The Three Ways of the Spiritual Life
by
Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange
1938
(Kindle Edition)
What seems like forever ago, a
friendly reader suggested with great charity that I stop complaining about St.
John of the Cross and look to Father Garrigou-Lagrange for help. She even gave
me a link to his lectures published online. I started but did not or have not
as yet gotten all that far. For that reason, I am pleased that Kindle came to
my aid with recommendations for three works which cost me a total of less than
$4.00
Father does much in this
particular work to help one work through the obscure. I took delight in some
fundamental principles which he brought home again and again in the course of
his teaching:
Unitive
love then becomes in the soul like a sea of fire that ' reaches to the farthest
heights and depths, filling it wholly with love. ' This love, hardly
perceptible at first, grows more and more until the soul experiences an
ever-increasing hunger for God and a burning thirst, of which the Psalmist
says: ' For thee my soul hath thirsted; for thee my flesh, O, how many ways ! ‘This
is truly the beatitude of those that hunger and thirst after justice; this is
truly the prelude to the life of heaven, truly a beginning of eternal life, '
quaedam inchoatio vitae aeternae. ' as St. Thomas has said. This is the
supreme, but normal, development of the life of grace on earth, the seed of
glory, semen gloriae. (Highlight
Loc. 1380-85)
He reminds us of the solid
Catholic teaching which grounds it all: This
is the supreme, but normal, development of the life of grace on earth, the seed
of glory, semen gloriae.
Perhaps Father’s language can
help some understand how the spiritual torments (purgation) of St. Catherine of
Genoa could lead to her treatise on Purgatory:
Let
us see now (I) why this conversion is necessary for proficients, (2) how God
purifies the soul at this stage and (3) what are the fruits of this third
conversion. The necessity of the purification of the spirit. Many imperfections
remain even in those who have advanced in the way of God. If their sensibility
has been to a great extent purged of the faults of spiritual sensuality,
inertia, jealousy, impatience, yet there still remain in the spirit certain '
stains of the old man ' which are like rust on the soul, a rust which will only
disappear under the action of an intense fire, similar to that which came down
upon the Apostles on the day of Pentecost. (Highlight Loc. 812-18)
All such discourse, obscure (I’m
sorry) as it is, despite the great Dominican’s comparisons to the more familiar
developmental stages of man: child, youth, adult, leads me on to continue
studying and hoping to understand something more of interiority and sanctity.
Pray for me as I do for you, that
we might make it through this “dark night” together!
Your Excellency,
ReplyDeleteAnd is it also the case that the Lord allows certain struggles, in spite of the great desire of a soul longing for the most intimate union with God - for the purpose of ensuring that humility remains the foundation of that ascent.
I have found some recent comments of the Holy Father most enlightening, for instance"You might say ‘But Father, we might make mistakes.' I might respond, 'Well, what of it? Onward, if you make a mistake, you get up and go forward; that is the way.' Those who do not walk to avoid mistakes, make a the more serious mistake.” (Homily at Mass, 8/5/13)
To me, I have always thought to try and climb is to take risks, sometimes to be in situations that are uncomfortable but perhaps necessary for a more evangelical (in the purest sense) pursuit of the love of God.
God Bless,
Stephen
Dear Stephen!
DeleteI think Father Garrigou-Lagrange would have been encouraging in that very same way, speaking about crises in the spiritual life as steps to growth. He uses words back in 1938 ("stunted", "idiot") which go against the grain today, but the point is that which the Holy Father makes: We need to risk something in order to grow. God Bless!