APRIL.
1. To acquire and preserve the virtue of chastity, we have need of a good and experienced confessor.
2. Let a man who desires the first place take the last.
3. As soon as a man feels that he is tempted, he should fly to God, and devoutly utter that ejaculation which the fathers of the desert so much esteemed: Deus in adjutorium meum intende; Domine ad adjuvandum me festina: or that verse, cor mundum crea in me Deus.
4. When sensual thoughts come into the mind, we ought immediately to make use of our minds, and fix them instantaneously upon something or other, no matter what.
5. Never say, “What great things the Saints do,” but, “What great things God does in His Saints.”
6. In the warfare of the flesh, only cowards gain the victory; that is to say, those who fly.
7. We should be less alarmed for one who is tempted in the flesh, and who resists by avoiding the occasions, than for one who is not tempted and is not careful to avoid the occasions.
8. When a person puts himself in an occasion of sin, saying, “I shall not fall, I shall not commit it,” it is an almost infallible sign that he will fall, and with all the greater damage to his soul.
9. It is a most useful thing to say often, and from the heart, “Lord, do not put any confidence in me, for I am sure to fall if Thou dost not help me;” or, “O my Lord, look for nothing but evil from me.”
10. In temptation we ought not to say, “I will do,” “I will say,” for it is a species of presumption and self-confidence; we ought rather to say with humility, “I know what I ought to do, but I do not know what I shall do.” 11. The stench of impurity before God and the angels is so great, that no stench in the world can equal it.
12. We must not trust in ourselves, but take the advice of our spiritual father, and recommend ourselves to everybody’s prayers.
13 We must avoid lies as we would a pestilence.
14. When we go to confession, we should accuse ourselves of our worst sins first, and of those things which we are most ashamed of, because by this means we put the devil to greater confusion, and reap more fruit from our confession.
15. One of the very best means of obtaining humility, is sincere and frequent confession.
16. In trying to get rid of bad habits, it is of the greatest importance not to put off going to confession after a fall, and also to keep to the same confessor.
17. In visiting the dying we should not say many words to them, but rather help them by praying for them.
18. A sick man should make God a present of his will; and if it turns out that he has to suffer for a long time, he must submit to the Divine Will.
19. The sick man must not fear when he is tempted to lose confidence; for if he has sinned, Christ has suffered and paid for him.
20. Let the sick man enter into the Side of Jesus and His most holy Wounds; let him not be afraid, but combat manfully, and he will come forth victorious.
21. The true way to advance in holy virtues, is to persevere in a holy cheerfulness.
22. The cheerful are much easier to guide in the spiritual life than the melancholy.
23. Those who wish to enter upon the religious life, should first of all mortify themselves for a long time, and particularly mortify their will in things to which they have the greatest repugnance.
24. Excessive sadness seldom springs from any other source than pride.
25. Charity and cheerfulness, or charity and humility, should be our motto.
26. It is very necessary to be cheerful, but we must not on that account give in to a buffooning spirit.
27. Buffoonery incapacitates a person from receiving any additional spirituality from God.
28. Nay more, it roots up the little a man may have already acquired.
29. At table, especially where there are guests, we ought to eat every kind of food, and not say, “I like this,” and “I do not like that.”
30. Human language cannot express the beauty of a soul which dies in a state of grace.
