- Someone who does not yearn to please people and is not afraid to displease them will enjoy much peace. [If you put God first, you'll never worry about what people think of you, while vanity is the inordinate preoccupation of what other people think of you.]
- Love of yourself is more harmful to you than anything in this world.
- I am in trial now and things are not well with my heart, for I am greatly afflicted by the present suffering.
Ch. 26: The eminence of a free mind which is merited more by humble prayer than by reading books. Preserve me from the cares of this life. Do not let me get too caught up in the many needs of the body. Do not let me become a slave to pleasure. Make all fleshly consolation bitter to me. (Turn to bitterness every sensual delight.) Do not let me be caught up with excess desire. [Learning is good but there is a limitation. But if you love God you'll never run out of things to say/teach, for God's love is unlimited. There are many good things that God provides and permits--food, drink, clothes, leisure, entertainment--but how do you keep God first?]
Ch. 27: Self-love greatly holds one back from the highest good. You must not belong to yourself at all. Know that love of yourself is more harmful to you than anything in this world. Do not lust after what you are not allowed to have. [Our battle is always against ourself. Your success and achievement is no remedy for your brokenness. People pleasers will not have much peace.]
Ch. 28: Against the tongues of detractors. Do not take it badly if someone thinks badly of you. You should think worse of yourself. Do not let your peace be (depend) on the lips of human beings, for you are exactly the same person, whether their take on you is good or bad. Someone who does not yearn to please people and is not afraid to displease them will enjoy much peace. All the heart's restlessness and the senses' distractions arise from disordered love and vain fear. [If you put God first, you'll never worry about what people think of you. Vanity is the inordinate or disordered preoccupation of what other people think of you. People pleasers will not have much peace.]
Ch. 29: How we must call upon God in time of trial. I am in trial now and things are not well with my heart, for I am greatly afflicted by the present suffering. I rightly deserve to suffer trial and tribulation, and so I must bear it.
Ch. 30: Asking for God's help and confidence in the recovery of grace. What blocks heavenly consolation most of all is that you are slow to turn to prayer. It is vain and useless to worry about or celebrate what has not yet happened and might never happen. [In a study 91.4% of things we worry about never actually happen. Don't be knocked down by the love of the present or the fear of the future.] Be a man of boldness and great endurance. Consolation will come to you at the right time. What does worrying about future contingencies lead to except heaping sadness upon sadness. It is better for you to be tested by adversities than to have everything on demand. You should consider it your only joy when (God) afflicts you with sorrows and does not spare you. [God gives us the cross and the grace each and every day.]
The finite things of this world will never fully satisfy. The limits of learning and the importance of detachment show how worldly pleasures can never compare to the limitless power of love.
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