477 part iii: meditations for the commons lacking in your preparation, if in the very act of consuming the Eucharist you did anything inordinate, now is the time to make up for it with your thanksgiving. 2. “asks terms of peace” (Lk 14:32). You would not act wrongly if you, having seen that your forces for conducting war with temptations are meager, asked the eternal Lord to preserve you in peace and to restrain for you all the fury, audacity, and attacks of the enemy of your soul. Peace is a fruit of the Holy Spirit; peace is a sign of the sons of God; peace is always a necessary good. Inapt for continuing the war, inapt for bearing tumults and for enduring disturbances, one prays for things that bring peace, although you should remember that God gives peace not as the world gives it (cf. Jn 14:27). Namely, he who desires eternal peace, seeks peace in this life nowhere else than in tribulations, and then he thinks that he is pleasantly at peace when he suffers some adversity. FOR THE COMMON OF A MARTYR IN PASCHAL TIME As on the feast of St. Mark the Evangelist, see above (ff. 111v-112v; pp. 357-359). FOR THE COMMON OF SEVERAL MARTYRS Before Holy Communion [f.154v] 1. “when you hear of wars and tumults, do not be terrified” (Lk 21:9). Consider that the present life is a warfare (cf. Job 7:1). Namely, we have to wage war, if not against adversaries, then certainly against our passions. Thus, we indeed always have the opportunity both for patience and for fortitude. The whole thing consists in magnanimously bearing whatever annoyances happen to us, and not being anxious about the cross, which God sent us in order to bring us through it to the heavenly Fatherland.
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