The Spiritual Combat

To deceive and conquer those already aware of the corrupt life they lead and desirous to change it, the demon usually employs the following weapons: later, later; cras, case — tomorrow, tomorrow, as the crow cries. “First I want to resolve this matter and free myself from this foolishness; then I can dedicate myself with greater calm to the spiritual life.”

This snare has caught many and even now catches more. Our negligence and our ineptitude are the cause. In any matter that regards the soul’s salvation and God’s honor, why do we not take up promptly that very powerful weapon? Now, now! And why later? Today, today! And why cras? Say to yourself: “But when will later and cras be granted me? How can this be the road to salvation and victory: first to desire wounds and to provoke new disorders?”

Beloved daughter: you must see that to flee both this deception and the previous chapter’s, and to defeat the enemy, the only remedy is prompt obedience to divine thoughts and inspirations. I speak of promptness and not of resolutions, since these often grow weak, and people remain deceived by them for several reasons.

The first, which I also noted above, is that our resolutions do not have distrust of self and confidence in God as their foundation. This prevents us from seeing our great pride, from which the deception and blindness proceed.

Both the light to recognize them and the help to remedy them come from God’s goodness, which first allows us to fall, then calls us while we are yet falling to pass from confidence in ourselves to confidence in him alone, and from our pride to self-awareness.

Therefore, if you want your resolutions to have an effect, they must be strong — and they will be strong when they lack any confidence in ourselves and their humble foundation is confidence in God.

The other reason is that when we prepare to formulate our resolutions, we marvel at the virtue’s beauty and value. It draws our weak, sluggish will to itself. But there is an inherent difficulty required to acquire the virtue. As it considers the difficulty that looms before it, the will, being sluggish and inexperienced, falls short and draws back.

You must accustom yourself to fall in love with the difficulties required for the acquisition of virtue, even more than with the virtues themselves. If you truly wish to possess the virtues, your will must nourish itself on these difficulties: sometimes with a little food, other times with more. You must understand that the more you embrace and treasure these difficulties, you will conquer yourself and your enemies more quickly and more completely.

The third reason is that our resolutions sometimes tend neither towards virtue nor towards the divine will, but towards self-interest. This occurs with those resolutions that one typically makes during episodes of spiritual delight, as well as those made during tribulations that oppress us greatly: finding no other relief, we tell ourselves that we want to give ourselves completely to God and to virtuous exercise.

Lest you fall into this trap, remain very cautious and humble on the occasion of spiritual delight, particularly in your promises and vows. When you find yourself in tribulation, your resolutions must be focused on enduring the cross patiently according to God’s will, and on exalting that cross, refusing any relief, be it earthly or heavenly. Your prayer and your desire should be one alone: that God help you endure everything averse to your will, without staining the virtue of patience and without disgusting your Lord.

as the crow cries: Scupoli uses the Latin word cras, which means “tomorrow” and sounds like a crow’s caw.

The third reason: Has Scupoli lost count? I have translated the original Italian faithfully: La prima [ragione] becomes “the first reason”, then l’altra ragione becomes “the other reason”. So you would expect to have only two reasons, but now he lists La terza causa, “the third cause”.