Light Your Lamp and Read

Consider not, poor man, what thou art, but what thou wilt be; what though art lasts but for a moment, what thou wilt be is eternal. Be not slothful for thyself, but rather acquire in a short time what thou wilt possess forever. Overcome the dislike for present exertion by thinking of the reward to come. If the world beckons thee, remember that it flees from thee, that your pursuit of it is vain. Why dost thou not follow after that which never flees from thee? What doth it profit to gaze at a shadow reflected in the water? What do joy and happiness tasted in a dream profit thee? After all, dreams, be they so long, are short-lived; and life’s joys are like dreams in a dark night. Awake, therefore, O my son, out of the night, and seek the light that thou mayest see and be seen; light your lamp and read. Awake; be not seduced by dreams and deceived by false imaginings. Thy life is a wheel that is ever turning and running on, and never waits for thee. It is thy duty to keep up with it. Thou hast nothing on earth, O man; thou wilt die naked as thou wert born into it. Thou hast nothing on earth but the prospect of heaven, which is thy inheritance, provided thou dost not forfeit it on earth. But if thou hast lost it already, sell thyself in order to regain it. What do I say, Sell thyself? Sell thy vices, and buy life. Thou mayest perhaps wish to know what these vices are. Above all things sell pride, the root-vice, and buy humility, and thou wilt be like unto Christ, who saith: “Learn of me because I am meek and humble of heart (Matt. 11:29).

Léon Pourtau, Reading under the lamp, ca. 1890. The Picture Art Collection / Alamy Stock.

He is victor over the world who, while still in the flesh, dies to himself, to his vices, to his passions; no one who spares himself can hate the world, because he must love or hate the world in himself. Only he lives well who either never has to repent or is ever repenting.

O wretched state of man! We are bound to love that which is far from us and uncomprehended by us and hidden from our eyes while we live in the prison-house of this body. But it will not be always far, and hidden, and unknown; for he would assuredly have been born in vain to whom the eternal were to remain unknown forever. Therefore even now we must long after it and love it: far better an hour’s patience here than an eternity of fruitless remorse hereafter.

Source: The Life and Writings of Saint Columban, trans. George Metlake (The Dolphin Press, 1914), 101–102.