Charity.
“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart. This is the greatest and the first commandment,
and the second is like to this: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” — St. Matt. 22:38
FIFTEENTH DAY.
He Who has commanded us to love our neighbor has also told us the manner in which we should love him. We must love him as ourselves. This is the rule; we cannot transgress it without being guilty. It is so essential to love our neighbor in this manner, that in loving him in any other way different from this we do not love him sufficiently. — St. Francis of Sales.
The holy king Wenceslaus employed a great part of his wealth in buying the children of pagan parents, and had them baptized and brought up in the Catholic faith.
A good Christian was accustomed to say thus to himself when a beggar asked an alms, or any one begged a favor of him, “If I was in this person’s place and he in mine, what would I wish him to do? Let me do it, then, for the love of Jesus Christ.”
A worthy bishop one day had a gentleman of great distinction dining with him who spoke very uncharitably of an absent person. In order to give him a salutary lesson the bishop sent one of his servants for the man whose reputation he was destroying. The detractor was surprised to hear him give this order. “I have sent for him,” said the bishop, “that he may answer your charges; it would be unjust to condemn him without hearing what he has to say.”
Prayer
My God, grant that for love of Thee I may do to all in misfortune as I would wish them to do in my regard if I were in their place and they in mine.