An Invitation To Read My Story - My Testimony

 The Deadly Peril of the Lukewarm Soul

A lukewarm soul exists in a state of spiritual gangrene – not yet dead but actively decaying. This tepidity manifests as a faith that maintains external appearances while internally rotting. Like a corpse painted to look alive, the lukewarm Catholic performs religious duties without the vivifying breath of genuine devotion.

Consider their prayers: mumbled without preparation, interrupted by worldly thoughts, treated as burdensome obligations rather than divine conversation. Their Mass attendance becomes mere routine, their minds wandering to business deals and household tasks while the infinite sacrifice of Christ unfolds before them. As St. John Vianney describes, they move "like a tortoise or a snail," dragging themselves through religious duties with neither love nor reverence.

Their confessions reveal the horror of their condition. Year after year, they recite the same sins without true contrition or effort to reform. They seek the most lenient confessors, avoiding those who might challenge their comfortable compromise with sin. They approach the Holy Eucharist with hearts cluttered by worldly concerns, treating the Body of Christ with the same indifference as ordinary bread.

Small sins accumulate like spiritual rust: lies told without remorse, slander spread without regret, charity withheld without conscience. These souls see no danger in venial sins, yet each compromise corrodes their spiritual vitality. They maintain enough religion to ease their conscience but not enough to transform their lives.

Most terrifying is their self-deception. They believe themselves "good enough" Christians while living in a state that nauseates God Himself. Scripture warns that God will "vomit them out" – a violent image of divine rejection. Their lukewarm state is not mere spiritual weakness but active repugnance to the Divine.

The only escape from this death-like state is radical transformation. Every comfort must be sacrificed, every habit examined, and every compromise eliminated. The lukewarm must plunge into the consuming fire of divine love, allowing it to burn away all tepidity until only burning zeal remains.

For the stakes are eternal: we cannot serve both God and spiritual mediocrity. Each moment of lukewarm faith drives us further from divine intimacy, building a wall of indifference between our souls and salvation. We must choose: either the blazing furnace of God's love or the tepid waters that He will spew from His mouth.

Let us tremble at the possibility of being counted among these walking dead – these souls who neither hate God enough to leave Him entirely nor love Him enough to serve Him fully. The time for comfortable Christianity has ended. Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts.

©2025 James Dacey Jr.