On Holy Spiritual Prudence
Source: Google Books
O you servants of the King of Heaven! who desire to know the secrets of useful and virtuous prudence, open wide the ears of your understanding, eagerly receive, and carefully preserve in your memory the precious treasure of the teachings and counsels I am about to set before you. There you will find a light and a guide for your journey; through them, you will be sheltered from the attacks of your spiritual and temporal enemies, and you will be able, in safety and with humble boldness, to navigate the stormy sea of this life, until you reach the long-desired harbor of salvation.
Thus, my son, listen and understand well what I am about to tell you.
If you wish to see well, pluck out your eyes and become blind. If you wish to hear well, make yourself deaf. If you wish to speak well, be silent. If you wish to walk well, stand firm and let yourself be guided by the spirit. If you wish to work well, cut off your hands and work with your heart. If you wish to love well, hate yourself. If you wish to live well, mortify yourself. If you wish to gather great goods and become rich, lose what you possess and be poor. If you wish to enjoy yourself and rest, afflict yourself, remain always in fear, and distrust yourself. If you wish to be exalted and receive great honors, know how to humble yourself. If you wish to be respected, despise yourself and honor those who cover you with contempt and shame. If you wish always to have the good as your portion, endure evil. If you wish to be blessed, desire that you be cursed and that evil be spoken of you. If you wish to possess true and eternal rest, mortify yourself and wish that all temporal afflictions fall upon you.
O the lofty wisdom of the one who is led to practice all these counsels! But, because these are higher and sublime virtues, only few souls are favored by God with them. And yet, I tell you, everything lies here; he who would apply himself to putting these counsels into practice would no longer need to go to Bologna or to Paris to learn any other theology.
A man who would live a thousand years and devote himself to purifying his heart, ordering and perfecting his mind and soul, would have no need of any other outward exercise, nor any other subject of occupation to fill that long life.
We ought to seek to see and hear only what contributes to the good of our soul; this should be the sole subject of our conversations.
He who does not know himself is not known by others. Woe to us when we receive the gifts and graces of the Lord and do not know how to value them! But woe still more to those who do not receive them, who do not value them, and who do not trouble themselves to acquire or to possess them! Man, who is made in the image of his Creator, is able to change his designs as he pleases; but God is irrevocable in His decrees.