this sentinel, which God has given you, you will so watch over yourself, as to gain the habits of prayer, obedience, lowliness, and of bearing injuries without loss of composure.
It is very true, that before you can attain to this degree of peace, you will have to take great pains through want of practice, but afterwards your soul will abide in a state of great consolation, whatever contradiction may befall it; and from day to day you will gain more and more the power of preserving a peaceful spirit. And, if sometimes you feel so disturbed and troubled as to be unable to pacify yourself, have recourse at once to prayer, and persevere in it, in imitation of Christ our Lord, Who prayed three times in the Garden, to give you an example, that prayer might be your only resource and refuge, and that, however sad and desponding you may feel, you must not leave off praying, until your will is conformed to the Will of God, and therefore has become devout and calm, and also full of courage and fortitude, so that it can accept and embrace that which at first was an object of dread and abhorrence—going forth thus to greet it:—"Arise, let us be going; behold, he is at hand which doth betray me."
