This is a common experience with those who habitually frequent the tribunal of penance. How many times have we had many and grievous {85} falls into some particular sin; we make a good confession and go away not only cleansed, but strengthened by the grace of absolution; and after some days or weeks we begin to realize with a sense of joyful surprise that the temptation which a little while ago was constantly appearing seems to be entirely withdrawn. The occasion may arise, but the soul feels no drawing to that in which it had before sinned. It is the operation of the special grace of absolution, a grace which cannot be had other than through the Sacrament of Penance, whatever other great graces God may give us in reward for true contrition of spirit. It is important that the work of prayer in preparation for temptation should cover every point. As we have already thought in connection with watchfulness, nothing must be done in the natural spirit; no temptation can be overcome by means of dependence on anything else but the gifts of divine grace. "Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord of Hosts."[9] It is a part of the Faith that we can do nothing pleasing to God in the natural spirit. Nothing can be acceptable with Him, nothing can draw from Him the graces we need, save what is done {86} through the power and influence of the Third Person of the Ever-Blessed Trinity. The Apostle says that no man can do so simple a thing as to "say that Jesus is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost."[10] So it is the Holy Ghost Who is to be our guide and protector. Do we pray to the Holy Ghost? We pray often to the Father; frequently, perhaps, to God the Son, but how much is prayer to God the Holy Ghost neglected amongst Christians! And yet He alone is the agent of the Godhead in the Church. His is the work of sanctification, as the Father's is the work of creation, and the Son's that of redemption. No grace comes to us save through the Spirit. Everything that comes into our lives from God, whether by means of prayer or sacrament, faith or good works, comes through the personal action of the Holy Ghost. Therefore in preparing for temptation let us look to Him and pray to Him in all things; and thus "strengthened by His Spirit in the inner man,"[11] we can go forth to the day's conflict, knowing that the assaults of Satan and the occasions of sin can only bring us new opportunities of victory that will merit us the crown of life which is promised to them that overcome. In the midst of this prayer in preparation for {87} temptation we must expect to find ourselves the objects of Satan's peculiar malice. All prayer is a challenge to him, but none so much as the prayer by which we are gaining new force and resource to employ against him.[12]