On Divine Love and the Means of Acquiring It

St Athanasius Press is pleased to publish this rare work of St Alphonsus M Liguori. Excerpt: St. Gregory of Nyssa writes, "Blessed dart, which carries with it into the heart. God who casts it." By which the holy Father would say, that when God pierces the heart with a dart of love, that is, enables it by some special illumination to know His goodness and His love, and the desire which He has to be loved in return, He Himself enters the heart with love's dart, being Himself love, and He who casts its darts: "For," as St. John writes, "God is charity." 1 Ephess 4:8. And as the dart remains fixed in the heart which it strikes, so God continues ever united with the soul which He penetrates with His love. O, let us ever be convinced, that God alone really loves us. The love of parents, of friends, and of all others who say that they love us, except those who love us purely for God, is not real, but interested love, as it is from self-love that they love us. Yes, my God, I well know that You alone love me, and desiret my welfare, not for Your own interest, but solely through Your bounty and the love which You bear for me and I have been so ungrateful as not to commit to many offenses and injuries against anyone, as I have committed against You, who has loved me so much. O Jesus, suffer me not to be thus any more ungrateful to You. You have truly loved me, and therefore do I desire truly to love You for the remainder of my life. I will say to You with St. Catherine of Genoa, "O love, never more, will I commit sin, never more will I commit sin," You only will I love, and no other.