3 Stages of the Spiritual Life - #1/4 St. Therese's Little Way - Fr Terrance

[Music] so I think what we'll do is we'll begin with a prayer in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit amen hail Mary full of grace the Lord is with thee blessed art thou amongst women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb Jesus Holy Mary Mother of God pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death amen Saint Terez pray for us in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit amen now I was told that there were 25 of you who were signed up for this retreat so what I did is that there's a folder 25 folders here and basically what I've done is I'm for each conference at the end of each conference I've got a printout of the conference and so if you want to take it and go over it again and look over something that maybe you didn't catch or you want to reflect on you can do that for this conference today basically the first conference I just wanted to talk about the stages of the spiritual life the three different stages because I think it's helpful to kind of have an overview in general of what the spiritual life is like you know we jump into saint torres we want to talk about her but it's good to understand in general how the spiritual life works how God has designed our spiritual growth to be and so typically if I give a retreat and I haven't given too many but I want to start out with this as kind of the first talk because then you can kind of see a little bit again in the overview and and you'll see maybe where you are and maybe some of the things that you've gone through and you can say okay that makes sense now I understand why that happened now I understand why I went through that difficulty much of what I'm going to share is from a little book which I don't have with me it's up at the in the chapel it's a little book by a priest named father Gary Gould the name of the book is the three ways or the three conversions of the spiritual life what I've printed out for you for tonight's conference is the it's a very little book by the way but actually costs a lot if you want to get it because it's out of print and so I recommended it to someone I don't know if it was a year or so ago or a few months ago or and I said to her well you know you might I recommend this book because it's very helpful to see and father Lagrange's is the example of the disciples and the Apostles in his book he says basically you can see spiritual growth through the growth of lead of the Apostles in the Gospels how they grew spiritually and it's a very small book but the book price now is it was 66 dollars or something because if you want to get it used it on Amazon it was 66 dollars and so I told her I said well you probably don't want to actually get the book but she said oh yeah I got it and I paid $66 for it and I thought oh boy is it's a lot because it's about it's about this thick I mean it's very very small so what I printed out for you is the 5th chapter of that book which does give a condensed version of those three stages so we're gonna talk about the three stages and I'm gonna also tie that into another spiritual author and a father Adolphe Tanqueray he wrote on a spiritual life - so I'm gonna tie in some of the things that he said as well the first thing I thought of in a way of explaining the spiritual life was I figured you if you have three fingers if you hold up three fingers like this so you've got one two three you've got the three different fingers each one of those fingers would represent a different space stage of the spiritual life so you've got the beginners you've got the proficient and you've got the perfect now if you notice if you hold up three fingers in between those fingers you've got gaps right you've got kind of the the gaps in between each one less unless you're like this and maybe some people have that but you've got gaps in between and them what do those represent those represent what are called the two dark nights of the spiritual life I don't know if any of you have ever heard of Dark Knight of the spiritual life The Dark Knight of the senses and the dark night of the soul has anyone actually heard of that before has anyone heard of those terms those come from typically Saint John of the Cross and so if you hold up those fingers again the first Valley would be the Dark Knight of the senses that's what you go to you have to go through that in order to get to the second stage which is the stage of the proficient it's the it's the stage of those who are on their way to growing in holiness in order to get to the third stage you've got to go through another dark night it's called the dark night of the soul and that's when you get to the third stage some some spiritual writers will say it's more like this it's more like you go through the dark night of the senses and then you get to the second stage and the third stage is next to it and then afterward is the dark night of the soul as those are things that were not really going to try to wrestle with because we're not none of us are spiritual does anyone have a PhD in spiritual theology if you do please help me out during the talk I'd appreciate him that's what Mother Teresa on the dark night of the soul that's what she would have gone through it was said that she went through it for about fifty years last fifty years of her life so what we're gonna do is we're gonna discuss basically each of those three stages we'll spend a little more time on the first two stages and a little less time when the last one we'll spend a little more time on the first two because those are probably more familiar to us and it's good to see how those work it's not a rigid scheme either the three one two three and dark night dark night it's not that rigid either sometimes you can be in the first level the first stage of spiritual growth and you can experience some of the things that the people in the last stage experience similarly if you're in the last stage you can experience some of the difficulties of the dark night of the senses as well so it's not a rigid scheme but it is for the most part trustworthy it's it basically explains the general growth in holiness the general process of growing in holiness so how do we move from one stage the next if you want to move from this stage to this stage does anyone have a guess on how do you actually do that how do I get from one stage to the next it's good to ask the questions I understand why teachers in a certain sense like being teachers because they ask the questions and they already have the answers that's one of the benefits of being a teacher does anyone know how you would move from one stage to the next any any any clue any thoughts leapfrog leapfrog a little way of saint Torres you could leap frogging the little way basically cooperating with God's grace it's as simple as that it's not necessarily easy but it's as simple as that what we're gonna do is first talk about the beginner stage the first stage it's what's called the first conversion the first conversion it's when we move from a state of sin to a state of grace so obviously we're in the state of Indiana doesn't mean moving from Indiana to Massachusetts I'm from Massachusetts so I wouldn't say that that's moving to a state of grace but it's moving from living in a state of sin obviously to moving to being in a friendship with God living in the state of grace either either through baptism something happen happens when we receive the gift of baptism or when we receive the gift of the the sacrament of confession when we're in mortal sin and we go to confession we receive absolution and we get back into God's friendship we received the state of grace you can also think of it as someone who's had a conversion during their life at a certain point in their life a famous biblical example would be st. Paul for example in the road to Damascus or even the prodigal son we can think of that in the Gospel of st. Luke Luke when he hit rock bottom that's when he actually came to his senses that's when he came back to his father's house one thing that we always want to keep in mind with conversion is that God is always the first one to step towards us we tend to think well now I need to actually go and look search for God he's always the one who's searching for us he's the first one to actually make the move there's a famous poem I think you've probably heard of it Francis Thompson it's called the Hound of heaven it's a famous 19th century I believe English poem basically where the poet says that the Hound of heaven I tried to flee the Lord all my life and I could I wasn't able to do so what Francis Thompson says the Lord was always pursuing him what is that the spiritual profile of someone who's a beginner what is spiritually what do they look like what does it look like in this first stage the first stage is also called the purgative way have ever you have any of you heard of those terms purgative illuminative and unitive you've heard that some of you have heard of those terms before the first one is the purgative stage what does it look like to be in that stage well those who start that those who were in that stage are the ones who start to take their spiritual life actually seriously they're the ones and they generally in that stage they generally struggle against serious temptations but they're often successful in doing it they struggle but they're successful they also have a certain desire for perfection it could be a weak desire could be a strong desire but they have a certain desire for perfection as well so someone who just wants to keep out of mortal sin and doesn't want to really advance any further in the spiritual life they just want to stay out of trouble they aren't quite yet there in the sense that we wouldn't necessarily consider them in the first stage of beginners they're almost like someone who's watching the Boston Marathon on the sides on the sidewalk but they're supposed to be running the Boston Marathon that's kind of like someone who is not quite begun the spiritual life in that sense the first step on the way to spiritual perfection is actually the desire for it the desire to grow closer to grow to the desire to grow in holiness that desire corresponds to actually getting into the race getting into the race that we're supposed to get into in general there are two classes of beginners as well it's very simply there are those who are generous and those who are less generous in embracing the spiritual life beginners are typically still attached to some deliberate venial sins deliberate venial sins but and also why because they're generally all still governed more or less by their passions still govern more or less by their feelings by their passions by sensuality it could be pride or anger or vanity or jealousy or uncheered obelus in word and deed so obviously there's a great need still to purify our souls when we have those difficulties how do they work on purifying their souls in their hearts in this first stage well basically through two ways through prayer and through mortification so prayer and penance obviously going to confession obviously renouncing our self giving up certain things and fighting against sin and temptation now beginners as they go forward in the spiritual life they start to grow in to specific areas does anyone have any idea what two areas that they start to grow in anyone who knows anything about st. Teresa of Avila maybe can guess at this one what two areas that they send to grow in they don't tend to grow taller or shorter anyone have any idea prayer okay prayer they tend to grow in knowledge of two things knowledge of themselves and knowledge of God that's where their spiritual growth tends to be as far as they become more knowledgeable of themselves and of their own of gottoms as well they know themselves better meaning that they begin to recognize their limitations they begin to see their defects they begin to see boy I need to be dependent on the Lord I need to learn to depend more on the Lord than on myself someone who's not very faithful someone who's not too mature spiritually or even as a person you know what do we do we tend to blame everyone else we shift the blame we see the wrong and everyone else someone who is now growing in holiness starts to move from blaming others to sing you know okay maybe the I have to work on my defects instead of working on other people a spiritual beginner someone who's now making the effort to live how God wants them to live that begins to see and focus on working on their own faults on their own sins on their own defects as well so for example they start to understand what sins they usually commit and they start to make an effort to try to avoid them okay when I see when I go to this place or I'm with this person it tends to give me problems spiritually so I need to avoid those things for example no and they see that they need to deny themselves more and also they need to mortify their senses they need to not so much comfort themselves as far as their senses go at the same time they begin to know God and they begin to understand him better as well father lagron said this is the way he puts that he says that they begin to know the Lord especially through the things of nature and also through the things like the parables like the story the prodigal son the story the lost sheep people begin that actually connects for people especially if they're in the first stages and I said pointed out the example this evening of the moon you know what's the moon a symbol of it's a symbol of our Lady famously in the church it's the moon reflects the light of the Sun just as our Lady reflects the light of Christ and so we see that we say wow that's isn't that great so that could be a sign that I'm at least in the first stage if I'm seeing the moon and I see Our Lady oh that could be a good sign spiritually usually when someone is in the first who's in the first stage has working with prayer and a life of trying to be faithful to the Lord and trying to grow in knowledge of God and love of the Lord and they make an effort to pray they make an effort to frequent the sacraments that are typically rewarded by God does anyone know what kind of reward God gives them in the first stage what type of reward does someone receive here joy more joy ok specifically what they say is they will receive what are called sensible consolations consolations I don't know if you've ever prayed or you've ever been in the presence of the Lord and you felt God's presence you felt close to the Lord that is typically a reward from God himself they can receive those consolations in prayer or in spiritual reading or meditation or just thinking about the things of the faith thinking about the Lord why does God give these sensible consolations here we actually begin to see that God really is smart in the sense that he knows what he's doing why does he do that because typically those who are in the first stage are very attached as we said to their sensibilities to their feelings to their passions to their desires and so God wants to win over that Sensibility and if I do something and I receive consolation and and joy and a certain peace in doing it then I really become attracted to that thing or whatever person or activity God knows that and so he starts to send consolations to us so that we can become more attached to him and less attached to other things especially sinful things but here's the problem what happens is when we receive typically when beginners receive sensible consolations they tend to at times to take too much complacency in them they become too self-satisfied they think of the consolation as an and in itself rather than as a means to an end you've ever received a Christmas gift or a birthday gift and and you think this is the greatest thing in the world and you're just very very happy about this gift and you completely forget about the person who gave it to you it's almost as if they don't even exist in the room you're just focusing on this new phone or whatever it is that you love that's the certain thing with the consolations is at times we can focus more on the gift than on the giver and since we know that our Lord is jealous he doesn't want us to do that he wants us to focus on him an example I thought of I don't know if any of you have ever seen the read the book The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe by CS Lewis were seeing the movie and we in the movie and even in the book Edmund one of the stars there he becomes addicted to Turkish delight right he actually becomes so focused on that that he's willing to give up everything just a actually I think I tasted that once and it was terrible actually I was expecting it to be the greatest thing in the world I read about it in the book and it tasted horrible that's an example of someone sometimes if we get too much focused on the consolation rather than on the gift rather than on the giver of the gift itself also someone who's in the first stage of spiritual life what's another trip up that they can have or we can have is that sometimes because we start to really grow in our faith we can begin to think that we're now masters of the spiritual life if you have any question or anything I know I know what's going on I can explain it all I thought of it's like if you go to the mass you know here typically when we celebrate Mass if we sing Mass will sing the the parts of the mass will sing the kiri a the Gloria will sing the on use day if I sing the the Gloria and the kiri a Licari is in Greek but the Gloria and the unused aliens in Latin so let's say I know that now by heart so is almost as if someone who knows that by heart thinks that now they can go out and teach Cicero or Roman mythology or ancient Latin natured it's not quite you're not quite at that level yet sometimes we can think that we're further along and then we are at this point st. John of the Cross says that what happens this is the seven capital sins make their appearance in the spiritual life no longer he says in their gross form but now in the order of spiritual things now and you what does that mean for example no longer worldly pride but now spiritual pride no longer having an anger problem but now we're angry because people aren't as religious as we are or because they're not they don't see things as spiritually as we do now what's the problem there is that the anger hasn't gone away the anger is still there now it's in a more spiritualize form it just manifests itself in a different form so God sees this and he says I've got to do something so what does he do that's when he brings us to the first Valley the first Valley is called the passive purification of the senses we have to receive that as beginners because again we tend to be too attached to consolations and too imperfect as far as the Christian life goes so we're called to what's the second conversion second conversion is the passive purification of the senses known as the dark night of the sentences I'm st. John talks about the sense is he means he does mean the external senses so seeing hearing tasting touching smelling he does mean those but also it involves what are called the internal senses as well what are the internal senses your imagination your memory our cognitive senses our ability to reason as well a soul has to pass through this night of the sentences in order to move from again from that first stage and the from the beginning stage in order to get to that second stage you have to pass through that Valley you have to pass through that spiritual darkness what is the dark night of the senses st. John of the Cross says that it consists in a prolonged series of aridity 's of dryness sensible obscurity produced in an imperfect soul when God begins to infuse the soul with contemplation that's a lot isn't it so begins with there's a lot of aridity there is dryness there's obscurity why why do we feel that in prayer or in our spiritual life because God is beginning to give us a higher form of prayer and we're not able to accept it as fully as we should again what are the characteristics of the dark night of the senses there are three three characteristics if you have all three of these going on spiritually at the same time most likely you're in the dark night of the senses what are they one again is that prolonged series of aridity 'he's what does that mean god you know the sensible consolation the candy god takes it away he takes it away from us and problem is is we've grown greedy for it and so when if ever taken something away from a baby that the baby is just focused on and loved so much what happens it tends to not be too happy and so God takes away the candy from us that's the first sign we have in prayer or in our spiritual life this aridity there's dryness we don't feel very close to God in prayer second sign is that in the midst of aridity or dryness actually the the desire for God remains can even be an intense desire for God that desire for the lure the desire to be united to the Lord actually does remain together with a fear of offending him and of not serving him well so sometimes the person who's in the dark night of this things that they're not they're not serving the Lord well they're not doing what they should be doing that's why they don't feel close to God that's why they don't feel his consolation that's not always the case the third sign is that you're that you're in the dark night is if you have difficulty of meditating according to the normal way of doing so like reflecting and reasoning in prayer meditation some of you may be do Lexi o Divina as well instead you have instead of that you have difficulty doing that you have difficulty meditating or reflecting on on the Lord or on his words or even on the mysteries of the rosary if you pray the rosary and you pray the meditations but instead of doing that you're more inclined towards a different type of prayer towards a simpler type of prayer a more simplified type of prayer it's a prayer known as simple regard with love it's means that you are more inclined to just gaze on the Lord and or simply just be in his presence in a loving way without necessarily thinking or reasoning a lot you just want to be in his presence you don't necessarily was typically with meditation what do you do you're reading you're reflecting you're thinking about what you're reading you're speaking to the Lord about what you're reading you're trying to apply what you're reading to yourself if you're in the dark night typically that gets tiresome and you just want to be just want to be in God's presence we just want to gaze on the Lord so they said if you have all three of those signs present one two three if all three of them are present in your spiritual life most likely you're in the dark night of the sentences if there's another difficulty if you're in that if you're having difficulty in prayer and let's say we're just kind of we've given up on prayer or we've become lazy in the spiritual life well then it's probably more connected with that than it is with God bringing us through the dark night it's probably more that we need to redouble our efforts and get back to praying and spending time with the Lord like we were doing before him what are some of the other difficulties that might accompany this purification of the senses so those are the three main ones that you have to keep in mind what are some of the other difficulties that you might have at the same time well there can be temptations there can be temptations to impatience there could be temptations against chastity temptations against Faith Hope charity that can be discouragement as well there can be a spirit you mean I think it was father Tanqueray says there can even be a spirit of blasphemy with some people they can just be very angry and almost like they're they want to say blasphemous words there's been a very strong and violent way at times they can feel that coming through over them there can also be persecution and ridicule from others so it's not just always stuff that's happening inside I mean it can be people outside who start treating me the way they shouldn't be treating me there can be also sicknesses if you misfortunes losing your good name losing friends losing possessions there can be also scruples perplexities confused thinking other afflictions as well there can be a whole bunch of different types of afflictions and all of that can be part of God purifying our hearts it can be part of the dark night of the senses like father Tanqueray I like his description he says that the dark night of the senses quote is a complex state of the soul and a baffling mixture of darkness and light of aridity and intense though hidden love for God of real weakness and latent energy difficult to analyse without falling into apparent contradictions basically saying it's it's even hard to explain what's going on it's not even that easy to explain what's happening to you how long does the dark night last how long does it last does anyone have any idea how long the dark night this does anyone want to guess we want to throw out a number how many days or how many hours or how many years or no guesses huh forty days that would be great though if you can get that over with forty days would be good a couple years can be a couple you believe it or not there's no specific time as long as God wants basically the time is always in his hands regarding that as long it can be as short or as long as God wills and according also according to our cooperation with His grace - also according to our cooperation again it can last for a long time or a short time it can be continuous or there can be moments of rest or reprieve you can have a moment where the light comes in and you feel closer to the Lord and things are going great and then the next day that's gone again it depends on how much purification the Lord has to do it depends on the weakness for the strength of our soul it depends on the degree of holiness that God has called us to God as we know proportions his Grace's to the severity of the trials so he'll always give us the appropriate grace no matter how difficult the trial is that we're going through if the soul is patient if it cooperates with God it's what happens during the purification of the dark night well it's sensibilities its feelings its passions will become more and more subject to the spirit you know what that means is basically you'll be more and more you master of yourself rather than my feelings or passions controlling me I'll be in more in control of them I'll be more in control of them my spirit will be more in control of them also the soul will be cured of a spiritual greed and pride if you grow through a dark night which is really difficult pride tends to get chopped down a number of notches you tend to realize I need to be more humble wherever those humility there's our war there's our Lady as well so when people say you know I trouble father being with someone who's you know with humiliations I don't want to ask for help because it's humiliating and I said well you should think of it this way if it's humiliating I should say that that that's humility it gives me humility so God likes that so I shouldn't know my spiritual lights light bulb should go off humiliation humility that's a good thing that's typically not the way we think but I think that's a healthier way to try to look at opportunities to grow in humility also what will happen is when you go through the dark night and you a persevere you'll have a more profound knowledge of yourself and also of your neediness your spiritual poverty or spiritual neediness as well so what's happening in this period of purification is basically God is tilling the ground of our soul he's like a good farmer he gets out all the weeds he tells the ground it gets rid of the rocks that's what he's doing during this during this past week during this pure pacification he's actually getting rid of all the evil weeds all the relics of sin that are still in our soul the danger here is to turn back it's not automatic just cuz I'm going through this I'm gonna get through it and everything's going to be fine some people turn back some people don't want to go through it and I think a lot of the reason that they turn back is because they don't understand that this is normal in the spiritual life this is kind of what's supposed to happen if you understand that this is part of spiritual growth then you're more likely to persevere and continue growing if you don't then you're more likely to turn back those who pass through this night of the senses successfully find themselves in the second spiritual stage the second one which is in the middle one here it's what's called the the stage of the proficient or the illuminative stage here and it says the soul attains a certain stability there's also growth in freedom there's growth and love there's growth in prayer there's also a deeper purification of the soul as well the gray aim in this second stage or the the second second level of the spiritual life the great aim is to imitate Christ to imitate the life delight to imitate the virtues of Christ Jesus as we know says I am the way the truth and the life he says he's also the light of the world those who follow me will not walk in darkness but shall have the light of life so we try to imitate the light we try to imitate Christ that's why it's called the illuminative way we're actually trying to reflect more and more the character of Jesus those who have entered this way have acquired a purity of heart to a certain degree after having gone through the purification they've even renounced deliberate venial sin they don't even even things that they know or is venial sin 'full they said I don't want to do that anymore I don't want to embrace those sins they also have a profound convictions regarding the things of the faith regarding the truths of the faith and that helps also in prayer in their prayer life there give more time to affections to petitions to the Lord to devout affections in prayer with beginners in the first stage the biggest problem was the struggle with sin struggle against sin struggle to fall back either I fall back or I go forward that was kind of the struggle there now the struggle is to put on the virtues of Christ from the virtues of our Lord the virtues of our lady as well our Lord in this stage really becomes to be the center of our lives he moves from being on the periphery to more toward the center we understand he really does need to be the one who's at the center the perficient's self-knowledge has become more profound at the team the same time says father the ground they've developed a quasi experimental or quasi-experimental his passion you could even say they focused more on the mystery of the Holy Eucharist as well they focused more on the redemption not just God in a vague way or in which is still fine and still good or through nature that's fine but more through Christ Himself here also the soul is able to see more and more the goodness of God God is good not just not just a judge he's also very good and in reflecting on the mysteries of Christ what do they do they receive more and more light from God so they have they grow and wisdom and knowledge and understanding of the things of God and there's also that's also they say in proportion to our fidelity with the Grace and our generosity so those are two things that always have to accompany the the spiritual growth is one we have to cooperate with God's grace until we have to try to be generous as well when we corrupt cooperating here in the second stage of the spiritual life we begin to see the simplicity and the beauty and the sublimity of God and His mysteries we can say you know typically when if you've ever had a conversion or if you know of people who spiritually aren't too far along they tend to have a lot of problems why is this why that why does God allow this or why did God make things this way or all the questions and those aren't bad questions those are important questions but now in the second stage it's more instead of saying why you know I don't understand it's more of like you become in awe of the greatness of God and of the wonder of God it's no longer so much a problem all the things that we don't understand it's no so much of no longer so much a problem now it's Wow okay he's God I'm not and I'm glad he is Saint Paul expresses it in this way he says in romans 11:33 verse 30 verses 36 he says oh the depth of the rich riches and wisdom and knowledge of God how unsearchable are his judgments how inscrutable are his ways for who has known the mind of the Lord or who has been his counselor who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid for from him and through him and to him are all things to him be glory forever amen there's no longer so much wrestling with the problems of God it's just realizing God is he's unbelievable yes that's us with the job in the book of Job when job is wrestling with why he's afflicted with suffering you know God appears to him toward the end of the book and you know what God does God asks job 60 or 64 questions one after the other do you know this do you know this do you know this do you know this job at the end says I don't but the end he's actually satisfied God doesn't actually come to him and tell him something specific he tells him job but you're not God and I am and and things are working out for you and he's satisfied with that that's how when we get through that the first stage would we reach more that level of okay I can be content with not knowing everything because I know who's in charge unfortunately it's not me proficient begin to love and ponder over the words of our Lord as well they begin to focus more on his words on his teachings on his examples again Jesus becomes a model for study Jesus becomes someone who say I need to study the life of Christ I need to study and absorb what he says in order to be transformed they begin to Center their thoughts and if actions and actions on Christ it was said of Saint Francis I think it was Saint Bonaventure who said this he said that Christ absorbed Francis he said Christ basically took Francis and absorbed him in the sense they became so full of the life of Jesus that's what Jesus does in the second second stage he begins to absorb the soul the soul becomes more and more like him was a famous French Dominican preacher la Cour dare called the greatest orator in the 19th century he C once said this he says since I have known Jesus Christ nothing has seemed to be beautiful enough that I should look upon it with desire since I have known Jesus Christ nothing has seemed to be beautiful enough that I should look upon it with the desire that's beautiful another interesting quote of his I found he says it's not genius nor glory nor love that reflects the greatness of the human soul it is kindness this kindness that was interesting he's basically saying now the desire really becomes for Christ now that I know him the beginner stage God wins over our sensibility our sensitivities our sensibilities now he begins conquering or winning over our intelligence raising it above the excessive preoccupation and complications of merely human knowledge he simplifies our knowledge by spiritualizing it and the further you go along in the spiritual life the simpler it all becomes what's a good example of this in the gospel Mary and Martha right Mary is there contemplating sitting at the feet of our Lord absorbing everything that our Lord is saying and doing Martha it's not that she's doing anything bad but she's just worrying about everything else and our Lord obviously praises Mary for that because mary has chosen the better part he says I joked once I said I wonder if if Mary was sitting in front of our Lord saying to our could you please protect me from Marth I know she's getting really angry with me right now because I'm not helping but though the idea is that she actually began to focus more on what was important in life and they're both Saints by the way so keep that in mind Proficient SAR enlightened more and more by the mysteries of Christ's life and they work on loving God imitating Jesus's virtues like his humility like his gentleness his patience as well and they also become attracted to things like the evangelical counsels of poverty chastity obedience making an effort to keep those in spirit even if they don't profess them in a vow they become more attracted to the things that our Lord said are for more devout Souls how does God reward their generosity rewards the soul here by giving a greater abundance of light in prayer and contemplation and also in the works of the apostolate by giving also giving us an intense desire for his glory also for the salvation of souls no more intense desire to see others saved and brought to the Lord also by giving greater ease in prayer even reaching what's called the prayer of quiet which is one of the higher levels of Prayer according to st. Teresa of Avila which is when the will is momentarily held captive by the love of God this period is marked also by a great ease and doing works for God a great ease in teaching and great ease and directing a great ease and organizing things in the church or things for spiritual the spiritual life father Tanqueray the other author says that there are many classes of souls in the illuminative way but he specifically mentions - he says there basically two types there are the devout Souls and there the fervent Souls he says devout souls are those possessed of good will of ambition to do good and who strive by serious efforts to avoid deliberate faults however he says they're still vain and presumptuous little accustomed to self-denial they lack energy steadiness of purpose especially in the face of trials hence the frequent vacillation in their conduct they're ready to suffer when trials are far off I'm actually very good at that trial is far off and I'm ready Lord I'm gonna do it whatever I need to do to help you out and then if I get a little bit of a cold I just need to be left alone for the whole day that's pretty pretty pathetic they lacked patience when facing pain and desolation they're quick to form generous resolves they carry them out but imperfectly in practice so they make a generous resolution to do something but they kind of not too well carry it out especially if unforeseen obstacles arise therefore their advance is slow and they stand in need of cultivating the virtues of fortitude of constancy and of humility he says that's about devout Souls what a fervent souls look like here he says fervent souls are more humble and more generous they're distrustful of self and confident in God and they're already habitually already habituated to the practice of self-denial Christian self-denial they're more energetic and more constant however their self-denial is not absolute or universal they long for perfection but their virtue has not yet been solidified by trial if you're ever asking yourself why am I having so much difficulty with this person's making drives me crazy typically it's because God wants you to work on that virtue that's why he's giving you exercise being patient being kind we say well I'm not very kind or patient or you know I've got a difficult husband I said well there you go there's there sure there's your same maker it's one of those things where God wants us to exercise virtue in order to grow in virtue we can understand it up here but the experiential part that's the that's the tough one when consolations and spiritual joy comes for the fervent souls they welcomed them and rest complacently in them they still don't have the of the cross the firm resolutions they take in the morning they carry out but partially during the day because they lack constancy so even the fervent souls have their defects they have so far advanced than the love of God that they actually renounce what's dangerous but they bestow their affections at times too much upon what God allows them to love he says like their parents their friends consolations they find in religious exercises they still have to detach themselves more perfectly from whatever hinders their union with God so sometimes we can love even to certain people or things to an excess is what he's saying and we'll mention that I think in one of the homilies the tomorrow or Sunday so just like in the beginners stage there are generous souls and their souls which aren't as generous in the second stage so - and the proficient stage it's the same very similar so what happens at this stage so we're in the second stage and we've got to get to the third stage and the Lord really wants us in the third stage so what what happens at that point something very similar that happened when we were in the first stage something very similar when we had been rewarded with sensible consolation in the first stage what happens in the second stage well the person in the second stage begins to take complacent complacency means to be self-satisfied they become self-satisfied and their ease for prayer and their ease for doing works for the apostolate or teaching or preaching or whatever it's true that they are working for God they are working for souls but they haven't yet sufficiently forgotten one important thing I haven't yet sufficiently forgotten themselves yes exactly an unconscious self seeking and self-importance causes the Proficient to dissipate himself and to lose the sense of the presence of God he thinks that his Labour's are being very fruitful it's not quite certain that that's the case though he because he's becoming too sure of himself he gives himself too much importance perhaps inclined to exaggerate his own talents to forget his own imperfections and to be too greatly aware of the imperfections of others all the his comments here that you can throw her as in there as well too so this is a gender inclusive we're all we're all tied in here he often lacks purity of intention a spirit of recollection imperfect straightforwardness the depth the soul still doesn't belong entirely to God and even in the search for God it's often the self which is really being sought so there's a need for a third purgation without the third conversion as father lagrange says that there's no way to enter the third stage which is called the life of Union so this is now what we talk about this is the dark night of the spirit this is the other Valley so we went through the dark night of the soul we came out of that we're in the stage of the the illuminative stage now we're in the dark night of the spirit now we're in the dark night of the soul which is the the other stage what does it consists it consists in this and the soul being deprived of a lot of things it consists of the soul being deprived of a lot deprived not only of sensible consolations but also deprived of the supernatural lights on the mysteries of salvation the things that we learned and that we're wonderful we actually God takes them away deprived also of ardent desires deprived of the facility in action and preaching and teaching this is a period of extreme aridity not only in regards to the senses but also the spirit and also in prayers what's my ridet ii and in a difficulty that's much more interior than just that the dark night of the senses temptations frequently occur during this stage especially against the virtues that reside in the higher part of the soul he's talking about the virtues of faith hope and charity charity towards one's neighbor even charity towards God as well generally during this period great difficulties occur with things like the apostolate and the apostolate if you're doing work for the Lord you'll start to get they'll be detraction they'll be murmuring they'll be failures even you'll do something really well or try to do something well and I'll just fail completely hence this crisis or passive purification the Spirit is like a mystical death says father LeGrande it's like the death of the old man that st. Paul talks about Tanqueray says in order to purify and reform the soul God quote leaves the mind in darkness he leaves the will in aridity the memory and forgetfulness and the affections immersed in pain and anguish wow it's a lot right so if you hear of anyone going through I recently I had started reading I always do this I start reading the Divine Mercy diary and I never get that far I think I'm maybe four or five times I've read you know the first part I did really well and then I just after a little while I just turned to another book right in the beginning of her book she's in the dark night of the soul I mean if you know anything about the spiritual life this is when she's a novitiate basically when she's just starting religious life she's already in the dark night of the soul she's already going through these things maybe that's why I didn't I stopped reading it was kind of scary right in the beginning she's already there the will in aridity the memory in forgetfulness and the affections immersed in pain and anguish in order to sustain the soul in this trial God sends intervals of relief during which it experiences a sweet peace and the enjoyment of divine love and familiarity comes to mind right now in the GAR in the Garden of Gethsemane when the angel was sent to our Lord during this agony an angel was sent to give relief to our Lord during his agony it's kind of like the relief that can come in the dark night of the soul but such moments are followed by counter-attacks when the soul imagines itself to be no longer loved by God and to be justly forsaken by him in this state prayer is quite impossible or if one does pray its amidst such aridity that it seems that God really isn't listening for some people during this purification they can even they can't even complete their basic duties or activities well some people even in their daily lives they're not able to function well their memory for the things that they normally do is almost gone completely it's purgatory and a sort of Hell all rolled into one it's all it's both of them rolled into one the trials of this period are permitted by God in order to lead proficient stew a more lofty faith to a firmer hope and to a pure love because it's absolutely necessary that the depth of their soul should belong completely to God as we said God is very jealous of us he doesn't want any part of us to belong to something that's not him this is the meaning of the words of Scripture wisdom chapter 3 verse 6 as gold in the furnace he hath proved them and as a victim of the Holocaust he hath received them so it's a purification that God gives Tanqueray and citing John of the Cross says that the reason for the night of the Spirit is for the soul to be freed from habitual and actual imperfections so God wants to get rid of all the imperfections that we have in us we're trying to free us through that through this purification the habitual imperfections refer to imperfect affections and habits embedded in us which the purification the census couldn't reach so the first purification didn't get so this is gonna get a second this is gonna be this is gonna get the rest and also being too easily distracted and easily drawn to attractions outside of us I think he's referring here mainly to prayer as well the actual improv a the actual imperfections refer to pride and self complacency from which from spiritual consolations received so getting rid of pride getting rid of self-satisfaction this crisis like the crisis of the night of the senses is not without its dangers of course people can turn back it can and do calls for great courage and vigilance for a faith sometimes reaching heroism a hope against all hope a hope which transforms itself into perfect abandonment if you've ever seen that book abandonment to divine providence by father casada casal I think it is it's very beautiful one of the most beautiful spiritual books you ever you could ever read the third time God chills the ground of the soil but this time he tells much more deeply so deeply indeed that the soul seems overwhelmed by these afflictions of the Spirit so that's pretty heavy right that's pretty heavy st. Torres we'll go we'll go through her tomorrow she's a little lighter so she'll help us she'll help us to get there she actually it sounds a lot better when she says it to these are these are since John of the Cross this is a this is a German priest and one who's French from the 1930s speaking so this is going to be a hard stuff st. Therese is sweeter but she's still very very tough we get to the third stage which we have one page on a little bit more than one page on the stage of the perfect the last stage of the spiritual growth is characterized by an habitual and intimate union with God through Jesus Christ the spiritual life here is simplified and brought to unity converging on that intimate union with God through the virtue of charity for charity Tanqueray lists some of the characteristics of this stage he says these are some of the characteristics of people who are in the third stage of the spiritual life this is I'm actually reminding of myself here this is why I brought up the the image here I actually something came to mind when I was thinking about this the third stage going from the second to the third stage this is an image I don't know if any of you who know anything about painting when I was in college I actually studied the history of art it was one of the classes that I liked the most was really interesting this is a painting by Andrea del Verrocchio porochial he was a Renaissance painter he lived in Florence at the time of the Renaissance the 15th century this is a painting of can you tell what this is a painting of the baptism of Christ right that's the title of the painting this actually this painting isn't just by him this painting it has another artist as well who's attached to this painting I'll be very impressed does anyone have any idea who the other artist would be who's this is probably the most famous artist does anyone have any idea who the other artist would be no clues someone sat down right the you narrow da Vinci actually he is attributed it's a tribute to Leonardo da Vinci because Verrocchio's what I did was you know if you were a painter and you had a studio you had apprentices so you painted something it's given your they say well yeah it's a baroque painting but really he does the basic outline and he has there all of his apprentices kind of fill it and do the rest that's how you can do a lot of production and back then one of his apprentices would leave was Leonardo da Vinci Leonardo da Vinci if you could guess between these two angels which do you think Leonardo da Vinci painted if you had to guess between one or the other you have any clue the one at the one on my left your left is the one that he painted the one with more curly hair the faces even more angelic in the sense that the the cheeks are rosy and the eyes are very angelic and the face is very idealized the other angel isn't quite as beautiful okay and so it's good that you notice this because that shows that you can kind of see that it's clear and this is this is how artists have figured out okay Leonardo da Vinci helped paint this this angel because there's a big difference between the one on your right and the one on your left the one on the left if you look at other paintings of Leonardo da Vinci a lot of his figures are like that they're very idealized very ethereal very beautiful the other Angels not ugly but you can just tell he's not focused he's not even looking with the same glance as Leonardo's angel is he's basically distracted looking Christ is being baptized and he's looking off off at the birds flying around him I thought of this because this kind of made me think of the difference between someone who's in the the second stage and the third stage the spiritual island second stage you're living a very good life you're living a devout life you're living a life which the Lord is really very very much at the center but the third stage looks a lot different you look more like an angel from Leonardo da Vinci there's a difference and you can even see this I'm sure in people who you have contact with there are just some people who you can tell boy they're really close to God I mean you don't there's no question about it whether or not God speaks to them directly or not but you can just tell they are more moved by the Holy Spirit they live by the Moving's of the Holy Spirit more than I do so I'm the distracted angel and the one of the blessings of being a priest is that you do get to see Leonardo angels sometimes and they're very good because they're very humbling that's one of their one of their the graces of being around sanctified souls so this kind of made me think of the passage to the second stage in the third stage you become more a purified soul in this stage Tanqueray lists some of characteristics he says won the soul lives continually in the presence of God and it delights in to contemplate him living in their heart to the souls detached from creatures so as to be held by no outward affection doesn't mean doesn't love anyone of the soul doesn't love anyone but it's always in the measure that God they're subordinate always to God 3 the love of God becomes not only the principal virtue of the soul but we can say it's also a certain sense it's the only virtue of the soul since all other virtues and all that that we practice are nothing more than acts of love so the charity becomes the virtue for prayer is more and more simplified until it becomes a very very often a loving just a Lovering loving lingering thought of God in a certain sense life itself becomes a perpetual prayer because no matter what our activity is we're constantly glancing at God we're constantly conforming our wills to his wills Jesus says in John 829 I always do the things that pleased the Heavenly Father I always do the things that pleased my Heavenly Father that's someone who's in the third level of perfection what is the spiritual state of the perfect after the dark night of the Spirit which has been like a third conversion for them well they know God with a knowledge which is quasi experimental and almost continuous they also have a constant sense of God's presence as we've already mentioned whereas that at the beginning they had been more selfish thinking constantly about themselves either consciously or unconsciously directing all their their things to themselves the perfect soul now thinks constantly of the Lord thinks constantly of his glory of the salvation of souls and so almost as instinctively causes all things to converge upon that end all things finish in God the reason for that is that they the soul no longer contemplates God me really in the mirror of things of the sense no longer merely in parables no longer merely in the mirror of the mysteries of the life of Christ for this cannot continue throughout the whole day says father Lagrange but now the soul contemplates the divine goodness in itself very much in the way in which we constantly see light diffuse around us and illuminating all things from on high it's almost like we always have you know here we have obviously light of the night but during the day the light is always around us and we see everything through the light even though we can't look directly at the Sun the Sun is what gives everything light it's now now in this stage we see everything in the light of God everything it receives its light from God this simple contemplation removes those imperfections that arise from impetuosity from unconscious self-seeking and from the lack of habitual recollection the perfect meaning the perfect soul knows themselves no longer merely in themselves but now they know themselves in God so it's not now I just know Who I am I know my defects and my limits and my good qualities even but now I know everything in God their source in their end they examine themselves wondering what is written of their existence in the book of life they never cease to see the infinite distance that separates them from their Creator hence their humility this quasi-experimental contemplation of God comes from the gift of wisdom and by reason of its simplicity it can be almost continuous almost continuous connection with God it can persist in the midst of intellectual work conversation external occupations as well so you're completely absorbed in the things of God and God himself finally whereas the egoist thinking always of himself wrongly loves himself in all things the perfect thinking nearly always of God loves him constantly and loves him not merely by avoiding sin and by imitating the virtues of our Lord but now by adhering to him enjoying him desiring as st. Paul said to be dissolved and to be with Christ said the Apostle it is the pure love of God and the love of souls in God it is apostolic zeal zealous beyond measure but humble patient and gentle at the same time this is the love of God no longer merely with the whole heart with the whole soul with the whole strength but continuing up the scale now with our whole mind as well that's what Jesus said that's what the Old Testament the first commandment you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart with all your soul with all your strength with all your mind the great model for such Souls after the Holy soul of our Lord is the Blessed Virgin Mary she is the great model and teacher and that concludes I knew it was a long one so this is the longest one that concludes this introduction into the what the spiritual life is all about if it seems like it's too much if it seems overwhelming what Saint Torres will help us Saint Terez will help us don't worry about that so why don't we finish with a prayer glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit as it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be world without end amen and may the Lord bless you and keep you in the name of the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit amen you [Music]

Channel: franciscanfriars

Views: 48,371

Rating: 4.9296188 out of 5

Keywords: 3 Stages Spiritual Life, spirituality for beginners, unitive, little way, St. Therese, Fr. Terrance Chartier, dark night of the senses, illuminative way, unitive way, Tanqueray, Garrigou-Lagrange, Story of a Soul, Beginners, consolations, conversion, Dark night of the soul, Generosity, Grace, illuminative

Id: taW3uhqf8s4

Length: 68min 36sec (4116 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 13 2020