Chapter 59
Remedies for Tepidity
Christ:
My child, it is sad for Me to see men living disorderly lives. I made them for eternal glory. Little do they realize how harmful it is to neglect their duties, or to perform them carelessly. Pay attention to your purpose in life, and keep before your mind the image of the crucified Kimg. Consider My earthly life, and blush if you are not doing your best to imitate Me.
2. Your loyalty and progress in serving Me ought to improve each day. Nowadays it is considered a great thing if one can just hold on to some of his original enthusiasm. A person is considered great if he merely avoids evil, or if he can be patient enough to endure life's daily burdens. Greatness lies not merely in avoiding evil, but especially doing good.
3. It grieves Me to see how half-hearted and negligent so many people are. How quickly they lose their devotion and grow tired of the higher life because of laziness and spiritual tepidity. May your desire to progress in virtue grow greater each day. Study the holy examples of My saints and learn to appreciate their continual loyalty to Me.
Think:
If I thought more often of death than of a long life, I would be far more eager to advance in virtue. Occasional thinking about the reality of hell and purgatory will help me to bear the labors, sorrows,
and hardships of daily life. No longer would I love flattery and praise, nor would I be so lazy and half-hearted in serving Christ, my King. I ought to think often about His life and make it the model of my own daily life.
Pray: my Saviour, each hour of the day is an important part of my daily life. Whether I am at work, or play, or rest, I can do these things in a holy way. Each hour brings it's chance for patience, kindness, unselfishness, and other virtues. If I am half hearted, I will not make the effort needed for acting as God desires. I can cure this disease by spiritual guidance, variety in prayer, meditations on Your life and Sacraments. My Jesus, government he grace to do whatever I need to avoid tepidity in my daily life. Amen.
Chapter 20
How to Combat Sloth
It is of great importance to make war against sloth. This place is not only an obstacle on her way to perfection but it delivers us to the enemies of our salvation. If you desire to fight this vice in earnest, begin by avoiding all curiosities in vain amusements. Withdrawal your infections from worldly things and stop pursues that are not in harmony with your state.
Strive assiduously to comply with the inspirations of heaven, to execute the orders of your superiors, to do everything at the proper time in the proper manner. Do not hesitate a moment in the execution of a command. The first delay brings on a second, this is a third, and thus we lose ground. For the dread of labor and the love of ease increase in proportion to their indulgence. Labor becomes so distasteful that a lethargic hesitancy in applying oneself to work, or even the total neglect of work, is the result.
It is difficult to shake off the habit of sloth, once it is acquired, unless shame accompanies this
indolent life and rouses us to greater diligence and application. Sloth, moreover, is a poison that spreads itself through all the faculties of the soul. It not only infects the will by making work odious to it, but also the understanding by so blinding that the resolution of the slothful usually have no effect. What should be done without delay is either neglected for deferred to some other time.
Mere swiftness of action, however, is not enough. Things must be done at the proper time, and in the most perfect manner possible. A precipitous act, which is done with no regard for its proper execution, but only to be rid of the trouble and to enjoy peace again as soon as possible, cannot be called diligent. It is rather an artful, refined slots.
You may, at first, find your strength insufficient to undergo all the difficulties and troubles that you encounter on your road to perfection. Then you must acquire the habit of hiding them from yourself. They will appear more insignificant than the slothful are apt to imagine them to be.
When an act must be repeated many times in order to acquire some particular virtue, in this has to be continued for several days in opposition to the countless powerful enemies, begin to do these acts as though if you would suffice in your trouble would soon end. Attack one enemy at a time, as though you had but one to encounter. Be confident that, with God's grace, you will master them all. In this way you will overcome your sloth and acquire the contrary virtue.
Use the same method in regard to prayer. If you are to pray for an hour, and the time seems long, begin as though you were to play a quarter of an hour. When that is finished, propose another quarter hour, and the hour will elapse imperceptibly. If, however, during this you experience a great repugnance and aversion to prayer, cease praying for a while. Any short time return again to the prayers that you had interrupted.
This is also true in regard to manual labor. If you feel that you're overwhelmed by the amount of work before you buy the difficulties involved, do not permit indolence to discourage. Begin with what demands your immediate attention and do not think of the rest....
... Guard yourself, pray, and do good. Do not defer making your wedding garment until you are called upon to go forth and meet the heavenly bridegroom.
Reflect every day on the fact that He Who ask granted you the morning has not promised the evening, and should He grant this, He gives no assurance of the following morning. Spend each day therefore, as if it were the last; cherish nothing but the will of God, for you will have to render a strict account for every moment.
Good stuff. God bless.
