Lorenzo Scupoli Quotes

Consider that fact that, being nothing in ourselves, we cannot, without divine assistance, accomplish the smallest good or advance the smallest step toward Heaven.

Fight, therefore, with great determination. Do not let the weakness of your nature be an excuse. If your strength fails you, ask more from God. He will not refuse your request. Consider this—if the fury of your enemies is great, and their numbers overwhelming, the love which God holds for you is infinitely greater. The Angel who protects you and the Saints who intercede for you are more numerous.

nothing can be more noble or approach the Divine nature more closely than to forgive those who injure us, and to return good for evil.

humbling ourselves not only before Him, but, for His sake, before all men, in renouncing entirely our own will in order to follow His.

But how can it be that our good Shepherd, Who for three years sought the sheep which had wandered amiss, crying out so loudly that His throat was parched, and following roads so worn and full of thorns that He shed every drop of His blood and delivered His very life. How can it be, I say again, that now, if His sheep should follow after him, turning to Him with love and calling out to Him for help with hope, He would decline to cast His eyes on the sheep that had gone astray. How could He not take it into His divine embrace and, put it among the angels of heaven, and prepare a welcoming banquet for it?

nor do they know how to love their enemies as the instruments used by God’s goodness to train them to self-denial and to help not only in their future salvation, but in a greater sanctification of their daily life.

All earthly things, except those absolutely necessary, must die through our complete disregard for them, even though they are not wrong in themselves. We must control our minds and not permit them to wander aimlessly about. Our minds must become insensible to mundane projects, to gossip, to the feverish search for news.

Reflect every day on the fact that He Who has 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.

Our greatest ambition must be to see the crucified Christ always before us, His life and death, what efforts He demands of us. Seek nothing beyond this. It will please the Divine Master. His real friends ask only for those things that will enable them to fulfill His commissions. Any other desire, any other quest, is but self-love, spiritual pride, an encirclement by the devil.

Finally, I advise you to consider that day as lost, in which (though you may have transacted much business in it) you have neither gained a victory over some sinful inclination, or form of self-will, nor thanked the Lord for all His benefits, and above all for His Sorrowful Passion endured for you, and for His Fatherly and sweet chastisements, when He has made you worthy to receive from Him the inestimable treasure of some trial.

Here we discover a great error, and one so much the more injurious as it is the less guarded against. Many who aspire to the spiritual life, being rather lovers of themselves than of that which is needful (although indeed they know it not), select for the most part those practices which accord with their own taste, and neglect others which touch to the quick their natural inclinations and sensual appetites, to overcome which all reason demands that they should put forth their full strength. Therefore, beloved, I advise and entreat you to cherish a love for that which is painful and difficult, for such things will bring you victory over self—on this all depends.

before attempting to perform any good action, or to encounter some failing, we should look at our own weakness on the one hand, and on the other contemplate the infinite power, wisdom, and goodness of God. Balancing what we fear from ourselves with what we hope from God, we shall courageously undergo the greatest difficulties and severest trials.

IN ORDER TO INCLINE our will to fulfill exactly the will of God and to promote His glory, let us remember that He has set the example by loving and honoring us in a thousand different ways. He created us out of nothing, after His own likeness, and He subordinated all other things to our use. In our redemption He passed by the most brilliant Angel to choose His only Son, Who paid the price of the world, not with perishable gold or silver, but with His sacred blood in a death as cruel as it was wretched. He continually guards us from the fury of our enemies, He fights for us with His grace, and, to nourish and strengthen us, He is always ready to feed us with the Precious Body of His Son in the Sacrament of the Altar. Do not these constitute convincing proofs of God’s tremendous love for us? Who can understand the immensity of His love for such wretched creatures? What should be our gratitude towards so generous a benefactor! If the great men of the world think they are obliged to do something in return for the respect paid them, even by those inferior as to position and wealth, what return ought not the very worms of the earth make when honored with such remarkable love and esteem by the sovereign Lord of the Universe? In particular, we must never forget that His majesty is infinitely worthy of our service, a service motivated by a single principle of love, whose only object is His will and desire.

In his classic work, The Spiritual Combat, Dom Lorenzo Scupoli wrote: “This war is unavoidable, and you must either fight or die. The obstinacy of your enemies is so fierce that peace and arbitration with them is utterly impossible.

Quare tristis es, anima mea, et quare conturbas me?

Proebe, fui mi, cor tuum mihi: Dame, hijo mío, tu corazón (Pr. XXIII, 26).

The cunning and malicious serpent fails not to tempt us by his artifices even by means of the very virtues we have acquired, that, leading us to regard them and ourselves with complacency, they may become our ruin; exalting us on high, that we may fall into the sin of pride and vainglory. To preserve yourself from this danger, choose for your battlefield the safe and level ground of a true and deep conviction of your own nothingness, that you are nothing, that you know nothing, that you can do nothing [without God].

God, when we had no being, created us out of nothing; and now that through Him we have a being, He wills that the whole spiritual fabric should be based on this foundation, namely, the knowledge of our own nothingness. And the deeper this knowledge becomes, the higher will the building rise. And according as we dig out the earth of our own wretchedness, so much the more will the Divine Architect bring the most solid stones to advance the building.

The second is a persistent application to the serious and diligent examination of every object in order to distinguish the good from the evil.

retreat in order to charge with greater strength, and to kill the enemy with one fatal blow! This teaches you to withdraw frequently into yourself. Recall your insignificance, your inability to accomplish anything. You will then place great confidence in the almighty power of God, so that you will be able, through His grace, to attack and conquer the passions that oppose you. Here you must implore: “My Lord, My God! Jesus! Mary! Do not abandon your soldier! Do not permit me to be conquered by this temptation!” Whenever the enemy gives you a breathing spell, call up your understanding to reinforce your will. Strengthen it with motives that will raise its courage and give it new life for the fight. For example, if you are unjustly accused or harmed in some other way, and, in desperation, are tempted to lose all patience, try to check yourself by reflecting on these points: 1. Consider whether you might not deserve the unpleasantness you are undergoing, and whether you have not brought it upon yourself. If you are in any way to blame, it is proper that you patiently endure the agony of the wound which you yourself have occasioned. 2. However, if you are not guilty on this score, glance back at some past offenses for which divine justice has not yet inflicted a punishment, and for which you have not sufficiently expiated by a voluntary penance. When you see that God, in His infinite mercy, instead of a long punishment in purgatory, or even an eternal one in hell, has decreed but an easy and momentary one in this life, accept it, not merely with resignation, but with joyous thanksgiving.

It actually consists in knowing the infinite greatness and goodness of God, together with a true sense of our own weakness and tendency to evil, in loving God and hating ourselves, in humbling ourselves not only before Him, but, for His sake, before all men, in renouncing entirely our own will in order to follow His. It consists, finally, in doing all of this solely for the glory of His holy name, for only one purpose—to please Him, for only one motive—that He should be loved and served by all His creatures. These are the dictates of that law of love which the Holy Ghost has written on the hearts of the faithful. This is the way we must practice that self-denial so earnestly recommended by our Saviour in the Gospel.

The primary means is prayer, by which is sought the light of the Holy Spirit, Who never rejects those who earnestly seek God, who delight in obeying His law, and who, in all decisions, submit their own judgment to that of their superiors.

First. We must meditate upon our own weakness. Consider that fact that, being nothing in ourselves, we cannot, without divine assistance, accomplish the smallest good or advance the smallest step towards Heaven. Second. We must beg of God, with great humility and fervor, this eminent virtue which must come from Him alone.

begin by providing yourself with four weapons without which it is impossible to gain the victory in this spiritual combat. These four things are: distrust of one’s self, confidence in God, proper use of the faculties of body and mind, and the duty of prayer.

Our greatest ambition must be to see the crucified Christ always before us, His life and death, what efforts He demands of us.

You clearly and distinctly see, then, from what I have said, that the essence of the spiritual life does not lie in any of those things to which I have alluded. It consists in nothing else but the knowledge of the Divine Goodness and Greatness, of our own nothingness, and proneness to all evil; in the love of God and the hatred of self; in entire subjection not only to God Himself, but for the love of Him, to all creatures; in giving up our own will, and in completely resigning ourselves to the Divine Pleasure; moreover, in willing and doing all this with no other wish or aim than the glory and honor of God, the fulfillment of His Will because it is His Will, and because He deserves to be served and loved.

El hombre paciente es mejor que el fuerte y valeroso; y el que sabe dominarse a sí mismo vale más que un conquistador de ciudades.

te advierto que tengas un espíritu enteramente ocupado en tus propias miserias; porque hallarás tantas cosas que corregir y reformar dentro de ti misma, que no tendrás tiempo ni gusto para pensar en las de tu prójimo, o no pensarás en ellas sino movida de una santa y discreta caridad.

pero en el camino espiritual, si se detiene y para, aunque sea por poco tiempo, pierde mucho.

For in the midst of your suffering, you adore His judgements and willingly submit to His divine providence which draws good from the greatest evil and makes the malice of our enemies subservient to our enemies.

For in the midst of your suffering, you adore His judgements and willingly submit to His divine providence which draws good from the greatest evil and makes the malice of our enemies subservient to our enemies.

Know then, that God no sooner finds us resolved to attain solid virtue than He sends us trials of the severest kind. Convinced of His immense love for us and His fatherly solicitude for our spiritual advancement, we ought with gratitude to drink to the dregs of the chalice that He is pleased to offer us, confident that its beneficial character will be in proportion to its bitterness.

Reflect that the manifest beauty is the work of the unseen, most beautiful creative Spirit, with Whom is the source of all physical beauty.

I will declare to you plainly, the highest and most perfect matter one hopes to attain is to draw near to God, and abide as one with Him.

destroy your wild lusts and passions, you will gratify God more, and you will work for Him more magnificently than if you scourge yourself until you issue blood or tire yourself out with fasting more than any elderly desert hermit. For even if you redeem hundreds of Christian slaves from the unbelievers and liberate them, it will not save you, if you continue to be a slave to your passions. And no matter what work you perform, however wonderful, and with whatever labor and sacrifice you might achieve it, it will not guide you toward your goal, if you do not pay attention to your passions, allowing them the liberty to live and work in you.

While it is an absolute requirement of each Christian to restore peace that has been lost in his heart, so it is required that he not permit accidental occurrences in life to trouble his peace.

do everything at the proper time and in the proper manner. Do not hesitate a moment in the execution of a command. The first delay brings on a second, this a third, and thus we lose ground.

MANY ARE ALSO deceived in this way. They ascribe to virtue the cowardice and anxiety that arises from sin. Although this weakness is accompanied by some sorrow, it is founded on a hidden pride and presumption of one's own strength.

porque una buena obra, a la cual precede esta mortificación, es más perfecta y más agradable a Dios que si se hiciese con un ardor y ansia natural; y muchas veces la buena obra le agrada menos que esta mortificación.

When I was a child in school, one of my teachers complained that we students always told about our achievements in the active mode (I've passed), while we always told about our failures in the passive mode (I've been failed). All of this in Spanish, of course, but it's true, that's how children speak in my country. So the good grades are due to the child's actions, while the failed grades seem to be the responsibility of the teacher. What Lorenzo Scupoli is telling us [in his book "Spiritual Combat"] is just the opposite: whenever I do something right, it's not I who has done it, it's not my action, for God was acting through me. At most I can say that I allowed God to act through me. On the other hand, when I do something wrong (sin) I myself am the only responsible, for I didn't allow God to take control. Therefore I should trust only God and not me, for whenever I insist to take control, I do something wrong.

The situation is much different with those who ignorantly place their devotion in external acts, which frequently are the cause of their own downfall, and are of far deeper consequence than open crime. In themselves they are not evil, but only when wrongly applied. They are so attached to these acts that they utterly neglect to watch the inner movements of their hearts; but giving them free rein, they leave them a prey to their own corruption

this destroyer, seeing them go astray, not only encourages them to go on their way, but fills their imagination with empty ideas, making them believe that they already taste the joys of Paradise,

In every circumstance they love to be shown preference over others. They know no guide but their own private judgment, no rule but their own will. They are blind in their own affairs, ferret-eyed in regard to those of their neighbors, always ready to find fault. Touch the empty reputation they think they possess, and of which they are extremely jealous. Order them to stop some of the devotions to which they are accustomed. Their amazement and vexation can hardly be expressed.

In all the events of this life, whether happy or not, they know nothing of a proper conformity to the will of God. They do not know how to yield to His almighty power, to submit to His judgments which are as just as they are secret and impenetrable.

If you feel that you are overwhelmed by the amount of work before you and by the difficulties involved, do not permit indolence to discourage you. Begin with what demands your immediate attention and do not think of the rest. Be very diligent, for when this is well done, the remainder will follow with much less trouble than you had anticipated.

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.

Whatever comes into your mind for you to speak, ponder over it well before you utter it, for you will discover that much which you were going to say had better remain unspoken.

el verdadero espíritu, como dijimos en el capítulo I, no consiste en los ejercicios deleitables y que lisonjean a la naturaleza, sino en los que la crucifican con sus pasiones y deseos desordenados. De esta manera, renovado el hombre interiormente con los hábitos de las virtudes evangélicas, viene a unirse íntimamente con su Creador y su Salvador crucificado.