"I had posted some excerpts from Dom Lorenzo Scupoli’s The Spiritual Combat some weeks ago. I unfortunately got sidetracked, including changing the edition of the book I was reading, and never quite completed my original plan of posts.  But as a way of picking up again, here is a short chapter on that book with some very helpful admonitions regarding how not to delude ourselves, in pride, from thinking we are doing wonderfully in the spiritual life.  And even if we are doing pretty well, that is only because Our Lord has so blessed us with enormous Grace:

The frustration of the enemy in his first and second attacks [involving falling straightforward into sin, and satan fooling souls who know they are sinning not to repent] will not discourage him from trying again to bring about your ruin.  He would have you unconscious of your actual vices and passions, filling your imagination with visions of a chimerical perfection which he knows you will never attain. [Perfection for most of us involves overcoming our everyday imperfections and vices, and performing our duty with great virtue. Few of us are called to heroic acts.  But sometimes we like to dream of being hero-Saints....some far off day.....while ignoring our duty and our vices in the present]

Because of this subtle deception, we receive frequent and dangerous setbacks without giving much thought to means of countering them. Secret pride has seized upon these fanciful desires, mistaking the dream for the reality, and we rest in exalted notions of our own sanctity. [I think I fall into that to a disturbing degree.  Especially the latter.....exalted notions of my own sanctity.  In truth, I remain very much the same wretched sinner I was 3 or 5 or 8 years ago] Therefore, at the very time when the least contradiction or affront upsets us, we amuse ourselves with grandiose dreams of being ready to suffer the greatest torments or the pains of Purgatory itself for the love of God. [Do you get annoyed with other drivers in traffic?  Or do things at work upset you?  And yet do you dream you might withstand a real blood persecution?  Do you dream of performing great heroic acts of faith?  Can the latter make sense in light of the former?]

Our deception consists in the tendency of our sensitive nature (serenely comfortable when sufferings are at a distance), boldly to compare itself with those stalwart souls who bear the greatest pains with unwearied patience. [that is just a great sentence to meditate on]. To avoid such a snare, we must fight the enemies at hand in a world of reality, rather than achieve meaningless victories in a self-created world of fancy.  Then we shall see if our resolutions are cowardly or courageous, imaginary or real, and thus advance to perfection in the footsteps of the Saints.

We need not concern ourselves with those enemies who rarely molest us, unless we have reason to expect an attack from them, in which case we must be fortified with the soldier’s resolve to conquer.

But let us not mistake resolutions for victories, even though we have made considerable progress in acts of virtue.  True humility should accompany us with the ever-present memory of our weakness, bidding us put our confidence in God alone. [Even if we really are advanced in virtue, it is not due to our efforts, but simply because we have cooperated with Grace. This is a wonderful thing, but let it not undermine humility, the foundation of all the virtues] Let us beseech Him to be our strength in battle, our shield in danger, and our protection against presumption and confidence in our own abilities.

This is our path to greatness and perfection, a path along which we may find many difficulties for our frail natures that we may thereby be humbled and preserve the little reward our good work has already merited.

————End Quote———–

I thought that a very helpful little admonition.  I pray my comments don’t detract from Fr. Scupoli’s very edifying prose!

If we do find that perhaps we have fallen into subtle snares, we must not despair, but simply resolve to turn our life over to God even more and cooperate with His Grace with much more humility and meekness. We also must resolve always to perform our duty first, and only then seek dragons to slay".

From
http://veneremurcernui.wordpress.com/2014/06/23/concerning-the-delusions-of-those-of-us-who-think-we-are-on-the-way-to-perfection/