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The following is the last spiritual guidance Dom Scupoli gave in Spiritual Combat.
"Take this rule, whenever you fall into a fault, be it great or small, even though you may have committed the same four thousand times in a day, and always voluntarily and with advertency:
- never allow yourself to fall into a state of morose bitterness
- do not be disquieted
- do not waste your time scrutinizing yourself
But at once acknowledge what you have done, and humbly regarding your own weakness, turn lovingly to your God and and say to Him with your lips or with your mind only,
"Lord, I have done this, being what I am, and nothing else could be expected from me, save only these and similar faults, and I would not have stopped where I did, had not Thy goodness lifted me up and continued with me. I give Thee thanks for that from which Thou hast preserved me, and I grieve over that which I have done through not corresponding with Thy grace. Pardon me, and give me grace that I may never offend Thee anymore and may nothing ever separate me from Thee, whom I desire ever to serve and to obey."
Having done this do not waste time in anxious thoughts, imagining that the Lord has not forgiven you. But, in a spirit of faith and repose, continue your exercises, as if you had not fallen at all.
And this you must do, not only once, but a hundred times, if it is needed, and at every moment and with the same confidence and repose the last time as the first...
Thus nothing will come to disturb your progress, and your perseverance, and your onward course, nor will you let time pass away vainly and fruitlessly..."
Spiritual Combat, available at Sophia Press.
