De ferventi emendatione totius vitæ.

The Call to Fervent Service

The reader is urged to remember their spiritual calling, labor faithfully, and hope in God's reward without falling into pride.

Stay alert and devoted in serving God, and keep coming back to the question of why you came and why you turned your back on the world. Wasn't it so that you might live for God and become a spiritual person? So press forward eagerly, because you'll receive the reward for your labors before long. Then there will be no more fear or pain within your borders. For a little while now you will labor, and you will find great rest — indeed, everlasting joy. If you stay faithful and fervent in action, God will without question be faithful and generous in repaying you. You should hold firmly to the hope that you'll reach the palm of victory, but it's not right to become overconfident, lest you grow sluggish or puffed up with pride.¹

Resolving Anxiety through Present Obedience

A soul torn between fear and hope finds peace by entrusting itself to God's will and acting on present resolve rather than seeking future certainty.

A certain anxious person was frequently tossed between fear and hope, and on one occasion, worn out by sorrow, he prostrated himself in prayer in a church before an altar. He resolved these things within himself, saying: "Oh, if only I knew that I would still persevere!" "What if you knew this — what would you wish to do?" Do now what you would wish to do, and you will be perfectly at peace. Soon, having been consoled and strengthened, he entrusted himself to the divine will, and his anxious wavering ceased. He did not wish to search curiously into what would be coming to him in the future, but rather he strove to discover what the well-pleasing and perfect will of God might be, for every work to be begun and completed.^✦

The Struggle that Produces Growth

Scripture calls us to hope in the Lord, and those who overcome their greatest difficulties make the most progress in virtue.

"Hope in the Lord, and do good," says the Prophet; "dwell in the land, and you will feed on its riches."^✦ There is one thing that holds many people back from progress and earnest amendment: a dread of difficulty, or the toil of the struggle. Those who make the most progress in virtue beyond others are the ones who strive to overcome the things that feel most burdensome and contrary to them. For a person makes greater progress and merits greater grace precisely where they most conquer themselves and put to death their own spirit.

Practical Means of Self-Conquest

Not all face equal battles, but earnest imitation of Christ and deliberate resistance to one's own disordered inclines lead to true amendment.

But not everyone has an equal amount of work ahead of them in conquering themselves and putting sin to death. But a person who is earnest about imitating the saints will grow stronger in making progress, even if that person has more passions to fight than someone else who is well-disciplined in outward behavior yet less fervent in pursuing the virtues.² Two things especially help a person toward great amendment of life: first, to drag yourself away by force from whatever your disordered nature inclines you toward, and then to press forward fervently toward the good that you need most.³ Make it your special effort to guard against and overcome those faults that you most frequently find displeasing in others.⁴

Learning from Good and Bad Examples

The reader is encouraged to be inspired by good examples, corrected by bad ones, and mindful that they too are watched by others.

Everywhere you'll make progress, so that if you see or hear good examples, you're set on fire to imitate them. But if you've noticed anything blameworthy, be careful not to do the same thing yourself, or if you've done it at some point before, work to correct yourself as quickly as you can. Just as your eye watches others, so in turn you are watched by others. How pleasant and sweet it is to see brothers who are fervent and devout, well-behaved and disciplined. How sad and grieving it is to see those who walk without order, who don't practice the things they were called to. How harmful it is to neglect the purpose of your own calling and to turn your mind toward things that were not entrusted to you.

The Crucified Christ as Our Only Teacher

Remembering one's commitment and contemplating the crucified Christ provides everything needed for the spiritual life, and the fervent soul finds strength in all things.

Remember the commitment you've taken on, and set the image of the crucified Christ before yourself. You can well be ashamed when you examine the life of Jesus Christ, because you have not yet tried harder to conform yourself to him, even though you have been on God's path for a long time. A religious person who devotes himself earnestly and devoutly to the most holy life and passion of the Lord will find there, in abundance, everything useful and necessary for himself. There is no need for you to look for anything better beyond Jesus. Oh, if the crucified Jesus would come into our heart, how quickly and thoroughly we would be taught! A fervent religious person bears and grasps well everything that is asked of him.

The Misery of Lukewarmness

The negligent and lukewarm religious suffers distress on every side, while those who seek relaxed ways remain perpetually dissatisfied.

The religious person who is negligent and lukewarm has tribulation heaped upon tribulation and suffers distress on every side, because they lack interior consolation and are forbidden to seek it outside.⁵ The religious person who lives outside discipline lies open to serious ruin.⁶ Whoever seeks looser and more relaxed ways will always be in distress, because one thing or another will displease them.⁷

The Example of the Religious Orders

The disciplined lives of monks and nuns across many orders should shame the reader out of sloth and into fervent praise.

Look at how so many other religious do it — those held firmly under cloistered discipline. They seldom go out, they live in seclusion, they eat most sparingly, they're clothed roughly, they labor much, they speak little, they keep watch long, they rise early, and they prolong their prayers. They read frequently and guard themselves in every discipline.⁸ Pay attention to the Carthusians and Benedictines, the Cistercians, and the monks and nuns of various religious orders — how they rise every night to sing psalms to God. And so it would be shameful for you to sleep and grow slothful in so holy a work, where so great a multitude of religious persons begins to shout for joy to God.

The Longing for Pure Praise

The soul yearns for a life freed from bodily necessity so it could devote itself entirely to praising God and tasting spiritual refreshment.

Oh, if there were nothing else to do — if the only task laid upon us were to praise the Lord our God with our whole heart and voice!⁹ Oh, if you never had to eat or drink or sleep, but could always praise God and devote yourself only to spiritual pursuits — then you'd be far happier than you are now, serving the flesh out of whatever necessity.¹⁰ If only these bodily necessities didn't exist — and instead there were only the soul's spiritual refreshments, which, alas, we seldom taste even enough!¹¹¹²

Perfect Detachment and Divine Sufficiency

When a soul seeks consolation from no creature, it knows God perfectly and rests content in all circumstances, finding all things alive in Him.

When a person reaches the point of seeking consolation from no creature, then God begins to be truly and perfectly known to them, and they'll be well content with every outcome. They'll neither rejoice over something great nor be saddened over something small, but place themselves wholly and confidently in God, who is to them all things in all people, for whom nothing is truly lost or dies, but all things live for them and serve them at a nod without delay.^✦¹³¹⁴

Vigilance, Fervor, and the Urgency of Now

Remembering death and the irrecoverability of time, the reader must stay watchful, resist lukewarmness, and press forward in fervor, for progress comes only through self-discipline.

Always remember your end, and that lost time never returns; without anxiety and diligence you will never acquire virtue. If you start to grow lukewarm, you start to go badly.^✦ But if you give yourself over to fervor, you will find great peace and feel your labor grow lighter, because of God's grace and the love of virtue. A person who is fervent and diligent is ready for anything. It is harder to resist vices and passions than to sweat at bodily labors. Whoever does not avoid small faults gradually slips into greater ones. You will always rejoice at evening if you spend the day fruitfully. Stay watchful — always — over yourself, and whatever may be going on with others, do not neglect yourself. You will progress exactly as much as you force yourself. Amen.

Read the original Latin

Esto vigilans et diligens in Dei servitio, et cogita frequenter ad quid venisti, et cur sæculum reliquisti. Nonne ut Deo viveres, et spiritualis fieres? Igitur ad profectum ferveas, quia mercedem laborum tuorum in brevi recipies. Nec erit tunc amplius timor aut dolor in finibus tuis. Modicum nunc laborabis, et magnam requiem, imo perpetuam lætitiam, invenies. Si tu permanseris fidelis et fervidus in agendo, Deus procul dubio erit fidelis, et locuples in retribuendo. Spem bonam retinere debes, quod ad palmam pervenies, sed securitatem capere non oportet ne torpeas, aut elatus fias.

Cum enim quidam anxius inter metum et spem frequenter fluctuaret, et quadam vice moerore confectus in ecclesia ante quoddam altare se in oratione prostravisset, hæc intra se resolvit dicens: O, si scirem, quod adhuc perseveratus essem; statimque audivit divinum intus responsum. Quid, si hoc scires, quid facere velles? Fac nunc quod facere velles, et bene securus eris. Moxque consolatus et confortatus divinæ se commisit voluntati, et cessavit anxia fluctuatio. Noluitque curiose se investigare, ut sciret quæ sibi essent futura, sed magis studuit inquirere quæ esset voluntas Dei beneplacens et perfecta ad omne opus inchoandum et perficiendum.

Spera in Domino et fac bonitatem, ait Propheta, et inhabita terram, et pasceris in divitiis ejus. Unum est quod multos a profectu et ferventi emendatione retrahit: horror difficultatis seu labor certaminis. Illi maxime præ aliis in virtutibus proficiunt, qui ea quæ sibi magis gravia et contraria sunt vincere nituntur. Nam ibi homo plus proficit, et gratiam meretur ampliorem, ubi magis se ipsum vincit, et in spiritu mortificat.

Sed non omnes habent æque multum ad vincendum et moriendum. Diligens autem æmulator valentior erit ad proficiendum, etiamsi plures habeat passiones, quam alius bene morigeratus, minus tamen fervens ad virtutes. Duo specialiter ad magnam emendationem juvant, videlicet subtrahere se violenter ad quod natura vitiose inclinatur, et ferventer instare pro bono, quo amplius quis indiget. Illa etiam magis studeas cavere et vincere quæ tibi in aliis frequentius displicent.

Ubique profectum tuum capies ut si bona exempla videas vel audias, de imitandis accendaris. Si quid autem reprehensibile consideraveris, cave ne idem facias, aut si aliquando fecisti, citius emendare te studeas. Sicut oculus tuus alios considerat, sic iterum ab aliis notaris. Quam jucundum et dulce est videre fervidos et devotos Fratres bene morigeratos et disciplinatos. Quam triste est et grave videre inordinate ambulantes, qui ea ad quæ vocati sunt non exercent. Quam nocivum est negligere vocationis suæ propositum, et ad non comissa sensum inclinare.

Memor esto arrepti propositi, et imaginem crucifixi tibi propone. Bene verecundari potes inspecta vita Jesu Christi, quia necdum magis illi te conformare studuisti, licet diu in via Dei fuisti. Religiosus qui se intente et devote in sanctissima vita et passione Domini exercet, omnia utilia et necessaria sibi abundanter ibi inveniet. Nec opus est ut extra Jesum aliquid melius quærat. O, si Jesus crucifixus in cor nostrum veniret, quam cito et sufficienter docti essemus. Religiosus fervidus bene omnia portat et capit, quæ illi jubentur.

Religiosus negligens et tepidus habet tribulationem super tribulationem et ex omni parte patitur angustiam, quia interiori consolatione caret, et exteriorem quærere prohibetur. Religiosus extra disciplinam vivens gravi patet ruinæ. Qui laxiora quærit et remissiora, semper in angustiis erit, quia unum aut reliquum displicebit sibi.

Quomodo faciunt tam multi alii Religiosi qui satis arctati sunt sub disciplina claustrali, rare exeunt, abstracte vivunt, pauperrime comedunt, grosse vestiuntur, multum laborant, parum loquuntur, diu vigilant, mature surgunt, et orationes prolongant, frequenter legunt et se in omni disciplina custodiunt. Attende Cartusienses et Benedictinos, et Cistercienses ac diversæ religionis Monachos et Moniales qualiter omni nocte ad psallendum Deo surgunt. Et ideo turpe esset, ut tu debeas in tam sancto opere dormitare et pigritare, ubi tanta multitudo Religiosorum incipit Deo jubilare.

O, si nihil aliud faciendum incumberet, nisi Dominum Deum nostrum toto corde et ore laudare. O, si nunquam indigeres comedere, nec bibere, nec dormire, sed semper posses Deum laudare, et solummodo spiritualibus studiis vacare, tunc multo felicior esses, quam modo carni ex qualicumque necessitate serviens. Utinam non essent istæ necessitates, sed solummodo spirituales animæ refectiones, quas heu satis raro degustamus.

Quando homo ad hoc pervenit, quod de nulla creatura consolationem quærit, tunc ei Deus primo perfecte sapere incipit, tunc etiam bene contentus de omni eventu rerum erit, tunc nec pro magno lætabitur, nec pro modico contristabitur, sed ponit se integre, et fiducialiter in Deo, qui est ei omnia in omnibus, cui nihil utique perit, nec moritur, sed omnia ei vivunt, et ad nutum incunctanter deserviunt.

Memento semper finis, et quia perditum non redit tempus, sine sollicitudine, et diligentia nunquam acquires virtutes. Si incipis tepescere, incipis male habere. Si autem dederis te ad fervorem, invenies magnam pacem, et senties leviorem laborem propter Dei gratiam et virtutis amorem. Homo fervidus et diligens ad omnia est paratus. Major labor est resistere vitiis et passionibus, quam corporalibus insudare laboribus. Qui parvos non devitat defectus, paulatim labitur ad majora. Gaudebis semper de vespere, si diem expendes fructuose. Vigila semper te ipsum et quidquid de aliis sit non negligas te ipsum. Tantum proficies, quantum tibi ipsi vim intuleris. Amen.

Scripture echoes

↩Rom.12.2 — And do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect.
↩Ps.36.3-Ps.36.4 — For he has flattered himself in his own eyes, to find his iniquity, to hate. Ps.36.4 — The words of his mouth are iniquity and deceit; he has ceased to act wisely, to do good.
↩1Cor.15.28;Col.3.11 — When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to the one who subjected all things to him, so that God may be all in all. Col.3.11 — where there is no Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free—but Christ is all and in all.
↩Rev.3.16 — So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I am about to spit you out of my mouth.

Notes

1 ↩Palma (palm) evokes the martyr's or victor's palm, a traditional image of final perseverance and heavenly reward.
2 ↩æmulator rendered 'earnest about imitating the saints' to capture the sense of zealous emulation of holy example, not mere rivalry.
3 ↩The two means of amendment are (1) violent self-withdrawal from one's dominant disordered inclination and (2) fervent pursuit of the corresponding virtue one most lacks.
4 ↩Thomas draws on the principle that what irritates us in others often reveals our own unacknowledged weakness — a classic monastic insight about self-knowledge through fraternal correction.
5 ↩Religiosus rendered as 'religious person' per lexeme policy (religious life/discipline for ordered devotional practice). Interiori consolatione: 'interior consolation' preserves the devotional sense of inner comfort from God.
6 ↩Extra disciplinam vivens: 'who lives outside discipline' captures the sense of departing from the ordered rule of religious life. Gravi ruinæ: 'serious ruin' preserves the weight of the warning.
7 ↩Laxiora et remissiora: 'looser and more relaxed ways' captures the comparative force — seeking less demanding paths. Unum aut reliquum: 'one thing or the other' renders the dilemma of the lax religious who can never be satisfied.
8 ↩arctati: rare form, possibly from arcto/arctare 'to confine'; rendered as 'held firmly' to convey the sense of strict enclosure.
9 ↩corde et ore rendered as 'heart and voice' to capture the natural English pairing; ore (mouth) is elevated to 'voice' to convey the act of praise rather than the physical organ.
10 ↩spiritualibus studiis vacare rendered 'devote yourself only to spiritual pursuits'; vacare carries the sense of having leisure for, being free for — here rendered as active devotion.
11 ↩refectiones rendered 'refreshments' to preserve the nourishment metaphor; spirituales animæ refectiones = the soul's spiritual nourishment/refreshment.
12 ↩degustamus rendered 'taste' — carrying the sense of partaking of, sampling; 'seldom taste even enough' captures satis raro with the lament.
13 ↩sapere rendered 'truly and perfectly known' to capture the experiential sense of sapere (to taste/know) rather than mere intellectual knowledge.
14 ↩qui est ei omnia in omnibus — 'who is to them all things in all people' — echoes Pauline language (cf. 1 Cor 15:28, Col 3:11) applied here to the soul's experience of God as the all-sufficient ground of every creature.