There is, I think, no greater temptation than one which assails many good
people, namely, the desire to know for certain whether or not they are in a
state of grace.
To a poor soul entangled in a perfect spider's web of doubt and mistrust,
our Blessed Father wrote the following consoling words: "To try and
discover whether or not your heart is pleasing to God is a thing you must
not do, though you may undoubtedly try to make sure that His Heart is
pleasing to you. Now, if you meditate upon His Heart it will be impossible
but that it should be well pleasing to you, so sweet is it, so gentle, so
condescending, so loving towards those of His poor creatures who do but
acknowledge their wretchedness: so gracious to the unhappy, so good to the
penitent. Ah! who would not love this royal Heart, which to us is as the
heart both of a father and of a mother?"
As regards interior desolation there are some souls who seem to think
that no devotion is worthy of the name which is not sensible and full of
emotion.
To one who complained to our Blessed Father of having lost all relish for
exercises of piety, he wrote in the following words: "The love of God
consists neither in consolations nor in tenderness--otherwise our Lord
would not have loved His father when He was sorrowful unto death, nor when
He cried out, _My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?_[1] That is to
say, then, when He performed the greatest act of love that it is possible
to imagine.
"The truth is, we are always hungering after consolation, for a little
sugar to be added to our spiritual food; in other words, we always want to
experience our feelings of love and tenderness, and thereby to be cheered
and comforted."
[Footnote 1: Matt. xxvii. 46.]