The Enemy Has Many Stratagems for Destroying Interior Peace: Be on Guard

Our enemy the devil rejoices when the soul is disturbed and the heart is in turmoil. For this reason he uses every device to trouble our souls. His first act in these attempts is to stir up self-love, so that grace—which builds and guards interior peace—may withdraw on account of it. To this end he instills the opinion that everything good that exists or seems to exist in us has been acquired by our own diligence and toil; and by driving out humility and simplicity, he inclines us to assign to ourselves great worth and importance and to feel that we are someone significant, covering with oblivion the work of God’s grace, without which no one can even name the name of the Lord, as St. Paul testifies when he says: ”no one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except by the Holy Spirit” (1 Cor. 12:3). This grace is given to all believers, and its presence is the mark that someone is a true believer. Having received it, the believer does not and cannot do anything truly good without its help; and it is always with him according to the Lord’s promise, and the enemy can do nothing against him so long as it is in him and overshadows him. It is precisely this grace that the enemy strives in every way to drive away, and the first thing he does for this purpose is, as said, to suggest self-esteem—the feeling that we are not nothing but something, and something of no small importance. Then, to one who has received such suggestions, the enemy introduces a new opinion, consisting in the conviction that he is better than others, more zealous and richer in deeds. Having succeeded in planting this opinion, the enemy leads him further to the judging and despising of others, which are inseparably followed by pride. All this can take place in the heart in a single instant; of course, however, grace immediately contracts its action, and as a consequence there appears inattentiveness to oneself, a slackening of zeal, the arising of thoughts—first vain, then passionate—then the movement of the passions themselves, with which is inseparably bound the storm in the heart. Interior peace is lost. This is a single-time condition; and if the one who has suffered it comes to his senses, he recollects himself, is contrite, repents, and by prayer restores his accustomed peace. The enemy is repelled, but he does not despair, and again and again he draws near with the same suggestions and with the same aim—to shatter interior peace.

Knowing this, my brother, oppose to the enemy’s assaults this vigilant watchfulness, according to the Lord’s word: ”Watch and pray, that you may not enter into temptation” (Matt. 26:41). Attend to yourself with all diligence, lest the enemy creep in and rob you, depriving you of this great treasure—interior peace and quietness of soul. The enemy attempts to shatter peace of soul because he knows that when the soul is disturbed, it is easier for him to direct it toward something bad; but you guard your peace, knowing that when the soul is at peace, the enemy has no access to it, and then it is ready for every good and performs it willingly and without effort, easily overcoming every obstacle in its way. To make it easier for you to succeed in this, strive to anticipate the enemy’s approaches. The enemy’s approach is the self-reliant thought. Therefore adopt it as a rule that every thought which diminishes in you the conviction that all good is from God, that without the help of His grace you can make no progress in anything, and that you must therefore place all your hope in Him alone—every such thought is to be regarded as plainly belonging to the enemy, and as such to be rejected with anger and pursued until it disappears. The work of the Holy Spirit in us is to raise our souls on every occasion to union with God, kindling most sweet love toward Him, good confidence in Him, and firm hope upon Him; but the contrary of this is the work of the enemy.

He employs every means and device that he can devise to upset the soul, casting excessive fears upon the heart, magnifying the soul’s faintness, not allowing the soul to preserve the proper dispositions and to find its due delight either at confession, or at Holy Communion, or in prayer, but making it go through all these with fearfulness and agitation, without humble boldness and love—he causes the soul to receive the scarcity of religious feelings and the loss of interior sweetness, which often occurs during prayer and other spiritual exercises, with despairing grief, suggesting to it that such scarcity has not been permitted by God for its good but that, therefore, all its works and labors lead to nothing and it would be better to abandon it all—and through this he finally brings it to such great agitation and despair that it truly begins to think that everything it does is useless and fruitless, and that God has altogether forgotten and abandoned it.

But here is a manifest lie. Though the soul may experience dryness and a scarcity of religious feelings and spiritual sweetness, it can, despite this, perform every kind of good work, following simple faith and arming itself with holy patience and constancy. However, so that you may better understand this, and lest it become harmful to you if God in His good pleasure, for your benefit, permits or sends you such a scarcity of spiritual feeling and sweetness, I will set forth in the following chapter what benefits arise from the humble patience shown by one during times of dryness and coldness of heart—so that you may learn not to lose peace of soul and not to be consumed by grief when you must endure this, or experience some other distressing assault of thoughts and passionate impulses.