Daughter: mistrust of oneself is so necessary in this battle that — you can be certain of this! — not only will you not attain the desired victory without it, you cannot conquer even a small passion. Keep this fixed this in your mind, as our fallen nature inclines us, most unfortunately, to a false esteem of ourselves. In reality we are little more than nothing; nevertheless, we convince ourselves that we are worth something, and vainly presume — without reason! — as to our own forces. This defect is very difficult to notice, and greatly displeasing in the sight of God, who loves us and wants in us a loyal recognition of this highly certain truth: every grace and virtue to be found in us derive from him alone, the source of every good, and nothing pleasing to him can come from ourselves alone, not even one good thought can please him. (2 Cor. 3.5)

This important mistrust may come about by his divine handiwork, as he sometimes gives it to his dear friends by holy inspiration, at other times by harsh flagellations and by violent, nearly irresistible temptations, and by other means we ourselves fail to understand. Nevertheless, he desires that we should do our part, so I propose four ways by which you can attain this mistrust, helped principally by his divine favor.

• The first is that you consider and recognize your vileness and nothingness, and that from yourself you can produce no good work that can merit entrance into the kingdom of heaven.
• The second is that with fervent and humble prayer you ask it often of the Lord, because it is his own gift. And to obtain it, first you must see yourself not only as lacking it, but above all incapable of acquiring it on your own. Present yourself repeatedly in this manner before the divine Majesty with a firm faith that he will grant you this concession on account of his goodness. Await it with perseverance, however long his providence has determined necessary. There is no doubt you will obtain it.
• The third way is that you grow used to fearing yourself, your judgment, your powerful inclination to sin, the innumerable enemies whom you lack the force to resist even in the smallest; their experience at fighting, their strategies, their disguise as angels of light; their innumerable arts and snares, which they set and hide along the very path of virtue.
• The fourth way is that when you happen to fall into some defect, you should enter further and more attentively within yourself to and consider your great weakness. After all, this is the reason God has allowed you to fall, With a better knowledge of yourself and a clearer light of inspiration before, you can learn to discount yourself as a coward, and as such you even want others to consider and likewise discount you as such. Be aware that without this desire there can be no virtuous mistrust of self, which has its foundation in true humility and in the understanding given by experience.

This much is clear: for anyone who wishes to join oneself to the supreme light and to the uncreated truth, it is necessary to have the knowledge of oneself that divine mercy ordinarily gives to the proud and presumptuous by means of their failings. He rightly allows them to incur this through some defect from which they persuade themselves they are safe. By acquiring self-awareness in this fashion they learn to distrust themselves in everything.

However, the Lord is not accustomed to use such unpleasant means unless the milder, aforementioned means fail to bring about the benefit his goodness intends. This goodness allows a man to fall to a degree more or less appropriate for his pride and self-esteem, so that just as with the Virgin Mary, wherever one does not find even the smallest presumption, likewise one does not find even the smallest failing. Thus when you fall, if you do not wish to fall anew — and sometimes into more serious ruin — quickly bring your thoughts to a humble knowledge of yourself and beg the Lord with insistent prayer (Luke 11.5-13) to give you the true light to know yourself, and a total mistrust of yourself.

discount: Scupoli uses the word disprezzare, which I previously translated as “to despise”, but it seems better to translate it as “to disdain” or to transliterate it as “to discount”.

a coward: Scupoli uses the word vile, which looks like “vile”, and I originally translated it that way, but my Italian dictionary says the primary meaning is “cowardly” and that seems to better fit the idea of a spiritual combat.

self-esteem: Scupoli uses the phrase la propria reputazione, which I find a little hard to translate. The adjective propria means “one’s own”, as in “what belongs to oneself.” Scupoli could be referring to one’s reputation among others, but I don’t see why propria would be needed in that case, and it doesn’t seem consistent with the rest of the paragraph, as sin can be hidden to everyone except one’s own conscience.