Fighting Our Chief Fault First

So we must take up the fight against these faults in this way. Each person should discover his own besetting sin and direct his main attack against it. He should turn all his care and watchfulness of mind to guarding against its assault, turn the weapons of fasting against it every day, hurl at it at all times the constant darts of sighs and groans from the heart, and use against it the labors of vigils and the meditation of the heart. Further, he should pour out to God constant tears and prayers, and pray continually and expressly to be delivered from its attack. For it is impossible for a man to win a triumph over any kind of passion unless he has first clearly understood that he cannot possibly gain the victory in the struggle with it by his own strength and efforts, although, if he is to be made pure, he must persist night and day in the utmost care and watchfulness. And even when he feels that he has got rid of this fault, he should still search the inmost recesses of his heart with the same purpose, single out the worst fault he can see among those still there, and bring all the forces of the Spirit to bear against it in particular. So, by always overcoming the stronger passions, he will gain a quick and easy victory over the rest. For by a series of triumphs the soul is made more vigorous, and the fact that the next conflict is with a weaker passion assures him a readier success in the struggle. [a]

This is generally the way with those who, for the sake of the rewards, are accustomed to face all kinds of wild beasts in the presence of the kings of this world, a kind of show commonly called the “pancarpus.” Such men, I say, aim their first attack at whatever beasts they see to be the strongest and fiercest, and when they have dispatched these, they can more easily bring down the rest, which are not so terrible and powerful. So too, by always overcoming the stronger passions, as weaker ones take their place, a perfect victory will be secured for us without any risk.

Nor need we imagine that if someone grapples with one fault in particular and seems too careless about guarding against the attacks of others, he will easily be wounded by a sudden assault. This cannot possibly happen. For when a man is anxious to cleanse his heart and has steeled his heart’s purpose against the attack of any one fault, it is impossible for him not to dread all the other faults as well and to take similar care about them. For if a man makes himself unworthy of the prize of purity by defiling himself with other faults, how can he possibly succeed in gaining the victory over the one passion from which he longs to be freed? But when the main purpose of our heart has singled out one passion as the special target of its attack, we will pray about it more earnestly, and with special anxiety and fervor we will beg to be all the more on our guard against it, and so succeed in winning a speedy victory. For the lawgiver himself teaches us to follow this plan in our conflicts, and not to trust in our own power, when he says: “Do not be afraid of them, because the Lord your God is in the midst of you, a God mighty and terrible. He will consume these nations in your sight little by little and by degrees. You will not be able to destroy them all at once, or the beasts of the earth might increase against you. But the Lord your God will deliver them up in your sight, and will slay them until they are utterly destroyed.”