One Hundred and Seventy-First Subject. Marks of Lukewarmness

Brother Philippe, Subjects for Particular Examen, 1870, pp. 271–273

Thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God, at that time when He led thee by the way.—JER. ii. 17.
To have distractions in prayer, but to take means to prevent and diminish them, does not imply lukewarmness.
To experience only distaste and dryness in our exercises, and, nevertheless, to perform them all with great exactness and at the desired hours, is not to be lukewarm; it is, on the contrary, to be very fervent.
To commit faults even frequently, but to repent of them, to confess them, to take efficacious means to correct them, this is not only not to be lukewarm, it is to be in the way of salvation:
But to say our prayers badly, by our own fault, through disgust, through negligence; to omit them without sorrow, and without remorse, or to draw from them no fruit, this is at least a commencement of lukewarmness. To make our readings, not in books most likely to touch the heart, but in those which help to pass away the time, to amuse, or to save appearances; to make our examinations without wish to know ourselves, and without desire to correct ourselves; to confess without sorrow, and without proposing to amend, and generally the same faults; to communicate without preparation, but only because it is the day, because others do so, and because we dare not dispense ourselves from it, not even to have the energy to aid oneself with a book, either for preparation or for thanksgiving; to have received Jesus Christ in the morning, and scarcely to occupy oneself any more with him during the day, are so many proofs of lukewarmness.
To love the world, to associate with it willingly, and even at the expense of our duties; to give ourselves up to frivolities, to gratification of the senses, of our eyes, of our tongue; to nourish a certain distaste for the things of God; to be unwilling to want anything, to suffer any trouble, any constraint; to be impatient at the least contradiction; to fear more the humiliations which follow sin than sin itself; to commit faults deliberately; to make no account of little observances, small duties, inspirations, remorse of conscience, the advice of our superiors, the warnings of our brothers; to be always the same, to lead a life of custom, of habit, of routine, are all so many proofs that an unhappy lukewarmness reigns in the soul.
Is it not thus that we conduct ourselves? Do we not recognize in ourselves these proofs of lukewarmness? Let us beware of it; let us hasten to put our hand to the work, and to profit by the counsel which the prophet gives us: To-day if you shall hear his voice harden not your hearts. —Ps. xciv. 8.
Pause.
ACT OF CONTRITION.—All my conduct is a proof of the lukewarmness in which I have lived for a long time, O my God! For this with what regret is not my heart seized at this moment! What! to serve thee so badly, O master so good! to abuse so grievously Thy gifts, Thy graces, Thy favors! What ingratitude! O, I conjure Thee, pardon me, by the merits of Jesus Christ and the intercession of Mary.
I make the resolution to......