CIUDAD to - the Catholic Kingdom!

422 CITY OF GOD
lowing their own inclinations; but I choose thee and
conjure thee to imitate me and walk the secure path of
perfection. Hankering after dispensations and exemp
tions perverts the Christian and the religious life. At
all times thou must live in humble and obedient sub
jection, and thou must not hold thyself excused there
from on account of being a superior, for thou hast thy
confessors and superiors. If sometimes in their absence
thou canst not act in obedience, ask counsel and obey
one of thy subjects. For thee, all of them should be
as superiors; and let not this seem strange to thee;
since thou art the least of the human born and shouldst
consider thyself so, humiliating thyself beneath them
all in order to be my true follower, my disciple and
daughter. Besides this thou must punctually
tell me
for all
thy faults twice a day and ask my permission
that thou art to do during each day, confessing also
every day the sins thou committest. I shall exhort thee,
and command thee what is proper, both through myself
and through my ministers of the Lord; and thou must
not shrink to tell
many others of thy ordinary faults,
and before all men thou hu
This
in order that in all things
miliate thyself in the eyes of the Lord and in mine.
science, hidden to the world and the flesh, I desire thee
to learn and impart to thy nuns. In teaching thee this
lesson I wish to reward thee for thy labor in writing my
for by these instructions in so important a doctrine
life ;
I wish to impress thee, that,
if thou wishest to imitate
me as thou shouldst, thou must communicate or speak
with no one, nor undertake anything, nor write letters,
nor move about, nor allow any thoughts (if possible),
except in obedience to me and to those who govern thee.
The worldly and carnal men call these virtues impertinent
and vain observances ;
but their ignorant pride
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will have