Course XLVII - Teaching 21: Inner Virtues (September 22nd, 1956)

We must bear ever in mind that any virtue is essentially inner and that any total external help from virtue is not virtue but method –a method to get certain virtue.
The soul in search of God must be ever cautious and not to make a mistake and mistake outer for inner, above all as you deal with virtues; also the soul should not mistake a solid and true virtue for those outer acts helping and fostering this virtue within, but that are not virtue at all.
Only an inner virtue is valuable and true. But if we follow the advice of worldly virtuous people, we never get anything, because they say: it is important to be good within; but in spite of saying this, we see that the method of life of a person that says this is so opposite to the true virtue that we observe clearly that virtue is only a rational theory in the world.
The Son knows that the Teaching gives him the method that he has to practice externally. In the booklet The Heavenly Child, you see how the angel that has lost his wings cannot fly again if nobody teaches him. Likewise, you can acquire some virtue just by desiring and loving it, but you need an outer method to reach it. This method is not the virtue. The method gives us the habit of an outer virtue, but if one does not acquire this virtue within, then a virtue of this kind, this outer life is opposite to the true spiritual life.
This would be to deceive God, because we would show externally something that we do not possess within.
Perfect virtue is virtue that dwells within, but that also is demonstrated outside. Very likely, a virtue not demonstrated outside does not exist even within, and an outer virtue not possessed within, is a harmful and terrible habit of the soul.
Our life is made of methods to acquire virtues, and has to reflect the inner life of the soul, of the heart. Our outer aspect has to reflect faithfully how we act within.
A soul runs ever the risk of acquiring an outer habit and harming an inner virtue.
Observance is the honey in Community’s life; it is soul nectar aiming at perfection. A soul adapted to the Observance knows the most perfect happiness that is possible to acquire, because the one that Observes with fidelity and love, knows that this is the best measure of an inner and spiritual virtue.
True Observance is the spirit of Observance, of perfect Observance. It is beautiful to run as soon as the bell sounds, to keep silent, to talk when recreation time begins, and to eat according to indications and instructions, but to fulfill with fidelity and punctuality does not mean to possess or to acquire the virtue of the Observance, because Observance, spirit of Observance, is to see how you progress with this Observance within.
For instance: Observance is to be happy and joyful during the recreation time; sometimes a Son knows how to socialize with his companions, but sometimes makes the mistake of socializing with himself. For instance: if I talk about what is interesting to me, and my companion wants to talk about other things, and I continue to talk about my own things. Virtue is absent there. For instance, I like things that are offering me because it is the Divine Mother that prepared these things, but if I emphasize very specially my meal, then there we find gluttony, and not Observance. You notice this at once: if I prefer certain meal or I see that my dish is more or less abundant, then I do not eat for the Divine Mother’s love; there you find a remnant of gluttony; there you notice the spirit with which you ate; gestures or references tell you that the mortification virtue is absent.
Example of a modest look: You notice the state of a person by his eyes. If your look is modest, you have overcome the curiosity because you look within. Sometimes when a Superior is close to the Son, the latter is quite modest, but as soon as this Superior is far away, then the Son looks and sees all.
Manual work is like prayer for us; it is integral part of our Observance. An Ordained Son has few hours of manual task, apart from days off and festivities. Why? Because we take for granted that he produces 100 per 100, and he is worth ten, twenty, and hundred.
But also certain Sons practice the virtue of manual work, but do not put into it any thought, love, essence and virtue.
Perchance is productive our work because is hard work? To move a stone, what is more valuable: strength or skill? No, we must work with love and will, and to put inner virtue into it. It is not enough to perform a task because is an order; your work must have inner light; otherwise it is in vain.
Outer acts are just stimuli of the inner virtue; above all when there are Vows –the essence of the Observance.
The Son keeps silent mainly during the day, and his silence is his voice to talk to his Divine Mother; but, what is the use of this silence if one minute talking is enough to offend a companion, or he feels hurt by a remark? He is like a person that fills up a pot with delicious honey and later eats outright and even does not taste it. We must be faithful to the Mother, and this virtue grants to us the greatness of heavenly angels, but what is the use of this if we do not do as we should do, and always we keep something, and when we are going to give the last little drop, we keep it?
Our fidelity is great, but our heart reproaches when anyone offends us, and we judge our Superior if we feel that they were unfair. Thus we stay at the side of our personality.
Our obedience may be great, but sometimes has its dark spots. If we do not like something and the Superior forget to tell this, we keep silent. Why do not we interpret those words that the Superior does not say? We pay strict attention to sayings.
The point is that the true virtue us within; the outer side is no more than the method leading to virtue.
Since we have devoted our life to look for virtues and to find the Divine Mother, we cannot change anything: Observance is inner, modesty is absence of all that I do not want to know because this is not up to me; spirit of sacrifice is not to reveal my likes or dislikes, or my favorite works or not; spirit of sacrifice is to love orders, and not merely to stand them, by looking for them and transforming them into the good of our living. You do not find the Divine Mother by means of sweetness, but by standing the sorrowful reproach by which one suffers more and more, by being with the poor and the needy, and by suffering and being despised; and by being with the destitute through our participation in their lives and pains. How can we do this?. only with pain, endurance and offering. These are the virtues of the consecrated souls.
This is the life that angels envy –an admirable life indicating that the salvation of men lies in the spirit. This is the method that leads to the Divine Mother, but it should reflect the virtue existing in the soul, in the heart; it is the essence of the light that we carry in our hearts, and just then this light shall be a perfect light because it shall live in our hearts, poured on those around us: Humanity, Cafh and Community.