This is no ordinary talk / book (perfectly narrated here). It is extraordinary even by Fulton J. Sheen’s standard. Lay persons and clergy both need to hear its message in our troublesome time. A time which assaults our very souls: “Day after day, Christians struggle to do good, to avoid evil, and to take up with patience and love the crosses that threaten to crush them. For those of us who still know more of sin than sanctity, Fulton Sheen’s revelation of the light that vice sheds on virtue affords a way to understand even better, and a means to attain it.
If you abide by the holy counsel of these pages, enduring virtue will soon be yours: you will have achieved your own long-sought-after victory over vice.”
Get it. A book that belongs in every Catholic Home and device in our time
“…all seven deadly sins led Christ’s enemies to nail Him to the Cross, we can find in the example of His suffering and death sure means to overcome each of those sins, plus the key to understanding-and to nurturing in our own soul-each corresponding virtue.
So, for example, in these pages filled with wisdom and hope, Bishop Sheen teaches us not only how to conquer our gluttony; he shows us how to satisfy our spiritual hunger. We learn not merely how to overcome pride; we discover what we must do to grow humble. From Christ’s holy response to each of the seven deadly sins that led to His Crucifixion, Bishop Sheen draws a lesson in how you and I must deal with those same sins, whether we meet them in others or in ourselves.
Day after day, Christians struggle to do good, to avoid evil, and to take up with patience and love the crosses that threaten to crush them. For those of us who still know more of sin than sanctity, Fulton Sheen’s revelation of the light that vice sheds on virtue affords a way to understand even better, and a means to attain it.
If you abide by the holy counsel of these pages, enduring virtue will soon be yours: you will have achieved your own long-sought-after victory over vice.
_______
Thomas a Kempis
The Thirteenth Chapter: Resisting Temptation
The Imitation of Christ — Thomas À Kempis
SO LONG as we live in this world we cannot escape suffering and temptation. Whence it is written in Job: “The life of man upon earth is a warfare.” [4] Everyone, therefore, must guard against temptation and must watch in prayer lest the devil, who never sleeps but goes about seeking whom he may devour, find occasion to deceive him. No one is so perfect or so holy but he is sometimes tempted; man cannot be altogether free from temptation.
Yet temptations, though troublesome and severe, are often useful to a man, for in them he is humbled, purified, and instructed. The saints all passed through many temptations and trials to profit by them, while those who could not resist became reprobate and fell away. There is no state so holy, no place so secret that temptations and trials will not come. Man is never safe from them as long as he lives, for they come from within us — in sin we were born. When one temptation or trial passes, another comes; we shall always have something to suffer because we have lost the state of original blessedness.
Many people try to escape temptations, only to fall more deeply. We cannot conquer simply by fleeing, but by patience and true humility we become stronger than all our enemies. The man who only shuns temptations outwardly and does not uproot them will make little progress; indeed they will quickly return, more violent than before.
Little by little, in patience and long-suffering you will overcome them, by the help of God rather than by severity and your own rash ways. Often take counsel when tempted; and do not be harsh with others who are tempted, but console them as you yourself would wish to be consoled.
The beginning of all temptation lies in a wavering mind and little trust in God, for as a rudderless ship is driven hither and yon by waves, so a careless and irresolute man is tempted in many ways. Fire tempers iron and temptation steels the just. Often we do not know what we can stand, but temptation shows us what we are.
Above all, we must be especially alert against the beginnings of temptation, for the enemy is more easily conquered if he is refused admittance to the mind and is met beyond the threshold when he knocks.
Someone has said very aptly: “Resist the beginnings; remedies come too late, when by long delay the evil has gained strength.” First, a mere thought comes to mind, then strong imagination, followed by pleasure, evil delight, and consent. Thus, because he is not resisted in the beginning, Satan gains full entry. And the longer a man delays in resisting, so much the weaker does he become each day, while the strength of the enemy grows against him.
Some suffer great temptations in the beginning of their conversion, others toward the end, while some are troubled almost constantly throughout their life. Others, again, are tempted but lightly according to the wisdom and justice of Divine Providence Who weighs the status and merit of each and prepares all for the salvation of His elect.
We should not despair, therefore, when we are tempted, but pray to God the more fervently that He may see fit to help us, for according to the word of Paul, He will make issue with temptation that we may be able to bear it. Let us humble our souls under the hand of God in every trial and temptation for He will save and exalt the humble in spirit.
In temptations and trials the progress of a man is measured; in them opportunity for merit and virtue is made more manifest.
When a man is not troubled it is not hard for him to be fervent and devout, but if he bears up patiently in time of adversity, there is hope for great progress.
Some, guarded against great temptations, are frequently overcome by small ones in order that, humbled by their weakness in small trials, they may not presume on their own strength in great ones. — The Imitation of Christ
Footnotes:
[4] Job 7:1.
Let us stop mocking the sexually fallen. But rather let us pray for the grace of recovery. Let us love enough to do that. For “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” Romans 6:23+
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