Elder Ephraim of Arizona on two graces in spiritual struggle

Elder Ephraim of Arizona describes two kinds of grace that come when a person struggles for God. The first is the consolation of the Holy Spirit, which fills the soul with joy, peace, and sweetness, but this grace comes and goes. The second is the experience of temptation, which is impressed indelibly on the soul and does not leave the heart because it is united with the heart that has experientially lived through temptation.

During temptation, the second grace, experience, is more useful because it enlightens the soul with knowledge of how to pass through temptations. Since experience comes from temptation itself, it knows how to deliver the soul from perdition whenever temptation appears. Temptations that are endured with patience reward a person with the wisdom of temptation, and in this way one becomes a true philosopher.

If a person does not humble themselves, the lessons that come through temptation will not cease. Egoism creates temptation, but for that very reason temptation restrains egoism. The elder urges his children to humble themselves if they want to humble the demons that torment them.

He tells them to throw themselves before everyone's feet and say, "I am the worst person in the world and everything is my fault!"