SPIRITUAL 
 DESPONDENCY 
 
 AND 
 
 TEMPTATIONS 
 
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SPIRITUAL DESPONDENCY 
 
 AND 
 
 TEMPTATIONS 
 
SPIRITUAL DESPONDENCY 
 
 AND 
 
 TEMPTATIONS 
 
 BY 
 
 REV. P. J. MICHEL 
 
 OF THE SOCIETY OF JESUS 
 
 TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH BY 
 REV. F. P. GARESCH& 
 
 OF THE SAME SOCIETY 
 REVISED -A^I^ CORRECTED" >: 
 
 NEW YORK, CINCINNATI, CHICAGO 
 BENZIGER BROTHERS 
 
 PRINTERS TO THE HOLY APOSTOLIC SEE 
 1904 
 
Ntijil BMaL 
 
 MAR U 1904 
 
 f "J - / q i\- 
 CLASS a/ XX* No 
 
 8 2. 4 2. 
 
 COPY 6 
 
 
 ETiijil ®tetat 
 
 Emprttnatur* 
 
 J. GRIMMELSMAN, SJ. 
 
 REMIGIUS LAFORT, S.T.L. 
 
 Censor Librorum. 
 
 # JOHN M. FARLEY, 
 
 Archbishop of New York. 
 
 New York, January 2, 1904, 
 
 Copyright, 1904, by Benziger Brothers. 
 
EDITOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 To Pious and Devout Souls: — 
 
 I present you this little book, confident 
 of its value — it is the posthumous work 
 of a Priest who was not only a member of 
 a celebrated society and a Professor of 
 Theology, but was also a pious and en- 
 lightened director. 
 
 In this book you will therefore find 
 wholesome instruction, great knowledge 
 of the interior life, and of the human 
 heart, — the result of years of experience 
 in the direction of souls. 
 
 The subject is at once both highly im- 
 portant and very difficult. The Author 
 has not confined himself to general prin- 
 ciples and vague maxims, but he has 
 
6 EDITOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 entered into the very sanctuary of the 
 soul, into its secret folds and most intri- 
 cate windings. The thread of Reason, 
 the light of Faith, and the torch of Expe- 
 rience have led him safely through that 
 labyrinth where so many lose themselves, 
 rashly attempting to explore it without 
 the proper guides. A few principles, pre- 
 sented under different aspects, solve all 
 difficulties, throw light upon doubts that 
 are ever recurring, expose all the subter- 
 fuges of self-love, sloth, and cowardice, 
 refute their objections, and silence their 
 excuses. 
 
 The Author has followed the most use- 
 ful plan for works of this kind. He adopts 
 the method of reasoning — and his reason- 
 ing is as clear as it is solid. The greater 
 number of persons who profess piety pre- 
 fer appeals to their imagination and to 
 their heart, rather than to their reason. 
 
EDITOR'S PREFACE. 7 
 
 They like to be excited by lively descrip- 
 tions, and by tender and touching lan- 
 guage; but in so doing, they are seeking 
 a passing gratification rather than a real 
 and permanent benefit. Such descriptions 
 and sentiments soon fade away, but the 
 fruits of conviction are more lasting. Pure 
 reason and true faith never vary; imagi- 
 nation and feeling are incessantly changing 
 according to the different objects which 
 act upon them. 
 
 It is from indolence that feeling is pre- 
 ferred to reasoning. The greater part of 
 mankind are indolent, and hence there are 
 so few who care to reflect and reason. 
 But one who has an earnest love for virtue 
 and duty, who is anxious about his salva- 
 tion, should not shrink from the mental 
 effort which the exercise of reason and of 
 faith requires. We should remember that 
 no sincere and permanent resolution can be 
 
8 EDITOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 taken without a conviction of its necessity. 
 This is according to the natural order of 
 reason, and to the economy of grace. The 
 understanding must be enlightened before 
 the will can be moved. 
 
 This work appears to be specially in- 
 tended for the instruction of persons living 
 in religious communities, and for seculars 
 aiming at perfection; but in this age of 
 indifference and discouragement all who 
 profess the true faith may here find no 
 little help to undeceive them in their errors, 
 and to strengthen them against the wiles 
 of self-love. We venture to hope that 
 even Directors of consciences may dis- 
 cover therein that which will increase their 
 light, and supply for any want of expe- 
 rience in their difficult and dangerous 
 ministry. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 I. On the dangers and fatal effects of de- 
 spondency 15 
 
 II. The most fatal effect of despondency is 
 that the soul that yields to it does not 
 view it as a temptation. Hope and 
 confidence in God are as much a com- 
 mandment as faith and the other virtues 17 
 
 III. Source and cause of the impressions which 
 
 despondency makes on the soul of the 
 Christian 21 
 
 IV. Of the true motive for Christian hope — this 
 
 motive is the same for all men . . 26 
 
 V. A powerful motive for confidence is the in- 
 finite value of the sufferings and merits 
 of Jesus Christ 31 
 
 VI. Motive of confidence for the religious soul 
 in the mercy which God has shown in 
 selecting her for the grace of her voca- 
 tion. False ideas and feelings which 
 we ascribe to God . . . -37 
 9 
 
io CONTENTS. 
 
 VII. Our repeated infidelities ought not to make 
 us lose confidence in God — it is the 
 want of faith that makes us fear . . 44 
 
 VIIL God is never so near to us to assist us in 
 our conflicts as when we imagine Him 
 far away. He hides Himself only that 
 we may seek Him and find Him . . 47 
 
 IX. We cannot conquer without fighting — and 
 
 there is no fighting without trouble . 51 
 
 X. It is tempting God and tempting one's self 
 to be solicitous about the conflicts that 
 may await us 62 
 
 XI. Of weariness, disgust, and difficulties in the 
 service of God — causes of a discour- 
 agement contrary to reason . . 67 
 
 XII. It is not well to ask God to put an end to 
 our trials and difficulties, and to desire 
 the immediate fulfilment of our prayers 76 
 
 XIII. We would wish the Almighty to do all for 
 
 us, and to give us the victory without 
 its costing us anything: a pernicious 
 error, an unfair request, and a common 
 cause of discouragement ... 84 
 
 XIV. Discouragement occurs because we will not 
 
 profit by the ordinary aid which is 
 within our reach, but, through a slothful 
 feeling, wait for extraordinary graces . 89 
 
CONTENTS. 1 1 
 
 XV. It is false and dangerous to think that we 
 can do nothing to resist certain inclina- 
 tions and habits which overcome us . 99 
 
 XVI. Our spiritual exercises a cause of repug- 
 nance, because we falsely think them 
 useless or the occasions of new faults . 109 
 
 XVII. Imperfect motives, joining themselves to an 
 intention otherwise pure, are another 
 source of discouragement . . .123 
 
 XVIII. It is an error to suppose that we should not 
 offer our actions to God because they 
 have not that perfection which we desire 
 or think necessary . . . .140 
 
 XIX. A loss of sensible devotion an unjustifi- 
 able cause of despondency . . .148 
 
 XX. Faults committed by pious souls in time of 
 
 desolation 154 
 
 XXI. One of our pretexts for abandoning prayer 
 is that we lose our time. This is usually 
 false, and often criminal when true. 
 How to occupy ourselves usefully in 
 time of prayer 165 
 
 XXII. To strive for sensible devotion is useless, 
 often dangerous, and gives occasion 
 for despondency 172 
 
12 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 XXIII. On the use of spiritual books during time 
 
 of prayer, or when attending Mass . 181 
 
 XXIV. What books we should use during prayer 
 
 and what plan we should adopt in their 
 perusal . . . . . 188 
 
 XXV. Temptations no proof of God's having 
 abandoned us. If sometimes a mark 
 of His anger, it is an anger tempered 
 by mercy 199 
 
 XXVI. Temptations no sign of a dangerous state 
 of the soul in regard to God and 
 salvation 205 
 
 XXVII. In temptation recourse must be had to 
 God. He sustains us in the combat 
 although we do not perceive it . . 209 
 
 XXVIII. How to recognize whether we have con- 
 sented to the temptation . . .212 
 
 XXIX. On short and passing temptations . .217 
 
 XXX. On temptations which are persistent and 
 troublesome, and on those which make 
 an impression on our senses . .221 
 
 XXXI. On temptations which disturb us in the 
 exercise of virtues. We must not 
 abandon a good work because of the 
 defect or the imperfect motive which 
 accompanies it. We must renounce 
 the one and persevere in the other . 227 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 13 
 
 CHAPTER 
 
 XXXII. 
 
 XXXIII. 
 
 XXXIV. 
 XXXV. 
 
 XXXVI. 
 XXXVII. 
 
 Temptations not to be reasoned with. 
 
 Means of banishing them. . . 232 
 
 On frequent temptations. "In time of 
 
 peace, prepare for war " . . . 245 
 
 The utility of temptations . . . 252 
 
 The subject continued. One who is sub- 
 ject to temptations and desirous of 
 saving his soul, attaches himself the 
 more closely to God and exercises 
 the greater vigilance . . .258 
 
 The good effects of temptation in negli- 
 gent souls 265 
 
 The time spent in overcoming tempta- 
 tions is not time lost . . . 270 
 
SPIRITUAL DESPONDENCY AND 
 TEMPTATIONS. 
 
 CHAPTER L 
 
 ON THE DANGERS AND FATAL EFFECTS OF 
 DESPONDENCY. 
 
 Despondency is the most dangerous 
 temptation that the enemy of our salva- 
 tion can employ. In other temptations 
 he attacks some one virtue in particular, 
 and shows himself openly: by despond- 
 ency he attacks them all, but covertly. 
 The snare is readily perceived in other 
 temptations: one finds in religion, often 
 even in reason, principles which con- 
 demn them. The knowledge of the evil, 
 to which we cannot blind ourselves, con- 
 
 15 
 
1 6 DANGERS OF DESPONDENCY. 
 
 science, and the truths of religion which 
 are awakened, serve as helps to sustain 
 us. But in despondency there is nothing 
 to lean upon : we feel that reason does 
 not suffice to enable us to practise all 
 the good that God requires of us. On 
 the other hand, we dare not hope to re- 
 ceive from God all the help we need to 
 overcome our passions; thus we become 
 discouraged and nearly reduced to de- 
 spair, the very point to which the devil 
 tries to lead the despondent soul. 
 
 In other temptations we clearly per- 
 ceive that it is wrong to allow the mind 
 to dwell upon them ; but in despondency, 
 which disguises itself under a multiplic- 
 ity of forms, we see strong motives for 
 yielding to the feeling which we do not 
 look upon as a temptation. This feel- 
 ing, however, makes us imagine that 
 perseverance in the practice of virtue is 
 
EFFECT OF DESPONDENCY. 17 
 
 impossible, and it leaves the soul liable 
 to be overcome by all its passions. It 
 is therefore of the utmost importance to 
 avoid this snare. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE MOST FATAL EFFECT OF DESPONDENCY IS 
 THAT THE SOUL THAT YIELDS TO IT DOES 
 NOT VIEW IT AS A TEMPTATION. HOPE AND 
 CONFIDENCE IN GOD ARE AS MUCH A COMMAND- 
 MENT AS FAITH AND THE OTHER VIRTUES. 
 
 The great danger of despondency is 
 that, being deceived by an excessive fear 
 which makes us blind to the truth, and 
 being discouraged at the sight of diffi- 
 culties against which we find no resource 
 in ourselves, we nevertheless do not look 
 upon this state as the effect of tempta- 
 tion. Could we only see it in that light, 
 
1 8 EFFECT OF DESPONDENCY. 
 
 we should beware of the suggestions that 
 entertain it, and should get rid of our 
 trouble more quickly and more easily. 
 
 Let it, however, be well understood that 
 despondency is a temptation, and bears 
 all the marks of being such ; for every 
 feeling that is opposed to the law of God, 
 either in itself or by the consequences 
 it may have, is evidently a temptation. 
 It is thus we judge of every temptation 
 to which we are liable. If we have a 
 thought against faith, a feeling against 
 charity or some other virtue, we look 
 upon it as a temptation; we turn away 
 from it, and try to elicit acts opposed to 
 the thought or feeling which has put us in 
 danger of offending God. 
 
 Now, hope and confidence in God are 
 commanded equally with faith and the 
 other virtues. Therefore the feeling which 
 is opposed to hope is as much forbidden 
 
EFFECT OF DESPONDENCY. 19 
 
 as that which is against faith or any other 
 virtue : it has thus every feature of a real 
 temptation. 
 
 The law of God obliges us frequently 
 to make acts of faith, hope, and charity; 
 and hence forbids us all wilful feelings 
 contrary to these sacred and necessary 
 virtues. How, then, can despondency be 
 viewed otherwise than as a temptation, and 
 even as a very dangerous temptation, since 
 it exposes the Christian soul to abandon 
 every work of piety ? 
 
 To make this danger clearer to you, 
 consider the general course of conduct 
 among men. Is it not the hope of success, 
 of procuring some advantage, of avoiding 
 some evil, or of satisfying some desire or 
 passion, which makes them act, supports 
 them under their labors, and animates them 
 to overcome their difficulties ? Take away 
 from them all hope, and they would soon 
 
20 EFFECT OF DESPONDENCY. 
 
 fall into inaction. None but a madman 
 would strive for an object which he despairs 
 of obtaining. In religious life despondency 
 produces the same effect ; it is founded on 
 the same principle, the want of means to 
 reach the end which we propose to ourselves. 
 When we lose all hope of overcoming 
 the difficulties which we may find in the 
 practice of any virtue, we do not try, or 
 but feebly, to make the effort to do so. 
 These insufficient efforts only increase our 
 weakness, and being more than half over- 
 come by despondency, we are easily led 
 away by the passion that sways us. The 
 sense of our weakness first throws us into 
 doubt and into trouble. In that state, 
 occupied only by the difficulty of the com- 
 bat, we do not distinguish the principles 
 that ought to guide us. The fear of not 
 succeeding prevents us from employing 
 the means which God has given us, and we 
 
IMPRESSIONS OF DESPONDENCY. 21 
 
 are thus defenceless against our enemy. 
 We are like a child who, seeing the ap- 
 proach of, a giant, begins to tremble, and 
 forgets that a stone thrown in the name of 
 the Lord may lay him prostrate. In the 
 same manner do we forget that we have a 
 powerful help in the goodness of a tender 
 Father, upon whom we have only to call, 
 to be victorious in all our struggles. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 SOURCE AND CAUSE OF THE IMPRESSIONS WHICH 
 DESPONDENCY MAKES ON THE SOUL OF THE 
 CHRISTIAN. 
 
 I shall now proceed to show why de- 
 spondency makes such strong and fatal 
 impressions on us. We are well convinced 
 of our weakness, for we have often experi- 
 enced it. We feel keenly the difficulty we 
 
22 IMPRESSIONS OF DESPONDENCY. 
 
 have to overcome ourselves, as we succeed 
 but rarely. Filled with these sad and 
 discouraging reflections of our want of 
 strength, and of the little we do to please 
 God, we consider it useless to have re- 
 course to Him, who, we think, will not 
 hearken to our prayer whilst we are in our 
 present state. Sad evidence of the pride 
 of the human heart, that would wish to 
 owe to itself the good which it does, and 
 the happiness to which it aspires! And 
 how opposed to the words of the Holy 
 Ghost, " What hast thou that thou hast 
 not received?" (i Cor. iv. 7.) 
 
 In such a state we see and depend 
 only upon our own efforts, so that our de- 
 spondency diminishes, ceases, returns, or 
 increases, according as we act well or ill. 
 We do not reflect that it is only from the 
 mercy of God we can hope for help, and 
 not by our own merits ; that when we have 
 
IMPRESSIONS OF DESPONDENCY. 23 
 
 done well it is through the grace of God, 
 which we have not merited, and that, in 
 every circumstance, this mercy is ever 
 ready to dispense to us the necessary 
 grace. 
 
 When these desponding souls are told 
 that they ought, after the example of the 
 saints, to put all their confidence in God, 
 they will at once answer that it is not sur- 
 prising that the saints had confidence in 
 God, since they were saints, and served 
 God with fidelity : but that they have not 
 the same right to feel that perfect confi- 
 dence in Him which the saints had. 
 They do not perceive that such reasoning 
 is contrary to the principles of true 
 religion. 
 
 Hope is a theological virtue, and its 
 motive can be found only in God. These 
 souls make it a human virtue when its 
 source or motive is recognized in man or 
 
24 IMPRESSIONS OF DESPONDENCY. 
 
 in his ways. The saints did not hope in 
 God because they were faithful to God, 
 but they were faithful to God because they 
 hoped in Him. Otherwise the sinner 
 could never make an act of hope, and yet 
 it is that very act of hope which disposes 
 him to return to God. 
 
 Observe that St. Paul does not say, I 
 have obtained mercy because I have been 
 faithful, but "Having obtained mercy of 
 the Lord, to be faithful" (i Cor. vii. 25). 
 Mercy always precedes the good which 
 we do ; and it is from mercy alone that we 
 have the necessary grace to do any good 
 at all. The saints never counted upon 
 their works to strengthen their confidence 
 in God, for they were ever mindful of the 
 words of Our Saviour: " So you also, when 
 you shall have done all these things that 
 are commanded you, say: We are un- 
 profitable servants" (Luke xvii. 10). The 
 
IMPRESSIONS OF DESPONDENCY. 25 
 
 greater saints they were, the greater was 
 their humility. Their humility allowed 
 them to see only the perfection to which 
 they had not yet reached. Unlike the 
 Pharisee in the Gospel, they found nothing 
 in themselves to warrant their confidence, 
 but in the mercy of God they sought and 
 found a confidence, the foundations of 
 which could not be shaken. This was 
 what supported them, and this it is which 
 must encourage you, and reanimate your 
 fainting strength. It is of the utmost im- 
 portance for you to understand this truth, 
 that you may not again fall into the snare 
 which your enemy has so often laid for 
 you. 
 
z6 MOTIVE FOR CHRISTIAN HOPE. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 OF THE TRUE MOTIVE FOR CHRISTIAN HOPE — 
 THIS MOTIVE IS THE SAME FOR ALL MEN. 
 
 According to religion the motive of 
 Christian hope, or of confidence in God, 
 is the same for all men, saints and sinners. 
 
 Hope, as we have already said, is a 
 theological virtue, like faith and charity. 
 Its motive, then, can be found only in 
 God, and can rest only upon divine per- 
 fection. It follows, therefore, that we 
 exclude from this motive our own merits. 
 We do not hope in God because we have 
 been faithful to Him, but we hope in Him 
 that we may obtain the grace to be faith- 
 ful. 
 
 On what, then, is Christian hope 
 founded, and what is its motive, accord- 
 ing to religion? Pope Benedict XIV., 
 
MOTIVE FOR CHRISTIAN HOPE. 27 
 
 in his form of the Act of Hope, has 
 pointed out the divine perfections which 
 constitute this motive. The act is this: 
 11 O my God, I hope in Thee, because Thou 
 art faithful to Thy all-powerful promises, 
 and because Thy mercies are infinite? In 
 this motive there is nothing human — all 
 is drawn from God Himself. And could 
 there be a stronger motive to strengthen 
 us in hope and confidence in God? We 
 here find the mercy of God, who is more 
 anxious to shower His gifts upon man 
 than man is to receive them ; who desires 
 their real good and their salvation much 
 more sincerely than they desire it them- 
 selves, since He restrains them by His 
 grace, which of themselves they could 
 not merit, and since He prepares for 
 them aid proportionate to the trials to 
 which He exposes them — an aid which 
 they can obtain by prayer, and with it 
 
28 MOTIVE FOR CHRISTIAN HOPE. 
 
 conquer the evil one. This mercy is so 
 infinite, that all the malice of mankind 
 cannot exhaust it ; and, after having mani- 
 fested itself so wonderfully in the gift 
 which God has granted us, His only Son 
 for our ransom, it will not refuse us the 
 assistance which He desires to afford us 
 in this priceless benefit. 
 
 The effects of this divine mercy have 
 been promised to us by the assurances 
 which God has made us, of coming to 
 our assistance, whenever we ask it, to 
 work out our salvation. God, who is 
 truth itself, cannot deceive us, and He is 
 essentially faithful to the promises He 
 makes His creatures. But we find in 
 the Holy Scripture the most touching 
 exhortations to have recourse to Him in 
 our necessities, with the promise that 
 He will be our support and our strength. 
 How, then, can we have any anxiety or 
 
MOTIVE FOR CHRISTIAN HOPE. 29 
 
 seriously entertain any fear that He will 
 reject or abandon us, when we call upon 
 Him with confidence? Would not this 
 be accusing God of not keeping His 
 promise ? But that would be blasphemy. 
 It is true that to grant our prayer God 
 requires that we should call upon Him 
 with confidence — but should we deserve 
 to obtain His benefits if we asked them 
 with a doubting heart ; doubting that very 
 goodness of which we are experiencing 
 the effect every instant of our lives, and 
 in so many thousand ways? No, as the 
 apostle, St. James, says, "Let him ask 
 in faith, nothing wavering" (i. 6). The 
 heart that prays with doubt and distrust 
 shall obtain nothing. And we also know 
 that Jesus Christ whilst on earth granted 
 miracles only when there was confidence : 
 "Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole " 
 (Matt. ix. 22). God's almighty power 
 
3 o MOTIVE FOR CHRISTIAN HOPE. 
 
 gives the crowning strength to this mo- 
 tive for Christian hope, seeing that He 
 exceeds all that we can require of Him. 
 Men often promise what they are unable 
 to give, but it is not thus with the all- 
 powerful God. We can find no insur- 
 mountable obstacles to His will, in the 
 gifts which He desires to make to us. 
 He has in the boundless treasury of His 
 graces, infallible means to lead us to 
 holiness. Therefore we ought never to 
 fear asking Him too much, or asking 
 things too difficult. 
 
 God being infinitely rich, possesses all 
 good, in the order of grace as in the 
 order of nature. Being infinitely power- 
 ful, there are none of these treasures of 
 which He cannot make us partake. Be- 
 ing infinitely good, He is disposed to 
 grant us, according to His promises, all 
 that is necessary for our salvation. It 
 
MOTIVE FOR CONFIDENCE. 31 
 
 is on these substantial motives, drawn 
 from the perfections of God, that we 
 should found our hope — and only thus 
 can our confidence have that unshaken 
 firmness which it ought to have. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 A POWERFUL MOTIVE FOR CONFIDENCE IS THE 
 INFINITE VALUE OF THE SUFFERINGS AND 
 MERITS OF JESUS CHRIST. 
 
 A soul that is addicted to despondency 
 is swayed by fear, which prevents it from 
 reflecting on the immovable foundations of 
 confidence in God. We cannot therefore 
 give her too many motives for overcom- 
 ing that fear which harasses her inces- 
 santly. She will find a powerful one in 
 the sufferings of Jesus Christ, which are 
 as immense as the dignity of His person 
 
32 MOTIVE FOR CONFIDENCE. 
 
 is infinite. This divine Saviour, dying for 
 all mankind, praying for all, offering for 
 all His sufferings and His death, has mer- 
 ited for them all the graces which are nec- 
 essary for them to overcome their spiritual 
 enemy and to gain eternal happiness. 
 These merits which Jesus Christ did not 
 need for Himself He has given over to 
 mankind. So that, according to St. Bern- 
 ard, these merits become our own. And 
 by offering them to the Father, we obtain 
 that help which we need to strengthen us 
 against the enemies of our salvation. It 
 is from this principle that the Church, in 
 all the prayers she makes to God, always 
 invokes the merits of Jesus Christ our 
 Lord. 
 
 " But," exclaims a soul, frightened at the 
 thought of her many past offences, " how 
 must Our Lord and Saviour look upon me, 
 after the many outrages which I have 
 
MOTIVE FOR CONFIDENCE. 33 
 
 committed against Him! Can He any 
 longer interest Himself for one who has 
 been so long His enemy?" Can a well- 
 instructed Christian soul have any doubt 
 on this point? Did not Jesus Christ 
 Himself assure us that He came into the 
 world to suffer and die for sinners ; that 
 He came chiefly to seek for sinners ? 
 Now, in the face of this assertion, will 
 they still imagine that, because they are 
 sinners, they will be refused the help they 
 require to return to God? No, heaven 
 and earth may pass away, but the promises 
 of God shall not pass away unfulfilled. 
 These promises relate to sinners, and if 
 there had been no sinners, would Jesus 
 Christ have suffered? Would He have 
 submitted to a cruel death ? The more 
 sinful man is, the more strikingly are the 
 mercy of God, and the power of the Sav- 
 iour's merits displayed. Is there any 
 
34 MOTIVE FOR CONFIDENCE. 
 
 blacker crime than the treachery of Judas? 
 Yes, answers St. Jerome, there is one still 
 more enormous, despair ! Judas rendered 
 himself more guilty in taking away his 
 own life than in betraying his divine 
 Master. 
 
 Let us then never fear to have recourse 
 to the merits of Jesus Christ. We honor 
 them when we make use of them to obtain 
 the helps which we need, since it was for 
 this that Jesus Christ vouchsafed to 
 acquire them and to give them over to 
 us. It is in applying them to ourselves 
 through prayer and good works, that we 
 fulfil the end for which they were pur- 
 chased. 
 
 It would be a singular way of honoring 
 them, the not daring to make use of them; 
 it would be going directly against the end 
 which our divine Saviour proposed to 
 Himself. In turning from His gifts as 
 
MOTIVE FOR CONFIDENCE. 3; 
 
 useless, we should not be evincing our 
 esteem for them, but only proving our 
 indifference. 
 
 Since we acknowledge that we are poor, 
 weak, and miserable, should we not seek 
 to enrich and to strengthen ourselves, and 
 to cure our evils? Jesus Christ offers 
 Himself to accomplish these miracles in 
 us, by offering His infinite merits. With 
 loving tenderness He says to us, " Come 
 to me, all you that labor, and are bur- 
 dened, and I will refresh you " (Matt. xi. 
 28). Is it not therefore against every 
 principle, against every feeling, and still 
 more against the intention of the Saviour 
 Himself to fear to have recourse to Him ? 
 
 Temptation attacks the soul in every 
 way. Through a sentiment of false humil- 
 ity a fear is conceived which fills the soul 
 with dejection. Christian humility and 
 sound reason require that we should rec-. 
 
36 MOTIVE FOR CONFIDENCE. 
 
 ognize our unworthiness of heavenly 
 benefits; but they do not require us to 
 refuse those which are offered, or not to 
 ask for those that have been promised 
 to our prayers. Still more does the grati- 
 tude which we owe to Jesus Christ require 
 that we should obey His will, in profiting 
 by His sufferings, to obtain the graces 
 which He has earned for us. Never can 
 we honor Him more than in correspond- 
 ing to the merciful designs which He had 
 in immolating Himself for us. 
 
 On what could we rely to appease the 
 justice of God outraged by sin, and to 
 draw down His mercy, if not upon the 
 merits of Our Saviour? It is in present- 
 ing them to God that we may hope to dis- 
 arm His anger. Just as He can see in us 
 only that which must provoke His justice, 
 so in His Son He only sees what solicits 
 His mercy. This divine mercy is exercised 
 
FALSE IDEAS AND FEELINGS. 37 
 
 in our behalf as soon as we, with senti- 
 ments of regret, present ourselves to Him, 
 under the shadow of the Saviour's cross, 
 and covered with His precious blood. 
 And thus also is justice appeased. Mercy 
 and truth, justice and peace make together 
 a blessed treaty for us. In the language 
 of the Psalmist, "Mercy and truth have 
 met each other: justice and peace have 
 kissed" (Ps. lxxxiv. 11). 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 MOTIVE OF CONFIDENCE FOR THE RELIGIOUS 
 SOUL IN THE MERCY WHICH GOD HAS SHOWN 
 IN SELECTING HER FOR THE GRACE OF HER VO- 
 CATION. FALSE IDEAS AND FEELINGS WHICH 
 WE ASCRIBE TO GOD. 
 
 The religious sees in his vocation a 
 strong proof of God's mercy in his regard. 
 Even though, after having served God 
 
3 8 FALSE IDEAS AND FEELINGS. 
 
 with fidelity, one may have fallen into a 
 state of indifference or into grievous sin, 
 if he again seeks to return to God he 
 should never doubt of His mercy, and that 
 the atoning merits of Our Lord will be ap- 
 plied in his behalf. That contrite feeling, 
 that holy desire to return to God and to 
 the faithful discharge of his duties, does 
 it not come from God Himself? That 
 strength, that courage to sacrifice the 
 goods and pleasures of this world, his evil 
 passions and his own will, from whom 
 does all this come but from God ? That 
 tender devotion, which led him to conse- 
 crate himself to God, and sustained him 
 in all his conflicts against his natural incli- 
 nations, who inspired it but God ? 
 
 If we could be so presumptuous as to 
 imagine that we owe this to ourselves, the 
 experience of our weakness should alone 
 undeceive us, and the words of Our Lord 
 
FALSE IDEAS AND FEELINGS. 39 
 
 condemn us. As He spoke to His apos- 
 tles, so does He still speak to every soul 
 consecrated to His service, "You have not 
 chosen Me: but I have chosen you' (John 
 xv. 16), even before you thought of Me, 
 whilst you neglected Me, and turned away 
 from Me, and obstinately resisted Me ! 
 Can God have done so much for us, 
 and yet not really wish to aid us when we 
 call upon Him for help ? Surely to think 
 this would be to accuse God of con- 
 tradicting Himself. No; when such a 
 soul has recourse to God, He will finish the 
 work He has commenced in her, and lead 
 her on to the perfection of her state. To 
 this He has pledged His word ; and He 
 still continues to urge the desponding soul 
 lovingly to cast herself upon the bosom of 
 His mercy, there to find peace and salva- 
 tion. 
 
 It is because we judge God by our own 
 
4 o FALSE IDEAS AND FEELINGS. 
 
 weak human hearts that we fear to ex- 
 haust His mercy. If a person to whom 
 we have given important assistance, whom 
 we have loaded with benefits, treats us with 
 ingratitude, and, in return for kindness, 
 heaps insults upon us, we turn away from 
 him as unworthy of further notice ; more 
 especially if he has made use of our very 
 benefits to injure us, we abandon him 
 forever. We should consider we were 
 acting against every dictate of common 
 sense and prudence, did we continue to 
 furnish him with arms to use against us. 
 
 The same feelings and judgment we 
 ascribe to God, forgetting that His ways 
 are as far removed from our ways as the 
 heavens are from the earth. God bears 
 with our wanderings because He is eter- 
 nal and all-powerful, and He knows that 
 the day of His justice will come, when all 
 shall be brought into order, and forever. 
 
FALSE IDEAS AND FEELINGS. 41 
 
 He is patient because He is infinitely good, 
 and wishes to give us the means to return 
 to Him. He who knows all things has seen 
 from all eternity all our weaknesses, our 
 ingratitude, and our reiterated falls. He 
 has foreseen that we could not do any- 
 thing of ourselves, much less return to 
 Him without help ; and that help He has 
 prepared for us in the person of His Son, 
 Jesus. He entreats us, He even com- 
 mands us to call upon Him in all our 
 wanderings, and He will assist us, He will 
 be our propitiation ; for it is in helping us 
 and pardoning us that His mercy is exer- 
 cised. 
 
 This conduct God evinced in a striking 
 manner toward the Jewish nation. When- 
 ever they fell into idolatry, God punished 
 them, to bring them back to their 
 allegiance. When they abandoned their 
 Lord to serve strange gods, He would 
 
42 FALSE IDEAS AND FEELINGS. 
 
 deliver them over to their enemies, to 
 be held in cruel bondage. Then, when 
 bowed down by the miseries of their 
 servitude, they lifted up their hearts to 
 God and called upon Him with confi- 
 dence, God sent them a deliverer to free 
 them from the hard yoke under which 
 they groaned. And so did they continue 
 during a period of four hundred years, 
 continually relapsing into idolatry, and as 
 often experiencing the mercy of God when 
 they called upon Him. 
 
 Judge from this if God will tire in 
 pardoning us, if we turn to Him with a 
 sincerely contrite heart. But if the con- 
 duct of God toward His Jewish people 
 does not remove your fears, listen to the 
 words of the Prophet- King, inspired by 
 the Holy Ghost, who assures us that God 
 will not despise " A contrite and humbled 
 heart" (Ps. 1. 19). 
 
FALSE IDEAS AND FEELINGS. 43 
 
 When, terrified by the recollection of 
 our sins, we have the thought or the wish 
 to return to God, it is He who is then 
 attracting us by His grace. Does He call 
 us only that He may refuse to receive us ? 
 Who can think it? He told St. Peter 
 to forgive after every offence, "/ say not 
 to thee, till seven times: but till seventy 
 times seven" (Matt, xviii. 22), and by this 
 we may learn to know His dispositions in 
 our regard. Ah! we little know the 
 boundless tenderness of that divine Heart, 
 if we judge of it by our own, or if we 
 imagine that it ever ceases to care for us. 
 So long as we are in this life we are under 
 the law of mercy, and of that mercy we 
 can ever avail ourselves. It is death only 
 that places us under the law of immutable 
 justice. 
 
44 LOSING CONFIDENCE. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 OUR REPEATED INFIDELITIES OUGHT NOT TO 
 MAKE US LOSE CONFIDENCE IN GOD — IT IS 
 THE WANT OF FAITH THAT MAKES US FEAR. 
 
 God, who is the tender Father of all His 
 creatures, has taken every means to 
 remove that excessive fear which would 
 draw them from Him. To prevent the 
 soul that has become sensible of its in- 
 gratitude and terrified at the view of its 
 repeated relapses into sin, after so often 
 obtaining pardon for them — to prevent 
 such a soul from losing all hope and dar- 
 ing no longer to cry out to Him from the 
 abyss into which it has again fallen, not 
 only does He assure it, by the mouth of 
 the Psalmist, " That those who hope in 
 Him shall never be confounded" but He 
 expressly declares the positive law of His 
 mercy, and commands us to hope in Him. 
 
LOSING CONFIDENCE. 45 
 
 This precept we cannot fully accomplish 
 but with the help of His grace ; and can 
 the Almighty have made this precept and 
 not wish to help us keep it? And can 
 He fail to be touched by our obedience 
 when we endeavor to do so? Can He 
 turn away from us, when we call upon 
 Him, as He has ordered us to do ? No ; 
 God cannot be otherwise than faithful to 
 His promises. If we fail, it is because we 
 have not asked with confidence, and be- 
 cause our faith is weak. 
 
 Let the Holy Scripture here furnish 
 you with another proof of this. St. Peter, 
 at the order of his divine Master, confi- 
 dently walks upon the waters. The wind 
 rises, and the apostle's trust lessens; he 
 fears, and immediately begins to sink — 
 but the danger reanimates his confidence: 
 Peter has recourse to his divine Master, 
 who stretches forth His hand to save him 
 
46 LOSING CONFIDENCE. 
 
 from perishing. For our instruction Jesus 
 let His apostle know what danger he had 
 been in, when He thus reproached him : 
 " O thou of little faith, why didst thou 
 doubt V" (Matt. xiv. 31.) 
 
 A faithful picture of what too often 
 happens to Christian souls! So long as 
 all is at peace in our hearts, we proceed 
 with confidence toward Jesus. But let 
 the winds of temptation arise ; let the dif- 
 ficulties of our vocation be felt, we become 
 terrified — we forget that we are walking 
 at the call of Jesus ; we begin to fear, we 
 hesitate in our confidence ; and this first 
 infidelity weakens us still further — and 
 we begin to sink. If our confidence does 
 not reanimate and lead us to ask for help, 
 we shall be overwhelmed. 
 
 St. Peter would have perished had he 
 not called upon Jesus for help ; and his 
 kind Master heard him. If we have 
 
NEARNESS OF GOD. 47 
 
 imitated the apostle in our weakness, like 
 him also let us lose no time in invoking 
 the Saviour in our need. We should 
 experience His protection, and thus should 
 we be spared all those anxieties, and fears, 
 and falls, which our want of confidence 
 occasions. Help is ever at hand, and ever 
 ready for the asking; it is our own fault 
 if we do not make use of it 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 GOD IS NEVER SO NEAR TO US TO ASSIST US 
 IN OUR CONFLICTS AS WHEN WE IMAGINE 
 HIM FAR AWAY. HE HIDES HIMSELF ONLY 
 THAT WE MAY SEEK HIM AND FIND HIM. 
 
 Sometimes God does not make us wait 
 for Him long, and we have a sensible 
 feeling of His assistance as soon as we 
 call upon Him. Hardly had Peter ex- 
 
48 NEARNESS OF GOD. 
 
 claimed, " Lord, save me, or I perish ! " 
 but the hand of the Saviour was stretched 
 forth to save him. At other times our 
 divine Lord acts in a more hidden man- 
 ner. Sometimes He watches our strug- 
 gles without letting His presence be felt, 
 but never is He so near to us, so ready 
 to help us as soon as we call, as when 
 the danger is greatest and most press- 
 ing. We become terrified because we 
 do not seriously realize Our Saviours 
 presence; we think He is afar off, and 
 yet He is in our very heart, and it is 
 He that is strengthening us. We think 
 He is unmindful of our danger, and all 
 the time He is watching over our pres- 
 ervation, moderating the swelling waves 
 of our passions that might cause us to 
 sink, saying to them : " Hitherto thou 
 shalt come, and thou shalt go no further, 
 and here thou shalt break thy swelling 
 
NEARNESS OF GOD. 49 
 
 waves" (Job xxxviii. 11). Our Saviour, 
 who has taught us by His actions as 
 well as by His words, gives us upon this 
 subject a lesson which is as clear as it 
 is consoling. Once as he lay in Peters 
 bark it was tossed by a furious storm, 
 which seemed to threaten its total wreck. 
 He appears to be sleeping, and uncon- 
 scious of the danger, but He is all the 
 while directing the disciples in the ef- 
 forts they are making to save their little 
 craft. But the danger and the labor con- 
 tinue so long as they forget to have re- 
 course to their divine Master, and with 
 that confidence which works miracles. 
 As soon as they call upon Him, He 
 answers, He rises, and commands the 
 winds and waves to be still. "And there 
 came a great calm" (Matt. viii. 26). How 
 often have we not experienced the same 
 thing ? When exposed to temptation, 
 
50 NEARNESS OF GOD. 
 
 which God permits in order to strengthen 
 us in humility and vigilance, we see our- 
 selves upon the very edge of a precipice, 
 into which we look with horror ; we imag- 
 ine that we have no longer any strength, 
 and that we are on the point of yielding ; 
 but notwithstanding the efforts of the 
 enemy, we keep up our courage, we re- 
 sist, and we continue at the post of duty. 
 In that trying situation, what strength 
 upheld us ? Surely we will not have 
 the presumption to suppose that we have 
 resisted by the power or by the strength 
 of those resolutions which have so often 
 wavered? Oh, no; we must admit that 
 it was a celestial power that rescued us 
 from shipwreck. Jesus Christ Himself 
 was secretly working in our hearts. His 
 assistance was not apparent, it was not 
 the less real ; the arm that upheld us 
 was invisible, it was not the less strong. 
 
CONQUERING AND FIGHTING. 51 
 
 We know not how we resisted, we only 
 know that we have been victorious in 
 our combat through the grace of Jesus 
 Christ, who has once more reestablished 
 in our heart that peace which our temp- 
 tation had disturbed. It is on such occa- 
 sions that the soul must "Against hope 
 believe in hope" (Rom. iv. 18). 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 WE CANNOT CONQUER WITHOUT FIGHTING — AND 
 THERE IS NO FIGHTING WITHOUT TROUBLE. 
 
 The arguments that show the necessity 
 for Christian hope are readily admitted; 
 but the devil endeavors, by his artful sug- 
 gestions, to make the despondent soul 
 find pretexts for not applying them to 
 herself. Indolence or aversion to every- 
 thing that gives trouble is common to all 
 
52 CONQUERING AND FIGHTING. 
 
 men. When we have devoted ourselves 
 to God's service, we would like to enjoy 
 the happiness of our condition without its 
 costing us much, forgetting the words of 
 Our Saviour — " The kingdom of heaven 
 suffereth violence, and the violent bear it 
 away" (Matt. xi. 12). Let us ever re- 
 member that Christ did not enter into 
 His glory until after He had suffered, and 
 that He has admitted His saints to share 
 it only after crosses, and combats, and 
 sacrifices, the renouncing of their passions 
 and their self-will. 
 
 Heaven is a reward; and we can earn 
 it only by preferring God and His holy 
 will before all other things, and being 
 ready to sacrifice whatever is dearest to 
 us whenever He requires it. This, then, 
 is certain, and St. Paul declares it: "He 
 also that striveth for the mastery is not 
 crowned except he strive lawfully " (2 Tim. 
 
CONQUERING AND FIGHTING. 53 
 
 ii. 5). To aspire to the crown of justice 
 without fighting is a contradiction to the 
 truths of faith — to expect to fight and 
 yet not to suffer is contrary to common 
 sense. But it is often from the very 
 knowledge we have of what God re- 
 quires of us, that the devil uses his argu- 
 ments for discouraging us, making use 
 of our sloth to intimidate us from under- 
 taking the necessary labor. It costs us 
 nothing to follow our natural inclina- 
 tions; it costs us much to repress them, 
 and the enemy of our souls never loses 
 sight of that, and contrives, readily 
 enough, to make us prefer the former. 
 Therefore does he set before our eyes 
 a lively representation of the difficulties 
 we shall undergo in the service of God, 
 and that our life will be a constant tor- 
 ture and a constant battle. But, on the 
 other hand, he carefully conceals the 
 
54 CONQUERING AND FIGHTING. 
 
 peace of heart which we shall find in 
 obeying God, the solid consolations we 
 shall receive in our trials, the hope of 
 our eternal reward. No, the devil will 
 show us our weakness to its fullest ex- 
 tent, will remind us of our repeated re- 
 lapses; but the mercy of God, and the 
 support of that all-powerful arm which 
 so often upheld us, he will try to make 
 us forget. 
 
 Let us now see how we are apt to be- 
 have under this species of temptation. 
 Entirely absorbed by the thought of our 
 weakness, and the difficulties of what we 
 have undertaken, we fall into discourage- 
 ment, instead of exclaiming with holy king 
 David : " Though I should walk in the 
 midst of the shadow of death, I will fear 
 no evils: for Thou art with me" (Ps. xxii. 
 4). In this state of discouragement we 
 have but a feeble hope that God will help 
 
CONQUERING AND FIGHTING. 55 
 
 us ; we hardly expect it, we scarcely dare 
 to ask for it; perhaps, even, we fear to 
 attain it, lest it should oblige us to relin- 
 quish certain favorite inclinations. In 
 this condition, despairing of being able to 
 persevere in such a life of self-violence, we 
 struggle but feebly, if at all. Our first 
 relapse serves to confirm this impression 
 — that it is useless for us to resist, and 
 that we must only wait for the time when 
 our passions shall be weaker. 
 
 Henceforward, everything becomes more 
 difficult. Disgust and the spirit of indif- 
 ference with regard to our duties take 
 possession of our mind and heart, and 
 these duties are thus rendered only the 
 more arduous. Our exercises of piety we 
 omit altogether, or acquit ourselves of 
 them so carelessly that they can scarcely 
 be pleasing to God. A dissipated and 
 distracted state of mind and heart succeed 
 
56 CONQUERING AND FIGHTING. 
 
 the interior life which we formerly led. 
 We abandon our pious practices, resist 
 grace, silence the voice of our con- 
 science, and even avoid entertaining good 
 thoughts. We follow only the bent of 
 our inclinations and caprices, where we 
 meet with no resistance. In His mercy 
 God may at times speak to us, but we 
 have begun to dread the voice that would 
 urge us to shake off the bonds of sloth 
 and lukewarmness. This is the point to 
 which the enemy of our salvation has 
 sought to lead us; he wished to prevent 
 us from reflection and from working for 
 our salvation ; and he has succeeded. 
 
 These details are perhaps lengthy, but 
 they may help you to understand the 
 enemy's plan of attack, and enable you to 
 prepare a defence which shall defeat his 
 designs. 
 
 I am quite aware that could we foresee 
 
CONQUERING AND FIGHTING. 57 
 
 all the difficulties and trials that must be 
 encountered in the service of God, taken 
 collectively for the space of a long life, we 
 might well feel appalled. But is this the 
 way in which we are called upon to en- 
 counter the trials of a Christian life ? Our 
 temptations and trials generally meet us 
 separately; to-day we have one enemy to 
 combat, to-morrow another, according to 
 the occasion. If there are some that 
 again and again have to be met and over- 
 come, there are others that return but 
 seldom. Against the former we must 
 guard ourselves in an especial manner; 
 against the latter we must prepare our- 
 selves by frequent exercise of the love of 
 God. It would surely evince great pusil- 
 lanimity to be afraid to resist an enemy 
 that opposes us singly, and grows strong 
 only in proportion as we show ourselves to 
 be weak. Tremble at his approach and 
 
58 CONQUERING AND FIGHTING. 
 
 you are overcome; but resist him, invok- 
 ing God's assistance, and you are sure to 
 conquer. 
 
 Never consider collectively what is to 
 be presented to you separately. We have 
 only to answer for the present, and there- 
 fore to torment one's self about the uncer- 
 tain future is folly. Such conduct is 
 really going in advance of temptation, or, 
 in other words, seeking it; it is laying 
 snares for one's own destruction. Why 
 should we suffer in imagination that 
 which we may never have to suffer in 
 reality ? " Sufficient for the day is the 
 evil thereof" (Matt. vi. 34). To expose 
 one's self to temptation is contrary alike 
 to religion and to Christian prudence. 
 
 If, then, a person does violence to him- 
 self for the love of God, and in the hope 
 of reward — if, at any trial to which he is 
 exposed, he occupies himself exclusively 
 
CONQUERING AND FIGHTING. 59 
 
 with it, and thinks only how he will de- 
 rive from it the greatest benefit — he will 
 easily undergo them all successively, by 
 the grace of Our Lord, and with great 
 merit to himself. 
 
 A person in religious life feels a repug- 
 nance for the yoke and restraint of obedi- 
 ence and regularity. Suppose, instead of 
 overcoming himself on each occasion, he 
 begins to consider the difficulty of a whole 
 life passed in such constraint ; his courage 
 sinks at the prospect, and he is ready to 
 despair. But let him only look at it as 
 the restraint of a day, or half a day, or only 
 in connection with the present duty; half 
 the difficulty vanishes, and he finds his 
 strength is fully equal to it. And, indeed, 
 it is frequently but a momentary trial, and 
 the trouble ceases when the determination 
 is firmly taken. 
 
 Let us rest assured, too, that we are very 
 
60 CONQUERING AND FIGHTING. 
 
 much mistaken, if we think that the diffi- 
 culty which we experience in self-mortifi- 
 cation, and in performing our duties for 
 the love of God, will continue as vivid and 
 painful as we find it in the beginning. 
 Experience teaches us that, on merely 
 natural principles, when we frequently 
 perform any action, or through the assist- 
 ance of divine grace accustom ourselves 
 to act from good motives, we contract a 
 habit of doing so which becomes easier 
 with every repetition. Whatever diffi- 
 culty at first existed gradually diminishes 
 and finally disappears. Let us only, for a 
 while, do violence to ourselves, and per- 
 form our actions with fidelity and exact- 
 ness as to time and place, and we shall 
 soon find that we do them, as it were, in- 
 stinctively, and the religious motive seems 
 to present itself of its own accord. So true 
 is this that some scrupulous souls are 
 
CONQUERING AND FIGHTING. 61 
 
 apt to become troubled and wrongly im- 
 agine that they have no merit, because 
 they no longer feel the sacrifice or the 
 suffering in the duty which had cost them 
 so much at first. They overlook the fact 
 that it is the supernatural motive, under 
 the instigation of grace, which gives merit 
 to the action, and not its difficulty. 
 
 Religion, moreover, teaches us that God 
 rewards the efforts we make to overcome 
 ourselves, by imparting graces which not 
 only lessen our difficulties, but even cause 
 us to derive pleasure from what was at first 
 so painful. And even though the trial 
 continues for a longer time, He will never 
 suffer it to surpass our strength aided by 
 the grace which He has provided, and 
 which we can always obtain through 
 prayer. Rely on this promise, for it can 
 never fail. 
 
 Let us never dwell upon the uncertainty 
 
6z TEMPTING GOD. 
 
 of our perseverance, without also remem- 
 bering Gods assurance that He will help 
 us and reward us ; this will strengthen us 
 and reanimate our confidence. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 IT IS TEMPTING GOD AND TEMPTING ONE'S SELF 
 TO BE SOLICITOUS ABOUT THE CONFLICTS 
 THAT MAY AWAIT US. 
 
 Many will say, is it not required of me 
 to have the disposition to fulfil all my ob- 
 ligations? Yet, when I foresee all that 
 they may entail upon me, I do not feel the 
 strength to undergo such conflicts for a 
 whole lifetime — how is it possible, then, 
 not to tremble and to feel discouraged ? 
 
 In the first place, as we have before re- 
 marked, these conflicts will not always 
 continue with the same power, nor shall 
 
TEMPTING GOD. 63 
 
 you be so keenly conscious of them ; there- 
 fore do not judge of the difficulty of per- 
 severing by that which you at present 
 experience. Begin with your present help, 
 and hope for the same in the time to come. 
 
 Secondly, God forbids us rashly to ex- 
 pose ourselves to the occasion of tempta- 
 tion. He has not promised His assistance 
 to the one who, with distrustful solicitude, 
 anticipates in imagination all his possible 
 trials and that collectively ; trials which he 
 may perhaps not have to undergo, and 
 which, should they come at all, will cer- 
 tainly never come all at once. To-day 
 you may not feel the strength to encounter 
 them ; but the hour for the battle has not 
 yet struck — there is a grace awaiting you 
 for that trial. You have not yet received 
 it, and it is no wonder, therefore, that you 
 should feel alarmed. 
 
 But why should you thus, contrary to 
 
64 TEMPTING GOD. 
 
 the will of God, expose yourself to tempta- 
 tions ? Why should you seek to sound 
 your heart, to find out how you are dis- 
 posed in regard to the heavy crosses, the 
 violent temptations, and the protracted 
 conflicts which others have to endure, and 
 which, possibly, may fall to your lot ? God 
 has promised His sufficient grace for the 
 sacrifices He requires of us, but He has 
 not promised His assistance to those who, 
 in imagination, place themselves in circum- 
 stances that do not exist, and to which, 
 possibly, they may never be exposed. 
 
 The truly Christian soul is humble, and 
 far from seeking danger, fears and avoids 
 it. It is from rashness, from a secret pre- 
 sumption and self-love, that you thus seek 
 temptation. 
 
 Is it then surprising that you find your 
 will weak and irresolute? God's holy 
 grace is not dispensed according to our 
 
TEMPTING GOD. 65 
 
 whims and fancies, but according to our 
 real needs, when we submit to the order 
 of His providence. 
 
 Let us beware of the temptation that 
 deludes imprudent and misguided souls, 
 in causing them to dwell upon imaginary 
 and future difficulties that may never 
 exist, and thus leading them to neglect 
 the present efforts and sacrifices which 
 God is requiring of them. Losing sight 
 of a reality, they follow a shadow. 
 
 The faithful soul who desires to please 
 God must not anticipate in her imagina- 
 tion painful trials under pretext of testing 
 her readiness to accept them. This species 
 of foresight, God, far from approving, con- 
 demns. It is, in a certain sense, tempting 
 divine providence. Though the intention 
 that leads to it may appear good, do not 
 trust to it, but carefully avoid it. What 
 God requires of us is an abiding determi- 
 
66 TEMPTING GOD. 
 
 nation not only to avoid sin, but its proxi- 
 mate occasions, to bear with submission 
 the crosses that await us daily, and not to 
 invent crosses in order to carry them before 
 they are sent. It will be time enough to 
 suffer when God permits it, without seek- 
 ing to suffer beforehand, a trouble which 
 He has not yet given us, and which, per- 
 haps, He may never send. These imagi- 
 nary evils, rashly taken upon ourselves, 
 will be all the harder because God will not 
 aid us to bear them. 
 
 If the anticipation of these crosses in- 
 trudes itself upon the mind without the 
 consent of the will, then raise the heart to 
 God, and say, with confidence and with 
 love : " If it is Thy will, O my God, that 
 these crosses be laid upon me, let me 
 hope that, according to Thy promise, and 
 through the merits of Jesus Christ, I may 
 be assisted to carry them." After this 
 
THE SERVICE OF GOD. 67 
 
 little prayer banish these dangerous con- 
 siderations ; apply yourself to the faithful 
 fulfilment of your duties, to mortifying 
 yourself when the occasion offers. This 
 fidelity will be a much more certain and 
 useful proof of your love of God. 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 OF WEARINESS, DISGUST, AND DIFFICULTIES IN 
 THE SERVICE OF GOD — CAUSES OF A DIS- 
 COURAGEMENT CONTRARY TO REASON. 
 
 The Christian who thinks that all his 
 prayers are vain to conquer his ruling 
 passion, or to overcome an habitual temp- 
 tation, who feels in the service cf God 
 only weariness and disgust, becomes per- 
 plexed and anxious. The evil one soon 
 begins to suggest to him that God does 
 not hear him, that his prayers are useless, 
 
68 THE SERVICE OF GOD. 
 
 and thus leads him to the very brink of 
 discouragement, seeing in God only a 
 hard and angry master, whom he no 
 longer hopes to be able to please. What 
 deceives such a person (whom God has 
 not abandoned, but permits to be tried) 
 is, that as he serves God with disgust, 
 with languor, and with dryness of heart, 
 he presumes that his service is neither 
 pleasing to God, nor meritorious to him- 
 self. This thought at first depresses 
 and soon discourages him altogether, un- 
 less the Lord vouchsafe to grant him a 
 return of that spiritual sweetness which 
 he once enjoyed, and still continues to 
 ask for. Such a person must be reminded 
 of the truths of religion, which will reani- 
 mate his confidence and prove to him 
 that his fears were groundless. 
 
 That weariness, those repugnances and 
 disgusts which are often accompanied by 
 
THE SERVICE OF GOD. 69 
 
 other temptations, are not in themselves 
 sins — they are not even imperfections; 
 how, then, can they detract from the merit 
 of our actions or prevent their being pleas- 
 ing to God ? Man cannot know the in- 
 terior, and consequently judges of the 
 merit and excellence of an action by out- 
 ward appearances of zeal ; so that, in his 
 eyes, the manner in which the action is 
 performed greatly augments or diminishes 
 its value. But it is not thus with God — 
 He reads the heart, and judges of the 
 sincerity of our intentions in themselves, 
 and without regard to exterior forms. To 
 please God it suffices to be obedient to 
 His holy will. 
 
 This truth is undeniable; we have for 
 its support the word and example of Jesus 
 Christ Himself. Our divine Lord, teach- 
 ing His disciples, says : " He that doth the 
 will of My Father who is in heaven, he 
 
70 THE SERVICE OF GOD. 
 
 shall enter into the kingdom of heaven " 
 (Matt. vii. 21). He does not say that we 
 must do it with pleasure, or from a sensi- 
 ble attraction ; He only requires us to do it, 
 no matter what the difficulty may be, and 
 it is for this that He promises us salva- 
 tion. If that state of disgust and weari- 
 ness does not prevent the Christian soul 
 from properly performing the duties that 
 God requires of her, it follows that it is 
 not an obstacle to sanctification and 
 salvation. 
 
 Our divine Saviour confirms His teach- 
 ing by His example. Though incapable, 
 not only of sin, but even of the slightest 
 imperfection, He chose, nevertheless, to 
 undergo the same trials to which He 
 subjects His creatures. In the desert 
 He permitted the evil spirit to tempt 
 Him by suggestions of vanity, of worldly 
 honors, and of presumptuous confidence. 
 
THE SERVICE OF GOD. 71 
 
 In the garden of Olives, at the prospect 
 of the sufferings that awaited Him, and 
 of the ingratitude of mankind, He under- 
 went a most oppressive desolation of 
 heart, profound sadness, and intense dis- 
 gust. But as these temptations and feel- 
 ings did not change His fidelity and 
 submission to the will of the Father, in 
 that state of suffering and desolation, He 
 was not less the object of the admiration 
 of heaven and of the complacency of 
 the eternal Father. 
 
 It is therefore certain that the state 
 of temptation, of desolation, of repugnance 
 and weariness, which the soul may experi- 
 ence, however great it may be, is not a 
 sin in itself; that these involuntary feel- 
 ings are not even imperfections, and the 
 duties performed whilst in that state are 
 none the less pleasing to God and meri- 
 torious for salvation. 
 
72 THE SERVICE OF GOD. 
 
 I cannot too much insist upon this 
 truth; for I am conscious that there are 
 many who, notwithstanding the words 
 and example of Jesus Christ, are always 
 troubled by what they experience in 
 this state of dryness and desolation — 
 they have read that they must serve 
 the Lord with gladness, and as soon as 
 they cease to experience this feeling, 
 which Jesus Christ does not require of 
 them, and which does not depend upon 
 them but only upon God as we shall 
 elsewhere show, they begin to tremble 
 and fear that they are separated from 
 God ; and even that they are already 
 rejected by Him. 
 
 Let us reason still further upon this. 
 As long as you do not yield to these 
 temptations, to this dryness and disgust, 
 you endure them against your will, they 
 do not depend upon you. If they de- 
 
THE SERVICE OF GOD. 73 
 
 pended upon you, you certainly would 
 not permit them, since they make you 
 suffer so much. Now, it is clear that 
 feelings that do not depend upon you, 
 and that you do not wilfully entertain, 
 which you even struggle against, cannot 
 render you guilty before God. You are 
 only responsible before God for that which 
 depends upon yourself, to do or not to do, 
 and is the free choice of your will. 
 
 This is a truth upon which the Church 
 has decided, and which cannot therefore 
 be doubted; it is a truth which reason 
 herself teaches. How could we recon- 
 cile our belief of the justice and good- 
 ness of the Almighty with the idea that 
 He would punish us for that which we 
 could not avoid ? It is positive, therefore, 
 that a state of dryness has nothing in 
 itself that can render the soul displeas- 
 ing to God. 
 
74 THE SERVICE OF GOD. 
 
 We must further add, for the consola- 
 tion of tempted and discouraged souls, 
 that if, in this state, they do not relax from 
 the faithful discharge of their duties, they 
 are really evincing to the Almighty a more 
 fervent love, they obtain from Him a 
 more convincing proof of His protection, 
 and they receive more merit for their 
 actions, than when, sustained by more 
 sensible consolations, they experience little 
 or no difficulty. It cannot be doubted 
 that the more enemies there are to be 
 conquered and difficulties to be sur- 
 mounted, to accomplish the will of God, 
 the more must such a soul be strengthened 
 by divine love. If its love were weak it 
 could not resist the evil powers that 
 combine to overthrow it. The fidelity of 
 the soul in that state exhibits the mercy 
 of God in its regard, in the strength of 
 His grace, by which it is sustained, — a 
 
THE SERVICE OF GOD. 75 
 
 grace not the less powerful and merito- 
 rious in that it is not sensibly felt. 
 
 In these conflicts, which are frequently 
 long and obstinate, we may commit some 
 faults — it is the lot of human nature — but 
 let them not cause alarm, for they are 
 repaired by the sacrifices which we are 
 constantly offering to God. If, then, we 
 bear this cross with submission ; if we 
 constantly deny ourselves, to follow in the 
 spirit of faith the light which we have 
 received, can we fear we shall be rejected 
 from among the followers of Jesus ? Has 
 not that divine Saviour said that to follow 
 Him " We must deny ourselves, and take up 
 our cross" (Matt. xvi. 24)? This is what 
 is done when we persevere notwithstand- 
 ing our aridity, weariness, and disgust. 
 Can we think God will permit so many 
 sacrifices to go unrewarded? No, the 
 Apostle says : " God is not unjust, that He 
 
j6 FULFILMENT OF OUR PRAYERS. 
 
 should forget your work and the love which 
 you have shoivn in His name" (Heb. vi. 
 10). Be faithful, then, your reward is at 
 hand. God's word can never fail. A few 
 days of light labor, and then — eternity! an 
 eternity of ineffable happiness — and a hap- 
 piness which generally begins even in this 
 life, by the graces of consolation and 
 peace which God sends to the soul He 
 has previously tried. Such is the lot 
 awarded to you. The saints have shared 
 it with you. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 IT IS NOT WELL TO ASK GOD TO PUT AN END 
 TO OUR TRIALS AND DIFFICULTIES, AND TO 
 DESIRE THE IMMEDIATE FULFILMENT OF OUR 
 PRAYERS. 
 
 Notwithstanding the truths we have 
 just laid down, it must be admitted that 
 
FULFILMENT OF OUR PRAYERS. 77 
 
 this state of aridity and disgust is always 
 hard to bear. Man naturally abhors dif- 
 ficulties and trials. Instead of being- 
 occupied with the advantages accruing 
 from these conflicts, he is mindful only of 
 the efforts they cost, and turns to God for 
 assistance. But what is his prayer? It 
 is that God should put an end to this 
 state of anxiety, weariness, and disgust. 
 If the Almighty does not grant it, but 
 wishes to try him further, he imagines that 
 he prays in vain, that God does not hear 
 him, that he does not obtain the assist- 
 ance which he implores. Trouble, fear, 
 and discouragement take entire possession 
 of him. In this state he does not know 
 what to ask of God; he scarcely dares to 
 address Him. While he exclaims with 
 the Saviour: " My Father, if it be possible, 
 let this chalice pass from me;" he has 
 not the courage to add, "nevertheless not 
 
78 FULFILMENT OF OUR PRAYERS. 
 
 as I will, but as Thou wilt" (Matt. xxvi. 
 39). It requires a lively faith and ardent 
 love thus to cast one's self into the arms 
 of divine providence, which, nevertheless, 
 guards us with a care that is proportioned 
 to the perfection of our confidence. 
 
 Religion teaches us that God, in His 
 dealings with His creatures, can only have 
 in view His own glory and their ultimate 
 sanctification. It belongs, therefore, to 
 God alone to decide in what way He 
 chooses to be glorified by our service, and 
 by what path He chooses to lead us to 
 our sanctification and happiness. Shall 
 the creature presume to serve the Creator 
 according to his own ideas and peculiar 
 predilections — prescribe to Him the man- 
 ner in which he wishes to be led by His 
 providence, and determine the conditions 
 on which He must assign His rewards ? 
 The very idea is an extravagant delusion ; 
 
FULFILMENT OF OUR PRAYERS. 79 
 
 for it would be leaving us to be guided by 
 our own passions and prejudices. 
 
 Man's position, therefore, with regard to 
 God, must be that of an humble and entire 
 submission. His first care must be to 
 seek to know what God requires of him, 
 and then to follow in the path He points 
 out, with confidence, with love and 
 docility. God must trace the plan; it is 
 for man to execute it with the help of 
 God's grace. If he enters the path with 
 the proper dispositions, it will be the 
 safest one for him, because God, in select- 
 ing it for his sanctification, has prepared 
 especial graces to guide and strengthen 
 him therein. Whenever we are thus in 
 the state which providence has designed 
 for us, we may always expect this especial 
 protection. 
 
 If God chooses to lead a soul to heaven 
 through the path of dryness and desolation, 
 
80 FULFILMENT OF OUR PRAYERS. 
 
 may it pray that the will of providence 
 be changed in its behalf ? It may, for 
 even Christ did the same ; and the prayer 
 is often granted. A delay in granting a 
 petition is not a refusal; perseverance 
 may obtain it from God, when the time to 
 show us His mercy has come. But we 
 should never make this the single object 
 of our prayers, so as to become disheart- 
 ened should it be refused. In so doing, 
 we should not follow the example given by 
 Our Saviour, and imitated by His saints ; 
 but rather the suggestions of the tempter, 
 who seeks to turn us from God, and the 
 path His providence has marked out for 
 us. 
 
 The first and chief object of our prayers 
 should be to ask of God submission to His 
 holy will, and grace to fulfil with resigna- 
 tion, with fidelity, and with love, the duties 
 of the state in which He has placed us 
 
FULFILMENT OF OUR PRAYERS. 81 
 
 for our sanctification, for He and not our- 
 selves has chosen that state. But let this 
 prayer be made with the humble convic- 
 tion that we deserve no favors from God, 
 and that having had the misfortune to 
 offend Him, it is only through His mercy 
 that He continues to bear with us; and 
 that, like the prodigal son, we should not 
 expect to be treated as His children, but 
 like the meanest of His servants, bearing 
 with the trials of our state in the spirit of 
 penance, and abandoning ourselves to His 
 providence to suffer as long as He is 
 glorified by our sufferings. This is the 
 best means we can adopt to obtain from 
 God a deliverance from our painful trials. 
 
 You think God does not hear you 
 because He leaves you in the state of 
 aridity and temptation, from which you 
 have prayed to be delivered ! This is not 
 according to the teachings of religion. If 
 
82 FULFILMENT OF OUR PRAYERS. 
 
 your prayer is made with confidence, with 
 submission, and with perseverance, it will 
 certainly be heard ; Christ Himself has 
 promised it. God may not grant the par- 
 ticular favor you ask for; He may see 
 that it would be prejudicial to you, or less 
 useful than other gifts which He intends 
 to confer upon you. Instead of the favor 
 which you seek, but which His mercy 
 withholds, He will give you graces that are 
 more precious and more desirable, and 
 that will enable you to practise the higher 
 virtues of religion ; graces that will enable 
 you to merit heaven, by self-denial, morti- 
 fication, submission, the spirit of penance ; 
 graces that will support you in your 
 conflicts, and that will teach you your 
 nothingness, convince you of your weak- 
 ness, preserve you in Christian humility, 
 the foundation of all true virtue, in watch- 
 fulness over yourself, and in union with 
 
FULFILMENT OF OUR PRAYERS. 83 
 
 God to solicit His help, the need of which 
 you will more and more estimate. 
 
 This disposition of providence is clearly 
 pointed out to us by St. Paul. That great 
 apostle frequently entreated the Lord to 
 deliver him from a humiliating temptation 
 which tormented him ; but God permitted 
 this temptation, lest, as the apostle him- 
 self relates, " The greatness of the revela- 
 tions should exalt me" (2 Cor. xii. 7). 
 God refused to deliver him from his temp- 
 tation, but assured him of His help. " My 
 grace is sufficient for thee" (2 Cor. xii. 9). 
 Therefore the refusal to grant the prayer 
 of one who has been long tempted and 
 troubled, does not argue that God has 
 turned from him and abandoned him. It 
 only proves that God's designs over him 
 are not according to his views, and that 
 though He does not deliver him, He is 
 ever ready to help him. 
 
84 THE COST OF VICTORY. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 WE WOULD WISH THE ALMIGHTY TO DO ALL 
 FOR US, AND TO GIVE US THE VICTORY 
 WITHOUT ITS COSTING US ANYTHING: A PER- 
 NICIOUS ERROR, AN UNFAIR REQUEST, AND A 
 COMMON CAUSE OF DISCOURAGEMENT. 
 
 " I should be satisfied," say some of 
 those who complain that their petitions 
 are not granted, "if I experienced the 
 effects of this merciful providence, but I 
 do not see that God helps me to be more 
 faithful to my duties." To throw light 
 upon this difficulty, let us consult the 
 truths of religion which ought to direct 
 our judgments. Let us walk in the light 
 of faith, which should illumine us; we 
 shall be able to prove that if you are not 
 more faithful to your duties, it is not 
 because God's grace is wanting, but that 
 you are wanting toward God, 
 
THE COST OF VICTORY. 85 
 
 According to religion, God will not 
 work out our salvation without our own 
 concurrence. He created us without our 
 own cooperation, but He will not save us 
 without it. He requires that our prefer- 
 ence for Him be the choice of our own 
 free will. He has therefore put before 
 us good and evil, life and death ; and He 
 has said, " Choose which you will." To in- 
 cline us to good, He gives us light to see 
 the motives for it; love, gratitude, and 
 future reward. He excites in us many 
 feelings which cause us to love what is 
 good, and to desire it. He thus forestalls 
 us by His grace, and gives us aid in the 
 hour of need. This is what God has prom- 
 ised us, and this He does. To corre- 
 spond to all this, we must not lose sight of 
 those motives and those feelings (which 
 we too often do), but we must be imbued 
 with them, we must ponder them, and be 
 
86 THE COST OF VICTORY. 
 
 engrossed with them, and, docile to the 
 voice of the Holy Spirit, we must deny 
 ourselves to follow His inspirations, for 
 otherwise we cannot do good, and obtain 
 heaven. 
 
 Would you have reason to complain of 
 a friend who had given you wholesome 
 advice to avoid ^n evil, but to whom you 
 did not choose to listen because to follow 
 his advice would have entailed some little 
 trouble upon you? Would it not justly 
 be said of you that you had suffered 
 through your own fault? And yet this 
 is what we daily witness. How frequently, 
 fearing the labor we encounter in fighting 
 against our evil inclinations, we ask God 
 to free us from them, but it would seem 
 that the conditions are that He is to do 
 all and it is to cost us nothing. We as- 
 pire to the miracle performed for a St. 
 Paul. It seems as though we said : " If 
 
THE COST OF VICTORY. 87 
 
 this inclination be displeasing to God, why 
 does He not deliver me from it? Is He 
 not able to do so ? Why does He not 
 change the feelings of my heart ? He has 
 changed others in a moment." Waiting 
 for this miracle to be performed in our 
 favor, we, meanwhile, do nothing ourselves, 
 and do not heed the voice of God 
 whispering to our soul. Such dispositions, 
 as you must see, are not apt to draw down 
 upon us the mercy of God. 
 
 Whosoever expects to serve God with- 
 out doing violence to himself, contradicts 
 the words of Jesus Christ. Whosoever 
 expects miracles to be performed in his 
 favor does not deserve to be heard at 
 all. 
 
 Others, again, are free from such fool- 
 ish presumption, and are kept back in 
 the path of virtue from their over-anxiety 
 about their difficulties, and from their 
 
88 THE COST OF VICTORY. 
 
 deep conviction that they can in nothing 
 obtain merit ; their whole mind is ab- 
 sorbed by this, and their only petition to 
 God is to change their state. They hesi- 
 tate to follow the lights and pious inclina- 
 tions which God gives them, because not 
 finding in themselves the particular graces 
 which they are bent upon obtaining, and 
 which they persist in asking for, they fear 
 they are deceived. Thus the graces which 
 they do receive are rendered useless to 
 them, either by their inattention to them, 
 or by their opposition. Did they only 
 profit by those graces, although not such 
 as they asked for, they would soon obtain 
 what they desire, but which they cannot 
 expect so long as they resist God. 
 
 Let us study the providence of God 
 and the economy of His grace, and we 
 shall clearly discern the snare of the 
 tempter, who, joining error to a want of 
 
EXTRAORDINARY GRACES. 89 
 
 fidelity, causes the soul to fall into dis- 
 couragement. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 DISCOURAGEMENT OCCURS BECAUSE WE WILL 
 NOT PROFIT BY THE ORDINARY AID WHICH IS 
 WITHIN OUR REACH, BUT THROUGH A SLOTH- 
 FUL FEELING, WAIT FOR EXTRAORDINARY 
 GRACES. 
 
 It is always from want of instruction, 
 or from inattention to that which we 
 have received, that we are led to form 
 unreasonable expectations. God's provi- 
 dence in regard to man is of two kinds : 
 The first is extraordinary and miraculous, 
 in which He displays the wonders of His 
 power. The second is common and ordi- 
 nary, in which He acts, as our reason can 
 perceive, by means proportionate to the 
 end which His wisdom proposes. The 
 
9 o EXTRAORDINARY GRACES. 
 
 first is rare and passing. God employs 
 it only for some especial design, but man, 
 to whom these motives are unknown, 
 would be tempting God were he to 
 count on receiving it. 
 
 There is no doubt that the Almighty 
 can perform miracles, but He has prom- 
 ised them to no one. Therefore have 
 we no reasonable right to expect them, 
 either to help us in our wants or to guide 
 us in our actions. If a man should re- 
 frain from making any effort to obtain 
 the necessaries of life with the pretext 
 that God can, and does, at times, perform 
 miracles, he would surely be looked upon 
 as a madman. And is it less contrary 
 to all the established principles of the 
 Gospel, to count upon a daily miracle in 
 the order of grace for the life of the 
 soul ? 
 
 The second kind of providence is gen- 
 
EXTRAORDINARY GRACES. 91 
 
 eral, ordinary, and constant for all men. 
 If the Almighty has at times made use 
 of the first, with regard to some, in chang- 
 ing them all at once, He has afterward 
 made them return to the common order, 
 and treated them as the rest of mankind. 
 Witness St. Paul, who, after being raised 
 to the third heaven, " brought his body 
 into subjection, lest, perhaps, he should be- 
 come a castaway" (1 Cor. ix. 27). 
 
 The common and ordinary providence 
 of God leads us to the acquiring of 
 virtue, and to a knowledge of the means 
 which reason teaches us are necessary to 
 succeed in our undertaking ; and to em- 
 ploy them with the aid of religion, to 
 the end for which man was created — 
 God, and the happiness of possessing 
 Him. 
 
 If we wish to succeed in any art or 
 science, that desire naturally leads us to 
 
92 EXTRAORDINARY GRACES. 
 
 study its first principles with assiduity, 
 and to engrave them so profoundly in 
 our minds that they may be always pres- 
 ent to us, whenever we engage in that 
 occupation or study in which we seek 
 to perfect ourselves. We carefully avoid 
 proceeding contrary to those principles, 
 and should we fall into some mistake, 
 instead of being discouraged, we redouble 
 our efforts to repair it as soon as pos- 
 sible. Look at the men who wish to 
 succeed in their particular line — the art- 
 ist, the professor, the magistrate ; you will 
 find them all following the same path 
 — resisting the wearisomeness of the first 
 steps which are always tedious and re- 
 pugnant, putting themselves to incon- 
 veniences, and overcoming the greatest 
 difficulties. Such is the conduct of sen- 
 sible men in all the affairs of life. They 
 are incessantly occupied with them, and 
 
EXTRAORDINARY GRACES. 93 
 
 spare neither care nor trouble to succeed 
 in them. Reason teaches the same truth 
 to them all, and success justifies the wis- 
 dom of the means employed. 
 
 Such is also the ordinary providence 
 of God for those who labor in the prac- 
 tice of virtue, and in the great affair of 
 salvation — the means of success is the 
 same; only the motives and the end are 
 different. In the affairs of life it is some 
 earthly and perishable good that we seek, 
 and human motives impel us. In reli- 
 gion, the good we seek is celestial and 
 eternal, and our motives are superhuman. 
 It is God who inspires the desire, and 
 it is His grace that assists our efforts. 
 
 God, then, wills us to desire the pos- 
 session of eternal happiness; to strive for 
 it, as for the essential end of our being; 
 to perform those good works which may 
 insure its attainment; to avoid carefully 
 
94 EXTRAORDINARY GRACES. 
 
 whatever may forfeit or endanger it. In 
 short, He wishes us, in accordance with 
 the dictates of true reason, supported by 
 religious motives, to spare neither trouble, 
 nor pain, nor any heavenly means at our 
 command, to succeed in this pursuit. 
 Eternity is here at stake. 
 
 The Almighty has chosen this order 
 of providence in preference to any 
 other which He might have determined, 
 because He is the author of nature as 
 well as of grace. He wished, thereby, 
 to commit man to the necessity of work- 
 ing for his final happiness instead of re- 
 signing himself to a spiritual indolence 
 in which, not cooperating with God, he 
 would but feebly desire or esteem a 
 benefit that he would expect solely from 
 Him. He wished to leave man without 
 excuse if he failed to do for an eternal 
 good what he daily does for perishable 
 
EXTRAORDINARY GRACES. 
 
 95 
 
 ends, for a passing pleasure, and if he 
 neglected the dictates of reason in that 
 where it most concerned him to follow 
 them. 
 
 It is thus that God, in His all- wise 
 and merciful providence, instead of mak- 
 ing an open manifestation of His power, 
 offers His divine grace to His creatures, 
 to lead them in the path of faith, hope, 
 and love. Those lights, those feelings 
 and desires, teaching you what God re- 
 quires of you and leading you to accom- 
 plish that will, come not from yourself, 
 but from God. He is the author of 
 them, and it is He who suggests them 
 to you, and the means whereby to ele- 
 vate them, in order that they may attain 
 their end, which is your eternal salva- 
 tion. To refuse, therefore, these lights 
 and inspirations, because they are not 
 what we ask of God, or for any other 
 
96 EXTRAORDINARY GRACES 
 
 reason whatsoever, is to try to change 
 the appointed order of His providence, 
 and to reach heaven by a path different 
 from the one He has marked out for us. 
 
 What then must one do when tempted 
 to discouragement? Acting on the prin- 
 ciple that we should not willingly lose a 
 present good because we cannot obtain 
 another which we covet, until God once 
 more visits us with consolations, we 
 should submit ourselves to His holy 
 will, follow with docility the graces which 
 we receive, and avail ourselves with grati- 
 tude of the light which is accorded to 
 us. We shall then always find, in the 
 common and ordinary path of divine 
 providence, all that we need to sustain 
 us in the practice of virtue. 
 
 What justifies this principle of com- 
 mon prudence, and consecrates it in reli- 
 gious life, is that to follow this order of 
 
EXTRAORDINARY GRACES. 97 
 
 providence, from which we should never 
 swerve, it is not sufficient to avoid gross 
 faults, if we neglect at the same time, 
 omit, or negligently practise, the virtue 
 which God asks of us, in the graces 
 which He accords. The foolish virgins 
 were excluded from the marriage feast 
 because they were not found ready when 
 the bridegroom was announced (Matt, 
 xxv). The slothful servant was con- 
 demned because he had not profited by 
 the talent his master had intrusted to 
 him. That talent is time, which God 
 gives us ; it is grace, which we so often 
 receive, and of which we too often avail 
 ourselves as little as of the time which 
 we so carelessly squander. These strik- 
 ing examples should make a slothful and 
 tepid person enter into himself, and adher- 
 ing to the order of providence designed 
 for him, endeavor to profit by the light 
 
98 EXTRAORDINARY GRACES. 
 
 and grace which are given for his sancti- 
 fication. 
 
 Do not look upon this as mere human 
 reasoning. It is what Christ teaches in 
 His Gospel, where He recommends vigi- 
 lance and prayer, the renunciation of 
 desires that are contrary to the will o£ 
 God, care to avoid evil and to flee from 
 temptation. Hence, those saints and 
 Fathers of the Church, who, enlightened 
 by the Spirit of God, have given rules 
 for conducting souls to perfection, do 
 not prescribe anything extraordinary. 
 They are content to point out ordinary 
 means, frequent prayer, spiritual reading, 
 repeated examination of the conscience to 
 ascertain and correct our faults, silence, 
 which favors our union with God and 
 prevents dissipation, so fatal to the one 
 whom it withdraws from God, that, 
 neglecting Him, he may follow, as his 
 
ON RESISTANCE. 99 
 
 only guide, his evil desires and inclina- 
 tions. 
 
 The more you examine these means, 
 the more shall you find them conform- 
 able, not only to the Gospel, but to 
 reason. No matter how great may be 
 our dryness, weariness, disgust, and temp- 
 tations, we can always make use of 
 these means, which God will always 
 strengthen by His grace, if we have 
 recourse to Him with confidence. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 IT IS FALSE AND DANGEROUS TO THINK THAT 
 WE CAN DO NOTHING TO RESIST CERTAIN IN- 
 CLINATIONS AND HABITS WHICH OVERCOME US. 
 
 One of the illusions by which the 
 devil casts some souls into despondency, 
 or confirms them therein, is this, that 
 
ioo ON RESISTANCE. 
 
 certain of their inclinations and habits are 
 so strongly rooted that they cannot over- 
 come them. If you propose remedies for 
 their correction, they will be so reluctant 
 to adopt them as to declare that it is 
 out of their power, that it is utterly use- 
 less to make the attempt. Whilst in 
 this disposition the lights and inspira- 
 tions sent to them from heaven are 
 rendered of no avail by their negligence 
 or their resistance. 
 
 This is the excuse, but the real truth 
 is, that they are unwilling to employ 
 that violence against themselves which 
 is necessary for their amendment. They 
 do not ask of God the grace which they 
 require with a sincere desire of receiv- 
 ing it. They never go to the source of 
 their difficulties in order to apply the 
 remedy which reason and religion pre- 
 scribe. They seek to quiet their con- 
 
ON RESISTANCE. 101 
 
 science by the assurance that they can 
 do nothing to help themselves, and they 
 indulge their inclination in a security 
 that is highly prejudicial. At times, 
 alarmed by their dangerous condition, 
 they take a spasmodic resolution of re- 
 turning to God, but because they do 
 not go to the root of the evil, arfd are 
 averse to all painful exertion, they quickly 
 tire of struggling against temptations, 
 which continually beset them, and, at 
 the first failure, resign themselves again 
 to the conclusion that it is beyond their 
 strength. Despondency once more gains 
 possession, and they abandon even the 
 wish to strive for victory. 
 
 This temptation is very dangerous, since 
 it leads to a neglect of God and of final 
 salvation. A soul so averse to all exer- 
 tion gives herself up to dissipation of 
 mind and heart, so as to escape the sting 
 
ioz ON RESISTANCE. 
 
 of conscience and to shut out the light 
 which God, in His mercy, still grants to 
 her, and which disturbs the false security 
 in which she loves to dwell. 
 
 The greatest danger of this state is that 
 we scarcely dare pray for our conversion, 
 forgetful that God is still full of good- 
 ness and mercy, and desires our salvation 
 far more than we ourselves do. We for- 
 get His almighty power, who can, even 
 then, defend and sustain us, and who will 
 ever be faithful to His promise to succor 
 those who appeal to Him with confidence. 
 Unmindful of these truths we forsake 
 prayer, or engaging in it with the convic- 
 tion that we shall not succeed, we volun- 
 tarily neglect that recollection and stifle 
 that hope which would render it efficacious. 
 
 It is singular that a person instructed 
 in the truths of religion should be caught 
 in this snare. Are we not taught, by 
 
ON RESISTANCE. 103 
 
 revelation, that God does not command 
 impossible things nor punish us for that 
 which we had not the power to avoid? 
 God, it is true, commands a perfection 
 which is beyond the strength of unas- 
 sisted nature, but which, with the help of 
 grace, has been practised and is yet being 
 practised by thousands like ourselves. 
 He promises to assist us as He has aided 
 them, if, like them, we invoke Him with 
 confidence, and if, like them, we employ 
 those means to which He has attached the 
 victory. "Why," says St. Augustine, " can 
 you not do that which so many others 
 were able to do? Why can you not do 
 that which so many have done, and are 
 doing, with no more help than what God 
 offers to you ? " And elsewhere, the same 
 holy doctor tells us to do that which is in 
 our power and to ask for that which is 
 not, that we may be able to do it 
 
104 ON RESISTANCE. 
 
 It is contrary, then, to the principles of 
 religion to say that it is impossible for 
 you to overcome yourself with the assist- 
 ance of those graces promised to you 
 if confidently solicited, and the use of 
 those means indicated to you by divine 
 providence. 
 
 You say that you do employ these 
 means, but that you are discouraged at 
 seeing that in spite of all your endeavors 
 you make no progress. You complain 
 that after all your attention, and efforts, 
 and struggles, you find the same inclina- 
 tions rising again within you, and almost 
 as strong as ever. And should you won- 
 der at this? Can you free yourself in a 
 few days from an inclination w T hich is 
 natural to you or from a habit which your 
 negligence has fostered ? Besides, you 
 should not judge of the progress that you 
 are making in grace by the continuance 
 
ON RESISTANCE. 105 
 
 or diminution of the inclination which you 
 wish to correct, but rather by the mastery 
 which you are acquiring over it, in avoid- 
 ing the faults into which you generally 
 fall. This inclination, even though it con- 
 tinues to make itself felt, is not a sin. 
 It is an exercise of your virtue ; by resist- 
 ing it you are meriting heaven. 
 
 But every one knows that the stronger 
 the passion and the older the habit, the 
 greater must be our attention and vigi- 
 lance over ourselves, and the greater our 
 care to neglect no means that may lie in 
 our power to overcome it. Why is it 
 that you cannot do to-day what you could 
 do yesterday ? The reason is not very 
 hard to find. Yesterday, absorbed in God 
 and animated by the desire of pleasing 
 Him, you did violence to yourself, that 
 you might follow His guidance and use 
 the means which His prudence has pro- 
 
io6 ON RESISTANCE. 
 
 vided, and to which He has attached His 
 graces. To-day, tired of the combat and 
 forgetful of God, you desert the path 
 marked out by His providence, in order 
 to indulge your sloth. It is your negli- 
 gence that has given rise to this change of 
 feeling. Return to your former disposi- 
 tion, and you will persevere in the prac- 
 tice of virtue. 
 
 Finally, why should you be discouraged 
 and give up everything because you have 
 relapsed into your old faults? That 
 would be to throw away your whole for- 
 tune because you have lost a part. The 
 whole world would cry out at such folly, 
 where temporal wealth is concerned. 
 These falls make known to you your 
 weakness. If you reflect, as a reasonable 
 creature and a Christian, you would be led 
 at once to repair the damage which they 
 have occasioned, and to guard yourself 
 
ON RESISTANCE. 107 
 
 carefully against what may ensue, by an 
 increase of confidence, of prayer, and of 
 vigilance in avoiding all dangerous occa- 
 sions. It is contrary to common sense to 
 resolve to commit a hundred sins by 
 throwing away the means to avoid them, 
 because, forsooth, you have fallen into 
 one, which, being repaired by contrition, 
 would cease to offer any obstacle to your 
 sanctification. 
 
 Whilst we are satisfied that this reason- 
 ing is based on principles that cannot be 
 denied, we still refuse to be convinced, be- 
 cause we are angry at our own weakness 
 and wounded in our self-esteem ; we can- 
 not bear the sight of our own humiliation. 
 Dissipation alone can remove these dis- 
 agreeable objects, and so we abandon 
 ourselves to it in order to escape from 
 ourselves. This impatience at the sight of 
 our faults is a dangerous temptation. You 
 
108 ON RESISTANCE. 
 
 should always resist it and overcome it by 
 humbly acknowledging your sin before 
 God. Your sorrow may indeed be a salu- 
 tary feeling, which you can recognize in 
 its effects. That which comes from God 
 is humble, calm, and tranquil, and moves 
 us to repair our fault and return at once 
 to God. If it has not these marks, if it is 
 attended with anxiety, discouragement, a 
 turning away from God and from pious 
 practices, then it is a temptation and a 
 snare, and should not be indulged. Lift 
 your mind and heart to God with confi- 
 dence, and peace and order will soon be 
 reestablished in your soul. God does not 
 dwell in disorder, He is not to be found 
 there. 
 
SPIRITUAL EXERCISES. 109 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 OUR SPIRITUAL EXERCISES A CAUSE OF REPUG- 
 NANCE BECAUSE WE FALSELY THINK THEM 
 USELESS OR THE OCCASIONS OF NEW FAULTS. 
 
 It would seem that when this spirit of 
 despondency takes possession of the soul, 
 it deprives it of all light and of all power 
 of reflection. It seems especially bent on 
 destroying the spirit of prayer, thereby 
 exposing the soul to imminent danger of 
 final loss. For it is certain that we can- 
 not save ourselves without the assistance of 
 grace, nor can we obtain that assistance 
 without persevering in sincere and fre- 
 quent prayer. Nothing is more highly 
 recommended to us in spiritual books 
 than this means, the source of all the 
 others which God inspires us to employ. 
 
 There are those who regard this holy 
 exercise as useless for them, because, 
 
no SPIRITUAL EXERCISES. 
 
 through their habitual negligence, they 
 enter on it with the conviction that they 
 will perform it badly and with their 
 accustomed indifference. This is the first 
 thought that presents itself to their mind 
 and, so far from resisting it as a Christian 
 should, they grant it full admission. 
 
 In this disposition they enter on their 
 prayer without confidence, with no will to 
 offer God the homage which is due to 
 Him, with no sense of His presence, with 
 no interior preparation, and with no effort 
 to free themselves from a dissipation 
 which has taken entire possession of mind 
 and heart to the exclusion of all thoughts 
 of God and their salvation. 
 
 It is very certain that a prayer cannot 
 be meritorious which is destitute of those 
 essential qualities which God requires in 
 it, that it may be heard ; and confidence 
 is the first of those qualities. St. James 
 
SPIRITUAL EXERCISES. m 
 
 says that he who prays should not hesitate, 
 "For he that wavereth, is like a wave of the 
 sea, which is moved and carried about by 
 the wind; therefore, let not that man think 
 that he shall receive any thing of the 
 Lord" (James i. 6, 7). Still less shall 
 he be heard, who does not merely hesitate, 
 but ceases to hope for anything. Such 
 persons, not attempting to overcome them- 
 selves, are only occupied with useless 
 thoughts ; they are so indifferent that they 
 do not even reflect upon the action in 
 which they are engaged and scarcely re- 
 member that they are praying. And if the 
 action is one of obligation, as in hearing 
 Mass on Sundays, or holydays of obliga- 
 tion, or in reading the office, or in the 
 reception of the sacrament, they fail in an 
 essential duty with scarcely any self- 
 reproach, thus giving rise to conscientious 
 doubts concerning sacraments which they 
 
ii2 SPIRITUAL EXERCISES. 
 
 have approached without intention of 
 amendment. 
 
 It is your personal experience, you say, 
 that convinces you that you will continue 
 to fail in prayer, notwithstanding all your 
 good resolutions. But whence comes this 
 experience ? Let us examine into the first 
 source of this negligence which persists 
 in spite of all your resolutions. Do you 
 pretend that those resolves, which are fre- 
 quently the creatures of the imagination 
 rather than of the will, should guard and 
 protect you against your evil inclinations 
 without your taking any precaution to 
 defend yourself against their solicitations, 
 without your striving to overcome them, 
 and whilst you are voluntarily abandoning 
 yourself to their impulses ? 
 
 You are all day occupied in natural 
 gratifications and frivolous amusements, in- 
 tent on seeing and hearing all that is said 
 
SPIRITUAL EXERCISES. 113 
 
 and done, losing no opportunity for useless 
 conversations, listening to any evil report 
 against your neighbor, entering into his 
 bickerings, blaming some, censuring others 
 on reports which are often destitute of all 
 foundation ; giving way, on the least occa- 
 sion, to feelings of jealousy and prejudice; 
 always distracted, occupied with the ac- 
 tions and interests of others without a 
 thought for yourself, your eternal interests, 
 and your salvation ; prolonging this dissi- 
 pation of mind and heart to the very be- 
 ginning of your prayers, to which you 
 hurry at the last moment, and without 
 stopping to reflect for an instant on what 
 you are going to do ; and you imagine 
 that all this distraction and dissipation will 
 suddenly disappear, and that recollection 
 and devotion will as suddenly replace 
 them, calm the tumult of your passions, 
 and reawaken at once in your heart senti- 
 
n 4 SPIRITUAL EXERCISES. 
 
 ments of faith, and piety, and love. In 
 good sooth now, do you really expect such 
 a miracle ? 
 
 You have scarcely once thought of God 
 during the day, you have not had toward 
 Him those sentiments which are His due, 
 you have shut your eyes to the light which 
 He gave you, you have neglected and 
 rejected His graces, that you might not 
 be forced to look into yourself and scru- 
 tinize your actions and their motives. 
 And would you flatter yourself that in 
 such a disposition, so wanting in fidelity, 
 your past resolves will be sufficient to be- 
 get anew that confidence in Him, that ten- 
 der love and pious recollection, which are 
 required for the holy exercise of prayer? 
 Do you suppose that your thoughts, unre- 
 strained and wandering throughout the 
 day, will suddenly fix and concentrate 
 themselves on God, withdraw themselves 
 
SPIRITUAL EXERCISES. 115 
 
 from so many objects to which they wera 
 chained in order to dwell on subjects salu- 
 tary, but, to the tepid soul, uninteresting? 
 This would be a miserable illusion 
 which reason herself points out, and 
 which religion loudly condemns. It 
 would be contrary to the wisdom of di- 
 vine providence, which wills to conduct us 
 to heaven by means which shall be pro- 
 portional to the end, by a desire for sal- 
 vation, by meditating on the best path 
 to pursue, by watching over ourselves so 
 as to avoid whatever may imperil our 
 salvation, and by the practice of those 
 virtues which render it secure. It would 
 be opposed to the teaching of Jesus 
 Christ in His holy Gospel, where He 
 inculcates so earnestly recollection, ob- 
 servation, mortification, and earnestness 
 in prayer. Judge now of what would be 
 the consequences and result of your con- 
 
n6 SPIRITUAL EXERCISES. 
 
 duct and of the extent of the illusion to 
 which you are given over. 
 
 From this state there is no escape, ex- 
 cept in undeceiving yourself on this point, 
 and in making your resolutions more 
 comprehensive. 
 
 When, entering into ourselves, we 
 recognize that the measures we have 
 adopted have so far produced no effect, 
 or but a passing one at most, must we 
 on that account be depressed and give 
 way to the thought that we shall never 
 succeed? By no means, since it would 
 be unreasonable in one who knows what 
 God can and will do for the soul that 
 hopes in Him, and sincerely tries to be 
 faithful in His service. What we should 
 think is this, that we have adopted means 
 and methods which were insufficient and 
 that we must select others which shall 
 be more efficacious. Since by the re- 
 
SPIRITUAL EXERCISES. 117 
 
 suit we recognize our want of success, 
 we must search into the cause of our 
 defeat. For reason tells us that so long 
 as the cause remains, the effect, suspended 
 for a while, will be sure to return, and all 
 the stronger, perhaps, that it has been re- 
 sisted and restrained. Religion teaches 
 us, moreover, that to cherish the cause 
 when we have it in our power to remove 
 it, is to remain willingly in the danger and 
 to expose ourselves to fall. 
 
 Now, in the case which we have sup- 
 posed, the cause of all this difficulty in 
 prayer, is, generally speaking, dissipation 
 of mind throughout the day, forgetful- 
 ness of God and our salvation. We 
 live, so to speak, at haphazard; we per- 
 form our actions without any definite ob- 
 ject or aim, with no religious motive, 
 and without any reference to God. Such 
 aims as we have are human, founded 
 
n8 SPIRITUAL EXERCISES. 
 
 only in nature, and but too often frivo- 
 lous; we seek a satisfaction which is 
 simply worthless, and our actions corre- 
 spond to the lowness of our aims. 
 
 According to the teachings of religion, 
 our tendency should be toward the re- 
 nunciation of self, the mortification of 
 the spirit, of the will, and of the senses, 
 a contempt for all those petty interests 
 which the children of the world pursue 
 with so much ardor. 
 
 Our actions should be prompted by 
 motives which have, or may be made to 
 have, some relation to God. We are 
 here on earth only to promote His 
 glory, and everything which we do 
 should tend to this end. If God be not 
 at the beginning and end of all our 
 actions, if they are not accompanied by 
 a pious intention, they do not contribute 
 to our real happiness — they are useless. 
 
SPIRITUAL EXERCISES. 119 
 
 Do you sincerely desire to rise from 
 this state of tepidity and sloth, and to 
 pray more easily, more piously, and with 
 more fruit? Then, in the spirit of faith 
 and in conformity with its truths, direct 
 your resolutions to the maxims which I 
 offer you. A forgetfulness of these truths 
 was the cause of your evil; their appli- 
 cation will be the remedy. Intent on 
 your salvation, which you will then re- 
 gard as your most important concern, 
 you will be attentive to the lights and 
 inspirations which God will communi- 
 cate. Knowing the importance of those 
 graces you will no more neglect them, 
 you will not give yourself up to dissipa- 
 tion in order to avoid them, you will 
 thank God for them, you will cherish 
 them, and cooperate with them faithfully. 
 
 These Christian subjects, taking the 
 place of your distracted fancies, will 
 
izo SPIRITUAL EXERCISES. 
 
 guard you from useless preoccupation 
 before the time of prayer, and will aid 
 you, when engaged in the necessary duties 
 of your state, to recollect yourself when 
 presenting yourself before God. You will 
 conform yourself to the order of provi- 
 dence by your anxiety to make use of 
 the means which God has appointed ; 
 you will there find an increase of grace. 
 More intent on your relations to God 
 and to final salvation, you will walk with 
 constancy, supported by grace, in the 
 path of virtue, which leads to eternal 
 happiness — from which you were with- 
 drawn by your former conduct. 
 
 When once we have recognized this 
 maxim, that to conquer our faults we 
 must attack them at the source, we 
 should apply it on all occasions. Be- 
 sides that dissipation of mind which 
 leads us to omit our duties or to per- 
 
SPIRITUAL EXERCISES. 121 
 
 form them but imperfectly, there are 
 other passions not so extensive in their 
 consequences, which lead us into faults 
 so frequently as to discourage the un- 
 faithful soul. These passions have all, 
 for their parent, a self-love which we do 
 not repress. It may be a prejudice, 
 which induces us to undervalue the 
 good qualities and to exaggerate the 
 least defects of an acquaintance; or such 
 an attachment to our own will and judg- 
 ment that we would force the whole 
 world to our own opinion ; or, again, a 
 restlessness of disposition that leads us 
 to meddle with everything, and fix our- 
 selves in nothing; or a haughtiness, a 
 vain self-esteem, which resents the least 
 slight, and would see the whole world 
 at our feet; or — but who can enu- 
 merate all the passions of the human 
 heart ? 
 
122 SPIRITUAL EXERCISES. 
 
 This we do know, that whatever the 
 passion may be, which, in its undue ascen- 
 dency leads us to discouragement, we 
 should at once set ourselves to work to 
 destroy it or at least to combat it without 
 ceasing. An earnest desire for our salva- 
 tion, to which it is an obstacle, frequent 
 prayer, pious meditations on the maxims of 
 the Gospel, the life of Jesus Christ and of 
 His saints — these are means which provi- 
 dence has provided us to stifle our passions, 
 or so to weaken them, that they need not 
 give us cause for fear. These means, 
 when employed in the name of the Lord, 
 are certain in their effect, agreeably to His 
 promise. Then, nothing is impossible 
 and nothing is useless. In the love which 
 we conceive for our God everything will 
 turn to our good. 
 
 Behold the way laid open to you, the 
 means that are given to your hand. If 
 
IMPERFECT MOTIVES. 123 
 
 you do not succeed, it is your own fault ; it 
 is on account of your resistance to divine 
 grace. Do not reproach God, but blame 
 yourself alone. 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 IMPERFECT MOTIVES, JOINING THEMSELVES TO 
 AN INTENTION OTHERWISE PURE, ARE ANOTHER 
 SOURCE OF DISCOURAGEMENT. 
 
 The necessity of acting in accordance 
 with the divine will, so as to be pleasing to 
 God and deserving of man, is readily ac- 
 knowledged ; but many are held back from 
 practising this salutary exercise because, 
 when they are trying to direct their inten- 
 tion, the evil spirit, or their imagination, 
 insinuates other motives drawn from 
 reason, self-love, human respect, or inclina- 
 tion. Notwithstanding, then, the offering 
 
i2 4 IMPERFECT MOTIVES. 
 
 which they are making to God, they are 
 led to suspect that it is not for Him they 
 act, but for their own satisfaction. The 
 impression made by the natural motive is 
 so vivid, and that made by the supernatural 
 seems so feeble, that judging the intention 
 according to the sensibility of the impres- 
 sion, they decide that they are not per- 
 forming the action for God's sake, and 
 that it is therefore useless to offer it up to 
 Him. They thus resign themselves to the 
 merely human motives by which they are 
 influenced. Discouraged by this tempta- 
 tion, which becomes more and more fre- 
 quent, they no longer think of offering up 
 anything to God, and become at once the 
 dupe and the victim of the father of lies, 
 and of their own unfortunate illusion. 
 
 To correct our notions on the subject, 
 we have only to consider that our human 
 motives cause this vivid impression, not so 
 
IMPERFECT MOTIVES. 125 
 
 much by their strength, as by the fact that 
 being in entire conformity with our nature 
 and inclinations, we need no exterior help 
 to enable us to understand and enjoy 
 whatever they contain for our gratification, 
 and because they find nothing in us to 
 counteract the impressions which they 
 excite. Supernatural motives, on the con- 
 trary, cannot influence so sensibly, be- 
 cause, being beyond nature and opposed 
 to our own inclinations, we have need of 
 God's help to overcome our rebellious 
 passions, to appreciate their supernatural 
 views, and to comprehend the advantages 
 they present. 
 
 This help, which God always affords to 
 those who pray for it with confidence, 
 sometimes excites an impression equally 
 sensible ; but it is not always the case, for 
 God is our sovereign Lord, and He im- 
 parts His gifts to His creatures according 
 
iz6 IMPERFECT MOTIVES. 
 
 to His own will and merciful designs. 
 His assistance always enables us to resist, 
 if we wish it, the temptation that would 
 withdraw us from Him, and if the sensible 
 feeling of that assistance is consoling, it is 
 never necessary and not always useful. 
 Even in worldly and temporal affairs we 
 do not take as safe guides sentiments and 
 feelings, however vivid, which are opposed 
 to reasons solid and convincing. 
 
 To judge, therefore, between contradic- 
 tory motives for action, we should not 
 be influenced by the vividness of their 
 impressions. We should consider the 
 motives in themselves, compare their ad- 
 vantages and disadvantages, and then 
 come to a decision, choosing those only in 
 which we recognize a true and solid good. 
 In this judgment we renounce all wrong 
 motives, which we condemn, but as for 
 those which are merely human and indif- 
 
IMPERFECT MOTIVES. 127 
 
 ferent, we do not dwell upon them, we 
 pass them by. With a will that disregards 
 sensible impressions we adhere to those 
 supernatural motives which our sober 
 judgment has pronounced to be good and 
 productive of our true happiness. 
 
 But you will tell me that it seems to 
 you, on many occasions, as if your decision 
 would have been precisely the same 
 whether you had God in view or not. 
 Both my reason and my inclination, you 
 will say, lead me to this course, and out of 
 pure friendship I do what I would not do 
 for all the world beside. In such cases 
 have I not good reason to fear that my 
 real motives are merely natural? 
 
 In such cases, especially if we give way 
 to our imagination, I grant that we may 
 be led to doubt how far the supernatural 
 motive influences our action. But even 
 then, if we calmly resume the judgment 
 
iz8 IMPERFECT MOTIVES. 
 
 which proclaimed its superiority and de- 
 clared the relation which the action really 
 has to God, there can be no longer any 
 doubt what part this relation should have 
 in our conduct. That, deliberately adopted 
 by the will, makes over the action wholly 
 to God. 
 
 For God is, after all, the author of our 
 intellect, and its suggestions, therefore, 
 cannot, of themselves, vitiate the action. 
 It is not opposed to the supernatural mo- 
 tive of doing the will of God — on- the con- 
 trary, it agrees with it ; why, then, should 
 we think it necessary, in order to please 
 God, to renounce the reason which He 
 Himself has given? The less so, since it 
 is often God that moves it, making use of 
 that means to lead us to the practice of 
 virtue. 
 
 All that we have to do, then, is to ele- 
 vate this motive by directing it to God, 
 
IMPERFECT MOTIVES. 129 
 
 withdrawing it from the natural order, to 
 place it, with the assistance of grace, in the 
 supernatural order by directing it to 
 heaven. 
 
 When our human motives contain noth- 
 ing opposed to virtue, we both can and 
 should offer to God the actions to which 
 they lead. For instance, when, after ris- 
 ing early and fasting for many hours, you 
 are about to partake of your morning 
 meal ; when, after a whole morning spent 
 in silence and recollection, you are about 
 to take some recreation ; when, after a hard 
 day's work, you are going to seek repose, 
 are there not many natural reasons that 
 induce you to these same actions? And 
 should these reasons, which are founded 
 in nature, prevent you from offering the 
 action to God, and from elevating and 
 sanctifying it by this voluntary inten- 
 tion ? 
 
i 3 o IMPERFECT MOTIVES. 
 
 Surely St. Paul was not ignorant of the 
 human motives that induce us to take food, 
 and yet he exhorts us to do it for the glory 
 of God : " Whether you eat or whether you 
 drink, or whatsoever else you do, do it in the 
 name of the Lord? evidently not deeming 
 the natural incompatible with the super- 
 natural motive. They do not even neces- 
 sarily make the action imperfect, because 
 they are not, in themselves, opposed to any 
 virtue. And that which we do for the sake 
 of a friend comes under the same princi- 
 ple. We frequently do things for our 
 neighbor which God neither commands 
 nor forbids. But if we do them He wishes 
 us to offer them up for His glory, as the 
 end to which all our actions should tend. 
 
 But the pretexts for discouragement and 
 despondency are innumerable. I feel, you 
 will say, that if these natural reasons did 
 not impel me I would not perform this 
 
IMPERFECT MOTIVES. 131 
 
 action, which, nevertheless, I know that 
 God requires of me. 
 
 Why trouble yourself with this thought, 
 which is nothing but a temptation? Do 
 you believe it to be just and well founded? 
 We are not inquiring now what you would 
 do if these natural reasons did not exist. 
 It is always dangerous, as I have before 
 said, to suppose yourself in circumstances 
 in which God has not placed you. Ban- 
 ish this thought — it is only a snare of the 
 tempter who wishes to discourage you and 
 to prevent you from doing a present good 
 by the fear of a future and uncertain evil. 
 There is question now only of performing 
 well the action in which we are engaged, 
 by following the method which religion 
 prescribes. Apply yourself to calm reflec- 
 tion on the soundness of your present mo- 
 tives, with the firm confidence that, under 
 different circumstances, if God permits 
 
1 32 IMPERFECT MOTIVES. 
 
 them, He will also, according to His mer- 
 ciful promise, grant you graces propor- 
 tioned to your trials. Would you yourself 
 suggest such doubts to a person of a gen- 
 tle and amiable character, serving God 
 with ease and facility and who should be 
 troubled with the fear of not continuing 
 in His service with the same courage, in 
 case her character should suddenly become 
 quick and passionate ? 
 
 Among the motives which may influence 
 us in the performance of works, good in 
 themselves, there are some which are bad 
 because contrary to Christian virtue; those 
 we must renounce, for they render our ac- 
 tions vicious. I have often noticed certain 
 persons greatly troubled when they were 
 trying to avoid giving scandal because 
 they feared they were acting through hu- 
 man respect. They did not understand 
 the meaning of the words, and confounded 
 
IMPERFECT MOTIVES. 133 
 
 ideas which are very different among them- 
 selves. To give good example is not act- 
 ing through human respect. The former 
 motive has regard to the honor and glory 
 of God, which we try to promote by not 
 giving occasion to scandal. This motive 
 leads us directly toward God; it is good 
 and praiseworthy. Bad example is ex- 
 pressly forbidden ; it is the scandal so 
 distinctly denounced in the Gospel. In 
 condemning the one, Jesus Christ com- 
 mands the other : " So let your light shine 
 before men, that they may see your good 
 works, and glorify your Father, who is in 
 heaven" (Matt. v. 16). He wishes us to 
 animate them by our example. 
 
 Where there is human respect, on the 
 contrary, there is no thought of God, but 
 all is love of self. We seek to please those 
 whose judgment we fear, whose esteem 
 we covet, or whose censure we deprecate. 
 
i 3 4 IMPERFECT MOTIVES. 
 
 Human respect leads us to bad as readily 
 as to good actions, according to the dispo- 
 sition of those whom we seek to gain, and 
 that, too, in opposition, very often, to our 
 own tastes and feelings. 
 
 These two feelings, then, are clearly 
 different, and easily distinguishable. It 
 would not be amiss if the former were a 
 little more cultivated, especially in certain 
 religious families and communities, where 
 irregularities and bad examples are weak- 
 ening good rules and customs. 
 
 What chiefly frightens you in these hu- 
 man motives, is that, in their absence, your 
 action differs somewhat from that in 
 which they second you. In order to de- 
 cide on the reasonableness of your fears 
 you have only to examine your disposition 
 under these different circumstances. Does 
 your perseverance depend exclusively on 
 the presence of these motives ? Then in- 
 
IMPERFECT MOTIVES. 135 
 
 deed have you reason to fear. But if it 
 depends on some other cause you have no 
 reason for alarm. 
 
 When you are closely united to God in 
 devotion, your mind and heart unagitated 
 by passion, when you feel His presence 
 sensibly, you do not need the support of 
 these imperfect motives to enable you to 
 resist your inclinations, or to perform 
 some work of supererogation ; or you re- 
 nounce them when you perceive that they 
 are of such a kind as to be rejected, and if 
 not, then you elevate them by directing 
 them to God. This is a proof that they 
 are not the sole motives of your con- 
 duct. 
 
 It is true, that whilst you are living in 
 dissipation of mind and in a forgetfulness 
 of God, you have some grounds to fear 
 lest your actions should be solely prompted 
 by natural feelings or even by passion. 
 
136 IMPERFECT MOTIVES. 
 
 But this does not justify your fear that 
 such is always the case, since it proceeds 
 only from the dissipation in which you are 
 living, which causes you to forget the God 
 to whom you pertain, the salvation for 
 which you should strive, and the grace 
 which you receive but to neglect. It is 
 an error to suppose that what sways us in 
 one set of circumstances, rules us also in 
 all the situations in which we find our- 
 selves. Our thoughts and feelings in a 
 state of recollection are very different 
 from what they are when we are dissi- 
 pated. Your fear is then unfounded, and 
 you should not listen to it. 
 
 Moreover, why should you be alarmed 
 because the motives which spring from 
 reason and from the natural virtues of 
 friendship, gratitude, compassion, etc., pre- 
 cede in your mind and heart the direct 
 recognition of God? I have already re- 
 
IMPERFECT MOTIVES. 137 
 
 marked that sensible objects naturally 
 excite corresponding sentiments ; and that 
 natural virtues come also from God and 
 are not opposed to those which religion 
 inspires and commands. They often serve 
 to introduce these latter more easily into 
 our heart. They create in us a disposi- 
 tion which so far from opposing the ten- 
 dency of virtue, causes us to practise it 
 more willingly and easily. Hence, we are 
 not obliged to repress or to renounce them, 
 we have only to perfect them by directing 
 them to heaven, according to the princi- 
 ples of religion. And, in such a case, is 
 it harder for us to direct our attention to 
 the honor and glory of God, and the ac- 
 complishment of His divine will? On 
 the contrary, it is easier. 
 
 You should console yourself, and en- 
 courage yourself to perseverance by the 
 reflection that grace is a light given to us 
 
1 38 IMPERFECT MOTIVES. 
 
 by God, that we may recognize supernat- 
 ural good, an inspiration to embrace it. 
 It acts within us without our perceiving 
 it and affords no certain sign of its pres- 
 ence. As we hope for it, so we must 
 presume that we possess it, after having 
 prayed for it with confidence. We must 
 then act as if we were assured of its pos- 
 session, although we cannot be absolutely 
 certain since no one knows whether he 
 be worthy of love or hatred. 
 
 From this method of God's influence 
 within us, it follows that we may easily 
 mistake for an operation of our own 
 faculties, that which is in truth the effect 
 of His grace, which enlightens us, and 
 gives us sentiments that reason approves, 
 and inspirations which lead us to the 
 practice of virtue. So that what we hold 
 to be merely natural, the fruit of our 
 sagacity, or of our natural goodness of 
 
IMPERFECT MOTIVES. 139 
 
 heart, is really the effect of a supernatural 
 assistance which God imparts. 
 
 If, then, to obey the precept which calls 
 upon you to direct everything to God, 
 you offer Him your actions, nothing will 
 be wanting that is necessary to obtain 
 the recompense which He has promised. 
 Your actions will be performed for God 
 through the help of His grace; He will 
 be their source, their end, and their 
 reward. You will not be making a mis- 
 take then when you offer them to Him, 
 since you obey a law which He has 
 revealed, and, in not doing so, you would 
 render them useless, since they would not 
 be performed with the view of pleasing 
 Him. You do it according to the light 
 which God has given you to follow, and 
 you do not mock Him when you do that 
 which He inspires. 
 
i 4 o OFFERING OF OUR ACTIONS. 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 IT IS AN ERROR TO SUPPOSE THAT WE SHOULD 
 NOT OFFER OUR ACTIONS TO GOD, BECAUSE 
 THEY HAVE NOT THAT PERFECTION WHICH 
 WE DESIRE, OR THINK NECESSARY. 
 
 You tell me that you dare not offer 
 your actions to God, because you have 
 conceived so great an idea of the perfec- 
 tion which is required in an action before 
 it can be worthy to be offered up to His 
 divine majesty and infinite sanctity, whilst, 
 at the same time, you do not perceive in 
 yourself a determination to attain that 
 perfection. You are led to suppose that 
 unless your actions are possessed of this 
 perfection they cannot please Him, and 
 must necessarily be rejected. Influenced 
 by this illusion, you offer up little or noth- 
 ing to the Lord, and, losing sight of Him, 
 
OFFERING OF OUR ACTIONS. 141 
 
 you follow only your own inclinations ; 
 and because you are not disposed to con- 
 quer yourself in everything, you conquer 
 yourself in nothing. 
 
 Such a principle leads to nothing less 
 than entire abandonment of heavenly 
 things. Who will put himself to any 
 trouble to please and glorify God, when 
 he believes that God will reject his works 
 unless they come invested with all that 
 perfection which the saints are held to 
 have practised ? 
 
 This is the time to follow the advice of 
 St. Augustine : " Do all that is in your 
 power, and ask for that which is not, that 
 you may be able to do it." This great 
 saint differed very much from you, when 
 he thus addressed his flock. It was be- 
 cause he remembered that God, our loving 
 and merciful Father, knows perfectly well 
 of what leaven we are made, always comes 
 
1 42 OFFERING OF OUR ACTIONS. 
 
 to our help and assists us in proportion 
 to our confidence. 
 
 No one is made perfect in a day. 
 According to the plan of divine provi- 
 dence, we grow in the science of salvation 
 through the use of grace, as in natural 
 sciences, by reducing the principles to 
 practice. This practice becomes more 
 perfect in proportion to its frequency, and 
 the attention it receives. To an artist 
 who would not practise his art, or to an 
 orator refusing to make a discourse, be- 
 cause he cannot equal the great masters 
 of old, we should infallibly predict a total 
 and inevitable failure. It is not enough 
 to be acquainted with principles ; we must 
 apply them correctly. Exercise gradually 
 develops talent. We must make many a 
 daub before we produce a good painting. 
 Persevering industry alone can correct the 
 imperfections which we recognize in our 
 
OFFERING OF OUR ACTIONS. 143 
 
 work; experience proves this too conclu- 
 sively to admit of a doubt It is by reflect- 
 ing on our faults that we learn to avoid 
 them, and this we can do only by losing 
 no time, setting ourselves resolutely to 
 work, and not resting satisfied with idle 
 theorizing. 
 
 In the science of the saints and in the 
 practice of virtue, we need, besides industry 
 and perseverance, particular assistance 
 from God. If we desire to please Him 
 we shall frequently ask His help, as the 
 student has recourse to his master, but the 
 principle remains the same. We shall 
 never become perfect by a mere acquaint- 
 ance with our rules, but by their applica- 
 tion to our conduct. If we do not bring 
 them to practice, we shall never attain 
 perfection. I grant that in offering up 
 our actions to God, we do not as yet make 
 them perfect, but at least we divest them 
 
i 4 4 OFFERING OF OUR ACTIONS. 
 
 of many defects and render them less 
 imperfect in His sight. The sacrifice 
 which we make to God in removing these 
 faults will prove beneficial, both by the 
 habit which we thus contract of over- 
 coming ourselves, and by the graces with 
 which the Holy Ghost will reward our 
 docility to His inspirations. 
 
 Do, then, whatever you can, and ask 
 with confidence for what is beyond your 
 power. 
 
 A person of quick temper, strongly 
 attached to his own will and judgment, 
 will, in his intercourse with others, yield 
 twenty times a day to the impatience and 
 impetuousness of his character; nothing 
 will restrain him but the thought that he 
 should refer all his actions to God. This 
 reflection, if he tries to entertain it, will 
 sustain him, at least on ordinary occasions, 
 and if at other times it fails of complete 
 
OFFERING OF OUR ACTIONS. 145 
 
 success, it will certainly moderate the out- 
 break and prevent many things which 
 charity condemns. If, on the other hand, 
 it has no effect at all, he must ask pardon 
 for having resisted divine grace. The 
 fault itself may serve for his improvement 
 by humbling him before Our Lord, and by 
 the salutary reflections which he will take 
 occasion to make on his quick temper, 
 when, having entered into himself, he asks 
 God pardon for his sin. 
 
 What we have here said in respect to 
 impatience may be equally well applied 
 to everything else that renders our actions 
 imperfect. 
 
 It is a fact, proved by experience, that 
 we always derive benefit from this delib- 
 erate reference of our actions to God. 
 The thought, " I will do this for the love 
 of God," cannot fail to make a salutary 
 impression, to excite us to avoid the de- 
 
146 OFFERING OF OUR ACTIONS. 
 
 fects which creep into our best actions, 
 and to sustain us in our interior struggles. 
 If we are ever so little attentive to this 
 practice we shall see that our actions be- 
 come less defective, and daily grow in 
 perfection through the graces which we 
 receive. 
 
 God always rewards the good will which 
 we display in making use of the means 
 which He has given for our sanctifica- 
 tion. " Walk before Me, and be perfect" 
 said He to Abraham (Gen. xvii. i). To 
 walk in the presence of God is to refer 
 all our actions to Him. 
 
 But, you will say, when I offer up to 
 God actions into which many imperfec- 
 tions and even faults will necessarily 
 enter, can I flatter myself that in spite 
 of these they will be accepted by Him 
 and meet with reward ? 
 
 I take for granted that notwithstanding 
 
OFFERING OF OUR ACTIONS. 147 
 
 the doubt which arises from ignorance, 
 you do not deliberately intend to commit 
 those faults which you foresee, and dread. 
 If in the course of the action you be- 
 come weak, slothful, tepid, and negligent, 
 God will certainly reproach you for your 
 negligence and for your faults, but it 
 will be as a tender father who pities 
 your weakness. His reproaches will ani- 
 mate you to resist the sloth to which 
 you have yielded, and in the infinite 
 mercy with which He treats us, He will 
 welcome the good will which you dis- 
 played, although the execution proved so 
 imperfect. 
 
 A Christian, then, humbly recognizes 
 his weakness and inconstancy, renews his 
 confidence and love, and redoubles his 
 prayers in the hope that God will give 
 him more grace to be faithful in future. 
 He will be very far from rejecting the 
 
148 LOSS OF SENSIBLE DEVOTION. 
 
 means of correcting himself. Let us re- 
 peat it again and again, he must do what 
 he can, he must ask for what is not in 
 his power, in the firm conviction that 
 this means, which God has given him, if 
 it fail to-day, will succeed to-morrow, or 
 the next day, or the next week — but will 
 certainly succeed, if he only persevere in 
 its use. 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 A LOSS OF SENSIBLE DEVOTION AN UNJUSTIFI- 
 ABLE CAUSE OF DESPONDENCY. 
 
 If, by a particular disposition of divine 
 providence, we have been favored for some 
 time with sensible devotion, we are apt to 
 yield to a despondency that we think well 
 founded, when God changes in our regard, 
 and ceases to visit us with consolations. 
 
LOSS OF SENSIBLE DEVOTION. 149 
 
 A little reflection would secure us from 
 this illusion. 
 
 It is not acting the part of a Christian 
 to yield to discouragement or despond- 
 ency for such a cause. Is it for the sake 
 of this spiritual sweetness, this sensible 
 consolation, that we serve God ? Does 
 God deserve nothing from us on His 
 own account alone? Are not the enjoy- 
 ment of God, and of the eternal reward 
 which He has promised to those who 
 persevere, sufficient to sustain us ? If 
 not, and we are forced to acknowledge 
 the sad truth, we should thank God for 
 withdrawing His sensible graces; for we 
 should have cause to fear that in serving 
 Him we were only seeking ourselves, for- 
 getful of that glory which He requires at 
 our hands. 
 
 If we fail in our resolutions under such 
 circumstances, it is because, losing sight 
 
i 5 o LOSS OF SENSIBLE DEVOTION. 
 
 of God and being no longer attracted by 
 sensible consolations, we do not exercise 
 ourselves sufficiently in acts of faith, hope, 
 and charity, of gratitude, and the desire 
 of belonging entirely to our Maker. But 
 if our heart remains in this tepidity, it 
 must either occupy itself with natural 
 gratifications, or abandon itself to de- 
 spondency, and lose all courage. 
 
 In whatever state your soul may be, 
 faith is your only support, and must be 
 your strength and consolation. Illumined 
 by its light you will perceive the snares 
 which environ you, and the means to 
 avoid them. The direction of a soul by 
 faith is much safer than that which relies 
 on consolation. In the former, principles 
 are ever the same, sure and unshaken; 
 they are founded on truth and revelation, 
 their consequences are readily perceived, 
 as also the means which we must employ 
 
LOSS OF SENSIBLE DEVOTION. 151 
 
 in their application. From these truths, 
 that God the Creator of the universe is 
 the sovereign Lord of creatures, and their 
 last end, that He created them only for 
 His glory, that He died in order to pro- 
 cure them eternal happiness, we readily 
 conclude that we must obey Him, refer 
 all that we do to Him, and love Him 
 above all things, no matter how He may 
 dispose of us. These truths we may 
 always find in religion if we are willing 
 to perceive them; they always hold the 
 same language to us and expose us to 
 no illusion. The principles are clear and 
 certain, and there is no need of much 
 reasoning to deduce their practical con- 
 clusions. 
 
 Sensible devotion, on the contrary, is 
 subject to illusion. We may easily mis- 
 take a natural softening of the heart for 
 a heavenly consolation. And so, after 
 
1 52 LOSS OF SENSIBLE DEVOTION. 
 
 having experienced the greatest sweetness 
 in prayer, we remain with little strength 
 or will to lead a life of greater recollec- 
 tion, mortification, and regularity. In- 
 stances of this kind are not unfrequent. 
 
 As for those consolations, and that 
 sensible devotion, which really come 
 from God and produce in our soul pre- 
 cious fruits of virtue and merit, they 
 may be withdrawn. They are not neces- 
 sary for salvation, and Our Lord may 
 deprive us of them in order to teach us 
 that if, on the one hand, we should re- 
 ceive them with humility and gratitude, 
 on the other we must not cling to them 
 in such a way as to relax in our vigi- 
 lance and to be troubled at their with- 
 drawal. In depriving us of them, God 
 does not abandon us; He wishes only 
 to prove and to purify our love for Him. 
 
 What is the conduct of one who, 
 
LOSS OF SENSIBLE DEVOTION. 153 
 
 accustomed to be guided by sensible de- 
 votion, finds himself suddenly deprived 
 of its consolations ? He is without sup- 
 port, and knows not where to look for 
 strength and encouragement. Little used 
 to act from that charity which springs 
 from faith, he does not even think of 
 adopting this means, the only one that 
 remains, but of which he knows not the 
 advantages. Troubled by his loss, he 
 turns away from God by repeated infidel- 
 ities, foolishly imagining that he is de- 
 serted in that which is only meant for a 
 trial. Every difficulty is exaggerated, and 
 he is soon in danger of entirely forsaking 
 God. 
 
 If sensible consolations are more sweet 
 and satisfactory, faith is more certain and 
 meritorious. We should cling to it there- 
 fore, at all times and under all circum- 
 stances. Enjoy the consolations which 
 
154 FAULTS OF PIOUS SOULS. 
 
 God may send you, but in your actions 
 be guided by the principles of faith. 
 You will then have nothing to change 
 in your conduct, when the time of conso- 
 lation ceases. 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 FAULTS COMMITTED BY PIOUS SOULS IN TIME 
 OF DESOLATION. 
 
 Dryness and desolation are very try- 
 ing to such as love God, and they cause 
 many to fall into despondency. And yet 
 their greatest trouble and danger spring 
 from their own conduct under the trial. 
 The first fault committed by such persons 
 is a want of confidence in prayer, neglect- 
 ing it or practising it with indifference 
 at a time when they stand in the 
 greatest need of its support. The diffi- 
 
FAULTS OF PIOUS SOULS. 155 
 
 culty which they experience is no reason 
 for omitting those pious exercises, which 
 duty, or their previous resolutions, pre- 
 scribe. We cannot too frequently re- 
 peat that virtue consists in doing the 
 will of God. Does He require that at a 
 certain time we should be occupied in 
 mental or vocal prayer, spiritual reading, 
 or any other spiritual exercise, then we 
 must not fail to be there ; it may be the 
 very time appointed by Him for the end 
 of our trial, we must go with confidence, 
 with the desire and expectation of profit- 
 ing by those graces which He will be 
 sure to provide. 
 
 " But I do nothing when I am there," 
 you will say ; " overwhelmed with weari- 
 ness, trouble, and distractions, I have 
 neither good thoughts nor good desires. 
 My mind is dark and my heart is silent." 
 
 I know how trying this state is in the 
 
156 FAULTS OF PIOUS SOULS. 
 
 constant effort which it requires. But 
 it is a consolation to know that you are 
 doing the will of God when you are 
 there where He wishes you to be. He 
 will not refuse to hear you, if you con- 
 fidently ask for grace to bear with pa- 
 tience this state of wearisomeness and 
 disgust, and to persevere with fidelity, 
 notwithstanding the trouble you expe- 
 rience; and if He still defer to send the 
 relief which you implore, it is only in 
 order to test your love and increase your 
 merit. 
 
 Then, too, you do wrong to worry 
 yourself on account of distractions. They 
 are not faults, except inasmuch as you 
 yield to them. If you overcome them 
 as soon as you perceive them, your prayer 
 is not the less agreeable to God; it be- 
 comes doubly meritorious, for you are 
 exercising at once piety and mortifica- 
 
FAULTS OF PIOUS SOULS. 157 
 
 tion. True merit consists in overcoming 
 difficulties in a spirit of faith and char- 
 ity. Even though the distraction returns 
 every minute, continue to put it aside 
 with the same fidelity, renewing again 
 your sense of the presence of God, and 
 you will have no ground for self-reproach. 
 Lightness of mind distracts the heart in 
 prayer, but, says St. Augustine, when we 
 grieve at this weakness and humble our- 
 selves on its account, our prayer is not 
 interrupted. 
 
 Religion is full of consolation to those 
 who follow its principles, and observe the 
 practices which it counsels or prescribes. 
 
 If in time of prayer we experience 
 neither pious thoughts nor good senti- 
 ments, it may possibly be the result 
 either of our trouble or our sloth. We 
 are disturbed at our condition, and when 
 we are in this state, we cannot reflect 
 
158 FAULTS OF PIOUS SOULS. 
 
 sufficiently to enable us to discover the 
 proper remedies. We are in a manner 
 blinded, not discerning or not attending 
 to the means which present themselves 
 confusedly to our mind, so as to seize 
 and employ them. In our embarrass- 
 ment, fear takes possession of our heart 
 and paralyzes its action, it prevents the 
 graces which God is disposed to give 
 us, and places obstacles in the way of 
 His bountiful goodness. 
 
 Sloth, on the other hand, holds us 
 back from reflecting seriously on the 
 principles of faith, that we may follow 
 them, and causes us to weary of the 
 struggle in which we are engaged. 
 Then comes the thought that we have 
 not the strength to persevere in this 
 self-combat. We resign ourselves finally 
 to a negligence which renders our 
 spiritual exercises yet more difficult 
 
FAULTS OF PIOUS SOULS. 159 
 
 and distasteful, or we give them up 
 entirely. 
 
 It is not difficult to find a remedy for 
 both these evils. You must convince 
 yourself that this state is not bad in it- 
 self, and that, as I have already shown 
 you, it can be made very pleasing and 
 meritorious before God. Why then 
 should it disturb you ? If you look 
 only to heaven, you should regard the 
 condition of your soul as a great bene- 
 fit since it leads you there, and that, 
 too, more securely than one which would 
 be more agreeable to nature and to self- 
 love. Open your heart to that con- 
 fidence which religion inspires, and 
 prepare to receive the succor which it 
 furnishes. Accept this trial from the 
 hand of the Lord, bear it with patience 
 as long as He wills it, and offer it up 
 to Him in a spirit of penance and ex- 
 
160 FAULTS OF PIOUS SOULS. 
 
 piation. Every one can and every one 
 must humble himself before God, in thus 
 submitting to the interior trials to which 
 he is subjected. As for holy thoughts 
 which may unite you with God, your 
 present state itself will suggest them. 
 So soon as your trouble and anxiety 
 shall have subsided, your thoughts will 
 turn to heaven from which your help 
 must come. 
 
 Prayer becomes another subject of anxi- 
 ety. The tempter sets this snare for you, 
 that by making it a source of trouble, he 
 may prevent you from deriving any ad- 
 vantage from its exercise. He seeks to 
 draw you aside from the right path, by 
 preventing you from following the inclina- 
 tion which God gives you, that you may 
 follow your own will in a kind of prayer 
 which is your own choice and to which 
 you are not called, contrary to the well- 
 
FAULTS OF PIOUS SOULS. 161 
 
 approved maxim, that in all things and 
 especially in prayer we must follow the 
 inspiration of God. 
 
 If in prayer God suggests to us the 
 contemplation of several virtues, so long 
 as one is sufficient to engage our atten- 
 tion we must not turn away to medi- 
 tate another. So soon as that ceases to 
 fix our thoughts, we must turn to the 
 one which God suggests. But, as if it 
 were necessary to occupy ourselves with 
 only one subject, and it were impossible 
 to attend usefully to several, a pious 
 soul will often resist the inspiration and 
 attach himself obstinately to the first, 
 which has ceased to furnish him matter 
 for meditation, and in striving to do his 
 own will, contrary to the will of God, 
 he will exhaust himself in useless efforts. 
 
 God will attract another by prolonged 
 contemplations on the great truths of 
 
1 62 FAULTS OF PIOUS SOULS. 
 
 religion, wishing him to penetrate them 
 that he may be guided by them in his 
 conduct But that is not the plan which 
 he himself has devised. He wishes to 
 be all affection for God, he is pleased 
 with sentiments alone, and reflection 
 wearies him. Leaving the path which 
 God points out to him he enters one 
 where he cannot find Him. He loses 
 many a useful thought to occupy himself 
 in vain sentiments, productive of no 
 good because they are entirely his own, 
 and then complains that he cannot apply 
 himself to prayer. 
 
 A third wishes to follow the ordinary 
 method of prayer, meditating on the sub- 
 ject which he has prepared, exciting the 
 feelings which these reflections suggest, 
 and taking the resolutions which seem 
 appropriate. But this is not what God 
 requires of him: He wishes to occupy 
 
FAULTS OF PIOUS SOULS. 163 
 
 his heart rather than his intellect. If 
 he withdraws himself from the feelings 
 which He excites, to give himself up to 
 meditation, he will be assailed by a 
 thousand distractions, especially if his 
 imagination be very active, grasping the 
 whole subject in a moment, and seeing 
 everything, as it were, at a single 
 glance. He will soon have neither salu- 
 tary thoughts nor devout sentiments, and 
 tired of struggling with himself, in de- 
 spair of success, he will either forsake 
 prayer entirely or pass the time in 
 voluntary distractions. 
 
 He who despairs of finding the God 
 he is seeking with all his heart, falls 
 into despondency» Prayer becomes a 
 task and is abandoned,, Note it well; 
 this difficulty in occupying ourselves in 
 heavenly things, is the consequence of 
 resisting the will of God that we may 
 
164 FAULTS OF PIOUS SOULS. 
 
 follow our own. If we permitted our- 
 selves to be led by the Holy Spirit, 
 our complaints would soon cease, in the 
 ease with which we should perform our 
 spiritual exercises or in the benefit which 
 we should derive from them in advancing 
 to perfection. 
 
 The ordinary method is an excellent 
 one and that which we should follow in 
 the commencement of our spiritual life. 
 But when the spirit of God gives us a 
 special attraction toward some other 
 method of prayer, it is the advice of all 
 spiritual directors that we should not re- 
 sist, but follow the inspiration, according 
 to the saying of Our Lord : " The Spirit 
 breatheth where He will" (John iii. 8). 
 
HOW TO OCCUPY OURSELVES. 165 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 ONE OF OUR PRETEXTS FOR ABANDONING PRAYER 
 IS THAT WE LOSE OUR TIME. THIS IS USU- 
 ALLY FALSE, AND OFTEN CRIMINAL WHEN 
 TRUE. HOW TO OCCUPY OURSELVES USE- 
 FULLY IN TIME OF PRAYER. 
 
 There are some persons who do not 
 seem to have an attraction for any par- 
 ticular method of prayer. They prepare 
 for their meditation by reading or hear- 
 ing some subject read from a book; but 
 either they forget it or the matter does 
 not prove sufficient for the time. In 
 this case, they know not what to do. 
 They soon begin to think that they are 
 losing time which might be better em- 
 ployed elsewhere. Is it not better, they 
 ask you, to obey this thought, than to 
 spend the time devoted to prayer in 
 doing nothing? 
 
1 66 HOW TO OCCUPY OURSELVES. 
 
 This temptation, for it is nothing else, 
 is dangerous and hurtful, since it leads 
 the soul away from God by an occupa- 
 tion undertaken in opposition to His will. 
 
 And how, I would ask in turn, can a 
 pious soul make such a complaint? 
 Should we not blush to acknowledge that 
 we cannot occupy our thoughts with 
 God? If sloth and self-love permit, let 
 us enter into ourselves, examining in His 
 holy presence, whether our feelings, mo- 
 tives, and conduct be conformable to our 
 state, what are the passions which sway us, 
 the occasions which give rise to our faults, 
 and then giving way to our sorrow for 
 having offended Him, let us seek the 
 means which may effect our amendment. 
 Here is a subject that is ever at hand, 
 that cannot easily be exhausted, and 
 which perhaps is one of the most useful 
 we can select. 
 
HOW TO OCCUPY OURSELVES. 167 
 
 How many similar thoughts present 
 themselves for our meditation ! There is 
 no one who cannot find among the lessons 
 of religion some familiar subject on which 
 he can fix his attention. 
 
 With the publican, he may acknowl- 
 edge himself unworthy of the goodness 
 of God, implore His mercy, wonder at 
 His patience in bearing with us, and 
 humbly offer up his grateful thanks. 
 
 With Mary Magdalen, he may bow 
 down at the feet of Jesus, weep with 
 grief at the sight of his sins, and so- 
 licit His forgiveness. He may recall to 
 his memory the benefits which he has 
 received from the bounty of his Lord; 
 creation, redemption, and that special 
 providence which has placed him in the 
 Church, the only ark of safety ; the good- 
 ness with which He seeks us when we 
 wander away, the patience with which 
 
168 HOW TO OCCUPY OURSELVES. 
 
 He views our resistance of His grace, 
 the sweetness with w T hich He leads us 
 back to the path from which we have 
 strayed. 
 
 Such reflections as these, and number- 
 less others like them, based upon what 
 we owe to God and upon our relations 
 with eternity, would be sufficient to occupy 
 us without difficulty, and without compel- 
 ling us to remain in any one longer than 
 we are able to draw fruit from it. 
 
 If our imagination be quick and lively, 
 it will be more easily fixed by contemplat- 
 ing some sensible object in which we take 
 interest. Our Lord Jesus Christ, God 
 and man, is such an object, capable of 
 exciting in the soul the liveliest interest. 
 What utility may we not derive from this 
 contemplation in prayer ! 
 
 We may represent Him to ourselves 
 teaching the multitudes, and we will dwell 
 
HOW TO OCCUPY OURSELVES. 169 
 
 on the truths which He reveals. We may 
 consider Him as He lived on earth; we 
 see how intent He was on His Father's 
 glory; His fidelity in accomplishing His 
 will, however difficult or painful; His 
 patience, His love for mankind, as shown 
 in the humiliations and sufferings to 
 which He submitted Himself for their 
 sake. What examples for ourselves are 
 to be found in all the virtues practised 
 by our divine Saviour! These examples 
 are all sufficient to strike the imagina- 
 tion and employ it profitably, if w r e will 
 only take the pains to make their appli- 
 cation to ourselves. 
 
 Our prayer is frequently performed in 
 the presence of the Blessed Sacrament. 
 This should recall to our minds the sac- 
 rifice which Jesus makes of Himself on 
 our altars; His dwelling in the taber- 
 nacle; the holy table to which He in- 
 
i 7 o HOW TO OCCUPY OURSELVES. 
 
 vites us, where He feeds us with His 
 precious body and blood, and where He 
 has so frequently united Himself to us 
 so intimately and so perfectly. What 
 thoughts and feelings will not be inspired 
 by these prodigies of love if we are ever 
 so little diligent in their consideration ! 
 If, notwithstanding all this, our imagina- 
 tion still continues to wander, let us turn 
 our eyes to the altar where Jesus Christ 
 reposes, fix them on the cross on which 
 He is suspended, and we shall soon be 
 drawn back to Him. 
 
 No matter what the condition in which 
 your soul may be, always commence your 
 prayer with the firm hope that it will 
 prove for you a time of great merit. 
 Since it is God that calls you to it, you 
 will be sure to receive abundant graces 
 in return for the sacrifice which you 
 make of your will. Your confidence will 
 
HOW TO OCCUPY OURSELVES. 171 
 
 give you that holy familiarity which you 
 should have for a Father who is infinitely 
 good; it will fill your heart with love, 
 and console you in your troubles by the 
 hope of reward. You will experience 
 His assistance in resisting and overcom- 
 ing your passions, which are the enemies 
 of His glory no less than of your hap- 
 piness. Do not allow yourself then to 
 be troubled ; do not listen to sloth, and 
 fear nothing, since you are under the 
 protection of a God who is infinitely 
 good, infinitely powerful, and ever faith- 
 ful to His promises. 
 
 You will always find occupation for 
 your thoughts, or in your struggles, the 
 means of meriting eternal happiness. 
 
1 72 SENSIBLE DEVOTION 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 TO STRIVE FOR SENSIBLE DEVOTION IS USELESS, 
 OFTEN DANGEROUS, AND GIVES OCCASION FOR 
 DESPONDENCY. 
 
 Another source of despondency is to 
 be found in the efforts which we make 
 to excite sensible devotion, efforts which 
 call forth all our strength. We fancy 
 that without this sensibility, we cannot 
 please God, as though He who scruti- 
 nizes the heart would take account of so 
 equivocal a proof of piety; or as though 
 our divine Saviour, in the agony of His 
 desolation in the garden of Olives, had 
 not been equally, as ever, pleasing to 
 His heavenly Father. 
 
 If you are in such a state, learn that 
 you will gain nothing by trying to raise 
 yourself above the level of the graces 
 
SENSIBLE DEVOTION. 173 
 
 which you have received. Instead of 
 struggling for sensible devotion, which 
 is withheld from you for the time being, 
 be satisfied to fix your thoughts on God 
 according to the grace which He imparts. 
 If He wishes you to walk in the light of 
 faith and reason alone, with no other 
 feelings save what they inspire, you must 
 continue in that way till He bid you 
 change. Content yourself with regulat- 
 ing your conduct by the truths of reli- 
 gion and the maxims of the Gospel, 
 humbling yourself before God on account 
 of your transgressions, and adopting such 
 resolutions and such means as shall en- 
 able you to avoid them. He will accept 
 your sentiments, strengthen your reso- 
 lutions, and reward them with His most 
 precious graces. 
 
 This, you will say, is precisely what I 
 do, and yet I feel that, in so doing, I have 
 
174 SENSIBLE DEVOTION. 
 
 no love for God, that is, it seems to me 
 that my heart has no part in the senti- 
 ments which my lips express. Sometimes, 
 indeed, I find sentiments arising within 
 me that are opposed to those which I 
 could wish to have for Him, and hence 
 my trouble, my weariness, and discourage- 
 ment. 
 
 If you will only examine this feeling 
 calmly you will soon be relieved. God re- 
 quires only that our love for Him should 
 be sincere. In order to be reassured con- 
 cerning this sincerity, it is not necessary 
 that your sentiments should be character- 
 ized by that sensibility which fills the 
 heart with sweetness and rapture, it is 
 sufficient that they should really exist in 
 the soul, that is, in the reason, in the will ; 
 and you must judge of their sincerity by 
 your readiness to reduce them to practice. 
 When this is the case your feelings are 
 
SENSIBLE DEVOTION. 175 
 
 true and sincere, and they will be super- 
 natural if accompanied by divine grace. 
 
 There is nothing singular in all this. 
 How often do we not find in our inter- 
 course with others a true and sincere dis- 
 position to oblige though unattended by 
 that sensibility which accompanies a ser- 
 vice rendered to a friend? And even 
 when assisting a friend, is it not frequently 
 without any pleasure or inclination, and 
 not without a certain repugnance? And 
 is not our service in such a case all the 
 more praiseworthy? This is the instruc- 
 tion that we give to those who are pre- 
 paring themselves for the Sacrament of 
 Penance ; it is not necessary, we tell them, 
 that your contrition should be sensible, 
 suffice it that it be sincere in the resolution 
 to lead a better life for the future. 
 
 Your complaint, therefore, of the absence 
 of all sensible devotion is without founda- 
 
176 SENSIBLE DEVOTION. 
 
 tion, and the consequent despondency 
 unreasonable. Instead of troubling your- 
 self about it you should only despise it. 
 What you have to do is simply to have 
 recourse to God, that your sentiments, 
 being accompanied by His grace, may be 
 rendered supernatural and may want none 
 of that perfection which He desires. 
 
 Sensible fervor in your spiritual exer- 
 cises, in your love of God or of your 
 neighbor, is what God neither commands 
 nor requires, since it is independent of your 
 exertions. You cannot excite it with all 
 your industry and all your efforts, a reason 
 which alone should suffice to console you 
 in its absence. When the Lord sends it, 
 it comes without an effort; if He with- 
 holds it, all our efforts would be in vain. 
 You only weary your mind in the struggle 
 to excite it; instead of increasing, you 
 diminish the devotion which faith would 
 
SENSIBLE DEVOTION. 177 
 
 otherwise inspire. Follow the guidance of 
 the Holy Spirit, wait till He visits you and 
 do not forestall His movements except by 
 your prayers. 
 
 That sensible fervor which softens and 
 ravishes the heart, filling it with a rapture 
 which some have been unable to support, 
 is one of those graces which are ordinarily 
 the reward of interior mortification, graces 
 which are means to perfection but which 
 God grants or withholds according to the 
 inscrutable designs of His providence. 
 We may pray for this fervor and receive it 
 with gratitude, but we must await it with- 
 out impatience, enjoy it with moderation, 
 and be prepared to give it up whenever 
 God shall require the sacrifice. 
 
 We can, most assuredly, please God and 
 entertain for Him sentiments which are 
 real and sincere without experiencing this 
 sensible fervor, although occupied with 
 
i 7 8 SENSIBLE DEVOTION. 
 
 thoughts which are the most capable of 
 exciting it. In such meditations it is 
 sufficient to hold ourselves willing and 
 determined to prefer God before all things 
 else whatsoever. This feeling of love for 
 God may always be excited by appealing 
 to the motives of faith, which are too well 
 known to need repetition. As this charity 
 is necessary for salvation, God is always 
 ready to assist us in eliciting it through His 
 grace, when we implore it with confidence. 
 It is this sincerity of affection whereby 
 we unite ourselves to God by the free 
 choice of our will, that renders us pleasing 
 in His eyes. Any one who lives the life 
 of faith can recognize this sincere deter- 
 mination in himself, in the means which 
 he adopts, in accordance with the Gospel, 
 to place and maintain himself in this 
 disposition. I do not affirm that he can 
 be absolutely certain, but that he may find 
 
SENSIBLE DEVOTION. 179 
 
 evidence sufficiently strong to reassure 
 him in this state of dryness, weariness, and 
 involuntary tepidity in which God allows 
 him to remain, and to give hope that 
 through His mercy it will conduce to his 
 salvation. 
 
 And take notice that a soul which is 
 visited with great sensible devotion, not 
 knowing whether it is the operation of 
 divine grace, is assured no more than 
 any other of loving God sincerely and 
 supernaturally. Your security, therefore, 
 would not be greater were you possessed 
 of this sensible fervor which you desire 
 and the absence of which causes you 
 trouble and discouragement. 
 
 Nor must you be surprised if you per- 
 ceive very sensibly the presence of feelings 
 which are opposed to those which you 
 desire to entertain, for this happens in 
 every temptation. 
 
180 SENSIBLE DEVOTION. 
 
 The passions are always more quick 
 and sensible in the feelings which they 
 excite. We perceive them more readily 
 and vividly because they incline us to- 
 ward sensible objects which are more con- 
 formed to our natural inclinations and to 
 the inspirations of self-love. This sensi- 
 bility resides in our nature and requires 
 no exterior help. 
 
 On the contrary, a sensibility to the 
 things of God is an effect of His grace 
 not accorded to all. The feelings excited 
 by faith, not being in accordance with 
 our self-love, interfere with its inclinations. 
 It is then not surprising that you should 
 perceive a sensibility in the one case and 
 none in the other, unless God should 
 Himself grant it to you. You should not 
 therefore allow yourself to be troubled or 
 frightened, but should act in this state of 
 dryness, weariness, and disgust as you do 
 
USE OF SPIRITUAL BOOKS. 181 
 
 when subjected to any other temptation. 
 After recommending yourself to the mercy 
 of God, put away those feelings which 
 disturb your union with Him, reflect on 
 the motives which should lead you to 
 Him, and make acts of that charity which 
 faith and divine grace have imparted to 
 your reason and your will, rather than 
 to your feelings. Force the temptation to 
 leave you ; you may have less consolation 
 but you will have more merit, and merit 
 is far superior to consolation. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 ON THE USE OF SPIRITUAL BOOKS DURING TIME 
 OF PRAYER, OR WHEN ATTENDING AT MASS. 
 
 There are some who, finding that their 
 mind and heart furnish them nothing in 
 this state of dryness by which to unite 
 
1 82 USE OF SPIRITUAL BOOKS. 
 
 themselves to God, have recourse to spirit- 
 ual books to aid their recollection and 
 preserve them from distractions. This 
 means is sometimes good ; for reading 
 arrests and fixes the imagination. If 
 occasionally it wander, it can be brought 
 back to God by the thoughts and senti- 
 ments contained in the book before us. 
 But I think that we should not adopt this 
 means hastily nor without such precau- 
 tions as are necessary to its utility. 
 
 In the first place, we must not have 
 recourse to it through sloth, trying to 
 avoid the difficulty of fixing our thoughts 
 on God. Such a motive would only 
 deprive you of His assistance and prevent 
 you from finding that recollection which 
 you seek. To draw down upon yourself 
 the mercy of the Lord the motive of your 
 action should be good, whereas this, on 
 the contrary, is not. 
 
USE OF SPIRITUAL BOOKS. 183 
 
 Not only would you be disappointed in 
 that which you intended, but you would 
 moreover be subject to a new incon- 
 venience. You would lose the habit of 
 fixing your attention on heavenly thoughts, 
 so that when deprived of spiritual books 
 you would find yourself at a loss what to 
 do during the time of prayer and Mass. 
 When, before the Blessed Sacrament or in 
 your chamber, you should wish to elevate 
 your mind and heart to God, the same 
 spirit of indolence would interpose to 
 deter you. You should therefore employ 
 this means only when, in spite of your 
 good-will and your efforts, the imagina- 
 tion continues to go astray before you 
 are aware of its wandering. God will 
 then bless the care which you take to 
 avoid forgetting Him even by involun- 
 tary distractions. 
 
 We ought to follow the customary order 
 
i8 4 USE OF SPIRITUAL BOOKS. 
 
 of providence in things pertaining to our 
 salvation. When you are reduced to the 
 necessity of helping yourself by a spiritual 
 book, you should select one which is con- 
 formable to the exercise in which you are 
 engaged. It is the will of God that at 
 that time you should be occupied in cer- 
 tain reflections or sentiments, and as we 
 should not depart from that order of provi- 
 dence for which our graces are promised 
 and prepared, you ought to take that book 
 which is best adapted to aid you in ful- 
 filling the duty. 
 
 Do not imitate such as during Mass 
 take up the first pious book that comes to 
 hand or that pleases their taste. Whilst 
 they are reading a sermon or some favor- 
 ite author, and absorbed in their reading, 
 the time passes away without their being 
 aware that they are assisting at the holy 
 sacrifice, or at least without their eliciting 
 
USE OF SPIRITUAL BOOKS. 185 
 
 those pious sentiments which this mys- 
 tery of the love of Jesus for us should 
 inspire. How many graces are not lost 
 by such conduct which testifies their indif- 
 ference for their divine Redeemer immo- 
 lated every day on the altar ! How can 
 it be otherwise, since they ask Him noth- 
 ing at a time when He is unable to refuse 
 them anything, having established the 
 throne of His mercy on the altar of His 
 temple ? 
 
 Besides, if such conduct were not ex- 
 posed to this objection, it would still be 
 contrary to the spirit of the Church. 
 That loving Mother of the faithful, careful 
 of everything that may contribute to their 
 salvation, exhorts them to unite them- 
 selves with the priest in offering this holy 
 sacrifice to the almighty Father. The 
 consecration is the part of the priest alone, 
 but the offertory which precedes it is com- 
 
1 86 USE OF SPIRITUAL BOOKS. 
 
 mon to all the faithful, whom he invites to 
 unite with him in soliciting the graces of 
 heaven upon the whole Church. " Orate, 
 fratres : pray, my brethren, that my sacri- 
 fice and yours may be acceptable to 
 God the Father almighty." To conform 
 to this spirit you should, during Mass, 
 make use of books containing prayers 
 suited to the different parts of the sacri- 
 fice, which may enable you to unite your- 
 self with Jesus Christ in the different 
 sentiments inspired by the sacrifice which 
 He offers to His Father for your benefit ; 
 or by books, which, in the considerations 
 they contain concerning the Eucharist, 
 enable you to produce appropriate acts 
 of faith, hope, love, and gratitude. This 
 sacrifice is the effect of love, and love can 
 be repaid by love alone. Consult your 
 own heart and it will say : " It is strange 
 that whilst Jesus Christ is working for you 
 
USE OF SPIRITUAL BOOKS. 187 
 
 the most stupendous miracles you should 
 be doing nothing to testify your grati- 
 tude." 
 
 I do not pretend to say that it is abso- 
 lutely necessary that you should hear 
 Mass in this manner. I know that to 
 assist worthily at the holy sacrifice it is 
 sufficient that you should be engaged in 
 prayer, vocal or mental, in union of inten- 
 tion with the priest ; but I assert that 
 when we are obliged to have recourse to a 
 book to aid us in recollection we should 
 rather select one which will best enable 
 us to enter into the spirit of the holy 
 exercise. 
 
 Do not say with those whose thought- 
 lessness is observable in all things, that it 
 is tiresome to be always repeating the 
 same thing. The Mass is not an amuse- 
 ment in which we seek variety. It is the 
 most holy, the most august, the most sub- 
 
1 88 PLAN OF READING. 
 
 lime act of our religion. Its motives 
 remain ever the same and the sentiments 
 which it inspires cannot be repeated too 
 frequently or too deeply engraven on our 
 heart. God always receives them with 
 love, He never leaves them unrewarded. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 WHAT BOOKS WE SHOULD USE DURING PRAYER 
 AND WHAT PLAN WE SHOULD ADOPT IN 
 THEIR PERUSAL. 
 
 In using books during time of prayer 
 it is important to be careful in our choice, 
 and to follow a useful plan in their pe- 
 rusal. There are books which contain 
 meditations in which the soul rises, as it 
 were, to the very bosom of God, losing 
 itself in His infinite perfections, and pene- 
 trating into the deepest and most hidden 
 
PLAN OF READING. 189 
 
 mysteries. These are not the books for 
 one who asks a remedy for distraction. 
 God alone can introduce us to this kind of 
 contemplation, and when He calls us to it 
 we engage in it without difficulty. To 
 strive for it of our own accord and with- 
 out being attracted to it by divine grace, 
 would be an error and an illusion. Not 
 God, but pride and presumption would 
 become our guide in this extraordinary 
 path. Self-love and self-esteem, insinu- 
 ating themselves into our prayer, would 
 prevent us from deriving fruit for our- 
 selves ; they would separate us from God 
 instead of uniting us to Him, or, in the 
 supposition of our good faith, the use- 
 lessness of our efforts would lead to 
 despondency. 
 
 It is to that meditation which is pos- 
 sible to every Christian soul that I here 
 allude. Prayer is intended not only to 
 
190 PLAN OF READING. 
 
 enlighten the mind concerning the truths 
 of religion and the extent of our duties, 
 but to stimulate the will to greater union 
 with God through its affections, and to 
 a practice of those virtues in which we 
 find our sanctification. Of what use 
 would it be to know our duties if we do 
 not strive, through religious motives, to 
 love them with a view to please God. 
 
 A book, therefore, which serves only 
 for instruction, which does not propose 
 the motives that excite the will to practise 
 the resolutions suggested, would not be 
 one suited to a time of prayer. Generally 
 it is not so much instruction that is wanted, 
 as the will to put it in practice. 
 
 Practical books of meditation are what 
 we need, those which combine reflection 
 and sentiment, and which cause us to love 
 our duty whilst making it known. With 
 any others we are in danger of losing the 
 
PLAN OF READING. 191 
 
 habit of the ordinary meditation and of 
 finding ourselves at a loss, when we wish 
 ,to reflect on the truths of religion, to 
 draw practical conclusions or to form reso- 
 lutions for the regulation of our conduct, 
 because we have rendered this method 
 unfamiliar by the use of books which do 
 not follow it. 
 
 Prayer is not a study, but a means of 
 leading us to virtue by the motives which 
 religion offers. It is not sufficient that we 
 should be acquainted with our obligations, 
 we must be attached to them through a 
 desire of pleasing God. 
 
 If you wish to derive fruit from this holy 
 exercise through the help of books, be 
 careful not to read without occasional 
 pauses. Meditation and spiritual reading 
 are two different exercises. Meditation is 
 intended to unite the heart with God; 
 never lose sight of this truth. The heart 
 
1 92 PLAN OF READING. 
 
 is attached only through its own affections 
 and sentiments; in books you meet only 
 the affections and sentiments of others. 
 They will interest your mind but will be 
 foreign to your heart unless you stop, 
 from time to time, to reflect on the mo- 
 tives presented to you and thus excite the 
 heart to make them its own by reproduc- 
 ing them. 
 
 We do not sanctify ourselves by reading 
 in a book the love which some one else 
 had for God, but by that which we our- 
 selves conceive and actuate. 
 
 From such reading you will come with 
 a heart as empty as when you began be- 
 cause it will have done nothing for itself. 
 Prayer is more an exercise of the heart 
 than of the intellect. Prayer in which the 
 heart has no part is but the exterior of an 
 edifice in which there is nothing within. 
 And hence it is, that they who make use 
 
PLAN OF READING. 193 
 
 of books and who do nothing but read 
 them, arise from prayer very well satisfied 
 with themselves, perhaps, but as little rec- 
 ollected in spirit as they were before. 
 They leave without having made any reso- 
 lutions to serve God better in the future. 
 The heart, having done nothing toward 
 its own reformation, resumes its inclina- 
 tions and continues to abandon itself to 
 their attraction. From prayer they run to 
 dissipation, which they have not learned 
 to renounce. 
 
 Read, then, if you find difficulty in 
 recollecting yourself in God, but read in 
 a spirit of faith and when you meet with 
 reflections which you can apply to your- 
 self, do not pass them lightly by ; weigh 
 them well and engrave them deeply in 
 your mind, that your heart may closely 
 embrace them. They will serve to correct 
 some defects which they will make known 
 
i 9 4 PLAN OF READING. 
 
 to you, to confirm you in the love of 
 virtues which you will find occasion to 
 practise. 
 
 And if, in your reading, you find some 
 good sentiments, do not think it enough 
 to admire them, but try to make them 
 your own. In the holy confidence that 
 through the mercy and grace of God 
 you, too, can be elevated to the perfection 
 of sentiment which so many others have 
 reached before you, stop and try to ex- 
 cite your heart to their reproduction, not 
 once, but again and again, and in different 
 ways and for the different motives which 
 the Holy Spirit will suggest, and do not 
 leave them so long as they serve to 
 occupy your attention. If your imagina- 
 tion wander, return to your reading and 
 continue it after this method, never forget- 
 ting that books are not intended to encour- 
 age indolence, but to favor recollection. 
 
PLAN OF READING. 195 
 
 If on such occasions God sends you 
 some good thought, though it be not 
 connected with what you are reading, 
 leave the book and pursue the thought; 
 the Holy Spirit breathes where He 
 chooseth ! 
 
 Self-ease, always fearful of trouble, may 
 suggest to you that you should disregard 
 the inspiration and continue, in the hope 
 of finding, farther on, something more use- 
 ful to you. Do not listen to its sugges- 
 tion; it is a snare of the enemy who 
 wishes to make you unfaithful to the grace 
 which you have received and to cause you 
 to lose the fruit of your meditation. 
 
 The truths that we read as those too 
 which we meditate, make a salutary im- 
 pression on our heart in proportion only 
 to the grace with which God accompanies 
 them. He it is who speaks to the heart 
 and who renders fruitful the salutary 
 
196 PLAN OF READING. 
 
 thought. You should therefore read in a 
 spirit of faith, of confidence, and docility. 
 God, who has been pleased to attract 
 your attention at this moment, may not 
 attach the same grace if you seek it else- 
 where and your unfaithfulness may be the 
 cause of loss. It will be your own fault 
 if your prayer does not produce all the 
 good that you had expected. The same 
 temptations, moreover, may lead you to 
 overlook the succeeding reflections as you 
 did the first. Your meditation will prove 
 to be only a spiritual reading, indifferently 
 made, from which you will derive no 
 advantage. 
 
 But, you object, if I stop in this way I 
 shall not have time to finish the points of 
 the meditation. 
 
 And, pray, what necessity is there of 
 considering them all, if one alone suffices 
 to occupy you ? Why should you aban- 
 
PLAN OF READING. 197 
 
 don a thought that engages your atten- 
 tion in a salutary manner, in order to 
 seek another which may not be so suc- 
 cessful? Why leave a certain to pursue 
 an uncertain advantage ? This would be 
 listening to your own inconstancy and not 
 to the spirit of God. 
 
 In the reflection which you are desirous 
 of passing by you may find two things; 
 either a defect to be overcome, or a virtue 
 to be practised : or again, some fresh 
 motive for loving God. The former may 
 serve to your correction and, it may be, in 
 some important point; the second should 
 serve to increase your disposition to 
 cultivate every virtue. Charity embraces 
 all things and if we remain so weak and 
 imperfect, it is because we do not love 
 sufficiently. Can you find anything better 
 elsewhere ? 
 
 Make use, then, of the grace which is 
 
198 PLAN OF READING. 
 
 offered to you. Never exchange certainty 
 for uncertainty. Lean more to sentiment 
 or feeling than to reflection. When the 
 heart is united to God the mind is more 
 easily fixed and the imagination less dis- 
 posed to wander. 
 
 Finally, it cannot be doubted that to 
 reach God and heaven we must follow 
 His inspirations and be guided by His 
 spirit. If He seems to abandon you, do 
 not be afraid; remain firm and constant. 
 Hope is a port of refuge against storms 
 and tempests. Even though you were 
 at the bottom of an abyss, God, in His 
 mercy, would draw you out. No matter 
 what our state may be we must never 
 allow ourselves to despair; and discour- 
 agement, when deliberate and voluntary, 
 whatever may be the pretext, is as unrea- 
 sonable as it is criminal. 
 
ON TEMPTATIONS. 199 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 TEMPTATIONS NO PROOF OF GOD*S HAVING 
 ABANDONED US. IF SOMETIMES A MARK OF 
 HIS ANGER, IT IS AN ANGER TEMPERED BY 
 MERCY. 
 
 Temptations trouble pious souls and 
 plunge the dissipated over the precipice. 
 In order to prevent the evil which they 
 may produce it is well to give you the 
 reasons for not fearing them, the prin- 
 ciples by which you should be guided on 
 different occasions, the way in which you 
 should behave when assailed and by 
 which you may preserve yourself against 
 their assaults, and, finally, the advantages 
 which you may derive from them. 
 
 A temptation is a thought, a feeling, an 
 inclination, a tendency, which solicits us 
 
200 ON TEMPTATIONS. 
 
 to violate the law of God for our own 
 satisfaction. They should neither trouble 
 nor discourage a Christian soul. The 
 devil declares war especially against those 
 who detest his rule, who fight against 
 their passions, who are disciples of Jesus 
 Christ as much by their purity of love as 
 by the ineffaceable seal of regeneration, or 
 against those who seriously think of throw- 
 ing off the yoke which he has imposed 
 upon them. In his attempts against 
 them, he seeks only to make them re- 
 nounce the love of Jesus Christ, to sepa- 
 rate them from God by making them his 
 partners in disobedience. This reflection 
 should prove the consolation of those who 
 are tempted. It is their contradiction with 
 him, the enemy of their salvation, their 
 love for piety and for the will of God, that 
 draw upon them this persecution. A 
 little perseverance will make them victo- 
 
ON TEMPTATIONS. 201 
 
 rious and, above all, will strengthen them 
 in virtue. 
 
 Souls that are naturally timid, or whom 
 the Lord has conducted for a long time 
 by a cessation of passion and the sweet- 
 ness of peace, are apt to imagine that 
 these temptations which they sometimes 
 experience are signs of God's anger, and 
 they even come to think themselves aban- 
 doned when the temptation becomes 
 strong and frequent. They cannot per- 
 suade themselves that God can look with 
 a favorable eye upon a heart agitated by 
 sentiments so opposed to virtue. This is 
 the last resource of the enemy for the 
 overthrow of a soul which he has been 
 unable to seduce by the empty pleasures 
 of vice. He takes away that precious 
 confidence which would sustain it against 
 all the assaults of hell. 
 
 Such souls are greatly deceived. Those 
 
202 ON TEMPTATIONS. 
 
 who are instructed, who are better 
 acquainted with the ways of providence, 
 are not surprised at the struggle in 
 which they are engaged. They have 
 learned from the Holy Ghost, that the 
 life of man is a perpetual combat ; that we 
 are obliged to defend ourselves, without 
 ceasing, from within, against our tastes, 
 our inclinations, our self-love, domestic 
 enemies who are ever ready to betray us 
 by their snares and their suggestions; 
 from without, against the influence of bad 
 example, human respect, and the powers 
 of hell, jealous of man's happiness and 
 conspiring against him from the beginning 
 of the world. 
 
 They know that it is only by the vic- 
 tories which we gain through the assist- 
 ance of grace, that we force our way to 
 heaven, and that, according to the Apos- 
 tle : " He also, that striveth for the 
 
ON TEMPTATIONS. 203 
 
 mastery, is not crowned except he strive 
 lawfully " (2 Tim. ii. 5). 
 
 St. Paul, although he prayed to be 
 delivered from them, did not regard the 
 temptations which he continued to expe- 
 rience as signs of God's having abandoned 
 him. The saints, so long and so violently 
 attacked by the devil, even in the desert 
 and in the exercise of the severest pen- 
 ance, had not this idea of temptations. 
 On the contrary, they always regarded 
 them as the object of their struggles and 
 the subject of their merit. They knew 
 what was said in the Holy Scripture: 
 "Because thou wast acceptable to God, it 
 was necessary that temptation should prove 
 thee" (Tob. xii. 13). This is the view that 
 you too should take; it is the only one 
 that is correct according to the principles 
 of religion; and then you will no longer 
 be troubled or discouraged. 
 
20 4 ON TEMPTATIONS. 
 
 But, though temptations are no sign of 
 our being forsaken, since God never en- 
 tirely abandons man so long as he is alive, 
 and though they are generally a trial of 
 the just, yet they are sometimes the effect 
 of divine justice which punishes thereby 
 our negligence in the divine service, the 
 weakness of slothful and presumptuous 
 souls, the indulgence of natural inclina- 
 tions. But whether they be a punishment 
 or a trial, our submission in receiving 
 them and our fidelity in resisting them, 
 must be still the same. From the most 
 loving of Fathers we cannot expect a 
 justice unaccompanied by mercy. His 
 grace always follows on prayer and confi- 
 dence. He does not desire our destruction ; 
 He punishes us only to regain us. And 
 so far from being discouraged and 
 troubled, we should be animated in the 
 combat by the pardon which is extended 
 
TEMPTATIONS IN REGARD TO GOD. 205 
 
 to us, if, with an humble and contrite 
 heart, we faithfully perform the penance 
 which God imposes. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 TEMPTATIONS NO SIGN OF A DANGEROUS STATE 
 OF THE SOUL IN REGARD TO GOD AND SAL- 
 VATION. 
 
 Frequent temptations may prove that 
 the heart is subject to passions and in- 
 clined to evil, but, when rejected, they do 
 not indicate that it is bad or separated 
 from God. This inclination to evil which 
 we inherit from our birth as a consequence 
 of the sin of our first parents, is sometimes 
 increased by the influence of the senses on 
 the soul. They render us more or less 
 subject to temptation, according as their 
 impressions are more or less strong; and 
 
zo6 TEMPTATIONS IN REGARD TO GOD. 
 
 this being independent of our will and not 
 having its origin in the heart, does not in- 
 dicate a vicious state. It is not the cause 
 of this sensible disturbance; on the con- 
 trary, it suffers from it; and when from 
 its love for virtue it corrects the inclina- 
 tion, strong as it may be, the heart cer- 
 tainly does not become the worse for the 
 effort 
 
 This resistance to temptation shows a 
 Christian heart, displays its attachment to 
 God, the protection which He affords it, 
 and is a source of consolation and con- 
 fidence. This resolution to resist the in- 
 clination that solicits it, comes from the 
 divine goodness which furnishes it graces 
 all the more powerful in proportion to its 
 danger. It is poor reasoning to say : if my 
 mind and heart were in a good condition 
 and well with God, should I have these 
 thoughts and feelings so opposed to faith, 
 
TEMPTATIONS IN REGARD TO GOD. 207 
 
 to submission, to patience, which cause me 
 such horror ? 
 
 If these thoughts and feelings depended 
 solely on your will, to have them, or not, 
 you might, with some show of reason, 
 deem yourself at enmity with God when 
 you recognize their presence. But it does 
 not wholly depend on yourself. These 
 thoughts and feelings insinuate themselves 
 silently, or violently possess themselves of 
 your mind and heart without consulting 
 your will, and what is more, they endure 
 in spite of your will which would free it- 
 self of them, and uses every means for their 
 expulsion. They are not, therefore, the 
 result of your free will, they are not of 
 your choosing, and they can decide nothing 
 concerning the good state of your soul, or 
 against its union with God and virtue. 
 
 The heart becomes attached to an ob- 
 ject only through deliberation and volun- 
 
208 TEMPTATIONS IN REGARD TO GOD. 
 
 tary action. It can, therefore, belong to 
 God, although it is exposed to involuntary 
 feelings which are contrary to virtue, and 
 which it condemns. I may say more ; the 
 pain that it feels, the horror which it con- 
 ceives at being thus assailed, are a decisive 
 proof that it is faithful to its duty and to 
 divine love. If it loved God less, if it 
 feared and hated sin less, it would not ex- 
 perience this pain, and trouble, and horror, 
 it would listen to its inclinations and sat- 
 isfy its desires. It cannot have any surer 
 mark of its love for God and the persever- 
 ance which He gives it in opposing its 
 evil inclinations. 
 
 The greatest saints have been subjected 
 to this trial (St. Paul amongst others) and 
 yet they loved God very much. Our di- 
 vine Saviour, the Saint of saints, suffered 
 Himself to be tempted for our instruction. 
 That which He willed to bear in His sacred 
 
RECOURSE TO GOD. 209 
 
 humanity could be neither a sin nor even 
 an imperfection, for He was as incapable 
 of the one as of the other. We cannot 
 then be guilty when we suffer it as He 
 did, resisting it according to the measure 
 of our strength. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 IN TEMPTATION RECOURSE MUST BE HAD TO 
 GOD. HE SUSTAINS US IN THE COMBAT AL- 
 THOUGH WE DO NOT PERCEIVE IT. 
 
 God sometimes sensibly guides the soul 
 in these storms by which it is agitated. 
 We then buffet courageously the impetu- 
 ous flood of our passions. The vivid 
 sense of God's presence, the desire of lov- 
 ing Him which we feel, animate us and 
 inspire us with confidence. But sometimes 
 He conceals Himself; He seems to sleep, 
 
2io RECOURSE TO GOD. 
 
 as He did in the bark of the disciples 
 when it was on the point of being sub- 
 merged in the raging sea. On such occa- 
 sions the soul is endangered by the 
 excessive fear that seizes and paralyzes 
 the heart. 
 
 And yet there is nothing to fear if you 
 will only lift your eyes to heaven, from 
 which succor must come, and if you make 
 use of its assistance. When the disciples 
 were in danger of perishing they lost no 
 time in useless lamentation ; they did not, 
 in childish fear, give up all care of the ship; 
 they strove manfully with the storm and 
 turning to their Master they implored His 
 help. Jesus seemed asleep (Matt. viii. 
 24) and yet He directed, without their 
 being aware of it, the means which they 
 employed to escape shipwreck. So, too, 
 God, concealed as He is from sight, is not 
 the less attentive to what is passing in 
 
RECOURSE TO GOD. 211 
 
 your heart. To you it seems that the 
 next moment will bring the wreck and yet 
 you make head against the storm. 
 
 The motives that inspire you, the feel- 
 ings which animate you and prompt your 
 actions almost without your perceiving it, 
 the courage which, ever on the point of 
 failing, is always reviving, the constancy 
 with which you reject deceitful pleasures, 
 the sinful pleasures offered by the enemy 
 — from whom do they come ? From your- 
 self ? Weak as you are is this resistance 
 yours alone? Does it not come from Jesus 
 Christ, who, without making Himself per- 
 ceived, affords you His powerful support, 
 according to His word that He would not 
 " suffer you to be tempted above that which 
 you are able" (1 Cor. x. 13). Yes, when 
 you think Him farthest off, Jesus is in the 
 midst of your heart. You think yourself 
 forgotten, and you are more than ever 
 
212 CONSENTING TO TEMPTATION. 
 
 present to His memory, because you are in 
 need. He is present at your combats as 
 He was at that of St. Stephen (Acts vii. 55) 
 and, provided you do not lose confidence, 
 He will make you victorious over your ene- 
 mies by preserving you from consenting to 
 their wicked designs. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 HOW TO RECOGNIZE WHETHER WE HAVE CON- 
 SENTED TO THE TEMPTATION. 
 
 We have not much difficulty in seeing 
 that temptation is no evil and that consent 
 alone makes the sin. That which troubles 
 and disquiets those whom God subjects 
 to this painful trial, is the fear of offend- 
 ing God and their ignorance of the 
 principles by which they may reassure 
 themselves, not being able to distinguish 
 
CONSENTING TO TEMPTATION. 213 
 
 between temptation and consenting to 
 temptation. This uncertainty as to their 
 consent fills them with an anxiety which 
 causes them great suffering, destroys their 
 interior peace, and so weakens their con- 
 fidence as to prevent them from approach- 
 ing God freely and with confidence, and, 
 in fine, throws them into an extreme 
 despondency, utterly prostrating their 
 strength. A few reflections would suf- 
 fice to clear their doubts and enable them 
 to come to a right decision. 
 
 We have not a complete command 
 over our mind and our heart. We can- 
 not wholly prevent the intrusions of cer- 
 tain thoughts and feelings. Sometimes 
 indeed they take such forcible possession 
 of us, that we are led to pursue in spirit 
 without perceiving it the thought or 
 design that thus presents itself. Our 
 preoccupation is so great that we hear 
 
214 CONSENTING TO TEMPTATION. 
 
 and see nothing of what is passing 
 around ; we do not even remember how 
 or when these thoughts or feelings com- 
 menced. Thus we often suddenly find 
 ourselves, to our surprise, engaged in 
 thoughts and feelings that are opposed 
 to charity or to other virtues ; in projects 
 of vanity, pride, or self-love. 
 
 This state continues a longer or a 
 shorter time, according to the strength 
 of the imagination or the sensible im- 
 pression that occasioned it, or until some 
 circumstance arises to awaken the soul 
 from this apparent enchantment. We 
 then perceive, by reflection, the nature of 
 our thoughts. If in this moment of self- 
 consciousness, we condemn the thought 
 or feeling, if we disavow it and strive to 
 reject it, we may safely say that in all 
 that went before we were not to blame. 
 The satisfaction which we experience in 
 
CONSENTING TO TEMPTATION. 215 
 
 being freed from it is a fresh proof 
 that our will had no part in our revery. 
 In this preoccupation there was no 
 deliberation, no choice on the part of 
 the will. In order to offend God it is 
 necessary that the will should deliberately 
 consent to something sinful which it is 
 free to reject. In the case we have sup- 
 posed, there was neither freedom nor de- 
 liberation, hence there could be no sin. 
 Moreover, the promptness of their rejec- 
 tion, when consciousness returned, showed 
 the good dispositions of the soul and 
 that it would not have admitted these 
 thoughts and feelings, still less have 
 dwelt on them, had reflection furnished 
 the opportunity of accepting or rejecting 
 them at will. We must then consider 
 these temptations as beginning only when 
 we became conscious of their presence. 
 It is to this moment, therefore, that our 
 
216 CONSENTING TO TEMPTATION. 
 
 examination must be directed, and if we 
 rejected them at that time, we may be at 
 peace. 
 
 This abstraction may continue for a 
 long time, as often happens at prayer, 
 where we are carried away by distrac- 
 tions that entirely absorb the soul. This 
 circumstance does not make it voluntary 
 or deliberate. It no more depends on 
 our will to shorten the distraction then, 
 than it does to prevent it from coming 
 at all; there is no more choice in the 
 one than in the other. There will be 
 no more sin either, for as the preoccupa- 
 tion which comes unforeseen is blame- 
 less, so the length of time in which it 
 remains unperceived cannot make it cul- 
 pable. There should be no difficulty, 
 therefore, in deciding these cases. 
 
PASSING TEMPTATIONS. 217 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 ON SHORT AND PASSING TEMPTATIONS. 
 
 Temptations are generally perceived 
 at once or soon after they present them- 
 selves, and may differ in kind. Some- 
 times they are thoughts or feelings which 
 arise suddenly, and as quickly pass away. 
 In such a case we. are sometimes at a 
 loss to determine whether it was merely 
 a temptation or whether there was not 
 sin. Its duration was so short that al- 
 though we turned away from it, we are 
 unable to decide whether it was quickly 
 enough to prevent consent. 
 
 In such circumstances we may base 
 our decision upon our ordinary senti- 
 ments and conduct. If we esteem, love, 
 and zealously practise the virtues against 
 which these temptations are directed; if 
 
2i 8 PASSING TEMPTATIONS. 
 
 in our habitual disposition we are free 
 from any voluntary sin against these 
 virtues ; if in longer and more sustained 
 temptations of the kind we have been 
 victorious in the struggle, we may pru- 
 dently judge that those fleeting thoughts 
 and feelings were merely temptations and 
 not sins; and that the rejection which ban- 
 ished them had really forestalled consent 
 The reason is, that when we act con- 
 trary to our habitual disposition, we must 
 use a certain violence which we cannot 
 but perceive. If, then, we are habitually 
 such as I have supposed, our consent to 
 the temptation would not be a matter of 
 ignorance or of doubt. The impression 
 which such a consent would have made, 
 although but passing, would have caused 
 itself to be felt. We may reassure our- 
 selves, then, from the very fact that we 
 are not certain of having yielded to the 
 
PASSING TEMPTATIONS. 219 
 
 temptation. Our doubt itself proves that 
 we may be certain, for had we really 
 consented we should not doubt. 
 
 All those who prescribe rules for persons 
 who are troubled by temptations are unan- 
 imous in advising them to despise these 
 passing thoughts and to pay as little 
 attention to them as possible. The reason 
 which they give is the result of experience, 
 which teaches us that if we neglect them 
 and pass them by in occupying ourselves 
 with other things, they leave no impres- 
 sion and return less frequently, or not at 
 all ; but, on the contrary, that if we attack 
 them violently, if we subject them to a 
 strict examination, and especially if we 
 allow them to frighten us, we are only 
 recalling what is already gone, we stop 
 them and give them strength in the pause 
 which we force them to make in our 
 mind. That which, had we despised it, 
 
220 PASSING TEMPTATIONS. 
 
 would have been but as a passing shadow 
 or a fleeting gleam of lightning, becomes 
 by the attention we give it a devouring 
 flame in our heart. It becomes an in- 
 trenched enemy, obstinate in the combat 
 and dangerous to the soul. 
 
 Temptation is like a coward who seeks 
 to feel his adversary. If he meets with 
 undisguised contempt or firm resistance, 
 he does not push the quarrel, and retires. 
 But if he encounters timid compromise 
 or coward fear, he takes advantage of 
 the weakness, attacks with violence, and 
 obliges his enemy to submit to his terms. 
 We must, then, allow all such temptations 
 to pass lightly by and reserve our atten- 
 tion for useful objects. If when these 
 thoughts arise we simply turn our heart 
 to God in some aspiration of love and 
 piety, they will be unable to do us any 
 harm. 
 
PERSISTENT TEMPT ATJONS. 221 
 
 CHAPTER XXX. 
 
 ON TEMPTATIONS WHICH ARE PERSISTENT AND 
 TROUBLESOME, AND ON THOSE WHICH MAKE 
 AN IMPRESSION ON OUR SENSES. 
 
 Ordinarily, temptations are not so 
 easily vanquished and their attack is 
 strong and continued. If they cease for a 
 while, it is only to return to the charge. 
 And as they agitate both mind and heart, 
 a timid soul is apt to fear a sin in feelings 
 which we so frequently experience and 
 which seem to maintain a fixed dwelling 
 in the bosom. The fear thus excited 
 increases the feeling; the agitation in 
 which the soul finds itself, the failure of 
 its efforts to overcome the trouble, give 
 rise to a despondency more dangerous 
 than the temptation itself, since it takes 
 away the strength which is required for 
 successful resistance. 
 
222 PERSISTENT TEMPTATIONS. 
 
 Our conduct during the presence of the 
 temptation may serve to determine whether 
 we are deserving of blame. And in the 
 first place, to prevent ourselves from being 
 overcome by doubts which are dangerous 
 and unreasonable, we should return to the 
 principles which we first established. The 
 feeling which is experienced in the 
 moment of temptation is not in itself a 
 voluntary consent. It is only the bait with 
 which the enemy hopes to gain the con- 
 sent. He presents the object to the mind 
 or fancy; that is a thought. He renders 
 it pleasing to the desires or passions ; 
 that is a feeling, which is the natural con- 
 sequence of the representation of the ob- 
 ject. This feeling is more or less vivid 
 according to the temperament of the 
 individual and the impression caused by 
 the object. But all this is independent of 
 the will and precedes the consent. 
 
PERSISTENT TEMPTATIONS. 223 
 
 To produce the consent it is necessary 
 that the will should deliberately adhere to 
 this feeling, that it should approve it, 
 attach itself to it, and agree to it. An 
 idea may dwell in the mind, a feeling may 
 exist in the heart, without being adopted 
 by the will. It is thus that we resist or 
 reject the inspirations of the good spirit, 
 as well as those of the bad. This first 
 thought, then, or feeling, which only pro- 
 poses an object to our will, no more con- 
 stitutes a sin than it does a virtue, since 
 these consist in the choice which is made 
 by the will in finally attaching itself to 
 either. 
 
 If then the soul, in the time of tempta- 
 tion, had recourse to God for the grace of 
 which it stood in need; if it renounced 
 the feeling which was opposed to virtue, if 
 it disapproved and rejected it, and abhorred 
 all that the temptation proposed ; if it 
 
224 PERSISTENT TEMPTATIONS. 
 
 sought to turn away the thought by fixing 
 the mind on some proper or useful object ; 
 then, even though it cannot answer with 
 certainty for its fidelity during each instant 
 of the continuance of the trial, it may 
 safely judge that all that it experienced, 
 no matter how violent it appeared to be 
 or how long continued, was simply and 
 merely a temptation in which there was 
 no fault. 
 
 God does not permit the soul to be 
 tempted beyond its strength, as the Holy 
 Ghost teaches us : " God is faithful, who 
 will not suffer you to be tempted above that 
 which you are able, but will make also with 
 temptation issue, that you may be able to 
 bear it " (i Cor. x. 1 3). He is never wanting 
 to the one who does all he can to avoid 
 sin. And it is certain that when we em- 
 ploy the means which religion and ex- 
 perience point out, we cannot reproach 
 
PERSISTENT TEMPTATIONS. 225 
 
 ourselves with negligence. We must 
 then encourage the hope that He, who in 
 His mercy gave us the fidelity to use the 
 proper means, has also, according to His 
 promise preserved us from falling. This 
 reasoning must silence the anxious doubts 
 and fears which may arise when God has 
 caused the calm to succeed the storm. 
 
 The temptation may be strong enough 
 to excite bad impressions on our senses. 
 They should not alarm us. What we have 
 said of feelings or sentiments is equally 
 applicable to impressions or sensations. 
 Sensible impressions do not depend on 
 the will, which, not having the power to 
 stop or to banish them, is not responsible 
 for their commencement or their persist- 
 ence. In such circumstances there is no 
 sin save in their approval or acceptance. 
 So long as we regard them as the con- 
 sequence of a temptation which we 
 
226 PERSISTENT TEMPTATIONS. 
 
 combat and condemn, we do not approve 
 them and are not to blame. These im- 
 pressions or sensations would only in- 
 crease, were we to attend to them and 
 vainly strive to banish them. Since they 
 are not sins we must not allow them to 
 trouble us. Our attention must be di- 
 rected solely to driving away from the 
 mind and the heart the temptation that 
 causes them and to guarding against 
 the consent which it solicits. 
 
TEMPTATIONS WHICH DISTURB US. 227 
 
 CHAPTER XXXI. 
 
 ON TEMPTATIONS WHICH DISTURB US IN THE 
 EXERCISE OF VIRTUES. WE MUST NOT ABAN- 
 DON A GOOD WORK BECAUSE OF THE DEFECT 
 OR THE IMPERFECT MOTIVE WHICH ACCOM- 
 PANIES IT. WE MUST RENOUNCE THE ONE 
 AND PERSEVERE IN THE OTHER. 
 
 All these principles will serve to sus- 
 tain and encourage the soul in certain 
 temptations which are experienced in the 
 exercise of virtue. There are persons to 
 whom the enemy does not dare to pro- 
 pose the abandonment of those virtues 
 which lead to perfection; but he makes 
 use of artifice to restrain them and to 
 fix them in a mediocrity that degener- 
 ates into negligence. When not en- 
 gaged in spiritual exercises he leaves 
 them alone, but no sooner do they apply 
 themselves to these than he fills their 
 
228 TEMPTATIONS WHICH DISTURB US. 
 
 imagination with a thousand ideas that 
 disturb them. 
 
 In those who aspire to lead a life of 
 perfection, without being deterred there- 
 from either by human respect or by the 
 fear of the sacrifices which it entails, he 
 inspires a secret pride in the fulfilment 
 of their duties. This thought insinuates 
 itself into all their occupations. It seems 
 to them as though in everything they 
 sought the vain esteem of men or their 
 own self-satisfaction. 
 
 These temptations are so powerful in 
 some as to discourage and altogether 
 disconcert them. Possessed with the 
 idea that on account of a want of purity 
 of intention all their sacrifice is without 
 fruit and without reward, they prefer to 
 resist the inspirations of heaven, they 
 interrupt their exercises of piety, and 
 lead a life filled with imperfections and 
 
TEMPTATIONS WHICH DISTURB US. 229 
 
 with faults. Through a dread of the 
 struggle in which they must engage, 
 they omit the good works which God 
 inspires, and thus in avoiding one snare 
 they fall into another. 
 
 If the temptation arises from useless 
 occupations in which we engage, or from 
 dangerous occasions not required by our 
 state of life, there can be no doubt that 
 we should abandon them in order to se- 
 cure ourselves; but, on the other hand, 
 it is equally certain that we must not, 
 through fear of temptation, fail to per- 
 form our duty and follow the guidance 
 of the Spirit of God. Temptation is not 
 of itself an evil, whereas it is surely an 
 evil to be wanting in our duty in that 
 which God requires. If we allow our- 
 selves to be influenced by this fear and 
 on that account abandon our exercises 
 of piety or the profit which attends a 
 
230 TEMPTATIONS WHICH DISTURB US. 
 
 spirit of sacrifice, we are wanting in fidel- 
 ity to grace ; we deprive ourselves of that 
 assistance which would enable us to ad- 
 vance in perfection ; we place in the hand 
 of our enemy a certain means of causing 
 us to abandon successively all that we 
 are bound to perform. He will take ad- 
 vantage of this empire which he is 
 allowed to acquire, of this fear which 
 he has succeeded in inspiring, and will 
 lead us by degrees to the neglect of the 
 practices of religion, of the sacraments, 
 of all that nourishes piety. Will a soul 
 in such a state, without strength, with- 
 out courage, afraid to seek in prayer 
 and mortification the means of support, 
 be able to resist successfully the assault 
 of its enemy? 
 
 Let us not then fear such temptations, 
 since, as we have often said, the fault is 
 not in them, but in our consenting to 
 
TEMPTATIONS WHICH DISTURB US. 231 
 
 the evil which they propose. Those 
 which are more enduring we must en- 
 counter with confidence and love of 
 God. Those which are but passing 
 thoughts, no matter how frequent, we 
 must despise and forget, renewing our 
 intention of doing the will of God in all 
 our actions. Then such temptations will 
 bring with them no imperfections; they 
 will even do us good, since they will 
 cause a more frequent purifying of our 
 intention. Thus shall good come from 
 evil and from a snare designed for our 
 destruction we shall derive a means for 
 our sanctification. 
 
2 3 2 BANISHING TEMPTATIONS. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXII. 
 
 TEMPTATIONS NOT TO BE REASONED WITH. MEANS 
 OF BANISHING THEM. 
 
 There are certain passions which we 
 can vanquish only by a direct attack ; 
 that is, by doing the reverse of what they 
 suggest. Those which form the leading 
 points of an unsubdued nature are of 
 this number. They who are subject to 
 vanity, anger, susceptibility, and to quick 
 and strong prejudices, can surmount these 
 passions only by practising on occasion 
 the virtues which are directly opposed to 
 them. They must not be satisfied with 
 renouncing the feelings which those pas- 
 sions inspire, but they must mortify them 
 by producing the opposite sentiments. If 
 they seek only to avoid the occasions of 
 their faults they will not succeed in 
 
BANISHING TEMPTATIONS. 233 
 
 destroying the passion, and when they 
 can no longer avoid the occasion, they 
 will be almost certain to fall. It is by 
 practising humility, meekness, by self-re- 
 nunciation, and by attentions to those 
 against whom we have a prejudice, that 
 we give to those passions efficacious blows, 
 insure their defeat and the complete 
 victory of him who is faithful in resisting 
 every attack. 
 
 On the other hand, nothing is more 
 damaging than the conduct of certain 
 persons in the time of temptation. They 
 believe that they are guilty of a fault in 
 case they fail to exhaust themselves in 
 reasoning down the suggestions of the 
 temptation. They enter into a discussion 
 with the passion that attacks them, and 
 which is never without a specious reason 
 for its justification. They engage in a 
 combat that is long and doubtful, and that 
 
234 BANISHING TEMPTATIONS. 
 
 need not have lasted a minute if they had 
 refused to argue with their wily enemy — 
 or which, at least, would have given them 
 much less trouble to surmount. This is 
 especially the case in temptations against 
 faith and hope, or in sentiments opposed 
 to charity. They wish to assure them- 
 selves of their interior dispositions by 
 going directly against the temptation, and 
 they only involve themselves in trouble- 
 some doubts and perplexities, and uselessly 
 expose themselves to peril. 
 
 So soon as we reason w r ith the tempta- 
 tion, particularly in difficult matters or 
 where difficulties are easily excited and 
 hard to answer for those who are not well 
 informed in such matters, or in things 
 which appeal to self-love, and which our 
 natural malice approves, we are in the 
 greatest danger of defeat. So it was that 
 Eve fell. 
 
BANISHING TEMPTATIONS. 235 
 
 Temptations that enter the soul through 
 the senses and which offer a satisfaction 
 that is in conformity with nature cause 
 a very strong impression. That which 
 we oppose to it, not being appreciable to 
 the senses nor affecting our nature, 
 makes much less impression, unless, in- 
 deed, it be strengthened by a very vivid 
 faith. In the midst of our trouble, faith 
 has frequently a difficulty in making it- 
 self heard and our resistance to the pas- 
 sion becomes very weak. Besides, in 
 this sort of defence, the attention we give 
 to the temptation keeps it alive and makes 
 it more felt, so that every instant it seems 
 to us that we have yielded our consent 
 to its suggestions, and we become so 
 troubled and dismayed as to be unable 
 afterward to give a satisfactory account 
 of our conduct. 
 
 In all such temptations, there is no 
 
236 BANISHING TEMPTATIONS. 
 
 surer way of defending ourselves than 
 simply to banish the thought by occupy- 
 ing our minds with some pious senti- 
 ment. If thoughts can intrude themselves 
 without the consent of the will, the latter, 
 on the other hand, can indirectly expel 
 them by obliging the mind to occupy it- 
 self with other objects. Nor is it neces- 
 sary to select for this purpose such as 
 are opposed to the temptation which 
 assails us, it being sufficient to disavow 
 or reject it by entertaining any thought 
 or any act of virtue that may distract 
 our attention, selecting in preference 
 those which are to us most familiar or 
 most striking. 
 
 Some, easily moved by the sufferings 
 of the God become man for our sake, 
 place themselves at the foot of the cross 
 of Jesus Christ who by the sacrifice of 
 His life expiated our sins ; there they con- 
 
BANISHING TEMPTATIONS. 237 
 
 ceive a new sorrow for their faults and 
 omissions, and a new horror for what- 
 ever might crucify again in their hearts 
 their dear Lord and Master. Others, in 
 imagination, fly for refuge within the 
 Sacred Heart of Jesus, imploring His 
 mercy and protection, and by penetrat- 
 ing into His goodness and compassion 
 for them, excite within themselves a 
 gratitude and a confidence that insure 
 their fidelity. These, moved especially 
 by the love displayed by Jesus in giving 
 Himself to them in the Holy Eucharist, 
 make use of the sentiments inspired by 
 His infinite mercy to withdraw their 
 heart from everything that might offend 
 so good a Lord. Those, imagining them- 
 selves at the moment in which they will 
 be called upon to render an account to 
 God, dwell upon the thought of heaven 
 and hell. They ask themselves, "If I 
 
2 3 8 BANISHING TEMPTATIONS. 
 
 were just about to appear before the 
 tribunal of Jesus Christ, how should I 
 then wish to have acted?" Occupying 
 themselves earnestly with these objects 
 so interesting to the Christian and so 
 capable of withdrawing man from sin, 
 penetrated with truths at once so touch- 
 ing, so striking, their hearts become in- 
 sensible to the temptation and their 
 minds cease to entertain the thought. 
 
 There are few temptations that can 
 persist long in the soul who, refusing to 
 listen to or discuss the imaginary reasons 
 of passion and animated by a lively con- 
 fidence, turns to God in loving trust 
 and implores His help through the in- 
 tercession of the Blessed Virgin. This 
 exercise of love for God, during the 
 continuance of the temptation, is the best 
 safeguard of the heart. It can never be 
 overcome so long as it sustains this 
 
BANISHING TEMPTATIONS. 
 
 *39 
 
 sentiment To render it stronger and 
 more enduring the mind should recall 
 the motives that are apt to nourish and 
 increase it; the enemy will soon retire 
 in confusion. A renewal of the attack 
 should be met with the same defence. 
 
 It is desirable next to banish entirely 
 from the mind and heart the ideas and 
 feelings which beget the danger. We 
 shall do it most readily and surely by en- 
 gaging ourselves in some other thoughts 
 or occupations. Indeed there are occa- 
 sions, especially when the temptation is 
 unusually strong and obstinate, where it 
 is desirable to take up some entertain- 
 ing author, to engage in some bodily 
 exercise, or to occupy ourselves earnestly 
 in business or the discharge of our 
 household duties. Such occupations fix 
 the attention and free the mind from 
 the seductive pictures of the imagina- 
 
240 BANISHING TEMPTATIONS. 
 
 tion. When peace and calm have re- 
 turned, the mind and heart will be more 
 at liberty to think of God and to attach 
 themselves to Him more closely. 
 
 A capital point in these combats is 
 the not allowing ourselves to be troubled, 
 or to relax our confidence, and especially 
 to resist the very first attack. When we 
 are disturbed by fear we know not where 
 to turn for assistance, being, in a man- 
 ner, struck with blindness. We do not 
 think of seeking assistance; the heart 
 knows not on what to resolve, since the 
 intellect presents nothing to prompt its 
 action. We may verify this in our daily 
 experience, as well in temporal as in 
 spiritual things. How often have we 
 not beheld a man in sudden danger, pal- 
 sied by fear, lose his presence of mind; 
 in vain is a help tendered to him, he 
 cannot see it; he has safety at hand, 
 
BANISHING TEMPTATIONS. 241 
 
 and in seeking it, he turns his back 
 upon it. 
 
 Show a bold front to the enemy and 
 you can then take surer measures to 
 parry his blows, you will more readily 
 perceive the means of conquering, and 
 being more at ease, you will employ 
 them with greater confidence. And, 
 once more, what cause is there for fear? 
 The devil can indeed suggest the most 
 horrible sins, but can he oblige you to 
 consent to them ? That depends on 
 your will, not on his. Why then be 
 frightened at a result which lies com- 
 pletely at your own disposal? Why fear 
 a consent, which, with the assured assist- 
 ance of grace you can certainly refuse? 
 Stand firm and you have nothing to 
 fear from an enemy who can only con- 
 quer by your permission. 
 
 This courage will spring from your 
 
242 BANISHING TEMPTATIONS. 
 
 confidence in God, which you must be 
 careful to sustain. When one is dis- 
 couraged in temptation, he is already 
 half overcome. His efforts are feeble, 
 because unsupported by those graces 
 which confidence attracts. How should 
 they be granted when, through fear, 
 there is no thought of imploring them? 
 He no longer considers the goodness 
 and power of a God who is able and 
 willing to defend His child. And yet 
 were he to ask with trusting faith, that 
 power and goodness would be soon 
 made manifest. The confidence of the 
 Royal Psalmist should be his: u f will 
 call upon the Lord ; and I shall be saved 
 from my enemies" (Ps. xvii. 4). 
 
 "But," you may say, "how often have 
 I not experienced my weakness in this 
 temptation?" Yes, because you have 
 always been wanting in confidence. Be 
 
BANISHING TEMPTATIONS. 243 
 
 firm then, and you will never fall. St. 
 Peter, walking on the waters at the com- 
 mand of Jesus Christ, began to sink so 
 soon as he commenced to doubt ; he was 
 saved only by a return to confidence, 
 which gained for him the protection of 
 his divine Master. 
 
 In temptations, especially in those 
 which are generally violent, be on your 
 guard at the first attack and try to re- 
 press its first motions. If, by a feeble 
 defence, you allow the imagination to 
 become excited and the heart to be oc- 
 cupied, your negligence will serve to 
 increase your weakness. A passion that 
 is trifled with soon gains the upper hand. 
 It was only a spark, easily extinguished ; 
 it becomes a flame which consumes all 
 the faculties of the soul. This advice is 
 the more necessary in those temptations 
 that are increased in violence by the 
 
244 BANISHING TEMPTATIONS. 
 
 impression which they make on the 
 senses. A special mercy is then required 
 to preserve us unharmed amidst the 
 flames. Diligence in meeting the dan- 
 ger would either have preserved you from 
 the temptation or would have assured 
 you the protection of God, whereby you 
 would have escaped without a wound. 
 
 When anything occurs that is strange 
 to our experience we should at once con- 
 sult our confessor, and make known to 
 him the new temptation. He will teach 
 us what means we must employ to resist 
 and banish the adversary. This act of 
 humility and Christian simplicity draws 
 down special graces from heaven. Our 
 Lord takes a special interest in the 
 troubles of those who, according to the 
 order of divine providence, seek to walk 
 in the paths of obedience. It often hap- 
 pens that such temptations never attack 
 
FREQUENT TEMPTATIONS. 245 
 
 us a second time, when revealed at once 
 to the minister of God. If we conceal 
 them in the hope that they will disappear, 
 they gain time to fortify themselves and 
 become more difficult to overcome. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIII. 
 
 ON FREQUENT TEMPTATIONS. " IN TIME OF 
 PEACE, PREPARE FOR WAR." 
 
 When we are subject to frequent temp- 
 tations, we must employ the intervals 
 of attack in preparing ourselves and in 
 gathering strength to resist. He who 
 would make himself ready only when 
 assailed is easily surprised and readily 
 defeated. " In time of peace, prepare for 
 war," is a well-known maxim. We should 
 not neglect its warning in our spiritual 
 combats, where defeat is so much more 
 
246 FREQUENT TEMPTATIONS. 
 
 important than in temporal affairs, since 
 thereby we are deprived of an eternal 
 kingdom. 
 
 This preparation consists in leading a 
 life of recollection. When we are lead- 
 ing a gay and distracted life we do not 
 pay proper attention to what is passing 
 in our heart. Temptations advance very 
 far before we find ourselves roused to a 
 sense of danger. The mind being oc- 
 cupied with light and trifling things, finds 
 a difficulty in reflecting seriously on the 
 motives which religion offers to counter- 
 act the solicitations of passion. But in 
 interior recollection, occupied with God 
 and holy things, we see the enemy from 
 afar; we use the proper precautions, and 
 we find in our habitual thoughts and feel- 
 ings sufficient weapons for a successful 
 defence. The mind occupied with the 
 truths of faith, the heart habitually at- 
 
FREQUENT TEMPTATIONS. 247 
 
 tached to virtue, are not so easily shaken 
 by the false allurements of passion. The 
 torch of faith reveals the depth of the 
 precipice to which the temptation leads, 
 and, filled with horror, we withdraw from 
 the slippery descent. Assiduous prayer, 
 the invocation of the saints, and particu- 
 larly of the Mother of God, open to us 
 the treasures of heaven and procure for 
 us those chosen graces for which the dissi- 
 pated soul does not even think of asking. 
 If this recollected life be accompanied 
 by a careful frequentation of the sacra- 
 ments, we shall be still more secure. 
 And even though we sometimes yield to 
 temptation, we should not therefore with- 
 draw from the sacraments, but on the 
 contrary, approach them more frequently. 
 The Sacrament of Penance was estab- 
 lished not only for the remission of actual 
 sins, but also for conferring graces which 
 
248 FREQUENT TEMPTATIONS. 
 
 may withhold us from others that we 
 might commit and fortify us against the 
 passions which lead us into sin. 
 
 In abstaining from the sacraments, 
 then, we deprive ourselves of these graces 
 and diminish our capacity for resistance. 
 The more frequently we approach the 
 Sacrament of Penance, the greater is the 
 horror which we conceive for sin. This 
 horror, frequently renewed, becomes more 
 rooted in the soul, more vivid in its effects, 
 and fortifies it more powerfully in the 
 moment of danger. Moreover, all the 
 theologians unite in saying that when a 
 person who is very much inclined to 
 mortal sin has had the misfortune to fall, 
 he should lose no time in being recon- 
 ciled, since, being separated from God 
 and deprived of sanctifying grace, he 
 remains in the greatest danger of com- 
 mitting the sin again, on a recurrence 
 
FREQUENT TEMPTATIONS. 249 
 
 of the temptation. It is therefore very 
 prejudicial to delay having recourse to the 
 Sacrament of Penance, and still more 
 so to abandon it altogether, or for a 
 time. 
 
 The holy communion, when we ap- 
 proach it after suitable preparation, is 
 also a very powerful aid against tempta- 
 tion. We there receive Jesus Christ, the 
 Saviour of souls. After having given 
 Himself to us can we believe that He 
 will refuse the graces which are necessary 
 to preserve us in union with Him ? If 
 He enters our heart, is it not that He 
 may confirm it in virtue? The Holy 
 Council of Trent, speaking of the Holy 
 Eucharist, says : "Jesus Christ desired that 
 this Sacrament should be received as the 
 spiritual food of souls, that it should 
 nourish and strengthen them, . . . and 
 should be an antidote by which we should 
 
250 FREQUENT TEMPTATIONS. 
 
 be delivered from our daily faults and 
 preserved from mortal sins " (Sess. xiii. 
 c. 2). If there be any time in which we 
 have pressing need of help to confirm 
 us in virtue, to strengthen us against the 
 enemy of salvation, to preserve us from 
 mortal sin, it is certainly when we are 
 the object of frequent temptations. The 
 celestial food, the powerful antidote, is 
 never more needed. To deprive ourselves 
 voluntarily of that assistance provided for 
 such emergencies would be to court peril 
 and tempt our weakness. Besides, when 
 preparing ourselves for the Blessed Sac- 
 rament we are absorbed in the thoughts 
 suggested by the great event; our heart, 
 occupied by the sentiments of piety which 
 it strives to excite, recoils from tempta- 
 tion and is attentive to exclude everything 
 that may diminish the graces which it 
 solicits. But of this point the confessor 
 
FREQUENT TEMPTATIONS. 251 
 
 is the proper judge ; it is for him to pre- 
 scribe what is to be done, lest in this we 
 should be guided by illusions. 
 
 To all these safeguards against the 
 temptations to which we are exposed, we 
 may add the exercise of penance. It 
 obtains new graces ; it humbles the spirit ; 
 it deadens the passions; it expiates our 
 sins, our faults and negligences ; it excites 
 our fervor, and redoubles our vigilance. 
 In this, however, there is need of discre- 
 tion and judgment. We must not carry 
 our mortification too far, for then it would 
 be an excess and prejudicial to our health, 
 which Christian prudence commands us 
 to preserve. The practice of mortification 
 is beneficial against nearly all the pas- 
 sions ; but there are temptations in which 
 it may be hurtful to some persons, accord- 
 ing to their character and temperament. 
 To such, mortification must be forbidden, 
 
252 UTILITY OF TEMPTATIONS. 
 
 and they must do nothing of the kind, 
 save by counsel and permission. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIV. 
 
 THE UTILITY OF TEMPTATIONS. 
 
 If temptations render us so unhappy, it 
 is because we do not look upon them from 
 the right point of view. We consider only 
 the danger to which we are exposed, the 
 evil to which we are drawn ; we lose sight 
 of the advantages which they confer, of 
 the spiritual benefit which they can pro- 
 cure. This ignorance, or this want of 
 reflection, accounts for the little profit 
 which we derive from these trials. The 
 following considerations will serve to make 
 us bear them more patiently and will give 
 us greater facility in overcoming them. 
 
UTILITY OF TEMPTATIONS. 253 
 
 Temptations may be made to lead a 
 Christian heart to the practice of the most 
 solid virtues and to the acquisition of 
 great merits in heaven. It is a great 
 consolation to think that we can derive 
 advantages from the very enemies that 
 assail us and make them contribute to our 
 happiness. Surely this thought should 
 animate us in the hour of combat. It is 
 the motive proposed to us by the apostle 
 St. James : " Esteem it, my brethren, all joy, 
 when you shall fall into divers temptations" 
 (i. 2), and he at once assigns the reason, 
 " knowing that the trying of your faith 
 worketh patience'' and patience, he adds, 
 worketh perfection. 
 
 Man does not sufficiently reflect upon 
 himself; he does not know himself; he 
 avoids self-examination lest perchance 
 he should recognize faults which would 
 cause him to blush. All his attention is 
 
254 UTILITY OF TEMPTATIONS. 
 
 engaged in endeavoring to excuse his sins 
 to himself, and to exaggerate his good 
 qualities. From this foolish conduct 
 spring that self-love so delicate, so sensi- 
 tive, so touchy; that self-esteem and pre- 
 sumption which expose him to so many 
 dangers ; that vanity, that preference 
 which he gives himself over others. 
 Pride, the source of all evils, blinds him 
 to his defects, to his falls, and to his weak- 
 ness. Even pious persons are not exempt 
 from this self-complacency, this dwelling 
 on one's virtues, this hunger for esteem, 
 which are so natural to man. It is a 
 secret spring of pride and vanity, which 
 exalts them in their own eyes, puffs them 
 up with satisfaction, leads them to rely on 
 their own strength, and keeps them in a 
 rash and dangerous feeling of security. 
 It is a subtle poison that infects actions 
 which are, in appearance, most holy. 
 
UTILITY OF TEMPTATIONS. 255 
 
 Temptations are a sovereign remedy 
 against this dangerous evil and its perni- 
 cious consequences. They reveal to man 
 the interior of his own heart ; they show 
 him what he is when left to himself ; they 
 tear away all concealment and all disguise. 
 By the light of their gloomy torch he sees 
 his misery, his weakness, his corruption. 
 Attacked alternately by the different pas- 
 sions, by envy, jealousy, hatred, vengeance, 
 and by others, lower yet and more degrad- 
 ing, he sees in his heart the germs of all 
 those disorders into which others have 
 fallen and he is at last persuaded that his 
 nature is not superior to theirs. 
 
 The first effect produced in us by such 
 a sight, is to inspire a humility propor- 
 tioned to the misery which is thereby made 
 known to us, where there is subject only 
 for humility and contempt. The compla- 
 cency which we might feel at the sight of 
 
256 UTILITY OF TEMPTATIONS. 
 
 certain good qualities which we possess, 
 is soon lowered by that crowd of evil in- 
 clinations against which we must wage 
 unceasing warfare. We see ourselves 
 such as we should appear to men were our 
 heart with all its passions unveiled to their 
 contemplation. We feel for ourselves a 
 Christian contempt, humility before God, 
 and, at least, equality with other men. 
 
 What advantages could we not derive 
 from this self-knowledge accompanied by 
 the spirit of religion ? Are we suffering — 
 submissive to the designs of providence, 
 we acknowledge that God is lenient to- 
 ward us and does not treat us as the 
 corruption of our heart deserves. Are we 
 happy and consoled — we adore the good- 
 ness of God who is so indulgent to His 
 unworthy creature. The contrast of our 
 unworthiness and the divine goodness, ex- 
 cites the most lively gratitude and inspires 
 
UTILITY OF TEMPTATIONS. 257 
 
 a more perfect love. With the convic- 
 tion that we are unworthy of the bene- 
 fits which we receive at His hands and 
 which flow from His infinite mercy, we 
 strive to deepen still more our humility, 
 that virtue at once so necessary and the 
 mother of so many other virtues. 
 
 One to whom temptations have re- 
 vealed all the corruption of his heart, 
 experiences, alone with God, the same 
 confusion which he would suffer before 
 men to whom it should be known. It is 
 a salutary confusion which should be pre- 
 served. Hereafter, guided by the spirit 
 of religion, he will not be irritated by the 
 conduct of others, rough and disagreeable 
 though it be. The light of faith shows 
 him that he merits even more contempt 
 than he receives, and if he does not 
 meet with more, it is because he is not 
 thoroughly known to others, or their 
 
258 GREATER VIGILANCE. 
 
 charity blinds them to that which they 
 might otherwise perceive. Is anything 
 more needed to destroy forever his self- 
 complacency and esteem ? 
 
 CHAPTER XXXV. 
 
 THE SUBJECT CONTINUED. ONE WHO IS SUBJECT 
 TO TEMPTATIONS AND DESIROUS OF SAVING HIS 
 SOUL, ATTACHES HIMSELF THE MORE CLOSELY 
 TO GOD AND EXERCISES THE GREATER VIGI- 
 LANCE. 
 
 The knowledge that temptations give 
 of the interior produces another effect 
 which rightly followed up leads to per- 
 fection. One who is subject to tempta- 
 tions and yet desirous of being saved 
 attaches himself more closely to God and 
 is excited to greater vigilance over him- 
 
GREATER VIGILANCE. 259 
 
 self — two great means of advancing 
 rapidly in the path of sanctity. 
 
 He sees in his heart a number of ene- 
 mies, he knows his own weakness ; and 
 although he feels that with ordinary grace 
 he has sufficient resolution to overcome 
 some, yet against others to which he is 
 more violently drawn and in certain oc- 
 casions of greater peril, he is convinced 
 from his own weakness, from a sorrowful 
 experience, and from a knowledge of the 
 principles of his religion, that without 
 special graces, he will not have the cour- 
 age to resist successfully. Knowing these 
 things and alarmed at the unequal strug- 
 gle, what is he to do? He must seek 
 help powerful enough to sustain him 
 against his enemies and particularly 
 against those whom he most fears. Faith 
 teaches him that this assistance is to be 
 found only in God, and that to obtain it 
 
260 GREATER VIGILANCE. 
 
 he has only to implore it fervently and 
 perseveringly. To Him then does he 
 turn with entire confidence. 
 
 At the first movement of the tempta- 
 tion, he says with the Psalmist, "/ have 
 lifted up my eyes to the mountains from 
 whence help shall come to me" (Ps. cxx. i); 
 he solicits it by his prayers ; he attracts it 
 by his desires; all the aspirations of his 
 heart are eloquent to obtain it. The more 
 the temptation presses him, the more he 
 attaches himself to God. He is like a 
 child walking along the margin of fear- 
 ful precipices or surrounded by ferocious 
 beasts of prey ; he clings to his Father for 
 protection whenever the path grows slip- 
 pery and dangerous, or when the fierce 
 growl or the fiery eye warns him of mor- 
 tal peril. 
 
 Under the protection of God, like the 
 Royal Prophet, he ceases to fear enemies 
 
GREATER VIGILANCE. 261 
 
 who are powerless against a strong faith 
 pointing to eternal happiness and a firm 
 hope which gains those especial graces 
 promised to implicit confidence. He no 
 longer regards the enemy whom he had 
 thought well-nigh invincible ; he despises 
 him or attacks him with confidence, and 
 in such dispositions he meets with an 
 easy victory. This grace, frequently re- 
 newed, teaches him all the more the ex- 
 tent of God's goodness and mercy in his 
 regard, and in return his love grows fer- 
 vent and strong. Temptations, then, prop- 
 erly understood and met according to the 
 spirit of religion, attach us more closely 
 to God by the great virtues of faith, 
 hope, and charity, to the frequent exer- 
 cise of which they oblige us. 
 
 On the other hand, the conviction of 
 our weakness inevitably excites us to 
 greater vigilance. A weak man is a timid 
 
262 GREATER VIGILANCE. 
 
 man — timid in proportion to his weak- 
 ness. That weakness makes him very care- 
 ful not to make to himself enemies, and 
 to avoid the anger of those whom he has 
 already made. He is attentive to his own 
 behavior and weighs every word. Doubt- 
 ful of his own strength he seeks to attack 
 no one. This conduct is but a figure of 
 the precaution which a Christian should 
 take. He avoids with care whatever may 
 excite the temptations to which he is sub- 
 ject, whatever may give rise to new and 
 untried dangers. He knows who it is that 
 says, "He that loveth danger shall perish 
 in it" (Eccles. iii. 27). In the fear of being 
 left to his own weakness by rendering 
 himself, through presumption, unworthy 
 of the assistance of heaven, he is all atten- 
 tion to what passes in his mind and heart, 
 lest some new enemy should creep in, or 
 lest those already there concealed, taking 
 
GREATER VIGILANCE. 263 
 
 advantage of his negligence, should take 
 him by surprise, gain him with the poi- 
 soned sweetness of passion, and force him 
 to the precipice. 
 
 Vigilance is the more necessary, because 
 the temptation is not unfrequently dis- 
 guised. It uses stratagem, it alleges false 
 pretexts, it takes upon itself the appearance 
 of virtue so as to draw the soul quietly to 
 the fatal trap. Passion often conceals 
 itself lest it should be recognized. It will 
 insinuate itself insensibly into the heart, 
 and disguise itself so as to enter unper- 
 ceived. He who is inattentive to its ap- 
 proach gives it time to fortify itself or 
 fails to erect a barrier strong enough to 
 resist its attack. On the contrary, he who 
 is exercised in the spiritual warfare and 
 aware of the danger of new temptations, or 
 of giving the slightest way to the old, is 
 always on the alert to detect the slightest 
 
264 GREATER VIGILANCE. 
 
 movement of his heart. He examines the 
 nature of his feelings and no sooner does 
 he perceive the enemy than he challenges 
 him and stands to his own defence. 
 
 And this vigilance is an assured bulwark 
 against temptations, whether from without 
 or from within. With it there can be no 
 surprise, and the enemy finds the garrison 
 prepared at all points. 
 
 In time of peace and calm, precaution is 
 regarded as superfluous. But in time of 
 war or in the midst of the tempest, we 
 must be vigilant to escape shipwreck or 
 defeat. And so it is that frequency of 
 temptation begets vigilance, and vigilance 
 causes a stricter union with God, and from 
 this union springs docility to the inspira- 
 tions of the Holy Ghost, and docility leads 
 us in the path of perfection. 
 
GOOD EFFECTS OF TEMPTATION. 265 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVI. 
 
 THE GOOD EFFECTS OF TEMPTATION IN NEGLI- 
 GENT SOULS. 
 
 Temptations, which seemed destined to 
 be the certain ruin of negligent souls, have 
 not unfrequently been a heaven-provided 
 means of rescuing them from the tepidity 
 in which they lived and of leading them 
 to the fervent practice of virtue. There 
 are persons who live a life of languishing 
 piety. No marked disorder is visible in 
 their general conduct, but neither is there 
 any endeavor after perfection. If they do 
 not commit any of those mortal offences 
 which cut us off from God, neither do they 
 do any great good, through their indif- 
 ference to the mortification of the senses, 
 their indulgence of every feeling and in- 
 clination not manifestly sinful, and their 
 
266 GOOD EFFECTS OF TEMPTATION. 
 
 habitual disregard of the persistent prin- 
 ciples of the faith. Their lives, having 
 so little of the supernatural, are but indif- 
 ferently meritorious in the sight of God. 
 They are vessels becalmed on their voyage 
 to heaven. 
 
 Well, God sends a storm to break the 
 idle calm. Temptation comes to awake 
 slumbering piety, and God, enlightening 
 them as to their state, draws them kindly to 
 Him by His grace. They see themselves 
 on the eve of perils from which they 
 shrink affrighted. They find themselves 
 beset by enemies alternately employing 
 charms and fears to seduce or to intimi- 
 date. Religion then makes herself known 
 in all her strength. Alarmed at the 
 danger they have recourse to God in 
 whom alone they can have confidence of 
 a favorable issue to the combat. If the 
 assaults are renewed, they think seriously 
 
GOOD EFFECTS OF TEMPTATION. 267 
 
 and resolutely of employing all the means 
 which faith can offer to escape the im- 
 pending ruin. 
 
 Henceforth, earnest in prayer, by which 
 they hope to obtain the required strength ; 
 united with God, to whom a lively sense 
 of danger has recalled them; watchful 
 over themselves, so as not to fall into the 
 snares prepared for them, — they act only 
 from motives of piety and live in the con- 
 tinual exercise of virtue. All that they 
 desire, all that they do, is offered up as an 
 act of homage to God. The more they 
 are assailed by temptations, the more 
 firmly do they determine to continue in 
 the path which alone conducts to a place 
 of safety. From a life of tepidity they 
 enter on a life of fervor in which every 
 moment is consecrated to God. 
 
 This change necessarily takes place in 
 us if we are faithful to grace. For, 
 
268 GOOD EFFECTS OF TEMPTATION. 
 
 attacked by temptations, seeing our sal- 
 vation at stake and wishing to avoid a 
 loss that is irreparable, however slightly 
 we may reason from the principles of faith, 
 we cannot but recognize that it would be 
 presumption, and a very sinful presumption, 
 to expect, from the hands of God, a victory 
 which we take no steps to insure. To 
 live a tepid and dissipated life, to omit or 
 negligently to perform our accustomed 
 exercises of piety, to approach the sacra- 
 ments rarely and with but little prepara- 
 tion, to be careless about the commission 
 of venial sins and yet to expect from the 
 mercy of God the grace to resist our 
 passions, — is only to tempt Him, to render 
 ourselves unworthy of His assistance, to 
 deserve that we should be abandoned to 
 our own weakness and become the slave 
 of sin. 
 
 With such dispositions, a tepid and neg- 
 
GOOD EFFECTS OF TEMPTATION. 269 
 
 ligent soul cannot be said, with justice, 
 really to intend resistance ; for, to wish the 
 end whilst we reject the means is not to 
 wish at all. God must then say as He 
 said to His chosen people : " Destruction is 
 thy own, O Israel: thy help is only in Me" 
 (Osee, xiii. 9). It is not of such that I treat, 
 but rather of those who, in spite of their 
 tepidity, fear sin and love God enough to 
 shrink from a mortal offence, and to adopt 
 the means which are necessary for their 
 preservation. To such souls temptations 
 are very useful, arousing them from their 
 sloth and exciting their fervor. 
 
 Those who treat of the spiritual life 
 teach us that God sometimes permits a 
 tepid soul to fall into some grievous fault, 
 in order to rouse it from its lethargy by 
 the remorse which follows sin. 
 
270 OVERCOMING TEMPTATIONS. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVII. 
 
 THE TIME SPENT IN OVERCOMING TEMPTATIONS 
 IS NOT TIME LOST. 
 
 Some persons, much subject to tempta- 
 tions, lament the time which they spend 
 in resisting them. I cannot, they say, 
 preserve recollection. When I try to 
 meditate, to recite some prayers, to spend 
 a few moments in the presence of the 
 Blessed Sacrament, I cannot fix my mind 
 on God. That is the very time that 
 temptations come to assail me ; and I pass 
 it in a vain endeavor to banish them. I 
 meet these troublesome and obstinate 
 visitors even at the holy table, when I 
 go to receive my Lord and my God. 
 What profit can I expect from pious exer- 
 cises performed in such a manner ? 
 
 This thought brings great discourage- 
 ment. To cure this, to reassure and 
 
OVERCOMING TEMPTATIONS. 271 
 
 console such persons, it is important to 
 recall to them the principles by which to 
 correct their error and the advantages of 
 such a state when borne as it should be. 
 It is a maxim universally acknowledged 
 that we are not called to serve God accord- 
 ing to our own feelings and inclinations, 
 but in the way which He requires and 
 according to His good-will. God attaches 
 His graces and rewards, not precisely to 
 the good works which we prescribe for 
 ourselves, but to those which He author- 
 izes and enjoins. It is on this principle 
 that is based the decision that, if obedience 
 prescribes an employment which keeps us 
 from prayer or meditation, by performing 
 the action in a spirit of recollection we 
 please God just as much as if we had 
 spent the time in communion with Him. 
 And if we were to omit the action for the 
 sake of praying or meditating, we should 
 
272 OVERCOMING TEMPTATIONS. 
 
 not be serving God as He requires; we 
 should offend instead of serving Him. 
 This principle should suffice to convince 
 you that you do not lose the time which 
 you pass in resisting temptations that 
 occur during your exercises of piety. 
 The devil has no more power over men 
 than God allows to him. It was only by 
 an express permission that he was enabled 
 to subject the patient Job to so many 
 trials and temptations. God permits this 
 state in which you find yourself; and as 
 distractions are a species of temptation, 
 you must apply to them what I have just 
 been saying. 
 
 How then does God wish that you 
 should serve Him ? Is it by a sustained 
 and uninterrupted meditation on holy 
 things? Is it by tender colloquies with 
 Himself which no earthly affection shall 
 be allowed to disturb? Not so; He 
 
OVERCOMING TEMPTATIONS. 273 
 
 wishes you to serve Him by a faithful and 
 persevering resistance to all the inspira- 
 tions of the enemy, by which he strives to 
 seduce and separate you from the divine 
 love; that, like the Jews rebuilding the 
 walls of Jerusalem, one hand should grasp 
 the sword of defensive warfare whilst the 
 other labors to erect the spiritual edifice of 
 perfection in a sentiment of lively faith and 
 unshaken hope — a hope, I mean, unshaken 
 in your will, however it may seem to waver 
 in your imagination. Has such been your 
 fidelity ? Then you have done the will of 
 God; you have honored Him as He re- 
 quired; you have put Him above every- 
 thing else ; you have in your submission, 
 and patience, and fidelity in resisting 
 temptation, been as pleasing to Him as 
 though you had been occupied in an 
 ecstasy of fervent prayer distinguished by 
 the most affectionate sentiments. 
 
274 OVERCOMING TEMPTATIONS. 
 
 I ask you, how can that time be lost 
 which is spent in conformity to the will of 
 God and in the exhibition of so marked 
 and solid an attachment to Him ? After 
 such an exercise, in which you have 
 courageously resisted all the attacks of 
 your enemies, you should be as well satis- 
 fied as if you had performed it in the 
 greatest recollection and tranquillity. It 
 had less savor and sweetness, but the fruit 
 was all the richer. You have done the 
 will of God, and He will acknowledge it 
 in the graces with which He will enrich 
 your soul. The accomplishment of that 
 will was painful ; the pain will not be 
 forgotten in the recompense. The Holy 
 Ghost assures us by the mouth of the 
 Apostle : " God is not unjust, that He 
 should forget your work, and the love which 
 you have shown in His name" (Heb.vi. 10). 
 
 The time, therefore, so employed is not 
 
OVERCOMING TEMPTATIONS. 275 
 
 lost, not only because we render God the 
 honor and service which He asks at our 
 hands and in the very way He asks it, 
 but, also, because in these combats we 
 acquire merits which are being multiplied 
 in every minute. Persecutions that in- 
 creased the sufferings of the martyrs 
 enriched their crown of triumph ; tempta- 
 tions are a persecution that has the same 
 effect in a faithful soul. 
 
 The Holy Ghost declares him blessed, 
 who " could have transgressed, and hath not 
 transgressed ; who could do evil things, 
 and hath not done them " (Eccles. xxxi. 10). 
 His happiness is proportioned to the merit 
 which he amassed by his perseverance. 
 On this principle, when you observe the 
 law of God and do His will in a way that 
 is displeasing to nature, you acquire a 
 double claim to reward: first, you have 
 obeyed, and secondly, you have obeyed 
 
276 OVERCOMING TEMPTATIONS. 
 
 with difficulty, and against resistance and 
 combat. The sacrifice which you have 
 made of the natural inclination which 
 solicited and impelled you, is rewarded 
 here by new graces, and hereafter by an 
 increase of eternal glory and happiness. 
 
 Following up this reasoning, what an 
 immense treasure of merit that person 
 accumulates who, assailed by all kinds of 
 temptations, is steadfast in clinging to 
 God ! He is certain that every sacrifice 
 was noted ; every one had its merit, every 
 one shall have its recompense. On each 
 separate occasion that he resisted tempta- 
 tion, it could be said of him, " Blessed is he, 
 for he could have transgressed, and hath 
 not transgressed ; he could do evil things, 
 and hath not done them? And what a 
 vast number of sacrifices are made by that 
 one who, often drawn and urged by pas- 
 sion, constantly resists its seductions and 
 
OVERCOMING TEMPTATIONS. 277 
 
 refuses the object which it presents to his 
 concupiscence. Few moments pass un- 
 marked by victory. The repeated and 
 varied assaults of the enemy only serve to 
 swell the number of victims which the 
 faithful warrior immolates to God. What 
 a treasure of merits in these hand-to-hand 
 struggles with passion ! We do not our- 
 selves perceive every sacrifice which we 
 make, but the all-seeing eye of God does 
 not suffer one to escape. Is anything 
 more needed to console us in this state 
 and to encourage us to perseverance ? If 
 the contest is severe, the crown is brilliant ; 
 one minute of pain, and an eternity of 
 glory ! And who would wish to exchange 
 eternal glory for a minute's gratification ? 
 Nor is the merit restricted to these re- 
 peated sacrifices ; new treasures are found 
 in the interior virtues practised at such 
 a time. We feel very well that we can- 
 
278 OVERCOMING TEMPTATIONS. 
 
 not maintain successful resistance with- 
 out the aid of heaven, without the light 
 and the motives of faith, the inspirations 
 of hope, and the support of divine charity. 
 Our heart is occupied in a continual exer- 
 cise of prayer and in forming repeated 
 acts of these exalted virtues. If one sole 
 act of divine charity is so powerful as to 
 reconcile a sinner with God, how much 
 merit does he not acquire who in his 
 combats is constantly repeating this act ! 
 What ignorance, then, to suppose that 
 time so employed in resisting temptation 
 is lost for heaven and perfection, when, 
 on the contrary, it is evident from what 
 has been said that we are laboring most 
 actively to practise the one and gain the 
 other ! 
 
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