Yet how slow and reluctant are we to enter wholeheartedly and strenuously into this spiritual warfare against the world, the flesh and the devil. Nevertheless, until we do we shall never know the joy and the strength of inner freedom which comes from bringing ourselves, and all our thoughts of every day, into captivity to Jesus Christ. On the one hand we seek the power to achieve that freedom by giving ourselves to God in our Sunday worship and by receiving Our Lord himself in the Blessed Sacrament; but on the other hand in our daily life we allow ourselves to cling to the things with which Our Lord has nothing in common.

Nevertheless, if we evade this warfare of the soul, we do so at our peril. There is no easy way to Heaven. We have Our Lord’s assurance on that point. “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the road is easy that leads to destruction, and there are many who take it. For the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life, and there are few who find it” (NRSV, Matthew 7:13,14, our emphasis).