So long as we live in this world we cannot escape suffering and temptation. Whence it is written in Job: The life of man upon earth is a warfare (Job 7:1). . .Yet temptations, though troublesome and severe, are often useful to a man, for in them he is humbled, purified, and instructed. The saints all passed through many temptations and trials to profit by them, while those who could not resist became reprobate and fell away. There is no state so holy, no place so secret, that temptations and trials will not come. Man is never safe from them as long as he lives, for they come from within us. . .Often we do not know what we can stand, but temptation shows us what we are. Let us humble our souls under the hand of God in every trial and temptation for he will save and exalt the humble in spirit.
– Thomas à Kempis
