Salesian Literature

Chapter 5:  Examination of one’s state with regard to oneself

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1. How do you love yourself?  Do you love yourself much for the sake of this world?  If so, you will desire to remain here always, and will be very concerned to make yourself secure on this earth.  But if you love yourself for the sake of Heaven, you will desire, or at least be willing to leave this world whenever it is pleasing to the Lord.

2. Do you keep a right order in the love of yourself?  It is only inordinate love of ourselves which ruins us.  A well-ordered love of ourselves demands that we should love the soul more than the body, that we should be more diligent to acquire virtues than anything else, that we should set a greater value on heavenly honour than on that which is low and passing.  The well-ordered persons say more often to himself: “What will the angels say if I think of such a thing?  Rather than “What will men say?”

3. What love have you for your own heart?  What trouble do you take to care for it in its illness?  You owe it this care, in order to help it and to obtain help for it when it is tormented by passions, and to lay all else aside for that.

4. How much do you value yourself before God?  Nothing, no doubt.  There is not much humility in a fly esteeming itself nothing compared with a mountain, nor in a drop of water esteeming itself nothing compared with the sea, nor in a spark of fire esteeming itself nothing compared with the sun.  but humility lies in not esteeming ourselves better than others, and in not wanting to be overestimated by others.  What is your stand in this respect?

5. As to the tongue, do you boast yourself in one or another?  Do you flatter yourself in speaking of yourself?

6. As to works, do you indulge in any pleasure harmful to your health?  I mean vain and useless pleasures too many late nights without any good reason and so on.

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