Thomas A Kempis 1.19 (Part 2) - Spiritual exercises

The exercises which are not common to all are not for showing outwardly but are safest in secret, carried out privately. Watch out that you don't become lazy about the common exercises and eager for special ones. When you have fully and faithfully completed your obligations and fulfilled your orders, if you still have more free time, then take up your own interests as your devotion desires. It's not possible for everyone to have the same spiritual exercise, since one thing serves one man better, and another works better for another. And in different seasons, different exercises are needed: some for holy days, some for great feasts. Some serve well in times of temptations and others in times of peace and rest. In times of sadness I like certain meditations, and others when we are joyful in the Lord.

Around the time of the major festivals the good exercises should be renewed, and the prayers of the Saints more fervently sought. We should resolve to move from Feast to Feast as if each were our time to migrate from this world to the eternal feast. So we should prepare ourselves earnestly in times of devotion, and in holy conversation, and keep a close watch on all our observances as if we would soon receive the reward of our labors from God. 

And if we postpone preparing ourselves, let us believe that we are less well prepared and still unworthy of the glory which shall be revealed in us at the appointed time. May we study to prepare ourselves the better for our end. Blessed is that servant, as the Evangelist Luke says, whom, when the Lord returns He finds watching. Truly I tell you, He will make him ruler over all that He has.

Imitation of Christ by Thomas A Kempis, 1.19 (second part, it's a long chapter to translate in one sitting). 

Translation focused on contemporary English and preservation of rhetorical force and art