The zeal of the Desert Fathers...

"How strict and mortified was the life our Fathers led in the wilderness!  How many grievous temptations they endured and violent assaults of the devil!  How fervently they prayed daily to God, imposing rigid fasts on themselves!  What ardent zeal to advance in the spiritual life!  What relentless war they waged against all sin and with what pure and wholehearted intention did they aspire toward God!"

Imitation of Christ, Book One, Chapter Eighteen

Rejecting honors and pleasures now...

"Consider the many and grievous trials endured by the Apostles, Martyrs, Confessors, Virgins, and indeed all the Saints who followed in the footsteps of our Lord!  In order to possess everlasting life they rejected honors and all the pleasures of this life."

Imitation of Christ, Book One, Chapter Eighteen

More on holy souls...

"These friends of Christ served Him amid all sorts of tribulations: hunger and thirst, heat and cold, labor and weariness, in vigils and fasts, holy meditations and prayers and in persecutions and insults."

Imitation of Christ, Book One, Chapter Eighteen

On the example of the Holy Fathers...

"Look at the shining examples of our ancient Fathers and the Saints, in whom true perfection and religion flourished and then you will see how little we do by comparison.  How can we even compare our life with theirs!"

Imitation of Christ, Book One, Chapter Eighteen

You are meant to be tried as gold in a furnace...

"It is good, therefore, often to remember that you entered religious life to serve and not to be served, and that you are called to suffer and to work, not to waste your time in idleness and gossip.  In religious life you are meant to be tried as gold in a furnace and you will not last long unless with all your heart you are ready to humble yourself for the love of God."

Imitation of Christ, Book One, Chapter Seventeen

Dying to self-love

"Receiving the habit and the tonsure is but little help; it is the reforming of your life and the dying to self-love that makes the true religious.  If you seek anything in religious life other than God and the good of your soul, you will find nothing but trouble and grief and you will not persevere there in peace unless you strive to be the least and subject to all."

Imitation of Christ, Book One, Chapter Seventeen

Consider yourself an exile and pilgrim...

"If you wish to remain steadfast in grace and to grow in virtue, consider yourself an exile and a pilgrim in this world.  You must rejoice to be considered a fool and a contemptuous person for the love of God."

Imitation of Christ, Book One, Chapter Seventeen

On the religious life…but it also applies to all our lives...

"If you want to get along with others, it is necessary to curb your own will in many things.  It is not easy to live in a monastery or a congregation, to remain there without complaint or reproof and to persevere in your vocation."

Imitation of Christ, Book One, Chapter Seventeen