b) That we seek it from God, Who, as the Omniscient and All-Wise, knows everything in the most perfect way, and consequently fully knows what is more suitable for the salvation of each of us.

c) That we seek such help from God, Who, as the Infinitely Good, with ineffable love, stands before us, always preferably ready from hour to hour and from minute to minute to give us all the help we need to gain complete victory in the spiritual battle that is active in us, as soon as we flow into His arms with firm hope.

And how is it possible that this good Shepherd of ours, Who walked three years seeking the lost sheep, with such a strong voice that His throat was parched, and walked paths so difficult and thorny that He shed His whole blood and gave His life, how, I say, is it possible that now, when this sheep follows Him, He turns to Him with love, and calls upon Him with hope, did He not turn His eyes upon him, did not take him to His divine shoulders, and, having brought him into the assembly of the angels of heaven, did not arrange with them a festive celebration on this occasion? If our God does not cease to seek with great diligence and love in order to find, like the drachma of the Gospel, a blind and deaf sinner, how is it possible to allow Him to abandon him now, when he, like a lost sheep, cries out and calls for his Shepherd? And who will ever believe that God, Who constantly pushes into the heart of man, desiring to enter within and sup with him, according to the word of the Apocalypse (cf. Rev. 3:20), communicating His gifts to him, who will believe that this same God, when man opens his heart to Him and calls upon Him, remains deaf and does not wish to enter into it?

d) The fourth, and finally, way to revive firm hope in God and to attract His prompt help is to review in memory all the experiences of quick help from God depicted in the Divine Scriptures. These experiments, so numerous, most clearly show us that no one who trusted in God has ever been left ashamed and helpless. Behold the ancient generations, cries the all-wise Sirach, and see who believes in the Lord and is ashamed (Sir. 2:10).

Having put on such four weapons, my brother, bravely go forth to the work of battle and conduct it cheerfully, in full confidence that you will be given the victory. For by them you will certainly gain complete hope in God, and such hope will unceasingly attract God's help to you and endow you with all-conquering power. The same and the other will finally deeply root in you a complete lack of confidence in yourself. I do not miss the opportunity to remind you of this lack of self-reliance in this chapter, because I do not know to whom it would not ever be necessary to remind you of it. This self-esteem is so deeply rooted in us and so firmly attached to us, as if we were something, and something not small, that it always lives secretly in our hearts, as a kind of subtle and imperceptible movement, even when we are sure that we have no hope in ourselves, but, on the contrary, are filled with complete hope in the one God. In order to avoid such heartfelt conceit as much as you can, and to act without any self-conceit, but with a single hope in God, each time tune in such a way that your consciousness and sense of your weakness precedes the contemplation of God's omnipotence, and both precede each of your actions.

How can you find out if you are not relying on yourself and

It often happens that some presumptuous people think that they have no hope in themselves, but put all their hope in God and rest in Him alone with their confidence. In fact, it doesn't happen like that. They can see this for themselves, judging by what happens to them and to them after they happen to fall somehow. If they, grieving over the fall, reproaching and reproaching themselves for it, at the same time plot: I will do this and that, the consequences of the fall will be erased, and everything will go well for me again, then this is a sure sign that even before their fall they trusted in themselves, and not in God. And the darker and more joyless their sorrow, the more accusatory it is that they have put too much trust in themselves and very little in God: for this reason their sorrow of fall is not dissolved by any consolation. Whoever does not rely on himself, but trusts in God, when he falls, is not too much amazed at this, and is not overwhelmed by excessive sorrow, for he knows that this has happened to him, of course, because of his weakness, but even more so because of the weakness of his hope in God. Why, as a result of his fall, he increases his lack of confidence in himself, and even more strives to increase and deepen his humble hope in God, and then, hating the obscene passions that were the cause of his fall, calmly and peacefully bears his penitential labors for offending God, and, armed with strong hope in God, with the greatest courage and determination, he persecutes his enemies even unto death.

Concerning what has been said before this, I would like some persons who think of themselves that they are virtuous and spiritual, who, when they fall into any sin, are tormented and languishing, and find no rest for themselves, and, already exhausted by this sorrow and anguish, which arise from nothing else but self-love, flee again from the same urge of self-love to their spiritual father, to be freed from such a burden. And they should have done this immediately after the fall, and they should have done it for nothing else than to quickly wash away the filth of sin that had offended God, and to receive a new power against themselves, in the most holy Sacrament of Repentance and Confession.

On the fallibility of the opinion of those who

At the same time, those sin who consider excessive sorrow to be a virtue, which befalls them after committing a sin, not understanding that this comes from pride and self-conceit, which are affirmed by the fact that they rely too much on themselves and on their strength. For, thinking of themselves that they are not a small thing, they have taken upon themselves a great deal, hoping to cope with it themselves. Seeing now from the experience of their fall that there is no power in them, they are amazed, as if they meet something unexpected, they are troubled and faint-hearted, for they see fallen and prostrate on the ground the very image, i.e. themselves, on which they have placed all their hopes and hopes. But this does not happen to the humble, who trusts in the One God, not expecting anything decisively good from himself. For this reason, even when he falls into any sin, although he feels the burden of it and grieves, he is not troubled or shaken by perplexity, for he knows that it has happened to him because of his own impotence, the experience of which in the fall is not unexpected news to him.

Some Knowledges That Serve to Outline

limit and space of self-doubt and complete

Hope in GodSince all the power by which our enemies are conquered is generated in us from disbelief in ourselves and hope in God, then it behooves you, my brother, to store up accurate knowledge regarding this, so that, with God's help, you may always carry and preserve such strength within yourself. Know firmly that neither all the abilities and good qualities, whether natural or acquired, nor all the gifts freely given, nor the knowledge of all the Scriptures, nor the fact that we have worked for God for a long time and acquired the skill in this work for Him, nor all this together will allow us to faithfully fulfill the will of God, if in every God-pleasing, good deed, which we are to accomplish, in every misfortune that we seek to avoid, in every cross that we must bear according to the will of our God, unless, I say, in all such and similar cases, God's special help will inspire our hearts and give us the strength to do what is worthy, as the Lord said: "Without Me you can do nothing" (John 15:15). 5); so that all our lives, all our days and all our minutes, we must urgently keep unchanged in our hearts such a feeling, conviction and mood that it is not permissible for us to rely and rely on ourselves for any reason, for any thought.

As for the hope in God, to what I have already said in the third chapter, add the following: Know that there is nothing easier and more convenient for God than to make you overcome your enemies, whether they are few or many, whether they are old and strong, or whether they are new and weak. However, He has its own time and order for everything. Therefore, let any soul be excessively burdened with sins, let it be guilty of all the transgressions of the world, let it be defiled as anyone can imagine, and let it, moreover, as much as it wanted and as much as it could, use every means and every podvig to abandon sin and turn to the path of good, but could not establish itself in anything worthy, even the smallest, but, on the contrary, she plunged even deeper into evil – let her be like that; for all this, however, it must by no means weaken in its hope in God and depart from Him, it must not abandon either its weapons or its spiritual feats, but must struggle and struggle with itself and with its enemies, with all courage and tirelessness. For knowing this, know that in this invisible battle only he does not lose who does not cease to struggle and trust in God, Whose help never departs from those who fight in His armies, although sometimes He allows them to receive wounds. Therefore fight each one without yielding, for in this unrelenting struggle is the whole point. And God is always ready to heal those who are afflicted by their enemies, and to help them to defeat them, which in due time He gives to His fighters, who seek Him and have firm hope in Him; in the hour when they do not expect, they will see how their proud enemies are vanishing, as it is written: "The strength of Babylonia is lacking" (Jeremiah 51:30). CHAPTER SEVEN.