Tuesday, December 24, 2013

St. Francis de Sales on temptation and hope

. . . if we feel we have neither strength nor even any courage to resist temptation if it is presented at once to us (provided that we still desire to resist it and we hope that if it came, God would help us), and if we ask for His help, we must by no means distress ourselves, since it is not necessary for us always to feel strength and courage. It suffices that we hope and desire to have it at the time and place. It is not necessary to feel in ourselves any sign or any mark that we shall have this courage; it is enough that we hope that God will help us.
-St. Francis de Sales, from Thy Will Be Done: Letters to Persons in the World, emphasis mine

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