...how very lovely it would be if souls would open up like flowers and yield themselves to the Divine Sun; if they would exercise all the gifts they have received, exultantly and royally; if they would open up, expanding into a final burst of praise before the Lord. Those poor [flowers], they gave all their petals, gave them in splendid profusion -- but now, it's all over. What if we were to transform everything into praise, giving all our days without counting, without wondering about what is going to happen and what we will do in every set of unreal circumstance? If only we had that sense of the gift which makes it possible to live without all the endless computations motivated by vanity (which don't prevent anything anyway)! Don't you think that it is better to die because there is no longer anything in us which can be utilized for the Lord than to die like a dried bud that didn't want to open up?
This is what we should expect from the Holy Ghost: that He should breathe into us an ardor of generosity without the possibility of stopping, and that we should finally be rid of this spirit of our own which is petty, rapacious, and case-hardened. Let us consent to be like a bundle of grain which is placed under the altar and which will remain there as a witness to the magnificence of the Lord until nothing is left of it. Obviously these flowers would have lasted a little longer if they had been placed in water, but let's not feel sorry for them; let us, too, be able to give to the Lord without holding back a little of our gift, without asking that the flowers destined for the altar be disposed of in this or that manner.
Thus we will know joy, the ravishing fragrance with which the Holy Ghost perfumes those who let themselves be drawn by Him into truly living as "offerings to the Lord."
~Mother Marie des Douleurs in Joy Out of Sorrow
Come, Spirit of Jesus, come! Break open the bud of my heart and transform me into a living sacrifice of praise. Amen! Alleluia!
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