If you desire to know yourself and to possess yourself, go into yourself and do not search for yourself outside.
Distinguish between what is around you, what belongs to you and yourself! The world surrounds you, your body belongs to you and you are yourself within, made to the image and likeness of God. Return then, transgressor, to your heart within, where you are truly yourself. Outwardly you are an animal, fashioned as the world is fashioned and that is why man is called a microcosm, a miniature world. But inwardly you are made in the image of God and as such are capable of being deified.
Isaac of Stella, Second Sermon for the Feast of All Saints, from Sermons on the Christian Year, Volume One, CF 11, p.14f
gayle aroian says
Hello-
I am a nurse on duty now, the night shift, in the Infirmary for the Fathers and Brothers of St Joseph’s Abbey-
I have just read this \ message from the Cistercian Fathers for all of us, for November-
thank you for this guidance- I shall pray to internalize this advice-
peace to your hearts, and
love,
Gayle Aroian
Jeff Scharfen says
Good words! They are essentially the theme of the literature class I teach at Cardinal Newman HS in Santa Rosa, CA.