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THEN THE BLESSED PAPHNUTIUS: There are, said he, three kinds of
vocations. And we know that there are three sorts of renunciations as well,
which are necessary to a monk, whatever his vocation may be. And we ought
diligently to examine first the reason for which we said that there were
three kinds of vocations, that when we are sure that we are summoned to
God's service in the first stage of our vocation, we may take care that our
life is in harmony with the exalted height to which we are called, for it
will be of no use to have made a good beginning if we do not show forth an
end corresponding to it. But if we feel that only in the last resort have
we been dragged away from a worldly life, then, as it appears that we rest
on a less satisfactory beginning as regards religion, so must we
proportionately make the more earnest endeavours to rouse ourselves with
spiritual fervour to make a better end. It is well too on every ground for
us to know secondly the manner of the threefold renunciations because we
shall never be able to attain perfection, if we are ignorant of it or if we
know it, but do not attempt to carry it out in act.
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