How not to relapse

From 

THE SCHOOL
OF
JESUS CRUCIFIED.

FROM THE ITALIAN
OF
FATHER IGNATIUS OF THE SIDE OF JESUS, PASSIONIST.

INTENDED CHIEFLY FOR THE USE OF THE MEMBERS OF THE CONFRATERNITY OF THE CROSS AND PASSION OF OUR LORD

James Duffy, 22, Paternoster Row, London, and 15, Wellington Quay, Dublin.
Burns, Lambert, & Oates, 17, Portman Street, and Paternoster Row.

1866.

In order not to relapse into sin, you must —

1st. Remember, that sins fallen into after Confession are more heinous on account of the promise made to God not to offend any more, on account of the abuse of the Sacrament, and on account of the danger to which you expose yourself, that God will not grant you any more time for repentance, and of your thus dying in your sins.

2. Reflect that a relapse into sin after Confession is in fact a condemnation of your past repentance, and almost an avowal that you did wrong in detesting your past offences, wrong in bewailing them, and more wrong still in purposing to amend your life. Can there be more odious malice than that?

3. The man who relapses into sin after Confession pronounces in his heart this iniquitous sentence: “The devil, to whose service I now return, is a better master than God, whose service I leave, after having tried it, had experience of its perfections, and tasted its sweetness.” Can a greater degree of perfidy be conceived?

4. Reflect that the man who relapses into sin after Confession, forms in his heart a new Calvary, and raises thereon a new Cross, on which he is desirous of seeing Jesus die anew; he cries aloud that Jesus is to be crucified, and he takes arms in his hands, with which to put Him to a cruel death. Oh, fearful impiety!

5. Consider what roads led you to a relapse into sin, after former Confessions, and close them up carefully, for if you leave them open you will speedily go astray as before. You will always find it far more easy to fly the occasions of sin, than to avoid sin when frequenting its occasions. You have promised God in Confession to sin no more, but if you do not fly from the occasions of sin, you break your word, for you voluntarily expose yourself to a relapse. Oh, if penitents were to avoid all the occasions of sin, how far more faithful would they remain to their Lord, and how far more constantly would they persevere in the grace they had regained.

6. If you have hitherto relapsed into sin after Confession, because you did not often recommend yourself to God, be most careful never more to neglect prayer. If you have fallen into sin because you neglected to meditate upon the Passion of Christ, make it a rule to reflect upon that sacred subject as often as possible. If you have sinned, owing to neglect of the Sacraments, promise our Lord that you will frequent them; in short, let nothing appear to you too arduous. If you have committed sin because you did not have recourse to our blessed Lady, as your dear Mother, never estrange yourself from her tender love and powerful protection; invoke her, have recourse to her in every temptation and danger; consecrate each day to her; beseech her to save you from sin, and most assuredly she will do so.