Lest You Remain

15 If you are overconfident and certain that in the spiritual matters you are very experienced, watch that you do not fall! Even Christ did not direct Himself, but had the Spirit, which led Him to fulfill the will of the Everlasting Father to the fullest extent. Pay attention, what advantages you derive from the opening of your con- science, and what losses you incur when you close it. Doesn’t it trouble you when you hide something in it? Don’t you experience the feeling of highest peace and joy whenever you open it up? ( Inspectio Cordis ) L OVE 1 The Teacher of the Gentiles has best compared a servant of God who is not glowing with true love to a tinkling bell and a clanging cymbal (1 Cor 13:1). For the attainment of eternal life—and the value of meritorious works—are rooted in love. Therefore, more than any other good, each of you should try to gain for him- self [this love], this pearl of great price, this treasure hidden in the field (Mt 13:44- 46). Although love is a gift of God, it is obtained and preserved by constancy of prayer and mortification. Therefore, let everything you do, be done in love (1 Cor 16:14). The commandments of God, and the Evangelical counsels, the laws of the Roman Catholic Church, its prescriptions, decrees, rites, usages, dogmas; also this present Rule, (and if at some time, further prescriptions are given) let all of these be observed out of the love for God. This is what [Jesus Christ] the heavenly Lawgiver said: “Anyone who loves Me, will be true to My word.” (John 14:23) And this is to be understood not only of His teaching and of the Scriptures, but equally of His Church, which He himself forms and governs by His Holy Spirit, and its orders and documents, and the dispositions of the superiors which flow from her or are confirmed by her. ( Norma vitae ) Fr. Founder’s Selected Thoughts on the Religious Life 137