Walter Hilton: Struggle

Walter Hilton was English Augustinian mystic.. Explore interesting quotes on struggle.

Walter Hilton: 22 quotes0 likes

“Others, who have the common amount of charity and have not yet grown in grace to this extent, but are guided by their own reason, struggle and strive all day against their sins in order to acquire virtues. Like wrestlers, they are sometimes on top, and sometimes underneath. Such people are doing well. They acquire virtues through their own reason and will, but not because they love and delight in virtue, for they have to exert all of their energy to overcome their natural instincts in order to possess them. Consequently they never enjoy true peace or final victory. They will receive a great reward, but they are not yet sufficiently humble. They have not yet put themselves wholly into God's hands, because they do not yet see Him.”

Book II, ch. 36 (p. 211)
The Ladder of Perfection (1494)

“One who loves God retains this humility at all times, not with weariness and struggle, but with pleasure and gladness.”

Book II, ch. 37 (p. 214)
The Ladder of Perfection (1494)

“They must not fear, nor regard as sin, or take to heart any evil impulses to sin or to blasphemy, or doubts about the Sacrament, or any other such ugly temptations; for to experience these temptations defiles the soul no more than the bark of a dog or the bite of a flea. They trouble the soul but do not harm it provided a man puts them aside and ignores them. It does no good to struggle against them, or to try and master them by force, for the more a person struggles against them, the more persistent they become.”

Book I, ch. 38 (p. 43)
The Ladder of Perfection (1494)