Mirror of the Honest Life and Eight Points of Spiritual Perfection

wishing for what I know I lack, for your progress is a joy to me and my crown in the Lord my God.

If you ever stand by a stone where the bodies of the dead are washed, compose yourself by meditating, and diligently consider how they are treated in the custom of burial: now they are turned onto their backs, now onto their faces; how the head nods, the arms fall, the legs stiffen, the shins lie still; how they are dressed, consumed, carried to be buried; how they are placed in the tomb, covered in dust, how they are devoured by worms as if they were rot. Let your ultimate philosophy be the constant meditation on death; carry this with you wherever you are or wherever you go, and you will never perish in eternity.

Here ends the Mirror of the Blessed Abbot Bernard on the Honesty of Life.

Here begin the Eight Points through which one arrives at the perfection of the spiritual life, by the same author.

A decorative initial 'I' marks the beginning of the text.

If you well recall these eight things, you will follow the perfection and consummation of all virtues through the grace of God.

First, that you confess your sins often, purely and entirely, with great sorrow and the resolve not to commit them again.

Second, that you are not broken by adversity or temptation, but stand in justice and fear, and prepare your soul for temptation. For there is no place or religion that permits a person to serve and live without a struggle; for the whole life of man is a warfare upon the earth Job 7:1. Everyone, also, who wishes to live piously in Christ will suffer persecution. For the Lord permits, as the blessed Gregory testifies, His elect to be lacerated by detractions, so that they may be preserved in humility.

Third, that you do not mix yourself with men, neither internally nor externally, as much as you can in a good way, but hold yourself as a solitary to your Spouse, Christ, and flee the rumors of the world and vain and secular conversations, which distract the mind and create restlessness...