Becoming a Community of Disciples

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Becoming a Community of Disciples

of this present life, 6 we must by our ever-ascending actions erect a ladder like the one Jacob beheld in his dream, by which the angels appeared to him descending and ascending (Gen 28:12). 7 Without doubt this descent and ascent can signify nothing else than that we descend by exaltation and ascend by humility. 8 And the ladder thus erected is our life in the world, which, if the heart is humbled, is lifted up by the Lord to heaven. 9 The sides of the same ladder we assert to be our body and soul, in which the call of God has placed various steps of humility or discipline, which we must ascend. 10 The first step of humility, then, is that one always keeps the fear of God before his eyes (Ps 36:2), fleeing every kind of forgetfulness, 11 and that one is ever mindful of all God has commanded, unfolding within his soul that those who despise God will be consumed in hell for their sins, and that eternal life has been prepared for those who fear Him. 12 And keeping custody over himself at every hour from sin and vice of thought, tongue, eyes, hands, feet, of his own will or of fleshly desires, 13 let this man consider that he is regarded from heaven by God at every hour, and that his actions in every place are perceived in the Divine Vision and are reported to God by His angels at every hour. 14 This the prophet demonstrates to us, when he shows that God is always present to our thoughts, saying: God searches the heart and the loins 3 (Ps 7:10); 15 and again, The Lord knows the thoughts of men (Ps 94:11); 16 and he also says: You have understood my thoughts from afar (Ps 139:3); 17 and, The thought of a man shall confess to you (Ps 76:11). 18 Therefore, so as to be on guard against

3 Loins – that is, the mind.