attended to continual prayer: although even when they laboured, they ceased not from mental prayer.
3. They spent all their time with profit; every hour seemed but short for the service of God. And by reason of the great sweetness they felt in contemplation, they forgot the necessity for refreshing the body.
They renounced riches, dignities, honours, friends, and kinsfolk; they desired nothing which appertained to the world; they scarce took the necessaries of life; they grudged even the attention necessary for the body.
So they were poor in earthly things, but very rich in grace and virtues.
Outwardly they were destitute, but inwardly they were refreshed with grace and divine consolation.
4. They were strangers to the world, but near and familiar friends to God.
They seemed to themselves as nothing, and to the world despicable; but they were precious and beloved in the eyes of God.
They were grounded in true humility, lived in simple obedience, walked in love and patience: and therefore grew daily in the Spirit, and obtained great grace in the sight of God.
They were given for an example to all; and they should more provoke us to seek after spiritual advancement, than the number of the lukewarm livers should prevail to make us remiss.
5. O how great was the fervour of all religious persons in the beginning of their holy institution!
How great was their devotion to prayer! What
