On the Means of Effecting This Second Renunciation.
To this end, we must form a vivid and strong conception of all the evil that sin brings upon us, and thus enter into deep feelings of contrition. For if contrition, however weak it may be, provided it be true, suffices to purify us from sin, especially when joined to the virtue of the Sacraments, when it is great and vehement, it goes so far as to free the heart from all affections that depend upon sin. Observe this: a mere dislike gives us an aversion for a person who displeases us, and makes us shun his company; but if it be a deadly and violent hatred, not only do we flee from and detest the person who is its object, but we can endure neither his relations nor his friends, nor the sight of his portrait, nor anything that belongs to him. In like manner, when the penitent hates sin only with a weak and slight contrition, though a true one, he resolves merely to sin no more; whereas, if he feels a strong and deep contrition, he detests both sin and all that depends upon it, and all that leads to it. We must therefore, Philothea, enlarge our contrition as much as we can, so that it may extend even to the smallest circumstances of sin. Thus converted Magdalen so utterly lost all taste for her sins that she never thought of them again; thus David declared that he hated not only sin, but also the ways and paths that lead to it; and this is precisely what constitutes the renewal of the soul, which the same prophet compares to the renewing of the eagle.
To this end, we must form a vivid and strong conception of all the evil that sin brings upon us, and thus enter into deep feelings of contrition. For if contrition, however weak it may be, provided it be true, suffices to purify us from sin, especially when joined to the virtue of the Sacraments, when it is great and vehement, it goes so far as to free the heart from all affections that depend upon sin. Observe this: a mere dislike gives us an aversion for a person who displeases us, and makes us shun his company; but if it be a deadly and violent hatred, not only do we flee from and detest the person who is its object, but we can endure neither his relations nor his friends, nor the sight of his portrait, nor anything that belongs to him. In like manner, when the penitent hates sin only with a weak and slight contrition, though a true one, he resolves merely to sin no more; whereas, if he feels a strong and deep contrition, he detests both sin and all that depends upon it, and all that leads to it. We must therefore, Philothea, enlarge our contrition as much as we can, so that it may extend even to the smallest circumstances of sin. Thus converted Magdalen so utterly lost all taste for her sins that she never thought of them again; thus David declared that he hated not only sin, but also the ways and paths that lead to it; and this is precisely what constitutes the renewal of the soul, which the same prophet compares to the renewing of the eagle.
Now, in order to attain this lively contrition, you must diligently exercise yourself in the following meditations, which are most apt, by the grace of God, to root sin and the chief affections of sin out of your heart; for this very purpose have I composed them. You shall make them one after another, in the order I have set down, taking only one for each day, and applying yourself to it in the morning, as far as possible, because that is the most favourable time for the functions of the mind. Afterward, you shall go over in yourself as much of it as you can during the day; but if your mind is not yet accustomed to meditation, see what is said on this subject in the second part of this work.