OF THE EXERCISES OF A RELIGIOUS MAN
“The duties which are not common to all must not be done openly but are safest carried on in secret. But take heed that you be not careless in the common duties and more devout in the secret; but faithfully and honestly discharge the duties and commands which lie upon you. Then afterwards, if you have still leisure, give yourself to yourself as your devotion leads you. All cannot have one exercise, but one suits better to this man and another to that. Even for the diversity of season different exercises are needed, some suit better for feasts, some for fasts. We need one kind in time of temptations and others in time of peace and quietness. Some are suitable to our times of sadness, and others when we are joyful in the Lord.
When we draw near the time of the great feasts, good exercises should be renewed, and the prayers of holy men more fervently besought. We ought to make our resolutions from one Feast to another, as if each were the period of our departure from this world, and of entering into the eternal feast. So ought we to prepare ourselves earnestly at solemn seasons, and the more solemnly to live, and to keep straightest watch upon each holy observance, as though we were soon to receive the reward of our labours at the hand of God.
And if this be deferred, let us believe ourselves to be as yet ill-prepared, and unworthy as yet of the glory which shall be revealed in us at the appointed season; and let us study to prepare ourselves the better for our end. Blessed is that servant, as the Evangelist Luke has it, whom, when the Lord comes, He shall find watching. Verily I say unto you, He will make him ruler, over all that He has.”
Thomas a Kempis
The Mark Of God: Understanding Your "I AM Presence" 