Temptations
Combat
Resist from the beginning to our inclinations and we remove the evil tendencies, to not have to lead to increasing difficulties.
How much peace and how much joy we bring to ourselves and to others, with good feel for our lives, we would be more solicitous for our spiritual perfection.
(The Imitazine Christ XI, 6)
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Repress temptations
You must prepare to battle, because the devil, the world and the flesh will arm themselves to fight you and make you fall into perdition. The more you tried to be fair, the more the enemy rages against you.
Examine your weapons to defend yourself against these enemies and not to be won by the devil, prayer is the best defense. St. Paul writes, in fact, we do not fight against a deadly human nature, but against princes, against powers, against the rulers of this dark world, against evil spirits. He warns us that alone we have not the strength to resist these powers; we have to seek the help of God, which is given only to those who question him with prayer.
Do not trust your intentions or you will be lost. When you're tempted by the devil, put all your trust in God. The evil lies not only in our humanity that is prone to the tyranny of the passions that cause many wounds, and they do, groan and sigh with St. Paul: Or if I do what I do not want, it is not me, but sin that dwells in me.
The full will of uncertainty, the weakness is left to itself and does not find the strength to resist the evil promptings of nature. Because of his cowardice he throws open the doors to evil. If intelligence cannot see, evil sweeps away into error the will and sensitivity because they lost, chasing false truths.
The action and will are diverted when the intelligence considers things from the point of view of sheer pleasure; false ideas lead to act improperly. That's why seeing is the first necessity and a matter of the utmost importance. From the peaks of faith is the light, from roaming the ardor of charity, and with the practice of the virtues life reaches the heights of perfection.
The battle must address the causes that trigger this temptation. Escape with all your strength to every occasion where it might be a minimal danger. Through his secret intrigues which seem to be innocuous showing occult plots will mock your surveillance insinuating venomously to harm you with harmful injuries. The passions find space in the mind, because of the things which the body is related to their needs or their love.
Under the pretext of things licit, the temptation deceives the intellect and so you consent to the pleasure of the senses. Distracted by the impetuous wind of lust, evil instills its poison inadvertently managing to penetrate to the essence of the soul; it obscures more and more the reason so that you begin to consider harmless dangerous things, so you fall into disrepair or in some temptation painful and difficult to overcome.
Flee because the straw near the fire flares up and under its impetus blinds you the reason, you will erase the memory of God, therefore you will not have any fear, neither to God nor to the honor, nor all the pains that may result. So run if you really do not want to fall into this vortex that you can drag into his abyss. Flee also idleness and be vigilant every thought.
When you feel the first assault of some defect as lust, anger, impatience, revenge, you have to elevate the soul to God in this way the soul moves away from them. Invokes God's help: "Holy God, Holy Strong, Holy Immortal, have mercy on us." These words are powerful before God. He will rush to your aid. The temptation subsides and the enemy is defeated in his attempt.
The body cannot see with your eyes what you cannot see whether or not with the mind. The eyes of the body cannot look beyond the firmament, and if we wanted to look beyond the firmament, we could not do it with our bodily eyes but with the mind. The external senses cannot perceive the depth of the mystery of the creatures nor with the hearing or by sight, smell or touch, for that God has hidden in the secret of the inner part of yourself where your senses are more subtle of all the bodies, that we might perceive the hidden wisdom of the Almighty's creatures.
Get away from contact with the hateful things; we do not let our mind to thoughts that move out of the will of God. It is in our negligence that prevents our life with the effort of the virtues. Let us beware of hidden sleep where there is no vision of truth, do not let the filth of sin in our soul, because this will not be disfigured. We purify our hearts by the rust of the concerns of the world. We put every effort in being the heirs of the Father's teachings with the contempt of the things that pass. Not let the things from which we should separate, try instead the ties that bind our hearts to the love of God, so that when released from the calm passions of the body, we may find ourselves in the place of the joys that are in God.
