What is Required in Order to Look at Oneself with True Blessing in the Mirror of the Word?
The first requirement is that you must not look at the mirror, observe the mirror, but must see yourself in the mirror.
But how is God's Word read in Christendom? If we were to be divided into two classes -- since specific exceptions cannot be sondiered here -- then one would have to say that the majority never read God's Word, a minority read it more or less learnedly, that is, nevertheless do not read God's Word but observe the mirror. To say it in other words, the majority regard God's Word as an obsolete ancient book one puts aside; a minority look upon God's Word as an extremely remarkable ancient book upon which one expends an amazing diligence, acumen, etc. -- observing the mirror.
It is I to whom it is speaking; it is I about whom it is speaking.
The second requirement is that in order to see yourself in the mirror when you read God's Word you must (so that you actually do come to see yourself in the mirror) remember to say to yourself incessantly: It is I to whom it is speaking; it is I about whom it is speaking.
He looked at his bodily face in a mirror but promptly forgot how he looked
Finally, if you want to look at yourself in the mirror with true blessing, you must not promptly forget how you looked, you must not be the foregetful hearer (or reader) of whom the apostle says: He looked at his bodily face in a mirror but promptly forgot how he looked.
Source: Kierkegaard, Soren. For Self-Examination. Translated and edited by Howard V. Hong and Edna H. Hong. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1990, pages 25, 33 (XII 322), 35, and 44.
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