Catholicism, holiness and spirituality

Contradictions and Fruit

The St Ignatius of Loyola quote for today is:

Experience shows that the most frequent contradictions are followed by the greatest fruit.

Contradictions bug me; I really like it when things all fall into place, when they fit, when everything is working and where it is supposed to be. The problem is, those 'things' often have a mind of their own and don't care so much about what I think.

But, what appears to me to be a frequent contradiction may in fact just mean that I'm out of sync with the rest of the world. Maybe frequent contradictions are a reality check; a challenge to look at the world a new way, to find some new fruit? A chance to grow, to learn, to become holier, wiser and more humble...

Loving

Love God with all your being, and love your neighbor as yourself – Jesus

May it please the Beloved that we never fail to love each other, because if we do we are lost – St Teresa of Avila

Love shows itself better through deeds than by words – St Ignatius of Loyola

Love one another, or you perish – Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, SJ

If there were love of neighbor there would be no terrorism, no repression, no selfishness, none of such cruel inequalities in society, no abductions, no crimes – Archbishop Oscar Romero

Love decides everything – Pedro Arrupe, SJ

So much is written about love… probably because it is so much easier to write about it than to actually do it. I’m not discounting the words that are written about love; but it’s a bit disheartening to see how prevalent the lack of love is in so many places these days.

Let’s build a wall to keep them out of our yard, our subdivision, our seaside resort, our country so that we don’t have to deal with their needs. Let’s spend billions on war while the most vulnerable in our neighborhood, our cities and in our rural areas go without basic healthcare because it’s too expensive for them to pay for it. Let’s divide the world into them and us so we don’t have to deal with them. Let’s ignore how much we contribute to polluting the world so that we can keep the cost of consumer goods low. Let’s spend billions on researching and producing vanity drugs instead of finding cures for simple ailments that affect millions of people each year, people who can’t afford to pay for their cure. Let’s get caught up in our work and entertainment so that we don’t have time to be good parents, devoted spouses, and compassionate friends.

Let’s get caught up in satisfying ourselves instead of loving God and loving those around us. It’s so much easier, and it feels good… for a while, anyway.

Peace & Tranquility

Something we easily, and often forget:

If you seek peace and tranquility, you will certainly not find them so long as you have a cause for disturbance and turmoil within yourself.

St Ignatius of Loyola

Principles and Foundations

As I was reflecting on week 3 of the Online Retreat this morning, I reworded in my mind the abbreviated principle and foundation first put forth by Ignatius. I personalized it, and that made the impact more personal too. Here's my personal version:

I was created by God to praise, reverence and serve God, and in this way to save my soul. God created everything else to help me achieve that.

Wow, when I look at it that way, I feel pretty special. The version from the online retreat is:

God created us
to praise, reverence and serve God
and in this way to save our souls.
God created all of the rest of creation
to help us achieve the purpose for which
God created us.

A more recent version, from the book 'Ignatius of Loyola' (a great book), goes like this:

Human beings are created to praise, reverence and serve God our Lord, and by means of this to save their souls.

The other things on the face of the earth are created for human beings, to help them toward the end for which they are created.

The older version from the widely-used translation by Elder Mullan, SJ, goes like this:

Man is created to praise, reverence, and serve God our Lord, and by this means to save his soul.

Man is created to praise, reverence, and serve God our Lord, and by this means to save his soul.

And the other things on the face of the earth are created for man and that they may help him in prosecuting the end for which he is created.

Any way it is worded, this is one of my favorite things Ignatius ever wrote.

Into the hands of God

One of my favorite quotes from Ignatius of Loyola:

There are very few people who realise what God would make of them if they abandoned themselves into his hands, and let themselves be formed by his grace.

I suppose that such a life-long, full and complete abandonment of our selves into the hands of God is indeed something that few people have done. Yet, that is what Christians are called to do, right? We are called to go on that journey - away from our false selves and into the hands of God.

I'm reminded of when I've been traveling around the Rocky Mountains, and recently around Sedona. I can see a mountain in the distance and be called to it, so I start going towards it. The funny thing is, mountains always appear to be closer than they really are, which becomes apparent as it seems to take so long to even get to the foothills. And as I get a closer look at the mountain I see that it won't be all that easy of a climb. But I like climbing, so up I go. But there are obstacles, detours, thinner air, and so on. It's just not as easy at it first appeared. So it goes too with letting go of selfishness and letting God form me. That journey is, most often, longer and more difficult than I first imagined.

On correcting others

In 1551 an Ignatian student, Antonio Brandao, wrote Ignatius a letter with 16 questions. Antonio had been ordained, but had not pronounced his final Jesuit vows. Of his 16 questions, number 10 concerned the correction of others:

10. Should one correct an imperfection noticed in a member of the Society, or allow the individual to be deluded into thinking it is no imperfection?

This question reminded me of the discussion about to what extent Catholic bishops ought to publicly admonish pro-choice Catholic politicians, as well as some good discussion at Flos Carmeli about splinters and beams. Ignatius answers:

The first part of the tenth question concerns the correction of another. An important factor in doing this successfully is the authority enjoyed by the person giving the correction, or his love - and this love must be perceived. Lacking either of these, the correction will be ineffective; there will be no amendment. Hence correcting others is not for everyone.

Moreover, no matter how one makes an admonition (after having judged that it will lead to the person's amendment), he should not state things too forthrightly, but along with some commendation and in a roundabout way. For one sin can bring another in its train: the sin already committed may dispose a person to take the bestowal of correction badly.

As to the second part of the tenth question - as to whether a person ought to leave someone else under the false impression that something is not an imperfection - our reverend Father has said that for the first person's own progress it would be better to do this: the more attention one pays to others' faults the less he will dwell within himself and see his own faults, and the less progress he himself will make. However, in a case where a person is advancing in perfection and has his own passions under control and in good order, our Lord expands his heart so that he may be a help to others as well as to himself, that person may well correct someone who does wrong [first by praying about it and then by approaching that person privately].

Tactics for the Three Tricks

Following-up on the Three Tricks Ignatius described to Teresa Rejadell:

Hence we must reflect carefully. If the enemy lifts us up, we must put ourselves down by counting our sins and miseries. If he casts us down and depresses us, we should raise ourselves up in genuine faith and hope in the Lord by calling to mind the blessings we have received and the great love and concern with which he is waiting to save us. We must remember that the enemy does not care whether he tells a truth or a lie so long as he besets us.

Careful reflection, would, I suppose, lead to good discernment. Ignatius talks a lot about discernment of spirits; St Teresa of Avila talks about self-awareness and humility. I think these two concepts are pretty much getting at the same thing – being able to recognize and focus on God’s will for us instead of our will for ourselves. They are simple concepts that, for me anyway, are very challenging to implement. Yes I know, no one ever said following Jesus was easy; the path is narrow and not everyone who knocks will get to enter and all that, I know.

If the enemy casts me down, I can draw on my faith and hope in God to sustain me. I can remember the times of consolation, and they can give me some strength to keep going on my spiritual journey. As I reflect on consolation, the greatest source of it is Mass – the worship and most of all the Eucharist. I really believe I’m receiving the body and blood of Jesus Christ, and that he lives within me. It’s more than consolation, but it also consoles me. There have been some really, seriously trying times the past few years; Mass has been the primary life-preserver that kept my nose above water.

And if I get too cocky, I can simply remember how imperfect I am, and how far I have to go towards perfection. I also get a better perspective of my imperfection when I read about great saints – both those who have passed and those still with us. But I also have to let my spiritual joy shine through for others to see; avoiding false humility.

If you reflect, you will realize that these desires to serve Christ our Lord do not come from yourself but are given to you by the Lord. And so when you say "The Lord gives me strong desires to serve him," it is the Lord himself you are praising by making known his gift; it is he and not yourself in whom you boast, since you do not attribute the grace to yourself.

Three tricks of the enemy

In a letter from Ignatius to Teresa Rejadell, a Benedictine nun who sought spiritual guidance from Ignatius, there is a section where he counsels her about three tricks the enemy uses to foil a beginner’s attempts to draw closer to God. This letter is dated June 18, 1536.

As for the first: The enemy’s general practice … is to throw up obstacles and impediments. … He tells us we will have to live a longer life than any human being ever lived amid the hardships he pictures to us. He refrains from telling us about the great comfort and consolation which our Lord is accustomed to give to such souls when the new servant of the Lord breaks through all these obstacles and chooses to suffer along with his Creator and Lord.

Then the enemy tries his second weapon: pride and vainglory. He tells the person that he possesses much goodness and holiness, and exalts him higher than he deserves.

If the servant of God resists these arrows by humbling and abasing himself and refusing to consent to the enemy’s suggestions, the enemy comes with his third weapon. This is false humility. When he sees how good and humble the Lord’s servant is … the enemy inserts the suggestion that, if the person adverts to anything that God our Lord has given him by way of deeds or resolves and desire, he sins through another species of vainglory because he speaks approvingly of himself.

This is how the enemy tries to get the person not to talk about the good things he has received from his Lord, so that he will not produce fruit in others or in himself.

There have been times where I have focused too much on the obstacles and impediments and not enough on the comforts and consolations. I’d like to say that I’ve never been subject to pride and vainglory, but that would be a lie, so I won’t say it. And false humility has at times prevented me from sharing my spiritual joy with others - I didn’t want to sound like I was bragging. The next section of this letter talks about tactics to counter these tricks – more on that another day.

She was a good and holy friar

Ignatius of Loyola had a good number of supporters – people he met along his spiritual journey who were impressed, offered him friendship, and supported him financially. Their support for him sometimes drew criticism and gossip. Being aware of the times and his nature makes this understandable - Ignatius was rather controversial in his day, during the counter-reformation, so it gave people a lot of fuel to feed ‘spite, intrigue and untruths.’ One of his supporters was Isabel Roser, the wife of a businessman in Barcelona. She wrote him, and mentioned that she was really troubled with how people were talking about her, because of her and her husband’s support for Ignatius. In a letter from Ignatius to Isabel Roser dated November 10, 1532, Ignatius used this story to console her, and hopefully to teach us all a good lesson:

There was a house where Franciscan friars often visited. Their demeanor being very holy and religious, a grown-up young girl living in the house formed a great love for the monastery and house of St Francis – so great in fact that one day she dressed as a boy and went to the monastery of St Francis and asked the guardian to let “him” take the habit because “he” had a deep desire to serve not only God our Lord and St Francis but also all the religious of that house. He spoke so appealingly that they immediately gave him the habit.

While he was living thus in the monastery a life of great recollection and consolation, it happened that, on a trip made with their superior’s permission, this friar and another companion once stayed overnight in a certain house. In the house there was a young woman who became enamored of this good friar. Consequently (or, because the devil entered her) she decided to accost the good friar while he was sleeping and get him to have relations with her. When the good friar awoke and threw her off, she was so infuriated that she began scheming how to do the good friar as much harm as she could.

Accordingly, some days later this wicked girl went to speak with the guardian, demanding justice and claimed that, among other things, she was pregnant by the good friar of this house. And so the guardian seized the good friar and decided (since the matter had become notorious in the city) to put him bound in the street at the monastery doors so that everyone could see the justice inflicted upon the good friar.

He spent many days in this condition, rejoicing in the injuries, insults and obscene words he heard uttered against himself. He made no self-defense to anyone, but within in his soul conversed with his Creator and Lord, since he was being given an opportunity for such great merit in the eyes of his Divine Majesty.

After a period of time spent in this spectacle, when everybody had seen how great was his patience, they all begged the guardian to forgive the past and to restore him to his love and to his house. The guardian, himself already moved to pity, received him back.

The good friar lived many years in the house, until God our Lord’s will for him came to fulfillment. Upon undressing him for burial after his death, they discovered that he was not a man, but a woman, and consequently that he had been the victim of a terrible calumny. Amazed, all the friars had praise for his innocence and holiness that exceeded their curses against his wickedness. However, there are many even today who remember this friar – or nun – better than anyone else who lived in the house over a long period of time.

And so I would be more attentive to a single shortcoming of my own than to all the evil that people might say of me.

The Letters of St Ignatius

I finished reading the Spiritual Exercises, and I really do want to take the time to take a four week retreat based on them, some day when I can get four weeks of contiguous time-off (retirement?). There were a few appendices too, but they were not all that inspiring, so I didn’t have anything inspiring to blog about. The next readings were the Constitutions of the Society of Jesus. They were fine, though I didn’t read them all. I can appreciate the level of detail and consideration that went into them, but nothing really interesting to blog about.

Then I came to the Letters of St Ignatius, and they are really good. There is a lot of good stuff to blog about in these letters. St Ignatius wrote a lot of letters to friends, associates, leaders and popes – about 6,800 letters in all (all of them handwritten for sure, which reminds me of Fran's recent post). St Teresa of Avila had about 500 letters, 2,040 for Erasmus, 3,426 for Luther, and 4,271 for Calvin. In this book, they select 10 letters that they say represent the application of Ignatius’ spiritual principles.

And so, for the love of our Lord let us make every effort in him, since we owe him so much. For we tire of receiving his gifts much sooner than he tires of giving.

-- Excerpt of a letter from Ignatius to Ines Pascual, December 6 1524