XIII — SPIRITUAL PROGRESS

Presence of God. — Help me, O Lord, to advance rapidly on the path of virtue.

Meditation

1 — “Be holy, for I am holy” (Lev. 19:2): this is God’s will, this is our vocation, this is the object of our desires and efforts. Created in God’s likeness, we do not want his image in us clouded by defects and passions; we want it to shine clear and pure, reflecting as much as possible his holiness.

To make us like Himself, God infused in our soul, together with grace, theological and moral virtues whose very purpose is to copy in us something of his infinite perfections. And He, who as Father loves to find in his children traits of his likeness, ardently desires to see us grow in virtues.

“The soul,” says St. John of the Cross, “cannot practice and acquire virtues by itself without God’s help, nor does God infuse them and make them grow in the soul without it” (C. 30, 6). Indeed, although in Baptism God infused virtues in us without any merit of ours, He does not make them grow without our cooperation. It belongs to us — always aided by grace — to put into practice the virtuous principles He has given us. Only thus shall we acquire good habits and perform virtuous acts with ease.

Therefore, if we want to cooperate with God’s action that seeks to make us like Himself, we must apply ourselves with great commitment to the exercise of virtues. We will apply ourselves first to the virtue we recognize as most necessary to correct our defects and conquer our dominant passion. We will make it the particular object of our resolutions, examinations of conscience, and reports to our spiritual director.

We must not think this exercise is reserved to beginners, because “the obligation to progress in the love of God — and therefore in all other virtues — lasts until death” (St. Francis de Sales). No one, however advanced in spiritual ways, can consider himself exempt from practicing virtue.

2 — St. Teresa of Jesus, while describing heights of union with God, repeatedly digresses to strongly recommend the exercise of virtues. “It is necessary,” she writes to her daughters, “that you do not place your foundation only in praying and contemplating; for if you do not strive to acquire virtues and practice them, you will always remain dwarfs” (Interior Castle VII, 4, 9). Elsewhere she says explicitly that by virtues one can “make great progress in serving God even without being great contemplatives, whereas without virtues no one can do so” (Way 4, 3).

Whether God leads us or not by the path of high contemplation is not essential for becoming saints and, moreover, does not depend on our will. But what is essential — and this depends on us — is always the practice of virtue. Whether God wills us in family life or dedicated to a profession, whether He calls us to apostolate or contemplative life, in every case we become holy only in proportion as we are virtuous.

The more we apply ourselves to practicing virtues, the more their practice becomes easy and almost connatural. But to reach this ease, characteristic of mature virtue, we must have courage to persevere long in struggle against our defects and in effort to acquire contrary habits. Yet we shall never attain perfect virtue, still less heroic virtue, without help of the Holy Spirit’s gifts, whose very office is to perfect virtues.

While it belongs to us to put virtues into act, only God can put gifts into act; however, He ordinarily does so in proportion to our commitment in exercising virtues. Assiduous practice of virtues opens our soul wide to God’s action, making it apt to receive and follow motions of the Holy Spirit. Let us therefore give ourselves generously to this exercise. The Holy Spirit will not delay in coming to meet us with his gifts, and we shall advance rapidly toward perfect virtue, heroic virtue, toward holiness.

Colloquy

“O Lord, You said, ‘Be holy, for I am holy.’ This, it seems to me, is the same will You had from the day of creation when You declared: ‘Let us make man in our image and likeness.’ It is always your same desire to associate your creature with Yourself, to identify it with You. How can we better satisfy this desire than by remaining simply and lovingly turned toward You, so that You may reflect your image in us as the sun is reflected through a clear crystal?

“But to mirror your perfections it is necessary to strip off the old man and clothe ourselves with the new man, created by You in justice and holiness. Here is the traced road: we need only strip ourselves in order to walk it according to your divine intention. Help me, then, to strip myself, to die to myself, to lose sight of myself” (E.T. II, 9; I, 7).

Help me, O Lord, to fight my defects so as to strip off the old man; help me to practice virtues so as to put on the new man. Splendor of works and fame of a great name are worth little before You; practice of virtue is worth much.

“You prefer to see in me the least degree of purity of conscience to all the works I could do.

“You prefer in me the smallest degree of obedience to all the services I think I render You.

“You value more one desire of suffering for love of You than all the spiritual consolations I might have” (G.C. AM. 12-14).