Scruples

[OnlySunshine]

[quote name='MarysLittleFlower' timestamp='1318817127' post='2322410']
that is very true I found that a great book against scruples is "Consoling the Heart of Jesus" by Fr Michael Gaitley. I once read a quote by St Therese, it might even have been in that book, - it's a letter to her sister, I think... she talks about her littleness, and as I read that letter, it helped me to see that all we can truly offer God is our misery. But this is what He wants, so that He can be our virtue and strength. Scrupulosity is about trying to be perfect before God.. but it's far better to be nothing and let Him be everything.
[/quote]

Was it this beautiful quote:
[quote]

I have always wanted to become a saint. Unfortunately when I have compared myself with the saints, I have always found that there is the same difference between the saints and me as there is between a mountain whose summit is lost in the clouds and a humble grain of sand trodden underfoot by passers-by. Instead of being discouraged, I told myself: God would not make me wish for something impossible and so, in spite of my littleness, I can aim at being a saint. It is impossible for me to grow bigger, so I put up with myself as I am, with all my countless faults. But I will look for some means of going to heaven by a little way which is very short and very straight, a little way that is quite new. We live in an age of inventions. We need no longer climb laboriously up flights of stairs; in well-to-do houses there are lifts. And I was determined to find a lift to carry me to Jesus, for I was far too small to climb the steep stairs of perfection. So I sought in holy Scripture some idea of what this life I wanted would be, and I read these words: "Whosoever is a little one, come to me." It is your arms, Jesus, that are the lift to carry me to heaven. And so there is no need for me to grow up: I must stay little and become less and less.[/quote]

That is one of my favorite quotes by the saints. St. Therese of Lisieux is also a Doctor of the Church!

[MarysLittleFlower]

that is a very beautiful quote, I agree it was another one though, it was a letter written to her sister. I'll post it cause I found it it's in the book "Consoling the Heart of Jesus".

"Dear Sister... How can you ask me if it's possible for you to love God as I love Him? ...
If you had understood the story of my little bird, you would not have asked me this question. My [ _________ (fill in the blank: virtues, talents, many gifts, etc.)] are nothing; they are not what give me the unlimited confidence that I feel in my heart. They are, to tell the truth, the spiritual riches that render one unjust, when one rests in them with complacence and when one believes they are something great.... Ah! I really feel that it is not this at all that pleases God in my little soul; what pleases Him is that He sees me loving my littleness and my poverty, the blind hope that i have in His mercy... That is my old treasure.... [W]hy would this treasure not be yours?

...Oh, dear Sister, I beg you, understand your little girl, understand that to love Jesus, to be His victim of love, the weaker one is, without desires or virtues, the more suited one is for the working of this consuming and transforming Love... [B]ut we must consent to remain always poor and without strength, and this is the difficulty... Ah! let us remain then very far from all that sparkles, let us love our littleness, let us love to feel nothing, then we shall be poor in spirit, and Jesus will come to look for us [and] He will transform us in flames of love.

...Oh! how I would like to be able to make you undestand what I feel! ...It is confidence and nothing but confidence that must lead us to Love."

[BarbTherese]

Beautiful quote from St Therese - thank you for sharing! She was a truly amazing spiritual theologian for her times - really amazing. St Teresa of Avila wrote "Humility, humility, my daughers, it will win The King every time." What an amazing Carmelite and daughter of St Teresa of Avila, Little Therese really was.

[quote]
"[b]the weaker one is, without desires or virtues[/b], the more suited one is for the working of this consuming and transforming Love... [b]ut we must consent to [b]remain always poor and without strength[/b], and this is the difficulty... Ah! [b]let us remain then very far from all that sparkles[/b], let us love our littleness, l[b]et us love to feel nothing[/b], then we shall be poor in spirit, and Jesus will come to look for us [and] He will transform us in flames of love."
[/quote]

There is so much in that quote and I am sure books and books could be written on the subjects. It rather reminds me of John of The Cross too. I started to format highlights that appealled in bold and quickly realized I needed to stop or I would need to put the whole quotation in bold. An amazing theologian!
Edit: Then because it is such a profound and beautiful letter, I read it again - and realized that I would really need to post the whole letter, not just quote from it.

Edited October 17, 2011 by BarbaraTherese

[Feankie]

[i]We will always need God's help.... and when we can accept our brokenness, we can also see just how great His love is for us. [/i]

Amen, and amen

[Clare~Therese]

I have been struggling with scruples also, on and off for about a year.
Last week it came back, St. Anthony's intercession helped it go away, but today it came back again for a little while because of someone I saw today that I hadn't seen for a long time; when I had seen her before, I wasn't very kind to her at all...

But anyway, in my personal experience, what seems to help me combat my scruples is thinking about Jesus' Passion or St. Faustina and the Divine Mercy revelations she had, or asking the intercession of the Saints (especially Our Lady, St. Therese, St. Anthony, & St. Faustina) or just mentally repeating little prayers over and over again like, "Jesus I trust in You," or "Your Wounds are my confidence, O Christ!" and similar things.