Spiritual Combat By Dom Lorenzo Scupoli

[Stone]

41: THE NEED OF MODERATION IN THE DESIRE TO BE FREED OF THOSE EVILS PATIENTLY BORNE
AND THE MANNER IN WHICH OUR DESIRES ARE TO BE REGULATED

IN THE THROES of affliction of any sort, exercise patience, being oblivious of suggestions of self-love, and ignoring the tempter, who stirs up urgent desires of freedom from affliction. For from such impatience two great evils will arise. First, although you may not be entirely deprived of the habit of patience, there will remain an unfortunate disposition to impatience. The second evil is that your patience itself will be imperfect, and your recompense only proportionate to the time spent in its cultivation; whereas had you sought no relaxation, manifesting an entire resignation to the Divine will, God would have rewarded for years your willingness to suffer, if the trouble itself were only of fifteen minutes duration.

Make it a general rule therefore to desire nothing but in conformity to the will of God, to form all your wishes in harmony with His; thus directed to their true end, your desires will always be just and holy, and you yourself will remain unperturbed in the joy of perfect tranquillity. For if all things are directed by Providence, to which your will is entirely comformable, everything then will turn out according to your desires, for nothing can happen that will not be agreeable to your will.

What is here proposed does not regard the sins of ourselves or others, because sin itself is held in the utmost detestation by the Almighty; rather, our concern is with those troubles which are the punishment of offenses, or the trials of virtue, be they heart-rending sorrows or dangers to life itself. For these are the crosses with which God favors those He loves best.

Should you endeavor to mitigate your pain, and unsuccessfully employ the ordinary means to attain that end, you must resolve to bear patiently the evil you cannot remedy. You are even obliged to have recourse to such means as are commendable in themselves, and appointed by God for such ends. But let your motive for employing them be the fact that He has so ordained them, rather than attachment to self or a too eager desire of being freed from your afflictions.