The time of Lent is a special occasion for the fight against sin, the worst reality for man, for the Church and for the world. But this fight requires wisdom.
You have to be patient with yourself, especially in falls and sins. Calm and patience and no treading on your soul, showing a hidden and refined pride of those who do not accept their own weakness. We are really weak. That is why Jesus left us the wonderful sacrament of confession.
It is a great pride not to accept one’s own misery. God is patient with us, so how could we not be patient with ourselves? How long, my God, will I bear my sins?
St. Francis de Sales taught: ?? Consider your defects with more pity than indignation, with more humility than severity, and keep your heart filled with a gentle, peaceful and tender love ??.
We can never despair or be discouraged, even if our sins are numerous. We cannot allow despair into our hearts after sin. To the adulterous woman, Christ asked: ?? Has anyone condemned you? I don’t condemn you either. Go and sin no more ??.
After sin, the demon of despair runs to tell us: ?? Your soul is dead, it is lost, do not bother the Master anymore … ?? (Mc 5, 35-43).
At this time we have to say like Job: “Even if the Lord took my life, I would still wait on Him.”
Despite our sins, Jesus loves us with infinite love. Santa Terezinha guarantees that ?? the poorer and more miserable our souls are, the more apt they are for the operations of the Love that consumes and transforms ??.
Perhaps you are a mother who cries for your child to be at the loss of this world; do not despair, trust and wait on the Lord. Naim’s widow could not imagine that Jesus would appear when her son was already dead and return him alive …
São Martinho de Tours used to say that “the intervention of Divine Providence is all the more certain as human resources are less likely”. When everything fails … God acts.
Santa Monica prayed for 20 years for the conversion of her beloved Augustine, but she had the joy of seeing him converted one day, and much more: priest, bishop, saint, doctor of the Church, one of the most important men the world has ever seen. All because she was not discouraged from praying.
Saint Francis de Sales said that ?? Divine Providence takes its help to provoke our confidence ??. God establishes our trust by testing it. There’s no other way. So don’t worry during the good test of trust. Be brave. The merits will be much greater.
Santa Terezinha would like to remind you that ?? our mistrust is what most hurts the Heart of Jesus ??. In the same line of thought, Saint Bernard, the great holy doctor, said: ?? You will have all the things on which your confidence can be extended. If you expect much from God, He will do much for you. If you expect little, He will do little ??.
So, dear soul, trust a lot, expect a lot, and don’t be afraid to ask too much; this is not false humility.
The author of the work “The Imitation of Christ” it teaches that what man cannot amend in himself or in others must endure with patience, until God disposes otherwise.
Dropped down? Stand up! Ask God for forgiveness. Forgive yourself and continue the journey. It is not because we have lost a battle that we are going to lose the war against sin.
Temptations do not lead us away from God when we do not yield to them, but they bring us even closer to the Lord. Many saints have been horribly tempted. Feeling is not a sin, sin is consenting. As long as you are not complicit in error, you have not sinned, even if you have to live with it.
Temptations against purity make us more chaste when we overcome them; temptations against anger make us more meek; gluttony temptations make us stronger in temperance. Combating temptations makes us stronger and more vigilant .
In the midst of temptation, it seems that hell is against us; often, discouragement comes, the desire to blaspheme, to despair, to revolt against God… Calm, patience, faith and abandonment in God are necessary.
Santa Catarina de Sena, one of the three doctors of the Church, after a very strong temptation, asked Jesus: ?? Where were you, my Jesus, during this storm ??? And Jesus answered him: ?? In the middle of your heart. ??
Many saints suffered terrible temptations of faith: Santa Terezinha, São Vicente, Santa Margarida. To the latter Jesus said: ?? You will be persecuted by the devil, by the world, and by yourself; your three crosses. ??
Santa Terezinha, in the fight against the temptations of faith, said: ?? I pronounced more acts of faith in the space of a year than in all my past life. ??
?? With each new occasion to fight when the enemy wants to provoke me, I proceed with courage. As I know that the duel is cowardice, I don’t face the opponent, I always turn my back on him and run, hurrying to Jesus … It is so sweet to serve the good God in the night in the test! Do we only have this life to live by faith ?? ( ditto ).
We are well aware of the story of the paralytic whose good friends brought him to Jesus, going down through the roof of the house; therefore, when sins prevent us from coming to Jesus, let the good friends, the suffering, the confessor and the confession take us to Him.
Perhaps neither Saint Augustine, nor Saint Mary Magdalene, nor many other saints would have sanctified themselves if they had not fallen. They were great in sin and great in holiness. They had to touch the hard ground to experience God’s mercy .
Our faults make us know experimentally and touch our misery and impotence with our fingers and give us humility. Falls help us to despise ourselves and trust God. They are remedies against our pride, against self-love, conceit, etc. Therefore, when we fall, we cannot stomp on the soul, without wanting to accept, out of refined pride, the very fall, but, on the contrary, say as Saint Francis de Sales teaches: ?? O my soul, poor soul, rise, it is how great is God’s mercy ??.
The great saint also stated that ?? between Mercy and misery there is a great connection that one cannot exercise without the other. ??
Our misery gives us a sacred right to trust in Mercy. Either I save myself, trusting in Mercy, or I condemn myself desperately, without it.
It is not for nothing that Jesus sent Saint Faustina to write on the board of Mercy: ?? Jesus, I trust in You! ??
Before God, those who need it most have a right. Among many patients, which one is seen first? It is the most sick. It was to help our misery that Mercy came down to earth.
St. Augustine said that even our sins contribute to our sanctification when we make good use of them. Therefore, courage and confidence, human soul, that lives to fall!
