A Life of Fervour
1. " To pray is to love," wrote St. Augustine. The man who loves God
prays continually and with fervour, whereas the man who has little love
for his Creator prays rarely and apathetically. Prayer does not consist
primarily in verbal expression, but in the elevation of the mind to God
in adoration, thanksgiving, propitiation, and supplication. Love should
be the inspiration of our communication with God, for where there is no love there can be no prayer.
Jesus tells us that we “must always pray and not lose heart.” (Luke
18:1) We may be working, walking, talking, eating or sleeping, but
whatever we are doing, the love of God can transform it into a prayer.
This is so if we are engaged in our work, but have offered it to God in
advance. If we are in trouble, our sufferings will be pleasing to God.
If we are walking about, everything will speak to us of God and cause us
to make acts of gratitude and of love. We shall have dealings with men
of the world, but they will perceive and appreciate that we are
spiritually united to God. We shall sleep because sleep is necessary,
but what appear to be hours of fruitless inactivity will be dedicated to
our Creator. Fervour in prayer and in action should be the constant
ideal of the good Christian, because it makes his entire life pleasing
to God.
2. God is our Creator and absolute Master, Whom the
Angels adore and irrational creatures obey. His greatness demands that
we should offer all our activity to Him in a spirit of fervent and
loving dedication. Since we have received everything from Him, we have
many reasons for loving Him. By the work of redemption God became our
friend and brother, and the victim of expiation for our sins. How could
we remain indifferent and ungrateful when we remember the favours which
we have received? Love desires love in return, and God loved us so much
that He became man and shed His blood for us. Moreover, He immolates
Himself continually on our behalf in the Sacrifice of the Eucharist.
Finally, our fervour should be increased by the reflection that God has
reserved for us as an everlasting reward His own Beatific Vision.
All these considerations should help to increase the fervour of our
love. Then our actions will form a ladder of ascent to God by means of
which we shall become intimately united to Him.
3. The fervent
Christian will never miss an opportunity of advancing in perfection.
When he feels that he is growing negligent, he combats the signs of
spiritual retrogression and makes a new beginning by telling God that he
wishes to belong entirely to Him. It is his motto that no day must ever
pass without a further step towards perfection. To decide to stand
still is fatal, for it leads inevitably to a decline. It is true that
the constant effort to advance costs great sacrifices, but sanctity
cannot be achieved without sacrifice and everlasting happiness cannot be
gained without perseverance in virtue. Moreover, difficult though the
ascent towards perfection may be, it eases the heaviness of our hearts
and brings us that fundamental peace which God alone can give.
Showing posts with label fervour. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fervour. Show all posts
Friday, 18 July 2014
Tuesday, 25 February 2014
Fervour and Tepidity - Cardinal Bacci
Fervour and Tepidity
1. The only choice in the life of a Christian is between fervour and sin. The tepid or negligent soul cannot remain long in the grace of God, and when God's grace is removed, it means the death of the soul. The spiritual life resembles a steep hill. A man cannot stay still. He must keep going upwards or begin to slip downwards. Whoever struggles on up the hill is approaching perfection and Heaven; whoever slips backwards is approaching sin and Hell. There is no middle way. Those who are lukewarm are an object of disgust to their Creator, Who casts them away from Himself. “Because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot,” the Holy Spirit says, “I am about to vomit thee out of my mouth.” (Apoc. 3:16)
So it is not enough to be mediocre Christians. The half-hearted and indifferent are already travelling along the slippery path of sin and are on the waiting-list for Hell. It is dangerous for anyone to remain thoughtlessly in this state of spiritual ineptitude. A man who never thinks of his own salvation is suffering from a serious illness. He is running a grave risk of eternal damnation.
2. Our Lord does not command us to be merely virtuous. He commands us to be perfect. “You therefore are to be perfect, even as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Mt. 5:48) He tells us to love Him with our whole heart and our whole soul. “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart and with thy whole soul.” (Mt. 22:37) He orders us to renounce everything rather than offend Him, (Luke 14:33) even to pluck out an eye or cut off a hand or foot if it should present an obstacle to our eternal salvation. (Mt. 18:8) How can we remain unmoved and inactive in face of these exhortations? The grade of perfection to which Our Lord calls us cannot be reached without His grace, which we can only obtain by fervent and unceasing prayer. Fervour is the animating principle of the spiritual life. It wins God's gifts for us and makes us almost immune from sin.
3. We can become fervent by eliminating the causes of tepidity. These are: (a) The lack of a living faith. The remedy is frequent meditation on the eternal truths in order to arouse our faith and make us think more constantly of Heaven. (b) The spirit of the world and inordinate attachment to worldly things, which are like bonds restricting us in our advance towards God. Let us remember that the world passes away and cannot satisfy our souls which have been made for God. Let us seek Him, therefore and love Him above all. (c) Our lack of perseverance in doing good. It is not easy to preserve constant intimacy with God, even at times when we seem to have become spiritually dried up and deprived of all supernatural consolation. It is not easy to persevere in our resistance to the attractions of the world and of sin. It is not easy to pray constantly even when God does not seem to heed us. It is no wonder that we grow tired and discouraged. But let us remember that God rewards His faithful servants by making them fervent in prayer and in action. So let us be constant. We shall be rewarded with spiritual fervour, which will give us the joy and inner peace which conquer every obstacle and are the prelude to unending happiness with God in Heaven.
1. The only choice in the life of a Christian is between fervour and sin. The tepid or negligent soul cannot remain long in the grace of God, and when God's grace is removed, it means the death of the soul. The spiritual life resembles a steep hill. A man cannot stay still. He must keep going upwards or begin to slip downwards. Whoever struggles on up the hill is approaching perfection and Heaven; whoever slips backwards is approaching sin and Hell. There is no middle way. Those who are lukewarm are an object of disgust to their Creator, Who casts them away from Himself. “Because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot,” the Holy Spirit says, “I am about to vomit thee out of my mouth.” (Apoc. 3:16)
So it is not enough to be mediocre Christians. The half-hearted and indifferent are already travelling along the slippery path of sin and are on the waiting-list for Hell. It is dangerous for anyone to remain thoughtlessly in this state of spiritual ineptitude. A man who never thinks of his own salvation is suffering from a serious illness. He is running a grave risk of eternal damnation.
2. Our Lord does not command us to be merely virtuous. He commands us to be perfect. “You therefore are to be perfect, even as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Mt. 5:48) He tells us to love Him with our whole heart and our whole soul. “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart and with thy whole soul.” (Mt. 22:37) He orders us to renounce everything rather than offend Him, (Luke 14:33) even to pluck out an eye or cut off a hand or foot if it should present an obstacle to our eternal salvation. (Mt. 18:8) How can we remain unmoved and inactive in face of these exhortations? The grade of perfection to which Our Lord calls us cannot be reached without His grace, which we can only obtain by fervent and unceasing prayer. Fervour is the animating principle of the spiritual life. It wins God's gifts for us and makes us almost immune from sin.
3. We can become fervent by eliminating the causes of tepidity. These are: (a) The lack of a living faith. The remedy is frequent meditation on the eternal truths in order to arouse our faith and make us think more constantly of Heaven. (b) The spirit of the world and inordinate attachment to worldly things, which are like bonds restricting us in our advance towards God. Let us remember that the world passes away and cannot satisfy our souls which have been made for God. Let us seek Him, therefore and love Him above all. (c) Our lack of perseverance in doing good. It is not easy to preserve constant intimacy with God, even at times when we seem to have become spiritually dried up and deprived of all supernatural consolation. It is not easy to persevere in our resistance to the attractions of the world and of sin. It is not easy to pray constantly even when God does not seem to heed us. It is no wonder that we grow tired and discouraged. But let us remember that God rewards His faithful servants by making them fervent in prayer and in action. So let us be constant. We shall be rewarded with spiritual fervour, which will give us the joy and inner peace which conquer every obstacle and are the prelude to unending happiness with God in Heaven.
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