Chapter VI. The obstacles which the devil puts in our way in the practice of docility to the guidance of the Holy Spirit

Article I

How the devU preverUa our spiritual advancement.

How greatly the devil prevents our spiritual advancement is past all conception. Since the commencement of this year of retreat he has deceived not a few by means of some trouble, some vexation, some scruple, or other evil disposition. When he sees the first assaults have succeeded, he proceeds to others, always occupying us with some new design or desire or hope, in order to amuse us, and turn us aside from the ways of God and the care of our perfection.

For this purpose he makes use of such opportunities as offer, the remembrance of past occurrences, the news we hear, objects that strike the senses, our humour and our passions, setting these different springs in motion, sometimes one, sometimes another, in order that our mind and heart may be continually occupied with some trifle which keeps us engaged, either with useless thoughts and reflections, or with vain desires and fears, or with some other movement of an unmortified passion.

When this retreat is over, and we return to college occupations, there again he will put equal or stronger attachments in our way, and obstacles as great or more dangerous ; so that, unless we take care, he will keep us all our life long thus miserably attached to something out of God.

And thus death will surprise us ; we shall die aa we have lived, imperfect ; and the enemy will have gained his purpose, which is to confound us before the tribunal of Jesus Christ. This is the end, alas, but too often.

To prevent such misfortune, let us examine ourselves carefully, and observe on what object our thoughts are most fixed, what most engages our heart, what pas^ sions most disturb our interior peace. And when we have discovered what it is, let us immediately root it out, as a manifest device of the enemy, who wishes to destroy us. Let us consider, also, whether our most ardent desire and our most anxious care is to advance in the perfection of our state ; and if not, let us bend all our efforts to attain this holy disposition.

Article II

Lifferervt artifices of the devil to deceive ua^ The way in which the devil deals with beginners ia either to prevent the good they do, or to diminish it, or to change it into some less good, or such as is only apparent, or into something prejudicial, or above their strength, or too elevated for the present disposition of their soul.

His artifice with perfect souls is to keep them in a state of disturbance, never leaving them any repose ; to the end that, having tired and wearied them, he may at last turn them away, if possible, from their close ap. plication to God, fill their heart with sadness and dis^ couragement, enfeeble them in the practice of good, and lead them to relaxation and tepidity.

There are persons whom the devil does not prevent from doing much good, because the good they do serves to deceive them. His first attacks are directed to casting souls into mortal sin ; but if he sees he cannot succeed in his design, he changes his mode of assault, and leads them to commit many venial sins in the good they do. Having weakened them by this means, he has little difficulty, in the end, in making them fall into some mortal offence.

In our good designs the devil behaves as Pharaoh did in the case of the Israelites when they wished to go to offer sacrifice to God in the wilderness. That prince not being able absolutely to refuse them permission, limited it as much as he could. It was i^th the condition one while that they should leave their wives and their children in ^gjpt, at another that they should not take with them their cattle.

The devil uses nearly the same kind of artifice. When we have formed some holy resolution, if he cannot prevent all the good we wish to do, he prevents as much as he can ; provided he can always subtract something from the service of God, so that it may not be full and entire, he is content.

Sometimes we have determined upon doing some good action in a certain time ; but the devil interferes with its performance, and frustrates it, either by representing difficulties, exciting opposition on the part of others, or creating repugnances in ourselves ; or he endeavours to make us give up some part of our undertaking, or to quit altogether our first design, for want of resolution and constancy.

If he sees he cannot represent the things he sets before our imagination to scare us as absolutely imminent; he represents them to us as at least doubtful or UD certain ; and he shews us how much they are to be feared; in order to discourage us by the dread of dangers and difficulties.

To this end he makes use of our evil dispositions ; and so long as we are in a state of imperfect subjection to grace, we give him much hold upon us to turn ub aside from good, and herein incur incalculable losses of grace and merit.

§v.

It often happens that when the Holy Spirit puts some thought into our mind, the devil steals it away, playing off a cheat upon us, and suggesting in its stead another, which, although perhaps it be not in itself bad, nevertheless does us much harm, since it deprives us of that good impulse, and that peace resulting from the first thought, which came from God ; so that we ought to be upon our guard, in order to confirm ourselves in the one and reject the other ; and it is of the utmost importance that we should watch attentively over our thoughts, and test them thoroughly at their commencement, in their progress, and in their conclusion.

Article III

OJ distinguishing between the operatimis of God and those of the devil.

Every thing that destroys the peace and tranquillity of the interior proceeds from the devil. God has joined together happiness and holiness in such wise that His graces not only sanctify the soul, but also console it, and fill it with peace and sweetness. The suggestions of the devil have the very contrary effect, either at once^ or at least in the end; the serpent is known by his tail, that is to say, by the effects he produces, and the conclusion to which he leads.

All hypothetical or conditional propositions, calculated only to cause trouble, come from the devil ; as, for example, Were God to abandon me on such an occasion, what should I do ? and the like. We should make no reply to such propositions, nor allow the mind to rest on such thoughts, which the enemy suggests to take from us our confidence in God, and to cast us into disquietude and despondency. Let us trust in God, for He is faithful, and will never fail those who, having wholly given themselves up to Him, seek only to please Him in all things.

Article IV

Secret illusions, It happens very often that when we feel some irregular movement excited in our heart, we are unwilling to consent to the sin, but are unwilling also resolutely to drive away the evil feeling. We reject the sin which would be manifest in the eyes of men, and we allow the interior irregularity which God sees, and which is displeasing to Him. For example, we have a feeling of bitterness against some one ; we are unwilling to consent to display this feeling towards him, but we allow our heart to be filled with it, instead of ridding ourselves of it at once. This is one of our most secret and most dangerous illusions.

When we have a desire for any thing, a thousand reasons occur to us to give a colour to our passion. We deceive ourselves when, having formed some design from natural inclination, we seek for some reason on the side of grace to lend it support. '^ I am going to see Mr. So-and-so ; I will also exhort him to make a retreat." Generally speaking, this also comes from a bad principle ; it is an invention of self-love, which is ingenious in discovering such reasons.

§ in. It sometimes happens that when God gives us the light and the inspiration of His grace to correct us of certain faults to which we are subject, we turn our thoughts another way; we apply ourselves to some other action of virtue, and practise a deception upon God, in order to avoid the stings and reproaches of our conscience, escape the shame which the sight of our fault would cause us, and delude ourselves agreeably with the persuasion of our own virtue. But we shall never attain to this holy liberty, this largeness of hearty which we are seeking, unless we correct ourselves of the faults which God makes known to us.

Sometimes we do not sufficiently observe, that while meditating on the highest subjects or engaged in the holiest occupations, our mind is not so completely engrossed therewith but that we are thinking at the same time of other idle things ; and this is so much of our life that is lost, when it ought to be given to God.

ARTICLE v.

Marks of a ddvded soul, To be continually speaking of extraordinary graces, visions, and revelations; to think of nothing else; to take but little pains to observe and regulate the movements of the heart ; to be deficient in simplicity and openness with superiors and directors ; to choose to meditate only on the Divinity, and not at all on the sacred Humanity of our Lord ; to adopt conduct and opinions repugnant to the doctrine and practice of holy Church, — ^these are marks of a deluded soul.

The devil sometimes raises souls to sublime thoughts of God, in order to turn them away from a close application to Jesus Christ, who is the source of all good, and the great object of hatred to devils.

Article VI

What we ought to observe in the movements leading us to good.

All the movements that lead us to good are worthy of being noted.

We must examine :

1. With what readiness we have followed them, whether it has been with our whole strength both of mind and body.

2. By what motive we have been led in so doing, and for what end.

3. Whether in the progress of the action we have maintained the fervour and purity of intention with which we set out.

For it happens but too often that we undertake some good work for a truly holy end, but scarcely have we begun when we lose sight of that end, or keep our eyes only half fixed upon nt. Vanity, interest, and self-seeking glide insensibly into the heart. We relax little by Little, we get tired, we allow ourselves to yield to the impulse of a natural inconstancy ; so that it is rarely that we finish with the same ardour and the same purity of intention with which we had begun.