Ave Maria Meditations
Gentleness is indispensable for us if we already become holy; and this we frequently forget. Undoubtedly many souls do not sanctify themselves because of a lack of power; but many also, indeed very many, failed to do so because of a want of gentleness.
The human soul is precious and delicate. It came forth from the divine lips as a most gentle breath. It is cleansed and rendered beautiful with the divine Blood of Jesus; and it is destined to be united with God himself to participate in the life in an ineffable mystery of the most Blessed Trinity.
Such an exquisite jewel must be handled with consummate delicacy. That is how God treated, and that is how we should treated. What an atmosphere of purity of mind, of peace, and a delicacy to surround a soul for it to achieve it sanctification!…I think that the greater part of the spiritual ills of souls who seek perfection comes from a lack of gentleness…
Unknowing and proud, they have not discovered the secret of mildness, the daughter of love, which is patient and benign. If they possessed this secret, they would understand that one arrives at perfection by paths that are strewn with imperfections, which must be born with humility; that when a soul falls, it does not arise with agitation, but gently places itself in the merciful hands of God by means of humility and trust in him; that God does not ask for the perfection of our conduct, but for the perfection of our heart, as the wonderfully mild St. Francis DeSales so admirably teaches us.
Servant of God Luis Martinez
