Lectio et Oratio

Episode 28 -- Spiritual Combat c18 --Curbing Sudden Passions

How do we curb, hold back, sudden impulses of our passions?

In the Prologue of Spiritual Combat Revisited by Fr Jonathan Robinson (1929-2020), he gives wonderful descriptions of our fallen human condition:

• deep divisions in our nature

  • we are pulled to what is good

  • we lean to what is evil.

• Spiritual combat = organized effort

  • to overcome these divisions

  • to bring our lives into line with our faith in Christ

• Asceticism = spiritual combat = STRUGGLE to reorder our desires towards Christ

  • cut away sinful aspects of self

  • avoid temptations

  • positive improvements towards perfection

What is the goal of asceticism? Growing in the love of God.

How? By removing what keeps us from loving Him and making an effort to do what we must do to love Him.

Episode 27 -- Spiritual Combat c17 -- Method in Fighting Passions

What is the method to be followed in fighting our Passions and Vices?

Last episode we read about a little morning exercise. When we wake up, Fr Scupoli wants us to turn our minds immediately to our Lord. Such a greeting can be formal or informal. One holy older lady likes to sit up and look out the window and say, “Good Morning, Jesus.” St Philip would kiss the floor and ask Jesus to stay with him that day. Such practices open the window of our soul.

After we greet the Lord, then what?

1. Consider yourself on a field of battle.
2. Imagine the enemy before you: a particular vice (bad habit) or disordered passion
3. Picture Jesus at your right, your invincible Leader + BVM, St Joseph, angels and saints
4. At your left is Lucifer, satan, the devil with his minions.
5. Picture your guardian angel encouraging you to fight. Hold on! Be courageous. If your enemy starts to get the upper hand, call out to Christ and the Saints! You will win!

Will we fight today against our main spiritual enemy?

What kinds of things is our Captain telling us?

• Our weakness should not discourage us. He is with us!
• Remember the four weapons: distrust of self, trust in God, prayer, right use of the faculties of the soul
• PREDOMINANT PASSION -- the inclination we most struggle with and the one we want to conquer
• Do we know our most common foe, our predominant passion? What is our great weakness?
• In Light of HIS love and mercy, we can accept the truth about ourselves.

In this episode, we will be reading a very short chapter about the right order of attacking our faults. Yes, we should start with a predominant fault, but we have to aware of other enemies from time to time.

Episode 26 -- Spiritual Combat c16 -- Early Morning Soldier

What should I do when I first wake up in the morning?

In our last episode, we read about various objections that are raised to the spiritual combat by our misguided self-love. We tell ourselves that we are too weak to struggle against sin? We forget that God is all-powerful. We tell ourselves that our spiritual enemies are too many. We forget that the saints and angels outnumber the demons. We tell ourselves that we are not able to follow the Lord so faithfully. We forget that many others, weaker than ourselves, have done so! We tell ourselves that this fight is too long and will last one’s whole life. We forget that we have no other choice. What else is there to do but fight? If we do not fight against ourselves, we will spiritually die.

Let us not forget that the Lord is the one who fights for us! He is at our side. He will conquer our spiritual enemies as long as we do not quit the field of battle!

In this episode, we will be reading about a wonderful spiritual practice for the first moments of our day.

Episode 25 -- Spiritual Combat c15 -- Skillfully Fight Your Enemies

How can I courageously and skillfully fight against my true spiritual enemies?

In our last episode, we finished reading chapter 14 of The Spiritual Combat. Fr Scupoli spoke from his own experience of being unjustly accused of a great sin. He was even stripped of practicing his priesthood for many years.

When we are unjustly accused or unfairly hurt, Fr Scupoli gives five things to consider. Here is a summary of what he says to help us accept what has happened.

1. Was this whole situation actually my fault?
2. Have I done things in the past that were not punished and now is my chance to make up for them?
3. If I have done nothing wrong ever, God is leading me along the narrow path to heaven.
4. I am in union with Christ and the Saints who all suffered unjustly.
5. God’s will somehow has Providentially allowed this terrible event so as to bring forth some great good.

Episode 24 -- Spiritual Combat c14.2 -- Reacting to Unjust Accusations

What happens when our anger at being falsely and unjustly accused seems to overpower our will?

In our last episode, we read about what to do when you feel like your will (rational appetite for the good) is being overpowered by the force of the lower appetite.

Recall: APPETITE = human power of accepting/desiring/wanting

Movements of the Higher APPETITE = ACTS of the WILL

Movements of the Lower APPETITE = Passions or emotions

With your will, you may not want, for example, to check your email on your phone.

But something else is pushing you...just check it...something new may be there…

We do not want to check it because we know (with understanding) it is not necessary and will keep us up. But there is this lower compulsion, this urge, a PASSION, that is attacking your will.

What happens if it is so strong that the WILL feels overpowered?

Fr Scupoli tells us to pray! He assures us that as long as the WILL does not consent there is no sin. God always gives some way of escaping.

In this episode, we will look at the example of being unjustly accused. Our anger and sadness can seem to overpower our will. What should we do? This example will have other applications.

Episode 23 -- Spiritual Combat c14.1 -- When the Will Seems Overpowered

What happens when our passions are so strong that the will to do what is right seems almost overpowered?

In our last episode, we finished the somewhat long and somewhat confusing chapter 13.

The main point of the chapter is this: Christian perfection requires repeated acts of will in conformity with God’s will.

The main problem: the spirit (higher part of our soul) is willing, but the flesh (the lower part) is weak. Our lower part of the soul (emotions or passions or sensuality) give us great trouble. We feel tempted. We feel distaste, annoyance, repulsion.

What to do? The chapter makes the following suggestions that can be summarized:

1. Resist disordered passions, release resistance to give another resistance, resist 3rd time when tempted, make acts of opposite virtues.
2. Trial of patience offers a good example of what he is talking about.
3. Impatience has a root: fear of being disrepected and not applauded
4. The need for frequent opposite internal acts of accepting this sadness, this evil.
5. External acts also matter! Kindnesses, etc.
6. Do not neglect little actions in this fight nor small sins.
7. Try to deny yourself at times even in good things to build up strength.
8. Self-training, self-denial, is NECESSARY for holiness!

What is an example of an interior act of will?

• “I accept this thing/person, Lord, as from you.”
• “I want what you want, Lord.”

So is the spiritual battle all up to me?

No! We need huge doses of divine HELP, that is, the GRACE of GOD. Our acts of will, our resistance to temptations, are RESPONSES to God’s grace. He initiates. We COOPERATE with his help.

In this episode, we will read about what to do when the will (our power to choose good or evil) feels overpowered by the lower feelings. How should we think about these terrible situations when resistance seems hopeless?

Episode 22 -- Spiritual Combat c13.3 -- External Acts for Growing in Virtue

What kind of external practices should I do with those who upset me?

Unless we get the roots when pulling up weeds, what happens? The weed returns. It may be a long time later. But it will return. Why do we suddenly show impatience after a long time of being patient?

Fr Scupoli distinguishes between being impatient and the root of this spiritual weed.

Impatience = giving way to disordered impulses of anger

Deep Root of Impatience = “dread of contempt and a fondness for the applause of men” (43).

• Contempt = disdain, disrespect
• Dread = great fear

If we want to uproot all impatience, Fr Scupoli says that we eventually must grow accustomed to being disrespected. We have to develop a desire for being disdained and thought little of by others. Such an interior state is not achieved in four days! But slowly, over time, with lots of spiritual weed-killer (grace) and human effort!

How do we do this? Part of the answer is repetition! We must make frequent internal acts of patience. In other words, we have to hold back repeatedly our anger and repeatedly accept being sad. By repetition, a good habit, a virtue develops.

—> But remember that Fr Scupoli is giving advice to those seeking Christian perfection. His advice is not intended as universal advice to all people in every difficult situation. He is not talking to people undergoing severe trauma or abuse. He is not telling us to enable others in their abusive behaviour. Such situations require patience, but are more complex than the situation Fr Scupoli is describing.

In this episode, we will read about more advice Fr Scupoli gives for developing the virtue of patience and other forms of self-control.

Episode 21 -- Spiritual Combat c13.2 -- Moving Beyond the Contempt of Others

How do I get at the root of my impatience?

In our last episode, we saw some important distinctions:

We continue with chapter 13 of The Spiritual Combat. Fr Scupoli told us about four things we must do in training our emotions, our sensuality, our passions.

1. Resist those that oppose reason, God’s will, our true happiness. For example, feelings of impatience.
2. Sometimes, to gain greater strength, allow those strong emotions, feelings of impatience, to arise again in order to give them a greater defeat.
3. Be ready for another attack by the devil. Resist with new strength.
4. Frequently makes interior acts opposed to that vice of impatience. Tell God how you want to be patient under this sadness like Our Lady of Sorrows.

REMEMBER — you do not treat emotions connected to chastity, sexuality, romantic love, in the same way! These you do not intentionally allow to arise. We will read about dealing with temptations of lust later on!

In this episode, we continue his treatment of the emotions and their training with examples from Scupoli’s book.

Episode 20 -- Spiritual Combat c13.1 -- A Tactic for Training Our Emotions

How are we to deal with our sensuality, our lower powers of the soul?

In our last episode, we saw some important distinctions:

1. The human mind experiences two tensions!

• God’s will …
• The human mind…higher powers (understanding and will)
• Human sensuality/passion … lower power

The human mind (understanding and will) are pulled in two directions. God’s will summons us. But our passions, our lower sensuality, pulls us downwards. Our mission is to follow God’s will!

But we have to remember that a stable remaining in a state of grace, the overcoming of our main vice (bad habit) is not the end of the spiritual combat. The Lord wants to lead us to the heights!

2. Basic Christian conquering of main vice….versus …. full perfection

→ There are many hidden motivations that keep us from reaching the holiness God intends.

→ we cling to our own will … too great a love for ourselves

• we give us illegal things….but we still keep trying to aggrandize ourselves
• we fast...but then we eat the most exotic delicacies
• we are chaste….but we refuse to give up certain harmful amusements

→ behind so much of our activity lurks one of the followings:

• Slothfulness
• Vanity
• Human respect
• Hidden imperfections
• Conceit
• A desire for notice and approval
• Too great a love for ourselves

God knows how best to transform us and our inclinations. He wants to bring our desires into line with His Son. Let us not run from his wishes for us!

In this episode, we turn to some practices that we can do to train our emotions outside of the time of temptation!

Episode 19 -- Spiritual Combat c12 -- Twofold Battle within Us

But why is it so hard to want to love God with a pure intention?

In our previous reading, Fr Scupoli mentioned four different kinds of considerations that can help us want to please God. How do I know that Christ cares for me?

1. Gifts from Creation
2. Gifts from Redemption
3. Gifts from actual graces offered presently
4. Gifts from the Sacraments

God shows his love for us in creating us, in redeeming us, in offering us help right now, and in the sacraments, above all the Eucharist.

1. Why did God make me?
2. Why did Christ die for me?
3. Why does he fight for me now?
4. Why does he remain with us in the Eucharist?

He wants our good. He loves us. He wants to be loved in return. The path to wanting to please God is by considering how much he cares for us

In this episode, we will look at the source of tension in our human nature, a two-fold tension. Our higher part of the soul (reason + will) looks up to God. But the inferior part of the soul (our passions/sensitive nature) has its own object. Our reason and will are pulled and drawn in two directions.

Episode 18 -- Spiritual Combat c11 -- Considerations for Inspiring the Will

What other considerations can help my will be more inclined to pleasing God?

In our last episode, we finished the chapter on training the will to want to do the will of God in order to please God.

Here is a beautiful passage from our previous reading:

“Anyone who acts under the influence of divine grace and only to please God is indifferent as to his course of action. Or, if he is inclined to some particular activity, he completely submits to Providence the manner and time of doing it. He is perfectly resigned to whatever success attends his undertakings, and his heart desires nothing but the accomplishment of the divine will.”

When things go contrary to our exceptions, our reactions can reveal how far we have to go in wanting to do all for God!

In this episode, we will look at some considerations about God that will help our will want to please God.

Episode 17 -- Spiritual Combat c10.3 -- Time It Takes to Grow in Purity of Intention

What else do I need to do to gain a pure intention?

Let us keep begging God to give his a new heart with a desire to do his will, by his inspiration, and in order to please Him. In this episode, we look more closely at how this purity of intention can be gained!

Episode 16 -- Spiritual Combat c10.2 -- A Method for Gaining Purity of Intention

What is the best method for training my will to have a pure intention of seeking to please God?

In out last episode, we began reading Fr Scupoli’s chapter on the need for training our will, our higher will, so that we will not only choose things that please us. The great difficulty is our fallen tendency to want what gives us some satisfaction, some comfort. But Fr Scupoli insists that true Christian perfection involves:

1. Wanting what pleases God.
2. Carrying out what pleases him.
3. BUT ALSO — doing these good things by the inspiration of grace.
4. AND — carrying them out with a desire to please God.

And so he encourages us to turn to God as soon as any plan or idea for action is presented to us. We must bring the Lord into the picture. Do you want me to do this thing here and now? Is it pleasing to you, O Lord? What would you have me to do?

In this episode, we will continue with his advice on the best method for developing a more pure intention.

Episode 15 -- Spiritual Combat c10.1 -- Controlling Our Will

While I can see the need to regulate my understanding, why do I need to control my will?

In this episode, we move to Scupoli’s advice about controlling our will.

Understanding: higher knowing power of the soul

Will: higher accepting and desiring power of the soul.

The will enables us to love and choose. We are trying to conform our will to God’s will, to want what he wants us to want. Not my will, but yours be done, Jesus said to His Father during the Agony. 

Episode 14 -- Spiritual Combat c9.2 -- Intellectual Pride

Another Method to Prevent Deception of the Understanding.

Chapter 9 covers the need to resist curiosity of understanding. Do not try to understand more than one really needs. Do not wander after all kinds of unnecessary questions and news and business of others that does not concern us. Instead focus on the essentials: always thinking of Christ and him Crucified.

But we also have to be on guard against intellectual pride. The devil likes to trick devout people into thinking they have had the greatest spiritual experiences. He makes us think we are far advanced in God’s ways. He leads us to think that we can teach everyone else and no one can teach us. He leads us not to trust the judgements of others.

How do we prevent this intellectual pride? Get used to consulting others. Follow the suggestions of others. Get advice. Ask for prayers. As St Philip Neri teaches us: “be humble and get as many prayers as possible.”

Episode 13 -- Spiritual Combat c9.1 -- Avoiding Intellectual Curiosity

What else can I do to prevent intellectual deception?

In our last episode, we read about a rule Fr Scupoli gives for avoiding “misguided enthusiasm.” He lays out the obstacle or difficulty we experience in trying to form correct judgments about good and evil.

Obstacle

• Inordinate love and hatred for something.

• Bias of the passions (feelings of attraction or repulsion) makes things appear good or evil before we can think about them.

• Our feelings/affections disguise things as good or evil.

Advice

• Discover what things are really like (their nature) before allowing strong feelings to get attached.

• Decide if something is good to do on the basis of reason and the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

• Do nothing rashly, without careful consideration.

What is good in itself, might not be good for me, here and now. What is holiest in itself, might not be for me. Lord, enlighten our minds with what you want us to do!

In this episode, we will look at a further piece of advice Fr Scupoli offers. He warns us about excessive curiosity!

Episode 12 -- Spiritual Combat c8 -- Obstacles and Aid to Forming Correct Judgments

What keeps us from and what aids us in forming correct judgments about good and evil?

What does our understanding/intellect need? Truth. From what does it need to be freed? Ignorance.

What will take away our ignorance about how to live correctly?

1. Prayer for light to know the truth

2. Thinking a lot! Regular, serious, and diligent thinking to distinguish good from evil.

What is an intellectual judgment?

The answer to the question: is this thing that I want to do really good?

A judgment can be in three forms:

1. Yes it is good to do!

2. No, it is not good!

3. Maybe, it is good; I need advice.

Who is a model for forming good judgments? St Joseph.

-- “As he was considering these thing, behold an angel appeared to him in a dream. The angels said to him, ‘Do not be afraid, Joseph, son of David, to take Mary as your wife. For this child is conceived of the Holy Spirit.’ You shall call him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. Joseph rose from sleep and did as the angel commanded him. He took Mary, his wife” (Matthew 1:20-21).

-- We cannot base our judgments about good and evil on mere appearances, what is popular in the world, or what our senses really like.

-- We have to base them on the truth and on how the Holy Spirit directs us and the wisdom of those who are sent to us from God.

May St Joseph help each of us to grow in knowledge of the truth!

In this episode, we will read about a great obstacle to forming correct judgments: our own enthusiasms and strong desires. Before we can think properly, our wants get in the way! Scupoli gives advice on how to avoid this mistake.

Episode 11 -- Spiritual Combat c7 -- Right Use of the Understanding

What is the third weapon in the spiritual combat?

After telling us about distrust of self and confidence in God, Fr Scupoli spends a couple of chapters talking about both of these spiritual weapons together. We need them both to conquer the enemy. Who is the enemy? Primarily ourselves!

Do not fear him who can kill the body and not the soul, Jesus said, but fear him who has the power to cast body and soul into hell (Matthew 10:28). The only one who can send us to hell is ourselves, by our misuse of our freedom.

What is his final advice about trusting in God? Fr Scupoli says that we have to be convinced that the following cannot enable us to do the will of God:

1. Natural or acquired abilities

2. Supernatural gifts

3. Perfect knowledge of the Scriptures

4. A long time spent in service of God

To do the will of God, we need his help! His hand must be with us. Live with an awareness of God’s presence. Live with your hand in his hand. Stay with him.

• Are we overwhelmed with sins?
• Do we feel our inclination to evil growing daily?
• Have I been unable to break away from vice after much effort?

DO NOT LOSE CONFIDENCE in GOD. Let us abandon ourselves to His power. Do not give up on your spiritual practices.

“God can grant in a moment what we have been seeking for a long time,” - St. Philip Neri

If David could kill Goliath, if Our Lady could undo all evil at the Annunciation, if St Paul could become an Apostle, there is hope for us no matter how dark things seem.

The only way to victory is not to lay down our weapons. What is our weapon for fighting? Confidence in God. If we keep this weapon in our hands, victory will come when we least expect it! The victory will be from the Lord. “Not unto us, not unto us, O Lord, but unto your name be the praise.” (Psalm 115:1).

In this episode, we turn to the third weapon, the right use of our faculties. We begin with our mind, our understanding.

Episode 10 -- Spiritual Combat c6 -- Further Advice on Obtaining Distrust of Self and Trust in God

Does Fr Scupoli have any further advice on obtaining distrust of self and confidence in God? Yes!

In chapter 5, Fr Scupoli writes about a HIDDEN PRIDE. Pride as a sin is called SUPERBIA, in Latin. Super = above.

Pride is an unhealthy wanting of things that are above ourselves. We should want to be like Christ and to become holy.

• Pride makes us want to be like Christ by our own strength!

• Presumption makes us confident that being like Christ on our own is possible!

• Hidden pride is pride that we ourselves do not see, but which infects our actions as the secret motivation.

Let us pray for each other. The usual way that God reveals our hidden pride is by allowing us to fall, to commit sin. Our surprise and anxiety and cowardice to fight on is a sign of hidden pride.

“Excessive sadness,” St Philip used to say, “usually stems from no other source than pride.”

In this episode, we will finish reading Fr Scupoli’s advice on obtaining distrust of self and confidence or trust in God. This reading is very encouraging. He exhorts us never to give up!

Episode 9 -- Spiritual Combat c5 -- Our cowardice after sin is not a virtue

Why is my cowardice and anxiety after sinning not a virtue?

In our last episode, we talked about a method for determining whether we trust ourselves or trust in God. The method is to examine our reactions after we sin.

• Are we surprised that we sinned?

• Do we feel despair?

• Do I rush off to confession just to get rid of the bad feeling and the wounded self-love?

Or

• Do I attribute the fall to my weakness and lack of trust in God?

• Do I detest the sin above all things as an offence against God?

• Do I go to confession to be washed from the sin?

• Do I go to Holy Communion to guard myself from a relapse?

In this episode, Fr Scupoli teaches us another little way that we deceive ourselves. We consider our cowardice, our lack of courage, after a fall as something good.