The move makes the order of the whole more logical and agrees with the thought of most editors. This is the greatest wisdom — to seek the kingdom of heaven through contempt of the world.
THE SECOND CHAPTER
THE THIRD CHAPTER
They became vain in their own conceits because they chose to be great rather than humble. He is truly great who is little in his own eyes and makes nothing of the highest honor.
THE FOURTH CHAPTER
THE FIFTH CHAPTER
THE SIXTH CHAPTER
THE SEVENTH CHAPTER
THE EIGHTH CHAPTER
THE NINTH CHAPTER
THE TENTH CHAPTER
THE ELEVENTH CHAPTER
THE TWELFTH CHAPTER
THE THIRTEENTH CHAPTER
We should not despair, therefore, when we are tempted, but pray to God the more fervently that He may see fit to help us, for according to the word of Paul, He will make issue with. When a man is not troubled it is not hard for him to be fervent and devout, but if he bears up patiently in time of adversity, there is hope for great progress.
THE FOURTEENTH CHAPTER
THE FIFTEENTH CHAPTER
THE SIXTEENTH CHAPTER
THE SEVENTEENTH CHAPTER
THE EIGHTEENTH CHAPTER
THE NINETEENTH CHAPTER
Some are suitable when we are sad, others when we are joyful in the Lord. About the time of the principal feasts good devotions ought to be renewed and the intercession of the saints more fervently implored.
THE TWENTIETH CHAPTER
Your cell will become dear to you if you remain in it, but if you do not, it will become wearisome. Perhaps you think you will completely satisfy yourself, but you cannot do so, for if you should see all existing things, what would they be but an empty vision.
THE TWENTY-FIRST CHAPTER
Pray humbly to the Lord, therefore, that He may give you the spirit of contrition and say with the Prophet: “Feed me, Lord, with the bread of mourning and give me to drink of tears in full measure.” f5.
THE TWENTY-SECOND CHAPTER
Now is the time to act, now is the time to fight, now is the proper time to amend.” When you are troubled and afflicted, that is the time to gain merit. Woe to us if we presume to rest in peace and security when actually there is no true holiness in our lives.
THE TWENTY-THIRD CHAPTER
If you do not care for your own welfare now, who will care when you are gone. Do now, beloved, what you can, because you do not know when you will die, nor what your fate will be after death.
THE TWENTY-FOURTH CHAPTER
The poor and humble will have great confidence, while the proud will be struck with fear. Then the cheap garment will shine with splendor and the rich one become faded and worn; the poor cottage will be more praised than the gilded palace.
THE TWENTY-FIFTH CHAPTER
Make the best of every opportunity, so that if you see or hear good example you may be moved to imitate it. When you begin to grow lukewarm, you are falling into the beginning of evil; but if you give yourself to fervor, you will find peace and will experience less hardship because of God’s grace and the love of virtue.
BOOK TWO
THE FIRST CHAPTER
If you attend wholly to God and yourself, you will be little disturbed by what you see about you. Be grateful, therefore, for the least gift and you will be worthy to receive a greater.
BOOK THREE
He who is not ready to suffer all things and to stand resigned to the will of the Beloved is not worthy to be called a lover. MY CHILD, I must be your supreme and last end, if you truly desire to be blessed. It is absolutely necessary that you conceive a true contempt for yourself if you wish to be victorious over flesh and blood.
THE TWENTY-SIXTH CHAPTER
THE TWENTY-SEVENTH CHAPTER
Give me, Lord, heavenly wisdom to learn above all else to seek and find You, to enjoy and love You more than anything, and to consider other things as they are, as Your wisdom has ordered them. Grant me prudence to avoid the flatterer and to bear patiently with him who disagrees with me.
THE TWENTY-EIGHTH CHAPTER
THE TWENTY-NINTH CHAPTER
THE THIRTIETH CHAPTER
I know your secret thoughts, and I know that it is profitable for your salvation to be left sometimes in despondency lest perhaps you be puffed up by success and fancy yourself to be what you are not. If you think aright and view things in their true light, you should never be so dejected and saddened by adversity, but rather rejoice and give thanks, considering it a matter of special joy that I afflict you with sorrow and do not spare you. As the Father hath loved Me, so also I love you,” I said to My disciples, and I certainly did not send them out to temporal joys but rather to great struggles, not to honors but to contempt, not to idleness, but to labors, not to rest but to bring forth much fruit in patience.
THE THIRTY-FIRST CHAPTER
THE THIRTY-SECOND CHAPTER
THE THIRTY-THIRD CHAPTER
THE THIRTY-FOURTH CHAPTER
THE THIRTY-FIFTH CHAPTER
THE THIRTY-SIXTH CHAPTER
THE THIRTY-SEVENTH CHAPTER
THE THIRTY-EIGHTH CHAPTER
THE THIRTY-NINTH CHAPTER
THE FORTIETH CHAPTER
In You I will glory and rejoice all the day, and for myself I will glory in nothing but my infirmities. O my Truth, my Mercy, my God, O Blessed Trinity, to You alone be praise and honor, power and glory, throughout all the endless ages of ages.
THE FORTY-FIRST CHAPTER
THE FORTY-SECOND CHAPTER
THE FORTY-THIRD CHAPTER
THE FORTY-FOURTH CHAPTER
THE FORTY-FIFTH CHAPTER
Beware,” they say, “beware and keep to yourself what I tell you!” Then while I keep silent, believing that the matter is secret, he who asks me to be silent cannot remain silent himself, but immediately betrays both me and himself, and goes his way. Oh, how good and how peaceful it is to be silent about others, not to believe without discrimination all that is said, not easily to report it further, to reveal oneself to few, always to seek You as the discerner of hearts, and not to be blown away by every wind of words, but to wish that all things, within and beyond us, be done according to the pleasure of Thy will. And how truly profitable it has been when grace remained hidden during this frail life, which is all temptation and warfare.
THE FORTY-SIXTH CHAPTER
Even if an unjust charge be made against him he will not be much troubled. He considers that it is I Who search the hearts and inmost thoughts of men, that I do not judge according to the face of things or human appearances. Forgive me, then, in Your mercy for my every failure in this regard, and give me once more the grace of greater endurance.
THE FORTY-SEVENTH CHAPTER
THE FORTY-EIGHTH CHAPTER
Very often I am not where bodily I stand or sit; rather, I am where my thoughts carry me. Where my thoughts are, there am I; and frequently my thoughts are where my love is. Hence You Who are Truth itself, have plainly said: “For where your treasure is, there is your heart also.” If I love heaven, I think willingly of heavenly things.
THE FORTY-NINTH CHAPTER
The words of others will be heard; what you say will be accounted as nothing. To others the doing of this or that will be entrusted; you will be judged useless. All that you desire will be present there, replenishing your affection and satisfying it to the full.
THE FIFTIETH CHAPTER
It is profitable for me that shame has covered my face that I may look to You rather than to men for consolation. Make of me a pious and humble follower, as in Your goodness You are wont to do, that I may walk according to Your every nod. Deal with me according to Your good pleasure and do not despise my sinful life, which is known to none so well or so clearly as to You alone.
THE FIFTY-FIRST CHAPTER
THE FIFTY-SECOND CHAPTER
THE FIFTY-THIRD CHAPTER
THE FIFTY-FOURTH CHAPTER
But grace draws near to God and to virtue, renounces creatures, hates the desires of the flesh, restrains her wanderings and blushes at being seen in public. But grace loves even her enemies and is not puffed up at having many friends. She rejoices with the true man rather than with the deceitful, and is always exhorting the good to strive for better gifts, to become like the Son of God by practicing the virtues.
THE FIFTY-FIFTH CHAPTER
For the gifts of nature are common to good and bad alike, but the peculiar gift of Your elect is grace or love, and those who are signed with it are held worthy of everlasting life. Let me find grace in Your sight, I beg, Lord, for Your grace is enough for me, even though I obtain none of the things which nature desires. What am I without grace, but dead wood, a useless branch, fit only to be cast away.
THE FIFTY-SIXTH CHAPTER
Lord Jesus, as You have said, so be it, and what You have promised, let it be my lot to win. I will carry it, carry it even unto death as You have laid it upon me.
THE FIFTY-SEVENTH CHAPTER
THE FIFTY-EIGHTH CHAPTER
And he who disparages one of the saints disparages Me also and all others in the kingdom of heaven. Let it rather be your business and aim to be found, even though the least, in the kingdom of God. Many ask who is the greater in the kingdom of heaven when they do not know whether they themselves shall be worthy of being numbered among its least.
THE FIFTY-NINTH CHAPTER
In Your great goodness, and in the multitude of Your mercies, look upon me and listen to the prayer of Your poor servant exiled from You in the region of the shadow of death. Protect and preserve the soul of Your poor servant among the many dangers of this corruptible life, and direct him by Your accompanying grace, through the ways of peace, to the land of everlasting light.
BOOK FOUR
AN INVITATION TO HOLY COMMUNION
He himself often played upon the harp when moved by the grace of the Holy Ghost. My eyes could not bear to behold You in Your own divine brightness, nor could the whole world stand in the splendor of the glory of Your majesty. One is the table of the holy altar, having the holy Bread that is the precious Body of Christ.
