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SELF-MASTERY
(Ref. Christian Self-Mastery by Basil W. Maturin
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Self-Mastery - what does it really mean? To one author, it means that I amresponsible for myself and the direction I want my life to take. I actually like theword mastery because it indicates that it takes time and effort to mastersomething. The happiest people are those who realize that self-mastery is a life-long process while enjoying the journey.When we accept that we are masters of our own life we feel empowered. Itforces us to figure out what we need in order to consistently like ourselves andwhat we need to do in order to create a life that is right for us. Part of self-mastery is learning to be comfortable with who we are and realistic about ourstrength and weaknesses. Trusting that when life sends us hardships, we canfind resources within us to deal with adversity.I am convinced that every one can learn to increase their self confidence andcoping skills through self-mastery. How does one learn that as an adult? The keyis to open yourself up to learning. There are many ways to learn in order togrow to be the kind of person you want to be. But most of all, we have to trustthat we have the potential within us to evolve to be the people we are capable of being.The major reference for this talk is the book
“Christian Self-Mastery,” 
a bookwhich is indispensable to anyone seeking the knowledge that matters most: self-knowledge. The author, Basil Maturin was a clergyman in the Church of Englandbefore converting to Catholicism at age 51.Why do we need to develop self-mastery? Because we want to enjoy truefreedom in Christ through the art of self-mastery. No matter how hard we aretrying now, we can have a better relationship with God and greater self-mastery,if we follow these simple steps proposed by Fr. Maturin to getting our passions incheck and improving our self-knowledge.
Develop self-knowledge:
The spiritual life, according to Fr. Maturin, begins from one or the other of twopoints of departure: knowledge of self or knowledge of God. Two apostlesepitomize these two methods: St. Paul and St. John. From the latter, we learn of the love of God. From St. Paul we gain insight into the mysteries of our humannature. The book focuses on what St. Paul has to teach us.
Holiness consists in friendship with God. If we would be in any sense thefriends of God, we must have at least that desire for holiness without which
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Reference: Basil W. Maturin, Christian Self-Mastery, Sophia Institute Press, PO Box 5284, Manchester, NH,03108, 2001, 224 pp.
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such friendship would be impossible; the growth in the knowledge of God isthe deepening of this friendship.
But the knowledge of self is as necessary for the spiritual life as theknowledge of God.
We do not really know ourselves
Neither do we know what keeps us from God.
We are surprised at who we really are
Sin and sanctity reveal us to ourselves
Changing circumstance show that we do not know ourselves
Thus it happens that some great change that takes place in midlifeacts as a revelation of character to many a person, revealingdispositions, defects, and habits of which they were whollyunconscious.
Partial self-knowledge blinds us.
Self-knowledge is greater than self-analysis.
Let us learn to examine ourselves in the light of our Lord 
The more perfect the life that crosses our path, the clearer and morepenetrating the light that it unconsciously sends flooding our souls.And all the light that other lives shed upon us are but faint glimmerscompared with that which flows from the presence of Jesus Christ.
For example, how different it is to rise from our self-examination withthe technical piece of dry knowledge of the fact that we have givenway 6x to irritation, whereas yesterday we gave way only 5x, than torise with the knowledge that has come to our soul from thecomparison of ourselves in the presence of the irritating circumstancesof our life with the example of our Lord, say, when He was struck inthe face by one of the high priest’s servants, or when He was in thepresence of a Pharisee or Sadducee who was striving only to trap Himin His talk.
Test your self-knowledge
For instance, you have the general and indefinite belief that you arenot uncharitable, or sharp-tongued, or disposed to gossip. Resolve, forinstance, in the morning to mortify yourself in speech so many times. Ithink the results of a few days’ efforts to keep such a resolution will beno small surprise to you of how much you fail, and how unmortifiedyou are with your tongue.
Or again, you say and believe that you are not really self-indulgent,that you take your food and sleep for the sake of health, and not forthe pleasure they afford in themselves. Resolve to practicemortification in food, or to live the heroic minute upon waking up inthe morning. Put these things to a few days’ test, and see whetheryour theory about your indifference in matters of self-indulgence iscorrect.
Discipline yourself:
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None of our human faculties are bad.
The first thing to recognize is that all our faculties are good. There isno "faculty, power or substance" within us that needs to be destroyed.We need not crush our powers, but discover their true use. St.Augustine's intellect was the same power before, as well as, after hisconversion. What changed? His intellect became the servant of truth,not error
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Turn your God-given powers to the good.
Subdue your rebellious will 
Control your other powers and faculties
Abide by the laws of the spirit:
Conquer your sins with more than self-knowledge.
It is certainly untrue to say that the one thing we need to overcomesin and to attain perfection is a more perfect knowledge of our ownnature and its laws. The drunkard and the sensualist know full wellthat they are ruining the health of both mind and body, but I doubt if this knowledge alone has ever succeeded in making one or the othereither temperate or pure.
The mere knowledge of what we ought not to do, often even of thedisastrous results of what we are tempted to do, will not necessarilyhold us back from doing it.
In this, St. Paul shall be our guide. In his epistle to the Romans (7:23-25), he tells us: “but I see in my members another law at war with thelaw of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin which dwellsin my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me fromthis body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!So then, I of myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with myflesh I serve the law of sin.” According to St. Paul, our interior life is governed by four laws: the law of ourmembers, the law of sin, the law of the mind and the law of the spirit of life. Thelaw of our members prepares us for the dominion of sin, and the law of the mindprepares us for the law of the spirit of life, which is, in fact, not a law, but aPerson who acts according to law.Another conflict stirring deep within the soul of every one of us is the bitterdivorce between knowledge and love. Originally intended to inform each other,so that "our love would be reasonable and our reason glow with love," they nowvie for dominance, and the result is insincerity.Two other opposites contend within us for dominion: independence anddependence, or duty to self and our duty to others. These also must be restoredto the balance that existed between them before the Fall.Finally, joy and sorrow, love and hate, and memory and imagination--each of 
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