Assuredly, as to what is written, The preparation of the heart is man’s part, and the answer of the tongue is from the Lord, they are misled by an imperfect understanding, so as to think that to prepare the heart—that is, to begin good—pertains to people without the aid of God’s grace. Be it far from the children of promise thus to understand it!

Besides being bright, certainly light (as it is) is conspicuous. As it does its work everyone observes it. In the same way, the humble person shows us in no small way what is right. For a contrite person will nevertheless excel in great things. But God does not desire to acknowledge the deeds of the proud.

We are commanded to show him our ways and make our ways to him, which are made straight, not by our own efforts but by his help and mercy. Whence it is written, Make straight your way in my sight^[1] (or as other copies have it, make straight my way in your sight), so that what is straight to him may also appear straight to me. Solomon also says, Lay open your works to the Lord, and your thoughts shall be directed. For our thoughts are directed then, and only then, when we lay open to the Lord, as to a firm and very stable rock, everything that we do and impute everything to him.

Only God does what is good, acting from love of goodness for its own sake and not moved by fear or hope of reward. As Solomon says, The Lord has done all things for his own sake. For the sake of his own goodness he bestows an abundance of goodness upon the worthy and the unworthy, because he can neither be wearied by wrongdoing nor provoked to painful emotion by human wickedness. He always remains what he is, perfect in goodness and unchanging in nature.

Nothing so estranges from the mercy of God and gives over to the fire of hell as the tyranny of pride. If we possess this within us, all our life becomes impure, even if we practice chastity, virginity, fasting, prayer, almsgiving, or any virtue whatsoever. Every proud man, Scripture says, is an abomination to the Lord. Therefore, let us check this puffing up of the soul, and let us cut out this tumor, if we wish to be pure and be rid of the punishment prepared for the devil.

The Holy Spirit speaks in the Scriptures, saying, By alms and by faith sins are cleansed. Surely not those sins which had been contracted before, for they are purged by the blood and sanctification of Christ. Likewise again he says, As water quenches fire, so do alms quench sin.^[1] Here also it is shown and proved that just as with laver of the waters of salvation the fire of Gehenna^[2] is extinguished, so by almsgiving and good works the flame of sin is quenched. And because the remission of sins is once granted in baptism, constant and continuous labor acting in the manner of baptism again bestows the mercies of God. This the Lord also teaches in the Gospel. For when it was noted that his disciples were eating without first having washed their hands, he replied and said, He who made the inside made also the outside. Truly give alms, and behold all things are clean to you.^[3]

As gold is better than silver, so wisdom is superior to prudence. The former pertains to knowledge, the latter to the interpretation of what is hidden. Either you can interpret the nests of wisdom as the churches or as the dwelling places of the holy ones in heaven. But wisdom itself is Christ.

Loss goes before destruction, and an evil thought before a fall, just as no house ever falls to the ground by a sudden collapse, but only when there is some long-standing flaw in the foundation or when by long-continued neglect of its inhabitants, what was at first only a little drip breaks through and the protecting walls are gradually ruined. In consequence of long-standing neglect the gap becomes larger and the walls break away, and in time the drenching storm and rain pours in like a river. For by slothfulness a building is brought low, and through lazy hands the house shall leak.^[1]

Do we commend hospitality? Do we admire brotherly love, wifely affection, virginity, feeding the poor, singing psalms, nightlong vigils, penitence? Do we mortify the body^[1] with fasting? Do we through prayer take up our abode with God? Do we subordinate the inferior element in us to the better—I mean, the dust^[2] to the spirit, as we should if we have returned the right verdict on the alloy of the two which is our nature? Do we make life a meditation of death? Do we establish our mastery over our passions, mindful of the nobility of our second birth? Do we tame our swollen and inflamed tempers? Or our pride, which comes before a fall, or our unreasonable grief, our crude pleasures, our dirty laughter, our undisciplined eyes, our greedy ears, our immoderate talk, our wandering thoughts, our anything in ourselves which the evil one can take over from us and use against us, bringing in death through the windows,^[3] as Scripture has it, meaning through the senses?

No. We do the very opposite: we offer freedom to the passions of others, like kings declaring an amnesty after a victory, on the sole condition that they give their assent to us—and thus rush against God more violently or more piously than before; for this discreditable purchase we pay them a dishonorable price, license in exchange for impiety.

You who love instruction and are eager to listen, receive once again the sacred words: delight yourselves in the honey of wisdom; for so it is written, Good words are honeycombs, and their sweetness is the healing of the soul. For the labor of the bees is very sweet and benefits in many ways the soul of man; but the divine and saving [honey] makes those in whom it dwells skillful in every good work and teaches them the ways of [spiritual] improvement.

This course . . . will bring you honor and true glory. With your ears opened to give heed and your hands ready to execute the command you have heard, let your tongue be silent and keep your heart under custody. Be slow and dull for idle talk but knowing and wise in hearkening to the saving words of the holy Scriptures. Let the hearing of worldly tales be to you as a bitter taste in your mouth but the discourse of holy men as a honeycomb.

The sea is holy Scripture which has within it profound meanings and the mysterious depths of the prophets. Into this sea many rivers have entered. Delightful and clear are these streams. These fountains are cool, springing up into life everlasting.^[1] There, too, are pleasant words, like honeycomb, and courteous conversations which water souls with the sweetness of moral commands. The streams of holy Scripture are diverse; you know that which you should drink from first, second, and last.

It came to pass that our Ambrose was born while his father, Ambrose, was administering the prefectureship of the Gallic provinces. On one occasion, when the child had been placed in a cradle in his father’s courtyard and was asleep with his mouth open, a swarm of bees suddenly approached and covered his face, so that they were continually flying in and out of his mouth. His father, who was strolling nearby with his wife and daughter, watched with fatherly affection to see in what way this miracle would terminate. Meanwhile, he restrained the maid from driving away the bees, for she had accepted the responsibility of feeding the child and was anxious lest they harm him. But, after a while, the bees flew away and rose so high in the air that they could in no way be seen by human eyes. The father, terrified by this event, said, If this child lives, he will be something great. For, even then, the Lord was acting during the infancy of his servant in order that what was written might be fulfilled: Well-ordered words are as a honeycomb. For that swarm of bees was implanting the honeycombs of his later works, which would proclaim the heavenly gifts and direct the minds of people from earthly to heavenly things. LIFE OF ST.

If you are angry, be angry with yourselves, because you are roused, and you will not sin. For he who is angry with himself, because he has been so easily roused, ceases to be angry with another. But he who wishes to prove his anger is righteous only gets the more inflamed and quickly falls into sin. Better is he, as Solomon says, that restrains his anger than he that takes a city, for anger leads astray even brave men.

The type of anger which does not lead to deeds motivated by anger is easily forgiven, as Scripture says: He that conquers his anger is better than he who captures a city. For this reason, the command to manage anger is given so that, if we are already angry, we may not sin through an act of indiscreet rashness. Because of our human brokenness we are not able to get complete control of our hot emotions, but with God’s help, we contain them by the power of reason that we are taught.

The Scriptures offer the example^[1] of a woman of astounding fortitude and oblige me now to speak of her. This woman chose to give over to the tyrant and executioner every one of her seven sons rather than to utter a single word of sacrilege. And after fortifying them with her exhortations, at the same time suffering cruelly in their tortures, she herself had to undergo what she had called upon them to endure. Could any patience be greater than this?

Yet what marvel is it that the love of God pervading her inmost soul should have withstood the tyrant and the executioner, and bodily pain, and the weakness of her sex, and her own human emotions? Had she not heard the words: Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints?^[2] Had she not heard, The one who is patient is better than the one who is the mightiest? . . . She most assuredly knew these and many other divine precepts on fortitude written in the books of the Old Testament (which were the only ones then in existence) by the same Holy Spirit who wrote those in the New Testament. ^[3] CONQUER YOURSELF BY PATIENCE. GREGORY THE GREAT. Taking cities is a smaller victory because the places we conquer are outside of ourselves. A greater [victory] is won by patience, because a person overcomes himself and subjects himself to himself, when patience brings him low in bearing with others in humility. ^[1]