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Chapter 24

The Mother speaks: ”When a vat of beer is heated up and starts to swell and rise, it steams and foams up, sometimes more, sometimes less, and then suddenly settles down again. People standing around the vat understand that these exhalations quickly sink down and that they arise due to the strength of the beer and are a way of releasing the heat. So they wait patiently for it to end and for the beer or the wine to be ready. Two things happen when people standing around the vat put their noses too close to the bubbles: They suffer either a violent sneezing or a bad headache.

It is the same in the spiritual life. It sometimes happens that some people's hearts swell and rise due to the pride and impatience of their minds.

When virtuous men see such a swelling up, they understand that it proceeds either from spiritual instability or carnal motives. Therefore, they put up patiently with that person's insulting words and look toward the end, knowing that the calm follows the storm, and that patience is stronger than a besieger of cities, since it conquers the man within, which is the most difficult thing to do. There are, however, those who are overly impatient, and they repay insult for insult. Paying no attention to the glorious reward of patience, nor to the contemptibility of worldly favor, these people incur an illness of mind due to their impatient temptations - they bring their noses too close to the bubbling vat, that is, they take the insults, which are nothing but air, too much to heart.

So, whenever any of you see people being impatient, guard your tongues with God's help, and do not leave off doing the good work you have begun because of impatient words. Pretend instead, and as far as justice allows, that you have not heard what you have heard, until those people who are looking for an argument say explicitly what they mean in their hearts.”

The Mother's admonishment to the daughter about how a person should not pay attention to carnal desires but should nourish the body on a moderate diet of necessities, and about how a person should stand by his or her body but not in the body.

127.