Maxims for Those Who Are Aspiring to Great Love
Love is a direction and not a state of the soul. – Simone Weil
Day 1. Be constantly aware of what draws your heart; that is, what draws you gently and firmly: the Great Love which created you, holds you and loves you. This comes to you with all the largesse of which God is capable…divine largesse which is tender and faithful.
Day 2. God’s rain falls on the just and unjust, the good and the bad alike (Mt. 5:46-47). Be aware of this inclusive fidelity and courageously choose to live as God does – this all-inclusive, world-loving God without bias and prejudice.
Day 3. Love nothing but God and what can be called Divine, that is, what is embraced by God’s love. Day 4. Be wholly given to God by a complete self-abandonment to divine Providence; that is, completely at God’s disposal, doing all for creatures that God would do for their contentment and fulfillment.
Day 5. Be wholly in God by the constant deepening awareness of God’s presence.
Da y 6. Be wholly according to God by a perfect conformity of your every desire and of the state of your life to the beloved ordering of the divine desire for creation’s fulfillment.
Day 7. See often your greatness in God! See your own very weak nature so that you trust all the more firmly in God’s strength in you.
Day 8. Be conscious of God’s dwelling within you so that, led by Love, your least action is great because God is its sponsor.
Day 9. Live greatheartedness, generous courage that enables you to give your life to and for others, despite inconvenience or real suffering to yourself.
Day 10. In order to further your desire to become Godlike, contemplate often God’s generous creativity in all things around you.
Day 11. Do not allow yourself to become distracted from your attention to remember God in all things; even in difficulties or contradictions remain conscious of God’s presence.
Day 12. Let nothing weary you; remember God’s potent love within and in all things; live in the awareness that God made all things, sustains all and loves all.
Adapted from the Maxims of Perfection by Jean-Pierre Medaille, S.J. by Marcia Allen, CSJ.