Customer Reviews

Spiritual Combat: How to Win Your Spiritual Battles and Attain Peace

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This book is an extremely valuable resource in growing in the spiritual life. Everyone has their own obstacles that prevent them from growing closer to God. Dom Scupoli aids the reader in a step-by-step fashion on how to destroy those obstacles and temptations that come in life. He has us better know ourselves, while keeping the focus on God, that we may fight the good fight. Written in an easy-to-read format, anyone can win their spiritual battles with the help of this book. St. Francis de Sales read this book, and even carried it in his pocket for 18 years! A definite recommend!

Like most spiritual classics, this book is best read slowly and in small portions at a time and then repeatedly over a substantial period of time. I tried reading it at first in one sitting and nearly got bowled over with spiritual indigestion! It is aptly described as a manual which methodically lays out strategic steps and guidelines for battling temptations and casting out one's inner demons. There are three main ideas:

1. Distrust yourself
2. Trust God
3. Various methods of overcoming temptations and winning spiritual battles.

This book confronts the deceitfulness of our fallen human nature and the endless justifications we are capable of generating to cover up our faults. Like a powerful microscope, it searches out our hidden faults and calls us to cultivate humility and trust God to change us. He organizes his materials under several spiritual exercises such as prayer, celebrating the Eucharist, governing our hearts, persevering through trials, yielding to God and cultivating inner peace.

Some counsels are so radical I think they are suited for 'spiritual commandos'. I nibble at the hem of this book's wisdom and hope to master the basics. The effects have been immensely humbling. It is no wonder that St Francis de Sales kept it with him for so many years. It is the sort of book that is so deep in wisdom and practical in scope one needs a lifetime to ruminate over it and let it turn us right side up.

It should be sufficient to say that St. Francis De Sales carried this work with him for 18 years. With that said I will only add that I found the insights in this book to be tremendously helpful in my daily battles/struggles with temptation and sin. There are great treasures of advice and guidance in this book that I think anyone, (Catholic or not), who is trying to walk the Christian path will find helpful.

This book, even just half way through, has been amazing. At over 400 years old, it still reads like new. This man is amazing, great Catholic teaching on fighting spiritual ailments, temptation, and not just what to do, but how to do it.

The whole time i read the book I felt like he was speaking directly to me.. it was eerie. Everything applied to things going on in my life and events I faced, or thought about.

This book will be a special one for you, I know it, and don't hesitate any more to get it. Buy it used, new, just get it.

At first I did not want this book - my unfinished stack was too big, but ultimately I had to see what St. Francis de Sales carried with him for 18 years, you know, if it worked for him...

I think this is some good ammunition for the spiritual soldier, sort of a spiritual combat basic training manual. I could open it to just about any page and find a clear, simple instruction to work on for the day, e.g., always get the commanding officer's orders first, as Scupoli says "...do not bring yourself to will something until you have first lifted your thoughts to God, to ascertain whether it is His will...".

This book is full of helpful strategies for anyone fighting to attain Christian perfection. Very easy to read. Glad I got it.

To hitchhike on what a previous reviewer has written, the spiritual insights contained in this book cannot be adequately digested by reading it in one, two or even three sittings. It is best read in little chunks and then contemplated upon. I can understand why the Saint carried it for 18 years. This is one of those rare books that can be read over and over again and each time it is read a different valuable insight is revealed.

This is a challenging book but it is EXCELLENT. There is a podcast on iTunes called "Into the Deep" (...) that goes over this book practically chapter by chapter. They must have used a different published version of this book because the chapter numbers are not the same, but it is a great compliment to the book.