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An eternal divorce from sin

  • SAINT CLAUDE DE LA COLOMBIERE, S.J.

After one truly has died to sin, a kind of wonder is needed in order to make sin come back to life in us....


asaintCavallini-frescoExperience makes us see every day that genuine repentances are followed by an eternal divorce from sin.  That if it happens sometimes that one relapses into the same state from which one actually had left, that is never all of a sudden, nor at the first step. 

Some time is needed to erase the memory of this bitter contrition — to destroy this great intention of which I have spoken — to ruin this treasure-trove of graces and to drive out the Holy Spirit who has made himself the master of the heart. 

One does not resume by the greatest sins; one lets up little by little on the exercises of piety; one permits oneself small liberties that open the door to temptations; one makes oneself unfaithful in a thousand encounters of little importance that habituate the soul — that dispose it to greater infidelities — before coming to mortal sin.

One must smother many inspirations, many criticisms of the conscience.  But that, in the space of eight days' time, beginning the following day, this extinct sin — this dead sin — comes back to life: this enemy — weakened, defeated, disarmed, driven from the heart, destroyed, annihilated — finds itself, a moment after, as strong, as formidable, as master of the place as if God had not seized it — had not entrenched himself there and fortified himself against all the efforts of Satan.

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Acknowledgement

colombiere Saint Claude de la Colombiere, S.J. "An eternal divorce from sin." excerpt from Claude La Colombiere Sermons: Volume I: Christian Conduct (DeKalb, IL: Northern Illinois University Press, 2014).

This excerpt appeared in Magnificat.

The Author

colombiere1colombiere Saint Claude de la Colombiere. S.J. (1641-1682) promoted the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and was the confessor of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque. Claude de la Colombiere was born of French noble parents in 1641. In 1674, after 15 years of Jesuit life, Colombiere took a personal vow to observe the Rule and Constitutions of the Society of Jesus. He is the author of Claude La Colombiere Sermons: Volume I: Christian Conduct, The Trustful Surrender to Divine Providence, The Faithful Servant: Spiritual Retreats And Letters Of Blessed Claude La Colombiere, and Spiritual Direction of St Claude de La Columbiere

Copyright © 2014 Northern Illinois University Press