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Chapter 19Imit.1.19

De exercitiis boni Religiosi.

The Inner Life Before God

A good religious must cultivate interior virtue that matches outward appearance, living always in the pure sight of God and renewing fervor daily.

The life of a good religious person ought to be strong in all virtues, so that they are the same on the inside as they appear to be in the eyes of others. And a person ought to be far more on the inside than what shows outwardly, because the one who inspects us is God, whom we must revere above all things wherever we are, and like angels we are to walk pure in his sight.1 Every day we ought to renew our purpose and rouse ourselves to fervor, as if today were the very first day we turned to conversion, and say: Help me, God, in my good purpose and your holy service, and grant me now today to begin perfectly, because nothing I have done up to this point amounts to nothing.✦2

Purpose, Diligence, and Dependence on Grace

Spiritual progress depends on firm purpose and diligence, yet even the righteous rely ultimately on God's grace rather than their own strength.

Our progress depends on our purpose, and it takes great diligence to make real headway when you're determined to move forward. But if someone who resolves firmly still falls short often, what will become of the person who rarely commits to anything — or does so only half-heartedly? Still, there are many ways our resolve can fall apart. And even a slight neglect of our spiritual practices hardly passes without some real cost. The resolve of the righteous rests on God's grace more than on their own endurance. In that grace they always place their confidence, no matter what they undertake. For a person proposes, but God disposes — 'nor is the way of a person within their own power.'✦3

Faithful Practice and Honest Self-Examination

Spiritual practices may be set aside for good reasons but not from negligence, and both outward conduct and inward disposition must be regularly examined and ordered.

If your usual practice is set aside at times for the sake of devotion or for some purpose of brotherly service, it can easily be recovered afterwards. But if it is set aside out of weariness of soul or through negligence, that is blameworthy enough, and you'll feel the harm of it. Let us strive as much as we can; even so, we will still fall short in many ways. Still, something definite must always be proposed to us, and especially those things that hinder us the most. Our outward life and our inward life must alike be examined and put in order, because both are needed for our own progress.

Daily Rhythms of Watchfulness and Work

One should set a plan each morning and examine conduct each evening, remaining always occupied with prayer, reading, meditation, or useful work while exercising discernment in bodily practices.

If you can't gather yourself together continuously, at least do so sometimes — and at a minimum once a day, in the morning or in the evening. In the morning, set your plan before you; in the evening, examine your conduct — what sort of person you've been today in word, deed, and thought — because it's in these areas that perhaps you've more often offended God through your neighbor.4 Gird yourself like a strong man against the devil's wickednesses; rein in your appetite and every inclination of the flesh, and you'll restrain them more easily.✦✦5 Never be completely idle — either reading, or writing, or praying, or meditating, or working at something useful for the common good. Bodily exercises, however, should be undertaken with discernment, and not taken up equally by everyone.

Common Duties and Personal Devotion

Private devotions should be practiced discreetly without neglecting common obligations, and spiritual exercises must be adapted to seasons, temperaments, and circumstances.

Things that are not common property are not to be displayed in public, for private matters are more safely practiced in secret. Still, you must take care not to be lazy about common exercises and more eager for your own private ones. But once you have fully and faithfully completed your duties and everything that's been asked of you, if there's time beyond that, give yourself back to yourself, as your devotion calls you.6 Not everyone can have the same practice; what serves one person better serves another differently, and depending on the season, different exercises are fitting — some are more nourishing on feast days, others on ordinary days; we need some in times of temptation, and others in times of peace and rest.7 Some things are worth reflecting on when we're weighed down with sorrow, and others when we've been joyful in the Lord.

Renewal at the Feasts

The great feasts call for renewed devotion and stricter observance, as each feast anticipates the eternal celebration to come.

Around the principal feasts, good practices should be renewed, and the intercessions of the saints should be sought more fervently. From one feast to the next, we ought to set this before ourselves—as if we were about to depart from this world and arrive at the eternal feast. And so we ought to prepare ourselves carefully during devout seasons, to live more devoutly, and to keep every observance more strictly—just as those about to receive from God, in a short time, the reward of our labor.

Watchfulness for the Lord's Return

If the Lord's coming is delayed, we must humbly acknowledge our unworthiness and strive all the more to be found watching, trusting the promise of blessedness for the faithful servant.

And if it is delayed, let us believe that we are less well prepared, and unworthy of so great a glory as will be revealed to us at the appointed time, and let us strive to prepare ourselves better for our departure.✦89 "Blessed is the servant," says the Evangelist Luke, "whom the Lord, when he comes, will find watching."✦10 "Truly I tell you, he will set him over all his goods."✦11

Read the original Latin

Vita boni Religiosi omnibus virtutibus pollere debet, ut sit talis interius qualis ab hominibus videtur exterius. Et multo plus debet esse intus, quam quod cernitur foris, quia inspector noster est Deus quem summopere revereri debemus ubicumque fuerimus, et tamquam Angeli in conspectu ejus mundi incedere. Omni die renovare debemus propositum nostrum, et ad fervorem nos excitare, quasi hodie primum ad conversionem venissemus ac dicere: Adjuva me Deus in bono proposito et sancto servitio tuo, et da mihi nunc hodie perfecte incipere, quia nihil est, quod hactenus feci.

Secundum propositum nostrum est cursus profectus nostri, et multa diligentia opus est bene proficere volenti. Quod si fortiter proponens sæpe deficit, quid faciet ille qui raro aut minus fixe aliquid proponit? Variis tamen modis contingit desertio propositi nostri. Et levis omissio exercitiorum vix sine aliquo dispendio transit. Justorum propositum in gratia potius Dei, quam in propria patientia pendet. In quo et semper confidunt quidquid arripiunt. Nam homo proponit, sed Deus disponit, nec est in homine via ejus.

Si pietatis causa, aut fraternæ utilitatis proposito, quandoque consuetum omittitur exercitium, facile postea poterit recuperari. Si autem tædio animi, vel negligentia faciliter relinquitur, satis culpabile est et nocivum sentitur. Conemur quantum possumus, adhuc leviter deficiemus in multis. Semper tamen aliquid certi proponendum est, et proponenda sunt illa præcipue quæ amplius nos impediunt. Exteriora nostra et interiora pariter nobis scrutanda sunt, et ordinanda, quia utraque expediunt ad proprium profectum.

Si non continue te vales colligere, saltem interdum, et ad minus semel in die, mane videlicet aut vespere. Mane propone, vespere discute mores tuos, qualis hodie fuisti in verbo, opere et cogitatione, quia in his forsan Deum sæpius offendisti ex proximum. Accinge te sicut vir fortis contra diabolicas nequitias, fræna gulam et omnem carnis inclinationem facilius frænabis. Numquam sis ex toto otiosus, sed aut legens, aut scribens, aut orans, aut meditans, aut aliquid utilitatis pro communi laborans. Corporalia tamen exercitia discrete sunt agenda, nec omnibus æqualiter assumenda.

Quæ communia non sunt, non sunt foris ostendenda, nam in secreto tutius exercentur privata. Cavendum tamen ne piger sis ad communia, et ad singularia promptior. Sed expletis integre et fideliter debitis, et injunctis, si jam ultra tempus vacat, redde te tibi, prout tua devotio desiderat. Non possunt omnes habere exercitium unum, sed aliud isti, aliud illi magis deservit, et pro temporis congruentia diversa placent exercitia, quia alia in festis, alia in feriatis magis sapiunt diebus, aliis indigemus tempore tentationis, et aliis tempore pacis et quietis. Alia, cum tristamur, libet cogitare, et alia, cum læti in Domino fuerimus.

Circa principalia festa renovanda sunt bona exercitia, et Sanctorum suffragia ferventius imploranda. De festo in festum proponere debemus quasi tunc de sæculo migraturi, et ad æternum festum perventuri. Ideoque sollicite nos præparare debemus in devotis temporibus, et devotius conversari, atque omnem observantiam strictius custodire, tanquam in brevi laboris nostri præmium a Deo percepturi.

Et si dilatum fuerit, credamus nos minus bene paratos, atque indignos tantæ gloriæ, quæ revelabitur in nobis tempore præfinito et studeamus nos melius ad exitum præparare. Beatus servus ait Evangelista Lucas, quem, cum venerit Dominus, invenerit vigilantem. Amen dico vobis, super omnia bona sua constituet eum.

Scripture echoes

  1. ↩Ps.50.12 — If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world is Mine, and the fullness thereof.
  2. ↩Jer.10.23 — I know, O LORD, that the way of a man is not his own; it is not for a man who walks to direct his own steps.
  3. ↩Eph.6.14 — Stand firm, then, having fastened the belt of truth around your waist and having put on the breastplate of righteousness.
  4. ↩1Pet.5.8 — Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.
  5. ↩Rom.8.18 — For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is about to be revealed to us.
  6. ↩Luke.12.37 — Blessed are those servants whom the master finds watching when he comes. Truly I tell you, he will gird himself, have them recline at table, and come and serve them." This harmonizes servant language and strengthens the action sequence.
  7. ↩Matt.24.47 — Truly I tell you, he will set him over all his possessions.

Notes

  1. 1 ↩inspector rendered as 'inspector' in the sense of one who looks into/oversees; the Latin emphasizes God as the one who sees into the heart.
  2. 2 ↩The prayer 'Adjuva me Deus…da mihi nunc hodie perfecte incipere' echoes Psalm 50:12 (Vulgate) and related penitential language; the direct address to God is rendered in uncontracted form for solemnity.
  3. 3 ↩The quoted clause 'nec est in homine via ejus' echoes Jer 10:23 (Vulgate): 'non est hominis via ejus, nec viri est ut ambulet et dirigat gressus suos.' Candidate allusion; final resolution deferred to tx-08 Moses stage.
  4. 4 ↩ex proximum: the Latin is ambiguous — it may mean 'through your neighbor' (i.e., offenses committed via or against the neighbor) or 'in regard to your neighbor.' The translation follows the more natural reading in context.
  5. 5 ↩Possible allusion to Ephesians 6:14 ('Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth') and 1 Peter 5:8 ('Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion'). Candidate status pending Moses resolution.
  6. 6 ↩devotio rendered as devotion per lexeme policy; here it means the individual's devotional inclination or desire.
  7. 7 ↩sapiunt rendered as 'are more nourishing' to capture the sense of spiritual sustenance/taste; the literal sense is 'taste better' or 'are savored more.'
  8. 8 ↩dilatum fuerit — 'if it is delayed': the referent is unstated (death, judgment, or the Lord's coming); the conditional leaves the subject open.
  9. 9 ↩exitum rendered 'departure' rather than 'death' to preserve the Latin's deliberate understatement, which functions as a euphemism for death.
  10. 10 ↩Quotation from Luke 12:37 (Vulgate). Status pending Moses resolution.
  11. 11 ↩Quotation from Matthew 24:47 (Vulgate). Status pending Moses resolution.