Page:Thecompleteascet01grimuoft.djvu/98

 world and  retired  into  the  cloister  for  the  enjoyment  of ease  and  riches,  but  to  practise  poverty  for  the  love  of my  Jesus,  who  for  my  sake  became  poorer  than  I  am. When you  are  rebuked  or  treated  with  contempt,  say:  I have  become  a  religious  only  to  receive,  and  bear  with patience, the  humiliations  due  to  my  sins,  and  thus  render myself  dear  to  my  divine  Spouse,  who  was  so  much despised on  earth. By this  means  you  will  live  to  God and die  to  the  world. In conclusion,  I  recommend  you frequently to  ask  yourself  this  question:  What  will  it profit  me  to  have  abandoned  the  world,  to  have  confined myself  in  the  cloister,  to  have  given  up  my  liberty, if I  do  not  become  a  saint;  but  if,  on  the  contrary,  I  expose my  soul  to  everlasting  misery  by  a  careless  and tepid and  negligent  life?

V. The  fifth  means  for  a  religious  to  attain  sanctity is frequently  to  call  to  mind  and  to  renew  the  sentiments of  fervor  and  the  desires  of  perfection  which  she felt when  she  first  entered  religion. The Abbot  Agatho being once  asked  by  a  monk  for  a  rule  of  conduct  in  religion, replied:  "  See  what  you  were  on  the  day  you  left the  world,  and  persevere  in  the  dispositions  you  then entertained." Remember, O  consecrated  virgin,  the resolutions which  you  made  on  the  day  you  retired  from the world,  to  seek  nothing  but  God;  to  have  no  will  but his, and  to  suffer  all  manner  of  contempt  and  hardship for the  love  of  Jesus  Christ. This thought,  as  we  learn from the  Lives  of  the  Fathers,  brought  back  to  his  first fervor a  young  monk  who  had  fallen  into  tepidity. When he  first  determined  to  retire  into  a  monastery,  his mother strongly  opposed  his  design,  and  endeavored  by various  reasons  to  show  that  it  was  his  bounden  duty not to  abandon  her. To all  her  arguments  he  replied: