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Introduction
consciences or commitments, always seeks to water down
what it means to be an authentic disciple of Jesus. Yet
Jesus’ strong exhortations to perfection and righteousness
could never be interpreted as insensitive to struggling
souls. Instead, they served to awaken souls to holy desire
and to inspire them to a higher order of living — a life of
freedom and abundance in God.
These difficult challenges are meant to reveal where
we truly stand in our progress in holiness. These calls to
deeper union keep us from becoming complacent and
self-satisfied. They humble us and reveal how lacking we
are in our progress. If we are found wanting and are aware
of this lack, we are not the recipients of condemnation.
Instead, we have been given a gift, an opportunity to
repent and turn more deeply to God.
Beyond the difficulty of standing in front of a holy
mirror, we will also face a few more minor hurdles in this
text. Because this book was written in the eighteenth
century and then translated in the twentieth, the language
can be archaic and difficult. Even so, the truths
revealed through the heart and mind of this great saint
are so important that we thought it wise to update the
translation where helpful and to provide interpretive
reflections and questions to deepen the reader’s absorption
of these life-changing truths. These additions are
necessary not because of any deficiency in the teaching
of St. Alphonsus but, rather, because his intended audience
is so different from our modern readership. A lot
has changed in the past few hundred years! We bring
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