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“The best agent in the [examination of conscience] is love. A soul that loves God with all its heart easily sees its faults, even the smallest inclination of its evil nature, and it immediately feels the presence of the tempter. That soul sees itself as in a faithful mirror: it reads itself in God, like the child who, by a simple look, reads its faults in the pain, or the silence, or the lesser friendliness of its father and its mother. This is the most perfect [examination], since it is in its center of action and of perfection, in the life of love, which suffices for everything and is the end of all the means of sanctification whatever they may be.
This should be your first consideration in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament. The light of the divine fire which burns in the Heart of our Lord, should, at the beginning of all your adorations, penetrate to the innermost recesses of your soul and show you in an instant all its poverty and all its actual wretchedness. It should immediately fill it with a profound sentiment of its ingratitude, of its unworthiness, lifting it up at the same time by the confidence of obtaining His pardon, since you are at the foot of the throne of grace and of mercy.
When someone comes into the presence of a Prince the first thing he does is look at the Prince then he casts a glance at his attire to see if everything about him is correct and destined to please.”
(St. Peter Julian Eymard from The Eucharist and Christian Perfection I)
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