In many ways the limitation of the natural life is
the necessary condition of the full enjoyment of the spiritual life.
Natural Law, Mortification, p. 195.
May 20th. No man is called to a life of self-denial for its own sake. It
is in order to a compensation which, though sometimes difficult to see,
is always real and always proportionate. No truth, perhaps, in practical
religion is more lost sight of. We cherish somehow a lingering rebellion
against the doctrine of self-denial--as if our nature, or our
circumstances, or our conscience, dealt with us severely in loading us
with the daily cross. But is it not plain after all that the life of
self-denial is the more abundant life--more abundant just in proportion
to the ampler crucifixion of the narrower life? Is it not a clear case of
exchange--an exchange, however, where the advantage is entirely on our
side? We give up a correspondence in which there is a little life to
enjoy a correspondence in which there is an abundant life. What though we
sacrifice a hundred such correspondences? We make but the more room for
the great one that is left. Natural Law, Mortification, p. 195.
May 21st. Do not spoil your life at the outset with unworthy and
impoverishing correspondences; and if it is growing truly rich and
abundant, be very jealous of ever diluting its high eternal quality with
anything of earth.
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