The Spiritual Combat

The "Spiritual Combat" is one of the many rich fruits of the Cross, from which comes every good gift and every grace to us, all spiritual wisdom as well as holiness. And perhaps of all the branches of that Tree, none has born choicer gifts than shocking calumny, for zeal and righteousness' sake, meekly endured in silence. It does seem to give a special likeness and conformity to our Lord, when holiness in His servants draws upon them the hatred of the world, and they too, in Him and for Him, are "hated without a cause," and drink of His Cup, in that they (reverently to use the words) are with Him, and for His sake "numbered with the transgressors." In patient retirement, under some shocking calumny, which ranked its author among the carnal and the degraded, the "Spiritual Combat" was written. Father Scupoli lists four essentials in the Spiritual Combat: Mistrust of self, trust in God, Spiritual exercises and finally prayer. "In this conflict, my daughter, so necessary to thee is mistrust of self, that unless thou be furnished with it, thou wilt assuredly be unable not only to gain the victory, but even to overcome thy very slightest passion." In this age of ego-centricity, we believe we can do anything, forgetting the necessity of trusting in Almighty God rather than in our own feeble efforts. Father Scupoli warns us of two dangers, ignorance and curiosity. "One is ignorance, which clouds and obstructs the knowledge of truth, the proper object of the understanding. Therefore must it be made clear and bright by exercise, that so it may be able to see and discern plainly all that is needful for purifying the soul from unruly passions, and adorning it with saintly virtues." In order to combat lust Father Scupoli advises; "Avoid idleness, and be vigilant and awake, with the thoughts and deeds suitable to thy state of life." In order to avoid the vice of sloth: "Thou must avoid all curiosity concerning earthly things, and all attachment to them, and also every kind of employment which belongs not to thy condition." "THE cunning and malignant serpent fails not to tempt us by his artifice, even through the very virtues to which we have attained, that they may become an occasion of ruin to us, while we, regarding them and ourselves with complacency, lift up ourselves on high, thereby to fall afterward into the sin of pride and vain-glory. To keep thyself from this danger, ever fight, placing thyself in the safe and level field of a true and deep knowledge that thou art nothing, that thou knowest nothing, that thou canst do nothing, and hast nothing but miseries and defects, and deservest nothing but eternal damnation." In the supplement we read: "Christian perfection is nothing else but a full observance of the precepts and law of God in order to please Him, without going aside to the right hand or to the left, or turning back. " For this is the whole duty of man." So that the aim of the whole life of the Christian who wills to become perfect, must be a striving to form the habit of daily forgetting self more and more, and accustoming himself not to do his own will, that so he may do all things as moved thereto by the sole Will of God, in order to please and honour Him." The end of this work is devoted to the Path to Paradise. "Let every thing be a means of leading thee to God, and let nothing hinder thee on the way."