CIUDAD to - the Catholic Kingdom!

14 INTRODUCTION
must difficulties inquiet thee, nor flattery or pleasures
affect thee; thou must not respond to injuries, nor be
elated by honors ;
let neither presumption inflate thee,
nor mistrust cast thee down; thou must not give
consent to any feeling of concupiscence or anger;
because thy model in all these passions must be a dead
body, already freed from all of them. Nor must thou
have any more dealings with the world than the dead;
for the world immediately forgets those whom it has
praised in life, and to such an extent, that, though they
be father or brother, and the most intimate relatives,
it hastens to put them out of sight. All this the deceased
permit, without a murmur or a feeling of offense; nor
do the dead make any account of the living, much less
do they attend to them or to anything they may have left
among
their survivors."
13. "Having
thus died to thyself, it remains for thee
to consider thyself as the food of worms, fit only for
vilest corruption. Thus shalt thou bury thyself
in the
earth of thy self-knowledge, in order that thy senses
and passions may not presume to give forth their bad
odor in the sight of the Lord, nor, like an ill-covered
and half-buried corpse, may not presume to give forth
its bad odor in the presence of the Lord and of those
that have entered the blessed life. Let thy horror of
showing any signs of life, or of not being entirely mor
tified in the sight of thy God and of the saints, be much
greater than that caused by unburied bodies among
men. The use of thy senses such as sight, hearing, touch
and others for the purpose of entertainment or delight,
should be a greater surprise and offense to thee, than
to see a corpse moving about.
be prepared and fit
By
this death thou shalt
to be the only spouse of my divine
Son, and my true and most beloved disciple and daughter.
More Free Items at www.catholickingdom.com