Who cannot renounce, cannot love.
Who cannot renounce, cannot become perfect.
Who cannot renounce, cannot be made holy.
Self-renunciation means devotion to our duty, going on with it in spite of difficulties, disgust, ennui, want of success.
Self-renunciation is self-sacrifice, under whatever form it presents itself,—prayer, labor, love ... all that would be an obstacle, not merely to its accomplishment, but its perfection.
Self-renunciation is to root out all that encumbers the heart, all that impedes the free action of the Holy Spirit within—longings after an imaginary perfection or well-being, unreal sentiments that trouble us in prayer, in work, in slumber, that fascinate us, but the result of which is to destroy all real application.
Self-renunciation is to resist all the allurements of the senses, that would [pg 098] only give pleasure to self, and satisfy the conscience, by whispering, "It is no sin." Self-renunciation, in short, is destroying, even at the risk of much heart-rending, all in our heart, mind, imagination, that could be displeasing to God.
Renunciation is not one single action, that when once accomplished we experience relief; it means a constant sacrifice, restraint, resisting, rending, each hour, each moment, during our whole life.