About the book: The saintly author begins by detaching the soul from all things and from itself by means of poverty, silence and the practice of self-renunciation. Thus he would have us attain to purity of heart. And this purity leads us to divine union, which is the end of the whole spiritual life. Having established these great principles, he then applies them to the principal actions of Christian and religious life.
Considering these actions one by one, he indicates, together with the interior dispositions which should animate them, some exterior practices aimed at sanctifying them. It is, as it were, a road mapped out for us towards perfection. But along this road dangers are to be encountered; he points them out to us: discouragement will overtake us; he forestalls it by proposing fourteen most efficacious motives for stimulating our generosity in the service of God.
This classic includes the following chapters:
1. On Poverty
2. On Silence
3. On Purity of Heart
4. Perfection Through the Help of a Director
5. On Obedience
6. On Regulating the Body
7. Rules in Regard to Drink
8. Rules to be Observed at Table
9. Persevering in Sobriety and Abstinence
10. Rules of Sleep, Watching, Study, and Choir
11. On Preaching
12. Remedies Against Certain Spiritual Temptations
13. Remedies Against False Revelations
14. Motives to Excite Us to Perfection
15. Elucidation and Application of Motives
16. How to Escape the Devil
17. Dispositions in Regard to Our Neighbour
18. On Perfection
19. Instruction on Various Subjects
Treatise on the Spiritual Life was originally published in 1944.
About the author: Saint Vincent Ferrer, OP, (1350-1419) was a Valencian Dominican friar who gained acclaim as a preacher, missionary and logician.
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