“THE safest and most necessary austerity, is that which regulates the senses, passions, tongue, and conversation; which cuts off idleness and all occasions of sinning, and mortifies self-will, obstinacy in our own opinion, and the vain esteem of ourselves. This kind of mortification has this advantage over the other, that we practice it without danger, that it is difficult to exceed in it, that the carnal man fears it much more than the exterior, that he is always sensible of it, and never accustoms himself thereto.
But the severest of all penances, according to the testimony of the saints and experienced persons, is interior recollection, and continual prayer. Therein his appetites are repressed, his motions restrained, his will bound, his mind attentive that no entrance may be given to any thing that might distract it, or trouble the repose of the heart, and the whole man in fine is as it were captivated thereby, and cannot move toward what he loves, nor enjoy what he desires.”
