>>13725222>>13725402If a man gives all his possessions for God, he yet is nothing, and if he does great penance for his sins, and if he has great wisdom and knowledge, he yet is far from virtue. And if he has great virtue and fervent devotion, he yet lacks much, and there is especially one thing most necessary to him. And what is that? It is that, forsaking all things and himself as well, he go clearly out of himself, and keep nothing to himself of any private love, And when he has done all that he ought to do, that he feel in himself as if he had done nothing, that he think little what some other one might think great, and that he believe himself, truly - as he is - an unprofitable servant. The Author of truth, our Savior Christ, says: When you have done all that is commanded of you, yet say that you are but unprofitable servants. Then he who can do thus may well be called poor in spirit and stripped of private love, and he may well say with the prophet David: I am one with God, poor and meek in heart. There is no one more rich, no one more free, no one more powerful than he who can forsake himself and all passing things and truly hold himself to be the lowest and meanest of all.
