On the Means of Preserving Interior Peace

For the preservation of interior peace:

1) First of all, keep your outward senses in order and avoid license in your outward behavior—namely: do not look, speak, wave your hands, step, or do anything else in any manner that is agitated, but always with decorum and quietly. Having grown accustomed to carrying yourself with quiet decorum in your outward movements and deeds, you will easily and without difficulty arrive at being at peace within yourself and in your heart, for, as the Fathers attest, the inner man takes his disposition from the outer.

2) Incline yourself to love all people and to live in harmony with all, as St. Paul commands: ”If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with all men” (Rom. 12:18).

3) Keep your conscience unstained, so that it does not convict or gnaw at you for anything, but is at peace in regard to God, in regard to yourself, in regard to your neighbors, and in regard to all outward things. Such keeping of the conscience both gives birth to, and deepens, and multiplies interior peace, as holy David assures us: ”Great peace have those who love Your law, and nothing causes them to stumble” (Ps. 118:165).

4) Accustom yourself to bearing all unpleasantnesses and offenses without disturbance.

It is true that before you acquire such a habit you will have to suffer much and be deeply wounded in heart, due to inexperience in governing yourself in such situations; but once you have acquired it, your soul will begin to draw great consolation from the very unpleasantnesses you encounter. With a firm resolve, day by day you will handle yourself ever better, and you will soon reach the point where you will be able to keep your spirit in peace amid all storms from without and within.

If it should happen at some time that you cannot govern your heart, and cannot drive out anguish and sorrow to restore peace in it, have recourse to prayer and apply yourself diligently to it, following the example of the Lord Savior, who prayed three times in the Garden of Gethsemane in order to give you an example that in every sorrow and anguish of heart prayer must be your refuge, and that no matter how grieved and faint-hearted you may be, you should not withdraw from it until you reach the point where your will is in complete agreement with the will of God, and your heart, having been brought to peace by this, is filled with courageous boldness to meet, accept, and endure with joy what it previously feared and wished to avoid—just as the Lord trembled, was distressed, and was exceedingly sorrowful, yet after prayer, having been brought to peace, calmly said: ”Rise, let us go; see, he who betrays me is at hand” (Matt. 26:46).