That we must begin by purifying the soul.
“The flowers,” saith the sacred Bridegroom, “appear in our land; the time of pruning and trimming is come.” What are the flowers of our hearts, O Philothea, but good desires? Now, as soon as they appear, we must lay hand to the pruning-hook, to cut off from our conscience all dead and superfluous works. Under the law of Moses, a foreign girl who desired to marry an Israelite was to lay aside the garment of her captivity, cut her nails, and shave her hair: even so must the soul that aspires to the honour of being the Spouse of the Son of God put off the old man and put on the new, by forsaking sin; then must she cut away from her life all superfluities that turn her aside from the love of God: for the beginning of the health of our soul is to be delivered from the humours of sin. In Saint Paul this was accomplished in an instant and in a perfect manner; and so likewise in Saint Catherine of Genoa, Saint Magdalen, Saint Pelagia, and some others; but this kind of healing is a miraculous and extraordinary cure in the order of grace, as the resurrection of the dead is in the order of nature, so that we ought not to aspire to it. The ordinary healing, whether of bodies or of spirits, is accomplished only little by little, by degrees, with labour and patience. The angels have wings upon Jacob’s ladder, and yet they fly not; but they ascend and descend in order, from step to step. Thus doth our soul pass from sin to devotion; it riseth little by little, like the dawn of day, which dispelleth not the darkness all at once, but slowly and by degrees. This course, moreover, is the surest; for, as the aphorism saith, healing that is wrought gently is ever more certain. And if it be true, dear Philothea, that evil cometh on horseback and at a gallop, and departeth on foot and at a slow pace, then must we needs arm ourselves with strength and patience in undertaking the devout life. Alas! what a pity it is to see souls newly entered upon the path of devotion grow anxious over their faults, be troubled and disheartened, almost to the point of wishing to abandon all and turn back! And, on the other hand, what a dangerous temptation it is for a soul to believe herself cured of her least imperfections from the very first day of her conversion, to regard herself as perfect almost before she is made, and to set about flying without wings! O Philothea, how greatly must we fear relapse, when we would thus escape too soon from the physician’s hands! “Rise not before the light,” saith the Prophet; “rise after having sat down”; and he himself, practising what he teacheth, having been washed and cleansed of his faults, asketh to be cleansed yet more. The exercise of purifying our soul more and more can and must end only with our life; let us not therefore be troubled by our imperfections; for our perfection consisteth in fighting against them, and we could not fight against them without seeing them, nor overcome them without meeting them; and our victory consisteth not in feeling them not, but rather in not consenting to them.
To be troubled by it is not to consent to it. It is necessary, for the exercise of our humility, that we should sometimes be wounded in this spiritual combat. But we are never vanquished unless we lose either life or courage; now, imperfections and venial sins cannot take spiritual life from us, since it is lost only through mortal sin; it remains, therefore, only that they should not make us lose courage. Deliver me, O Lord, said David, from discouragement and cowardice; let us say the same, and count ourselves most fortunate in this war, since the only condition we must fulfil to be always victorious is to be always willing to fight.