. Discussion of CHAPTER 41 The Way of Perfection Speaks - of the Fear of God and - of how we must keep ourselves from venial sins. . |
St. Teresa taught:
"that, with these two things
-- Love and Fear of God --
we can travel along this road
in peace and quietness,
and
not think at every step
that we can see some pitfall,
and
that we shall never reach our goal"
▀ This Love of God:
"...all love is false
but love of Thee"
"May I not depart from this life
till there is nothing in it that I desire,
till I have forgotten what it is
to love anything but Thee
and
till I deny the name of love
to any other kind of affection"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The love of the world is false.
"your love, itself, becomes your punishment"
"the reason why you are so upset about it
is that your will strongly resents
your involving it in such childish pastimes"
"These things will show you
"These things will show you
what the world is"
▀ The Fear of God
"Yet we cannot be sure of reaching
( the journey's goal - Union with God )
so fear will always lead the way,
and then we shall not grow careless,
For, as long as we live,
we must never feel completely safe
or we shall be in great danger".
"And that was our Teacher's meaning
when at the end of this prayer
He said these words to His Father,
knowing how necessary they were:
"But deliver us from evil. Amen."
◘ "...At first
it is not very deep...
It is not recognizable...
As it increases,
it grows stronger each day,
and then, of course,
it can be recognized"
"for those who possess it
forsake
- sin, and
- occasions of sin, and
- bad company..."
◘ "in a few people,
to whom, the Lord grants
such great favours as
to make them rich in virtues and
to raise them, in a very short time,
to great heights of prayer"
"When at last the soul
attains to contemplation,...
its Fear of God is plainly revealed,
and
its Love is not dissembled even outwardly.
However narrowly we watch such persons,
we shall not find them growing careless;
for, close as our watch on them may be,
the Lord so preserves them
that they would not knowingly
commit one venial sin
even to further their own interests,
and, as for mortal sin,
they fear it like fire."
██ St Teresa Advises:
"Oh, what a great thing it is
not to have offended the Lord"
"Much care is needed
if this fear of God is to be
thoroughly impressed upon the soul;
though, if one has true love,
it is quickly acquired"
► "If you would gain this Fear of God,
• Remember the importance
- of habit and
- of starting to realize
what a serious thing
what a serious thing
it is to offend Him.
• Do your utmost
to learn this and
to turn it over in your minds;
for our life,
and much more than our life,
depends upon this virtue
being firmly planted in our souls.
Until you are conscious within your soul
of possessing it,
you need always
• to exercise very great care and
• to avoid
- all occasions of sin and
- any kind of company
which will not help you
to get nearer to God.
• Be most careful, in all that you do,
to bend your will to it;
• See that all you say tends to edification;
• Flee from all places
where there is conversation
which is not pleasing to God".
► "Let us always beseech God
that temptation may not be strong enough
for us to offend Him
but that He may send it to us
in proportion to the strength
which He gives us to conquer it"
"the Fear
which I hope will never be taken from us,
...is that Fear
which will stand us in good stead"
"... if we please Him,
they (' the servants...of hell')
- will be kept at bay and
- will do nothing that can harm us,
however much they
lead us into temptation
and
lay secret snares for us".
► "If we keep a pure conscience,
we can suffer little or no harm"
so that
"we shall all serve Him...
we, with our whole heart...."
"never be careless about this"
► "Even when the soul has that firm (purpose)
not to offend God...
it may subsequently fall from time to time,
for we
are weak and
cannot trust ourselves,
and,
the more determined we are,
the less self-confidence
we should have,
for confidence must come from God".
"But,
we need not feel constrained or depressed,
for the Lord will help us
and
the habits we have formed
will be of assistance to us
so that we shall not offend Him"
"Keep this in mind,
for it is very important advice,
so do not neglect it
- until you find you have
such a fixed determination
not to offend the Lord
that you would rather
lose a thousand lives
and
be persecuted by the whole world,
than commit one mortal sin,
and
- until you are most careful
not to commit venial sins.
■ After Fear of the Lord is received:
"Before we had this true fear of God
worldly people
would have helped to ruin our souls;
but now they will often help us
to love God more and
to praise Him
for having delivered us
from what we see
to be a notorious danger".
"These will do you no harm,
if you hate sin.
"And whereas
we, for our part,
may previously have helped
to foster their weaknesses,
we shall now
be helping to repress them,
because they will restrain themselves
in our presence"
. █ St. Teresa discusses both unplanned sin and deliberate planned sin: ◘ "But it is one thing - to commit a sin -- knowingly and -- after long deliberation, ◘ and quite another - to do it so suddenly that -- the knowledge of its being a venial sin and -- its commission are one and the same thing, and we hardly realize what we have done, although we do to some extent realize it". "as far as those...are concerned, who can fail to commit them frequently?" "From any sin, however small, committed with full knowledge, may God deliver us, especially - since we are sinning against so great a Sovereign and - realizing that He is watching us! That seems to me to be a sin committed of malice aforethought; it is as though one were to say: "Lord, although this displeases Thee, I shall do it. I know that Thou seest it and I know that Thou wouldst not have me do it; but, though I understand this, I would rather follow my own whim and desire than Thy will." If we commit a sin in this way, however slight, it seems to me that our offence is not small but very, very great. . |
. █ St Teresa teaches what is not Fear of the Lord:
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. End of Discussion of Chapter 41 The Way of Perfection . |