Page 11 - VOWS AND ACT

and I will pray for their conversion so hard that you will not be
able to deny me that grace. To prevent sin, besides, I promise
you to do my utmost, but do strengthen me in my weakness. I
1
will hold the youth, all my dear Oratorio , most dear to my
heart. I will especially care for those girls who are most
dissipated and most far from you. Such girls I will tirelessly
pursue and try by all means to gain their confidence and then
win them over to you. If my loving attentions are of no avail, I
will not give up but rather redouble my efforts and with a holy
concern I will follow close at their heels, and not desist till I see
every one of them safely yours. Regarding the illiterate, I will
spare no pains. With charity and patience, I will teach them all
the little I have learnt. Nor will I hesitate to go myself to seek
all those persons who are in need of instruction: I will use the
kindest attentions towards such as these.
For the poor souls in Purgatory, I will have a most
compassionate charity: every day I will try to do suffrages for
them by some devotional practice, and on Mondays I will offer
the whole day for their relief.
The poor sick and the bed-ridden will truly be the delight
of my heart. I will visit every one of them as often as I can.
I will do all I can by word and deed, doing them the meanest
and most repulsive services, helping them as much as I can
and tirelessly assisting them, and also, as far as
circumstances and obedience will allow, when they are on the
point of death.

1 “Oratorio”: in the pastoral tradition of the churches in North Italy, it is a
place adjacent to the parish church in which the youth are gathered for catechism
and other similar activities.

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