I. We must now think of and interpret these words

as applying to sublime matters, since we are here praying
for such graces. I feel convinced that souls which have
arrived at this degree of perfection in prayer do not
ask God to deliver them from trials or temptations,
nor from persecutions and combats.^ This is another
unmistakable and noteworthy effect, showing that the
contemplation and favours given such people come from
the Holy Ghost and are not illusions, for, as I said just
now, these souls wish for and demand such troubles
and love them instead of hating them. They are like
soldiers — the more they fight, the better they like it,

1 Valladolid edition, ch. xl. ; Escorial, ch. Ixvi.

2 Castle, M. vi. ch. iv. 19 ; M. vii. ch. iii. 4. Excl. xiv. 3.
Life, ch. xl. 27.

CHAP. XXXVIII.] TEMPTATION. 257

for thus they hope for a richer booty. When there is
no war they serve for their pay, but they know they
will not grow rich on that. Believe me, sisters, the
battle never comes soon enough for the soldiers of Christ.
I allude to contemplatives, and people who practise
prayer. They have little fear of open enemies, knowing
them well already, and they are aware that such foes
have little power against the strength given them by
God, through which they always gain the victory and
come forth from the fray with great spoils and riches,
so that they never beat a retreat. The foes they really
dread — and it is well that they should dread them and
should always pray God that they may be delivered
from them — are those treacherous antagonists, the
devils, who transform themselves into angels of light.
They come in disguise and do not let us find them out,
until they have wrought great harm to the soul. They
suck our very life-blood and destroy our virtues, whilst
we, unwittingly, are surrounded by temptations.

2. Let us constantly beg of God, daughters, in the
Pater Noster, to deliver us, that we may not be deluded
by their temptations, but that we may detect their
poison and that light may not be withdrawn from us.
What good cause has our kind Master to teach us to
ask for this and to demand it Himself on our behalf !
Consider in how many ways the evil spirits injure us.
You must not suppose that it is only by persuading us

17

258 THE WAY OF PERFECTION. [CHAP. XXXVIII.

that the sweetness and consolations they give us come
from God.® This seems to me the least harm they can
do : it may even help some souls who, lured by the
devotion they feel, will spend more time in prayer. Not
knowing that the devil has a hand in it, they continually
praise our Lord for having granted them favours which
they did not deserve ; they feel bound to serve Him
more fervently, and strive to prepare themselves to
receive still further graces, supposing that these have
come from His hand.

3. Always try to be humble, sisters ; believe that you
are unworthy of these gifts and do not seek them. I
am convinced that in this way the evil one loses many
a soul which he thought to have ruined, and that our
Lord draws good out of the harm the fiend meant to work
us, for His Majesty looks at our intention, which is to
serve and please Him by keeping in His presence in
prayer, and He is ever faithful. But we must be
cautious, lest the enemy make a breach in our humility
by vainglory : and we must beg God to preserve us
from this. You need not fear, daughters, that He will
let any one else console you much, except Himself.

4. The evil one may secretly injure us seriously by
making us believe that we have virtues which we do not
possess — this is most pestilent.^ In consolations and

^ Castle, M. v. ch. iv. 7. Life, ch. xv. 15, 16.

^ Castle, M. v. ch. iii. 9, 10.

CHAP. XXXVIII.] FALLACIOUS VlRTUFS.

259

favours we seem only recipients, and therefore feel the
more strictly bound to serve God ; but this delusion
makes us think that we render Him some gift and ser-
vice, which He is called upon to repay. By degrees,
this damages us greatly, for while on the one hand it
weakens our humility, on the other, we neglect to acquire
the virtue we believe that we already own. Suspecting no
evil (for we think we are safe), we fall into a ditch from
which we cannot get out. For although there does not
always appear to have been any mortal sin which would
certainly drag us to hell, yet we are lamed, so that we
cannot travel on the road I began to speak of (and
which I have not forgotten). For how can any one
walk after being plunged into a deep ditch ? it would
be the death of him — and it is fortunate if it does
not reach down to hell. In any case, it never aids
one on the way.

5. A person in this state can do nothing but mischief
to himself or to anybody else. When the ditch has been
dug, many passers-by may fall into it, but if the man
had climbed out and filled it up with earth, it could
cause no more harm either to himself or to other people.
I assure you, this is a very dangerous temptation : I
have had great experience of it, so that I can explain
the matter, although not as well as I could wish. What
remedy is there for it, sisters ? That which our Master
has taught us seems to me the best — to pray and to

26o the way of perfection, [chap, xxxvin.

beseech the eternal Father not to suffer us to fall into
temptation.

6. There is another temptation. When God gives us
some virtue, we must understand that it is only a loan,
and that He may take it away again, as indeed often
happens, not without a wise providence. Have you
never found this out yourselves, sisters ? I certainly
have. Sometimes I fancy that I am very detached,
as I really am, when it comes to the trial. Yet, at
another time I discover that I am so attached to things
which I should perhaps have laughed at the day
before, that I hardly know myself. Again, I feel such
courage that there is nothing I should fear to do in
God’s service, and I find, when it comes to the proof,
that I am brave as regards some matters — yet, next day,
I should not venture to kill an ant for Him if I met
with any opposition. Sometimes I care nothing if people
talk or complain of me, and very often, indeed, it has
even given me pleasure. Yet there are occasions when
a single word disturbs me, and I long to leave this world,
for everything in it disgusts me. I am not the only
person to whom this happens, for I have noticed it in
people better than myself, and I know that it is a
fact.

7. If this be the case, who can say that he possesses
any virtue, or that he is rich, when at the time he
most needs these goods, he finds himself destitute of

CHAP. XXXVIII.] FICTITIOUS PATIENCE. 261

them ? No, sisters ; let us think we are poor, and not
run into debts which we have no money to pay. Our
wealth must come from elsewhere, and we never know
when our Lord will leave us, without any aid from Him,
in the prison of the miseries of human nature. If others
think we are good because He shows us mercy or honour,
they will find our virtues are only lent us, and they
will look as foolish as we shall. The truth is, that if
we serve God with a lowly heart. He will succour us
at length in our needs. But if we are not really
humble, He will let us slip at every step,® as they
say, and He thus shows great kindness, for He does
so to make us value His grace and thoroughly to
realise that we possess nothing which we have not
received.

8. Now, let me counsel you upon another point. The
devil makes us believe that we own some virtue — patience,
for instance — because we make frequent resolutions and
acts of suffering for God. It seems to us that we really
should endure trials for Him : Satan helps to con-
vince us of it, and so we are very much pleased with
ourselves. Yet I advise you to place no faith in such
virtues : we ought never to think we know more than
the name of a virtue, or imagine that God has bestowed
it on us until it has been put to the test. For, perhaps,
at the first word that annoys you, your patience will
® Castle, M. iii. ch. ii. 2, 3.

262 THE WAY OF PERFECTION. [CHAP. XXXVIII.

collapse. Praise God when you have much to try you,
for He is beginning to teach you patience : force your-
selves to be meek, for He thus gives you a sign that
He wishes to be repaid for His gift, which must be
looked upon as a loan, as I said.

9. Again, the evil one makes us fancy that we are
very poor in spirit — and he has some reason for this,
because we have made a vow of poverty with our lips,
as is even done by some people in the world who
practise prayer. I say, “ with our lips,” for if we really
understood, in the depths of our hearts, what we promise
and have even already vowed, the devil could not deceive
us about it as he does — perhaps for twenty years, or
perhaps for a whole life-time — but we should discover
how we are imposing upon every one else as well as
ourselves. We are in the habit of saying that we want
nothing and do not care for anything, yet directly some-
thing is offered us, even though it is superfluous, our
poverty of spirit disappears — and much good do our
professions of poverty seem to have done us ! A person
who has taken this vow and who thinks that she really
is poor in spirit, says to herself : ” I do not want any-
thing, but I keep this because I cannot do without it ;
we must live, in order to serve God, and He wishes us
to maintain our bodies.” The demon, disguised as an
angel of light, persuades her that she needs a thou-
sand other things, for all this, is right in itself. Thus

CHAP. XXXVIII.] POVERTY OF SPIRIT. 263

he leads her to imagine that she possesses the virtue of
poverty of spirit, and that everything is accomplished.

10. Let us now come to the time of trial — for we can
only test ourselves by watching our actions narrowly —
and we shall soon detect signs of the devil’s deceptions.
For instance, let us suppose that a man possesses a larger
income than he needs — I mean, than is really necessary
for him, and he keeps three valets when he could manage
with one. When he is sued for some part of his estate,
or one of his poor tenants does not pay his rent, this
person is as disturbed and worried about it as if his
living depended on it.® He will tell you that he cannot
lose his propert}^ through neglecting it, and at once
pleads this excuse. I do not say that he should neglect
his business — on the contrary, he ought to attend to
it ; then, if it succeeds, very well ; if not, never mind !
One who is poor at heart cares so little for such affairs
that though, for certain reasons, he attends to them, yet
they give him no trouble because he never thinks he will
come to want — if he should, it would not grieve him,
because he considers such things secondary matters, and
not the main point. His thoughts are fixed on higher
objects, and he only constrains himself to attend to
temporal cares against his will.^

® Concep. ch. ii. ii, 12. Casile, M. iii. ch. ii. 4, 5. Letter to
Don Lorenzo de Cepeda of Jan. 2, 1577. Life, ch. xi. 3.

’ Escorial edition, ch. Ixvii. Continues the same subject.
A caution about false humility produced by the devil,

264 THE WAY OF PERFECTION. [CHAP. XXXVIII.

11. A monk (or a nun) who is really poor, or at least,
who ought to be, possesses nothing, sometimes because
there is nothing to possess ; but if anything is offered this
religious as a gift, it would be strange if he thought it
superfluous, for he always likes to keep something in
reserve. If he can have a habit of fine material, he does
not ask for a coarse one. He always has some little
thing that he can pawn or sell, if only a few books,® for
if he fell ill, he would want better food than usual. What
a stupid creature ! Is this the vow you made to forget
yourself and to leave everything to God, whatever might
happen ? If you are to provide for the future, it would
harass you far less to hold a settled income. Though
this may be done without sin, yet it is well for us to
recognise these imperfections, that we may see how far
short we are of possessing poverty of spirit and that we
may ask our Lord to give it us. If we think we have
this virtue, we shall grow careless, and, worse still, wo
shall be deceived on the point.

12. The same sort of thing happens as regards humility.
We fancy we do not wish for honour and that we are

® This was written before the stringent reforms of the Council
of Trent were introduced in the Spanish provinces of the Car-
melite Order (1567). The old Constitutions, dating back to
the beginning of the fourteenth century, allowed, for instance,
a scholar at an university, in case of urgent need, to sell his books
— of greater value then than now — in order to provide for himself.
B. Zimmerman, Monumenta historica Carmelitana, vol. i. p. 149
(Lerins, 1907).

CHAP. XXXVIII.] PRECAUTIONS. 265

indifferent to everything of the kind — yet, let any one
offer us the slightest affront, and our feelings and be-
haviour will at once betray that we are not humble.®
Besides, if any opportunity occurs of augmenting our
dignity (like the poor religious I have just spoken of),
for the sake of a greater good we do not reject it. And
God grant that we may not seek such honour ! We are
so accustomed to saying that we want nothing and are
indifferent to everything (which we really believe is the
truth), that at last the very habit of asserting it con-
vinces us of its truth more strongly. It is well to be
on our guard against this temptation as well as the
others I mentioned. Indeed, there are many we must
be watchful about if we wish to detect them, for when
God gives us any solid virtue, it is a well-known fact
that it brings all the others in its train. But I warn
you again always to fear deception even when you
believe that you possess siich virtue. A truly humble
soul mistrusts its own good qualities : it believes in them
more readily and values them more highly when it finds
them in another.

^ Castle, M. iii. ch. ii. 6.

266

THE WAY OF PERFECTION. [CHAP. XXXIX.