On Perfection

Become always better
and you will please God.
Reach the perfection
which will bring you
into your heavenly home.

Perfection does not consist
just in doing great things.
Brilliant actions occasionally
present themselves which often are like a reef
on which Christian humility is shipwrecked.
Rather, it consists in doing
the will of God
with a pure and holy intention.

Remember also the teaching
of the Fathers of the spiritual life
that not to advance in perfection
is to go back.

It is in the midst of combat
and contemplation that virtue is perfected.

Fill your soul with the seeds of grace,
wisdom and the judgements of the Spirit of God
to accomplish the design of the Christian
and religious perfection
that the Lord has for you.