Tuesday. [Phil. 1:8-14; Luke 5:12-16]

   The leper fell down before the Lord and besought: Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. The Lord said: I will: be thou clean. And immediately the leprosy departed from him. So does every moral leprosy immediately depart as soon as one falls down before the Lord with faith, repentance, and confession—it truly departs and loses any power over him. Why does the leprosy sometimes return again? For the same reason that bodily diseases return. One who has recovered is told, “do not eat that, do not drink this, do not go there.” If he does not obey, the disease again flares up. So it is in the spiritual life. One must be sober, vigilant, and pray—then the disease of sin will not return. If you are not attentive toward yourself, if you allow yourself to see, hear, say, and do everything indiscriminately, how can sin not flare up and take power once again? The Lord charged the leper to fulfil all according to the law. This means that upon confession one must receive a penance and faithfully fulfil it; within it is concealed great preventive strength. But why do some say: this sinful habit has overcome me, I cannot handle myself. Either because repentance and confession were not complete, or because after making precautionary changes he adheres only weakly to them, or indulges himself. He wants to do everything without toil and self-coercion, and is laughed at by the enemy. Resolve to stand unto death and show [this resolve] in deed, and you will see what power there is in this. It is true that in every insurmountable passion that comes up the enemy possesses the soul, but this is no justification; for he immediately flees as soon as you produce an inner change, with God’s help.

Tuesday. [Eph. 2:19-3:7; Mark 11:11-23]

   The fig tree covered with leaves was splendid in appearance, but was not honoured with approval from the Lord because there was no fruit on it, and there was no fruit because there was no inner fruit-bearing power. How many such fig trees there are in the moral sense! In appearance all is proper, but on the inside there is nothing. They are orderly, honourable, and fulfil all that is Christian, but they do not have the spirit of life in Christ Jesus; that is why they do not have living fruit. And what is in them only seems to be fruit, but is not. In what lies the spirit of life in Christ Jesus? To this we say: one part in this is from the Lord, and the other from us. What is from the Lord essentially is a fruit-bearing spiritual power; while what comes from us is just the receiver of this power. Concern yourself more with the latter. The root of this is the feeling that you are perishing, and that if it were not for the Lord, you would perish. From this you will have a heart that is broken and humbled, in everything you do, throughout your life. Further, since the future is unknown, there are many enemies, and you can stumble every moment, fear and trembling accompany salvation, along with the unceasing cry: “O Thou Who knoweth all things, save me.” Woe to him also who rests on something other than the Lord; woe to him who has worked for something other than the Lord! Ask yourself, you who labour in deeds which are considered God-pleasing, for whom are you working? If your conscience boldly answers: only for the Lord—it is good; but if not, you are building a house upon the sand. Here are several indications of a fertile inner spirit. You can understand many other things according to this.

Monday. [Eph. 1:22-2:3; Mark 10:46-52]

   The blind man of Jericho raised up his voice when he learned that the Lord was walking past. His wail reached the Lord; nothing surrounding the Lord could interfere with His hearing it, and the Lord called the blind man over and returned his sight. At every time and in every place the Lord does not just walk by, but is there; He governs the whole world. As human thinking would have it, this means that He has many cares; furthermore, multitudes of angels surround Him with doxologies. But if you are able to raise up your voice like the blind man of Jericho, nothing will stop your wail from reaching the Lord; He will hear and fulfil your petition. It does not depend on the Lord; He Himself is near, and all that is necessary for you is already prepared in Him; now all that is wanting is you. Manage to raise up your voice to the measure of the Lord’s hearing, and you will immediately receive everything. What then is this measure? Faith, hope, devotion to God’s will. But even these measures have their own measures. What then should these measures be? Ask the one who has prayed and received what he requested; he will say to you: “I prayed about this and about that and I received according to my request; now I need this, I have been praying and have not received it, and I know why: because I cannot in any way ascend to that measure of prayer which I had earlier.” It turns out that it is impossible to determine this measure with literal preciseness. Only one thing is definitely true, that the matter depends upon us, and not on the Lord. As soon as you reach the point where you are capable of acceptance, you will unquestionably receive.