De stabilitate in loco et in ordine
The Danger of Wandering
The author warns against the spiritual vanity of aimless wandering and the neglect of one's interior life.
Always stay steady in the work of the Lord. Tell me, good brother, what good does it do you? What holiness do you gain by running here and there, seeing and hearing so many things everywhere, while failing to reach the kingdom of heaven? Blessed is the one who guards their heart and body from all aimless wandering, and who quickly returns to themselves with a groan to ask for mercy. Woe to you who often wander about outside, wasting your time fruitlessly and causing others to stumble.
The Peace of the Cell
A contrast is drawn between the peace found in solitude and the dangers posed by idle, gossiping behavior.
There is great peace for the one who willingly stays in their cell, who is occupied with God in secret, who prays often, who writes holy books, who reads the Scriptures with diligence, and who persists with affection in holy meditations. The idle and gossiping person deserves much correction and should be kept away from common conversation, lest they happen to infect the simple and the weak, and cause them to stumble and be disturbed by vain words and perverse behavior. Fear the future torments of purgatory fire, where you'll suffer the harshest lashes from demons for every idle and frivolous word and every wicked thought.
The Wisdom of Holy Fear
Reflecting on the reality of divine judgment encourages the soul to abandon worldly pleasures in favor of eternal life.
It is much better, therefore, to fear, to be cautious, to repent, and to weep now than to be tormented forever in the future among the wicked and to be beaten by demons. Certainly, there is no laughter or joking in hell, only burning forever, from which you will be able to be freed by no help. If anyone thought about these things often and took them seriously, he would quickly despise all worldly things and abhor all the pleasures of the flesh, so that he might escape eternal punishment and reach heavenly joys after death. But woe to them now and even more so in the future who pay little attention to divine judgments and treat almost everything as trivial, because they have not experienced those punishments in the body.
Read the original Latin
Stabiles estote in opere Domini semper. Dic mihi bone frater quid utilitatis et. sanctitatis tibi confert hinc inde discurrere et multa ubique videre et audire; et ad regnum caelorum non posse pervenire? Beatus qui ab omni evagatione cor suum et corpus custodit: et cito ad se ipsum cum gemitu redit et veniam petit. Vae tibi qui saepe foris evagaris: et tempus infructuose expendis et alios scandalizas. Pax multa libenter in cella manenti: Deo in secreto vacanti, saepe oranti; sacros libros scribenti, scripturas studiose legenti: ac sanctis meditationibus affectuose insistenti. Otiosus et fabulosus multa correptione dignus et a communi colloquio separandus; ne forte simplices et pusillos inficiat: et vanis verbis ac moribus perversis scandalizet ac perturbet. Time dissolute et iocose futura ignis purgatorii tormenta: ubi pro quolibet levi et otioso verbo et cogitatu maligno patieris a daemonibus durissima verbera.
Multo melius est ergo modo timere et cavere paenitere et flere: quam in futuro cum impiis sine fine torqueri et a daemonibus fustigari. Certe non est risus et iocus in inferno semper ardere: unde nullo auxilio poteris liberari. Si quis ista frequenter pensaret et stricte sponderaret: omnia mundana cito contemneret et omnia delectamenta carnis abhorreret; ut aeternas poenas evaderet: et ad caelestia gaudia post mortem perveniret. Sed vae eis modo et amplius ioin futuro: qui divina iudicia modicum attendunt; et fere omnia pro levibus ducunt: quia poenas illas in corpore non sunt experti.
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