Mirror of the Honesty of Life

a certain violence and difficulty, he will afterwards perform easily, and finally with great delight, provided he does not desist from what he has begun.

Hear, my son, the discipline of your father. Attend diligently to all my words and write them in your heart as if in a book. Do not emulate the multitude of those who have already turned back after the desires of their hearts, in whom devotion has grown tepid, charity has cooled, and humility is lacking. Even obedience has been laid low; for they who desire to please men seek honors, serve their bellies, love gifts beyond measure, seek rewards, and in this world receive that which they seek as the wages of their work, and they will remain empty in the future.

But attend to those outstanding flowers, the most holy fathers, who burned with an incomparable study of sanctity, and hasten to take up their purpose with similar study and conversation, just as it has now been proposed to you. Therefore, whether you eat, or drink, or do anything else, let this voice of the father always resonate in your ears, admonishing and saying: "My son, return to your heart; abstracting yourself from all things as much as possible, always guard the eye of your mind in purity and tranquility. The intellect, from the forms of lower things..."