By Jean de Caussade

A pure heart and perfect abandonment bring us all the treasures of love.

If we wish to enjoy an abundance of blessings we have only one thing to do: purify our hearts by emptying them of all desire for created things and surrender ourselves wholly to God. By doing this we shall get all we want. Let others, Lord, ask you for all sorts of gifts. Let them increase their prayers and entreaties.

But I, my Lord, ask for one thing only and have only a single prayer -- give me a pure heart! How happy we are if our hearts are pure! Through the ardor of our faith we see God as he is. We see him in everything and at every moment working within and around us. And in all things we are his subject and his instrument. He guides us everywhere and leads us to everything. Very often we do not think about it, but he thinks for us. It is enough that we have desired what is happening to us and must happen to us by his will. He understands our readiness. We are bewildered and seek to find this desire within ourselves, but we cannot.

He, though, sees it very clearly. How silly we are! Surely we know what a well-disposed heart is: one where God is found. He sees all the good intentions there and consequently knows that this heart will always be submissive to his will. He is also aware that we do not know what is useful for us, so he makes it his business to give it to us. He cares nothing about thwarting us. If we are going eastward, he makes us turn to the west. If we are about to run onto the rocks, he takes the helm and brings us into port. We have neither map nor compass, know nothing of winds or tides, yet we always make a prosperous voyage. If pirates try to board us, an unexpected gust of wind sweeps us beyond their reach.

Good will and a pure heart! Jesus well knew what he was doing when he set you among the Beatitudes. Can there be a greater happiness than to possess God if he also possesses us? It is a state of charmed delight in which the soul sleeps blissfully in the bosom of providence, plays innocently with the divine wisdom (Prov. 8:30), and feels no anxiety about the voyage which continues on its even, happy way in spite of rocks and pirates and continual storms.

A pure heart and good will! The one foundation of every spiritual state! On you are bestowed and by you are made profitable the gifts of faith, pure hope, pure confidence and pure love. On your trunk are grafted the flowers of the desert, those precious graces which blossom in those completely detached souls in whom, as if in a deserted place, God makes his dwelling to the exclusion of all else. You are the wellspring from which flow all the rivulets that water the flowerpots of the bridegroom and the garden of the bride.

The pure heart could well say to every soul: "Look at me carefully. It is I who generate that love which chooses the better part and clings to it, I who produce that mild but effective fear which arouses such a detestation of evil that it can easily be avoided, I who impart that excellent understanding which reveals the greatness of God and the merit of virtue. And it is also I who causes that passionate and holy yearning which keeps the soul resolute in virtue, in the expectation of that enjoyment of God which will one day, more perfectly than now, be the delight of every faithful soul."

Yes, O pure Heart, you can invite everyone to gather around you and enrich themselves with your inexhaustible treasures. There is not one single kind of spiritual activity, not one path to holiness which does not lead back to you. From you they derive all that is beautiful, attractive and delightful. They draw everything from you. Those marvelous fruits of grace and goodness which we see all around us and nourish us, come from the trees and bushes transplanted into your most fertile garden. Your land flows with milk and honey (Ecclus. 46:8). Milk comes from your breasts, and your bosom is perfumed with myrrh (Song of Songs 1:13).

Come, then, my beloved souls, let us run and fly to that love which calls us. Why are we waiting? Let us set out at once, lose ourselves in the very heart of God and become intoxicated with his love. Let us snatch from his heart the key to all the treasures of heaven and then start out right away on the road to heaven. There is no need to fear that anything will be locked against us. Our key will open every door. There is no room we cannot enter. We can make ourselves free of the garden, the cellar and the vineyard. If we want to explore the countryside, no one will hinder us. We can come and go, enter and leave any place we want to because we have the key of David (Rev. 3:7), the key of knowledge (Luke 11:52), the key of the abyss (Rev. 9:1), in which are all the hidden treasures of the divine wisdom (Wis. 8:14). It is this key which opens the doors of mystical death and its sacred darkness. By it we can enter the deepest dungeons and emerge safe and sound. It gives us entrance into that blessed spot where the light of knowledge shines and the bridegroom takes his noonday rest (Song of Songs 1:7). There we quickly learn how to win his kiss (Song of Songs 1:1) and ascend with confidence the steps of the nuptial couch and learn there the secrets of love-divine secrets which must not be revealed and which no human tongue can describe.

So, dear souls, let us love, for love will give us everything. It gives us holiness and all that accompanies it. It is all around us and flows into every receptive heart. O what a thing is this holy seed which ripens into eternal life! We cannot praise it enough. But why even speak about it? How much better it is to possess it in silence than praise it in wholly inadequate words. But what am I saying?

We must praise this love, but only because we are possessed by it, for, from the very moment it seizes us, reading, writing, speaking, and everything else mean nothing to us. We can take or leave anything, we can stay at home or go out into the market place, we can be fighting fit or ill, dull or lively-according to what the heart dictates.  For  this  love-filled heart governs the rest of us. We are a mixture of the flesh and the spirit, and the heart reigns supreme over both, and all that is inspired by love delights it. But anything which unredeemed nature or the devil puts forward fills it with disgust and horror. If it is sometimes taken by surprise, it means that it will be wiser and more humble in the future.