Part IV, Chapter IX

What Remedies We Are to Apply to Small Temptations

Now, as to these smaller temptations of vanity, suspicion, impatience, jealousy, envy, fond love, and such like trash, which, like flies and gnats, continually hover about us, and sometimes sting us on the legs, the hands, or the face; as it is impossible to be altogether freed from them, the best defence that we can make is not to give ourselves much trouble about them; for although they may tease us, yet they can never hurt us, so long as we continue firmly resolved to dedicate ourselves in earnest to the service of God. Despise, then, these petty assaults, without so much as thinking of what they suggest. Let them buzz and hover here and there around you; pay no more attention to them than you would to flies; but when they offer to sting you, and you perceive them in the least to light upon your heart, content yourself with quietly removing them, not by contending or disputing with them, but by performing some actions of a contrary nature to the temptation, especially acts of the love of God. But you must not persevere, Philothea, in opposing to the temptation the act of the contrary virtue, for this would be to dispute with it; but, after having performed a simple act of the contrary virtue, if you have had leisure to observe the quality of the temptation, turn your heart gently towards Jesus Christ crucified, and by an act of love kiss his sacred feet. This is the best means to overcome the enemy, as well in small as in great temptations; for as the love of God contains within itself the perfection of all the virtues, and is even more excellent than the virtues themselves, so it is also the sovereign antidote against every kind of vice; and, by accustoming your mind on these occasions to have recourse to this remedy, you need not even examine by what kind of temptation it is troubled. Moreover, this grand remedy is so terrible to the enemy of our souls, that as soon as he perceives that his temptation incites us to form acts of divine love he ceases to tempt us. Let these general principles suffice with respect to small and ordinary temptations; he who would wish to contend with them in particular would give himself much trouble to little or no purpose.

About ReligiousBookshelf.com · A Supernerd Media project