It is an error to think that faith is so entirely a gift of God that it is not in our power to increase and strengthen it. Some… admire faith in the saints as a purely gratuitous grace; they persuade themselves that they can do nothing to increase their own faith and that the only thing to do is to remain passive until God grants them that favor; they will make no effort to grow in faith, saying that to do so is quite useless… We must get rid of these ideas, see why it is our faith is so weak, and acknowledge that it is our own fault and that, whatever we may say, the truth is that we do not believe because we do not wish to believe.
–Saint Claude de la Colombiere (1641-1682)
About
