De compunctione cordis.

The Call to Holy Fear and Compunction

True progress in the spiritual life begins with the fear of God, disciplined senses, and compunction of heart, for no one can fully rejoice while mindful of exile and the soul's dangers.

If you want to make any progress, keep yourself in the fear of God, and don't be too free and easy.¹ But under discipline restrain all your senses, and don't hand yourself over to foolish merriment; give yourself to compunction of heart, and you'll find devotion. Compunction opens many good things, which carelessness has been quick to lose.²³⁴ It's remarkable that anyone can ever fully rejoice in this life, when he considers his exile and weighs up the many dangers to his soul.⁵⁶

Casting Off Distraction and Burden

Because of our negligence we fail to feel our soul's wounds, yet true freedom lies in holy fear; the blessed are those who renounce every distraction and stain on the conscience, conquering custom through courage and detachment.

Because our hearts are so light and we're careless about our own failings, we don't feel the pain of our soul; instead we often speak empty words when we ought to be weeping, as we deserve.⁷ There is no true freedom and no good conscience except in the fear of God. Happy is the one who can cast away every hindrance to distraction and bring himself into the union of holy compunction. Happy is the one who renounces whatever can stain or burden his conscience. Fight with courage.⁸ Custom is conquered by custom.⁹ If you know how to let people go, they'll gladly let you go about your business.¹⁰

Guarding the Heart from Entanglement

One must not meddle in others' affairs but attend first to one's own soul, accepting lack of human favor while recognizing that the absence of consolation is often a mercy calling us deeper into compunction.

Don't draw other people's affairs to yourself, and don't entangle yourself in the business of those in charge. Keep your eye on yourself first and above all, and keep admonishing yourself — especially before all others who are dear to you. If you don't have people's favor, don't be saddened by that — but let this weigh on you: that you're not living carefully and circumspectly enough, as a servant of God and a devout religious should conduct themselves. It's often more useful and more secure for a person not to have many consolations in this life according to the flesh — especially since we don't have divine ones, or more rarely still feel ourselves devout. We're at fault, because we don't seek compunction of heart, and we don't cast off vain and outward consolations.

The Weight of Compunction and the Burden of Sin

Recognizing our unworthiness of divine consulsion, true compunction makes the world a burden; the righteous find ample cause for tears in their own sins and those of their neighbors, so wrapped in vice that they can scarcely lift their eyes to heaven.

Recognize that you are unworthy of divine consolation, and that you deserve much tribulation instead. When a person is pierced through with compunction, the whole world becomes a burden and a bitterness to them.¹¹ A good person finds ample cause for grief and tears, whether they look honestly at themselves or reflect on their neighbor. They know that no one lives here without tribulation, and the more strictly they examine themselves, the deeper their sorrow.¹²¹³ The causes of rightful grief and inward compunction are our own sins and vices. We are so wrapped up in them that we can rarely lift our eyes to heavenly things.¹⁴¹⁵

Memento Mori and the Prayer for Tears

Frequent meditation on death and future judgment would stir earnest amendment, but because these truths do not reach the heart we remain cold; therefore we must humbly pray for the spirit of compunction, crying with the Prophet for the bread of tears.

If you thought more often about your death than about the length of your life, there's no doubt you'd set about amending yourself more earnestly. If you also weighed heartily the future punishments of Hell or of Purgatory, I believe you'd willingly endure pain and labor, and fear nothing of their severity. But because these things don't reach the heart, and we still love its comforts, we remain cold and very sluggish.¹⁶ Often it's a poverty of spirit that makes the wretched body complain so easily. Pray humbly to the Lord, therefore, that he may give you a spirit of compunction; and say with the Prophet, "Feed me, Lord, with the bread of tears, and give me tears to drink in measure."^✦¹⁷¹⁸

Read the original Latin

Si vis aliquid proficere, conserva te in timore Dei et noli esse nimis liber. Sed sub disciplina cohibe omnes sensus tuos, nec ineptæ te tradas lætitiæ, da te ad cordis compunctionem, et invenies devotionem; compunctio multa bona aperit, quæ dissolutio cito perdere consuevit. Mirum est, quod homo possit unquam perfecte lætari in hac vita, qui suum exilium, et tam multa pericula animæ suæ considerat, et pensat.

Propter levitatem cordis et negligentiam defectuum nostrorum non sentimus animæ nostræ dolores, sed sæpe vane reddimus verba, quando merito flere deberemus. Non est vera libertas, nec bona conscientia, nisi in timore Dei. Felix qui abjicere potest omne impedimentum distractionis, et ad unionem se redigere sanctæ compunctionis. Felix qui a se abdicat quidquid suam conscientiam maculare potest, vel gravare. Certa viriliter. Consuetudo consuetudine vincitur. Si tu scis homines dimittere, ipsi bene dimittent te, tua facta facere.

Non attrahas tibi res aliorum, nec te implices causis majorum. Habeas semper oculum super te primum, et admoneas te ipsum specialiter, præ omnibus tibi dilectis. Si non habes favorem hominum noli exinde tristari, sed hoc tibi sit grave quia non habes te satis bene et circumspecte, sicut deceret servum Dei et devotum Religiosum conversari. Utilius est sæpe et securius, quod homo non habeat multas consolationes in hac vita secundum carnem, præcipue tamen, quod divinas non habemus, aut rarius sentimus nos devotos; in culpa sumus, quia compunctionem non quærimus cordis, ac vanas et extrinsecas non abjicimus.

Cognosce te indignum divina consolatione, sed magis dignum multa tribulatione. Quando homo perfecte est compunctus, tunc gravis et amarus est ei totus mundus. Bonus homo sufficientem invenit materiam dolendi et flendi: sive enim considerat se, sive de proximo pensat; scit quia nemo sine tribulatione hic vivit; et quanto strictius sese considerat, tanto amplius dolet. Materiæ justi doloris, et internæ compunctionis sunt peccata, et vitia nostra, quibus ita involuti jacemus, ut raro cælestia contemplari valeamus.

Si frequentius de morte tua, quam de longitudine vitæ tuæ cogitares, non dubium, quin ferventius te emendares. Si etiam futuras Inferni, sivi Purgatorii, poenas cordialiter perpenderes, credo quod libenter dolorem et laborem sustineres, et nihil rigoris formidares. Sed quia ista ad cor non transeunt, et blandimenta adhuc amamus, ideo frigidi et valde pigri remanemus. Sæpe est inopia spiritus unde tam leviter conqueritur corpus miserum. Ora igitur humiliter ad Dominum ut det tibi compunctionis spiritum; et dic cum Propheta, Ciba me Domine pane lacrymarum et potum da mihi in lacrymis in mensura.

Scripture echoes

↩Ps.80.5 — LORD God of hosts, how long will you be angry with the prayer of your people?

Notes

1 ↩nimis liber rendered 'too free and easy' to capture the negative sense of excessive liberty or lack of restraint.
2 ↩compunctio/cordis compunctionem rendered 'compunction'/'compunction of heart' — a grace-pierced sorrow for sin, not mere guilt or shame.
3 ↩devotio rendered 'devotion' in the sense of a devotional disposition.
4 ↩dissolutio rendered 'carelessness' to convey the sense of spiritual laxity or dissolution.
5 ↩exilium rendered 'exile' — the soul's sojourn away from its true home in God.
6 ↩anima rendered 'soul' for the interior person before God.
7 ↩Levitas cordis rendered 'lightness of our heart' to capture the sense of spiritual fickleness or instability, not mere frivolity.
8 ↩Certa viriliter is a terse imperative. Rendered as a direct, forceful exhortation matching the Latin brevity.
9 ↩The proverbial repetition consuetudo/consuetudine is preserved in English to keep the force of the saying: one habit overcomes another.
10 ↩The Latin plays on dimittere (to dismiss/let go) and facere (to do/carry out). The sense is: if you release others from your judgment, they will release you to act in peace.
11 ↩compunctus rendered as 'pierced through with compunction' to preserve the devotional weight of compunctio as sorrow pierced by grace, not mere guilt.
12 ↩sive…sive…enim rendered as 'whether…or' with the explanatory force of enim absorbed into the construction.
13 ↩et introducing the quanto…tanto correlative clause rendered as 'and' to preserve the proportional logic.
14 ↩justi doloris rendered as 'rightful grief' to capture the sense of justified, warranted sorrow rather than merely 'just' in the sense of fairness.
15 ↩ut after ita introduces a result clause, rendered with 'so…that' construction.
16 ↩cor rendered as 'heart' per lexeme policy for inner attention and will.
17 ↩Quotation from Psalm 80:5 (Vulgate 79:6) — 'Ciba me Domine pane lacrymarum et potum da mihi in lacrymis in mensura.'
18 ↩compunctio rendered as 'compunction' per lexeme policy: sorrow pierced by grace.