Of Another Means to Do Our Actions Well, Which Is to Get into a Way of So Doing Them

pet fine old philosopher Pythagoras gave very good advice to his friends and disciples, how to be virtuous and make to themselves the practice of virtue easy and sweet. Let everyone, said he, choose a good course of life, and in the beginning not mind its seeming hard or painful, for custom will afterwards render it quite easy and agreeable. Behold here a very important means whereby to help ourselves, not so much because it comes from that philosopher, but because the Holy Ghost Himself suggests the same, as we shall see afterwards, and because it is most proper to attain our end. We have already chosen an excellent way of living, or, to say better, the Lord has chosen one for us, because it is not you that have made choice of me, but it is I that have made choice of you (John xv. 16) ; blessed and glorified be He forever for that. Notwithstanding, there may be a more or a less in this state of life in which God has put us; for, according to the works that you do therein, you may become either a good or a tepid religious. If, then, you desire to advance and gain perfection therein, accustom yourself to do all your duties well and perfectly; accustom yourself to make your meditation well and your other spiritual duties; accustom yourself to be very exact in obedience and the observance of rules and to make account of little things; accustom yourself to recollection, to mortification and penance, to modesty and silence; and do not leave off because at the beginning you find some difficulty therein, for afterwards by custom it will become to you very sweet and pleasant and you will never feel that you can sufficiently render thanks to God for having accustomed you thereto.

The Holy Ghost teaches us this doctrine in many passages of Holy Scripture. In Proverbs (iv. 11) He says: J will show thee the way of wisdom—I will teach thee to find a sweet savor in the knowledge of God, because this is the meaning of wisdom (sapientia) in Holy Scripture, says St. Bernard. Wisdom is savory (sapida sapientia): wisdom is a sweet and savory knowledge of God. I will teach thee, then, he says, the way whereby thou mayest come to find savor and a sweet taste in the knowledge, love, and service of God. I must take thee by the narrow paths of virtue— he calls them narrow because at the beginning they are made difficult to us by our evil inclination and we think it a narrow path—but after thou hast passed these narrow entrances, thou shalt find the way very wide, roomy, and to thy liking, and thou shalt run without tripping up or being brought to a standstill anywhere (Prov. iv. 12). The Holy Ghost teaches us gracefully by this metaphor that, though at the beginning we find difficulty in this way of virtue and perfection, we must not be alarmed at that, for afterwards we shall not only find no difficulty, but much relish, content, and mirth, and shall come to say: J have labored a little, and have found much rest to myself (Hcclus. lisaD)ie Loe same is repeated in Ecclus. vi. 20: Thou shalt labor a little and presently shalt eat and enjoy the fruit of thy labor. The Apostle St. Paul also teaches us the same: Every training and every good exercise in the beginning appeareth difficult and painful and sad; but afterwards, as one groweth used to it, it not only becometh easy, but very pleasant and enjoyable (Heb. xii. 11). Thus we see in all the arts and sciences. How difficult is study when one first enters upon it! How often is it necessary for one to be brought to it by force! Hence they say: “Letters draw blood at first entrance.” But afterwards by practice, as one improves and learns, one develops such a taste as to find all one’s entertainment and recreation in study. So it is in the way of virtue and perfection. St. Bernard declares this very well on those words of Job: The things that formerly my soul could not bear to touch, now of necessity have become my food (Job vi. 7). “How great is the effect of exercise and custom and what power it has! In the beginning you think a thing very difficult and insupportable; but if you accustom yourself to it, it will not appear so difficult nor so burdensome as that. A little after you will think it light and easy and feel it almost as nothing; a little after that you will not feel it at all; and in a short time you will not only not feel it, but it will give you so much delight and contentment that you will be able to say with Job (vi. 7) as above”—Primum tibi importabile videbitur aliquid; processu temporis, si assuescas, wdicabis non adeo grave; paulo post et leve senties; paulo post nec senties; paulo post etiam delectabit.

Thus it all goes according to the way in which one has got accustomed to act. The additions and instructions for meditation and examen are difficult for you to observe because you are little accustomed to do so. You find such difficulty in fixing your imagination, so that it may travel where you wish immediately upon awaking and in times of meditation; that is because you never have done violence to it, nor accustomed it to being brought to order and restrained, and not go thinking of anything but the matter of meditation. The reason why silence and recollection makes you silent and melancholy is because you practise it little. Cella continuata dulcescit, et male custodita taedium generat—“A quiet corner is sweet when you stay there, and wearisome when you keep it badly” (A Kempis). Worldly people find prayer and fasting difficult because they are not accustomed to it.

King Saul clad David in his armor, seeing that he was to fight with the Philistine; and, as he was not used to bear such arms, he could not walk under their weight; he afterwards got used to armor and fought good battles in it. And what I say of virtue and goodness, I likewise say of vice and evil. If you allow a bad habit to arise, the evil thing will grow and gather strength and afterwards it will be very difficult to cure it, and so you will remain with it all your life. Oh, if from the beginning you had accustomed yourself to do things and do them well, how well off would you find yourself now, seeing virtue and goodness having become so sweet and easy to you! See how satisfied he is who has a habit of not blaspheming, and with what ease and comfort he avoids so many mortal sins. Begin, then, to form a good habit from this hour, for better late than never. Take to heart the doing well of these ordinary actions that you do, since that goes for so much in you; and apply thereto the particular examen, one of the best examens you can make, and in this manner it will become to you sweet and easy to do them well.