Confidence.
“Have confidence.” — St. Mark 6:50.
TWENTY-SEVENTH DAY.
This is something to console souls in spiritual dryness, or when tempted. One purpose of not sinning made during that time is of more value in the scales of God than a thousand acts of virtue made with greatest fervor in a time of consolation. — John of Avila.
St. Catharine of Siena, fatigued by horrible temptations, felt herself upon the border of a precipice; she imagined her heart was attached to God by so slight a bond that it was ready to break away entirely. Nevertheless, at that very time she was most pleasing in the eyes of Our Lord.
St. Francis of Sales during a long time suffered violent attacks from a temptation, which made him very unhappy. He wrote to St. Jane Frances as follows: “I am much tempted; I imagine I have not the strength necessary to resist if the occasion presented itself; but the more I feel my feebleness the more my confidence in God increases, being assured that even in the presence of the objects which tempt me God will give me courage to overcome my enemies.”
Prayer.
My God, I will often say, from the bottom of my heart, for all the goods of earth I would not commit the least sin. Death, a thousand deaths, rather than displease Thee.