Part V, Chapter V

An Examination of Our State with Regard to Ourselves

How do you love yourself? Do you not love yourself too much for this world? If so, you will desire to live always here and be very solicitous to establish yourself on this earth; but if you love yourself for heaven, you will desire, or at least be willing, to depart hence at whatever hour it shall please our Lord.

Do you observe due order in the love of yourself? For the inordinate love of ourselves is the only thing that will cause our ruin. Now, a well-ordered love requires that we should love the soul more than the body; that we should be more solicitous to acquire virtue than anything else; that we should set a higher estimation on the favor of heaven than on the honor of this low and perishable world. A well-ordered heart will oftener say within itself, “What will the angels say, if I think upon such a thing?” than “What will men say?”

What kind of love have you for your own heart? Are you not willing to serve it in its infirmities? Alas! you ought to assist it, and procure assistance for it, whenever passions torment it, and for this purpose to neglect every other consideration.

What do you esteem yourself before God? Doubtless nothing. It is no great humility in a fly to esteem herself nothing in comparison of a mountain; nor for a drop of water to hold itself for nothing in comparison of the sea; nor for a spark of fire to hold itself nothing in respect to the sun; but humility consists in not esteeming ourselves above others, and in not desiring to be so esteemed by others. How are you disposed in this respect?

As to your tongue: Do you not sometimes boast of yourself in one way or another? Do you not flatter yourself in speaking of yourself?

As to recreation: Do you allow yourself pleasure contrary to your health,— I mean vain or unprofitable pleasure; such, for example, as that which prevents you from retiring to bed at a proper hour and the like?

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