Vigilance

Vigilance is "alert watchfulness, the action or state of keeping careful watch for possible danger or difficulties." A vigil is "a period of keeping awake during the time usually spent asleep, especially to keep watch or pray." To be vigilant is to be "alertly watchful especially to avoid danger."


“Always be on watch.”—Edna Lister


Our solemn obligation, as we walk the Via Christa, is to remain alert internally to incursions of the self into the soul’s domain. Our external vigilance must always be extended to monitor our environment and the surroundings of our loved ones, to detect negativity or evil. Our responsibility then is to lift everyone on our lines of Light to a cloud continent of Light for their protection and healing.







Edna Lister on Vigilance

The all-seeing eye is a symbol of divine watchfulness and care of the universe.—Edna Lister, March 2, 1935.


Watchfulness saves you much misspent time.—Edna Lister, November 14, 1938.


Keep your lamp trimmed and full of oil, with a continuous flame burning, lest at the hour the bridegroom finds you not watchful, but asleep in the subconscious.—Edna Lister, November 30, 1939.


A good steward in God’s house is alert and ever watchful over the Father’s business.—Edna Lister, February 29, 1940.


Keep vigil within your own soul, and allow nothing of the outer to disturb you.—Edna Lister, November 26, 1940.


Lent is the Vigil of Ascension.—Edna Lister, April 13, 1941.


Only by constant vigilance can you retain your hold on the good and the Light.—Edna Lister, February 22, 1943.


Be watchful and let nothing of the self take your crown of love’s jewels away from you.—Edna Lister, February 22, 1943.


For the ascending soul to return to return to God requires a constant vigilant battle to overcome the self.—Edna Lister, July 9, 1945.


Success comes at the price of an eternal vigilance that neither slumbers nor sleeps. You could lose everything if you relax your vigilance for one hour.—Edna Lister, August 6, 1950.


August 10th is the vigil of praise and prayer that opens on August 9th at midnight and closes on midnight August 11th. It marks the day when the Elect devote themselves to lifting those affected by evil or victims of it.—Edna Lister, August 7, 1951.


God intended the subconscious mind to be our red light of warning and watchfulness, not to rule our consciousness.—Edna Lister, Eternal Youth, 1956.


You can’t get inside anyone to stop or change them, so to stop evil means to be watchful and to reach out to grab and lift anything you discern spiritually, to neutralize it now.—Edna Lister, Daring to Do, April 22, 1956.


There is never a moment that you do not need vigilance.—Edna Lister, February 4, 1958.


Better to be eternally on watch for the stumbling block in your path than to praise God on your face.—Edna Lister, December 15, 1958.


Vigilance and steadfastness every moment are the keynotes of life.—Edna Lister, February 23, 1960.


You can get nowhere without steadfastness and vigilance. Steadfastness is unwavering firmness. Vigilance is caution. Steadfastness and vigilance take you to "What is man?" You are made a little lower than the angels, because you are in a physical body and they are not. You must hold fast with vigilance and steadfastness so you lose nothing and let nothing slip. You are the work of His hands, with the stars and all things; He has set the works of His hands under your feet.—Edna Lister, Steadfastness Through Vigilance, June 19, 1960.


From the first recognition of our inheritance as children of the kingdom to our final soul Ascension into oneness with the Divine is a long and wearisome journey. We can complete this pilgrimage only by overcoming the little self through prayer, and constant vigilance.—Edna Lister, Five Keys of the Kingdom, 1964.


The "righteousness" we seek is constant, vigilant consciousness of being in the kingdom of heaven every moment of every day, realizing we are in it with each awakening thought in the morning.—Edna Lister, Five Keys of the Kingdom, 1964.


We need strong vigilance even when alone, lest imagination runs away with us, taking thinking and desire (emotion) with it for company. Soul conquering provides no rest periods, but is a second-by-second affair of the heart, mind and imagination.—Edna Lister, Five Keys of the Kingdom, 1964.


If we find it difficult to muster a smile, it is our sign that our contact with God has grown thin. Somewhere along the way we have forgotten to choose to be vigilant enough with ourselves.—Edna Lister, Five Keys of the Kingdom, 1964.

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Stories That Illustrate Vigilance:

Ten Virgins, Foolish and Wise: The kingdom of heaven shall be likened to ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Now five of them were wise, and five were foolish. Those who were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them, but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. But while the bridegroom was delayed, they all slumbered and slept. And at midnight a cry was heard: "Behold, the bridegroom is coming; go out to meet him!"

Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said to the wise, "Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out." But the wise answered, saying, "No, lest there should not be enough for us and you; but go rather to those who sell, and buy for yourselves." And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding; and the door was shut.

Afterward the other virgins came also, saying, "Lord, Lord, open to us!" But he answered and said, "Assuredly, I say to you, I do not know you." Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming.—Matthew 25:1-13.

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New Testament on Vigilance

Watch, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming.—Matthew 24:42.


Be ready, for Christ is coming at an hour you do not expect.—Matthew 24:44.


Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.—Matthew 26:41.


Of that [Judgment] Day and hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Take heed, watch and pray; for you do not know when the time [of Judgment] is.—Mark 13:32-33.


Blessed are those servants whom the Christ, when he comes, will find watching. Be ready, for the Christ is coming at an hour you do not expect.—Luke 12:37.


We are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch and be sober.—1 Thessalonians 5:5‑6.


Be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of Christ, fulfill your ministry.—2 Timothy 4:5.


Be sober, be vigilant because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.—1 Peter 5:8.

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The eyes of the Lord are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good.—Proverbs 15:3.

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Edna Miriam Lister
1884—1971
The original Pioneering Mystic,
Christian Platonist philosopher, American Idealist, Founder, Society of the Universal Living Christ, minister, teacher, author, wife, and mother.


Edna Lister


Etymology of vigilant: Latin vigilans, vigilant, vigilia, wakefulness, watch, from vigil, awake.


Vigilance is a soul virtue.


Quote

It is the common fate of the indolent to see their rights become a prey to the active. The condition upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance; which condition if he break, servitude is at once the consequence of his crime and the punishment of his guilt. —John Philpot Curran


References

Curran, John Philpot. "Election of Lord Mayor of Dublin," The Speeches of the Right Honorable John Philpot Curran, speech before the Privy Council, July 10, 1790. Thomas Davis, editor. Dublin: James Duffy and Co., 1847, 105.

Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, 2024.

The Holy Bible. King James Version (KJV).

The Oxford English Dictionary: Compact Ed., 2 vols. E.S.C. Weiner, editor. Oxford University Press, 1971.