The training of the soul

Now this life of ours is like a race, a race which will end when the soul reaches Heaven, but that cannot be until the soul has become like God in all his spotless holiness and complete freedom from sin.  And just as athletes have to train their bodies, so we have to train our souls.  Our souls should always be in training, but the season of Lent, which begins on Ash Wednesday and goes on until Easter, is a time when we all make a special effort.

Only one thing can keep us from God and that is sin.  And sin has its root in what we call our lower self.  Each of us has a higher self and a lower self.  The higher self is that part of us which wants and tries to be like Our Blessed Lord – good-tempered, and kind, and pure, and generous and forgiving.  But the lower self has no use at all for that sort of thing, and keeps wanting us to do and be quite the opposite.  When we hear of someone being nasty, we say, “It’s not like him or her to do that”.  What has happened is that, whereas before we have known only the person’s higher self, now we catch a glimpse of his or her lower self.  But remember, it is our higher self which is our true self – what we are meant to be like.