Addiction

If we plant a plant or a shrub and water it every day, it will grow so sturdy that we shall need a spade and a fork to tear it up. This appears to be the case with any fault, however small, that we commit daily, unless we amend it; though it is easy to uproot it when it has only grown for a day or even for ten days. We must pray to our Lord to grant us this amendment, for on our own account we can do little except add to our sins instead of giving them up.

However small an attachment may be, do not be too confident that you can cut it off at any time, but cut it off at once: for if you do not have the courage to destroy it when it is but beginning, how can you presume upon success when it has taken root and grown?

First we practice sin, then defend it, then boast of it. Sin is first our burden, then our custom, then our delight, then our excellency.