FIRST MAXIM
Voice of Eternal Wisdom: True happiness on earth lies in voluntary poverty and in following Me.
1. My son, have no attachment to any created good, however holy it may be, whether interior or exterior, spiritual or corporal.
2. Always be on your guard against anything which draws your affection.
3. Beware of the purely natural affections of your relatives and friends when they are an obstacle to your salvation or to your perfection.
4. Do not be afraid to disoblige or to displease others if you must do so to carry your cross after Me.
5. After My example, carry your cross of contradiction, persecution, renunciation and contempt, every day.
6. Do not be ashamed to practice any act of virtue before others, and do not omit any good deed for fear of scorn or praise, when you know that God demands it of you.
SECOND MAXIM
Voice of Eternal Wisdom: You are truly blessed if the world persecutes you, opposing your plans though they are good, thinking evil of your intentions, calumniating your conduct, and taking away unjustly your reputation or your possessions.
1. My son, beware of complaining to others than to Me of the bad treatment you receive, and do not seek ways of justifying yourself, particularly when you are the only one to suffer from it.
2. On the contrary, pray for those who procure for you the blessings of persecution.
3. Thank Me for treating you as I myself was treated on earth, a sign of contradiction.
4. Never be discouraged in your plans because you meet with opposition; it is a pledge of future victory. A good work which is not opposed, which is not marked by the sign of the cross, has no great value before Me and will soon be destroyed.
5. Regard as your best friends those who persecute you because they procure for you great merit on earth, and great glory in heaven.
6. Regard as unfortunate those who live in luxury, who feast sumptuously, who frequent the world of fashion, who make their way in the world, who succeed in business, and who spend their lives in pleasures and amusements.
7. Never do anything, either good or evil, out of human respect to avoid any blame, insult, mockery, or praise.
8. When through your own fault some loss or disgrace befalls you, do not be disturbed by it, but rather humble yourself before God and accept it from His hands as punishment for your fault.
THIRD MAXIM
Voice of Eternal Wisdom: If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, and wife and children, and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. (Luke 14:26)
1. My son, hate your own mind with its thoughts, rejecting them if they are bad, dangerous, or useless.
2. Do not rely exclusively on your own ideas, thoughts, knowledge, visions, or contemplations, and never constitute yourself the final judge of their goodness or their malice.
3. Believe that the judgment of others, in any indifferent matter, is always more accurate and more solid than your own, however much you would like to believe the contrary.
4. Beware of your imagination and your memory, rejecting evil thoughts, extravagant and useless plans, and vain, dangerous, or at least idle representations of the past or the future.
5. Strive to empty your memory of every object other than the presence of God.
6. Do not voluntarily dwell on the evil that has been done to you or on the good that you have done.
7. Despise your own will, submitting it to that of your superiors and always renouncing it, even in matters that seem excellent to you.
8. Do nothing of any importance without taking counsel so that you may not have to repent of it after it is done.
9. Do not anxiously crave for things you do not possess, even though they might seem useful to your neighbor and glorious to My majesty.
10. Ask Me earnestly for particular favors, but request them only because it is My will that you should ask for them, and let conformity to My will be the basis of your prayer.
FOURTH MAXIM
Voice of Eternal Wisdom: Take up your cross daily and follow Me.
1. My son, renounce the pleasures of your senses, innocent though they be.
2. Mortify your eyes by avoiding the sight of dangerous or curious things.
3. Mortify your ears, closing them to evil, vain, and useless discourse.
4. Mortify your tongue, by avoiding idle conversations, speaking frequently of Me or of things that concern Me, and maintaining a continual silence, if you can, on the good that you have done, on the faults of your neighbors, and on your own good qualities.
5. Mortify your taste, by not eating unnecessarily between meals, by fasting in a spirit of obedience, by eating something unpleasant, by eating with restraint and modesty when appetite and hunger make you eager for food.
6. Mortify your sense of smell, by abstaining from superfluous use of perfumes.
7. Mortify your hands by avoiding superfluous and unseemly gestures.
8. Mortify your feet, avoiding hurried and unbecoming steps. Do not walk with affectation or haste, but with simplicity and modesty.
9. Mortify your sense of touch by preferring less expensive clothing and furniture and by performing acts of penance daily.
10. Mortify your whole body, by doing your work in a spirit of penance, and by accepting joyfully the discomforts of the seasons, and the various illnesses that attack the body.
FIFTH MAXIM
Voice of Eternal Wisdom: The way and the gate that lead to heaven are narrow, and few there are who find the way and enter by the gate.
1. My son, do continual violence to your natural inclinations and dispositions, that you may be one of the small number who find the way of life, and who enter by the narrow gate of heaven.
2. Take care not to follow the majority and the common herd, so many of whom are lost.
3. Do not be deceived -- there are only two ways: one that leads to life, and is narrow; the other that leads to death, and is wide; there is no middle way.
4. If your eye or your hand or your foot scandalize you, cut it off without delay lest you perish. In other words: avoid the occasions of sin.
SIXTH MAXIM
Voice of Eternal Wisdom: Watch and pray without ceasing.
1. My son, you must apply yourself continually to vocal or mental prayer.
2. Do everything in the spirit of prayer, that is to say, for the love of God and in the presence of God.
3. Never give up prayer, no matter what difficulty or what dryness you may experience.
4. Never give yourself up entirely to external things, for the kingdom of God is within you.
5. Esteem more highly than all exterior things those that are within the heart.
6. Believe that the greatest things that are done on this earth are wrought interiorly, and in the hearts of faithful souls.
7. Do everything in the spirit of faith, and let this virtue be the food of your meditations, and the quality that gives value to your actions.
SEVENTH MAXIM
Voice of Eternal Wisdom: Love your enemies, do good to them that do evil to you.
1. My son, pray for them that persecute you, heap insults upon you, and rob you of your honor and property.
2. Never do to others what you would not have them do to you.
3. Bear with the faults of others for the love of God Who is patient with you.
4. Rebuke those who offend Me, without fearing their reprisals.
EIGHTH MAXIM
Voice of Eternal Wisdom: I converse familiarly with the simple, and I reveal My secrets only to the little ones.
1. My son, be simple as a dove, without malice, without duplicity, without dissimulation.
2. The greater you are the more you should humble yourself, that is to say, be the servant of others. Choose the lowest place, the lowliest employment, the poorest clothing.
3. As God gives His grace to the humble, do all your actions with deep humility of heart, in order to obtain My grace, and My friendship.
4. Beware of what is great, illustrious and dazzling in the eyes of men, for that is valueless in My sight.
5. Love the life that is hidden, poor, and worthless in the eyes of the world for such is the object of My delight.
6. You must become like a little child, if you would enter heaven, that is to say, simple, obedient, innocent, and gentle as a little child.
7. Those who for the kingdom of God have made themselves the last and the servants of others are the first and the most exalted in My sight.
8. If you exalt yourself higher than I desire, you will be brought lower than you desire, in this world and in the next; if, on the contrary, you set yourself below others, I will exalt you above others, even in this world.
NINTH MAXIM
Voice of Eternal Wisdom: He who is faithful to the little things will be faithful also in those that are great, and he who is unfaithful in little things will be unfaithful also in those that are great.
1. My son, be very faithful to the little rules, the little inspirations, the little practices of virtue.
2. Do not neglect anything that can help you to acquire perfection.
3. If you are faithful in a few things, I assure you that I will set you over many things; that is to say, that if I see you corresponding faithfully to the few graces you receive, to the little amount of devotion you feel, etc., I will give you a share in a greater abundance of graces.
4. Take care not to neglect the little things, for otherwise you will gradually fall into lukewarmness and a lack of devotion; you will lose, little by little, your inspirations, your devotion, your merits, and your graces.
TENTH MAXIM
Voice of Eternal Wisdom: I choose the least things of this world to confound and destroy what is greatest.
1. My son, humble yourself and remain humble, and I will make something of you.
2. Give your garment to him who takes from you your cloak.
3. Turn the other cheek to him who strikes you.
4. Suffer everything without complaining.
5. Be the first to accuse yourself, and to take the blame upon yourself.
6. Believe all that is good of others and all that is evil of yourself.
7. Choose, if you have the grace to do so, the least agreeable in everything.
8. Rejoice amid all sorts of difficulties and contradictions especially when you are found worthy to suffer something for My sake.
9. Never despair, and never be disturbed, when you fall into sin, but humble yourself, begging My forgiveness.
ELEVENTH MAXIM
Voice of Eternal Wisdom: Beware of false prophets.
My son, you must deeply distrust:
1. The lights of your own mind, however spiritual-minded you may be;
2. The feelings of your heart, however just and sincere they may seem to you;
3. The spiritual maxims of the lukewarm;
4. The beautiful and lofty thoughts and the holy undertakings which the evil spirit, disguised as an angel of light, often inspires in the most zealous and spiritual souls to bring about their downfall by his wiles and deceits.
TWELFTH MAXIM
Counsels of Saint Louis De Monfort: To distinguish and avoid the subtle snares of self-love, of the flesh, and of the devil, these are the important counsels I give you.
1. Never willingly take pleasure in, or still less rely on, what you have thought, imagined, or decided; but put your pleasure, your confidence, and your reliance only in the merits and intercession of Mary, whose slave you are, with Jesus; in the blood and the merits of Jesus before the Father; and in the infinite mercy of God your Father.
2. Do not set yourself up as your own judge, for no one is a legitimate judge of his own case; but reveal all your thoughts, ideas, etc., to your spiritual director or to your confessor; do not hide from him anything you have in your heart or anything that has affected you.
3. Obey your confessor in all spiritual matters and profit by his advice.
Source of entire excerpt/quote above: "The Love of Eternal Wisdom" by St. Louis-Marie De Montfort, pages 127-139; Montfort Publications (May 27, 1960); Nihil Obstat: Martin J. Healy, S.T.D., Censor Librorum; Imprimatur: Walter P. Kellenberg, D.D., Bishop of Rockville Center; Note: "For the benefit of the general public we [the editors] have decided to insert them [the maxims] in this edition, adapting them to the conditions of those living in the world and seeking to acquire a closer union with Christ, the Eternal and Incarnate Wisdom."
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