Lest You Remain

12 While you have been in the Religious Order, have you devoted yourself more to mortifications or to comforts? Have you disposed your spirit more to breaking your will or to giving in to it? To fulfilling the wishes of others, especially your Superiors, or to following your own desires? If you have been busier pursuing your desires, be certain that a false spirit has guided you. If you have done otherwise, do not have any doubts, that you have con- ducted yourself in the right direction and in accordance with your vocation. To answer this call, cherish and also assist, the smaller new sparks of God’s love for practicing the virtues to grow, favoring them with your efforts and your desire for progress and actual development. If you hold yourself in contempt, you will feel how sweet the Lord is! If you detach yourself completely from the world, you will experience how bitter it is! ( Inspectio Cordis ) 13 Carefully reflect on whether in your Religious Life, you have reaped any fruits of your mortifications? How has your soul benefited from such frequent participa- tion in the holy sacraments and the constant practicing of the virtues? What profit for your salvation, have the numerous spiritual books, conversations and medita- tions had for you? How much has your soul progressed in acquiring the virtues, in being encouraged to do good deeds and, spurred by numerous religious speeches, to holy inspirations and admonitions? What benefits have you derived from your presence in the house of God, from your prayers, the mortifications of your body and from regular fasting? Examine your conscience for the wasted time, which flies away, never to return and brings you every day closer to the verge of eternity with the knowledge, that you will have to enter its port soon. With what kind of holy goods will you harbor in there? If you lack the pearls of virtues, which are of value at the celestial heights, be certain that you will not be allowed to enter the shores of the heavenly land. If this were to happen (which God forbid!) where would you go? In the ocean of the world, your ship cannot drift without end, but has to ceaselessly look for the shore to reach: whether a happy one of the Promised Land, or a miserable one of eternal damnation. ( Inspectio Cordis ) L EST Y OU R EMAIN W ITHOUT W ORK IN THE V INEYARD OF THE L ORD 182