The Troubled Soul Must at Once Restore Interior Peace

Every time you fall into some pardonable fault—even if it happens a thousand times a day—as soon as you notice it, do not torment yourself or waste time in vain, but at once humble yourself; and, acknowledging your weakness, turn with hope to God and cry out to Him from the depth of your heart: “Lord, my God! I have done this because I am such a one that nothing else can be expected from me except such faults, or something even greater, if Your grace does not help me, when I am left to myself alone. I am contrite over what I have done, chiefly because I do not answer Your care for me with uprightness of life, but fall and fall again. Forgive me and give me the strength not to offend You again and not to depart from Your will in anything. For I earnestly desire to serve You and to please You and to be obedient to You in all things.” Having done this, do not torment yourself wondering whether God has forgiven you. The Lord is near and heeds the sighs of His servants. Be at peace, then, in this assurance; and, being at peace, continue your accustomed occupations as though nothing had happened to you.

This is not something you must do only once, but if need be—a hundred times and each minute, and the last time with the same perfect hope and boldness toward God as the first. Acting in this way, you will render great honor to the boundless goodness of God, whom you must always contemplate as being boundlessly merciful toward us. As a result, you will unceasingly make progress in your life and keep moving forward, wasting neither time nor effort in vain.

You can also guard your interior peace when you fall into the failings mentioned above by doing the following: together with the interior act of acknowledging your wretchedness and humbling yourself before God, also rouse yourself to a warm remembrance of the great mercies that God has shown personally to you, and thereby, having revived your love toward Him, dispose yourself to thanksgiving and glorification of Him—and with your very actions give Him warm thanks and praise from the depths of your soul. Since thanksgiving and glorification of God is the highest expression of our living union with God, the fruit of your fall—if you relate to it wisely—will be, with God’s help, a greater elevation toward Him. This ought to be taken into account by those who are too agitated and tormented over small faults, so that they may see how great is their blindness in this case and how they harm themselves through their lack of discernment. It is chiefly for them that we make this final observation, which places in our hands a key by which the soul opens a great spiritual treasury and in a short time can become enriched by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ—to whom belong all glory, honor, and worship with His Eternal Father and the Holy Spirit, now and unto the ages of ages.

“Amen.”