Love Is a Fountain That Satisfies
LOVE is called "a living fountain, fire, and charity." Our blessed Redeemer said to the Samaritan woman: "He that shall drink of the water that I will give him, shall not thirst forever" (John 4:13). Love is the water which satisfies our thirst; he who loves God really with his whole heart neither seeks nor desires anything else, because in God he finds every good.
Therefore, satisfied with God, he often joyfully exclaims, "My God and my all!" My God, thou art my whole good. But the Almighty complains that many souls go about seeking for fleeting and miserable pleasures from creatures and leave him, who is the infinite good and fountain of all joy: "They have forsaken me, the fountain of living water, and have dug to themselves cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water" (Jer. 2:13).
Therefore God, who loves us and desires to see us happy, cries out and makes known to all: "If any man thirst, let him come to me, and drink" (John 7:37). He who desires to be happy, let him come to me; and I will give him the Holy Spirit, who will make him blessed both in this life and the next. "He that believeth in me" (He goes on to say), "as the scripture saith, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water" (John 7:38). He, therefore, who believe in Jesus Christ and loves him shall be enriched with so much grace that from his heart (the heart, that is the will, is the bellow of the soul) shall flow many fountains of holy virtues, which shall not only serve to preserve his own life, but also to give life to others.
All this water is the Holy Spirit, the substantial love which Jesus Christ promised to send us from heaven after his ascension: "Now this he said of the Spirit which they should receive, who believed in him: for as yet the Spirit was not given, because Jesus was not yet glorified" (John 7:39). The key which opens the channels of this blessed water is holy prayer, which obtains every good for us in virtue of the promise, "Ask, and you shall receive." We are blind, poor, and weak; but prayer obtains for us light, strength, and abundance of grace. Theodore said: "Prayer, though but one, can do all things." He who prays receive all he wants. God desires to give us his graces; but he will have us pray for them.
Affections and prayers
Lord, "give me this water." Yes, Lord Jesus, I will say to Thee like the Samaritan woman: give me this water of divine love that I may turn away from this world and live only for Thee Who art so lovely. "Water that which is dry." My soul is like a dry land where nothing but the briars and thorns of sin grow. Ah! give me, before I pass out of this world, an outpouring of divine grace to make my soul fruitful in works worthy of Thy heavenly glory.
O Fountain of living water, O supreme Good, too often have I left Thee for the corrupt waters of this earth which have deprived me of Thy love. Why did not death overtake me before I offended Thee?
In the future I will seek nothing but Thee, O my God. Assist me and grant that I may be faithful to Thee. Mary, my hope, keep me ever under they protection.
