Principle and Foundation

Ask God our Lord for the grace that all my intentions, actions and works may be directed purely to the service and praise of his Divine Majesty.

Imagine myself standing before God our Lord, who looks at me with infinite love, as a father looks at his child.

Ask for the grace to choose only what leads me more surely to the end for which I was created, becoming indifferent to all created things.

1. We are created to praise, reverence and serve God our Lord, and by this means to save our souls.
2. The other things on the face of the earth are created for us, to help us pursue the end for which we are created.
3. It follows that we should use them as far as they help us toward our end, and set them aside as far as they hinder us.
4. So we must make ourselves indifferent to all created things, so that for our part we do not prefer health to sickness, riches to poverty, honour to dishonour, a long life to a short one, and so in everything else.