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“Let us pass on now to the other question—namely, what
you can do to strengthen your resolutions and make them succeed?
There is no better mean than to put them into practice. But you say
that you are still so weak that, although you often make strong resolutions
not to fall into the particular imperfection of which you want to
cure yourself, no sooner does the occasion present itself than down
you go. Shall I tell you why we are still so weak? It is because
we will not abstain from food that does not agree with us. It is as
if a person who wished to be free from pains in the stomach were to
ask a physician what he should do. The doctor replies, ‘Do not eat
such and such food, because it brings you pain’; and yet the person
will not abstain from it. We do the same. For example, we should like
to love reproof, and yet we obstinately cling to our own opinions.
That is foolishness. You will never be strong enough to bear reproof
courageously while you are nourishing yourself with the food of
self-esteem. I wish to keep my soul recollected, and yet I will not
restrain all sorts of idle thoughts: the two things are incompatible.
Ah! How much I wish that I could be steadfast and regular in my
religious exercises; at the same time I wish not to find them so
trying—in fact, I want to find the work done for me. That cannot be
in this life, for we shall always have to labor.”
— St. Francis de Sales, p. 97
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