CHAPTER VIII. How to effect this Second Purification.

THE first inducement to attain this second purification is a keen and
lively apprehension of the great evils resulting from sin, by means of
which we acquire a deep, hearty contrition. For just as contrition, (so
far as it is real,) however slight, when joined to the virtue of the
Sacraments, purges away sin; so, when it becomes strong and urgent, it
purges away all the affections which cling around habits of sin. A
moderate, slight hatred makes men dislike its object and avoid his
society; but when a violent, mortal hatred exists, they not only abhor
and shun the person who excites it, but they loathe him, they cannot
endure the approach of his relations or connexions, nor even his
likeness or anything that concerns him. Just so when a penitent only
hates sin through a weakly although real contrition, he will resolve to
avoid overt acts of sin; but when his contrition is strong and hearty,
he will not merely abhor sin, but every affection, every link and
tendency to sin. Therefore, my daughter, it behoves us to kindle our
contrition and repentance as much as we possibly can, so that it may
reach even to the very smallest appearance of sin. Thus it was that the
Magdalen, when converted, so entirely lost all taste for her past sin
and its pleasures, that she never again cast back one thought upon
them; and David declared that he hated not only sin itself, but every
path and way which led thereto. This it is which is that “renewing of
the soul” which the same Prophet compares to the eagle’s strength. [18]

Now, in order to attain this fear and this contrition, you must use the
following meditations carefully; for if you practise them stedfastly,
they (by God’s Grace) will root out both sin and its affections from
your heart. It is to that end that I have prepared them: do you use
them one after another, in the order in which they come, only taking
one each day, and using that as early as possible, for the morning is
the best time for all spiritual exercises;–and then you will ponder
and ruminate it through the day. If you have not as yet been taught how
to meditate, you will find instructions to that purpose in the Second
Part.
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[18] Ps. ciii. 5, Bible version.
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