1 - Bear with your neighbor's defects; defects of education, of mind, of character. Bear with everything about him which irritates you: his gait, his posture, tone of voice, accent, or whatever.
2 - Bear with everything in everybody and endure it to the end and in a Christian spirit. Never with that proud patience which makes one say: "What have I to do with so and so? How does what he says affect me? What need have I for the affection, the kindness or even the politeness of any creature at all and of that person in particular?" Nothing accords less with the will of God than this haughty unconcern, this scornful indifference; it is worse, indeed, than impatience.
3 - Are you tempted to be angry? For the love of Jesus, be meek.
To avenge yourself? Return good for evil; it is said the great secret of touching Saint Teresa's heart was to do her a bad turn.4 - Love to give praise to your companions, especially those you are naturally most inclined to envy.
To look sourly at someone? Smile at him with good nature.
To avoid meeting him? Seek him out willingly. To talk badly of him? Talk well of him.
To speak harshly to him? Speak very gently, warmly, to him.
5 - Do not be witty at the expense of charity.
6 - If somebody in your presence should take the liberty of making remarks which are rather improper, or if someone should hold conversations likely to injure his neighbor's reputation, you may sometimes rebuke the speaker gently, but more often it will be better to divert the conversation skillfully or indicate by a gesture of sorrow or of deliberate inattention that what is said displeases you.
7 - It costs you an effort to render a small service: offer to do it. You will have twice the merit.
8 - Avoid with horror posing as a victim in your own eyes or those of others. Far be it from you to exaggerate your burdens; strive to find them light; they are so, in reality, much more often than it seems; they would be so always if you were more virtuous.
Conclusion
In general, know how to refuse to nature what she asks of you unnecessarily.
Know ho to make her give what she refuses you for no reason. Your progress in virtue, says the author of the Imitation of Christ, will be in proportion to the violence that you succeed in doing to yourself.
"It is necessary to die," said the saintly Bishop of Geneva, "It is necessary to die in order that God may live in us, for it is impossible to achieve the union of the soul with God by any means other than by mortification. These words 'it is necessary to die' are hard, but they will be followed by a great sweetness, because one dies to oneself for no other reason than to be united to God by that death."
Would to God we had the right to apply to ourselves these beautiful words of Saint Paul to the Corinthians: "In all things we suffer tribulation ... Always bearing about in our body the death of Jesus, that the life also of Jesus may be made manifest in our bodies." (II Cor. 4:8-10)