The Spiritual Combat

Chapter 16:

How the soldier of Christ
ought to approach the battlefield
at a good hour of the morning

As soon as you awake, your first act should be to fix the interior eye on how you are enclosed within a picket fence where one law holds: Whoever does not fight, dies for ever.

Within this fence, imagine before you your Enemy on one side and your wicked inclination on the other. You have already singled them out for the taking by storm, while they are armed to injure you to deliver you up to death. On your right is your victorious Captain, Christ Jesus, with his most holy mother, the Virgin Mary, along with her most beloved spouse, Joseph. Accompanying them are many squadrons of angels and saints, in particular Saint Michael. On your left, you should picture the hellish demon with his own companions, determined to excite your aforesaid passion. He is encouraging you to give in to it.

Perhaps you make out a voice within the fence — your guardian angel, who informs you:
Today you must fight against this enemy and others. Do not let yourself grow faint, do not lose heart; do not give in to fear or any other consideration, for our Lord and your Captain is here beside you with all these glorious squadrons. He will fight against all your enemies, and never allow them to prevail over you by force or ability (see Deuteronomy 20.3-4). Remain firm, do violence to yourself and bear the suffering you sometimes feel in so doing. Cry out frequently from the inner chamber of your heart, and call upon your Lord, the Virgin Mary and all the saints; beyond a doubt you will achieve victory. Though you be sluggish and hampered by wicked habits, and though your enemies are many and powerful, your creator and redeemer has many ways to assist you. Besides, your God is powerful beyond all comparison, and his desire to save you is greater than the enemy’s desire to see you lost.

Fight, therefore, and let your suffering not dishearten you, for victory is born from exhaustion, from violence against your wicked inclinations, and from the sorrow that you feel for your wicked habits. And they will also secure for you that great treasure with which the kingdom of heaven is purchased, and the soul is eternally united with God.

Enter the battle in the name of the Lord. Use the weapons of mistrust of self and confidence in God. Rely on prayer and training, calling to battle your enemy and your inclination that you have resolved to conquer according to the aforesaid order: now through resistance, now through hatred, and now through contrary acts of virtue. Repeatedly deal them mortal wounds in order to please your Lord, who with the entire Church Triumphant is here to observe your struggle. Again I urge you not to shrink from the fight. Consider the obligation each of us has to serve God and to please him, and the necessity of fighting, the inability to flee this battle without wounds, indeed without dying. I also tell you this: should you seek the rebel’s course of flying from this battle and surrendering yourself to the world and the delights of the flesh, in spite of this you will have to struggle against many, many obstacles. Your face will sweat often, and mortal anguish will pierce your heart.

Consider now how absurd it is to bear such fatigue and suffering, which themselves bring even greater fatigue and suffering, to say nothing of endless death, just to escape the fatigue and suffering which not only end sooner, but unite us to the eternal, infinitely blessed life where we will enjoy our God forever.
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victory is born from exhaustion &c.: More modern phrasing: no pain, no gain.