The Spiritual Combat, by Father Lorenzo Scupoli
"Novi coronabitur nisi qui legitime certaverit." - None is vanquished in this spiritual combat but he who ceases to struggle and loses confidence in God. - "He does not receive the Victor's Crown unless he fights well." (2 Timothy 2:5)
- Chapter I - Of the Essence of Christian Perfection - Of the Struggle Requisite for its Attainment - And of the Four Things Needful in this Conflict
- Chapter II - Distrust of Self
- Chapter III - Of Trust in God
- Chapter IV - How a man may know whether he is active in self-Distrust and Trust in God
- Chapter V - Of the Error of Many, Who Mistake Pusillanimity for a Virtue
- Chapter VI - Further directions how to attain self-Distrust and Trust in God
- Chapter VII - Of Spiritual Exercises, and first of the Exercise of the Understanding, which must be kept guarded against ignorance and curiosity
- Chapter VIII - Of the hindrances to a Right Discernment of Things, and of the method to be adopted in order to understand them properly
- Chapter IX - Of another danger from which the Understanding must be guarded in order that it may exercise a True Discernment
- Chapter X - Of the Exercise of the Will, and the end to which all our actions, whether Interior or Exterior, should tend
- Chapter XI - Of some considerations which may incline the Will to seek to please God in all things
- Chapter XII - Of the diverse wills in Man, and the Warfare between them
- Chapter XIII - Of the way to resist the impulses of sense, and of the acts to be performed by the will in order to acquire Habits of Virtue
- Chapter XIV - What must be done when the superior-will seems to be wholly stifled and overcome by the interim-will and by other enemies
- Chapter XV - Some advice touching the manner of this warfare, and especially against whom, and with what resolution, it must be carried on
- Chapter XVI - In what manner the soldier-of-Christ should take the field early in the morning
- Chapter XVII - Of the order to be observed in the conflict with our Evil Passions
- Chapter XVIII - Of the way to resist sudden impulses of the Passions
- Chapter XIX - Of the way to resist the sins of the Flesh
- Chapter XX - How to combat Sloth
- Chapter XXI - Of the regulation of the Exterior Senses, and how to pass on from these to the contemplation of the Divinity
- Chapter XXII - How the same things are to us means where-by to regulate our senses, and to lead us on to meditate on the Incarnate Word in the Mysteries of His Life and Passion
- Chapter XXIII - Of some other means whereby we may regulate our senses according to the different occasions which present themselves
- Chapter XXIV - Of the way to rule the tongue
- Chapter XXV - That, in order to fight successfully against his enemies, the Soldier of Christ must avoid as much as possible all perturbation and disquiet of mind
- Chapter XXVI - What we should do when we are wounded
- Chapter XXVII - Of the means employed by the Devil to assail and deceive those who desire to give themselves up to the practice of virtue, and those who are already entangled in the bondage of sin
- Chapter XXVIII - Of the Devil's assaults and devices against those whom he holds in the bondage of sin
- Chapter XXIX - Of the arts and stratagems by which he holds in bondage those who knowing their misery, would fain be free; and how it is that our resolutions prove so often ineffectual
- Chapter XXX - Of a delusion of those who imagine they are going onward to perfection
- Chapter XXXI - Of the Devil's assaults and stratagems in order to draw us away from the path of holiness
- Chapter XXXII - Of the above named last assault and stratagem by which the Devil seeks to make the virtues we have acquired the occasions of our ruin
- Chapter XXXIII - Some counsels as to the overcoming of evil passions and the acquisition of virtue
- Chapter XXXIV - Virtues are to be gradually acquired by exercising ourselves in their various degrees, and giving our attention first to one and then to another
- Chapter XXXV - Of the means whereby virtues are acquired, and how we should use then so as to attend for some considerable time to one virtue only
- Chapter XXXVI - That in the exercise of virtue we must proceed with unceasing watchfulness
- Chapter XXXVII - That, as we must always continue in the exercise of all the virtues, so we must not shun any opportunity which offers for their attainment
- Chapter XXXVIII - That we should highly esteem all opportunities of fighting for the acquisition of virtues, and chiefly of those which present the greatest difficulties
- Chapter XXXIX - How to avail ourselves of various occasions for the exercise of a single virtue
- Chapter XL - Of the time to be given to the exercise of each virtue, and of the signs of our progress
- Chapter XLI - That we must not yield to the wish to be delivered from the trials we are patiently enduring, and how we are to regulate all our desires so as to advance in holiness
- Chapter XLII - How to resist the devil when he seeks to delude us by means of indiscreet zeal
- Chapter XLIII - Of the temptation to form rash judgments of our neighbor, arising from the instigation of the Devil and the strength of our own evil inclinations, and of the way to resist this temptation
- Chapter XLIV - On Prayer
- Chapter XLV - Mental Prayer
- Chapter XLVI - Meditation
- Chapter XLVII - Another Method of Meditation
- Chapter XLVIII - A Method of Prayer based on the Intercession of the Blessed Virgin
- Chapter XLIX - Some Considerations to induce Confidence in the Assistance of the Blessed Virgin
- Chapter L - A Method of Meditation and Prayer involving the Intercession of the Saints and the Angels
- Chapter LI - Meditation on the Sufferings of Christ and the Sentiments to be derived from Contemplation of them
- Chapter LII - The Benefits derived from Meditations on the Cross and the Imitation of the Virtue of Christ Crucified
- Chapter LIII - Concerning the most Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist
- Chapter LIV - The manner in which we ought to receive the Blessed Sacrament
- Chapter LV - Preparation for Communion and the role of the Eucharist in exciting in us a Love of God
- Chapter LVI - Concerning Spiritual Communion
- Chapter LVII - Concerning Thanksgiving
- Chapter LVIII - The Offering of self to God
- Chapter LIX - Concerning Sensible Devotion and Dryness
- Chapter LX - Concerning the Examination of Conscience
- Chapter LXI - Concerning the Manner in which we are to Persevere in the Spiritual Combat until Death
- Chapter LXII - Concerning Our Preparation against the Enemies who assail us at the Hour of Death
- Chapter LXIII - Concerning the four assaults of the Enemy at the Hour of Death
- Chapter LXIV - The second assault of Despair and its Remedy
- Chapter LXV - The third assault of Temptation to Vainglory
- Chapter LXVI - The fourth assault of various illusions employed by the Devil at the Hour of Death
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