Untitled - Saints' Books

"
Vadam
"
3 78 Material for Instructions. [PART n.
It is true that interior mortification is the most neces
sary; but exterior mortification is also indispensable.
To a person who wished to dissuade him from macer
ating his body, by saying that sanctity consists in con
quering self-will, St. Aloysius Gonzaga replied, in the
words of the Gospel: These things you ought to have done,
and not leave those undone. To Mother 1
Mary of Jesus,
of the Order of St. Teresa, our Lord said the world is
destroyed not by penitential works, but by pleasures.
Mortify your body and you will conquer the devil
says St. Augustine. 2
The remedy of the saints, particu
larly in temptations against purity, was the maceration
of the flesh. In temptations contrary to chastity, St.
Benedict and St. Francis rolled themselves among
thorns. Father Rodriguez says, If a person had en
twined round him a serpent, which by its poisoned
bites would seek to kill him, surely
if he could not take
away
its life he would at least endeavor to draw its
blood and diminish its strength,
less able to injure him."
in order to render it
Job tells us that wisdom is not found among earthly
delights: Man knoweth not the price thereof, neither is it
found in the land of them that live in delights* In one
place the Spouse in the Canticles said that he dwells
on the mountain of myrrh: / will go to the mountain of
myrrh;* and in another, that he feeds among the lilies:
Who feedeth among the lilies? In reconciling these two
passages, Philibert says that on the mountain of myrrh,
where the flesh is mortified, the lilies of purity spring
" 1
2 "
3 "
Haec oportuit facere, et ilia non omittere." Matth. xxiii. 23.
Mortifica corpus tuum, et diabolum vinces."
Nescit homo pretium ejus, nee invenitrr in terra suaviter viventium."
Job, xxviii. 13.
4
"
6 "
ad montem myrrhae." Cant. iv. 6.
Qui pascitur inter lilia." Cant. ii. 16.