• Ex.24:7   :  We will do everything the Lord has said...

• Josh. 24:19-24:  The Lord our God we will serve and him we will obey...

• Ps. 119:  How I love your law, it is my meditation all day long...

• Ps. 119:  Your words are sweet to me; sweeter than honey in my mouth.

• Jn. 12: 1-10:  Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus' feet, and wiped them with her hair.

• Mk. 6: 33-44:  He saw a great crowd and he had compassion for them...

• Lk. 9: 33: Let us make three dwellings: one for You, one for Moses and one for Elijah.

• Jn. 4:31-34:  My food is to do the will of him who sent me.

• Phil. 4:4-9:  Keep on doing the things that you have learned

• Daniel 3:52-90:  All three in unison began to sing in the furnace, glorifying and blessing God.

It is significant that the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, duly prepared by our Lord's words, recognized him at table through the simple gesture of the "breaking of bread". When minds are enlightened and hearts are enkindled, signs begin to "speak". The Eucharist unfolds in a dynamic context of signs containing a rich and luminous message. Through these signs the mystery in some way opens up before the eyes of the believer.

The two disciples of Emmaus, upon recognising the Lord "set out immediately" (cf. Lk. 24:33), in order to report what they had seen and heard. Once we have truly met the Risen One by partaking of his Body and Blood, we cannot keep to ourselves the joy we have experienced. The encounter with Christ, constantly intensified and deepened in the Eucharist, issues in the Church and in every Christian an urgent summons to testimony and evangelisation (Pope John Paul II, Mane Nobiscum Domine, Apostolic Letter For the Year of the Eucharist October 2004-October 2005, Nos. 14 & 24).

The fruits of charity are joy, peace and mercy; charity demands beneficence and fraternal correction; it is benevolence; it fosters reciprocity and remains disinterested and generous; it is friendship and communion: "Love is itself the fulfilment of all our works. There is the goal; that is why we run: we run toward it, and once we reach it, in it we shall find rest" (St. Augustine). (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1829).

In gratifying love we rejoice in God and his perfections and contemplate him. We get absorbed in God, we become love... All these should lead us to benevolent love: rejoicing in the divine will, doing what God wants us to do and praising him.

Through benevolent love (effective love) we desire something for God, we find God's will and dispositions very pleasing, we delight in God's will, we give obedience to God from choice and inclination, we serve God and fulfil his commandments, we freely submit to God's authority. We leave our will in God's hand to be shaped formed and transformed by him. Thus benevolent love leads to total surrender to God's will. Our will becomes totally one with God's will (St. Francis de Sales, Treatise on the Love of God, Bk. V, Chs. 6-12; Bk. VIII, Ch. 2; Bk IX, Ch. 13).

Once we are extremely gratified at God's infinite perfection, we come to realize that his goodness leaves nothing to be desired, that it is infinitely beyond our thoughts ands dreams. But at least we desire that his name be increasingly hallowed, extolled, praised held in honour and adored... Such a desire for praising God, to which benevolence of soul inspires us, can never be fully satisfied. It makes us long to have infinite praises at our command - past all counting, you see, the perfections we discern in God! As we find that we are far from capable of gratifying our longing, we try to praise him (as being most worthy of all praise) with all our heart; and these benevolent efforts of ours are wonderfully improved by the gratification which we feel. The more we discover how good God is - increasingly attracted by his charms, gratified at his infinite beauty - the more we are driven to sound his praises higher still, the stronger waxes our praise; so that gratification and praise, each interacting on the other, are ever powerfully contributing to their common growth (St. Francis de Sales, Treatise on the Love of God, Bk. V, Ch. 8. Cf. also Noel Rebello, Salesian Spirituality: A Sourcebook of Inspiration for every day of the year, SFS Publications, Bangalore, 2004, p. 53).

Meditation produces good movements in the will, such as the love of God and of our neighbour; the desire of Heaven and eternal glory: zeal for salvation of others; imitation of the life of our Lord; compassion, admiration, joy, fear of God's displeasure, of judgement, and of hell; hatred of sin; confidence in the goodness and mercy of God, shame for the sins of our past life. Our spirit should give vent whole-heartedly to these good movements of the will.

But Philothea, do not linger too long with these general good movements of the will. You have to change them into deliberate decisions, precise and particular, for your correction and improvement. For example, the first words spoken by our Lord on the Cross will surely arouse in you a good movement of the will to imitate him. That is, you will desire to forgive your enemies and to love them. But I want to make it clear that this will be of little value unless you make a particular deliberate decision like the following: "I will not take offence anymore by such or such annoying words which such or such a person may say about me"; or "I will not be displeased any more by this or that insult from this or that person" and "on the contrary, I will say and do such or such a thing in order to win the person over and make him friendly"; and so on with regard to other matters. In this way, Philothea, you will correct your faults in a short time. But only with good movements of the will you will do so after a long time and with difficulty (St. Francis de Sales, Introduction to the Devout Life, SFS Publications, 2002, Part II, Ch. 6, pp. 94 -95).

All that Francis saw as he journeyed through the mountains and valleys of Savoy inspired him. Then he turned his heart to God in admiration, praise and thanksgiving as the scenery and situation changed (Antony Mookenthottam, Saint Francis de Sales: A Formative Biography, SFS Publications, Bangalore, 2003, p.207).

I have just come from Holy Communion, my dearest daughter, where I praised and thanked God who in His infinite goodness was pleased to call you back to Him so powerfully. I begged Him with all my heart to hold you securely in His hands so that nothing could ever again draw you away from Him. For this, in all humility, I count on His grace and your faithful cooperation, my dear. I am confident that in the goodness of your dear heart you will never forget such abundant mercy. Think often of the sacred counsels given by the Princes of the Apostles, for they frequently exhort us in their letters to work out our salvation in fear and trembling, and to assure our vocation by good works (Letter of St. Jane de Chantal to Madame Du Tertre written on 8th June 1632, Letters of Spiritual Direction, p. 224).