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The Voice of Christ
My child, he who attempts to escape obeying withdraws
himself from grace. Likewise he who seeks private
benefits for himself loses those which are common to
all. He who does not submit himself freely and
willingly to his superior, shows that his flesh is
not yet perfectly obedient but that it often rebels
and murmurs against him.
Learn quickly, then, to submit yourself to your
superior if you wish to conquer your own flesh. For
the exterior enemy is more quickly overcome if the
inner man is not laid waste. There is no more
troublesome, no worse enemy of the soul than you
yourself, if you are not in harmony with the spirit.
It is absolutely necessary that you conceive a true
contempt for yourself if you wish to be victorious
over flesh and blood.Because you still love
yourself too inordinately, you are afraid to resign
yourself wholly to the will of others. Is it such a
great matter if you, who are but dust and
nothingness, subject yourself to man for the sake of
God, when I, the All-Powerful, the Most High, Who
created all things out of nothing, humbly subjected
Myself to man for your sake? I became the most humble
and the lowest of all men that you might overcome
your pride with My humility.
Learn to obey, you who are but dust! Learn to humble
yourself, you who are but earth and clay, and bow
down under the foot of every man! Learn to break your
own will, to submit to all subjection! Be zealous
against yourself! Allow no pride to dwell in you, but
prove yourself so humble and lowly that all may walk
over you and trample upon you as dust in the streets!
What have you, vain man, to complain of? What
answer can you make, vile sinner, to those who accuse
you, you who have so often offended God and so many
times deserved hell? But My eye has spared you
because your soul was precious in My sight, so that
you might know My love and always be thankful for My
benefits, so that you might give yourself continually
to true subjection and humility, and might patiently
endure contempt.
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The Disciple
YOU thunder forth Your judgments over me, Lord. You shake all my
bones with fear and trembling, and my soul is very much afraid. I
stand in awe as I consider that the heavens are not pure in Your
sight. If You found wickedness in the angels and did not spare
them, what will become of me? Stars have fallen from heaven, and I
-- I who am but dust -- how can I be presumptuous? They whose
deeds seemed worthy of praise have fallen into the depths, and I
have seen those who ate the bread of angels delighting themselves
with the husks of swine.There is no holiness, then, if You
withdraw Your hand, Lord. There is no wisdom if You cease to
guide, no courage if You cease to defend. No chastity is secure if
You do not guard it. Our vigilance avails nothing if Your holy
watchfulness does not protect us. Left to ourselves we sink and
perish, but visited by You we are lifted up and live. We are truly
unstable, but You make us strong. We grow lukewarm, but You
inflame us.
Oh, how humbly and lowly should I consider myself! How very
little should I esteem anything that seems good in me! How
profoundly should I submit to Your unfathomable judgments, Lord,
where I find myself to be but nothing!
O immeasurable weight! O impassable sea, where I find myself to be
nothing but bare nothingness! Where, then, is glory's hiding
place? Where can there be any trust in my own virtue? All
vainglory is swallowed up in the depths of Your judgments upon me.
What is all flesh in Your sight? Shall the clay glory against
Him that formed it? How can he whose heart is truly subject to God
be lifted up by vainglory? The whole world will not make him proud
whom truth has subjected to itself. Nor shall he who has placed
all his hope in God be moved by the tongues of flatterers. For
behold, even they who speak are nothing; they will pass away with
the sound of their words, but the truth of the Lord remains
forever.
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