Chapter VII. Of Spiritual Exercise; and first of the Exercise of the Understanding, which must be preserved from Ignorance and Curiosity

DISTRUST of self and trust in God are very necessary in this conflict, yet are they not all that is required, for if we had only these weapons we should lose the victory and fall headlong into many evils. Therefore to these we should add a third weapon, which is spiritual exercise. Spiritual exercise relates principally to the understanding and to the will.

With regard to the understanding, we must be on our guard against two faults, which very commonly impair its action.

Ignorance is the first of these; it darkens the understanding, and obstructs the entrance of truth—its proper object. Therefore you must by exercise of the understanding render it clear and bright, so that you may be able to see and distinctly discern what you need for purifying your soul from its disorderly passions, and adorning it with holy virtues.

Light may be obtained in two ways.

The first and most important means is prayer. The Holy Ghost should be intreated to pour this light into our hearts, which He will not fail to do, if we are true with God, and really seek nothing else but the fulfilment of His holy Will, and entirely submit our own judgment to that of our spiritual fathers.

The second way is, to gain the habit of viewing all things seriously and faithfully, in order to see them as they really are according to the teaching of the Holy Spirit, whether they are good or evil, and not according to their outward appearance, as judged by our senses, or by the world.

And if things are duly considered from this point of view, we shall clearly see that all, which the world in its blindness and corruption, in so many and in such various ways, seeks after and is eager to gain, is empty and delusive; and that the honours and pleasures of earth are but vanity and vexation of spirit; that injury and reproach, inflicted by the world, produce true glory, and that tribulation is a source of contentment. We shall learn, that to pardon our enemies and to benefit them is greatness of mind, and forms in us a close resemblance to God; that to despise the world is a nobler course than to have possession of it; that to obey for the love of God those far beneath us, is more generous and great than to rule great princes; that a humble conception of ourselves is more precious than the highest intellectual attainments; and, that the victory over and mortification of a slight rising of one of the passions is more glorious than the conquest of many cities, than the overthrow of powerful and armed forces, than the working of miracles and the raising of the dead.