Page:Spiritualcombat.djvu/137

122 tations and prayers on the Life and Passion of Christ (so needful in every spiritual exercise), be all applied principally to the virtue which we have made it our task to practise.

Let the same be done on all occasions (as we shall presently explain more particularly), however different they may be from one another.

Let us take pains to accustom ourselves to interior and exterior acts of virtue, that we may be enabled to perform them with the same facility and readiness, as we did those which accorded with our natural will. And (as we have said elsewhere) the more these acts are contrary to the natural will, the more quickly will they produce the good habit in the soul.

The sacred words of the Divine Scriptures, uttered by the voice, or at least with the mind, and selected according to the occasion, have a wonderful power to aid us in this exercise.

We ought therefore to keep such texts in readiness as bear upon the virtue we are practising, and let them be repeated during the day, especially whenever the opposite passion begins to assert itself.

Thus, for example, if we are trying to gain patience, we can use the following words, or others like them:—

"My children, suffer patiently the wrath that is come upon you from God." Baruch x. 25.