl

  

     In the springtime the skies prepare drops of fresh dew and shower them down on the face of the sea and the mothers of pearl that open their shells, receive these drops, and turn them into pearls. On the contrary, the mothers of pearl that keep their shells shut do not stop the dew from falling down upon them but stop it from falling into them. Have not the skies sent down their dew and their influence on both the one and the other of those mothers of pearl? Why then did one of them actually produce its pearl and the other fail? The sky was as generous to that which remained sterile as was needful to empearl it and to make it pregnant by its fair union, but it hindered the sky’s beneficent effect by remaining closed and covered up. As for that which conceived the pearl and became gravid with that dew, throughout the operation it has nothing which it did not receive from the sky, not even its act of opening up by which it received the dew. If it had not felt those morning rays which had gently aroused it, it would neither have risen to the surface of the sea nor would it have opened its shell.

    ... if we have any love for God, let its honor and glory be to Him who placed all of it in us, and ‘without whom nothing was made’ (John 1:3) This is God’s division of His goodness with us: He leaves us the fruits of His benefits and He reserves for Himself the honor and praise thereof. Since  ‘without His grace all of us are nothing’ (1 Cor. 15;10)


        St Francis De Sales

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