Lest You Remain

You should examine how you have guarded and in what condition you have kept your senses because they bring into your souls any good and evil. How you have guarded your eyes and your ears, comparable to amber which draws tiny objects to itself; your touch which is like a poisonous snake, taste, not unimportant enemy of chastity, and smell, a dangerous obstacle to keep the aforementioned thought clean. ( Inspectio Cordis ) 4 Take care, take care today and ever of each of your thoughts and inconsider- ately do not open to it not only the door of your heart but also the gate of your mind. Since, so much evil and damage is brought to a poor soul with thoughts! Satan first offers a bad though which poisons or steals chastity from the heart. Once it is done a great sorrow comes, which weakening the power of the spirit renders it unfit for anything and frequently thrusts some people to such an abyss of despair that, hav- ing shun the redeeming yoke of Christ, they take their hands off the plow and aban- don the cultivation of the soul. Oppose that enemy, that evil right at the beginning of your thought and today as well through your entire life keep your heart pure for the purest Lord. ( Inspectio Cordis ) 5 Many fall due to carnal temptations when they trust themselves too much. They fall because God’s grace rightly abandons these who, as a result of disobedi- ence, become arrogant. So we can read about a monk who brought along with him to the cloister, a son of disobedience. Finally, many fall due to frigidity and spiri- tual laziness according to the words of the Lord: “Because you are lukewarm, nei- ther hot nor cold, I will spew you out of my mouth!” (Rev. 3:16), meaning I will deprive you of my grace. Who swaggers above another, although only in his thoughts, prepares a hard fall for himself. Who relies too much on his own discernment, deliberateness and far-sightedness falls easily abandoned by the discernment of God. It was said: “In you I trust; let me not be put to shame!” (c.f. Ps 24,2). so, carnal sin follows the Fr. Founder’s Selected Thoughts on the Religious Life 147