Was St. Theresa, the Reformer of the Carmelites, joking or was she giving serious advice, the day she said to her religious, "O my daughters, I know well that you cannot live without sinning, but at least do not always commit the same sins, so that they do not become more deeply enrooted"?
These simple words include three lessons:
The first, which St. Theresa often expressed, is that life upon earth involves trials and temptations, and without a very special grace, such as was given to Mary, one cannot remain a considerable time in the service of God without some fall. "It is inevitable," said the Saint, "that we commit faults here below; we are women after all," and again, "We cannot claim to be angels since that is not our nature at all." This is surely a manifestation of her good sense, which it would profit souls inclined to excessive theorizing to consider.
But if Theresa accepted this fact as inevitable, she supposed that the soul struggled, forcing itself finally to triumph. Constant defeat in the same points is explained by the fact that nature remains identical; the fruits of that nature therefore must be alike.
But there is also this other truth to consider, that in combating weakly, one falls indefinitely into the same faults. Increased valor would force the enemy to vary his grounds of attack a little more. The great and lamentable result of constantly recurring faults is the creation of habits.
A fault committed renders a weakness of the same order easier the next time. I will watch over myself attentively, not tolerating any negligence; but I will be particularly vigilant in regard to faults that spring from my predominant weakness and that are consequently most likely to reappear.
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Adapted from Meditations for Religious
by Father Raoul Plus, S.J. (© 1939, Frederick Pustet Co.)
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