2/4 - Simplicity of St Therese #2 - Fr. Terrance

[Music] so yesterday we talked about simplicity and saint therese especially in prayer how she approached her prayer life in a simple way today we're going to look at a couple of other things that she talked about regarding simplicity first of all simplicity interactions and also in the practice of renunciation and penance therese's way focuses as we said yesterday mostly on actions that are ordinary and that are commonplace so her focus is on things that other people won't be envious of if we're doing them sometimes we see other people doing great things more envious of what they do that's not so much saint teresa's focus we do as we mentioned yesterday in yesterday's conference we do give god the liberty to act in extraordinary ways in our lives as he wants to do that he's god he has the liberty to choose to do that if he wants to saint therese also would have given him the same liberty as well same freedom but again the extraordinary or sensational things weren't so much her focus in the spiritual life when you read the biographies of some saints like if you read saint veronica giuliani or saint pio the two franciscan capuchin stigmatists right if you read their biographies it seems like everything is extraordinary one thing after another probably in real life that wasn't the case but if you have a biography of someone you're writing this much about their life you kind of what do you do you write about the highlights typically what are the things that are stand out it wasn't the case with saint therese you know her biographies don't have lists of extraordinary miracles or extraordinary graces and i think that was also one of the her complaints about the lives of the saints too she would read them and she would say that they were a bit over the top in the sense that they weren't something that was accessible to everyone and she would also would have i think she said she would also like to sing in the biographies of the saints some of their defects too let's read about some of the defects of the saints because the saints did have defects she considered herself a very little soul as she said one who can only offer insignificant things to god and she said god has no need for brilliant deeds for beautiful thoughts it is neither intelligence nor talent he's looking for on earth he loves simplicity she said we would indeed deserve pity if we were required to do great things so we would be very among the most to be pitied if we were required to do great things uh so that's important to keep in mind that with the idea that god looks for love in everything not so much talent or intelligence or wealth or capabilities or external ability uh he's uh or beauty he's looking for someone to love him essentially he's looking for it's like what we do right we look for people to love us that's exactly what god is looking for in life as well he's looking for someone to love him some people are capable of doing great deeds and that's a good thing it's a beautiful thing however saint therese would say that greatness in god's eyes generally comes how what is greatness in god's eyes like it's generally doing ordinary things with love even with great love for god that was a mother teresa's that was what she would say often right do it do little things with great love her patron was saint therese she actually took her name for saint therese they would ask mother teresa who are you named after she'd say the little the little theresa not the big one that's the big one is saint teresa of atlas you shouldn't know i'm named after the little one on a side note it's kind of in general speaking as far as our life of prayer goes and and that it's typically the depth of our union with god that counts the most um i remember someone recently asking me they said father you know if i'm in prayer and i am in church and i'm kneeling down and praying you know i'm really praying focused there and or if i'm out in the field and kind of kind of feeding the cattle or i'm breaking the leaves or something where where do i give the greatest glory to god when i'm what kind of prayer do i do that and i stopped and i thought for a second i said well it really depends on the intensity of our union with god you know the intensity of your union with god it shows where you give the greatest glory to him in prayer how much grace you give to him or how much grace you receive from him yes father when you speak of union with god does that mean that your will is synonymous that would be uh certainly the highest union when your will is perfectly conformed to his will that would be the highest union of god so those three levels of the spiritual life that would be the highest level when you're perfectly conformed so someone who is at the highest level of the spiritual life uh the little things that they do are done in total union with god and so they're more meritorious there's more grace than that doesn't mean that you have to be in the church of praying all the time to actually be united to the lord so how strong how intimate your relationship is with the lord that depends on how powerful your prayers are how powerful your your intercession is for others so sanctity is not based on external circumstances it's very important to keep in mind sanctity is not based on external circumstances it's based on the internal working of the holy spirit in us in our minds and in our hearts god's grace working in us in our cooperation with that grace when we do what our lord says when we love god with all our heart with all our soul with all our strength with all our mind as he says in luke 10 27 when we do that and love our neighbors as ourselves that's greatness in god's eyes that really is when our prayers become very powerful to him again quoting from saint therese she said i don't despise profound thoughts which nourish the soul and unite us to god but i have understood for a long time that we do not need to build on such foundations nor does perfection consist in receiving many lights the most sublime thoughts are valueless without works she says the most beautiful thoughts they don't have works attached to them they're not worth anything it sounds very similar to what saint james said in the new testament which martin luther didn't like right that's this is the book he wanted to get rid of in the new testament he actually wanted to cancel it st james says faith without works is it's dead right it's dead james 2 20. also saint paul says in first corinthians 13 2 he says if i have the gift of prophecy and comprehend all mysteries and all knowledge if i have all faith so as to move mountains but do not have love i am nothing he says i'm nothing right saint arrest would say god made me realize that in order to attain true glory we do not have to accomplish brilliant works but we must hide ourselves and practice virtue in such a way that our left hand doesn't know what our right hand does where does that come from where does that saying come from does anyone that sound familiar to anyone it comes from the scriptures that's what jesus himself said he said do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing matthew 6 3. who understands what that means can anyone actually give an explanation what does that mean that's right a sermon on the mount uh-huh exactly does anyone have any idea what is how do you understand that don't let your left hand know what your right hand is doing i will ask paul if no one raises their hand because he's just he's very he's very humble he just he already knows but [Music] leading a holy life so this hand doesn't know what this hand is doing things without letting other people know what you're doing so you get praised from them you're doing you don't want praise from other people that's probably that would be the context of uh where jesus is saying it yeah and if you're so focused on god you don't care what you're doing to be so focused on god so that you don't you don't know that it's divine prominence that's carrying you along okay i would agree that's exactly what i was going to say it's your total focus on god not on yourself okay census fidelium so that we're to agree then we have the answer so i say yeah it means obviously not doing good and not telling others so don't let your left hand know what your right hand is doing doing good not telling others also could mean not even really reflecting on the good deeds that we do just doing them is that what you said okay that's what you said uh you know basically where it becomes second nature you know something becomes second nature you do it without even thinking about it essentially even when you're driving sometimes you know how to sometimes to get to work or to get home you just drive you know how to get there you don't even really have to think about what you're doing you just know where to turn and just becomes a second nature type of thing it becomes habitual i think it also means if you open the door okay yeah i think that's a big and that's one thing that i'll mention here is that uh in short you know not letting your left hand know what your right hand is doing is a way of saying that we forget ourselves in a certain sense we actually uh forget ourselves self-forgetfulness in doing good so what's the opposite of self-focus self-forgetfulness that's the opposite we shouldn't do good so that others will notice us or thank us for it we should do good spontaneously like jesus did we should do good so that our heavenly father will notice us if you want someone to notice you do it for the heavenly father do it for the lord saint therese did everything simply to please jesus she made acts of virtue and renunciations as circumstances dictated so depending on what was going on she would know the best way to respond and she offered to god the little nothings which alone remain to a soul that lives in spiritual dryness so she was a very often for most of her life she was in what we call spiritual dryness what does that mean no real consolations from the lord no real great inspirations or lights going through and being faithful to what she had to do each day like walking through the desert with the israelites and that's spiritual dryness it's a great image from the old testament walking to the promised land but through the desert saint therese wrote this she wrote i have no other way to prove my love than to strew flowers that is to use every opportunity for making little sacrifices be they look or a word to use all the most insignificant things and do them out of love hence i pluck every flower i find on my way for jesus and then as i strew my flowers meaning her little sacrifices before him i desire to sing although i have had to pluck them among the thorns and the sharper and longer the thorns the sweeter is my song i don't know if this was a retreat for all men i don't know how well this would be received by a lot of this isn't this is something where men would hear this and a lot of times they say well this doesn't make sense flowers and picking flowers and you've got to understand what she's talking about she's basically talking about you know i'm offering up everything as a sacrifice to the lord and there are thorns among the sacrifices and it's actually so it's a very flowery poetic language but it's really underneath of it she's a as as tough as steel really when you think about it when you think about what she's talking about how she's living it's actually very difficult to do that it requires a high level of perfection she's not afraid of suffering or sacrifices for her lord so i have a note here that if we're not so sure sometimes we aren't so sure we hear sacrifices we should make sacrifices sometimes we don't even know what how should i do that how do i go about doing that what is what would be a good sacrifice for me to do my suggestion would be ask the lord first thing you know what what kind of sacrifices can i make lord if you're not sure ask him he'll let you know one way or another he'll make it he'll make it clear to you one way or another if you do know what kind of sacrifices you should make to him i would still say ask him anyway why because he likes it when we ask him things right our lord likes it when we go to him and we bring things to him that's actually basically cultivating a relationship with him that way he feels a part of our life too i think sometimes the lord doesn't feel that he's really a part of our life because we don't allow him to be we should go to him and share with him jesus said if anyone would come after me does anyone know that bible verse when jesus said if anyone would come after me what must they do pick up your crew to deny yourself pick up your cross and follow me right luke 9 23 first thing deny yourself jesus said and that verse is actually uh in that book that i showed you yesterday by tanqueray by the spiritual life he gives a little introduction in the beginning and he's talking about the three ways of the spiritual life he said that verse some some writers have actually seen that verse as a summary of the spiritual life so if anyone would fall after me they won't deny themselves so that's the first stage purgative stage so that means you learn to say no to sin turn away from sin you learn to turn to god second part take up your cross daily they would say that's the illuminative stage that's when we begin to imitate jesus in his virtues we begin to take up our cross like he did and follow me they would say that's the unitive stage when it's really the will of god when it's the holy spirit who's guiding us so you can see the whole spiritual life just in a nutshell in that one verse talking about little renunciation saint therese said this would religious life be meritorious without these sacrifices no on the contrary these small crosses constitute all our joy they are commonplace but they prepare our hearts to accept the great crosses when such is the will of our good master when god wills to give us greater crosses so the smaller crosses are what prepare us for the bigger ones does anyone know of a bible verse where this this might sound like jesus said something regarding this matter does anyone just ring a bell to anyone uh where does jesus say you know he talks about small things and then big things exactly what i have exactly i have it written down here right luke 16 10 he says he who is faithful and very little is also faithful in much he was dishonest and very little is dishonest also in much right very good so we need to remember always that crosses are sanctifying crosses are what help conform us to jesus we have to remember that that's right that's right crosses are the kiss of jesus that's basically the opposite of what we would think naturally right we would think okay you know well-being and material comfort and everything is fine that's a sign of blessing even the old testament for the israelites that was often that was a sign of blessing you know everything is going well in your life that is a sign that god is blessing you our lord says it's not always the case where there are crosses there's jesus where's jesus there's mary so our lord wants us to think along those lines to go back to something that we mentioned a few minutes ago often we may neglect or underestimate the little sacrifices and the small ordinary acts of daily virtue we hold important works in esteem so the big things we hold in esteem and we admire the big and grandiose tasks and father jamar says by this somewhat artificial standard of values he says so esteeming the great things and despising little things he says by this somewhat artificial standard of values spiritually we lose much and we show but little love he says nothing is insignificant or negligible in the service of god the value of an action comes from two things what's the value of it come from in the spiritual life one the intention to the love that we put into it the intention and the love that we put into it that animates our actions little things done out of love says saint therese are those that charm the heart of christ on the contrary what we just said a minute ago the most brilliant things done without love are spiritually empty they're not worth anything in god's sight they're spiritually empty it is true that sometimes we have greater works to do and there is more difficulty in doing them and so persevering in that sometimes there is greater merit in that it's a greater work of love because it requires a greater degree of renunciation so greater renunciation can mean greater merit nevertheless the true value of actions springs from the quality of love that animates them so i think what you're getting a picture of here with saint therese as far as her teaching she's teaching that the little way is about sanctifying our ordinary life sanctifying our day-to-day life renouncing ourselves in little things renouncing our wills practicing the ordinary virtues patience kindness gentleness thoughtfulness simple things i mentioned before about saint teresa's uh critique of some of the lives of the saints uh you know part of the critique was that the lives are filled with extraordinary things so things that really aren't accessible to a lot of people some people they are but not everyone so it makes holiness seem impossible sometimes when you read the lives of the saints the little way stresses that holiness is for everyone and it can be achieved through being faithful to the normal ordinary duties of everyday life and we know it's not a small thing when you think about it it's not a small thing to be virtuous and to remain faithful every day to the things that you have to do every day to practice virtue in all the little things that's actually not as small as we might think it is sometimes that requires a lot of perseverance and a lot of strength on our part to be able to do that especially if it's live day to day if we have a dryness of soul so we don't have a lot of fervor for love of god or others in our heart if we have a dryness of soul to be to be continuing and persevering in doing good without a lot of spiritual consolations or illuminations that's a great path of sanctity the image that always comes to mind whenever i think of that is the israelites in the desert right 40 years in the desert wandering in the desert when are we going to get there when are we going to get there the lord the whole time is trying to get them to learn to be detached from the old way of life detached from their way of thinking detached from their wills learning to attach themselves to god that was the whole training ground why did it take 40 years to get there because that's they needed that much training you know they knew that it could have been a couple weeks actually uh if they were spiritually prepared they could have gotten there in a couple weeks the lord said no we'll do 40 years sometimes we don't even feel like we have anything to offer the lord right sometimes we don't feel like we have anything to offer what did saint teresa say about that she said if i felt like i had nothing to offer to jesus i would offer him that nothing i don't have anything to offer so i offer you the nothing that i have to offer can it all be considered sacrifice sure saint paul says offer your bodies as a living sacrifice holy and acceptable to god so not just our bodies but interiorly as well anteriorly as well your soul is attached to your body so if you offer the one essentially love in this world love is measured by sacrifice essentially the little nothings that we offer to jesus the insignificant acts of and sacrifices faithfully made are according to saint therese a true martyrdom she considered that a true martyrdom but of course saint therese's life wasn't all ordinary so we talk about all the ordinary stuff it wasn't all ordinary does anyone remember anything extraordinary that happened in saint therese's life anyone who knows of saint therese or who knows about her story okay exactly right when she was i don't remember how old she was was she nine or ten and uh she was deathly ill basically and they had a bunch of masses said for her and one of the during the novena masses our lady smiled the statue smiled at uh therese and she was healed instantly that's extraordinary does anyone know of anything else that happened in her life that was kind of extraordinary or out of the ordinary can anyone think of anything on the training else and this was after saint perez had died but not being canonized spoke to a woman and said you will do three years in teaching order and then you will be in carmel okay yeah so she was she was pretty busy she's been pretty busy after her life once when she passed on she's been she kept pretty busy after that she was canonized in 1925. i think saint john vianney was canonized the same year i think if i'm not mistaken so as far as other things in her life i remember the christmas miracle that you probably heard about that story when she was 14 or 13 and she actually uh basically was able to overcome her feeling of being very hurt because her dad was disappointed that he had to go through the same ritual every year after christmas and it was kind of a childish thing and so she was very hurt when she heard that but she overcame that and she didn't she didn't give in to her hurt feelings she said from that moment on she continued to grow spiritually that was a big thing she also had a vision of her dad i don't remember when it was it was a it was maybe 10 years before his illness she had a vision of him in the garden with a veil covering his face so she knew that there was tremendous suffering that was going to happen with her father she didn't understand when that was going to happen also i think meeting the pope that was kind of extraordinary you know right actually going there and petitioning him you can't say anything to the pope you just kiss his slipper and kiss his ring and so she as as when in italy do as the italians do so if they give you a rule you don't have to follow the rule right so she begins to tell him everything that she wants to do and so that was pretty extraordinary a couple of dreams she had as well so there were those things but also she had extraordinary sufferings too when you think about her her sufferings were extraordinary both in her body and her soul as well and her last years on earth were a continuous climbing up to calvary that was essentially what it was for her not just physically but also interiorly as well she felt completely abandoned by god she was going through the dark night of the soul as she was dying as well it remains true nevertheless that the texture of her life so in general the texture of her life and her world and even the cloister it was woven by ordinary things ordinary actions that are in the reach of all of us so if we don't become saints it won't be because we didn't have the opportunity so we won't be able to stand before the lord and say well you didn't give me the chance to become a saint he'll say he'll say i give you all these ordinary opportunities you just never saw them as opportunities to grow so the opportunities are always in front of us every moment of the day the next topic here with simplicity is just the the notion that therese did grow in simplicity she grew as she continued in religious life in her autobiography she says that at first she didn't understand she did not understand the great value of simplicity at first she didn't get that it makes sense right in the sense that we learn through experience and also god enlightens us progressively as we go along he doesn't show us everything all at once when we're little or at a certain time progressively he actually enlightens us she wrote jesus doesn't like to show us everything all at once he ordinarily gives light little by little so why do you think if i were to ask why doesn't god show us everything all at once as far as the spiritual life or as far as what we have to do does anyone have any idea why doesn't god just come to us when we're you know we turn 15 or 16 and just say okay this is exactly what it's going to be like this is what you have to do why do you think god doesn't do that to us we have to walk in faith right certainly we have to do that might become overwhelming you just forget about it could be over too much i think that's what our lord said to the apostles right he said i have much to tell you but you can't bear at all right now that's one of the things he told them right fear as well yeah that's possible if you know what's coming uh i mean uh if you told me when i was 16 that i'd be a priest [Music] so you're crazy you are crazy i think it's trust and patience to know that this turns out i'm sure sure exactly exactly i think it's all of that you know i really do i think also part of the reason that he doesn't tell us everything all at once is because he does like to surprise us too right believe it or not uh those of you who are parents i think sometimes you enjoy surprising your children too so uh there is an element of surprise there that he likes to throw in as well but i think it's all those things you know it's all those things really father jamar says that simplicity holds the middle ground between two extremes if our roger will like this this will be a so the middle ground between the two extremes what do you think the two extremes are so if simplicity is in the middle what do you think the two extremes would be between those any guesses so one would be too far one way the other one will be too far the other way okay okay okay i think you're getting you're getting close there he would say that's kind of in a certain sense he would say one rigidity on the one hand and he would say lack city on the other hand so what's the middle ground between rigidity and laxity he would say simplicity simplicity between destroying the flesh and catering to the flesh you know so you destroy it with rigidity you cater to it with laxity in the middle ground is simplicity so if simplicity is the via media right so it's the middle way so if that's the case it really is a gift from god when you think about it because virtue is always in the middle it's never on the extremes enlightened by the holy spirit therese changed her views regarding penance and mortification reading the lives of the saints she was first inclined to imitate their example you'll see this a lot with us young religious we read a book on the lives of the saints and we just start practicing whatever it is that the saint did the saint didn't eat anything for three days so okay i'm not going to eat anything for three days they slept on you don't even want to know what they slept on and then the friar or the brother maybe the sister as well they say okay we're going to do that too very common among those who are young and zealous plus a number of her religious sisters in the convent were devoted to the practice of extraordinary penances so that was actually very common as well so there was a certain peer pressure as well if everyone's doing something extraordinary then you kind of feel like you have to do the same thing as well to be at the same level of them but therese actually she fell ill because she wore a cross i don't i think maybe it was here on her chest i'm not sure where she were she wore an iron cross with a little points on it and she actually became ill because she did that so she realized that the austerities of some of the saints weren't meant for her and they weren't meant for those who walk in the little way of spiritual childhood so this is how she realized that through experience she couldn't handle it so if her focus was not going to be on exterior extraordinary penances if that was not going to be her focus what would her focus turn to then she's not going to focus on exterior extraordinary penances what's she going to focus on instead interior right interior mortification interior mortification of the mind mortification of the heart those things became her focus so she went to war against herself interiorly in the spiritual sphere by means of renunciation by means of hidden sacrifices who can think of what an example might be with that what are some kind of interior mortifications what would you even be thinking about with that interiorly so you remove your gallbladder or something or noises you actually do something no what would she be thinking interior mortifications can anyone think of what would be an example of that yes okay okay practicing uh humility when you don't want to be humble the holy spirit i also always quote this one right that's the fruits of the holy spirit one of them saints saint paul says is self-control right so being in control of myself when anger begins to well up in me learning to be in control of that there are some other examples here we'll get to that in a second when i was visiting the visitation sisters in massachusetts so the visitation sisters are the ones that were founded by uh saint francis jane francis de chantal and also saint francis de sales the visitation sisters they have a convent in massachusetts next to the divine mercy shrine has anyone actually actually been to the divine mercy shrine in massachusetts stockbridge very beautiful actually western massachusetts so we were visiting there because we were helping out with the with the uh with the divine mercy weekend and uh so the the visitation sisters tend to have very nice things the convent is very nice you go in it's very nicely decorated they have uh you know fine uh silverware they've got all kinds of very nice pictures and furniture and all those things and we commented to one of the sisters who was serving us we commented we said uh you have really nice things here this is a very nice very nice convent here and she said to us she said yes she said our holy father meaning saint francis de sales she said he wanted our uh the sisters to have nice things nice accommodations but interiorly she said he wanted us to be stripped bare he said interiorly he said he wanted he wanted us to be stripped bare meaning that the interior was to belong entirely to the lord so you can have things exterior things that are nice but they don't possess you interiorly interiorly you're possessed by the lord that's how saint therese began to understand penance and mortification and the spirit in that spirit instead of focusing again on the external penances she practiced self-forgetfulness she practiced avoiding seeking herself in what she was doing so if we were to if i were to ask you which is harder it would be harder to wear a small iron cross with nails on it or would it be harder to detach yourself from your own will if you think about it it's actually harder the interior mortifications are a lot harder right or from your own way of wanting things i'll detach myself from the way i want things to be done or arranged uh um if you're yes to like die of yourself and then people in public want to talk about like ask you questions about yourself how do you try to like reduce yourself while trying to like connect well you could do uh you could say no comment if they ask uh lauren tell us something about you say no comment or you say guy take the fifth i take the fifth or i don't say anything that incriminates me oh you have to be prudent about interactions with others sometimes it can be good we i think part of it would be you know what is what i'm saying is it saying something so that i can build myself up in other people's eyes or is it saying something so i can edify others am i sharing something that can be helpful for them or am i sharing something so that people can say wow i didn't realize you had a lamborghini that's that's amazing i think part of it is the intention really the intention of our hearts so basically in summary i think it would be easier to wear the iron cross honestly some of the exterior penances are actually easier than the interior ones and even with the exterior ones you do get used to them over time the interior ones it's a constant battle constant struggle in a letter to father i'm going to guess his name is pronounced beignet she wrote this she wrote i know that there are saints who spend their lives practicing extraordinary mortifications but after all there are many mansions in the house of our heavenly father she said jesus has told us so that it so that is why i fall the way he has traced out for me in those extraordinary penances she says there easily creeps in that which is inspired by nature rather than by virtue whereas in a hidden struggle of interior renunciation nature cannot get a hold on us and we can more easily attain humility and peace so in the exterior doing the exterior things we can still interiorly be very proud we can still kind of pat ourselves on the back for being able to do things that others can't do and you can actually begin to also look down on others well they can't they don't measure up right they're not as good they're not as penitential as us so it's not saying that all exterior mortification is bad she's just saying no you have to be careful uh what's more important is interiorly you have to be practicing the virtues you have to be renouncing yourself interiorly father jamar says we know that our saint here when she's talking about mortification that she's teaching sound doctrine are there not numbers of persons he says who imagine that they are mortified because they practice bodily penances while they fail to renounce themselves in the ordinary things of daily life or in the life of a religious community such persons he says are often lacking in humility of mind and are unwilling to obey they don't practice self-forgetfulness nor do they practice charity towards their neighbor but they seemingly try to lead a spiritual life some may even be religious for many years and yet never succeed in renouncing their self-love and they may never be able to make a serious resolution of forgetting themselves once and for all says father jamar so we repeat again our lord's words he said if anyone would follow after me you have to deny yourself take up your cross and follow me so denying ourselves spiritually is key it really is key to growing therese tells us that at the beginning of her religious life wishing to mortify herself at meals she would mingle bitter herbs with her foods that she had a particularly liking for so something if she really liked it she would put bitter herbs in it so she would wouldn't like it so much or if she tried to think of or she would try to think of things that would make her have a disgust for them while she was eating them so she's really trying to mortify herself a lot but later she said i found that it was much more in conformity with the virtue of simplicity to offer them to the good lord and thank him for the things which i found to my taste to thank the lord the things that that she enjoyed she adds however but when something was lacking so something at the table she didn't have salt or there was something that was lacking maybe the other sisters had eaten something else a portion of the another food that she wasn't able to get when something was lacking i was much more satisfied because i was then truly giving up something so it's really a beautiful balance that she's able to find there between the extremes so it's okay this morning we had for breakfast there were nice chocolate brownies out there and i thought it for rodrick because he just came back and i thought how much he would appreciate those and so eating the chocolate brownies for him it was a great thing i'm sure uh you can be you can eat the chocolate brownie and be happy at the same time you don't have to beat yourself up about that but don't eat too much don't eat too much that's we have to be careful therese also rejected mortifications that might interfere with the attention she gave to god one day when someone spoke to her about a priest who suffered greatly from a skin irritation and he wouldn't he wouldn't alleviate the pain he wouldn't take anything from for the pain he would just suffer she said this she said i would not be able to practice that sort of restraint i prefer to practice mortification in a manner that leaves my mind more free for god she says so she would have taken the medication because then at least interiorly she could have been more focused on the lord that was her approach i have a yes with something um what do you think having affected sin with this because that really takes your attention from god doesn't it what's that a pet a dog or a cat or something i think for some people it can yeah for some people it can i know the sisters i think it was uh the missionaries of charity don't have pets for that reason i think they take their attention away from god we have a cat so uh we have a cat so he can kill the mice so that's helpful for us so it's actually a practical reason it depends on the person you know really what she's kind of getting at a lot of it is the interior life is really what counts you know for some people having a pet would be a big distraction and a big focus uh for others no for some people it's loneliness that's why they have animals right and so to have a pet isn't necessarily a bad thing you don't have to say well i don't have to have a pet because i'm lonely i just have the lord well maybe one of the reasons he created pets was so that we wouldn't be so lonely sometimes you know sure well sure sure i mean it depends you know you want to treat them with respect and so yeah it depends on how you how you look at it for some people it is kind of filling their lives with kind of filling the hole in their lives that they don't have instead of turning to the lord they kind of turn to pets or things or you know whatever for others it's that's not the problem so i would say that's something to bring to spiritual direction so talk to your spiritual director about having pets so if that's okay or not mother agnes her sister pauline shared therese's approaches to sacrifices when she said this her approach to sacrifice was that the best rule is that we should follow what love inspires us to do from moment to moment with the soul desire of pleasing the good lord in everything he has he asks of us so the first thought is always you know i want to please the lord in what i'm doing so that should be the the driving thought with what we're doing i want to please the lord and then that'll dictate how we're to respond to everything at each moment nevertheless while accepting therese's rule of prudence which takes into account our weakness and makes us practice a simplicity that favors little souls nevertheless we must avoid a softness that would go counter to the essential principles of the little way so a lot of times our problem isn't that we're going to go too far in the i'm going to just renounce everything the problem is we're going to fall into the other extreme problem is always falling back into laxity and comfort discretion and simplicity must never lead us to spare our nature in a manner that would falsify the little way so don't become lacks and say i'm just following the way of saint therese please don't do that that's that's not really what she's teaching it's not really what she's teaching as mother agnes explains that the supernatural spirit the love of jesus must always remain the rule of our conduct all of our conduct must be guided by that and we know i think sometimes for example if uh we need to recreate or we need to just wind down i think we know the difference between when we need to rest and when we're just being lazy i think if we're honest with ourselves we know the difference between those two at the beginning of our spiritual life and even later some people aren't drawn to mortifications or penances or don't have the courage to really practice those things the way they should be practiced you know even with our good dispositions that's the case some people just aren't drawn to that father jamar says with a heart turn to god and docile to his inspirations let us in all simplicity give to him what we're able to give so we give to the lord what we're able to give that's what he asks of us what's the example that i thought of in the gospels when i heard that well the example would be the widow with the two mites right the widow who goes to the temple and has only two coins to offer and she gives that to the temple and everyone overlooks what she gave except jesus because jesus said that notice that she gave everything she had so we give to the lord what we have and that's what he asks of us if we're generous and faithful and if god expects more from us he'll give us the light and the strength necessarily necessary to accomplish more as far as penances go so it's really about being guided by the holy spirit as far as penances and mortifications we need to be guided by the spirit of the lord in doing those things the last thing maybe the last thing we'll mention is therese's simplicity in illness when she was sick so the question do people tend to be more virtuous or less virtuous when they're sick do they tend to be more virtuous or less virtuous those of you who know from experience what would you say you're more well that's great okay i'll take care of you if you become sick i will take care of you that's impressive that's impressive typically when uh when the friars when we have a headache or something is get out of our way this is a don't bother me sick typically a lot of people when they're when they're sick they tend that the virtue tends to be a little less than normal self-focused right focused on myself right exactly it often happens that even in religious communities the sick consider themselves a burden to those who care for them you know and also a financial strain on the community they yield to anxiety and fear that their illness might be prolonged i'm guessing that's not just in religious communities that that happens probably right not just sometimes that happens to everyone therese also experienced those kind of thoughts she had those kind of thoughts and feelings but when god established her in the practice of abandonment to his divine will when she was firmly rooted in that she understood that it was more simple to accept whatever god sent her that was her approach she said i am willing to be ill all my life if that pleases the good lord she wrote i even consent to live a very long life in this condition in her illness regarding medication she said this i grieved much because i had to take medicine that was very expensive but now that no longer bothers me quite the contrary for i have read that those who are doing good to us benefit by their charity so she knew that you know if you have to take medicines because you're religious and that they're expensive medicines and people are paying for them you say well people are paying for this i don't want to do that well on the supernatural side those people are your benefactors and so god's going to reward them god rewards those who take care of his children so she knew that she began to see that and she said well okay she would basically take enough medication that was necessary but she wouldn't take excess but that's how she saw it actually there our benefactors are actually being blessed because they're actually helping us that became her focus okay we'll end with one thing here therese's simplicity and acceptance of joys in the little way one again only has god in view god is the one who we are looking at when we're living the little way all our actions are intended to give him pleasure that's how saint therese would put it whatever i do is intended to give jesus pleasure we must lose sight of ourselves and refuse to be attached to anything whatsoever so again that aspect of detachment so i get detached from things detached from even what others think of me detached from you know my own abilities detached from everything except the lord i get detached from the things of the earth and attached to the lord that's how detachment is supposed to work detached from my own will even my own way of wanting things my own understanding even of some things it's part of what it means to be a catholic too so i don't have to understand and figure out everything and know everything and uh no that's the whole point of there's authority over me uh they're responsible they're responsible i don't have to figure out anything or not anything but i have to figure out everything what do protestants do they don't like the pastor uh they don't like the the church what do they do start your own church so literally what they do they come sometimes even come here to the friary i know there's someone who comes here to talk to us every now and then and he says yeah i'm gonna i'm gonna i'm looking to start my own church you know i'm gonna go to go to bible school and start my own church and i said oh that's good i'm thinking myself that's not that's not how the lord wants us to do it right you don't like the pastor you start your own church uh no that's not how it works it would seem to follow then that we wouldn't be free to enjoy legitimate pleasures if we always have to be detached from everything right so i can't enjoy anything no that's not what saint therese would say that's not her approach that wouldn't be that wouldn't be consonant with her teaching particularly with the practice of simplicity therese knew too well the heart of our heavenly father and the heart of christ who himself did not reject earthly pleasures she never thought that god wants to draw us away from the few small joys we meet in this valley of tears this is what she says the good lord who loves us so much already suffers enough because he sees himself obliged to leave us on earth to go through our time of trial and he must be glad when he sees a smile she said it seems that if we can say that our sacrifices are like locks of hair that captivate the heart of christ we must likewise say that our joys affect him in a like manner in order that this may be so it suffices that we refrain from indulging in a selfish sort of happiness an offer to our spouse the small joys he strews on the path of our life to delight our souls and raise them even to himself so the only condition that saint therese demands of us that we accept when we have joys in our life is that we don't take selfish complacency in them and that we use them as a means to raise ourselves to god there's a way to thank the lord as a way to raise our minds to him so the pleasing things in this life should become like a ladder that help us climb up to god you know you enjoy something that's something that i should actually raise your mind and your heart to the lord who is the source of all goodness so all good things come from the source of all goodness there's a famous painting of saint francis that we probably mentioned before of that by morillo i think that's his name in spain and spanish where saint francis is stepping on the globe and he's reaching up to jesus on the cross and jesus is actually detaching from the cross to reach down and embrace saint francis right so jesus is actually basically his hand comes off the nail on the one side he's reaching down to embrace saint francis who's reaching up to embrace christ and underneath again his foot is the globe and i think that there are a couple of angels in the corner and they're holding a book in latin it basically says that uh francis was it's a verse from scripture i don't remember which one it was but basically that he uh puts all things under his feet he basically uh all renounces the worldly possessions worldly desires in order to attain christ right another way to look at that is you know the worldly uh the good things of this world are a way that we actually go up we can actually use those things as a ladder to reach christ so it's not necessarily despising things it can also be also enjoying some of the things that we have that actually are a ladder for us to reach up to jesus both ways are legitimate both ways are legitimate therese herself accepted with simplicity whatever joys god sent her whether they were occasioned by spiritual favors by her family or by contemplating nature she accepted pleasures out of love just like she accepted sufferings out of love she accepted both of them out of love she would have considered it a failure or a fault against simplicity if she had refused to enjoy the charms of nature or music or of art or whatever moved her thoughts of love and gratitude towards god and toward the end of her life speaking about the joys of her heart she explained that she had mistakenly deprived herself of them at the beginning of her religious life so she at the beginning of her religious life she tried to mortify herself completely no joys no no enjoying anything as a way of dying to self but she understood later on that that wasn't the way the dying to self that our lord wanted from her she no longer felt as she grew in religious life she no longer felt it necessary to refuse the joys of life that she experienced because her soul was strengthened by him who was truly her only love and she said this she said i am glad to recognize that when we love god our heart expands and we can give him incomparably more tender love to those we can give incomparably more tender love to those who are dear to us than when our love is selfish and barren so she realized that god's love actually is meant to and it did in her case especially it's meant to expand the heart not contract it and to expand it so that we can actually love others with a pure love as well and she said love is fed by and develops from sacrifice the more we deprive ourselves of natural satisfaction the stronger and more disinterested our love for others becomes so in a word again what is she saying the more we say no to our selfishness the more we say no to our self-centered ways of thinking and acting the more we become freer in our love the more our love becomes more profound the more it becomes deeper the more it becomes more expansive as well and then the joys of this life really do help us climb up to the good lord we can appreciate the simple things and they will bring us to the thought of how good god is and saint james says he says every good and perfect gift is from above coming down from the father of lights james 1 17. so we learn not to despise the good things but we also learn to not indulge in them selfishly we learn to appreciate them and offer them back to the lord are there any questions that we have from what we've learned today anyone want to offer any questions or there are a couple of other sections in the notes for those of you who are new today we do have some notes so i do have notes printed out of the conferences so the notes that are here on the chair are from yesterday's conference and today's conference so it's basically been two conferences on the topic of simplicity so you're welcome to take those notes there are a couple of sections that we left out uh toward the end but you're welcome to read those on your own so we'll finish with a prayer glory be to the father to the son and to the holy spirit as it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be world without end amen saint therese pray for us [Music] you

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Keywords: little way, love of GOd, love of neighbor, Simplicity, spiritual childhood, Spiritual Simplicity, St Therese Retreat 2021, St. Therese, Conferences, Franciscans of the Immaculate, Christianity (Religion), Catholic, Spirituality, Faith, God, Jesus Christ

Id: 5PHKvOo4nNY

Length: 59min 39sec (3579 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 28 2021