Certain Reminders That Can Move Our Will to Desire in Every Act to Please God

In order that you may more readily move your will to desire, in all things, nothing but the pleasing of God and his glory, recall frequently that he has already honored you in many ways and has shown you his love: he created you from nothing in his own image and likeness, and made all other creatures to serve you; he delivered you from slavery to the devil by sending not some angel, but his own only-begotten Son, to redeem you not with the perishable price of gold and silver, but with his own priceless Blood and his death—the most painful and humiliating of deaths; and after all this, every hour and every moment he preserves you from enemies, fights for you with his divine grace, and prepares for your nourishment and protection in the most holy Mysteries the Body and Blood of his beloved Son.

All this is a sign of God’s great honor and love toward you—an honor so great that it is impossible even to comprehend how so great a Lord of all should show such honor to our lowliness and unworthiness. Judging from this, what veneration and what reverence ought we to render to so immeasurably great a Majesty, who has done such wondrous works for us. If we cannot restrain ourselves from expressing gratitude, praise, honor, and obedience to earthly kings who benefit us, then to what immeasurable degree ought we, who are the most insignificant of beings, to render all such things to the most high King of all, who has so loved and benefited us as cannot even be numbered.

Above all else that has just been said, keep always in memory that the divine Majesty is in itself worthy of all honor, worship, and wholehearted service for the sake of pleasing him.