Book V, Chapter V

He that endeavours to withdraw himself from obedience, withdraweth himself from Grace ; and he who seeketh for himself private benefits, loseth those which are common

j (On these words) — “ He that endeavours to withdraw him-

self from obedience, withdraweth himself from Grace; and; he who seeketh for himself private benefits, loseth those which are common.” B. iii. c. 13. J

Question. — Why is it that he who withdraws himself from obedience deprives himself of grace? j

Answer. — Because obedience is necessary to pre-

J serve the gifts of Heaven, as rain is necessary to make the trees shoot and the flowers open. There are souls, undoubtedly, who have received great gifts from above, and to whom it is easy to rise to a high degree of sanctity, and to an intimate familiarity with God but if once they trust too much in their own illumination, if they rest too much on the great things that the Spirit of God works in them, imme- i diately they fall into delusion, and these graces, no longer supported by humility and faith, their sole origin, soon cease to exist.

It is quite otherwise with those who are entirely I submissive both in mind and in will to their superiors:

for when they seem, by obeying, to renounce the fa- I vours of the Divine Spouse, then they secure them to themselves more abundantly. And by this very; thing it appears manifestly that we cannot withdraw ourselves from obedience, without depriving ourselves I of Grace. We read of St. Simeon Stylites, that he lived in a surprising manner, on a pillar forty cubits in height. He had taken up his abode there, not by the order or advice of any man, but by the inspira-:

tion of God; and yet he so thoroughly retained the i spirit of obedience, that when the Bishops, to try him, sent him word to come down from his pillar, he immediately prepared himself to obey their command it was thus that he preserved the wonderful gift that he had received from God. Those, then, in whom the Holy Spirit works great and uncommon things, must be always ready to obey, for otherwise they will in- fallibly be abandoned by Grace.

’ *■ I

Question. — Wherefore is it that those who seek

for themselves special gifts lose those which are common? f

Answer. — For the reason that I have just said; for I of spiritual gifts, some are common, and some private r 3

TO SEEK SPECIAL GIFTS i 186 gifts. The common are necessary to all, as the virtues founded on faith, humility, obedience, charity, &c. The private are certain feelings of devotion, sublime thoughts, illuminations, and other free graces, which God gives to whoever seemeth Him good, and which must be pleasing to Him, though far less so than the common graces, since these last serve as a basis and > foundation for the others. j

Many people so attach themselves to their private \ devotions, that they find no pleasure in those exercises of piety that are common among the faithful. If you speak to them of the Passion of the Saviour, of His sacred Wounds, of His Childhood, or of the judgments of God, and the rules which the Saints have given us to live as Christians, they are hardly 1 at all moved. This delicacy in spiritual matters is very dangerous, and carefully to be avoided: for those who affect special gifts too much, lose the fruit of the common; and those who, desiring, through a spirit of singularity, to distinguish themselves from others, practise devotions which they alone enjoy and esteem, depart from true devotion, and sometimes \ even from the Faith; there being nothing easier than to pass from singularity to delusion, and from delusion to error.

Persons of solid piety, although God discourses with them familiarly, and grants them great favours,.j cease not to approve of those holy practices which the I Church recommends in general to all her children; but those delicate souls, which will have nothing com- mon, cannot read any thing but the Greatness of Je- [ sus, and other such works. St. Francis de Sales they I do not think sufficiently elevated: nothing pleases them in Grenada, in Rodriguez they are not satisfied without something more subtle, more strained, and less easy to understand. Not that there is not much f to learn, and much to be profitably studied in the ’

RISKS LOSS OF THE COMMON.

I books which treat of the mystic life; but one who is truly spiritual takes pleasure also in reading those which explain the best known things; and nothing is more to his taste than the book of the Imitation of Christ, simple and intelligible as it is.

It is related in the life of Sister Mary of the Incarnation, a Carmelitess of great sanctity, that the simplest preachers touched her much, and that little was required to inspire her with devotion. Souls thus disposed are like those who, having their stomach in a good state, digest everything, and benefit by the coarsest food; but the others may be compared to people who live on dainties when they accustom themselves to these delicacies, by degrees they lose their taste for bread and ordinary food, and are in great danger of destroying their health.

There is an important remark to be made here, that those souls whom God leads by common ways, must not envy those whom He conducts by extraordinary paths, and whom He is pleased thus to l sanctify; and that these last, for their part, must beware of resting too much on the particular favours that He gives them, for it is both best and safest to attach themselves to those practices of devotion which ] are most customary in the Church, to seek to please; God, and particularly to love humility and obedience. For if they make their virtue to consist in those extraordinary things which the Holy Spirit works in them, it is to be feared that in time they may lose the common graces so necessary to a right performance of the essential duties of the Christian life. St. Theresa appeared after her death to one of her nuns, and told her to admonish all the Provincials of her Order to exhort those whom they should receive, and over whom they should bear rule, not to be too desirous of visions, revelations, and other such favours, but rather to labour for the acquisition of solid virtue;

188 LEARNING THROUGH PRAYER;

that for herself, if God had been pleased to have mercy upon her, it was not on account of such gifts, but for other and far better things which He had deigned to teach her, and by means of which He had conducted her to that glory which she was enjoying.