Archives

Apr282015

Purposeful prayer

Prayer…is not the end we propose to ourselves in a spiritual life; it is only a means by which we help ourselves to make progress in virtue, and to obtain a victory over our passions and evil inclinations, in order that, having surmounted all the obstacles that hinder us from approaching God, and having made straight the path that leads to Him, we may unite ourselves inseparably with Him. When St Paul had the eyes of his soul entirely opened by God, by that light which flashed on him from heaven, and by that divine voice that said to him, “I am Jesus whom you persecute”, what a change was made upon a sudden in him? With what promptitude, with what submission, did he then abandon himself to the will of God, as his own words testify—“Lord, what would you have me do?”…-–St Alphonsus Rodriguez

…as he went on his journey,
it came to pass…
a light from heaven shined
round about him….
falling on the ground,
…heard a voice…
Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?
…Who art thou, Lord?
…I am Jesus whom thou persecutest.
It is hard for thee to kick against the goad.
…trembling and astonished…
Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?

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Apr052015

Fortitude: seek that which is above

Brothers and sisters:
If then you were raised with Christ, seek what is above,
where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.
Think of what is above, not of what is on earth.
For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

Epistle of Paul, Letter to Colossians chapter 3

“The kingdom of heaven is to be taken by storm, and it is only the violent that carry it away”. (Matt 12)  And, as when you go against the tide, you must always row without ceasing, and when you stop but for a while, you find yourself drifted far from the spot you had rowed to; so here you must still push forward, and make head against the current of your depraved passions, unless you be content to see yourself quickly carried far back from that degree of perfection which you had before attained. –St Alphonsus Rodriguez ‘The Practice of Christian & Religious Perfection I’.

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Mar272015

Habit increasing the small into the insurmountable

…St Bernard writing upon the words of Job: “I am reduced to such an extremity that the very things I had a horror to touch are at present become ordinary food”. “Would you know”, says he, “what power practice or habit has over us? At first a thing will appear to you insupportable; but if you accustom yourself to it, in time it will seem less hard, afterwards you will find it easy, and in the end it will give you no pain at all, but a great deal of joy and delight”; so that you may say with Job–“I now take pleasure in feeding upon those things, which before I had difficulty to touch”. –Fr. Alphonsus Rodriguez ‘The Practice of Christian & Religious Perfection volume I’

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Mar192015

Perfection discipline, practice greater

St Dorotheus says, that nothing so much helps us to advance in virtue, and to acquire peace and tranquility of mind, as the opposing and resisting of our own will… ‘You are going somewhere…and you have a great mind to turn about and look at something on the way; overcome your curiosity, and do not look at it. You are in conversation—something occurs to your mind, and you think that the saying of it would make you pass for a wit; let it alone, say nothing… By chance you cast your eyes upon something brought into the house that is new, and you wish to know who brought it; ask not who did so. You see a stranger enter—curiosity urges you to know who he is, whence he comes, whither he goes, and for what business; mortify yourself by making no inquiry after him’….this exercise very much helps to produce a habit of mortifying our will; because if we accustom ourselves to renounce it in these small things, we shall the sooner be able to deprive ourselves of greater. –St Alphonsus Rodriguez ‘Christian Perfection’

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Feb162015

Mortification Vitality

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…prayer is an efficacious means of mortification….mortification of ourselves is the true fruit we must reap from prayer; and that we may, with reason, suspect that prayer which is not accompanied with mortification. For as, in order to shape iron, it is not sufficient to heat and soften it in the fire, but it must also be beaten with the hammer before it can receive its proper form; so it is not sufficient to mortify our heart by the heat of prayer, but we must also make use of mortification to fashion our soul…. –St Alphonsus Rodriguez

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