fearful, the first thing to aim at is the recovery of peace and tranquillity of mind, and with it, your trustfulness. Furnished with these arms, turn again to the Lord; for your distress about your sin was occasioned, not by the consideration of the offence against God, but of the loss to yourself.
To recover this peace, you must for the time wholly forget your fall, and fix your mind on the unspeakable Goodness of God; considering His great readiness and eagerness to pardon every sin, however grievous; and how He calls the sinner by various means and many ways to return to Him, that He may unite him to Himself in this life, and by grace sanctify him, and in the life to come by His Glory may make him blessed for ever.
When you have quieted your mind with these and similar reflections, think once more upon your fault, doing as I have already bidden you.
Again, at the times of sacramental confession (and I recommend you often to resort to this) look again at your falls, and with renewed sorrow and displeasure for having offended God, and with a resolve never to offend Him more, open them with all simplicity before your spiritual father.
