The Spiritual Combat Quotes

“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.”
― Dom Lorenzo Scupoli, The Spiritual Combat

“humbling ourselves not only before Him, but, for His sake, before all men, in renouncing entirely our own will in order to follow His.”
― Lorenzo Scupoli, The Spiritual Combat and A Treatise on Peace of Soul (with Supplemental Reading: The Classics Made Simple: The Spiritual Combat) [Illustrated]

“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.”
― Lorenzo Scupoli, The Spiritual Combat and A Treatise on Peace of Soul (with Supplemental Reading: The Classics Made Simple: The Spiritual Combat) [Illustrated]

“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.”
― Lorenzo Scupoli, The Spiritual Combat

“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.”
― Lorenzo Scupoli, The Spiritual Combat

“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.”
― Dom Lorenzo Scupoli, The Spiritual Combat

“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.”
― Dom Lorenzo Scupoli, The Spiritual Combat

“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.”
― Lorenzo Scupoli, The Spiritual Combat: Classic Edition

“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.”
― Lorenzo Scupoli, The Spiritual Combat: Classic Edition

“Empieza, pues, hija mía, a combatir en el nombre del Señor, teniendo por espada y por escudo la desconfianza de ti misma, la confianza en Dios, la oración y el ejercicio de tus potencias.”
― Lorenzo Scupoli, El Combate Espiritual

“Having become accustomed to consult no one but themselves, they finally are persuaded that they no longer need the advice or assistance of others.”
― Dom Lorenzo Scupoli, The Spiritual Combat

“Our greatest ambition must be to see the crucified Christ always before us, His life and death, what efforts He demands of us.”
― Dom Lorenzo Scupoli, The Spiritual Combat and A Treatise on Peace of Soul (with Supplemental Reading: The Classics Made Simple: The Spiritual Combat) [Illustrated]

“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.”
― Dom Lorenzo Scupoli, The Spiritual Combat and A Treatise on Peace of Soul (with Supplemental Reading: The Classics Made Simple: The Spiritual Combat) [Illustrated]

“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.”
― Dom Lorenzo Scupoli, The Spiritual Combat and A Treatise on Peace of Soul (with Supplemental Reading: The Classics Made Simple: The Spiritual Combat) [Illustrated]

“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.”
― Dom Lorenzo Scupoli, The Spiritual Combat and A Treatise on Peace of Soul (with Supplemental Reading: The Classics Made Simple: The Spiritual Combat) [Illustrated]

“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.”
― Dom Lorenzo Scupoli, The Spiritual Combat and A Treatise on Peace of Soul (with Supplemental Reading: The Classics Made Simple: The Spiritual Combat) [Illustrated]

“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.”
― Dom Lorenzo Scupoli, The Spiritual Combat

“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.”
― Lorenzo Scupoli, The Spiritual Combat

“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].”
― Lorenzo Scupoli, The Spiritual Combat

“Proebe, fui mi, cor tuum mihi: Dame, hijo mío, tu corazón (Pr. XXIII, 26).”
― Lorenzo Scupoli, El Combate Espiritual

“Quare tristis es, anima mea, et quare conturbas me?”
― Lorenzo Scupoli, El Combate Espiritual

“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.”
― Lorenzo Scupoli, The Spiritual Combat: Classic Edition

“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.”
― Lorenzo Scupoli, El Combate Espiritual

“pero en el camino espiritual, si se detiene y para, aunque sea por poco tiempo, pierde mucho.”
― Lorenzo Scupoli, El Combate Espiritual

“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.”
― Lorenzo Scupoli, El Combate Espiritual

“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.”
― Lorenzo Scupoli, The Spiritual Combat and a Treatise on Peace of Soul

“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.”
― Lorenzo Scupoli, El Combate Espiritual

“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.”
― Lorenzo Scupoli, El Combate Espiritual

“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.”
― Lorenzo Scupoli, The Spiritual Combat: Classic Edition

“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.”
― Lorenzo Scupoli, The Spiritual Combat