The patience of God with sinners

I. The more we have experienced the patient mercies of God, the more we ought to be afraid of continuing to abuse them, lest the hour of God's vengeance overtake us. Revenge is mine, and I will repay in due time (Deut. xxxii. 35). God's forbearance will cease towards those who cease not to abuse it.

I give Thee thanks, O Lord, for having patiently borne with me though I have so often betrayed Thee. Make me sensible of the evil that I have done in abusing Thy patience for so long a time. Make me sorry for all the offences I have committed against Thee. No, I will never more abuse Thy tender mercy.

"Commit this sin; you can afterwards confess it." Such is the artifice with which the devil has drawn many souls into hell. Many Christians now in hell have been lost by this delusion. The Lord waiteth that he may have mercy on you (Is. xxx. 18). God waits for the sinner that the sinner may be converted and obtain mercy; but when God sees that the time which He allows the sinner for doing penance is employed only to increase the number of his offences, then He waits no longer but punishes him as he deserves.

Pardon me, O God, for I desire never more to offend Thee. And why should I delay? That Thou mayest condemn me to hell? I fear, indeed, that now Thou canst no longer have patience with me. I have, indeed, offended Thee too grievously. I am sorry for it. I repent of it. I hope for forgiveness through the merits of the Blood Thou hast shed for me.

II. The mercies of the Lord that we are not consumed: because his commiserations have not failed (Lam. iii. 22). Thus should he exclaim who finds to his confusion, that he has frequently offended God. He should be most grateful to God for not having suffered him to die in his sins, and be most careful not to offend Him again; otherwise the Lord will reproach him, saying: What more could I have done for my vineyard that I have not done? (Is. v. 4). God will say to him: Ungrateful soul, if thou hadst committed the same offences against man, who is viler than the earth, verily he would not have borne with thee. And what great mercies have I not exercised towards thee! How many times have I not called thee, and enlightened thee, and pardoned thee? The time of punishment is at hand! The time of forgiveness is past! — Thus has God spoken to many who are now suffering in hell, where one of their greatest torments is the remembrance of the mercies they formerly received from God.

Jesus, my Redeemer and my Judge, I also have deserved to hear the same from Thy mouth; but I hear Thee now calling me again to pardon: Be converted to the Lord thy God (Osee xiv. 2). O accursed sin which has made me lose my God, how much do I abhor and detest thee! I turn my whole soul towards Thee, my Lord and my God. My sovereign Good, I love Thee, and because I love Thee I repent with my whole soul for having during the time past, so much despised Thee. My God, I desire never more to offend Thee: give me Thy love, grant me perseverance. Mary, my refuge, succour and help me.