A Message for Overcoming Sin
HOW PERNICIOUS, how grave the plague of vainglory! Such great justice, such manifold virtues, such depth of faith and devotion—which can change nature itself and the laws of the whole world—by one act of vanity perish. All one's virtuous acts are consigned to oblivion, being as if they never were, and one immediately incurs the wrath of the Lord—unless, by the very same steps of humility, one ascends again to the summit lost. St. John [...]
A Message for Overcoming Sin
OTHER VICES sometimes subside by beneficial surroundings; once opportunity, occasion, or matter of sin are removed, they slow down and diminish; but vanity penetrates the deserts along with the one who flees the external world. For it is animated by no other source than the flowering of virtue in the one it hunts. Whereas all other vices may diminish by mere lapse of time, for this one, length of years is no hindrance. Unless diligence [...]