> [[at-sl-26|← B2 Ch. III]] | [[at-spiritual-life-toc|TOC]] | [[at-sl-28|Book III →]] # Chapter IV. Counter-attacks of the Enemy 1262\. Whilst we labor in the acquisition of the virtues, our spiritual foes are not idle. They return stealthily to take the offensive, either by causing in us a re-awakening, in a more subtle form, of the seven capital sins, or by leading us to lukewarmness. ## Art. I. The Re-awakening of the Capital Sins 1263\. St. John of the Cross gives an excellent description of these capital sins as they exist in those whom he calls the beginners, that is to say, in those who are on the threshold of contemplation through the night of the senses.[1] We shall simply condense his psychological analysis. ### I. The Inclination to Pride 1264\. This inclination is manifested in six principal ways: 1\) Whilst aiming at fervor and remaining faithful to their spiritual exercises, these beginners take complacency in their works and hold themselves in too high esteem. They presumptuously plan many projects and carry out scarcely any. 2\) They speak of the things of the spiritual life rather to give lessons to others than to put these lessons into practice themselves, and harshly condemn those who do not approve of their type of spirituality. 3\) Some of them cannot stand rivalry. If a rival happens to appear, they condemn him and belittle him. 4\) They seek the good graces and the intimacy of their spiritual director, and if the latter does not approve of their ways, they look for another who will be more accommodating. The better to succeed in this, they tone down their faults, and if they happen to fall into a grave sin, they accuse it to another confessor and not to their regular director. 5\) Should they commit a grievous sin, they get out of sorts with themselves and lose heart, peeved at not having reached sanctity as yet. 6\) They love to attract notice by outward manifestations of their piety, and readily speak to others of their good works and their success. From pride springs envy, which betrays itself by displeasure at the sight of the spiritual good of others. They are pained at hearing others praised, saddened at their virtue, and, when the occasion presents itself, they do not fail to speak ill of them. ### II\. Sensuality 1265\. A) Spiritual Gluttony manifests itself in two ways: a) By an excessive craving for consolations. One seeks them even in the practice of austerities, in the discipline for instance, and one importunes one’s director for permission to practice mortifications with the hope of thus obtaining consolations. b) For the same reason, some persons make forced efforts during meditation or at the time of communion, in order to procure a feeling of devotion, or they wish to go frequently to confession with a view of finding some comfort in this exercise. Often these efforts and longings remain sterile, and then discouragement takes hold of these souls, who are more attached to consolations than to God Himself. 1266\. B) Spiritual Lust appears especially under two forms: a) one seeks sentimental or sensual friendships, under the pretext of devotion, and one is loath to give them up, pretending that such relations are an aid to piety. b) At times, the sensible consolations experienced at prayer or Communion produce in persons of a tender and affectionate nature pleasures of another sort, which may prove to them a source of temptation or anxiety.[1] 1267\. C) Sloth leads: a) to weariness in the performance of spiritual exercises when one does not find therein any relish, and prompts one either to shorten or omit them; b) to dejection of spirit, when one receives from a superior or spiritual director orders or advice which seem too difficult; one would prefer a more congenial sort of spirituality that does not interfere with one’s ease or petty schemes. ### III\. Spiritual Avarice 1268\. This avarice is thus described by St. John of the Cross: a) “There are beginners who do not cease to cram their souls with spiritual counsels and precepts; they must possess and read numerous spiritual treatises on which they put all their time and have none left for the fulfilment of their first duty; namely, mortification and perfect interior detachment. b) Besides, they load themselves with holy pictures, rosaries, crucifixes and expensive and curious objects of devotion. Then they quit one thing for another, change and exchange, arrange and rearrange, and their final choice centers upon that which is singular or expensive.” All this is clearly against the spirit of poverty, and it shows at the same time that one attaches undue importance to accidentals and neglects the essentials of true devotion. 1269\. Conclusion. Evidently these imperfections are a great hindrance to spiritual progress. St. John of the Cross says that God, in order to correct them, introduces souls into the Dark Night, of which we shall soon speak. As to those souls who do not enter into this phase of the spiritual life, they must strive to disentangle themselves from these meshes by carrying out into practice what we have explained concerning consolations and dryness of soul, (n. 921-933) obedience, fortitude, temperance, humility and meekness (nos. 1057, 1076, 1127, 1154). ## Art. II. Lukewarmness [1] Unless we react against the aforesaid faults, it will not be long before we fall into lukewarmness, a most dangerous spiritual disease the nature, dangers and remedies of which we shall now explain. ### I. Nature of Lukewarmness 1270\. 1° Notion. Lukewarmness is a spiritual malady that may attack beginners or even perfect souls, but which manifests itself especially in the course of the Illuminative Way. It presupposes, in fact, that a soul has already reached a certain degree of fervor, and that it gradually allows itself to become lax. Lukewarmness consists in a sort of spiritual languor which saps the energies of the will, inspires one with a horror for effort and thus leads to the decline of the Christian life. It is a kind of sluggishness, a species of torpor which, though not death as yet, insensibly leads to it through a gradual weakening of our moral forces. One may compare it to those slow-working diseases, such as consumption, which little by little prey upon some vital organ. 1271\. 2° Its causes. They are chiefly two: a defective spiritual nourishment, and the entry into the soul of some noxious germ. A) To live and grow, our soul needs wholesome spiritual food. Now, the soul is nourished by the various spiritual exercises, that is, meditation, devout reading, prayer, examinations of conscience, the fulfilment of the duties of state, exercise in the practice of the virtues — all of which keep it in communion with God, the Source of spiritual life. Therefore, if these exercises are performed with negligence, with voluntary distractions, without efforts to react against routine or sluggishness, the soul is deprived of many graces, is poorly nourished, and becomes weak and incapable of practicing the virtues of the Christian life in face of even little difficulties. We must note in passing that this condition is altogether different from that dryness or affliction of soul permitted by God to try us. In these, instead of welcoming distractions, one experiences pain and humiliation at having them, and one earnestly seeks to avoid them. The lukewarm man, on the contrary, lets himself be carried along by useless thoughts, takes pleasure in them, hardly makes any effort to be rid of them, and soon distractions well-nigh overrun his prayers. Then, seeing how little profit he derives from his exercises of piety, he begins to shorten them, and in time suppresses them entirely. Thus, his examination of conscience, becoming wearisome, irksome, a mere matter of routine, ends by being omitted; he is no longer aware of his faults, of his defects, and he allows them to gain the upper hand. He no longer strives to grow in virtue, and soon his vices, his inordinate inclinations, tend to revive. 1272\. B) The outcome of this spiritual apathy is the gradual weakening of the soul — a species of spiritual anemia — which paves the way for the entrance of some destructive germ, that is to say, one of the three concupiscences, or perhaps all of them at once. a) The avenues of the soul being poorly guarded, the exterior and interior senses readily lay themselves open to the unwholesome suggestions of curiosity and sensuality, and frequent temptations arise only to be half-repulsed. At times the heart yields itself to the current of disturbing affections: one commits imprudences and courts danger; venial sins are multiplied and hardly regretted; one glides down a perilous grade, skirts the abyss, and is extremely fortunate to avoid a fall. b) Besides, pride, never completely subdued, renews its onslaughts. One begins to indulge in self-complacency, to delight in exterior qualities, in outward successes. The better to exalt self, one makes comparisons with others still more lax than oneself, and despises as narrow and small-minded those who are more faithful to duty. This pride brings in its wake envy, jealousy, impatience, anger and harshness in the relations with others. c) Avarice is rekindled in the heart. One feels the need of money to secure more pleasures, to make a greater impression; and to provide more of it one has recourse to questionable means, which border on injustice. 1273\. Hence, innumerable deliberate venial sins are committed for which one feels scarcely any compunction, since the light of judgment and delicacy of conscience have been gradually weakened; one lives in habitual dissipation of mind, and performs the examination of conscience carelessly. Thus, horror for sin diminishes, God’s graces become more rare, and the profit derived from them smaller. In a word, there is a weakening of the spiritual organism, which prepares the way to shameful surrenders. 1274\. 3° Its Degress. From what we have said it is evident that there are many degrees in lukewarmness. However, it is enough to distinguish incipient from extreme lukewarmness. a) In the first instance, one as yet preserves horror for mortal sin, though committing imprudences that may lead thereto. One easily commits deliberate venial sins, notably, such as correspond to one’s predominant fault. Besides, one brings little earnestness to the performance of spiritual exercises, and often performs them through mere routine. b) By dint of allowing oneself to drift into such culpable negligences, one ceases to harbor the old instinctive horror for mortal sin. On the other hand, the love of pleasure so increases that one comes to regret the fact that such or such pleasure is forbidden under the pain of grave sin. One repels temptations but feebly, and a moment arrives when one asks, and not without reason, whether or not one is still in the state of grace. This is extreme lukewarmness. ### II \. The Dangers of Lukewarmness 1275\. The special danger of this state consists in the gradual weakening of the soul’s energies, a condition fraught with more danger than the commission of some isolated mortal sin. This is the sense in which Our Lord speaks to the lukewarm: “I know thy works, that thou are neither cold nor hot. I would thou wert cold or hot. But because thou art lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I will begin to vomit thee out of my mouth. Because thou sayest: I am rich and made wealthy and have need of nothing: and knowest not that thou art wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked.”[1] It is just like the difference existing between chronic and acute diseases. The latter, once cured, leave no bad effects; the former, having slowly sapped the strength of the body, leave it for a long time in a state of great weakness. The succeeding paragraphs will show this in detail. 1276\. 1° The first effect of lukewarmness is a kind of blinding of conscience. By dint of excusing and palliating faults, the judgment becomes warped, and sins in themselves grave come to be considered as slight. Thus a lax conscience is formed, which can no longer discern the gravity of the imprudences or the sins committed, which lacks the energy required to detest them, and which soon falls into culpable illusions: “There is a way which seemeth just to man: but the ends thereof lead to death.”[2] One thinks himself rich, because one is proud, but in reality one is poor and miserable in the eyes of God. 1277\. 2° Along with this comes the gradual weakening of the will. a) By dint of making concessions to sensuality and to pride in small things, one ends by yielding to pleasure in things of greater moment; for all the elements of the spiritual life hold together. Holy Writ teaches us that “he that contemneth small things shall fall by little and little”;[3] that “he that is faithful in that which is least, is faithful also in that which is greater; and that he that is unjust in that which is little is unjust also in that which is greater”,[4] all of which means that the earnestness or carelessness with which we perform certain acts transfers itself to other actions. b) Soon one reaches the point of loathing effort. The spring of the will being run down, one lets oneself go the way of natural desires, of indifference, of pleasure. In this there is great danger, and unless one reacts, grave faults are bound to ensue. c) Indeed, in so acting, one abuses grace and offers frequent resistance to the inspirations of the Holy Ghost; one lends a readier ear to the voice of pleasure, and ends by sinning grievously. 1278\. Such a fall is all the more difficult to repair since it occurs almost insensibly. One lets oneself slide, so to speak, to the depths of the abyss without any great shock. Then one tries to practice self-deception: one would convince oneself that the fault is only venial; that, if the matter be grave, there was no full consent; that it is a fault of surprise which cannot be mortally sinful. In this manner a false conscience is formed and the regular confession continues to reveal only trivial matters; the confessor is deceived and thus may be begun a long series of sacrileges. When a ball falls from on high, it rebounds; when it rolls down to the bottom of the abyss, it stays there. And so it happens at times with lukewarm souls; they remain in the depths into which they have gradually and almost insensibly fallen. ### III\. The Remedies for Lukewarmness 1279\. Our Lord has Himself pointed out the remedies: “I counsel thee to buy of me gold fire-tried, that thou mayest be made rich (the gold of charity and fervor of spirit); and mayest be clothed in white garments, and that the shame of thy nakedness may not appear (purity of conscience); and anoint thy eyes with eye-salve, that thou mayest see (frankness towards self and towards one’s confessor). Such as I love, I rebuke and chastise. Be zealous therefore, and do penance. Behold, I stand at the gate, and knock. If any man shall hear my voice, and open to me the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.”[1] One must, therefore, never despair. Jesus is ever ready to give us His friendship, nay, His intimate friendship, if we be converted. 1280\. To be converted: 1° one must needs have frequent recourse to a wise confessor, frankly open one’s soul to him and sincerely beg his help to overcome tepidity. One must take and follow his counsels energetically and with constancy. 2° Under his guidance, one will return to the fervent practice of the exercises of piety, especially of those that secure the fulfilment of the others; namely, mental prayer, examination of conscience and the frequent renewal of the intention of doing all for God (n. 523-528). The fervor of which we here speak lies not in feeling, but in a generous will that strives to refuse God nothing. 3° One will also take up once more the practice of the virtues and the fulfilment of one’s duties of state in all earnestness, making one’s particular examination of conscience successively upon the chief points, and giving an account thereof in confession (nn. 265, 468-476). By these means one will regain fervor and one will not forget that past faults demand an atonement through the spirit and the works of penance. ## Appendix: The Discernment of Spirits in the Illuminative Way APPENDIX: RULES CONCERNING THE DISCERNMENT OF SPIRITS IN THE ILLUMINATIVE WAY 1281\. We have, following St. Ignatius, already outlined the rules for the discernment of spirits with regard to beginners (n. 953-957). It will be useful to sum up in this place the rules he gives for the Illuminative Way, that is, for the Second Week of the Exercises. They refer to two principal points: 1° spiritual consolations, 2° desires and projects for the future. 1282\. 1° Rules concerning Consolations. a) The distinctive work of the good spirit in a well-disposed soul is true spiritual joy and peace. The evil spirit, on the contrary, labors to destroy this joy by means of sophistries, subtleties, and illusions. He resembles an artful lawyer defending a bad case. This rule is based on the fact that God is the Author of peace, whilst the devil casts trouble upon the soul in order to discourage it. b) God alone can infuse true consolation without any antecedent natural cause, for He alone can penetrate into the inmost recesses of the soul and draw it to Himself. We say that such consolation has no antecedent cause when nothing has intervened capable of producing it. For instance, a soul is plunged in desolation, and lo! in an instant it finds itself reassured, full of joy, of strength and of good-will. This was the case with St. Francis de Sales after violent scruples had assailed him. c) When consolation has been preceded by some cause, it may come either from the good or the evil spirit. It proceeds from the former, if the said consolation enlightens and strengthens the soul to know and to do good. It proceeds from the latter, if it causes laxity, softness, love of pleasure or of honors, and presumption. In other words, the tree is judged by its fruits. d) It is the part of the devil to transform himself into an angel of light to enter at the outset into the pious desires of the soul, and to end by suggesting his own designs. Thus when he sees a soul given to the practice of virtue, he first suggests sentiments in harmony with that soul’s good dispositions; after that, relying on the soul’s self-love, he suggests sentiments of vain complacency or of presumption, excessive penances, so as to drive it to discouragement, or, on the contrary, less strictness of life, under pretexts of health or study. In this way he succeeds in making the soul lower its standards little by little. 1283\. 2° Rules concerning desires or projects for the future. a) We must submit such inspirations to a strict examination, considering if in their inception, in the course of their formation, and in their final unfolding, they tend towards good; for if at any of these stages there should enter anything of evil, anything of a nature to distract us from God, anything less good than what we had previously proposed; or again, if these desires disturb, trouble and weaken the soul, this is a proof that they proceed from the enemy of our spiritual progress and salvation. The reason for this is, that for an action to be good, there must not be in it anything contrary to the will of God or to the spiritual welfare of the soul. Hence, if in any of the elements of an action some defect is noticed, it bears the mark of the evil spirit. b) Once the intervention of the evil spirit is discovered, the best course is to go over the entire line of thought from the beginning and find out the way in which he entered into the soul to disturb it and lead it astray. This study will enable us to be on our guard against his manoeuvers in the future. c) There is another rule deduced from the difference in the mode of action of the two spirits. The good spirit comes with sweetness upon the soul advancing in the way of perfection, like the morning dew penetrating a sponge; the evil one rushes in violently like a heavy rain beating on a rock. d) Even when consolation comes from God, we must know how to distinguish between the moment itself of consolation and the time that follows. In the former, we act under the inspiration of grace; in the latter, we form resolutions and projects which are not directly inspired by God, and which must therefore be carefully scrutinized according to the preceding rules. 1284\. 3° To these rules drawn up by St. Ignatius, a few others may be added, which flow from what we have said in this Second Book. a) To aspire to a perfection inconsistent with our present duties, to practice showy virtues, to become singular, all this bears the mark of the bad spirit; for the good spirit inclines us indeed to the attainment of high perfection, but to such as is compatible with our duties of state and in keeping with a humble and hidden life. b) Contempt for little things and the desire to be sanctified in a grand manner are not characteristic of the good spirit, which urges us to perfect fidelity to our duties of state and to homely virtues: “One jot or tittle shall not pass of the law, till all be fulfilled.” [1] c) To reflect complacently upon self, to think one has done well, to desire to be held in esteem on account of one’s piety and virtue, is also in opposition to the Christian spirit, whose first concern is to please God alone: “If yet I pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ.”[2] Hence, false humility, which blames self that self may be praised, and false meekness, which is in reality but the desire to please men, are contrary to the spirit of God. d) To complain, to lose patience, to lose heart in the midst of trials and aridity of soul is a sign of the human spirit; the spirit of God leads, on the contrary, to the love of the Cross, to resignation, to a holy abandonment, and causes us to persevere in prayer amidst dryness and distraction. ## Summary of the Second Book SUMMARY OF THE SECOND BOOK 1285\. 1° The end proposed in the Illuminative Way is the following of Christ by the imitation of His virtues. We advance by the light of His examples: “He that followeth me walketh not in darkness, but shall have the light of life.”[1] The ideal which we try to realize from day to day is that of making Jesus the center of our thoughts, of our affections, of our entire life. For this reason our mental prayer becomes affective prayer, keeping Jesus continually before our eyes to adore Him, bringing Him into our heart to love Him and share in His dispositions, and holding Him in our hands to practice virtue in union with Him. The virtues which we practice are the Theological and the Moral Virtues; they go hand in hand and aid one another. Nevertheless, there are as it were two phases in the development of our spiritual life; in the one, the moral virtues are emphasized, and in the other, the theological. 1286\. 2° The first requirement is that of training our faculties, of fitting them for union with God. This is effected by the moral virtues: 1\) Prudence trains the mind to think before acting, to consult God and to take counsel with those who represent Him. Thus, prudence makes the mind share in the wisdom of God. 2\) Justice bends our will, schooling it to respect God’s rights and those of the neighbor by the practice of absolute honesty, religion and obedience to superiors. Thus we take on something of God’s justice. 3\) Fortitude disciplines our violent passions, moderates and restrains their excesses, and uses their energies in overcoming difficulties in the pursuit of supernatural good. It makes us practice magnanimity, munificence, patience and constancy, and thus gives us something of God’s own strength. 4\) To deaden and hold in check the love of pleasure, temperance helps us to mortify our gluttony through sobriety, to overcome lust through chastity, to subdue pride through humility, and anger through meekness. 1287\. 3° Then follows the second phase of the Illuminative Way, the practice of the theological virtues, which unite us directly to God. 1\) Faith, by its obscurity, submits the mind to God, and by its light unites it to Him, making it share in God’s own knowledge. 2\) Hope, like a powerful lever, raises the will, detaches it from the things of earth, directs its longings and ambitions heavenwards, and unites us to God, the source of our bliss, infinitely Powerful and infinitely Good, from Whom we confidently expect all the help we need to attain our supernatural end. 3\) Charity lifts us higher still; it makes us love God for His Own sake, because He is infinitely Good in Himself, and makes us love our neighbor also for God’s sake as a reflection of His own perfections. Therefore, it unites the whole soul to God. It is from the Sacred Heart of Jesus that we draw this twofold love. Intimately united with Our Lord, we overcome our selfishness, and, making His love and His dispositions our own, we live for God as He Himself did. 1288\. 4° Doubtless, in the course of our progress in the spiritual life we are to expect counter-attacks on the part of our enemies. The Seven Capital Vices seek in a more subtle manner to reassert themselves, and, if we are not on our guard against them, they will cause us to fall into the state of lukewarmness. Vigilant souls however, relying on Jesus-Christ, repel these attacks, nay even turn them to profit, using them to strengthen their virtue, and thus prepare themselves for the joys and trials of the Unitive Way. [[at-sl-fn-27|Fn: B2 Ch. IV]] --- ![[maps/bibliography#^biblio-tan]] > [[at-sl-26|← B2 Ch. III]] | [[at-spiritual-life-toc|TOC]] | [[at-sl-28|Book III →]]