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If your desire and aim is to reach the destination of the path and
home of true happiness, of grace and glory, by a straight and safe
way then earnestly apply your mind to seek constant purity of
heart, clarity of mind and calm of the senses.
Gather up your heart's desire and fix it continually on the Lord
God above. To do so you must withdraw yourself so far as you can
from friends and from everyone else, and from the activities that
hinder you from such a purpose. Grasp every opportunity when you
can find the place, time and means to devote yourself to silence
and contemplation, and gathering the secret fruits of silence, so
that you can escape the shipwreck of this present age and avoid
the restless agitation of the noisy world.
For this reason apply yourself at all times to purity, clarity and
peace of heart above all things, so that, so far as possible, you
can keep the doors of your heart resolutely barred to the forms
and images of the physical senses and worldly imaginations by
shutting off the doors of the physical senses and turning within
yourself. After all, purity of heart is recognised as the most
important thing among all spiritual practices, as its final aim,
and the reward for all the labours that a spiritual-minded person
and true religious may undertake in this life.
For this reason you should with all care, intelligence and effort
free your heart, senses and desires from everything that can
hinder their liberty, and above all from everything in the world
that could possibly bind and overcome you. So struggle in this way
to draw together all the distractions of your heart and desires of
your mind into one true, simple and supreme good, to keep them
gathered within yourself in one place, and by this means to remain
always joined to things divine and to God in your mind, to abandon
the unreliable things of earth, and be able to translate your mind
continually to the things above within yourself in Jesus Christ.
To which end, if you have begun to strip and purify yourself of
images and imaginations and to simplify and still your heart and
mind in the Lord God so that you can draw and taste the well of
divine grace in everything within yourself, and so that you are
united to God in your mind by a good will, then this itself is
enough for you in place of all study and reading of holy
scripture, and as demonstration of love of God and neighbour, as
devotion itself testifies.
So simplify your heart with all care, diligence and effort so that
still and at peace from the products of the imagination you can
turn round and remain always in the Lord within yourself, as if
your mind were already in the now of eternity, that is of the
godhead. In this way you will be able to renounce yourself through
love of Jesus Christ, with a pure heart, clean conscience and
unfeigned faith, and commit yourself completely and fully to God
in all difficulties and eventualities, and be willing to submit
yourself patiently to his will and good pleasure at all times.
For this to come about you must repeatedly retreat into your heart
and remain there, keeping yourself free from everything, so far as
is possible. You must always keep the eye of your mind clear and
still. You must guard your understanding from daydreams and
thoughts of earthly things. You must completely free the
inclination of your will from worldly cares and cling will all
your being to the supreme true good with fervent love. You must
keep your memory always lifted up and firmly anchored in that same
true supreme good and only uncreated reality. In just this way
your whole mind gathered up with all its powers and faculties in
God, may become one spirit with him, in whom the supreme
perfection of life is known to consist.
This is the true union of spirit and love by which a man is made
compliant to all the impulses of the supreme and eternal will, so
that he becomes by grace what God is by nature.
At the same time it should be noted that in the very moment in
which one is able, by God's help, to overcome one's own will, that
is to cast away from oneself inordinate love or strong feeling, in
other words so as to dare simply to trust God completely in all
one's needs, by this very fact one becomes so pleasing to God that
his grace is imparted to one, and through that very grace one
experiences that true love and devotion which drives out all
uncertainty and fear and has full confidence in God. What is more,
there can be no greater happiness than to place one's all in him
who lacks nothing.
So why do you still remain in yourself where you cannot stay. Cast
yourself, all of yourself, with confidence into God and he will
sustain you, heal you and make you safe. If you dwell on these
things faithfully within, they will do more to confer a happy life
on you than all riches, pleasures and honours, and above all the
wisdom and knowledge of this present deceitful world and its life,
even if you were to excel in them all that ever lived.
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