What does it matter if we die? How many times have our bodies not mocked us?

Should we not
occasionally mock them in our turn? And, believe me, slight as it may seem by comparison
with other things, this resolution is much more important than we may think; for, if we
continually make it, day by day, by the grace of the Lord, we shall gain dominion over
the body. To conquer such an enemy is a great achievement in the battle of life. – St Theresa,
The Way of Perfection

Let there be nothing we know of which it would be a service to the Lord for us to do, and which,
with His help, we would not venture to take in hand. I should like that kind of venturesomeness
to be found in this house, as it always increases humility. We must have a holy boldness, for God
helps the strong, being no respecter of persons; and He
will give courage to you and to me. – St Theresa, The Way of Perfection

But He will not reveal Himself openly and communicate His glories
and bestow His treasures save on those who He knows greatly desire Him, for these are
His true friends. I assure you that anyone who is not a true friend and does not come to
receive Him as such, after doing all in his power to prepare for Him, must never
importune Him to reveal Himself to him. Hardly is the hour over which such a person
has spent in fulfilling the Church's commandment than he goes home and tries to drive
Christ out of the house. What with all his other business and occupations and worldly
hindrances, he seems to be making all possible haste to prevent the Lord from taking
possession of the house which is His own.

For anyone to whom the Lord has really given His Kingdom no longer wants a kingdom in this
world, knowing that he is going the right way to reign in a much more exalted manner, and
having already discovered by experience what great benefits the soul gains and what
progress it makes when it suffers for God's sake.

Well, we make our vow of poverty, and then one of us, believing
herself all the time to be keeping it, says: "I do not want anything, but I am having this because I
cannot do without it: after all, if I am to serve God, I must live, and He wants us to keep these
bodies of ours alive." So the devil, in his angelic disguise, suggests to her that there are a
thousand different things which she needs and that they are all good for her. And all the time he
is persuading her to believe that she is still being true to her vow and possesses the virtue of
poverty and that what she has done is no more than her duty.
From any sin, however small, committed with full
knowledge, may God deliver us, especially since we are sinning against so great a
Sovereign and realizing that He is watching us! That seems to me to be a sin committed
of malice aforethought; it is as though one were to say: "Lord, although this displeases
Thee, I shall do it. I know that Thou seest it and I know that Thou wouldst not have me
do it; but, though I understand this, I would rather follow my own whim and desire
than Thy will." If we commit a sin in this way, however slight, it seems to me that our
offence is not small but very, very great.

St Bridget

For if my head was pierced and bent down on the cross for your sake, your
head should be bent down toward humility. Since my eyes were filled with blood
and tears, your eyes should abstain from pleasurable sights. Since my ears were
filled with blood and had to hear blasphemous and scornful words, your ears should
be turned away from frivolous and foolish talk. Since my mouth was given the most
bitter drink and was denied the good one, you should keep closed your mouth from
all evil and open it for good. Since my hands were outstretched and pierced by nails,
your deeds, which are symbolized by the hands, should be stretched out to the poor
and to my commandments. Your feet, in other words, the desire with which you
should walk to me, should be crucified and abstain from all evil lusts. As I have
suffered in all my limbs, so may all your limbs be ready for my service. For I demand
more service of you than of other people, since I have granted more mercy to you.”

All things are indeed vanity and all things must be left. Mankind was not created for any
superfluity but only to have what the necessity of nature requires. This superfluity was
invented by pride and it is now held and loved as the law.

But this Law is now rejected and despised by the world. For they say that the
Law is narrow, heavy, and ugly. They say it is narrow, for the Law orders one to be
satisfied with the necessary and to flee the superfluous. But they want to have all
things without reason like senseless cattle and above the necessity of the body, and
that is why the Law is too narrow for them. Second, they say it is heavy, because the
Law says that one should have enjoyment with reasonable temperance and at
established times. But they want to fulfill their lust more than what is good and
more than what is established. Third, they say it is unsightly, because the Law bids
them to love humility and to accredit every good to God. But they want to be proud
and exalt themselves for the good things that God has given them, and that is why
the Law seems ugly and vain to them.
But what should the one who is full of the devil do, since the good Spirit cannot
enter him who is full of evil? He should do three things: First, he should make a pure
and complete confession of his sins. Even if he cannot directly feel a complete
remorse for his sins due to his hardened heart, still the confession will benefit him
so much that the devil ceases with his treachery and yields to the good spirit.
Second, he should be humble and wish to amend for all the sins he has committed
and do the good deeds he can, and then the devil will begin to leave. Third, he should
beseech God with humble prayer in order that he may get the good Spirit back and
have contrition for the sins he has committed along with true divine love, since the
love for God kills the devil. This devil is so envious and full of malice that he would
rather die a hundred times than see someone do God the least little good deed out of
love.”

That is why I cry out to my friends with all my heart that they should not spare goods or
work for my sake; for if I was not spared from reproaching and insulting words while I
was in the world, they should not spare themselves in speaking the truth about me. I
was not ashamed to suffer a contemptible death for their sake, but stood there naked,
just as I was born, before the eyes of my enemies. I was struck in the teeth with their
fists. I was dragged by the hair with their fingers and scourged by their scourges. I was
fastened to the cross with their tools, and I hung on the cross between thieves and
robbers. Therefore, my friends, do not spare yourself in working for me since I endured
such things out of love for you. Work manfully and bring help to all my sheep in distress.
I swear by my Manhood, which is in the Father as the Father is in me, and by
my Divinity, which is in my Spirit as the Spirit is in the Divinity and the same Spirit
is in me and I in him, and these are one God in three persons, that I shall run out to
meet those halfway who work in carrying my sheep with me and help them, and I
shall give them the most precious reward, namely, myself unto their everlasting
joy.”

First of all, they are not to entrust my gold to people who do

not have calm and clear eyes. You may ask: 'What does it mean to have clear
eyesight?' Well, a clear-sighted person is one who has divine wisdom along with
divine charity. But how are you to know this? It is obvious. That person is clearsighted
and can be entrusted with my gold who lives according to reason, who
removes himself from worldly vanity and curiosity, who seeks nothing so much as
his God. But that person is blind who has knowledge but does not put the divine
charity he understands into practice. He seems to have his eyes on God but he does
not, for his eyes are on the world and he has turned his back to God.
Second, my gold is not to be entrusted to someone with no conscience. Who
has a conscience if not the person who manages his temporal, perishable goods with
a view to eternity, who has his soul in heaven and his body on earth, who ponders
daily how he is going to depart from earth and answer to God for his deeds? My gold
should be entrusted to such a person.
That person has the meats of wisdom and the
taste of a good will and holy forethought, who detaches himself from the vanity and
superfluities of the world and contents himself with the bare necessities, and
struggles in the love of God according to his abilities.

In the first house, we should store, first, the bread of a sincere will that
wants nothing but what God wants; second, the drink of holy forethought by not
doing anything unless it is thought to be for God's glory; third, the meats of divine
wisdom by always thinking on the life to come and on how the present should be
ordered.

this charity for God should also entail the concern not to
offend God, the loving fear of being separated from him, the fiery zeal to see God
loved, and the desire to see him imitated. It should also entail sorrow, for a person is
not able to do as much as he would like or knows he is obliged to do, and humility,
which makes a person think nothing of all that he accomplishes in comparison to his
sins.

Believe firmly in him and enter into his life. He is the one who has shown the
true path by which poor and rich can enter heaven. But you might ask, what should
the inner disposition of a rich person be if he is to enter heaven, given that God
himself has said that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for
a rich man to enter heaven? To this I answer you: A rich man who is disposed in
such away that he is afraid to have any ill-gotten goods, who is concerned not to
spend his means wastefully or contrary to God's will, who holds his possessions and
honors with reluctance and would willingly be separated from them, who is
disturbed by the loss of souls and the dishonor done to God, and, although he is
compelled by the plans of God to own the world to some extent, is vigilant
concerning the love of God in his every intention, this is the kind of rich man who
bears fruit and is happy and dear to God.

However, God has given me three sparks so as to bring

consolation to many people. The three stand for many sparks. The first spark was
obtained with a crystal from the heat and light of the sun and has already settled on
the dry kindle in order that a great fire may be made from it. The second spark was
obtained with hard flint.
The third spark came from a fruitless tree whose roots were growing and that
was spreading its foliage. The crystal, that cold and fragile stone, represents the soul
who, while she may be cold in her love for God, still seeks perfection in her heart
and will and prays for God's help. Her intention thus leads her to God and earns for
her an increase of trials that makes her grow cold toward base temptations, until
God enlightens the heart and settles in the soul now emptied of desire, so that she
no longer wants to live for anything but the glory of God. Flint represents pride.
What is harder than the intellectual pride of a person who wants to be praised by
everyone, yet longs to be called humble and to seem devout?
What is more loathsome than a soul that places herself ahead of everyone else
in her thoughts and cannot put up with being rebuked or taught by anyone?
Nevertheless, many proud persons pray humbly to God that pride and ambition be
removed from their hearts. God, therefore, with the cooperation of their good will,
presents adversities to their hearts and at times consolations that draw them away
from worldly things and spur them on toward heavenly. The fruitless tree
represents the soul that is fed on pride and bears worldly fruit and desires to have
the world and all its privileges.
However, because this soul has a fear of eternal death, she uproots many of the
saplings of sins she would otherwise commit if she had no such fear. Because of her
fear, God draws near to the soul and inspires his grace in her so that the useless tree
might become fruitful.

Many there are who

give up temporal possessions in order to avoid the bother but keep enough for their
use and desire. Their wheel is not easily steered or guided, for when they feel the
pinch of poverty, they desire adequate comfort, and when problems weigh down on
them, they demand prosperity. When humiliation tries them, they murmur against
God's providence and seek to obtain honors.
When asked to do something that goes against their inclinations, they desire
their freedom. Accordingly, a person's will is pleasing to God when it seeks nothing
of its own both in good times and in bad.

'Look, I have plenty of everything, but there are needy poor and we all
have one God. What have I done to deserve what I have or what have they done not
to deserve it? What, after all, is the flesh but food for worms? What are all these
pleasures but a source of nausea and sickness, a waste of time and an inducement to
sin? Therefore, I shall keep my flesh in check, so that worms do not run riot in it, and
so that I do not receive a heavier sentence or waste my time of penance. Perhaps my
poorly trained flesh will not be easily bent to the coarse fare of a pauper, but I shall
withdraw it by degrees from certain delicacies that it can easily do without, so that it
gets what it needs but nothing beyond that.' Someone with such thoughts, and who
makes an effort to act on them according to his or her ability, can be called both
confessor and martyr, for it is a kind of martyrdom to have access to pleasure and
not to make use of it, to live in honor yet to despise honor, to have a great reputation
yet to think little of oneself.

My daughter, you can recognize both the Holy Spirit and the unclean spirit
through seven signs. First, the Spirit of God makes a man deem the world worthless
and consider in his heart all worldly honor as mere air. Second, it endears God to the
soul, and all delight in the flesh grows cold. Third, it inspires him to patience and to
glorying only in God. Fourth, it stimulates the mind to be loving and compassionate
with one's neighbor and even with one's enemies. Fifth, it inspires him to all kinds of
abstinence, even from licit things. Sixth, it makes him trust in God in the midst of
hardships and even to glory in hardships. Seventh, it gives him the desire of wanting
to depart and to be with Christ, rather than to prosper in the world and become
soiled.
The evil spirit has seven effects to the contrary. First, it makes the world seem
sweet, and heaven distasteful. Second, it makes a man seek honors and forget about
the meaning of his life. Third, it arouses hatred and impatience in the heart. Fourth,
it makes him bold toward God and obstinate in his own plans. Fifth, it leads him to
make light of his sins and to make excuses for them. Sixth, it inspires in him frivolity
of mind and every carnal impurity.
Seventh, it inspires in him the hope of a long life and a feeling a shame about
going to confession. Guard your thoughts carefully, then, so that you do not get
deceived by this spirit.”

Whoever freely desires

to be separated from the vanities of this world is made more fervent by my Spirit.
The person who is even ready to die for me will be so inflamed by my Spirit that he
will be wholly in me and I in him.

The Holy Way of the Cross

Sinner’s Guide

For how can a man, who is conceived in sin, who lives in a body so naturally inclined to evil, and who is
surrounded with so many dangers, preserve himself for several years from committing any mortal crime,
did not the divine providence secure and keep him from it ?
This providence is so powerful, that it not only delivers us from evil and leads us to good, but what is
more, very often, by a wonderful effect, draws even good out of evil, which sometimes God permits the
just themselves to fall in. This happens when, repenting for their sins, they thence take occasion to
become more circumspect, more humble, and more grateful to God, for the mercies he has shown
them, in freeing them from the danger they were in, and in pardoning them all their faults. It is in this
sense the apostle says, that all things work together unto good to them that love God

Gluttony
For it is the nature of some persons, as soon as ever they are set down to table, to discover their
intemperance and the unruliness of their appetite, by the disturbance of their minds, by a perpetual
unsettledness and disorder of all their members, shaking their heads, tossing their arms, and stretching
out their hands, as if nobody else was to eat any thing there but, themselves ; and thus, by their looks
and gestures, they expose their gluttony and intemperance ; though they are confined to one place, yet
their eyes and hands seem to be every where, so that they call for wine, cut bread, and lay hold of the
dishes all at the same time ; and, like a general that designs to besiege a town, they view every part, and
then stand considering where they shall begin first, because if they could they would set upon all at
once.

Let, therefore the true servant of God put the baseness and short continuance of this pleasure into the
scale, against the beauty of abstinence, the benefits it produces, the examples of the saints, the toils
and labors of the martyrs, who have made their way to heaven through fire and water; the
remembrance of his past sins, the torments of hell, with those of purgatory, and he will find, upon
balance, that every one of these things tells him it is necessary to take up the cross, to mortify the flesh,
to subdue the sin of gluttony, and to satisfy God for the pleasure he has taken in sin, by the pains of
penance. He that sits down to table with these dispositions, will find how easy it is to renounce all
manner of delicacy and niceness.

The Son of God speaks to the bride saying: ”Be sure to be on your guard!” And
she answers: ”Why?” The Lord says to her: ”Because the world is sending to you four
servants who want to deceive you. The first is anxiety about riches. Tell him when
he comes: 'Riches are transitory, and the more they abound, the greater the account
must be given concerning them. Therefore I do not care about them, since they do
not follow their owner but abandon him.'
The second servant is the loss of riches and the forfeiture of privileges
conceded. Answer this servant thus: 'He who gave riches has also taken them away.
He knows what is best for me. May his will be done!'
The third servant is the tribulation of this world. Tell him this: 'Blessed be you,
my God, who allow me to suffer tribulation. By tribulations I know that I am yours,
for you permit tribulations in the present in order that you may spare me them in
the future. Grant me, then, the patience and strength to endure.'
The fourth servant is contempt and reproach. Answer them in this way: 'God
alone is good and all honor is due to him. Why should there be any honor for me
who have committed all kinds of bad and vile deeds? Instead I am worthy of all
kinds of reproach, since my whole life has been a blasphemy to God. Or in what way
is honor worth more to me than reproach? It only stirs up pride and lessens
humility, and God is forgotten. Therefore may all praise and honor be given to God.'
So stand firm against the servants of the world, and love me your God with all
your heart.”