In view of the tremendous moral decadence of our times, no one will be able to maintain perfect purity of body and soul without constant interior vigilance. Evil suggestions swarm everywhere and provoke disordered movements in the sensibility, which can go unnoticed at first, even masquerading as good feelings and virtues, until the wave rushes in impetuously and there is almost no longer any way of resisting it. In this manner, the unwary often fuel, with culpable naivety, the very flame in which they will burn.
The integrity of faith is in even greater danger. In today’s mad world, our Catholic wisdom can be replaced by folly if we do not scrupulously safeguard it. There are many people who think they are keeping their faith intact, but in fact they only keep the externalities of the dogma, without the substance, because the most intimate and hidden portion of their intelligence is clinging to the earth. This is because in their everyday activities they did not exercise due reflection and have exposed themselves to the surprises of a fallen nature, thus deforming their mentality.
Above all, without this prudent habit of seeing, judging and acting in relation to oneself, it will not be possible to form the Catholic sense, that delicate flower of faith which gives us the ability to perceive, in the smallest things, the good odour of Christ or the pestilential smell of worldliness, and to know at every moment what is most favourable to the Church, because ardent love has intuitions of what the understanding has not yet seen.
Mastering disordered tendencies
Man is free; he is defined by his behaviour and is the master of his actions. This does not mean that he does not feel the attraction of the various objects that surround him, which appear to him as possible ends of his activity, because without this attraction, the human will could not act. In fact, the will is of itself inclined towards the good and therefore cannot move if some good is not proposed to it.
However, the good towards which the will is properly and necessarily inclined is the absolute good, since experience irrefutably proves that we all desire unlimited happiness.
But such happiness cannot be given by the things of this world, which are limited in themselves. Therefore, nothing of this world can irresistibly and absolutely attract the will. And when the will chooses an object, it does so with that unlimited happiness in mind, to the attainment of which the chosen object contributes in some way.
Often, even though we see the true good, we feel the weight of evil tendencies that push us towards objects that cannot satisfy our ardent desire for full happiness and instead distance us from it, but which deceive this desire with an apparent satisfaction that soon dissipates. So we often give in, but we give in freely, knowing that we are abandoning the path of the true good, driven by immediatism, which finds this path too long and difficult.
And we freely relinquish our liberty, surrendering ourselves to the tremendous forces that original sin has unleashed in us. Thus, from fall to fall, the power of the will weakens, until these forces become more powerful and enslave the sinner, who will then only use his freedom to surrender to them.
It is therefore necessary to strengthen the will through the systematic exercise of austere acts, so that it can, without danger, dominate the disordered tendencies that everyone possesses because of original sin and thus put the soul in order.
Imploring the help of grace
Nothing, however, can so strengthen the will and enlighten the intellect with regard to the good as the grace of God, which comes to us abundantly from Jesus Christ our Lord.
In this sense, there is a double definition from the Council of Trent that sheds special light on the subject. Firstly, it is heresy to say that an unbeliever cannot practise virtuous acts, because if that were the case, man would not be naturally free. However, anyone who claims that it is possible for man, without the help of grace, to entirely fulfil the Commandments in a lasting manner shall be anathema, for that would be to deny the effects of original sin. Thus, the education of the will could never be accomplished without grace, because through grace it acquires its true meaning: it is man’s voluntary correspondence to God’s priceless gift.
Furthermore, grace transforms our actions, giving them a supernatural value.
Thus, the possibility and excellence of the work of our sanctification depend on grace, but its realization depends on our will. Otherwise, there would be no merit, and it would be absurd to suppose that what even original sin did not take away, namely freedom, is suppressed by grace. Grace fortifies the will, which, strengthened, knows how to assert itself among so many dissenting forces and follow its natural inclination towards the true good rather than its decadence, freely choosing what seems best to it according to its interior criteria. And if grace fortifies, it is necessary for the will to make use of this fortification, lest grace become vain in us and therefore useless, as the Apostle says (cf. 1 Cor 15:10).
It would be an illusion to think of an automatic sanctification by grace. On the contrary, the lives of the saints show that sanctification is an ardent and tenacious struggle.
Means to win the battle for sanctification
Verbal or mental prayer, private or liturgical, is not the end of the spiritual life. That end is sanctification, which is the death of our fallen nature and our being built up again in Jesus Christ (cf. Rom 6:3-11). But prayer is an effective means of equipping the Catholic with greater resources for the inner warfare. In any kind of prayer, however, divine help is granted according to the right intention of the petitioner.
This is also true of the Sacraments: although they objectively contain grace, and are therefore a sure resource, they will be to no avail without the inner correspondence of those who receive them. In the same way, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is a flowing torrent of graces, but whether they are received with greater or lesser benefit depends essentially on the interior dispositions of those who attend.
Capable of overcoming increasingly greater difficulties
A grace to which we have responded in this way, and which has produced fruit in us, is a pledge of new and greater graces. And in granting us this greater freedom, God demands from us more numerous and excellent fruits of sanctification, until our perfect fulfilment in Jesus Christ. Thus, the greater abundance of graces conferred on a person is not intended to remove all obstacles from their spiritual life, but to make it capable of overcoming ever greater obstacles. In fact, our nature has been deformed from top to bottom by original sin.
So we need to destroy the vicious edifice of our sinful nature in order to rebuild it in Christ. And the more this work progresses and deepens, with God’s grace, the more difficult it becomes, because we go back to the cause of all our defects, until reaching that point where we deserve to receive the final transformation from the Holy Spirit. Not only do we deserve to receive it, but we have the courage to endure it.
The need for spiritual reading and how to do it
To meditate is to apply the intelligence to eternal truths, so as to better know them. It is also to apply the intelligence to the most accurate knowledge possible of ourselves, in order to ascertain the degree of correspondence between what is in us and those eternal truths, thus to determine the practical measures to be taken to achieve this correspondence. This last goal demands the application of the will to all that was meditated upon, so that it is reinforced in the love of good and the hatred of evil, and resolves to perfect itself. There are various methods of meditation, but eminent among them are those found in the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius.
In order to meditate well, spiritual reading is almost always necessary, that is, the attentive and devout reading of some book of piety, duly approved by ecclesiastical authority.
Spiritual reading reminds us of our eternal destiny in the midst of the activities of this world, which distract us by their multiplicity and urgency; it detaches our intelligence and will from earthly things and elevates our sensibility, showing us the mysterious beauties of the Faith, and moving us by examples of holiness, or giving us practical rules of life and devotion. In this way, spiritual reading deposits in us the seeds of Christian perfection that will be developed and matured by meditation, which finds its vital elements in them. More explicitly, it is spiritual reading that provides the material for our meditation.
However, in order to be fruitful, this reading must be regular, frequent and in careful proportion to each person’s special interests, otherwise its fragmentary and sparse influence will be easily undone by the worldly agents almost constantly at work.
Obligation to study Catholic doctrine
In order to meditate well, it is also necessary to have a clear knowledge of Church doctrine.
We have seen that meditation deals with eternal truths. These truths are contained in the doctrine of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, without the religious instruction that gives us a clear knowledge of them, not only can the fruits of meditation and spiritual reading be lost, but it is also very likely that the spirit will wander off into obscure paths that lead to dangerous illusions and harmful errors, with their unforeseeable effects over the sensibility.
Furthermore, Church doctrine contains the truths that are the object of faith. Now, if faith is what characterizes our profession as Catholics, we are all obliged to know these truths to the full extent of our condition and ability, since no one can believe without knowing what they believe. And it would be the utmost ingratitude towards God, who has revealed these truths to us for our salvation, if we did not endeavour to know them to the best of our ability.
To do God’s will in all things
The immediate fruit of the spiritual life, as we are describing it, must be a firm resolve, an ever more lively and ardent desire to serve God and to detach ourselves entirely from the things of the world. A lively desire, because we set out to employ all the means conducive to this end and do not lose heart in the face of difficulties and our own weakness, but are aware of our free will and humbly and actively trusts in Providence. Ardent, because we are consumed with zeal for God’s glory.
A firm resolve does not mean the promise to always, in everything and in the smallest things, fulfil God’s will, because such a promise cannot be made without a special vocation or a particular grace, and even then in relation to certain determined facts. But it is the intense desire for this to happen as soon and as perfectly as possible.
Examination of conscience: the key of the spiritual life
In order to avoid surprises and to reap the positive results of the spiritual life, and consequently to adopt the most effective methods of dealing with ourselves, it is necessary to examine our conscience on at least a daily basis.
The examination consists of carefully inspecting our thoughts, words and deeds over a set period of time and investigating the motives and circumstances of our behaviour. In this examination lies the key of the spiritual life, for it is through a concrete assessment of what is going on within us that we can exercise the superior and general activity of seeing, judging and acting within ourselves.
Furthermore, the examination of conscience helps us to dispel false ideas about ourselves, leads us to humility and encourages repentance.
An examination of conscience is also necessary for Confession. In this regard, everyone should have their own spiritual director, who is the centre of everything that has been said about the life of piety. In fact, all the recommendations that have been made would be practically futile without the guidance of a priest who, being much better equipped by his knowledge and special graces, knows how to indicate the paths that his penitents can safely follow.
If it were not for the inexperience of those embarking on the path to perfection – inexperience that will certainly mislead them, if they lack a guide – it would be enough to consider that the spiritual life requires each person to judge himself, but no one can be an impartial or objective judge of himself. A third person of great wisdom and undisputed virtue is therefore needed.
Devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Holy Eucharist
The spiritual life requires mortification – that is, the careful custody of the senses – or it will not be spiritual life. True mortification consists not only in depriving ourselves of illicit or dangerous pleasures, but also of those licit pleasures that can exacerbate the bad dispositions and unruly tendencies present in each person.
Mass celebrated in the Chapel of Our Lady of the Pillar, Ubatuba (Brazil)
Finally, all these rules of spiritual life must find their indispensable complement in a twofold devotion, without which no fruit will be reaped: devotion to Our Lady and to the Holy Eucharist.
The Most Blessed Virgin is the Queen of beatitude and of the blessed, and devotion to her is a sure sign of predestination. There is only one way to God, which is Our Lord Jesus Christ; but there is only one way to Our Lord Jesus Christ, which is Our Lady, the Mediatrix of all graces.
Thus, the devotee of the Blessed Virgin will find in the Heart of Mary the very Heart of Jesus, in that which this Heart contains of most loving, most tender and most compassionate. Now, where the amiability of the Heart of Jesus is most manifest is in the Most Holy Eucharist. In this way, devotion to Our Lady leads naturally and spontaneously to devotion to the Eucharist.
Without this fervent worship of the Eucharist – which can only be true with Marian devotion, by Marian devotion and in Marian devotion – spiritual life is not possible, since it consists in the assimilation of this sublime nourishment.
In the Blessed Sacrament resides not only grace, but the Author of all grace, in whose likeness the elect are made, because apart from Him there is no blessing, no fruit, no blessed resurrection. To Him, then, be honour, glory, praise, adoration and thanksgiving for ever and ever. Amen. ◊
Taken, with adaptations, from:
Dr. Plinio. São Paulo. Year IV.
N.38 (May, 2001), p.20-24;
N.39 (June, 2001), p.6-9
