Memorial St Augustine

"It becomes you, therefore, out of love to this true life, to account yourself desolate in this world, however great the prosperity of your lot may be. For as that is the true life, in comparison with which the present life, which is much loved, is not worthy to be called life, however happy and prolonged it be, so is it also the true consolation promised by the Lord in the words of Isaiah, I will give him the true consolation, peace upon peace, without which consolation men find themselves, in the midst of every mere earthly solace, rather desolate than comforted. For as for riches and high rank, and all other things in which men who are strangers to true felicity imagine that happiness exists, what comfort do they bring, seeing that it is better to be independent of such things than to enjoy abundance of them, because, when possessed, they occasion, through our fear of losing them, more vexation than was caused by the strength of desire with which their possession was coveted? Men are not made good by possessing these so-called good things, but, if men have become good otherwise, they make these things to be really good by using them well. Therefore true comfort is to be found not in them, but rather in those things in which true life is found. For a man can be made blessed only by the same power by which he is made good.

It is true, indeed, that good men are seen to be the sources of no small comfort to others in this world. For if we be harassed by poverty, or saddened by bereavement, or disquieted by bodily pain, or pining in exile, or vexed by any kind of calamity, let good men visit us, men who can not only rejoice with them that rejoice, but also weep with them that weep, and who know how to give profitable counsel, and win us to express our feelings in conversation: the effect is, that rough things become smooth, heavy burdens are lightened, and difficulties vanquished most wonderfully. But this is done in and through them by Him who has made them good by His Spirit. On the other hand, although riches may abound, and no bereavement befall us, and health of body be enjoyed, and we live in our own country in peace and safety, if, at the same time, we have as our neighbours wicked men, among whom there is not one who can be trusted, not one from whom we do not apprehend and experience treachery, deceit, outbursts of anger, dissensions, and snares, in such a case are not all these other things made bitter and vexatious, so that nothing sweet or pleasant is left in them? Whatever, therefore, be our circumstances in this world, there is nothing truly enjoyable without a friend. But how rarely is one found in this life about whose spirit and behaviour as a true friend there may be perfect confidence! For no one is known to another so intimately as he is known to himself, and yet no one is so well known even to himself that he can be sure as to his own conduct on the morrow; wherefore, although many are known by their fruits, and some gladden their neighhours by their good lives, while others grieve their neighbours by their evil lives, yet the minds of men are so unknown and so unstable, that there is the highest wisdom in the exhortation of the apostle:Judge nothing before the time until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts; and then shall every man have praise of God.

In the darkness, then, of this world, in which we are pilgrims absent from the Lord as long as we walk by faith and not by sight, the Christian soul ought to feel itself desolate, and continue in prayer, and learn to fix the eye of faith on the word of the divine sacred Scriptures, as on a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day-star arise in our hearts. For the ineffable source from which this lamp borrows its light is the Light which shines in darkness, but the darkness comprehends it not— the Light, in order to seeing which our hearts must be purified by faith; for blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God; and we know that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. Then after death shall come the true life, and after desolation the true consolation, that life shall deliver our souls from death that consolation shall deliver our eyes from tears, and, as follows in the psalm, our feet shall be delivered from falling; for there shall be no temptation there. Moreover, if there be no temptation, there will be no prayer; for there we shall not be waiting for promised blessings, but contemplating the blessings actually bestowed; wherefore he adds, Iwill walk before the Lord in the land of the living, where we shall then be— not in the wilderness of the dead, where we now are: For you are dead, says the apostle, and your life is hid with Christ in God; when Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall you also appear with Him in glory. For that is the true life on which the rich are exhorted to lay hold by being rich in good works; and in it is the true consolation, for want of which, meanwhile, a widow is desolate indeed, even though she has sons and grandchildren, and conducts her household piously, entreating all dear to her to put their hope in God: and in the midst of all this, she says in her prayer, My soul thirsts for You; my flesh longs in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is; and this dying life is nothing else than such a land, however numerous our mortal comforts, however pleasant our companions in the pilgrimage, and however great the abundance of our possessions. You know how uncertain all these things are; and even if they were not uncertain, what would they be in comparison with the felicity which is promised in the life to come!"

-- From a letter of St Augustine to Proba

Life unfolds as an ongoing process

"A spiritual biography attempts to lay bare the outline of the growing awareness of God's 'working' in a human life. It is the history of the struggle to accept oneself out of God's hand and hence also the history of blockages, fears, and repressions. In many ways, after all, we hold all sorts of things at bay in the hope of saving ourselves by the skin of our teeth: We want to understand and control, plan and organize our life. We resist the 'uncertainty' of the unmerited  miracle of a life when we dare entrust ourselves to the mystery of the creative hand of God. Having been created after God's image, life unfolds as an ongoing process in which we progressively grow towards complete likeness with this image. In that way we become the persons we essentially are. For God to see, after all, is the same as to create and love. A spiritual biography, accordingly, describes the growing consciousness which God's mysterious 'working' brings into light. This is the story of the indescribable miracle which occurs in a person 'in life as it is.'"

-- Encountering God in the abyss: Titus Brandsma's spiritual journey by Constant Dölle

** Photo from pixdaus

Exercise care: do not become attached to temporal goods

“Spiritual persons must exercise care that in their heart and joy they do not become attached to temporal goods. They must fear lest, through a gradual increase, their small attachments become great… what is small in the beginning can be immense in the end… And they should never assure themselves that, since their attachment is small, they will break away from it in the future even if they do not do so immediately. If they do not have the courage to uproot it when it is small and in its first stage, how do they think and presume they will have the ability to do so when it becomes greater and more deeply rooted?”

-- The Ascent of Mount Carmel by St John of the Cross

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"Love is at the heart of the spirituality of St. John of the Cross. Oftentimes, however, peo ple read his writings and become frightened by the absolute, stark, and radical language he uses, such as: all or nothing, self-denial, mortification, emptiness, renunciation, nakedness, contempt for self and creatures, and detachment. All these terms form a rich vocabulary to express the theme of negation and can appear repellent and inhuman if not understood correctly. They recur throughout John's works and are often the source of misinterpretation and fear that have distorted the beauty, depth, and humanness of his person and doctrine."

"To begin with, the starting point for approaching John's negation spirituality is the expe rience of being loved by God a God who desires to enter into a personal relationship of love with human beings and our response to that love. Any notion of self-denial, detach ment, renunciation, or emptiness that is not born of an experience of God's personal love makes no sense to John of the Cross. God always takes the initiative. "We love because he first loved us" (1 Jn 4:19). In the beginning of the Spiritual Canticle , which sings of and recounts the Christian journey toward union with God in terms of love, John writes that the soul is only able to begin the journey of love in search for union with God because she first had an experience of God's love, and as a fruit of that experience, came to an aware ness that love is the purpose of existence (C, 1, 1). It is this experience of God's love that ignites the fire of love within a person so that one can begin the journey towards union with God through love."

"The final element of negation as a form of love and union with God is that the more one's love grows the more one's heart becomes concentrated on the Beloved, and as a natural corollary, whatever impedes the growth of love or attention to the Beloved, or whatever is superfluous to this love, simply falls away. In this sense, detachment in St. John of the Cross is a natural outcome of an ever deepening and concentrated love of God. Negation has nothing to do with a depreciation of material or spiritual goods, other relationships, having fun, or created reality. It is about a relationship of love, of making an option for Jesus Christ the Beloved. John of the Cross was an ardent lover of God and his whole message is to make God the love and the center of our lives because we exist for Love, for God, who is the fulfillment of all human existence and who offers us the fullness of life, love, and happiness. He maintains that the more we are "won over to love," the more we concentrate our love and attention on God and God's reign, the more our attachments, selfishness, useless desires, and even very good but superfluous things, will fall away as a result. This is the mystery of Love that by its very nature transforms and frees us."

-- Free to love: Negation in the doctrine of John of the Cross by Daniel Chowning, ocd

Spiritual journey: the stages of spiritual growth

"...[T]he purgative stage or way includes the initial phases of the spiritual life, including coming to conversion, turning away from sin, bringing one's life into conformity with the moral law, initiating the habit of prayer and the practices of piety, and maintaining a relatively stable life in the Church. (The first three mansions of Teresa [of Avila] deal with issues connected with the purgative stage.)

The illuminative stage is one of continuing growth. It is characterized by deeper prayer, growth in the virtues, deepening love of neighbor, greater moral stability, more complete surrender to the lordship of Christ, greater detachment from all that is not God, and increasing desire for full union. It is accompanied by various kinds of trials and purifications and sometimes be great consolations and blessings, including what are commonly referred to as 'mystical phenomena.' (Teresa's fourth, fifth, and sixth mansions deal with issues connected with this stage.)

The unitive stage is one of deep, habitual union with God, characterized by deep joy, profound humility, freedom from fears of suffering or trials, great desire to serve God, and apostolic fruitfulness. The experience of the presence of God is almost continual; great insight into the things of God is experienced; and while not without suffering, suffering now becomes primarily the grace of sharing in the redeeming suffering of Christ rather than the suffering of purification. This deep, habitual union is variously described as a 'spiritual marriage' or 'transforming union.' (Teresa describes the unitive stage in the seventh mansion.)

This three-stage division is a useful way of broadly characterizing the different aspects of the spiritual journey...

...[I]t's important to bear in mind that in practice no one's life perfectly matches any of the stages described... [D]ifferent aspects of these stages can be present in one's life simultaneously, although the direction of our lives, if we are making progress, should increasingly mirror the characteristics the saints point out as indicators of spiritual progress. As Catherine [of Siena] puts it, 'These are three stages for which many have the capacity, and all three can be present in one and the same person.'"

-- The Fulfillment of All Desire by Ralph Martin