aeternus

“But the believing soul longs and faints for God; she rests sweetly in the contemplation of Him. She glories in the reproach of the Cross, until the glory of His face shall be revealed. Like the Bride, the dove of Christ, that is covered with silver wings [Ps. 68.13], white with innocence and purity, she reposes in the thought of Thine abundant kindness, Lord Jesus; and above all she longs for that day when in the joyful splendor of Thy saints, gleaming with the radiance of the Beatific Vision, her feathers shall be like gold, resplendent with the joy of Thy countenance.”

– St. Bernard of Clairvaux “On Loving God”

The time of spiritual desolation is also a time for being resigned. When a soul begins to cultivate the spiritual life, God usually showers his consolations upon her to wean her away from the world; but when he sees her making solid progress, he withdraws his hand to test her and to see if she will love and serve him without the reward of sensible consolations. “In this life,” as St. Teresa used to say, “our lot is not to enjoy God, but to do his holy will.” And again, “Love of God does not consist in experiencing his tendernesses, but in serving him with resolution and humility.” And in yet another place, “God’s true lovers are discovered in times of aridity and temptation.”

Let the soul thank God when she experiences his loving endearments, but let her not repine when she finds herself left in desolation. It is important to lay great stress on this point, because some souls, beginners in the spiritual life, finding themselves in spiritual aridity, think God has abandoned them, or that the spiritual life is not for them; thus they give up the practice of prayer and lose what they have previously gained. The time of aridity is the best time to practice resignation to God’s holy will. I do not say you will feel no pain in seeing yourself deprived of the sensible presence of God; it is impossible for the soul not to feel it and lament over it, when even our Lord cried out on the cross: “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me[3]?” In her sufferings, however, the soul should always be resigned to God’s will.

The saints have all experienced desolations and abandonment of soul. “How impervious to things spiritual, my heart!” cries a St. Bernard. “No savor in pious reading, no pleasure in meditation nor in prayer!” For the most part it has been the common lot of the saints to encounter aridities; sensible consolations were the exceptions. Such things are rare occurrences granted to untried souls so that they may not halt on the road to sanctity; the real delights and happiness that will constitute their reward are reserved for heaven. This earth is a place of merit which is acquired by suffering; heaven is a place of reward and happiness. Hence, in this life the saints neither desired nor sought the joys of sensible fervor, but rather the fervor of the spirit toughened in the crucible of suffering. “O how much better it is,” says St. John of Avila, “to endure aridity and temptation by God’s will than to be raised to the heights of contemplation without God’s will!”

But you say you would gladly endure desolation if you were certain that it comes from God, but you are tortured by the anxiety that your desolation comes by your own fault and is a punishment for your tepidity. Very well, let us suppose you are right; then get rid of your tepidity and exercise more diligence in the affairs of your soul. But because you are possibly experiencing spiritual darkness, are you going to get all wrought up, give up prayer, and thus make things twice as bad as they are?

Let us assume that this aridity is a punishment for your tepidity. Was it not God who sent it? Accept your desolation, as your just desserts and unite yourself to God’s holy will. Did you not say that you merited hell? And now you are complaining? Perhaps you think God should send you consolations! Away with such ideas and be patient under God’s hand. Take up your prayers again and continue to walk in the way you have entered upon; for the future, fear lest such laments come from too little humility and too little resignation to the will of God. Therefore be resigned and say: “Lord, I accept this punishment from thy hands, and I accept it for as long as it pleases thee; if it be thy will that I should be thus afflicted for all eternity, I am satisfied.” Such a prayer, though hard to make, will be far more advantageous to you than the sweetest sensible consolations.

It is well to remember, however, that aridity is not always a chastisement; at times it is a disposition of divine providence for our greater spiritual profit and to keep us humble. Lest St. Paul become vain on account of the spiritual gifts he had received, the Lord permitted him to be tempted to impurity: “And lest the greatness of the revelations should exalt me, there was given me a sting of my flesh, an angel of Satan to buffet me[4].”

Prayer made amid sensible devotion is not much of an achievement: “There is a friend, a companion at the table, and he will not abide in the day of distress[5].” You would not consider the casual guest at your table a friend, but only him who assists you in your need without thought of benefit to himself. When God sends spiritual darkness and desolation, his true friends are known.

More tomorrow…

Uniformity With God’s Will

Saint Alphonsus de Ligouri Chapter 6 — Spiritual Desolation.

“Perfection is founded entirely on the love of God: ‘Charity is the bond of perfection;’ and perfect love of God means the complete union of our will with God’s.”

– St. Alphonsus

Translated by Thomas W. Tobin, C.SS.R

• [3] Matt. 27:46.

  [4] 2 Cor. 12:7.

I thought to post some meditations on Christ passion this week. St. Bernard of Clairvaux, with his ability to speak about his deep mystical experiences is one of my favorites for reading. He said he acquired his spiritual knowledge:

“any knowledge of divine things I might possess,
or any facility in explaining Holy Scripture, had been
obtained through meditation and prayer among the
woods and in the fields, with none but the beeches
and the oaks for my teachers.”

Here is a little snippet from his writing on the Song of Songs.

“From the very beginning of my conversion, my brethren,
feeling my own great deficiency in virtue, I appropriated to my
self this nosegay of myrrh, composed of all the sufferings and the
pains of my Saviour; of the privations to which He submitted in
His childhood; the labours that He endured in His preaching;
the fatigue that He underwent in His journeyings; of His watch-
ings in prayer, His temptations in fasting, His tears of compas
sion; of the snares that were laid for Him in his words; of His
perils among false brethren; of the outrages, the spitting, the
smiting, the mockery, the insults, the nails; in a word, of all
the grief of all kinds that He submitted to for the salvation of
man. I have discovered that wisdom consists in meditating on
these things, and that in them alone is the perfection of justice,
the plenitude of knowledge, the riches of salvation, and the
abundance of merit; and in these contemplations I find relief
from sadness, moderation in success, and safety in the royal
highway of this life; so that I march on between the good and evil,
scattering on either side the perils by which I am menaced.
This is the reason why I always have these things in my mouth,
as you know, and always in my heart, as God knows; they are
habitually recurring in my writings, as every one may see; and
my most sublime philosophy is to know Jesus Christ, and Him
crucified.”

St. Bernard Serm. 43, in Cant. Cantic.

I just read the most beautiful account of St. Perpetua who was executed in the arena in Carthage on 7 March 203. She herself is historically credited with writing a large part of her “death through a passionate martyrdom”. Apparently, her story is one of the earliest writings of history that we have from a woman…

Please visit the Medieval Source Book to have a read for yourself…

And what follows is a prayer for today from the wonderful St. Bernard…

We beg the all-merciful Father through Thee,
his only-begotten Son made man for our sake,
crucified and glorified for us,
to send upon us from His treasure-house the Spirit of sevenfold grace,
Who rested upon Thee in all His fullness:

the spirit of wisdom,
enabling us to relish the fruit of the tree of life, which is indeed thyself;

the gift of understanding:
to enlighten our perceptions;

the gift of prudence,
enabling us to follow in Thy footsteps;

the gift of strength:
to withstand our adversary’s onslaught;

the gift of knowledge:
to distinguish good from evil by the light of Thy holy teaching;

the gift of piety:
to clothe ourselves with charity and mercy;

the gift of fear:
to withdraw from all ill-doing and live quietly in awe of Thy eternal majesty.

These are the things for which we petition.
Grant them for the honor of Thy Holy Name,
to which, with the Father and the Holy Ghost,
be all honor and glory, thanksgiving, renown,
and Lordship for ever and ever.

Amen.

– Saint Bonaventure

– photo from our recent snowstorm…