Book 1: Counsel for a Spiritual Life
1. Following Christ and Despising the World’s Vanities
“He that followeth me,” says Christ our Savior, “shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.” These words of our Lord Jesus Christ warn and admonish us: if we truly want to be enlightened and freed from all blindness of heart, we must follow his teachings and his manner of living. Let all the study of our heart from now on be to fix our meditation wholly on the life and holy teachings of Jesus Christ, for his teachings carry more virtue and more spiritual strength than the teachings of all Angels and Saints.
Anyone who through grace has the inner eye of the soul opened to a true beholding of the Gospels of Christ will find in them Manna, that is, spiritual food for the soul. Yet it is often seen that some who hear the Gospels of Christ frequently find little sweetness in them, and that is because they do not have the spirit of Christ. If we want the true understanding of Christ’s Gospels, then, we must study to conform our life to his life as closely as we can.
What does it profit a man to reason about the deep mysteries of the Trinity, if he lacks the humility that pleases the Trinity? Truly nothing. High and curious reasoning does not make a man holy or righteous; a good life makes him beloved by God. I would rather feel genuine sorrow of heart for my sins than merely know the definition of sorrow. If you knew all the Bible by heart, and all the sayings of all the philosophers as well, what would it profit you without grace and charity? All that is in this world is vanity, except to love God and to serve him alone. This is the most noble and most excellent wisdom any creature can have: to despise this world and draw daily nearer and nearer to the kingdom of heaven.
It is therefore a great vanity to labor excessively for worldly riches, which will soon perish, and to covet honor, or any other disordered pleasures and fleshly delights in this life, by which a man earns severe and grievous punishment in the life to come. How great a vanity it is also to desire a long life and care little for a good life; to attend to things present and make no provision for things to come; to love things that will shortly pass away and not to hasten toward the place where joy is everlasting.
Keep this common proverb often in your mind: “the eye is not satisfied nor fully pleased with the sight of any bodily thing, nor the ear with hearing.” Study therefore to withdraw the love of your soul from all things that are visible, and turn it toward things that are invisible. Those who follow their sensual desires wound their own conscience and lose the grace of God.
2. Empty Learning and Humble Self-Knowledge
Every person naturally desires to know. But what does knowledge profit without the fear of God? A humble farmer who serves God is far more acceptable to Him than a curious philosopher who studies the movements of the heavens yet willfully forgets himself. The one who truly knows himself sees how lowly and fallen he is, and takes no delight in the empty praises of others. If I knew every thing in this world without charity, what would it gain me before God, who judges every person according to their deeds?
Let us therefore turn away from the desire for such empty knowledge. In it is found, often, great distraction and the deceit of the enemy, by which the soul is hindered and kept from the perfect and true love of God. Those who possess great learning commonly desire to be seen and held wise in the world. Yet there are many things whose knowledge brings little profit or fruit to the soul. The person who gives attention to anything other than what will help the health of his soul is truly unwise. Words do not feed the soul. A good life refreshes the mind, and a clean conscience brings a person to a firm and stable trust in God.
The more learning you have, if you do not live according to it, the more severely you will be judged for misusing it. So do not raise yourself up in pride for any skill or knowledge that has been given to you. Instead, have greater fear and reverence in your heart, for it is certain that you must one day give a stricter account. If you think you know many things and possess great learning, remember that there are still many more things you do not know. You cannot rightly think yourself wise; rather, you ought to confess your ignorance. Why would you place yourself above another, when there are many who surpass you in learning and understanding of the law? If you wish to learn anything that is truly profitable to the health of your soul, learn to be unknown, and be content to be considered lowly and of no account.
The highest and most profitable knowledge is this: that a person has a truthful knowledge of himself, together with a thorough contempt for himself. To think nothing too highly of oneself, but always to think well and charitably of others, is a sign of great wisdom, great perfection, and singular grace. If you see someone sin or commit a great offense openly before you, do not judge yourself to be better than that person, for you do not know how long you will persevere in goodness. We are all frail. But you shall judge no one more frail than yourself.
3. The Teaching of Truth
Happy and blessed is the person whom truth teaches and informs, not through figures and deceptive voices, but as the truth actually is. Our opinions and our own reasoning deceive us many times, because we do not see the truth. What does our knowledge of things profit us if knowing them will not help us at the day of judgment, nor will not knowing them hurt us? It is therefore great folly to neglect things that are profitable and necessary to us, while laboring after things that merely feed curiosity and deserve condemnation. Truly, if we do this, we have eyes but we do not see.
And what does our knowledge of the nature and workings of created things profit us? Truly nothing. The person to whom the Everlasting Word, that is, Jesus, speaks is freed from many vain opinions. From that Word all things proceed, and all things openly show and declare that He is God. No one without Him understands the truth, nor judges rightly. But the person to whom all things are one, who draws all things into one, sets all things in one, and desires nothing but one, may quickly be established in heart and be fully at peace in God.
O Truth, You are God; make me one with you in perfect charity. All that I read, hear, or see without you is grievous to me, for in you is everything I want or could desire. Let all teachers be still in your presence, let all creatures keep silence, and you alone, Lord, speak to my soul. The more a person is joined to you and gathered together in you, the more he understands high and secret mysteries without effort, for he has received from above the light of understanding.
A clean, pure, and stable heart is not broken or easily overcome by spiritual labors, for such a person does everything to the honor of God. Because he has truly put his self-will to death, he desires to be free from following his own will. What hinders you more than your desires not fully subdued to the will of the spirit? Truly nothing more.
A good and devout person so orders his outward affairs that they do not draw him into love of them. Instead, he compels them to be obedient to the will of the spirit and to the right judgment of reason. Who has a harder battle than the one who labors to overcome himself? This should be our daily work and our daily desire: to overcome ourselves, so that we may grow stronger in spirit and increase daily from better to better. Every perfection in this life has some imperfection attached to it, and there is no knowledge in this world that is not mixed with some blindness of ignorance. A humble knowledge of ourselves is therefore a surer way to God than the pursuit of high learning.
Learning that is well ordered is not to be blamed, for it is good and comes from God. But a clean conscience and a virtuous life are much better and more to be desired. Because some people study to gain knowledge rather than to live well, they err many times and bring forth little good fruit, or none. If only they would be as eager to avoid sin and plant virtues in their souls as they are to argue questions, there would not be so many evils seen in the world, nor so much bad example given to the people, nor such dissolute living in religious communities. At the day of judgment we will not be asked what we have read, but what we have done; not how well we have spoken, but how faithfully we have lived.
Tell me now, where are all the great scholars and famous teachers you have known well? When they lived, they flourished greatly in their learning. Now other men hold their church offices and appointments, and I cannot say whether anyone thinks of them at all. In their lifetime they were counted great in the world, and now there is little talk of them. How quickly the glory of this world passes away, along with all its false and deceiving pleasures! Would to God their lives had matched their learning, for then they would have studied to good purpose. How many perish daily through vain knowledge, caring little for a good life or for the service of God. Because they desire to be great in the world rather than to be humble, they vanish away in their learning like smoke in the air.
Truly, the person who has great charity is great. And the person who is small in his own sight, and counts all worldly honor as nothing, is great.
The person who accounts all worldly pleasures as vile dung, so that he may win Christ, is truly wise. And the person who forsakes his own will and follows the will of God is very well taught.
4. Do Not Believe Every Word Too Quickly
It is not good to believe every word or impulse that comes your way too quickly. Things should be considered and weighed carefully, so that Almighty God is not offended by our carelessness. But, sadly, we are so frail that we tend to believe the worst of others far more readily than the best. Perfect men, however, are not so quick to believe, for they know well that human frailty is more prone to evil than to good, and that words are very unstable. It is therefore great wisdom not to act hastily, not to trust too much in your own judgment, not to believe every tale you hear, and not to immediately share with others everything you hear or believe.
Always take counsel from a wise person, and desire rather to be instructed and guided by another than to follow your own invention. A good life makes a person wise before God and instructs them in many things that a sinful person will never feel or know. The more humble a person is within themselves, and the more obedient they are to God, the more wise and the more peaceful they will be in everything they have to do.
5. Reading Holy Scripture
Charity is what we should seek in Holy Scripture, not eloquence. And it should be read with the same spirit in which it was first written. We ought to seek spiritual profit in Holy Scripture rather than curiosity about style, and we should read simple and devout books as gladly as books of great learning. Do not let the standing of an author put you off, whether he was greatly learned or little: let the love of pure truth move you to read. Ask not who said this, but take heed what is said. People pass lightly away, but the truth of the Lord endureth for ever.
Almighty God speaks to us in His Scripture in many ways, without favoring one person over another. Yet our curiosity often hinders us in reading Scripture, when we want to reason and argue over things we should instead pass over meekly and simply.
If you want to profit from reading Scripture, read it meekly, simply, and faithfully, and never seek from it a reputation for learning. Ask questions gladly and listen meekly to the sayings of the saints. Do not dismiss the parables of the ancient Fathers, for they were not spoken without great cause.
6. Disordered Desires
When a man desires anything inordinately, he becomes restless within himself at once. The proud man and the covetous man never find rest, but the meek man and the poor in spirit live in great abundance of rest and peace. A man who has not yet put his self-will to death is easily tempted and overcome by small and trivial temptations. And one who is weak in spirit, still somewhat carnal and drawn to things perceived by the senses, can hardly withdraw himself from worldly desires. Because of this, he often feels great grief and heaviness of heart when he does pull away from them, and he takes offense immediately when anyone resists him.
Even if he obtains what he desires, he remains unsettled by the gnawing of conscience, because he has followed his passion, and passion does nothing to secure the peace he was seeking. True peace of heart is gained by resisting our passions, not by following them. There is therefore no peace in the heart of a carnal man, nor in the heart of one who gives himself entirely to outward things. But in the heart of a spiritual man, who takes his delight in God, great peace and inward quietness are found.
7. Flee Vain Hope and Self-Inflation
Anyone who puts their trust in another person, or in any creature, is deceived. Do not be ashamed to serve others for the love of Jesus Christ, or to be poor in this world for his sake. Do not trust in yourself; set all your trust in God. Do what is in you to please him, and he will help your good will along. Do not trust in your own wisdom, or in the wisdom and schemes of any living creature, but rather in the grace of God, which helps the humble. Those who presume upon themselves he allows to fall until they become humble.
Do not boast about your riches or your powerful worldly friends. Let all your glory be in God alone, who gives all things and desires to give himself above all things. Do not exalt yourself because of a fine or strong body, for a little sickness can quickly defile it. Do not take pride in your cleverness or quickness of mind, lest you displease God, whose gift it entirely is.
Do not think yourself better than another, for you may thereby be diminished in the sight of God, who knows all that is in a person. Do not be proud of your good deeds, for the judgments of God differ from the judgments of men, and what pleases men often displeases him. If you have any goodness or virtue in you, believe nonetheless that there is much more goodness and virtue in others, so that you may always keep yourself in humility. It does no harm to think yourself worse than anyone else, even if that is not actually the case; but it does great harm to place yourself above another, however great a sinner that person may be. Great peace belongs to the humble, but in the heart of the proud there is always envy and indignation.
8. Avoiding Too Much Familiarity
Do not open your heart to everyone, but only to someone who is wise, discreet, and fears God. Spend little time with young people and strangers. Do not flatter the rich, and do not seek out the company of great men lightly. Keep company with humble people who are simple in heart, who are devout and well-governed, and talk with them about things that may edify and strengthen the soul. Do not be intimate with any woman, but commend all good women to God. Seek familiarity only with God and with His angels, and avoid, as much as you can, familiarity with other people.
Charity is owed to everyone, but intimacy is not wise. It sometimes happens that a person we have never met is greatly praised for their good reputation, yet when we meet them we find their presence less pleasing than we expected. Equally, we sometimes imagine our own company delights others, when in fact we displease them by the poor habits and faults they observe in us.
9. Meek Obedience and Following the Counsel of Others
It is a great thing to be obedient, to live under a superior, and to seek nothing of our own liberty. It is a far surer way to stand in a state of obedience than in a state of authority. Many submit out of necessity rather than charity, and they suffer greatly for it, murmuring and complaining; they will never find liberty and freedom of spirit until they wholly submit themselves to their superior. Go wherever you will, and you will never find perfect rest except in meek obedience under the governance of your superior. The imagining and changing of place has deceived many a member of a religious community.
It is true that every person is disposed to act according to their own will and gets along best with those who follow their ways. But if we want God to be among us, we must sometimes set aside our own will, even when it seems good, so that we may have love and peace with others. Who is so wise that they can fully know all things? No one. Therefore, do not trust too much to your own judgment, but gladly hear the counsel of others. And if what you intended to do was good and profitable, yet you set aside your own will and followed another, you will find great benefit in it.
I have often heard it said that it is the surer way to hear and receive counsel than to give it. It is good to hear every person’s counsel; but to refuse to agree when reason requires it is a sign of great stubbornness in following your own will and of much inward pride.
10. Avoiding Idle Talk and Worldly Company
Flee the company of worldly-living people as much as you can. Talking over worldly matters greatly weakens the fervor of the spirit. Even when it is done with good intentions, we are soon deceived by the vanity of the world and become, in a manner, enslaved to it, if we do not take care. I wish I had held my peace many times when I spoke, and that I had not spent so much time in worldly company. But why are we so eager to speak and converse, when we so rarely part without some hurt to our conscience?
The reason is this: when we talk together, we think we are comforting one another and refreshing our hearts when they are troubled with vain imaginations. We speak most readily about the things we love most, or else about the things that trouble us most.
But all of it, alas, is vain. This outward comfort is no small hindrance to the true inward comfort that comes from God. It is therefore necessary that we watch and pray, so that time does not slip away from us in idleness. If it is lawful and fitting to speak, then speak of God and of things that build up your soul or your neighbor’s. An evil habit and a carelessness about our spiritual profit makes us take little heed of how we speak.
Nevertheless, devout conversation about spiritual things is sometimes a great help to the health of the soul, especially when people of one mind and one spirit in God come together to speak and commune with one another.
11. Finding Peace and Growing in Virtue
We could have much more peace if we would stop meddling in other people’s sayings and doings, which are not our concern. How can someone live long in peace who willfully meddles in other people’s business, seeks occasions for trouble out in the world, and rarely or never gathers himself inwardly before God? Blessed are the truly simple and meek, for they shall have great abundance of peace. Why have so many saints been so perfectly contemplative? Because they always studied to mortify themselves from worldly desires, so that they might tend freely and with all the power of their hearts toward our Lord. But we are occupied with our passions and much busied with passing things, and it is very seldom that we fully overcome even a single vice. We are slow to our duties, and so we remain cold and sluggish in devotion.
If we were perfectly mortified to the world and to the flesh, and were inwardly purified in soul, we would immediately taste heavenly things and have some experience of heavenly contemplation. The greatest hindrance to that contemplation is that we are not yet clearly delivered from all passions and fleshly desire, and we do not press ourselves to follow the way that the holy saints walked before us. When any small adversity comes, we are immediately cast down by it and turn far too quickly to seek human comfort. But if we would fight strongly in this spiritual battle, as strong and mighty champions, we would undoubtedly see God’s help come in our need, for he is always ready to help all who trust in him, and he arranges such battles so that we may overcome, win the victory, and receive the greater reward for it.
If we place the end and perfection of our religion in outward observances, our devotion will soon be spent. We must therefore set the axe deep to the root of the tree, so that, purged from all passions, we may have a quiet mind. If we would overcome one vice every year, we would soon come to perfection. But I rather fear the opposite: that we were better and more pure at the beginning of our conversion than we are many years after it. Our fervor and desire for virtue ought to increase in us daily as we grow older. Yet now it is thought a great thing merely to hold on to a small spark of the fervor we had at first. If we would break at the outset our evil inclination toward ourselves and our own will, we would afterward do virtuous works easily and with great gladness of heart.
It is hard to leave evil habits, and it is harder still to break our own will, but hardest of all is to lie in pain forever and lose the joys of heaven without end. If you cannot overcome small and light things, how will you overcome the greater ones? Resist your evil inclinations quickly, at the very beginning, and give up your evil habits entirely, lest little by little they lead you into greater difficulty. If you would consider how great an inward peace you would gain for yourself, and how much gladness you would bring to others, simply by conducting yourself well, I truly believe you would be far more diligent to grow in virtue than you have been before now.
12. The Profit of Adversity
It is good that we sometimes have grief and adversity, for these things drive us to look honestly at ourselves and to see that we are here only in exile. Through them we learn that we should not put our trust in any worldly thing. It is also good that we sometimes face contradiction, and that others regard us as evil, wretched, and sinful, even when we act and intend well. Such experiences promote humility and powerfully guard us against vanity and pride. We take God more readily as our judge and witness when the world despises us outwardly and thinks poorly of us.
Therefore, a person should settle himself so completely in God that whatever adversity befalls him, he will have no need to seek comfort from outside. When a good person is troubled or tempted, or disturbed by evil thoughts, he then understands and knows that God is most necessary to him, and that he can do nothing good without him. Then he sorrows, mourns, and prays over the miseries he rightly suffers. Then too he grows weary of the wretchedness of this life, and he longs to be released from this body of death and to be with Christ. Then he also sees clearly that there can be no full peace or perfect quietness here in this world.
13. Resisting Temptation
As long as we live in this world, we cannot be entirely free from temptation. As Job says, the life of man upon earth is a warfare. Therefore every person should guard carefully against temptation and watch in prayer, so that the spiritual enemy, who never sleeps but always walks about seeking whom he may devour, finds no time or place to deceive him. There is no one so perfect or so holy in this world that he is entirely without temptations. Nor can we be without them, for although they are grievous and painful while they last, they are very profitable if resisted. Through the experience of temptation a person is made more humble, is purified, and is taught things he could never have learned any other way.
All the blessed saints now crowned in heaven grew and profited through temptations and tribulations. Those who could not endure temptation, but were finally overcome by it, are taken as perpetual prisoners in hell. There is no order so holy, no place so hidden, as to be entirely free from temptation; and no person in this life is fully free from it. For in our corrupt body we carry the very material by which we are tempted, our disordered desire, which we brought with us at birth.
As one temptation passes, another comes, and so we will always have something to endure. The reason is that we have lost our innocence. Many people try to flee temptation and fall into it all the more heavily, for flight alone cannot bring victory. It is by humility and patience that we are made stronger than all our enemies.
Whoever flees only the outward occasions of sin, but does not cut away the disordered desires hidden inwardly in the heart, will find them returning to grieve him more than they did before. Little by little, with patience and endurance and the help of God, you will overcome temptations more surely than by your own strength and sheer effort. When you are tempted, it is good to seek counsel often; and do not be harsh toward a person who is tempted, but be glad to comfort him as you yourself would wish to be comforted.
The beginning of all evil temptation is an unstable mind and too little trust in God. A ship without a pilot is driven back and forth by every storm; in the same way, an unstable person who quickly abandons his good purpose in God is tossed about by various temptations. Fire proves gold, and temptation proves the righteous man. We often do not know what we can endure, but temptation shows plainly what we are and what virtue is in us. It is necessary to be watchful at the very beginning of every temptation, for the enemy is quickly overcome if he is not allowed to enter the heart, but is resisted and shut out as soon as he offers to enter.
Just as a physical cure comes very late when a sickness has been allowed to grow through long neglect, so it is with temptation. First an unclean thought comes to the mind, then a vivid imagination follows, then delight and various evil impulses, and finally a full consent. So by little and little the enemy gains complete entry, because he was not wisely resisted at the beginning.
Some people face their greatest temptations at the beginning of their conversion, some at the end, and some are troubled by them for nearly the whole of their lives. Others are only lightly tempted. All of this comes from the great wisdom and righteousness of God, who knows the condition and merit of every person, orders all things for the best, and works toward the everlasting health and salvation of his elect and chosen people.
We must not despair when we are tempted, but must pray all the more fervently that God, in his infinite goodness and fatherly mercy, would grant us help in every need. We should ask him, as St. Paul says, to come to our aid with his grace in every temptation, so that we may be able to bear it. Let us humble ourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, for he will save and exalt all those who are meek and lowly in spirit.
In temptations and tribulations a person is tested to see how far he has advanced, and his merit before God is thereby greater, and his virtues are more openly revealed. It is no great wonder if a person is fervent and devout when he feels no difficulty. But if he can suffer patiently in a time of temptation or adversity, and at the same time stir himself to fervency of spirit, that is a sign he will make great progress in virtue and grace. Some people are kept from many great temptations, yet every day they are overcome by small and trivial occasions. This comes from God’s great goodness and patience toward them, to keep them in humility, so that they will not trust or presume upon themselves when they see how easily and in how small things they are daily overcome.
14. Do Not Judge Others Lightly or Cling to Your Own Will
Always keep a close eye on yourself, and be careful not to judge others lightly. In judging others, a person often labors in vain, often errs, and easily offends God. But in judging himself and his own deeds, he always labors fruitfully and to his spiritual profit. We judge too often according to our own feelings and desires rather than according to the truth, for private affection frequently blinds our judgment.
If God were always the whole aim of our desire, we would not err so easily in our judgments, nor be so troubled when our will is crossed.
But commonly there is in us some inward inclination or outward attachment that pulls our heart away from true judgment. Many people, through a secret love of themselves, act indiscreetly according to their own will rather than the will of God, and yet they do not realize it. They seem to stand in great inward peace when things go as they wish, but when things fall out otherwise, they are quickly moved to impatience and become heavy and troubled. Differences of opinion have many times produced dissension between friends and neighbors, and even between religious and devout persons.
An old habit is hard to break, and no one is easily moved from his own will. But if you cling more to your own will or your own reason than to the humble obedience of Jesus Christ, it will be long before you become a person truly illumined by grace. For Almighty God wills that we be perfectly subject and obedient to him, and that we rise high above our own will and our own reason, through a great burning love and a wholehearted desire for him.
15. Works Done in Charity
Never do evil for anything in the world, or out of love for any creature. But sometimes, for the need and comfort of our neighbor, a good deed may be deferred, or changed into a different good deed. By this it is not destroyed but turned into something better. Without charity, the outward deed earns little praise. But whatever is done out of charity, however small or however despised in the eyes of the world, it is truly profitable before God, who judges all things by the intention of the doer, and not by the greatness or worthiness of the deed.
He does much who loves God greatly. He does much who does his deed well. And he does his deed well who does it for the common good rather than for his own will. A deed sometimes appears to be done out of charity and love of God, when it is really done out of carnality and fleshly love rather than charitable love. For commonly it is some carnal inclination toward our friends, or some disordered love of ourselves, or some hope of a temporal reward, or the desire of some other profit, that moves us to act, and not the pure love of charity.
Charity does not seek itself in what it does, but desires only what will be honor and praise to God. It envies no one, for it holds no private love. It will not rejoice in itself, but covets above all things to be blessed in God. It knows well that no goodness originates in man, and therefore refers all goodness to God, from whom all things proceed, and in whom all blessed saints rest in everlasting joy.
Oh, that anyone might have but a little spark of this perfect charity, he would feel truly in his soul that all earthly things are full of vanity!
16. Bearing with Other People’s Faults
Such faults as we cannot amend in ourselves or in others, we must patiently endure until our Lord in his goodness disposes things otherwise. We should consider that perhaps this is best, for the proving of our patience, without which our merits count for little. Even so, you should pray earnestly about such obstacles, asking that our Lord in his great mercy and goodness would enable you to bear them patiently.
If you have admonished someone once or twice and he will not receive it, do not strive too hard with him. Instead, commit everything to God, that his will may be done and his honor upheld in all his servants, for by his goodness he can turn evil into good. Always strive to bear the faults of others patiently, for you have many things in you that others must bear from you. And if you cannot make yourself what you would wish to be, how can you expect another person to be ordered entirely according to your will? We are glad to see others perfect, but we will not amend our own faults.
We want others to be strictly corrected for their offenses, but we ourselves resist correction. We resent the liberties others take, yet we will not be denied what we ask. We want others to be restrained according to the rules, but we refuse to be restrained in any way. It is plain, then, that we seldom judge our neighbor as we judge ourselves. If all people were perfect, what would we have to endure from our neighbors for God’s sake?
Therefore God has so ordered things that each of us must learn to bear another’s burden. In this world no one is without fault, no one without a burden, no one sufficient in himself, and no one wise enough on his own. So it is necessary for each of us to bear the burdens of others, to comfort, to help, to instruct, and to admonish one another in all charity. Whoever has the greatest virtue shows it best in times of adversity. Occasions do not make a person weak; they simply reveal what he truly is.
17. Life in a Religious Community
It is necessary that you break your own will in many things if you want to have peace and harmony with others. It is no small thing to live in monasteries or congregations, to remain there without complaining or speaking ill, and to persevere faithfully to the end. Blessed are those who live well there and make a good end. If you want to stand firmly in grace and grow much in virtue, hold yourself as an exile and a pilgrim in this life, and be glad for the love of God to be thought a fool and a lowly person, as indeed you are.
The habit and the tonsure count for little. What makes someone a true and perfect member of a religious community is the changing of life and the mortifying of the passions. Whoever seeks anything in the religious life other than God purely and the salvation of their soul will find nothing there but trouble and sorrow. And no one can long remain in peace and quiet who does not labor to be the least and subject to all.
It is good, therefore, to remind yourself often that you came to the religious life to serve, not to be served, and that you were called there to suffer and to labor, not to be idle or tell idle tales. In the religious life a person is tested as gold in a furnace, and no one can stand long there in grace and virtue unless they will humble themselves with their whole heart for the love of God.
