to help others in their distress; but what is the chief Christian
motive, if it be not the love we bear our brother-man because he is,
like ourselves, a child of God, and the desire we have to obey God, who
wishes us to help the needy? The sufferings of others excite our pity,
and the more we love them the more sorry are we to see them suffer.
Thanks to God for all His mercies to us; He might have made us, instead
of this man, poor and in suffering, but He has spared us and afflicted
him; we know not why God has done so, and therefore we help him, moved
by these considerations even when we feel he is not deserving of the
help, because we know his unworthiness will not prevent God from
rewarding our good intention. We may be charitable to our neighbor by
saying nothing hurtful about him, by never telling his faults without
necessity, etc. Therefore real charity, in its widest sense, and love
are just the same.


AN ACT OF CONTRITION

O my God! I am heartily sorry for having offended Thee, and I detest all
my sins, because I dread the loss of Heaven and the pains of Hell, but
most of all because they offend Thee, my God, Who art all-good and
deserving of all my love. I firmly resolve, with the help of Thy grace,
to confess my sins, to do penance, and to amend my life.

The substance of this act is: O my God! I am very sorry for all my sins,
because by them I have offended Thee, and with Thy help, I will never
sin again. It is well to know what the acts contain in substance, for we
can use these short forms as aspirations during the day, when we
probably would not think of saying the long forms. A fuller explanation
of the qualities of our contrition will be given in Lesson Eighteen.