Admonitiones spirituales

Spiritual Admonitions. It is time for you at last to rouse yourself and shake off everything. Remember that today or tomorrow you are to see the heavens, and behold the angels, and stand before the fearful tribunal, and come before God in his judgment, in the court of temperance and justice and truth, and give an account of your whole life. If you wish to see the holy one, sanctify yourself; if you wish to see the holy and undefiled one, purify yourself first. From the time one enters into the fear of God, he has dedicated himself entirely to God, and no longer has authority over himself; for he has enrolled himself under the law of God. Let him therefore deny himself and his own wills, and follow God. How great a sea has the life of this flesh raised up in the world? How many waves has it wrought? How many disturbances? How many winds? How many shipwrecks? How many lawless acts and sins? How many calamities and tragedies? How many evils in all the cities? How many in households? How many in the marketplace? What is its power? Or what is its strength? All is full of fear. Its birth is fear, its death is fear, its life is fear, the things after death are unspeakable and indescribable. It is the turn of a scale in our heart; there the scale inclines. Knock, hasten, so that it may open to you quickly; remember that before long you leave behind all visible things, the heaven and the earth, people, possessions; remember that you are nothing, neither in body nor in soul. A small care has disturbed you, a small anxiety has terrified you, a small distress has cast you down, a small pain has troubled you, a mere word has struck you. And why do you not hate this life?

I say to you that you must migrate and pitch your tent for yourself at the gates of heaven above, and there live in solitude, and beseech God until death, that He may receive you graciously and open to you quickly in due time. Below on earth let the body bend the knee to God; and above let the soul continually entreat, casting itself prostrate; let them vie with each other as to which will labor more in supplication. For you the world has died; for you the coming judgment has arrived; as much as you can, thrust this away, and remember that. It is better to reckon the evils of the future than the goods of the present; those procure for you the fear of God, but these plunder even what you have. In spiritual matters we are all orphans; we have no one except God as helper, and our own zeal. Therefore, having spurned everything, let us take care of ourselves. Remember yourself and the evils that surround you; remember your sins henceforth, and your judgment; remember that you are a mortal, weak, and wretched human being, foul and unclean; remember that you are a human being living in a life full of distress and dangers, which has slain many, both good and bad, wise and unwise, rich and poor. Come, bring, that you may eat and drink, and you do not have the security of even one morsel. Remember that you are a human being, bones humbled from head to feet, unable to endure the toil of one day or the sleeplessness of one night; remember how much you have offended God in deeds, words, and thoughts; remember that you wrestle day and night with a lion and a dragon.

Consider how many souls are in Hades, because they despised the fear of God, begging to obtain a brief respite, and not obtaining it, but in the lowest depths of the earth lamenting their own fornications, their indolence, their luxuries, their wickednesses, and their wordy quarrels. Remember that before long you must die and be judged, and do not cease repeating this to your own soul. Write this little saying in your heart; bind it around your neck. It is better than a royal diadem; that leads to punishment, this procures eternal life. Meditate on these things; be always engaged in them. If you are in these, you will never be found in the contrary; but if you are not pricked by these, in what will your heart be caught? For even if the Lord's day is near, let us fear and be still. He who wishes to be blameless in deeds, words, and thoughts, what else ought he to do but always be still, pray, be silent, and despise all things on earth? For he who wishes to accomplish this makes himself a god on earth, according to the one who said, "Become imitators of God." See, we have been made children by God; what is more just than that a son should imitate his father? If you are a true child, follow the paternal commands, especially since they are just and beneficial.

What ought one who is at war with demons to do, but to pray without ceasing? What else ought one who is in daily danger in soul and body to do, but to struggle and beseech God? But you say, the passions tyrannize me, and fear is a tyrant. A tyrant falls against a tyrant. It only shakes the earth, and all tremble. Who does not fear the river of fire? One day of darkness surpasses all the evils in life; therefore despise present things as beyond consolation. Has someone insulted or struck you? Hope in the Lord, for he will give you a great reward for your patience. From hope comes faith, from these comes love; for with a small word and a little patience the Master grants you paradise, he crowns you as an athlete for a drink of cold water; for your faith is of great worth. Make virtue your bride, and make continence and temperance your living children, advancing you into the kingdom of heaven. When your soul rises in the morning, let it greet the Lord at dawn, and when it withdraws in the evening, let it rest on a spiritual bed, on pious thoughts, on hope in God, on dispassion and purity; for the commandments of God are light and life and rest, blessing and righteousness; but the decrees of Satan are darkness and death, punishment and sin and curse. It is in you to follow either these or those. If you follow the commandments of the Lord, all good things are yours: light, life, rest, blessing, the crown of righteousness; but if you obey those of Satan, the opposites of these meet you.

Who then is so foolish as to choose shame and reproach with eternal punishments, instead of glory and praise and immortal delight? Arise, hasten, run, make haste: the wedding is prepared, the bulls are sacrificed, the fatted fowl await you, the banqueters, as it is written, "The righteous will wait for me until you repay me." Make haste, that you may arrive. Behold the joy, behold the rest, behold the light, behold the life, behold the glory, behold the delight, behold the true and eternal things, behold the great and marvelous things, behold everything as you wish, nay rather beyond what you wish. Know only that God has marvelously honored his holy ones, glorified his saints, boasted of those who fear him, exalted those who love him. Let us not begrudge ourselves such goods that lie before us, such hope. Others for the sake of small gain strive, wage war, sail the sea, take risks; we who are about to inherit new heavens and a new earth, why are we disheartened? Why do we hesitate, why do we waste away in this matter? We do everything that causes passion and provocation to both body and soul; our luxury has no peace; sleep, walking, everything is scandalous. Who has lived as he wished? What of this life is not burdensome? This flesh of ours is not at peace with us; when healthy it wars, when sick it oppresses. Who has left this life without grief? Who has not tasted the briny waters of this bitter sea, of the successive

of waves? Who has not groaned at them? How many great men has this present life tripped up, and ensnared even as they ran well? And it is no wonder: for demons are the agents, the devil is the one lying in ambush. Knowing these things, then, let us repent with our whole heart, lest our pleasures turn into lamentations and tears. Let us help ourselves, let us tear our soul away from this world, and even from our own flesh. Let it find for itself a cell at the ends of the earth, so that it too may cry out to the Lord: "Have mercy on me, the solitary one; behold, I have left everything and followed you; behold, I have denied all for fear of you." Let our compunction reach the clouds, let our groans draw near the heavens, let our prayers and alms come before God. Let us serve him with all truth, with reverence and awe. Let us do everything so that we may not repent there; let us endure everything so that we may enjoy the good things of God, so that we may acquire greater boldness, so that we may be deemed worthy of more precious gifts, so that we may appear second to none of the saints. Great is the trial that is our life, and no one knows it; great is the storm, and no one perceives it. Let us give place to the activity of the passions, and to the sin dwelling in us, according to the Apostle; let us give place to the provocations of men; let us give place to this flesh and its desires; let us give place to this world and its hardships; let us give place to all trials, to all afflictions; let us hide from them.

We are pursued by them, and we are all sought out to be killed by demons, by circumstances, by men incited by Satan. Let us attend only to ourselves and to God, surrendering this body of ours to those who wish to strike it; for it has become worthy of many blows. Let us stretch our heart upward, pouring out our whole soul before God, that we may be saved and pitied and live, leaping and delighting and rejoicing, for ever and ever. Amen.