{"id":3706,"date":"2009-11-03T21:24:38","date_gmt":"2009-11-03T21:24:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/2009\/11\/see-that-you-be-truly-what-you\/"},"modified":"2009-11-03T21:24:38","modified_gmt":"2009-11-03T21:24:38","slug":"see-that-you-be-truly-what-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/2009\/11\/see-that-you-be-truly-what-you\/","title":{"rendered":"See that you be truly what you are called"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"8139-portrait-of-a-young-benedictine-giovanni-francesco-caroto.jpg\"<\/a>
\nA Mirror for Monks<\/strong>
\nI was fortunate to obtain for our monastic library a lovely used copy of A Mirror for Monks <\/u>by Ludovicus Blosius. This particular edition, translated by Sir John Duke Coleridge, was published in London in 1872. Penciled inside the front cover is this note: “Non-Catholic translator, but recommended by Dr Newman.”
\nI first came to know of Blosius when I began reading Blessed Abbot Marmion, who often quotes him. Many years ago I also read Blosius (Louis de Blois) in a French edition that was part of the wonderful “Collection Pax” produced by Maredsous at the beginning of the last century.
\nThe following text is drawn from Chapter One:<\/em>
\nFirst and foremost, therefore, I admonish you often and seriously to consider the end of your coming into your monastery; that being dead to the world and yourself, you may live to God. Strive therefore with might and main to accomplish that for which you came; learn strongly to despise all sensible things, and manfully to break, and no less wholesomely to forsake yourself. Make haste to mortify your passions and vicious affections that are in you.
\nBusy yourself in repressing the unstable wanderings of your heart;
\nstrive to overcome weariness, idleness, and the irksomeness of your
\ninfirm mind. Spend your daily labour in these things; let this be your
\nglorious contention and healthful affliction. Be not remiss; but arise,
\nwatch, look about you, and expose yourself wholly, lest you be evilly
\npartial to yourself. God requireth thus much of you; so doth your
\nstate.
\nYou are called a Monk: see that you be truly what you are called. Do
\nthe work of a Monk. Labour earnestly in beating down and casting forth
\nvice.
\nBe always armed against the frowardness of nature, against the
\nhaughtiness of mind, against the pleasures of your flesh, and the
\nenticements of sensuality. Understand well what I say. If you permit
\npride, boasting, vainglory, self-complacence, to domineer over your
\nreason, you are no Monk.
\nIf you frowardly follow your own sense, and dare despise every humble
\noffice, you are not what you are called–you are no Monk.
\nIf as much as in you lieth you repel not envy, hatred, maliciousness,
\nindignation; if you reject not rash suspicions, childish complaints,
\nand wicked murmurings, you are no Monk.
\nIf a contentious and earnest strife being risen between you and
\nanother, you do not presently treat of a reconciliation, and what wrong
\nsoever hath been done, you do not presently pardon sincerely, but seek
\nfor revenge, and retain a voluntary private grudge, and not a true and
\nsincere affection in your heart, or show outwardly signs of
\ndisaffection–nay, if when occasion and necessity requireth, you defer
\nto help him that hath injured you, you are no Monk, you are no
\nChristian, you are abominable before God.
\nIf having done amiss, you are ashamed regularly to accuse yourself and
\nfreely to confess your fault; if being blamed, reproved, and corrected,
\nyou be not patient and humble, you are no Monk.
\nIf you neglect readily and faithfully to obey your ghostly Father, if
\nyou refuse to reverence and sincerely to love him as God’s vicar, you
\nare no Monk.
\nIf you willingly withdraw yourself from the Divine Office and other
\nconventual acts, if you assist not watchfully and reverently in the
\nservice of God, you are no Monk.
\nIf, neglecting internal things, you take care only about the external,
\nand with a certain dry custom move your body but not your heart to the
\nworks of religion, you are no Monk.
\nIf you give not your mind to holy reading and other spiritual
\nexercises, if you have your mind so possessed with transitory matters
\nthat you seldom lift yourself up to eternal, you are no Monk.
\nIf you desire delicate and superfluous meats, and intemperately long
\nafter the drinking of wine beyond the measure of a cup, especially if
\nyou be in health, and have beer or other convenient drink sufficiently,
\nyou are no Monk.
\nIf foolishly you require precious apparel, soft beds, and other solaces
\nof the flesh which agree not with your state and profession; if, loving
\ncorporal rest, you refuse to undergo labour and affliction for God’s
\nsake, you are no Monk.
\nIf you cannot endure solitude and silence, but are delighted with idle
\nspeeches and inordinate laughter, you are no Monk.
\nIf you love to be with seculars, if you desire to wander out of the
\nmonastery through the villages and cities, you are no Monk.
\nIf you presume to take any small matter, to send, receive, or keep any
\nthings without the knowledge or permission of your Superior, you are no
\nMonk.
\nIf you esteem not the ordinations of holy religion, though never so
\nlittle, and willingly do transgress them, you are no Monk. To conclude:
\nIf you seek any other thing in the monastery but God, and with might
\nand main aspire not to perfection, you are no Monk.
\nAs I have said, therefore, that you may truly be what you are called,
\nand may not wear the habit of a Monk in vain, do the work of a Monk.
\nArm yourself against yourself, and as much as in you lieth overcome and
\nsubdue yourself. If presently you find not the peace you desire; if, I
\nsay, as yet you cannot be at rest, but are troubled and assailed by
\nbrutish motions and turbulent passions: yea, if so be by God’s
\npermission, for your own profit, throughout your whole life you shall
\nhave to do with such enemies, despair not, be not effeminately
\ndejected, but, humbling yourself before God, stand and be steadfast in
\nyour place, and skirmish stoutly; for even the vessel of election, St.
\nPaul, endured temptations all his lifetime, in which he was buffeted by
\nthe angel of Satan. When he often beseeched our Lord to be freed from
\nthis trouble he obtained it not, for that it was not expedient for him;
\nbut our Lord answered his prayer, “My grace is sufficient for thee, for
\nstrength is perfected in weakness.” And so afterwards St. Paul did
\ngratefully endure the scourge of temptation.
\nBeing comforted by the example of this most strong and invincible champion, faint not in temptation, but endure manfully, remaining fixed and immoveable in this holy purpose; for without doubt, this labour of yours is grateful to God, although the same seem hard and insufferable to you. Go through this spiritual martyrdom with an invincible mind. Doubt not, although you be a thousand times wounded, and as often trod under foot, if you stand to it, if you give not ground to your enemy and like a coward cast not away your weapons, you shall receive a crown.
\nDo according to your ability, and commend the rest to God’s disposing, saying: As Thy will is in Heaven, so be it done. Let the divine will and ordination be your chief consolation. Which way soever you turn yourself, wheresoever you are, you shall find tribulations and temptations as long as this life lasteth; which, that you may patiently endure, you ought always to be prepared.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Mirror for Monks I was fortunate to obtain for our monastic library a lovely used copy of A Mirror for Monks by Ludovicus Blosius. This particular edition, translated by Sir John Duke Coleridge, was published in London in 1872. Penciled inside the front cover is this note: “Non-Catholic translator, but recommended by Dr Newman.” <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3706","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-monastic"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paVypq-XM","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3706"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3706"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3706\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}