Who then is your adversary?
Against who do you compete?
Some then ignore their identity,
And allow chains around their feet.
Chains of bitterness,
Terrible rage,
Sad unforgiveness
That shatters our days.
Do not forgive them only when they deserve it,
Christ forgave you and you have not earned it.
Forgive them their trespass, forgive them your loss,
This is the agony of carrying your cross.
But remember beloved, the true fight to survive,
The landscape on which for your very soul you do strive,
Is only the little heart,
And the elevation of its climb.
For all the cities of heaven, and every depth of abyss,
Is found in that small vessel the heart,
Either the other to eclipse.
Remember then in your learnings,
this one vital note,
remind yourself of it daily,
and learn this by wrote.
Your adversary is not the one who beat you in some game.
Your adversary is not even the one who caused you terrible shame.
Your adversary is not the teacher who attempted to give you discipline.
Your adversary is not the friend who encouraged you to be a dissident.
Your adversary is only one, even though he calls it legion.
He lives inside your heart more than any other region.
You cannot beat him once and for all,
But you can resist him daily.
You can strengthen your weakness,
with prayer and humble training.
He would like trick you
Into blaming a fellow, also tricked,
Another brought to madness
Through any particular conceit.
