Francisco De Osuna Quotes

There is no better way of defending yourself against unkind words than to treat them as a joke. I know someone personally who laughingly passed off such remarks as said in fun, and silenced his enemies with a witty rejoinder. They soon lost their bad temper and made light of what they had said in earnest. The humble know all these tactics, but the proud take offence at everything and are never at peace.

These graces and favors that God grants us without our knowledge may be referred to by the Holy Spirit in the Canticle when he says to the bride: “How beautiful are you, my love, how beautiful you are! Your eyes are doves' eyes, besides what is hid within.” [110]  As doves' eyes are tearful, the eyes of devout persons, who are accustomed to weep, are compared to them. Such tears come from grace and virtue, especially if they are shed out of desire for our Lord's presence when he is absent; he gives them a secret grace for this of which even they themselves are unaware;

Men never resemble the angels more closely than when they thank and bless God in all things, for it is the special duty of the angels to praise him for his heavenly works,

The tree of life is the spiritual wisdom and consolation of contemplation of which the wise man says:  “She is a tree of life to them that lay hold on her: and he that shall retain her is blessed.

God enters the soul better when it is closed to all but Him, to whom it renders itself wholly with a fervent longing that is taught by no knowledge gained from any creatures, for it is above them all.

Be warned, brother: solder your heart and adorn it; join the pieces, which are your cares, so that with all your faculties you may draw near to God. Cover the vase of your heart lest the dust of idle thoughts should fall into it.

Let the chief aim of all your tears and prayers and sacrifices and whatever good works you may perform be to induce God to send you his holy grace to make you pleasing to his Majesty, and then ask him for what you most need in order to serve him better.

The chief characteristic of this spiritual exercise is to recollect the heart. This is the highest effect left by grace received by this means in the soul, from which it casts out all superfluous cares and idle thoughts which distract men and drive them outside themselves. Recollection brings them back and calms and pacifies them.

To understand why the angels praise God as fervently when he condemns as when he saves a man, you must know that there are two chief reasons for blessing him which include all others. The first is his mercy, the second his justice. If he saves a soul, the angels praise him for his mercy; if he condemns it, they bless him for his justice. Thus, for diverse reasons, they thank him equally for all he does.

The first class of men are those who have begun to build a house without finishing it. These are such as have entered the house of the religious Order they prefer and have, as it were, built it for themselves by choosing it, but by the non-observance of the minor practices proper to beginners, they have not finished the building. These people are unsuitable for the conflict of recollection, because as one of the saints declares: “He must not ask for greater perfection who despises the leaser.

according to the Apostle, the highest virtue is to praise our Lord in the midst of perils and miseries, ever saying: “Blessed be God; I know that I suffer less than I deserve; these evils are light as compared with my sins; they are nothing to what my guilt demands.”[102]  “This is the spirit of the good Christian; he, bearing his cross, follows the Savior, nothing daunted nor discouraged by his ills. He who gives thanks to God and the Father by the Mediator between God and man refers them to Jesus Christ, since we can only come to the Father through him.” The above is quoted from Jerome.

I will not omit to consider, with Augustine, the following verse of this Psalm, in which David states the reason for his joy, saying: “For the sparrow has found herself a house, and the turtle a nest for herself where she may lay her young ones.” This sparrow is the heart I have spoken of, which, as  Augustine notes, must be solitary, as it has to seek God alone and mount to the roof—that is to say, must rise by desire above all things. For the house the roof covers is this world, which the heart must leave behind it, like the Apostle, forgetting it in order to reach the divine dwelling and heavenly converse.

there sometimes happens what Gerson, like Dionysius, describes: “The soul draws near to things that are ineffable and unknown and that it does not understand.” Gerson writes elsewhere: “This is certainly what we meant by being in silence and enclosing our spirit within us. This is the thing to be achieved; that for which we labor. Constrain yourself to do it with all the nerves of your affections in solitude, raise yourself above yourself if you can, and if after long efforts you are unable, do not at once relinquish them for a book or conversation, if silence tries you and is wearisome, and you think your quietude useless, hope to overcome this delay, for God would never mock your soul as you imagine; he will not forget to show you pity, if you confidently seek and pray and cry to him.”   Chapter

Think this matter over: you will own its truth if you consider your vanity and laxity, which engenders in you such diffidence in spiritual things that you doubt whether they exist or are only a mockery, and to read or speak of them, seems tedious or child's play. Believe me, all this conies from the laxity, unrestraint, or dissipation of mind, for as the wise man says: “He that walks sincerely walks confidently but he that perverts his ways shall be obvious.” [53] Evidently, the more you withdraw from cares and imaginations, the more sincere your mind will be, and, as experience shows, the greater will be your confidence in divine truths: but if you pervert your ways of conduct, you will be like the youth to whom Solomon speaks, who was erring from the right path: “A young man according to his way.” [54]

We know that Moses spoke less after God had talked with him than before, and did not wish to speak on divine matters until an aid was given to speak for him.[1043] He thus gave an example to spiritual men who should say little of their consolations from God, and when they are bound to manifest them, should treat of them as though they referred to others let them give examples of such things from the Scriptures to prevent other people from guessing the truth. The holy child Samuel would not tell Heli the priest what God had said to him without much entreaty and persuasion. [1044] King Ezechiel was much to blame for showing the treasures of his palace and God's house to strangers. This warns you to take advice and keep a prudent silence about both your natural graces and those you acquire through contemplation.   The

The third word bids us to be silent interiorly, saying nothing, not even  “speaking lofty things” as Samuel's mother counseled,[165] for the Lord is the God of knowledge and prefers that men should pray to him dumbly and in spirit and in truth, rather than by speech.[166] In fact, the more silently we beseech him, the more favorably does he listen and answer, as in the case of Moses. The latter said nothing, but prayed mutely, yet the Lord answered as though he had been importuned: “Why do you cry to me?” [167] That God grants the prayers of those who are silent about their longings in his presence is shown in the case of Zachary, who while he was dumb begot  John (whose name means ‘grace’), and did not utter a word until the child was born, though afterwards he spoke better than ever before, having become a great prophet. [168]

It is a resurrection to spiritual life wherein power is given to the just over the heaven of his soul and the earth of his body, it is a constant reverence towards God by which we stand in holy fear before him, it is a tree bearing roses of virtues, it is the kingdom of God which we must gain by violence and by art, for we have it within us and daily pray for it, it is a royal priesthood by which, having the mastery over ourselves, we may offer ourselves to God. It is a silence in the heaven of our soul, though brief, and not lasting as the devout man desires; it is a service that we render to God alone, adoring solely his Majesty; it is a seat we hold ready for him that he may stay in our interior house; it is a tent for the wanderer in the desert; it is a strong watch-tower of our defense, from which we must keep guard on heavenly matters, and a golden vessel for the manna in the ark of our heart;

According to those who write on this virtue, the meek live in a noble quietude of mind, and are not easily perturbed. They are sober and temperate, control their anger, are not impetuous but very placid; they are gentle and never speak bitterly; courteous and not rough-mannered. They are good-hearted, not malicious, suspect no harm, always return good for evil, are healthy and un-corrupted, for those who are by nature meek are naturally healthy, not only, in soul but even in body. They are neither provoked nor do they provoke others to evil; they do not hinder people nor are they hindered: they bear no grudges and are generally self-possessed: are not readily annoyed and usually give place to evil. They overlook many offences; are easily corrected; do not resist though they are struck and wounded; are neither cruel nor melancholy but always cheerful;[175] they are extremely docile and sincere, simple and thoroughly straightforward: their face is open and they are full of kindness and patience.

No one pours liquid into a cracked and broken vase which can hold nothing. Your heart is divided into as many pieces representing the cares you hold: each care is a broken piece; and do you think that God will pour his grace into such a useless vessel? Ask the wise man, who says: “The heart of a fool is like a broken vessel, and not all wisdom shall it hold.” [47]   God instills this devout and very sweet wisdom of which we speak into the hearts of the righteous, the golden vessels and cups from which he drinks our good desires, symbolized by the goblets from which King Solomon drank which were all gold. A golden vase cannot easily be broken, neither can the heart of the just be divided between different interests without urgent necessity. However, the hearts of unreflecting men are like the ill-baked clay vessels which David was given in the desert when persecuted by Absalom.[48] This clay vessel is broken because the man's exterior and worldly actions are not referred to God nor performed purely for his sake, but some are done to please men, others by the inspiration of the devil, others for pleasure or vainglory, so that his heart being divided, cannot retain the grace of devotion or the sweetness of the heavenly liquor.

ACORDING to the Apostle, “in many things we all offend” not only once but many times, for “the just man falls seven times a day”. To the wise it is evident that we offend greatly, for we should not commit even a venial sin for all the world could give us.[748] As we offend greatly and in many ways and things, we need to be constantly corrected. Therefore our Letter bids us to constantly correct our soul, lovingly and without anger.   Man should correct himself in two ways. The first and most necessary is to withdraw from evil to good as we are bound to do, for if fraternal correction is binding on a Christian, much more so is the correction of his own soul, with which he is in closer relation. Regarding this correction from evil to good, the wise man says: “The perverse are hard to be corrected.” [749]   One whose good habits are perverted and become evil requires more time to reform than he took to go wrong. For if he gave way to some vice for a year, he will need to practice the contrary virtue for two years in order to change his bad habits for good ones. Hence the sage declares that the perverse are hard to correct, for not only must they uproot the vice but must plant the virtue in its place and wait until it flourishes as the vice did.

I wrote that the sails are our desires that must be perfectly pure and clean, since the port we seek is the knowledge of God, which none can attain save the pure in heart.[291] Hence it is written of the ship of Tyre:  “Fine broidered linen . . . was woven for your sail.” [292]  The mast is the love of God, which the same prophet declares was made of cedar and incorruptible, as the soul should never fail in the practice of any exercise; the cedar must come from Libanus, which means ‘beatitude’, for infused charity is perfect love. To this mast must be fastened the ropes of peace and harmony with God, ourselves, and our neighbor, which in Holy Scripture are called ‘the bands of love.’ [293]  The mariner's compass is faith, by which the rudder must be directed, and the helm is prudence. The compass points to the North, for faith must rule us and raise us to contemplation between the two is discretion, which is very necessary. The pilot is good counsel: he must be guided by the mariner's chart, that is, the Holy Scriptures, if he wishes to avoid mistakes. The sounding-line is prudence, by which we must measure what is to be done if we wish to succeed: the pilot, or sage counsel, must plumb the water over which we sail, that is, our restless life.

Bernard acted thus when he complained of himself to our Lord, saying: ' Create in me a clean heart, oh Lord’, for not only is it filled with vain thoughts and defiled with impurity, but even distracted with bitterness, for often when annoyed by some injury done to me, my heart is full of a continuous tumult of feelings. Tossed to and fro I am beset and swayed on every side by the thought of what reprisals I can take for the injury done to me and how to avenge myself. I make endless plans, and my heart is bent solely on paying off my grudges in imagination as I cannot do so in act. I do not see the people around me but contradict the absent. In fancy, I insult and am insulted and reply with even harsher abuse as there is no one to answer me, I devise a quarrel. I think over the plots of the envious and what they might do and what I could do in return, and as it is all factitious, I labor like a litigant without a case. So I pass the day in idleness and the night in cogitation. I am slow in doing useful work because I am wearied with unlawful thoughts, and fight my battles in my memory because I meet with no resistance outside me. At other times the outward actions I have performed revert importunately to my mind, and often their memory torments me more than the act itself, frequently things that I never did or ever wished to do so haunt my thoughts that I almost wish that I had done them. Cleanse me, oh Lord, from my secret sins, for my outward actions cause me to sin gravely in my thoughts, because what I have seen and done is imprinted in my heart, so that a tumult of worldly cares revolves within it even when at rest.

He will praise you when you shall do well to him,” [96]  but few sing and give thanks to God in the night of adversity, and the little bird does better than they. It is said that the swan sings more sweetly at its death than ever before.   Then, brothers, let us thank God and bless him in all our works, as this Letter tells us, for if we bless him in trials and sufferings they cease to hurt us, and if we bless him for his favors, he will grant us more.     Chapter 4 That We Should Give Thanks in Adversities WE

you must empty and cleanse your heart, for it is the lamp of the prudent virgin, that is, your soul, and when you go forth to meet your Bridegroom it must contain the oil of mercy and the light of faith it is a meager pittance with which God is content,

The oil of grace has also the power of filling the souls of contemplatives with joy. Thus David said to God: “You have anointed my head with oil”; [612] that is, the higher part of my soul. Since grace has the quality of engendering men newly to God, Zacharias calls the saints “sons of oil”, that is, of the grace that begot them anew spiritually to the Lord. As oil floats on all other liquids, so grace holds precedence over the rest of the gifts, virtues, blessings, and fruits of the Holy Spirit, for without the grace that makes us pleasing to God we cannot be saved whatever else we have. As, however skilled and practiced a man may be in any art, he cannot practice it without the proper instruments, so whatever other virtues and qualities a man may have, without grace he cannot perform actions worthy of eternal life.

Our Lord bade us not to speak much in our prayer, for he knows what we need before we ask for it, since he is the God of all knowledge.

Remember that your Lord watches you ceaselessly, therefore, either from fear or shame or that you may please him, never leave off prayer. Recall to mind passages of Holy Scripture relating to perseverance, chiefly our Lord's words: “Pray without ceasing”. Think how he often prayed the whole night apart from his disciples to teach us the benefit of solitude for the soul that sits in loneliness and rises above itself.

If, in order to sleep you stop all noise and occupation, and shut yourself up alone, forgetting all the affairs of this World, you must do the same before you pray, turning your mind wholly to spiritual matters.

The proud never doubt that they are zealous and vigilant on their own behalf, like the insolent Aman who wished for honor and respect on all sides. Now they, desiring this from love of their own dignity, do not unite themselves wholly to God, but seek themselves in all things. This must be strictly avoided by him who serves God; he should repeat after the prophet: “The zeal of your house has eaten me up.” [1182]   Sometimes we are the dwelling-place of God, of ourselves, of the devil, and of the vices that exist in our heart. Now we must not be zealous to guard it for anything but for God's dwelling-place, sorrowing more for having offended him than for the punishment due to us. If we are zealous regarding ourselves for any other reason, we err greatly by a wrong use of the divine gift and deserve the execution of God's threat:  “My jealousy shall depart from you, and I will rejoice, and be angry no more.” [1183] The Lord deprives us of the zeal that brought about better things when he sees that we seek them, not for his sake, but for our own.

The rivers of Babylon are all the penalties that remain of sin which flow down to hell, and the wicked follow them, for the penalties of this life do not suffice for such crimes, therefore they both end in hell. However, the righteous sit beside these rivers, for they only have to suffer transient penalties which pass away, leaving them seated and not departing with this world, but awaiting the world of the eternal Father prepared for them.   David does not say they wept on account of 'their discomfort by the rivers, which signify trials, but because of their longing for Sion, that is for heaven, where the God of Gods is beheld. This means that the just are more tormented by the postponement of the glory promised them than by all the other sufferings of the world, for they feel their absence from Sion and weep for it

This holy Doctor has written many noteworthy things, especially, as you must always remember, that a good Christian gives thanks in the midst of persecutions, and unless you do so, you have even less right to call yourself a good religious than a good Christian.

THOSE accustomed to act unreasonably generally misinterpret warnings and good advice, and endeavor to pervert them for their own evil ends. They try to wrest the clearest teaching so that it may seem to favor their bad customs and they may not have to follow it. They warp the Rule to suit their own behavior instead of obeying it.

Those are mistaken who think time spent in prayer is lost if they do not receive the dew of devotion at once. I say to such people that if they do their best and keep up a steady war of resistance against their wandering thoughts and their despondency at failing to get rid of them or obtaining peace, they gain greater merit very often than if they felt devotion at once without any struggle, because they are serving God at their own expense at the cost of more effort and suffering. However, anyone who wishes to undertake this exercise should spend much time on it, to set aside all care about his own or other people's business, and force himself to remain for a long while in one place, whether he receives consolations or not.   Yet

Blessed will you be if you persevere in the exercise you have chosen and follow your vocation, not wandering to and fro and changing your mind. If you fluctuate too much you will be like a plant that does not thrive because it is often transplanted. Do not be negligent or renounce what you have begun; then you will abide in your calling as the Apostle advises, not passing from house to house, but remaining in one, as our Lord bade his disciples.[1229]

The two principal wings of our soul are the understanding and the will given to it, so that it may seek the repose found in the solitude of the heart provided by the hand of God with all that is needed to satisfy our desire, and made ready by his action, for our own would not suffice. These wings, John declares, are those of the eagle, whose flight and conversation are in heaven, for those who practice this mode of prayer are rather heavenly than of this world, and Paul's words: “Our conversation is in heaven”,[680] apply to them. Yet there are people who expect and strive to attain to this repose of contemplation by using the left wing of the understanding alone, like a man rowing with one oar to reach the port of rest, or swimming with one arm to gain the shore. Our Letter of the Alphabet tells such persons that not with the understanding, which means by using the left wing, but by tasting, which is the right wing, may they hope to reach the longed-for repose. [681]

Holy Scripture often counsels preachers of one thing which they practice little, not because they will not but because they cannot. They are strongly exhorted to make use of contemplation and prayer, and this is the last thing they practice, for they have enough work to do in writing a fine sermon, even if they do not feel dissatisfied and unhappy about it in the end. Oh what vexation of spirit it is when tears come to the eyes, grace to the heart, recollection to the soul, and sighs and sobs to the breast, to be obliged to set them all aside for the sake of study!

God teaches those who come to him in another manner without interior speech or action. It takes place with such secrecy that the soul itself does not know it at the time, nor until it sees itself growing in discretion, and in knowledge of how to direct its own and other people's affairs prudently It also understands many things in Holy Scripture that it could not comprehend before, though it knows not whence this knowledge came. I think that God treats these people as we treat thrushes and birds that we teach; but they know they are learning. This way of learning is excellent if free from presumption and combined with faith and right reason. However, there is danger in great unrestraint, for it is hateful that a man should concern himself with what is beyond him.

The Apostle says of this: “Charity is patient, is kind rejoices not in iniquity, but rejoices with the truth: bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things.” [873]   Paul here shows that the charitable love of which we speak draws to itself all the other virtues, making them, as it were, one of its own family.   Hence,

Let us find ourselves, then, brother, in love; root ourselves in it like trees, build ourselves on it as a firm foundation founded on love for God which makes us his mansion and his temple in which he dwells; let us, rooted in love for our neighbor which makes us fruitful, give forth leaves of help and fruit of sustenance.[874]   Those who are thus founded and rooted can, to a certain extent, understand what is the length and breadth and depth and height of love. Its breadth extends to our enemies; its length perseveres to the end; its height makes it all powerful, and its depth makes us attribute nothing to ourselves but all to the love God bears for us.

IT is written: ' The ransom of a man's life are his riches ' [862] (the love and redemption of the soul), and the ransom of our soul is love by which you can redeem it from all evils that have held it captive, like the Magdalene whose great love was a ransom for her many sins. [863] Its riches were so great that they redeemed her and set her at greater liberty than before she was made captive by her sins, to which it is believed, she did not return. As her evil life in the past earned her the special name of 'a sinner' in that malicious city, for it did not know the time of her visitation, so her deep love for our Lord won her the title to a special mansion in the city of God given her as a testimony by her Beloved. He chose to praise her for this above all others, for there are few people in Holy Scripture so praised for great love by him who gave the grand commandment of love as the Magdalene, who redeemed her sins by love.   Let

Immense is the love denoted by the two words ' Our Father’, but to avoid being tedious we will pass on to the next that declare he is in heaven, that is, in his lovers,  ‘whose conversation is in heaven’  on account of the sublimity of their lives. The Lord finds great repose in these heavens, which show forth the glory of God. He himself affirms this, saying that heaven is his throne and the soul of the just is the seat of wisdom, also: “His Spirit has adorned the heavens”, [911] and the Holy Spirit adorns the souls of those who love God with more virtues than there are stars in the heavens. Merely by dwelling in them, by his sublime intelligence he rules them, giving them the impulse to return to him who sets them in action.[912]

The more promptly a soul seeks God with true reverence, the sooner does it find him; and the greater its eagerness in searching for him, the more ardently does it clasp him when found.

Since love for God arises in the heart, that must be enlightened before the exterior man: for hypocrites first make bright what is outside, but the servants of God begin with what is within, for hypocrites love God in appearance but in their heart care only for themselves.

Therefore our Letter gives very salutary advice in bidding you correct the vagaries of your mind by love, without becoming angry or sad, for it is written that “whatsoever shall befall the just man, it shall not make him sad.

You imagine that you have enemies, though no one wishes you ill; you take to yourself a remark that was not meant for you; the speaker was not thinking of you, but you conjecture that the arrow was aimed at yourself. You have wounded yourself with children's weapons, with words of little meaning. You are so touchy and sensitive that people dare not speak to you, lest you should feel wounded when not attacked and complain without reason. Do not be so sensitive , be wide-minded; remember how Saul heard what was said against him and pretended not to know, letting it pass, and afterwards, when he could have avenged himself, despised reprisals.[1114]

Some people persecute others in order to obtain their office and to injure their good name, thinking to increase their own, yet with all this, they feign to be religious.   Even if this happens to you, if you are good no harm can result to you, for no one can take God from you, and to take away anything else is to relieve you of trouble. But you must be cautious and commit no open fault, for these people will load you with bitter reproaches if you reveal any want of virtue. They will so rave and fulminate against you that they will seem rather to be persecuting than correcting you. But like a good knight, fear them not, for the accusers you think are your enemies are your advisers and are very useful in God's house. They are like the smith's file, which wears off the superfluity of other things while spoiling itself.

If by casting salt into the barren waters, Elisha healed them of their barrenness,[962] much more will Christ by casting himself, the true salt of wisdom, into the passions and torments of men, have left them sweet and made them easy to bear. This is figured in Exodus, where it is told that the Children of Israel could not drink the waters of Mara, because they were bitter, until Moses had thrown a tree into them which made them sweet.[963] Christ called himself ‘green wood’: [964]  he turned the waters of suffering sweet by swimming in them; he plunged into them to save those who were perishing. Since then, tribulations are sweet though very difficult to bear and bitter for men under the Law. Now they have lost their bitterness for those under Gospel Law, or if they still have some bitterness, it is little compared with what it was. They are counted sweet by those who found them bitter, since Christ our Redeemer has passed through them. Hence he said to his Apostles, after foretelling the great trials they would undergo in this life: “Have confidence, I have overcome the world.” [965] The gloss comments on this: “I have overcome in myself and in my own, I, who am your head, have overcome.” This should inspire no little confidence in his members.

If you say that there is a lion in the way of perfection to hinder you, it is true; but the lion is dead, for our Samson passed by and killed it; [970] you will find nothing there but the bees which may sting and cause you some annoyance. That will matter little, for they will also give you the honey of consolation if you suffer a little and force yourself to follow Christ in what is hard.

The first class of souls err by not practicing the interior life as they ought, the second think they are spiritual and are not; the third simulate it hypocritically, and these are far from it. The first, who enter into themselves but are not silent, are those who have many feelings about God and at once want to make them public and talk about them, making their sanctity known even to those who want to hear nothing about it, like the hen who startles the household to show everyone she has laid an egg.   We

To avoid exterior practice for fear of vain-glory is senseless, for it does not even know how to give God his due.

Make sure not to be a saint who limps after Christ, but so order your life that you may follow him both outwardly and in your heart.

1109]   If your mind will subject itself only to certain people famous for their sanctity, and to no one else, know that you are deceived and that the devil has made you believe you are ‘somebody’, though in reality your imagination has misled you into making an idol of yourself.   The

The chief effort of unprincipled men is to quote the words of the recollected, misinterpreting them in order to slander and condemn them by means of some person who is either senseless or possessed, and who takes for wrong what he does not understand. Fear not men's persecutions, though they are the worst of all, for in the midst of this whirlwind, like another Elisha, you can mount to the heaven of contemplation.[1111] Imitate a swarm of bees that return to the hive during a tempest. Remember, trees supply their own strength which encloses itself in the root; springs are warmer at their fount in the coldest weather; fish dive into the water, the frogs leave off croaking. Let us follow their example by being the more recollected as persecution waxes fiercer, for this is I best way to overcome it.   Only

learn by experience the truth of the wise man's words: ' When they heard that by their punishments the others were benefited, they remembered the Lord, wondering at the end,  what was come to pass.' [1112]   ‘What was come to pass ' means the benefits conferred by trials suffered well.   At such times we should think of the Lord, not of our tempters, for if, as Gregory we should consider while reading Holy Scripture not him who wrote, but what he wrote, neither should we think during temptation of our persecutors, but of God, who allows it, to inure and teach us understanding from our trials.   Though you may be persecuted on all sides, do not be dismayed for God will make the truth known, and will deliver you as he did David, who being surrounded on all parts, lost hope of escaping from Saul's hands. Yet God so befriended him that he got the mastery over his enemy, allowing him to go free instead of repaying evil by evil.   Chapter

I do not say this to prevent your meditating, but to warn you that it must be followed by your body's following Jesus, not by corporal imagination but by corporal deeds, for you know our Lord's saying;  “Believe the works.” It does not tell us to believe by (trust in) our thought, but by works. Oh, how many souls trust in their thoughts and are content to think about the sacred Passion without imitating it!

First, we should withdraw from all sin, even venial, for the true lover endeavors to avoid all offence, not thinking of the punishment due to it, but of the Beloved whom all evil offends, great and small. Secondly, we should cultivate every virtue, losing no occasion of doing good and being very zealous in acts of piety, which have great merit. Thirdly, we should not set our love on anything, but possess what we have as a loan, so that we may not fix our heart on that, but on God. Fourthly, let us arouse our heart from sleep, so that it may often make acts of tender love.[930]

The first of these actions will remove our fear of approaching God. The second will give us courage to go to him and even to embrace him. The third will give us strength to take the kingdom of heaven by violence with great impetus and strength of love. The fourth will make us swift and skilful to achieve this work easily, and if we wish to do it joyfully, let us think of what will arouse our love.

Although it is said that some sins come from ignorance or weakness, and others from malice, it would be better to say that they come from want of love for God, because charity has cooled. For if love increases, malice declines and virtue grows stronger and becomes easy, while our ignorance is enlightened.

Our Lord God says to each of these souls; “You shall not follow the multitude to do evil: neither shall you yield in judgment to the opinion of the most part.” [941] Vices, and the wicked and their ways and customs unite to do evil; they defend and help each other in their ill-doings. They will not succeed, but when they seem most in accord, they will be bound in bundles to be thrown into hell, where they will pay dearly for the cool and shady road by which they travelled in their life-time.   The judgment and opinions of such people must neither be approved nor followed, for the more there are who share them, the more go astray. Christ alone goes rightly, and all who do not follow him are on the wrong track. You must not be surprised that only one does well and many fail, for there is but one way of hitting the mark—to aim the arrow straight at it—and there are countless ways of missing it. To hit the bull's-eye that wins everlasting life, go by the straight, direct road taken by Christ our Redeemer.

Miserable creatures that we are, we complain that grace is wanting because we do not feel it.   Paul tells us to look diligently lest we be wanting to grace, proving that it is always we who fail rather than divine grace,

THAT which most excites men's fear is that they must follow Jesus, for he runs swiftly, like a powerful giant, and no one can overtake him. He is so far ahead on the way of perfection as to be lost to sight, and he travels by a lonely, desert road, infested by wild animate and so difficult and parched that no one can go by it. Hence many people choose other ways, following their own reason or opinions or appetites; they seek some other paths, and even without seeking them, find many that lead to hell and are so smooth and pleasant that they forget what a terrible reception they will meet with in the end. They only think of the pleasant way and fresh air and companions and that, whichever road they take, they are sure of society.[940]   They

I am upon the watch-tower of the Lord, standing continually by day: and I am upon my ward, standing whole nights.' [1035]  The gloss comments on this: ' In continual contemplation day and night, he was prepared to hear and speak as he was bidden.'   To make the prophet's words clearer, we must notice that the Lord's watch-tower is recollection, for the aim of the devout in practicing it is solely to watch and contemplate God the better To stand upon this watchtower is to turn seriously into oneself, as I said.   The

Then let humility grow in you, preparing you for justification, let your soul be like a steel mirror which receives the sunlight the better the more it is burnished. Know that if you are negligent, the splendor and beauty that God produces in the humble will not appear in you. The soul is like wax that, placed in the sunlight, melts for love of the ray that his Majesty infuses in it. Humility gives the soul strength to persevere, making known to it that as wax hardens when removed from the sunlight, so the soul, turning from God, will become hard again and lose the recollection and tender love it received from the Lord.   Those who make progress and grow in virtue prepare for God, but only if they are humble and know that the virtues, though good, do not by themselves suffice to save us. That men should I be circumcised was a mystery meant to teach us that even our  manly, virtuous actions are defective, and need to be circumcised by recollection and purified at the entrance of the heavenly Jerusalem.   Not

Also, remember this:  humility is its own worst enemy , for if a man is humble and knows it, he has no humility, since man's worst form of pride is to think he is humble, for he takes the first place while I believing he takes the last.  This is a most dangerous snare, for as Bernard says,” the humble wish to be thought vile and not praised as being humble. Humility is said to possess the characteristic of being unconscious of itself, so it may be called a hidden virtue which God praises secretly in his bride in the Canticles.” [1064]

It will be seen, on considering this example, that we must draw love from the virtues and set this love on the high God to whom we fly, for philosophers took virtue for their end, but Christians only make it their instrument to obtain perfect love for God, they do not seek the virtues merely for the pleasure they give but because without them they cannot attain to the perfect love for God that is their aim.

When God gives us consolations, he shows his love for us, and when he sends trials, he wants to see whether we love him; therefore the best advice is to receive all from him and derive love from it; that is, to look upon it as a test by which he seeks to prove our love. When he comforts us, let us think that he wishes to sec whether we shall care more for his gift than for him, and that his intention is to make us love him more.

Not only should you derive love from your own works, but also from those of others, loving him in their blessings, for love is like a bee that sucks honey for its hive from every flower. Additionally, love, solely by its gratitude and pleasure in its neighbor's goods, makes them its own and offers them as its sacrifice to the Lord. Hence Gregory says, “The graces that we cannot imitate but only love in others are ours, as our virtues become the property of those who love them. The envious should reflect upon the power of charity, which, with no labor we perform, makes ours the work of others. With neither effort nor fear, love gives us possession of the goods of others, for in our own good deeds we always feel vain-glory, but not in those of our neighbor. No one should refuse to believe that love for the good works of others makes us their owner, since love for other people's sins makes us sinners.

If the humble do not take part in this world's business, they are occupied in spiritual matters instead, which require a man's whole intellect, freed from I all else.

The all-wise Father, knowing the benefit accruing to his sons through temptations, and being resolved to help them, gives them severe conflicts, casts them down to the depths, gives them bread and straw to teach them self-denial. He visits, raises, and proves them and gives them courage to preserve them against the risings of pride and deceptions and their irritation at their falls. Then do not fear temptation, brother, when you have such a counterweight as God's love for you. He is better served by you when you are tempted, for you suffer for him, but when you are consoled; your work is done for you.   Be sure to turn within yourself and seek God whenever anything happens that annoys you, like the dove that, when pursued by a bird of prey flies away and enters a safe place of refuge. You too should enter the refuge of your heart, where you will find God, and every adverse circumstance will be to you a messenger of grace, as this Letter declares. Then the words of Isaiah will be fulfilled in you. “And a man shall be as when one is hid from the wind, and hides himself from a storm, as rivers of water in drought, and the shadow of a rock that stands out in a desert land.

Man bears within himself a witness of all his faults, which he must acknowledge with sorrow either here or before God's judgment seat, for as the sage says, ‘our conscience knows we have said and even done what harmed others,[1135] and knows it, not in order to conceal it, but to bear witness against us. Yet with all this, there are men who stop God's voice and stifle the remonstrance of conscience, not permitting it to speak; or rather, treat it with such contempt that it is hoarse with shouting. They listen to it no more than if they were mill-stones, and live in perfect peace and repose. Not that their understanding is at rest or ceases to keep alight the spark that burns their conscience when they err, but they keep it submerged, sunk deep in the well of evil customs. There they hide the light and cover it by adding sin after sin with an easy heart. Concerning such men Holy Scripture says that some who are wicked, feel as secure as though they had followed justice.   This is a wrongful peace of the perverse, who not through ignorance, but through malice, will not face their evil state. [1136] When conscience reproves them, they force it to rebound as the hard ground makes a ball bounce back, without listening to a word it says. Such men lose their reason as though they were drunk; they hearken neither to God, to their conscience, their good angel, a preacher, nor a wise counselor. They say: “I shall have peace, and will walk on in the injustice of my heart: and the drunken may consume the thirsty.” [1137]   In

On this account, preachers, when they ask for the grace of the Holy Spirit before a sermon, though they seem to be begging for the gift of tongues and power of preaching, which are graces gratis datae, must in their heart intend first to pray for the grace that makes them pleasing to God, as well as the grace to preach well which makes them pleasing to men, that they may return it to him as the man who catches the ball returns it to him who threw it. Then they will succeed: otherwise, they will set things in the wrong order.

Some people are anxious to know the source of the thoughts which weary them whether they come from the devil, from the evil desires by which everyone is tempted, from some occasion of sin or danger which they have incurred, or from any of the causes that occur in this world.   Bernard thus answers this difficulty: “Who watches and guards his interior impulses, whether passive or carried into action, so carefully that he can discern in his heart between the infirmity of his soul and the sting of the serpent? I do not think it is possible for any mortal unless, enlightened by the Holy Spirit; he has received the special gift which the Apostle reckons among his other graces, and calls “the discerning of spirits.” [431]

As we keep in mind what we most wish for, it follows that God continually remembers the soul he loves. He even calls to it, as it were with sighs, according to the Psalm: “If I forget you, oh Jerusalem let my right hand be forgotten. Let my tongue cleave to my jaws, if I do not remember you: if I make not Jerusalem the beginning of my joy.

see the good in others, and when you witness special virtue, imitate and praise it. One person excels in meekness, another in poverty of spirit, others in prudence, self-contempt, or diligence and readiness in well-doing, friendliness, fasting and abstinence, good behavior and modesty, kindness and compassion, or charity, and you will see that the virtues shared among men

Directs That a Man Should Repress Talkativeness, Saying:  'Never Leave Aimless Wandering Unpunished.' [504] Chapter I We Must Remain Within Our Heart Awaiting GOD’S Coming HE would be greatly to blame who, when some high dignitaries were about to visit him, left his home at the time they were expected. It would appear insulting, and the guests might seek some other dwelling, leaving their indifferent host to himself, to give him a lesson and teach him to welcome those who came to honor his house by a visit. If the patriarch Abraham had not been in his tent, he would not have deserved to receive the angels who promised him a longed-for son.[505] Had Lot been negligent in welcoming pilgrims, instead of waiting for them at the gate of the city, he would not have deserved to entertain the angels who delivered him from the burning of Sodom and placed him in safety.[506] Unless Laban had been in his house, the men who were the cause of his future prosperity would not have lodged there.[507] Yet if these men were careful to stay at home and show hospitality to the guests of whose visits they had no certainty, much more should every devout soul be spiritually solicitous while awaiting to welcome within itself God, who is to be its guest.

The second door of the heart is the will, which to be safe must bear within it the fire of divine love. [236] This benefits it greatly, for like Samson's foxes [237] it burns and destroys the things of this world as though they were tow,[238] and the heat drives off the flies of mundane temptations as the hot steam from the saucepan keeps them at bay. Fire has this property: it separates things that differ and unites those which resemble one another; so an ardent love for God admits what is good and repulses what is evil and contrary to sanctity.

Oh blessed tears, by which interior stains are washed away, and the flames of sin are quenched! Happy are those who weep thus, for they shall rejoice hereafter. By these tears, oh soul, discover your Bridegroom! Embrace him (whom) you desire; be inebriated with the river of delight; draw milk and honey from the breasts of his consolation. These tears and sighs are wondrous, precious gifts and consolations given you by your Spouse. Let these tears furnish drink for you; they are bread for you by day and by night, bread that surely strengthens the heart of man and is sweeter than honey and the honeycomb.

You must build up or fashion: cleanse, purge and pass through anguish of mind in your work: you must perfect your present actions and your speech and refine your thoughts. For if you become such as you should and must be considering the grace you receive from the Lord, you will find many imperfections in all these things, and if you cast these away and refine all your interior and exterior acts, you will be able to offer God numerous sacrifices in your manner of life, justice and sanctity.

Those who keep God's holy commandments and are faithful to the laws of this Sacrament, should in no wise be dissuaded from contemplation, but rather encouraged if they wish to engage in it.

Christ our Redeemer taught the poor Samaritan woman that she must pray in spirit, like the true adorers of God, and bade her ask for the living water, meaning the Spirit whom believers were to receive.

I, too, intend in this book to teach not only people who live in retirement, but everyone else, especially those in the world, among whom are many who greatly desire all that is good, and who do not lack the opportunity, but instruction, as to how to approach God in secret prayer

Though, according to the learned, grace is the same as charity, yet Holy Scripture compares it to many things because of the many effects it has on our soul. It is called a new spirit, for it renews man's heart; a fire, for it consumes sins, unction, because it heals spiritual wounds; light, for it illumines the mind; virtue, for it strengthens our weakness; water that quenches the thirst of our soul, and a lighted torch that inflames us with love for God; peace which pacifies and makes peace between sensuality and the intellect, and a ray of light that penetrates the earth from the Sun of Justice.

Remember, it is only mankind that weeps, and the manlier you are, the more you should do so.  Augustine says that the more saintly a person is and full of holy desires, the more tears he should shed during prayer. Oh happy tears that wreck our enemies, that drown evil thoughts, that extinguish the flames of our wrong desires, that wash away the stains of our sins, that moisten the hardness of our heart and soften it towards God! The ship of our desire sails swiftly over you to him, for the wind of the Holy Spirit never fails to purify and move our tears. The sinner bathes himself in you like the snake so that he may the more easily cast the skin of his past life by means of the narrow passage of penance.

The wrath of the devil comes against beginners as by a narrow path, for God does not give him so much license against them, but he advances on those who have defeated him as on a broad road, as though he had sworn not to forgive them, for his intention in making war by bad thoughts is to drive you to despair, or anger you, or make you mad. This is why David says that he sent you three things by his evil angels: tribulation which leads to despair, wrath which provokes to anger; and indignation which conduces to insanity. Lest you, who practice recollection, should fear these interior conflicts that lead to so much evil, know that it is not only on contemplatives the devil uses such artifices, rather, it is want of recollection which gives rise to wrong thoughts and imaginations.   Do not aim all the stones at the devil, for your interior battle may arise from many quarters. It will correspond to the quarter from where it comes. If God instigates it as a punishment for your many habitual faults, it will be a just war against those who wish to make a false friendship with the evil one, like those of whom Paul says: “God delivered them up to a reprobate sense, to do those things which are not convenient, being filled with all iniquity, malice, fornication, avarice, wickedness, full of envy, murder, contention, deceit, malignity, whisperers, detractors, hateful to God, contumelious, proud, haughty, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, foolish, dissolute, without affection, without mercy.” [410]   The Apostle thus shows how God delivers his enemies into the hands of their foes, so that when we are in serious enmity against God with whom we must be in perfect peace, as a penalty for our sin he permits us to be delivered to our chief enemies, which are the vices. Hence follows exterior and interior war, and even, unless we return to him, combat in hell with the phantoms that strike with fiery weapons and devour with open mouth. [411]

The earthly paradise grew three kinds of trees, the forbidden tree called the knowledge of good and evil; the tree of life, and many others which bore fruit and seed after their kind. The latter signify the many virtues that must be implanted in the heart and give the fruit of good works, engendering them in others by good example.   The forbidden tree is self-will of this we must not eat because we are not to follow our will, for, according to Solomon; we must turn away from our own will. [229] The Lord complains of those who disobey this, saying by the prophet Isaiah: “Behold in the day of your fast your own will is found.” [230] The “day of our fast” is any obligation we are under which forbids what would otherwise be lawful, so that every command obliges us to fast and withdraw our will from what it prohibits if it is negative: if the law is affirmative, it forbids what is opposite to it.

Isidore says: “We must be most watchful over the guard of our heart from which arises the beginning of good and evil. Christ meant this when he said. ‘There is no good tree that brings forth evil fruit; nor an evil tree that brings forth good fruit. For every tree is known by its fruit.  A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth that which is good. . . . For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks’.” [210] In these words our Lord states that the principle of good or evil is in the heart with which the actions conform as the fruits with the tree. As every exterior movement is caused by the initial movement in the heart, so every good or wicked action resembles the primary intention of the spiritual heart, that is, the man's motive for it. The mind is the root or thought of the action; if this be good, it produces good fruit; if evil, bad fruit is the result. Therefore Isidore says: “The thought brings forth pleasure; pleasure begets consent; consent produces the deed; the deed begets custom; custom breeds necessity and necessity brings forth despair.

Blessed are the meek, for they are barricaded from the shots of the devil's artillery and the persecutions of this world by sacks of wool. They are like glass vessels packed in hay or straw to preserve them from jarring. Meekness is the strong shield by which the arrows of wrath are broken or turned aside. The meek are clothed in very soft cotton which defends them perfectly without offence to anyone.

everyday is the day of our fast on which, under pain of death, we must not eat of the tree of self-will.

God gives a man some grace, and the soul, through its extreme desire to understand reason about, and examine it, and know what it is, loses the favor, of which God deprives it. God wishes that with the arms and wings of our soul we should embrace him and what he gives us, and should be so delighted with its possession as to feel no curiosity about it.

If through old-established, evil custom, your thoughts wander so that you cannot direct them, turn to God, tell him your weakness, and ask his help with faith. He will hear you at once, for Isaiah says of our Lord God: “He shall set up a standard unto the nations, and shall assemble the fugitives of Israel, and shall gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four quarters of the earth. And the envy of Ephraim shall be taken away, and the enemies of Judah shall perish.” [58]

He who prays for others, and gives them a good example and advice, does the work of converting souls and is a fisherman for the Lord's banquet: he should thank God heartily for giving him such an office.

Bonaventure says in his commentary on the Mystical Theology of Dionysius. “As this perception is of higher things and not of those of the earth, we are told to disregard not only the action of the exterior but of the interior senses as well. The experimental knowledge of this comes from God, who declares by Ezekiel that he has given the recollected soul rings in its ears that it may be deaf to learned reasonings and has stopped its lips that it may not speak of them. These three words, blind, deaf, and dumb, can also be referred to the three powers of the soul,[173] directing that the intelligence should be blind in the manner we have described and not make use of its knowledge, which might destroy this suspension, and that the will should be deaf to the love to which creatures invite it.

When your heart accuses you, know that God has come to it to punish your ill deeds, and unless you wish to be cast forth from it like Adam, you must acknowledge your fault and not hide behind the bushes of excuses, making light of your sin as though it were a leaf blown by the wind.

The standard God sets up in our interior ‘nations’ and tendencies is the gift and grace spoken of in the first part of this Letter, which is given to beginners who ask God for it with faith and a firm resolution to seek him. If you have not this gift, brother, beg it of our Lord, who will grant it you at once to incite you to seek and go to him. Do not complain that it is lacking to you; it would be truer to complain that you are lacking in correspondence to it. We fail God, who fails no one who seeks him faithfully,

Christ's sacred face was spat upon to cleanse our soul which was blacker than coal. His precious flesh was covered with a robe that the veil of ignorance we had incurred by sin might be lifted and our spiritual blindness cured: he was presented before the judges that we might appear fearlessly before the Judge of all men. He kept silence to make satisfaction for Eve's speech with the serpent, and that our much and evil speaking might be chastised in his divine Person. He was left naked that we might be stripped of the old man and adorn ourselves with virtuous habits in readiness for the eternal nuptials, Christ was scourged to screen us from the scourge of justice we so well deserved; mock honors were paid to him on earth to win true honor for us in heaven. He wore a crown of thorns to crown us with glory; bore a reed in his hand that we might be given the scepter of the kingdom and was crucified between thieves to deliver us from the infernal companions with whom we had made friends and to make us companions of the holy angels.

You must also know that the world is, by nature, deaf which must be understood to mean in this case that the soul which is mute, not meditating on any subject, should also be deaf regarding thoughts which drag it down, and repress the senses with their many distractions.

The meek also really possess earthly things, for when they lose them they do not lose meekness; but they drag this world's goods after them as their slaves, but when they lose them, calmly bid them go in peace, showing that they were detached from such property.

I know this and warn you of it: may God grant that you may realize it and that you may not be like those individuals who, after having spoken angrily, say that they are not sorry and their conscience does not reproach them, for they had a good intention. If they merely tell me that they do not regret it, I believe them, for I do not consider that they are servants of God; but when they declare that they did not err, I do not believe it, for we know almost palpably that a slight movement of wrath or a few irritable words uttered by a devout person produce the effects described. Hence our Father Francis says that anger and annoyance hinder charity.

Some persons are rash enough to say that punishment cannot be rightly dealt except in anger. They quote the words of the prophet: “My indignation itself has helped me”, [184] and the Psalm: “You may be angry and sin not.” [185]   To confute this let them listen to the counsel given by the sage: “Do your works in meekness, and you shall be beloved above the glory of men.” [186] He tells us to finish our works in meekness, because he knows where the danger comes in, for many begin with meekness and gradually grow angry. He tells us that then we shall be beloved above the glory of men, for the meek are angels rather than men.   To those who contradict this, I answer that anger is never good, for natural wrath is painful to him who feels it and causes the loss of the grace of which I have spoken which the Lord vouchsafes to those who please him. Anger which is venial will have a temporal penalty, and doubtless, when mortal, will be punished eternally.

The reason that I have said more about meekness than of any other virtue is because it is the most helpful of any natural quality in the spiritual exercise of which the Third Alphabet treats. If you do not possess it, you must seek it before anything else, for it is the greatest preservative of divine grace. It often happens that those who are drawing near to God and who feel his grace in their heart lose it on feeling the slightest anger. They do not know how grace came nor where it has gone. Harsh words have the same effect on the speaker: they disturb the heart and spill the liquor of grace it held.