Untitled - Saints' Books

34 2 Material for Instructions. IPART n.
soul that God leaves in the hands of her own desires !
This is the greatest chastisement which he can inflict
upon her. I let tliein go according to the desires of their own
hearts: they shall walk in their own inventiotis. Hence we
1
must always pray to the Lord in the words of Solomon:
Give me not over to a shameful and foolish mind? My God,
do not abandon me into the hands of my passions.
Our principal care, then, should be to conquer ourselves.
Conquer thyself? St. Ignatius of Loyola appeared not to
consfder any lesson more important than that which is
contained in the words Conquer thyself: his familiar dis
courses were ordinarily on conquering self-love and sub
and he would say, that out of a hundred
duing self-will;
persons who practise prayer, more than ninety are at
tached to their own opinion. He set a greater value on
a single act of mortification of self-will than on several
hours spent in prayer, in the midst of spiritual consola
tions. To a Brother who separated from the company
of the others in order to get rid of a certain defect the
saint said, that he would have gained more by a few acts
of mortification in the society of his companions than
he would by remaining silent in a cave for an entire
*
year. It is no small matter," writes Thomas a Kempis,
"even in things the most trifling, to 4
relinquish self."
On the other hand, St. Peter Damian asserts that unless
he leaves himself, it will profit a man nothing to have
forsaken all things. 5
Hence, to a person who wished to
leave all things in order to give himself to God, St.
Bernard said: "Remember that if
you have resolved to
1 "
Dimisi eos secundum desideria cordis eorum; ibunt in
adinventionibus
suis." Ps. Ixxx. 13.
2 "
Animse irreverent! et infrunitae ne tradas me." Ecclus. xxiii. 6.
3
Vince "
teipsum."
4
Non est minimum, in minimis seipsum " relinquere." De Imit,
1. 3- c. 39-
5 "
Nihil prodest, sine seipso cretera reliquisse." Ilom. 9,