zeal

Meditation from the 7th preliminary day of the
Total Consecration to Jesus through Mary by St. Louis de Montfort.

(from "The Imitation of Christ" by Thomas a Kempis: Book 1, Chapter 18)
"Outwardly they suffered want, but within they were refreshed with grace and Divine consolation. They were aliens to the world; they seemed as nothing and the world despised them; but they were precious and beloved in the sight of God. They persevered in true humility, they lived in simple obedience, they walked in charity and patience, and so everyday they advanced in spirit and gained favor with God. They were given for example to all religious, and ought more to excite us to advance in good, than the number of lukewarm to induce us to grow remiss. Oh! How great was the fervor of all religious in the beginning of their institute! Oh, how great was their zeal for virtue! How vigorous the discipline that was kept up, what reverence and obedience, under the rule of the superior, flourished in all! Their traces that remain still bear witness, that they were truly holy and perfect men and women who did battle so stoutly, and trampled the world under their feet. Now, he is thought great who is not a transgressor; and who can, with patience, endure what he has undertaken. Ah, the lukewarmness and negligence of our state! That we soon fall away from our first fervor, and are even now tired with life, from slothfulness and tepidity. Oh that advancement in virtue be not quite asleep in thee, who has so often seen the manifold examples of the devout!"

St. Louis de Montfort and Our Lady of Guadeloupe, pray that my zeal and fervor for the Lord's work may never slacken and that we may all be filled with a burning desire for holiness!