Of the Source of our Imperfections

Though the greatest part of Christians pretend to aspire to Perfection yet very few attain it, because they are not really willing to be perfect; they readily believe the Doctrines of the Gospel, and the important maximes upon which all true Piety is grounded, but they are not sincere in the application of them. They do not dispute the necessity of doing violence to our inclinations in order to obtain heaven, but they find out specious Reasons to excuse themselves from that violence in certain occasions which require much pains: they own themselves bound to subdue their passions, and they fight with them, and frequently gain a kind of victory over them, but they do not meddle with their reigning passions, and this is the cause that all their other victory's signify nothing, for they should have begun with this.

We must set a continual watch upon our selves and upon every motion of our hearts that we may suppress all our carnal desires, that many almost imperceptible but continual selfish designs, which make us seek only, though secretly, to advance our interests, and a thousand other insinuations of selfe Love which surprise the most virtuous, and mingling themselves with their best actions take away all their merit, or at least diminish their Perfection.

from Christian Reflections by Fr. Jean Croiset