Episode 5 -- Treatise on Peace of Soul c5 -- Keeping Our Soul Disengaged and in Solitude

If we truly desire to become holy and peaceful, what must we do next?

Fr Scupoli reminds us in chapter 5 of A TREATISE on PEACE of SOUL of what we must desire above all else: God. The reason we want to seek this heavenly peace is because we want to be united to God. But we cannot make God show Himself to our souls. We cannot force a greater awareness of his Presence. What can we do?

1. Wait! Wait with confidence.

2. Pray for a desire for Him alone.

3. Learn the value of not pleasing ourselves.

4. Follow the advice of your spiritual father.

5. Keep our will free for what God wants.

6. Desire things in such a way that if we do not get what we desire, we will not be troubled.

7. Beg the Holy Spirit to give us a desire for holy solitude with God.

Chapter 5 is a most demanding chapter as it sets before us a great ideal, the ideal of a soul burning with desire for God.

We saw last episode that the peace of soul that God wants to give us is something that can grow and deepen. We are on a PATH, Fr Scupoli insists, a path towards heavenly peace. The path has major warning signs. If we keep going down this path, we will encounter neglect from others, contempt, being forsaken. We will be stripped at times of human companionship and will experience affliction. Why? God is leading us mysteriously to converse with Him alone and to depend on His presence. He is leading to the point where His will is what matters most to us. There are pitfalls on this path that we may fall into: indiscreet zeal, secret faults, failures to be humble, temptations to sin. But if only we stay on this path, we will find a "peace that surpasses all understanding" (Philippians 4).