For three days, especially until yesterday evening, I have been in a dreadful state with abominable temptations.
I fight and I say: Lord, let me die a thousand million times: slice, cut my body in little pieces, or deliver me from these things that I abhor, or give me the grace to triumph.
Then temptations against faith come to me. And I say: How can I doubt after all that I have seen and heard? And I cry out: Yes, I believe, my God!... And something tells me: Yes, there is a God, I believe it, but there are no sacraments... I fight and I say: Why doubt?
The Lord has shown me so many things!.... And the temptation says to me: Bah! you saw it in your sleep, it isn't real. And I say: How can it be in my sleep since so many things have come true?
Lord, deliver me or give me the grace to triumph over Satan because I can't take it anymore!...  I felt something like a fever of temptation that devoured me; nothing could distract me.
Saint Mary of Jesus Crucified

Prières et Cantiques, cahier 10
Featured image: The Temptation of St Anthony ( https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/collection/SK-A-1795) is an oil on panel executed between 1530 and 1600, copied after the work by Jheronimus Bosch. This image in the public domain comes to us from the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.
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