Thought for the Day – 17 June – Meditations with Antonio Cardinal Bacci (1881-1971)
Purity of Intention
“Purity of intention consists in doing the will of God in all things from the motive of pure love.
We should not be egocentric but theocentric; in other words, we should perform all our actions, not for our own satisfaction but to please God.
Since God is our final end, everything should be done for Him.
Why are we so often agitated and discontented?
It is because, we are looking for success and for the approval of men.
If we do not get these, we imagine that we have failed and have accomplished nothing.
Men judge the value of an enterprise by it’s external success and by the amount of work which went into it.
It is not so with God.
He judges the value of our actions from the sincerity of our desire to please Him ad to prove our love for Him.
This is enough for Him; success is not necessary.
If we do everything for the love of God, we shall always be content as the Saints were, whether our projects succeed or fail.
We shall have achieved our purpose, if we have pleased God.
Purity of Intention in our actions, is fundamental in the Christian life.
“If thy eye be sound,” Jesus Himself tells us, “thy whole body will be full of life. But, if thy eye be evil, thy whole body will be full of darkness” (Mt 6:22)
“Men see those things that appear but the Lord beholds the heart” (1 Kings 16:7).
A man who works solely for the love of God, will have great peace of soul in this life and an everlasting reward in the next.
But, if in our actions, we seek our own satisfaction or the praise of men, we shall have already received our reward on earth and cannot expect to receive it in Heaven. “They have received their reward” (Mt 6:2).
Purity of intention, inspired by the love of God, transforms even our most trivial actions and makes them pleasing to God.
Without it, we lose all merit in the sight of God.
Do you remember the Gospel incident of the poor widow who offered her last two coins in the Temple?
Others were there, offering up large sums of money but she could not have given more.
“Amen, I say to you,” said Jesus, “this poor widow has put in more than all those who have been putting into the treasury” (Mk 12:41-44).”
AnaStpaul 
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