According to St. Alphonsus de Liguori, there are two kinds of lukewarmness: one which can be avoided, and the other which cannot be avoided.
Strictly speaking, unavoidable tepidity is not really lukewarmness, but simply the feeling of being lukewarm. St. Alphonsus wrote, “Unavoidable tepidity is that which in the present life is endured even by fervent souls because, through natural weakness, they cannot avoid falling from time to time into some slight fault, but without full consent…. God Himself permits these imperfections in His Saints in order to keep them humble. Often they find themselves without fervour, full of weariness and disgust in their devout exercises; and at such times of dryness they are more apt to fall into many defects, at least without deliberation.”
An example of unavoidable tepidity is that St. Therese of Lisieux often fell asleep during meditation and while making her thanksgiving. She also struggled with praying the Rosary. She forced herself to meditate on the mysteries of the Rosary but didn’t succeed in fixing her mind on them. However, she was not discouraged for she bore in mind that little children are just as pleasing to their parents asleep as awake. She also wrote, “I think that the Queen of heaven, since she is my Mother, must see my good will and she is satisfied with it.”
Avoidable tepidity is true lukewarmness caused by infidelity. St. Alphonsus wrote, “There is true and deplorable lukewarmness when the soul falls into venial sins which are quite voluntary and grieves but little for them and takes even less care to avoid them, saying that they are trifles of no consequence. What! Is it nothing to displease God? St. Teresa used to say to her nuns: ‘My daughters, may God preserve you from willful sins, however small.’”
According to Father Adolphe Tanqueray, “lukewarmness consists in a sort of spiritual languor which saps the energies of the will, inspires one with a horror for effort, and thus leads to the decline of the Christian life…. One may compare it to those slow-working diseases, such as consumption, which little by little prey upon some vital organ.”
The causes of lukewarmness are chiefly two: defective spiritual nourishment and the entry into the soul of some noxious germs. Our soul needs to be nourished by various spiritual exercises such as meditation, devout reading, vocal prayer, examination of conscience, and fulfilment of daily duties.
If these exercises are not performed or are performed poorly the soul becomes weak. The noxious germs for the soul are the three concupiscences: pride, lust, and avarice. Giving in to one or to all of them is the cause of lukewarmness in many souls.
St. Teresa of Avila became a nun around the age of 20. After a few years she became lukewarm. Only around the age of 40 did she become fervent again. Later on she identified a number of things which had caused her lukewarmness: first, paying little attention to venial sin; second, failing to avoid the people who caused her to sin; third, relying too much on herself rather than on God; fourth, neglecting the holy inspirations and light given by God.
Conversion or repentance is the only remedy for lukewarmness. Ralph Martin wrote, “Dryness experienced as a result of such negligence, lukewarmness, and infidelity—and whatever stage of the downward spiral it may have led to—has only one solution: repentance. This dryness is self-induced; the solution to it is to return to fidelity in our spiritual practices.”
St. Alphonsus gave the following remedies: 1) a resolution to escape at all costs from this miserable state; 2) to remove the occasion of falling, without which there is no hope of amendment; and 3) frequently to recommend himself to God with fervent prayer, that He would give him strength to come out of this deplorable condition and not to cease praying until he finds himself delivered from it.
St. Josemaría Escrivá wrote, “Fight against the softness that makes you lazy and careless in your spiritual life. Remember that it might well be the beginning of tepidity … and, in the words of the Scripture, God will vomit out the lukewarm.”
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悔改治癒冷淡的靈魂
據聖亞豐索所說，冷淡有兩種：一種是可以避免的，另一種是不能避免的。
嚴格來說，不能避免的冷淡並不是真的冷淡只是感覺到冷淡。聖亞豐索寫道：『不能避免的冷淡是在這現世生命中，甚至是熱心的靈魂都會經歷到的，因為由於自然的軟弱，他們時常不能避免，在不完全同意下，陷於細小的過錯中…天主是容許在祂的聖人中這些不完美，好能讓他們謙遜。他們也經常發覺自己缺乏熱誠，為他們虔誠的行為感到疲累和厭倦；並在這般枯乾的時候，他們更易於陷於很多的失誤中，最低限度是未經思考的。』
一個不能避免的冷淡例子是，聖女小德蘭經常在默禱時，在她奉上感恩時睡著了。她也在誦念玫瑰經時掙扎。她強迫自己在各玫瑰奧蹟中默想，但卻不成功把思想與它們連結。可是，她並不氣餒，因為在她思維中小孩子們在睡眠和他們醒來的時候都同樣讓父母們喜歡。她也寫道：『我想天上母王，因為她是們的母親，應該看見我的好意，她也定為此滿意。』
可避免的冷淡是真的冷淡，它是由不忠實引起的。聖亞豐索寫道：『真的和可悲的的冷淡是靈魂墜入小罪中，這是相當自願的，悲傷的是它們很少甚至會跟進去作躲避，說它們只是無後果的瑣事。什麼！難道它不會讓天主不歡的嗎？聖女德蘭慣常地跟她的修女們說：「我的女兒們，願天主保佑你們遠離故意的罪惡，無論這些罪惡多麼小。」』
安道.鄧奎利神父指出: 冷淡是靈性上的怠惰，削弱了意志力，厭倦了要渡相稱基督徒生活的努力——就像那些幔性疾病，靜靜地、漸次地，損害身體的重要器官。
冷淡成因主要有二：缺乏靈性上的滋養和荼毒靈魂。實際上，我們靈魂需要不同的滋養，如默想、閱讀聖書、誦禱經文、誠心省察、善盡每日本份等；假如我們敷衍上述所行，靈性會變得軟弱。
荼毒靈魂涉及三種私慾偏情：驕傲、迷色及貪婪；當中任何一種，足致眾多原是熱心的靈魂變得冷淡。
聖女大德蘭當修女時約二十歲，數年後內心變得冷淡，約在四十歲時才轉化成熱心，她歸咎冷淡的原因，首先是對犯小罪漫不為意，第二是沒有離避陷她犯罪的人物，第三是太倚重自己的能力，對天主缺乏信賴，第四是忽略天主給她靈性上的默啟。
皈依或悔改是冷淡的唯一療藥。拉爾夫·馬丁寫道：『枯乾是這些疏忽，冷淡和不忠的結果—無論由它引發持續下滑到如何的境界—它只有一個解決方法：懺悔。這枯乾是自行引致的；解決方法是在我們靈修的實踐中回到真誠。』
聖亞豐索給了以下克服冷淡的補救方法：1)一個不論代價的決心去逃離這可憐的境界；2)去除犯錯過的場合，做不到這點，是沒有能夠修正的希望；3)熱誠向天主祈禱，求祂賜與力量從這糟糕的情況下跑脫，並不停止祈禱直至看見自己得到解脫。
聖若瑟瑪利亞、施禮華寫道：『跟你的軟弱鬥爭，因它使得你懶惰並使你在超性生活上粗心大意。這種鬆懈可能成為不冷不熱的態度的開始。根據聖經，對於不冷不熱的人，天主要把他們嘔吐出來。』
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