A Plea for Help

Sed utinam vel dum haec loquimur, ipso conscientiae nostrae judicio, et proprii sermonis querimonia excitaremur, vel sero possemus dicere: 'Nunc coepimus, haec mutatio dextrae Excelsi' sed 'ventres pigri' sumus, et idcirco 'adhaeret pavimento anima nostra' quamvis jamdudum ei dixeritis: 'Erige te a mortuis, ut attingas Christum.' Quem quidem Dominum interventu fidei vestrae, per gratiae sacramentum, imposuistis in naviculam cordis nostri. Sed quia somno inertiae nostrae obdormivit in nobis, opus est ut eum excitetis, ut assurgat in excitationem animae nostrae; imperet silentium turbidis cogitationum terrestrium flatibus, et sensuum nostrorum fluctus verbi sui pace componat, ut fiat in corde nostro casta tranquillitas; et spiritu veritatis gubernatore, ac Dei verbo remige, dirigamur ad portum voluntatis nostrae.  Sanctus Paulinus Nolanus, Epistola IX, Ad Amandum

Yet even as I say these things may the very judgement of my conscience and the laments of my own words rouse me, so that, even so late, I may be able to say, 'Now that I have begun, this is the change of the right hand of the Most High.'1 But we are 'slothful bellies'2 and therefore my soul cleaves to the earth, although you have for so long been saying to it, 'Rise from the dead that you may attain to Christ.'3 By the intervention of your faith, through the sacrament of grace, you have established the Lord in the little ship of my heart. But by my idle slumbering Christ has slept within me, and it is your labour to rouse Him that He may rise up to rouse my soul, that he may command silence on the confused gusts of my earthly thoughts, that he may calm with the peace of his own word the billows of my senses; and with the spirit of truth as helmsman and the Word of God as oarsman, I shall be guided to the harbour of my desire. Saint Paulinus of Nola, Letter 9, To Amandus 1. Ps 76.11  2 Tit 1.12 3 Ep 5.14