Chapter 2 of Lady Chatterton’s translation of The Consolation of the Devout Soul by Fr Giuseppe Frassinetti. Lady Chatterton was a fascinating character and a convert; you can find out more about her here. You can find a transcript below:
CHAPTER II.
Since, for the fulfilment of Christian perfection, we only require perfect union with the Divine Will, and in order to have this union we need do nothing more than avoid sin, even venial ones, and endeavour in all things neither prohibited nor enjoined to do what is most pleasing to God, it is necessary for me to show you that it is not too difficult a thing to attain this Christian perfection or perfect union with the Divine Will: it is necessary for me to show you that it is not too difficult to avoid even venial sins, and to seek in all things that which is most pleasing to God. But with regard to venial sins I must first lay down a most necessary distinction.
We should notice that there are venial sins of which we are fully conscious — that is, those which we commit with open eyes, knowing clearly that we are doing wrong at the moment; as, for instance, if we are aware that we tell a falsehood in order to excuse some ill-advised action, and in the mean time we tell it, knowing the malice of that falsehood; or if we are aware that such and such a recital may even lightly injure the good fame of our neighbour, and yet, knowing the malice of mentioning it, we do not refrain from doing so. On the other hand, there are venial sins of which we are not fully aware, and which we commit more from weakness than malice, such as certain distractions in prayer, or some useless words or impatient actions, and similar errors into which we fall without being well aware of them.
I said before, 'the errors into which we fall without being fully conscious of them’ because when there is absolutely no consciousness, and therefore no voluntary malice, they cannot be called even venial sins, but are only imperfections and weaknesses of human nature, from which we cannot in any way guard ourselves, and of which we cannot in any way repent; since, as St. Augustine says, where there is no voluntary malice there is no sin. And here I must make a little digression which appears to me important. This truth I should wish to impress on those souls that accuse themselves of their natural weaknesses as if they were sins, and mourn over them, and believe themselves to be through them in a bad state before God, so that sometimes they even omit the Holy Communion prescribed by their own director, judging themselves to be too unworthy to receive it. How much they are in error! Do not even children know that where there is no voluntary malice there can be no sin? But these persons fancy they find sin where there is not a shadow of it, nay even where there actually is merit. If it happens that they feel a momentary impatience, or envy, or sensuality, they immediately think they have sinned, although they endeavoured to repress those feelings when as yet they were scarcely aware of them. These persons, then, have not sinned in this matter, for they cannot avoid such feelings: nay, indeed, by combating them the moment they become aware of the same they obtain merit. Hear what St. John of the Cross says: 'If you do not give your consent, but rather experience displeasure and abhorrence of them, and with patience endure them, they purify your will as fire does gold. These weaknesses, these miseries, are the necessary consequence of original sin, in the same way as diseases and other temporal ills are evils to which all the children of Adam are subject, and from which no one could pretend to be entirely free without pretending to a privilege which God does not grant.' We must also remark and remember that this is the Catholic doctrine, as taught by the sacred Council of Trent against the errors of Protestants, who pretend that the involuntary motions of concupiscence — that is, of the sensitive appetites — are sins. On the other hand, some people may object that the masters of spirituality exhort those souls who aspire to perfection to lay bare to their directors their evil inclinations and the temptations they have to suffer: and to do this is certainly praiseworthy, because, by manifesting these things to our own director, we may learn from him the most opportune and efficacious means of conquering them. Indeed, I exhort you to lay bare to your director your whole soul — your evil inclinations, and the temptations that molest you; that is, provided he does not already know them, and has not commanded you to be silent about them; but for pity's sake do not accuse yourself of them as if they were sins; for sins they are not, and consequently are not matters for confession. For pity's sake do not be terrified by these miserable sensations, which are compatible with the most perfect sanctity that is to be found in the world. And do not tell me that the saints do not experience these miseries also; for I can answer you that no theologian is to be found who believes that any saint ever existed who did not experience at some time or other inclinations to evil, except the Queen of saints, the most holy Mary. And if there be any saint who did not experience any perverse inclination against any given virtue, it was only a special privilege, which is by no means a necessary part of sanctity. Indeed St. Aloysius Gonzaga never had the slightest temptation against holy chastity; but would you place him above the Apostle St. Paul, who suffered severely in this way?
The venial sins which hinder our perfect union with the Will of God, and which consequently hinder the progress of Christian perfection, are those of which we are fully aware — that, is to say, those which (as I have said) we commit with our eyes open. The other venial sins, of which we are not fully aware, do not hinder the progress of Christian perfection; and these are what produce a kind of tepidity which St. Alphonsus designates as inevitable (Pract. cap. vii. n. 2), because the soul cannot be exempt from them without a special privilege from God, according to the teaching of the holy Council of Trent; and it is not known that any one of the saints has possessed this privilege, with the exception of the most Blessed Virgin Mary. Now then, since no one can pretend that your purity of conscience equals that of the great Mother of God, so no one can teach you that, in order to progress in Christian perfection, you must always be free even from venial sins of which you are not fully aware. Of such I am not going to speak for the present.
God not only commands us absolutely to avoid mortal sin, but absolutely commands us to avoid venial sins. God forbids us to blaspheme His Sacred Name, and God forbids us even to take that Name in vain. God forbids us to swear a false oath, and forbids us to lie for our amusement. Now can we suppose that Divine Goodness would make prohibitions too arduous and too hard for His creatures — that He could give commands too difficult for us to observe? Tyrants only have, from time to time, imposed on their subjects commands too difficult to be obeyed; but good sovereigns have never done so. Still less have good fathers done so as regards their children; and we, who confess that God is the Sovereign King, the most perfect Father of His creatures, — how can we, without doing the gravest wrong to His ineffable tenderness, suppose that He would command us to do things that are too difficult of fulfilment? If, then, we must not suppose that the Divine Goodness could impose on His creatures commands too difficult for them to observe, it is not to be supposed that to avoid venial sins is too difficult for us, since He commands us to abstain even from these.
And why indeed, with the assistance of Divine Grace, can we not abstain from venial sins of which we are fully conscious, as well as from mortal sin? If we are able to overcome temptations to mortal sin, which are the strongest and most violent, shall we find greater difficulty in overcoming temptations to venial sins, which are so much weaker and lighter? Shall we be able to overcome the impetuosity of certain passions, which made even the greatest saints tremble, and shall we not conquer the temptation to tell a lie, to say something slightly injurious to our neighbour's character? Samson, we are told in the Divine Scriptures, had received from God strength so prodigious that he strangled with his own hands the most tremendous lions, and broke their bones in pieces as if they had been tender little lambs. Would you, then, believe me if I were to tell you that he had not strength enough to strangle and kill a little fox? When we fight against strong temptations, by yielding to which we should commit mortal sin, we are striving against terrible lions; when, on the other hand, we fight against temptations to venial sins, we are fighting against little foxes; and, therefore, not only ought we to succeed, by the aid of Divine grace, in avoiding venial sins with the same facility as we avoid mortal sins, but we ought to overcome the former even more easily than the latter.
How, then, does it happen that we, through the Divine assistance, overcome temptations to mortal sin, passing months — perhaps years, without falling into them, and meanwhile do not, so to speak, pass one day without yielding to the temptations of venial sin? This is the reason: Mortal sin, if we have but a little faith, terrifies us: the eternal hell which yawns at our feet makes us tremble. Therefore, with the Divine assistance, we immediately fight manfully against the temptation, and we overcome it. Here the lion is strangled — the lion conquered. On the other hand, venial sin appears to us no evil at all; and the purgatory which will end only frightens us as the summer heat does, which we know will soon be followed by the coolness of autumn. For this reason temptations to venial sins do not put us in any apprehension, and with the utmost facility we yield to them. This is the real reason why so many Christian souls, while they succeed in guarding themselves from mortal sins, do not also succeed in warding off venial sins. Oh, if these souls would seriously consider that even venial sin is a grievous evil because it is an offence to a Goodness which is Infinite — that is, to God! If they would but consider that it is an evil so great that no evil in this world can be compared to it; that one venial sin alone is a worse evil than if a pestilence should kill every one in the world — worse than if an earthquake should destroy all the cities on this earth; that it is a worse evil than the deluge which, in the days of Noah, drowned, with the exception of his own family, all human beings, worse than the deluge of fire which, before the universal judgment, will reduce to ashes all the world! If people would but consider seriously that purgatory is a terrible punishment from God, and so agonising that it would be better to suffer all possible earthly torments for a hundred years than have to endure purgatory for one day! If these considerations could but impress themselves on Christian souls, oh, then certainly we should seriously resolve to fly from venial sins as much as from mortal ones; and we should soon find that by the Divine assistance we are able to avoid venial sins as much as mortal ones. Ah ! let us be well convinced that all the difficulty lies not in human weakness and frailty, which is remedied by the grace of God, but in our own will. If we do not will strongly, we cannot guard ourselves even from the most enormous mortal sins; and if we will, we can also avoid even the smallest venial sin. I am referring, of course, to those of which we are fully conscious.
A discreet master, a tender father, not only takes care not to impose on his servant or on his son anything too arduous and difficult, but does not even desire that his servants or his sons should undertake voluntarily to do for him things which are beyond their strength, and would end by becoming oppressive. Now certainly God is the most wise Master, the most tender Father, to us His servants, His children. Can we suppose that it can be His good pleasure to see us overburdened and afflicted in His service? What is most pleasing to God, in things indifferent in themselves, is to be found where our self-denial is proportionate to our strength in its measure, and the sacrifice endurable in itself. We wrong His ineffable goodness if we are afraid that, in order to please Him, we must make such an effort, such an exertion, that it would in some way exceed our powers, strengthened, of course (be it always understood), by the help of His grace. And here you must be careful not to be deceived by a false apprehension arising out of considerations of the greatness and sanctity of God. Considering that the greatness and sanctity of God are infinite, you might possibly imagine that only in the greatest and most holy things can God find His greatest pleasure, seeing that they only are, in some sort, worthy of Him. The supposition would be entirely false; for if God could find His greatest delight in such works only as are of themselves in some sort worthy of Him, He would never find what is most pleasing to Him in any works except in those of our Saviour Jesus Christ, which have infinite value and sanctity because they are the works of a Divine Person. Mere works of creatures, considered in themselves — be they those of the angels, or even of the most holy Virgin Mary herself— are but nothing, and therefore in no degree worthy of God, if you consider the proportions which they bear to the infinite excellency of His Divine Majesty. God finds His greatest delight, not in the grandeur and sanctity of works themselves, but in their conformity with His most Holy Will; and it certainly is not His Will that His creatures should perform the greatest and most holy works, but that they should perform those works which His love demands from them. And these are sometimes great, as when in martyrdom He requires the sacrifice of our lives; sometimes less, as when He commands us to conquer the desires of our perverse passions; sometimes very small, as when, according to circumstances, He asks from us some good aspiration or devout ejaculation. For this reason we may really and truly endeavour to do what is most pleasing to God, even in things the slightest and easiest to be done. And thus I have sufficiently proved to you that which I proposed to demonstrate — namely, that there is not too much difficulty in avoiding even venial sin, and in seeking to do that which is most pleasing to God, in things which are neither commanded nor prohibited. And so I have also proved that the attainment of Christian perfection is not too difficult a thing to do.
