THE ONLY PERFECT UNION

The wisdom of the fathers

THE ONLY PERFECT UNION

There are some souls who cause me great suffering. They are selfish souls who are full of compromise and speculations and desire others to accommodate them and their inclinations. I find myself unable to administer anything to them because of their self love. When I try, a hand more powerful then myself restrains me. I cannot give such a person any more place in my heart than God gives them. I cannot adapt to their superficial state nor can I respond to their profession of friendship. They are repulsive to my feelings.

The love which dwells in my heart is not a natural love. It arises from the depth which rejects what is not in correspondence with it. That is, what is not in unison with the heart of God.

I cannot be with a child without caressing it, nor with a child-like soul without tender attachment. I do not regard the external person but - rather - the state of the soul, its affinity with God and its inclination of oneness with God. The only perfect union is the union of the soul in God. Such is the arrangement in heaven and on earth after the life of the resurrection takes its full strength in the believers soul.

(from "Final Steps in Christian Maturity" by Madam Jeanne Guyon)