In truth, I would not have neglected to tell you to trample under foot all your feelings, your interests, your fears, your aversions, if I had not had that confidence in the goodness of the heavenly Spouse, that He would give you strength and courage to take the side of inspiration and reason against that of nature and aversion. Behold you, then, all dead to the world, and the world all dead to you.

That is one part of the holocaust, and there remain two more yet. The first of these is to flay the victim, stripping your heart of itself, cutting and tearing away all those minute impressions given us by the world and nature; and the second is to burn up and reduce to ashes your self-love, and convert your soul, all in flames with celestial love. -‘Practical Piety’ The Saint Francis de Sales Collection.

You must draw near to our Lord, and speak to Him of something else, until your spirit is restored and tranquilised. For whilst the trouble lasts, you ought not to say or do anything, but remain firm and resolute not to consent to your distress, whatever reason there may be for it; for you will never want reasons at such a time; they will come in crowds; but you must not listen to one of them, however good it may seem to you; but keep yourself nigh unto God, speaking to Him of something else, as I said, and diverting your mind from the subject of your sorrow after you have humiliated and submitted yourself before His majesty.

But observe this remark, which I take pleasure in repeating because of its utility: humiliate yourself with a sweet and peaceful humility, and not with a sad and troubled humility; for it is our misfortune that we bring before God acts of humility full of vexation and sorrow; and so doing, we do not assuage our spirits, and we render those acts fruitless. If, on the contrary, we perform these acts before the Divine goodness with a sweet confidence, we should come out full of peace and serenity, and would very easily reject all the reasons, very often and generally speaking unreasonable, which our own judgment and our self-love suggest to us, and we would go and speak to those who corrected us with as much ease as before. - - Saint Francis de Sales, Advice on receiving and giving correction.

I perceived the suggestions which the enemy of your progress (Satan, worldly ways) makes upon your heart, and I also perceive the grace which the most holy Spirit of God gives you to maintain you strong and firm in pursuing the path wherein He has placed you.

The evil one cares not about our mortifying the body (exterior behavior), provided we do always what he wishes (interior life): he fears not austerity, but obedience. What greater austerity can there be than holding one’s will continually subject and obedient? You are fond of these voluntary penances (false humility); if, after all, the works of self-love can be called by the name of penances (contrived spiritual efforts).

When you gave yourself to God, after many prayers and much consideration (authenticity), it was found good that you should enter into obedience and the denial of your own will, rather than be left to your own judgment and to yourself: do not, then, let yourself be overcome, but remain where our Lord has placed you (patience, trust, and submission).

It is true, that you there have great mortifications of heart, perceiving yourself so imperfect in that path, and so worthy of frequent correction and reproof; but is not this the very thing you ought to seek, mortification of the heart, and the continual sense of your own abjectness? (Brutal honesty, penetrating self-knowledge)

But, say you, you cannot do such and such a penance…Tell me, I reply, what better penance could an erring heart have, than to endure a continual cross and denial of its self-love? But I say too much: God Himself will hold you with that same hand of His mercy with which He placed you in this vocation; and the enemy will have no victory over you…. (within failure God succeeds) -The Saint Francis de Sales Collection.

Earth as we are, let us walk on earth, since the deep sea turns our head and makes us reel. Let us remain at our Lord s feet with Mary; let us practice those little virtues which are adapted to our littleness; and there are virtues that are exercised rather in descending than in ascending, the better for our weakness. Such are patience, the bearing with our neighbour and doing him service, humility, sweetness, courage, affability, the endurance of our own imperfections, and other little virtues like them. I do not say that we are not to ascend by means of prayer; but it must be step by step. -St Francis de Sales

You ask me for remedies against the temptations against the faith which are troubling you. You must deal with such temptations exactly as you would with those against purity. Dispute with them neither much nor little, but do as the children of Israel did with the bones of the paschal lamb, which they never attempted to break, but cast them into the fire. You must never answer nor seem to understand what the enemy says. Let him make as much noise as he pleases at the gate, never once say, Who goes there?

Very true, you will say to me; but he importunes me, and his noise is so loud, that those within cannot hear each other speak. Never mind; patience; they must speak by signs; you must prostrate yourself before God, and remain there at His feet; He will understand by this humble guise that you are on His side, and that you wish for His help, though you cannot speak. But above all, keep yourself fast within, and on no account open the door, either to see who knocks, or to drive away the troublesome applicant. He will at length weary of his noise, and leave you at peace.

Courage, then; provided he does not enter in, it matters nothing. It is, however, a very good sign that the enemy keeps knocking and storming at the gate; for it shews that he has not what he wants. If he had, he would not make any more noise, but enter in, and quietly remain there. -St Francis de Sales ‘Practice of Piety’

St Francis de Sales is sweeping me away with his penetrating insight. For those fortifying the interior, he advances introspection to a sublime degree of scrutiny through a unique and poetic thought pattern. Turning the mirror upon one’s self through brutal honesty, unafraid of ugliness, while avoiding self-absorption, the cleansing aspect of knowing ourselves only leads to a greater love of that which is truly Holy. Holy, holy, Holy is the Lord God of hosts, all the earth is full of his glory,

The virtue of simplicity is contrary to subtlety, a vice which is the source of contrivances, artifices, and duplicities ; and it is by means of this vice that we invent tricks to deceive our neighbour, and to make him suppose we have in our heart no other sentiments but those which we manifest to him by words; and this is infinitely contrary to simplicity, requires that we should have our exterior conformable to our interior.

* * * *

You are quite right: a person who is in God’s hands ought never to disquiet himself about his reputation. Let God do what He will with our life and our character and our honour, since it is all His own. If our humiliation serves for His glory, ought we not to glory in being despised I Gladly, therefore, said the Apostle, will I glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may dwell in me. (2 Cor. xii. 9.) What virtue is this! Humility and the acquiescing in humiliation. May we sincerely love those crosses we meet with in our road, and may God bless us in the love of His holy cross!

The final quote is the most challenging, placed after the first, out of order of intended authorship, for the purpose of shining light upon the dark nuance of a dedicated spiritual life attempting to establish a deepening of faith through social activity. A challenge to myself as I attempt to broaden my faith-based community life. I am determined not to define my own spirituality through the critical evaluation of others. My love of Christ, the passionate lover relationship I have been enamored with over the last week or so, is not strengthened by finding fault in others. I recognize that to continuously conflict is a statement within itself on two levels. First it pejoratively declares the immature mindset of being a malcontent. I admire Abbot William’s coming into his own, forming the Maronite Monks of Adoration, through dissimulation and estrangement with previous religious vocational experiences. Comprehending he did not become bitter. Rather, he utilized abrasiveness to greater define who he was, allowing him to become more dependent and grounded within prayer and the contemplative life. God, and his discernment, led him to a life able to provide the nurturing necessary to flower within his personal way. God blessed his unique walk upon an authentic path for he was authentic, allowing his interior and exterior life to mature. He was a man with a purpose, forced to rely upon patience. The second way continual critical conflict-a debating, competitive, and judgmental spiritual life-deteriorates is the fact one is unable to grow, to move forward in life, revealing those mature in faith. If we cannot leave behind those dragging us down we cannot move forward to those able to support and inspire. AA is the obvious example of an approach in which individuals become stuck, never able to advance, continuing to battle and immerse themselves in negativity, gossip, and demeaning relationships. Making really good points, saying witnessed extremely intelligent things, expressing cleverness within a crowd, delights as an end itself-continual talking in support groups becomes a dead end. On the other hand, Ann comes to mind for if we are continuously pursuing new people, becoming attached to different people in the same destructive ways, constantly using and seeking new faces, we are not moving forward. Such a singles mindset, modern in reflection upon the proliferation of divorce and destruction of the family, promotes selfishness and immaturity. An inability to commit and deepen within community and familial relationships, to need people yet to be unable to form mature, intelligent, emotionally stable relationships, is a statement about one’s lacking of a healthy interior life. Discovering new people to exercise delusion upon is not growth. It is nothing more than complex distraction. Obviously those are generalizations for within both realities is a fidelity to the understanding that within all things is goodness. However the pursuit is not about remaining stagnate, advancement is the call. Honoring the call of God, a vocation, demands clear recognition of His voice. That recognition cannot occur until distracting voices have been silenced. St Teresa of Avila’s commenting on moving beyond the fourth chamber proves relevant as she stresses the importance that advancement is dependent upon not looking back. The pleasantries of the third chamber cannot fascinate and charm one into sentimental attachment. Unemotional-lacking bitterness, pride, or sorrow, detachment is demanded in order to progress. To become enamored with one’s reputation, or even more subtle one’s rejection of a reputation for that is a reputation in itself, forces one to remain stagnant. The Unitive Way becomes unreachable. Again distressing myself, I will focus upon others, identifying my avoiding, always hiding, from the traditionalist populating the world of the Tridentine mass and the pro-life crowd. There becomes such an energy drain concentrated upon one’s activity and reputation amidst those perceived as Church elite that it appears as nonsense to myself. An extremely loud righteous voice drowning the small quiet voice of God. We must avoid falling in love with our reputation amongst those whose reputation we admire. It is a delicate and severe judgement, for I keep in mind John the Hermit levying such criticism toward my Hospice activity, yet I am confident in my assessment. I am not afraid to make determinations. Being right or wrong is not the point, rather growth and a greater love of Christ centers as a mission. “For the glory of God and the salvation of souls’.

I must go, expression brought to a conclusion.

Spiritual lovers, spouses of the Heavenly King, do indeed view themselves from time to time, like doves near most pure waters, to see whether they shall be pleasing to those they love; and this is done by the examens of conscience, by which they cleanse themselves, purify and adorn themselves the best they may, not to satisfy themselves, but to obey the Spouse, for the reverence they bear Him, and the extreme desire which they have to give Him pleasure. And is not this a love very pure, very simple, and very perfect, since they do not purify themselves in order to be pure, nor adorn themthemselves in order to be beautiful, but only to please their Heavenly Lover, to whom if ugliness were as pleasing, they would love it as much as beauty. - - St Francis de Sales, wordsmith Saint, ‘The Exercises of Christian Simplicity’