Lectio et Oratio

Episode 80 -- Spiritual Combat c50.2 -- Method of Meditating on Saints, especially St. Joseph

Why is it possible to meditate on the saints, especially St Joseph?

In this episode we will read the second method of meditation based on the angels and saints. Fr. Scupoli has a fascinating presentation on St Joseph, very fitting for this year of St Joseph.

In the previous episode we looked at his first method for meditating on the saints. Fr. Scupoli stresses our need to speak to the eternal Father about the saints. We can ponder their labours, persecutions, trials. We present these great followers of Christ to the Father and ask for blessings.

Episode 79 -- Spiritual Combat c50.1 -- One Method of Meditating Based on the Saints

Can we spend 30 minutes to an hour pondering the mystery of the saints?

We read about a method of meditation and prayer involving the saints and angels. Fr. Scupoli surprises us with a meditation on the eternal Father being presented with the what the saints have done for His Son.

In the previous episode, we read about how to grow in confidence in Mary’s assistance. We call upon her because of her great love for Christ. She has one goal - to glorify her Son and through Him to glorify the Father in the Holy Spirit.

Episode 78 -- Spiritual Combat c49 -- Growing in Marian Confidence

How can I grow in confidence in the assistance of the Blessed Virgin Mary?

How blessed we are to be reading more about the Blessed Virgin Mary. “To begin well and end better, devotion to the Blessed Virgin is nothing less than indispensable,” St Philip used to say. During his great illnesses, when the doctors had given up hope of his recovery and had closed the curtains around his bed, they were whispering in the hallway with some of the Oratorian fathers. They suddenly heard St Philip’s voice. He was speaking to someone; he was speaking to the Blessed Virgin Mary. “My Madonna, my Lady, My beautiful Madonna.” St Philip thought he was alone. The doctors came and pulled back the curtains and saw St Philip with his arms outstretched as though hugging someone. Surprised and embarrassed at seeing the doctors, St Philip began to weep. He told the doctors that the Madonna has visited him and healed him.

In this episode Fr. Scupoli gives us reasons for greater confidence and trust in the help of Mary. He appeals to analogies taken from perfume containers and fire. He also makes us think about the motivation of Our Lord in giving us His Mother as Ours. Why would he do that unless he planned on listening to her requests?

In the previous episode, we pondered how we can make a longer meditation based on considerations of the role and mission of Mary.

• Start with the Father’s eternal love for her as willed to be the Mother of his Incarnate Son. Enter into the Eternal Father’s heart and all the delight he has in Mary. Speak to the Father about Mary.
• Consider all the ways she helped her Incarnate Son during his life…Speak to Jesus about his Mother…
• Then speak to Mary herself, Spouse of the Holy Spirit, as discussed in the previous episode.
  • Remind her of all that she has done in the past.
  • Ask her especially to help us make use of her Son’s sufferings.

Who helps us to speak to God the Father? The Holy Spirit. “God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts crying, ‘Abba Father.’” (Galatians 4:6) Who allows us to believe in Christ and love Him? The Holy Spirit. “No one can say, ‘Jesus is Lord’, except by the Holy Spirit.” (1 Corinthians 12:3)

Episode 77 -- Spiritual Combat c48 -- Marian Meditation Method

If one wants to spend 30 minutes or an hour meditating on the Blessed Virgin Mary, is it possible? Yes!

During the first day of the traditional Pentecost Octave, our minds naturally turn to the Blessed Virgin Mary. St. Francis of Assisi called her the Spouse of the Holy Spirit. There never was a moment in Our Lady’s existence that she did not have the Holy Spirit in her heart. She was conceived with the grace of the Holy Spirit in her soul. She never sinned or lost that grace. She and the Holy Spirit cooperated in the conception of Christ Jesus in time. Like spouses, she and the Holy Spirit are distinct, but inseparable. They continue to work together. Our Lady is able to be called the countenance of the Holy Spirit. St Maximilian Kolbe called her “a quasi incarnation of the Holy Spirit”! In other words, she and the Holy Spirit are so close that it is as if (quasi) she and the Holy Spirit are one person.

I tell you all this because it can be hard to relate the Holy Spirit. But being devoted to Mary gives one a visible face to aid us. As St Joseph was a visible image of God the Father for Jesus, the Son, on earth, so Mary was a visible image of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Family in Nazareth (Joseph, Jesus, Mary) is an image of the Holy Trinity (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit).

The Church especially dedicates the Monday after Pentecost to Mary as Mother of the Church. The Feast of Mary, Help of Christians, May 24th, was established by Pope Pius VII. And so it is fitting in the Providence of the eternal Father that this episode's reading is about Mary. In this episode Fr. Scupoli offers us a meditation method based on the three things:

1. God the Father’s eternal love for Mary.
2. God the Son’s love for His mother who bore Him in her womb and never stopped assisting Him.
3. Our Lady’s own role in our salvation.

In the previous episode, we pondered a short method of meditation based on two principles:

1. The merits of Christ’s sufferings - what kind of justice he earned by his patient suffering.
2. The satisfaction and glory given to the Father by Christ’s obedience.

Let us recall that this method of meditating is meant to help us acquire a virtue like patience.

1. What did Christ’s patience merit? What was owed him as a just REWARD? His own glorification (resurrection/ascension) and our salvation (sending us the Holy Spirit). By Christ’s patience, God brought forth the greatest good (the RESURRECTION), snatching victory from the greatest evil, killing the Son of God.
   • What then can we merit, through Christ, by our own patience?
   • We should ponder that our patience motivated by love unites us to Jesus?

2. Satisfaction and Glory:
   • His obedience, patiently borne, also made satisfaction for all the disobedience of humanity. Christ makes satisfaction because He offers his Father, Aquinas teaches, “something he loves more than he hates the offence.” God the Father loves the obedience of the Son made man more than he is displeased with all our sinful disobedience. To make satisfaction is to make up for, to atone for, to counterbalance.
     • How might my patience help make up for my own sins or the effects of my sins?

     • How should I encourage others?

   • Christ’s love, his preferring His Father’s will over all the pain and suffering and rejection gave more glory to His Father than all our disobedience and selfishness diminishes God’s glory. God’s will is a greater good than anything this world can offer!
     • What Glory can I give God my patiently embracing the sadness he allows me to undergo?
     • Can I proclaim the greatness of God in this trial?

Episode 76 -- Spiritual Combat c47 -- Meditating on Effects of Christ's Patience

Is there a more intellectual method of meditating on Christ’s life and passion?

Having looked in the previous episode at a method of praying for 30 minutes, or an hour, or even longer, that considers the sufferings of Christ, Fr. Scupoli in this episode turns to another method, a more intellectual method, of considering Christ’s sufferings.

1. Ponder on the merits of his sufferings — what he has earned or won by them.
2. Ponder the satisfaction and glory that the Father has in his loving obedience.

In the previous episode we read through Fr Scupoli’s description of a mediation on the SCOURGING OF CHRIST at the Pillar. Here is a little summary. Remember it is prayer aimed at helping us grow in a virtue, the virtue of Patience.

• REFLECTIONS
  •  Physical sufferings:
    • First — blows and revilements — how he is dragged?
    • Second — Stripped of garments — how cold?
    • Third — hands tightly bound 
    • Fourth — blood dripping to earth — how much?

    • Fifth — repeated wounds from blows — how many?

  • Interior sufferings:
    • Inexpressible sorrow
    • Excruciating agony

    • Willing to suffer more

  • Interest He takes in us:

    • Desires us to be patient

    • Implores graces for us

• RESOLUTIONS AND AFFECTIONS
  • Resolve to be like Christ and carry crosses with joy

  • Resolve to be like Christ and carry crosses with joy

• CONCLUSION — Ask God for Patience 

Episode 75 -- Spiritual Combat c46 -- Meditation

If I want to spend longer in silent mental prayer, say 30 minutes or an hour, what can I do?

In this episode we will read a fascinating little chapter on how to spend 30 minutes to an hour pondering Our Lord’s scourging at the pillar. Fr. Scupoli teaches us a little method of meditating, reflecting on, pondering over this scene in Our Lord’s passion. He teaches us how to practice Christian meditation in order to grow in the virtue of patience.

In the previous episode, Fr Scupoli’s treatment of “mental prayer” is so important. He is describing what many Christians already do throughout the day as they silently turn to the Lord in their needs. How crucial to present ourselves before him as:

1. unable on our own to avoid sin.
2. unable on our own to do truly supernaturally good. things.

Episode 74 -- Spiritual Combat c45 -- Mental Prayer

Does our prayer have to use words?

In this episode we look at a special kind of prayer that stays within the mind (mens, mentis — Latin). Fr. Scupoli calls it mental prayer. This is a form of prayer that can be practiced in all the difficult situations of life and in all temptations. May the Holy Spirit help us to put into practice this profound chapter.

Last episode we finished talking about the basic conditions or requirements of efficacious prayer. Fr. Scupoli does not mean that we put conditions on God. He means that there are conditions IN US that must be met for our prayer to be heard. What must be true of our prayer, what requirements must be met or in place, if it will truly obtain its request?

Episode 73 -- Spiritual Combat c44.3 -- Four Other Conditions for Prayer

Are there seven basic conditions for praying as we should? Yes!

In this episode we finish reading chapter 44 of the Spiritual Combat, Fr. Scupoli’s opening chapter on prayer. We will look at his discussion of the last four conditions of prayer, plus an eighth condition that should follow our prayers. We have seen so far that we must have/do the following:

1. Devotion, that is a desire to serve God 
2. Holy Confidence that God can answer our prayers
3. Right Intention of conforming our tainted and selfish will to the Divine WILL—> we will look at what are the conditions of being heard by God.
4. Practice what we pray for. We must strive in our actions to become what we are asking God to become. Our moral lives and prayer life are interconnected. We live as we pray and we pray as we live.
5. Thank God for past benefits before asking for new ones.
6. Ask in the name of Jesus and through His merits.
7. Persevere in asking. Do not give up! Knock and it will be opened!

In the previous episode we saw that there are some things that are so pleasing to God that we can ask for them without conditions: grace, virtue, salvation, etc.

There are other gifts from God that we should only CONDITIONALLY ask God to give us; in other words, Lord, grant me x, y, z, [here is the condition] if it will truly benefit our spiritual lives. The if = the condition. We should only ask for the following kinds of things conditionally: house, job, better health, etc.

One day St. Philip Neri begged God to save this woman’s life. He fulfilled all the conditions set out by Fr. Scupoli: devotion, confidence, right intention, good actions, thanksgiving, asking in the name of Jesus, and persevering. The Lord heard his prayer. The woman got better. But then she did not change her life and obey God. She became worse and worse in how she lived. St Philip then told people: “that is the last time I ever pray for someone’s health unconditionally. From now on, I will only ask for healings on this condition: the person will get closer to God.”

Let us ponder St. Philip’s words. In all our requests, let us ask for conformity to God’s will. Fr. Scupoli tells us that no matter the outcome of our prayer: we must be resigned to God’s will (an 8th condition!).

Episode 72 -- Spiritual Combat c44.2 -- Desire, Confidence in God, Right motive for Prayer

Are there conditions of heart for praying well? Yes!

In this episode we will look the first three conditions that our hearts need in order to pray well:

1. desire — and the ways to grow in desire for prayer
2. confident faith that God can help us; and
3. the right motive, viz., to do the will of God.

Last episode we read a really short passage that connected Prayer to the other three weapons of the spiritual combat. Prayer is the greatest and most important weapon. By prayer we can obtain distrust of self, trust in God, and the right use of our faculties to grow in virtue. Prayer is the channel of all graces. “A man without prayer,” St. Philip Neri used to say,“ is like an animal without reason.”

Episode 71 -- Spiritual Combat c44.1 -- Prayer in relation to the other weapons

What is the FOURTH weapon in the spiritual combat and the channel of all grace? PRAYER!

In this episode we begin to discuss what the Spiritual Combat teaches about prayer. Like so many things in this excellent book, Fr. Scupoli’s treatment is very practical. He is not giving us a complete treatise on every kind of prayer. He is looking at prayer primarily as the means of overcoming our tendency to evil and conforming our wills to God’s will.

We will see the first three conditions that our hearts need in order to pray well:

1. desire,
2. confident faith, and
3. the right motive, viz., to do the will of God.

Let us take heart! Let us open our hearts and minds to receive this teaching on prayer. If we want to change our way of judging people, if we want to grow in patience and humility, our greatest and strongest weapon is PRAYER.

Episode 70 -- Spiritual Combat c43.2 -- Properly Reacting to the Public, Serious, and Malicious Sins of Others

Granting that rash judgements of fellow human beings are wrong, what do we do when the sin is publicly known and/or the sin is very serious? Should I condemn the person then? No!

In this episode we are planning to finish reading the long treatment of the need for organized “spiritual exercises” in the Spiritual Combat. “Exercises” are practiced by militaries. They have various plans and methods, and simulated situations in which they figure out what to do against an enemy. We have been studying the methods we need to overcome the subtleties of the devil, the world, and fallen human nature (the flesh) if we want to grow in virtue.

He ends with one of the most difficult trials: the temptation to rash judgment.

What is rash judgment? Aquinas explains it this way: when the reason lacks certainty, as when a man, without any solid motive, forms a judgment on some doubtful or hidden matter, and then it is called judgment by "suspicion" or "rash" judgment.

In other words, if we reach “certainty” too easily, without sufficient EVIDENCE, then we call it rash judgment or suspicion.

There are so many hidden things about other people and their pasts that we rarely are in a position to be CERTAIN about their hearts.

But what if it is a public sin?

1. In charity, look for an excuse for the person.
2. Look for a hidden virtue in the person that this public sin will keep hidden…
3. Remember that this fault may one day help the person reach a deeper self-knowledge and humility.

What if the sin is very serious and the person is not repenting?

1. Turn your mind to Heaven and God’s inscrutable wisdom…
2. Remember: some saints were terrible sinners earlier in life…
3. Even those who were at the heights of holiness have fallen…

Who should I criticize then? - Myself! But with gentleness!

Where do my good thoughts of others come from? - The Holy Spirit!

What do I need to watch out for?

1. Detraction, saying evil about others unnecessarily.
2. Condemning others.
3. Being attentive to faults of others.
4. Magnifying, making the faults of others seem larger and worse.
5. Focusing on smallest faults of others when no large ones exist.

Episode 69 -- Spiritual Combat c43.1 -- Our Tendency to Rash Judgement

What do we do with our tendency to judge others rashly?

The devil tries to get us to be immoderate in our mortifications. He wants to distract us from what is even more meritorious in the sight of God:

1. desires of sharing in heavenly glory
2. desiring to serve Christ like a soldier
3. self-contempt of false, independent self
4. disdain of the empty promises of the world
5. silence and retirement
6. humility
7. charity for all men
8. patient endurance of the greatest injuries
9. rendering good for evil
10. avoiding smallest faults

In this episode we look at the final chapter of part 3. The devil loves to makes those trying to serve God into very judgmental people. He encourages us to assume the worst of people. He makes us prone to believe evil things. What can we do against this typical fault?

Episode 68 -- Spiritual Combat c42.2 -- How to Imitate the Saints

If we are not necessarily meant to imitate the saints in all their austerities, what are we supposed to imitate in them?

In this episode from the Spiritual Combat, Fr. Scupoli gives us a list of ways we can imitate the saints. Not everyone can practice great fasting or physical penances.

We saw last episode that the devil likes to lead true servants of God astray by pretending to be an “angel of light.” The devil is a fallen angel, deprived of the light of sanctifying grace. “But he sometimes urges spiritual persons,” St. Philip Neri liked to say, “to immoderate fasts and mortifications of the body.” The devil gets people to ruin their health. They become discouraged. And then they give up all their spiritual exercises. Let us practice a moderate amount of bodily self-denial under obedience to a spiritual guide. And then follow the saints in humility, charity, patience, distrust of self, etc.

Episode 67 -- Spiritual Combat c42.1 -- More Intense Demonic Delusions

As we begin to make greater progress, does the devil have more subtle tactics?

The third weapon of the spiritual combat is “spiritual exercises.” What Fr. Scupoli means, according to Fr. Robinson, by spiritual exercises is an organized campaign or strategy for building up the virtues and fighting our vices.

This long discussion of spiritual exercises (chapters 7-42) is coming to a close. Soon we will take up the fourth weapon: prayer. In this episode we look at his advice about the more subtle temptations of the devil when we really begin to serve the Lord. Earlier, Fr. Scupoli discussed the five standard tactics of the devil regarding those who are beginning to serve God (chapters 27-32). Then we have had a series of chapters on the right method of growing in virtues one at a time. Now Fr. Scupoli begins to warn us about a lack of moderation. The devil likes to urge us onto practices that we are not really able to do. He tries to make us think that we have reached a height of sanctity that we have not yet reached.

Like St. Philip Neri, St. Francis de Sales, and the Desert Fathers, Fr. Scupoli is stressing moderation/discretion/prudence! We saw last episode that we need great prudence in dealing with afflictions and vexations. We should seek ordinary remedies for pain, remedies that God has given us through the gift of human reason. By our reason, we share in the image of God. God wants us to think and figure things out. But when those ordinary remedies do not help us with our pains, we must with prudence surrender to the divine will. We must beg the Holy Spirit to save us from excessive desire to be free of our crosses.

Episode 66 -- Spiritual Combat c41 -- Avoiding Excessive Desires to Escape Affliction

Is it wrong to want to be free of vexations and afflictions?

In chapter 39 of The Spiritual Combat, Fr Scupoli spoke about seven common afflictions/vexations that can happen to us every day and many times a day. In chapter 40, he stressed how one sign of spiritual progress is our perseverance in prayer and pursuing virtue despite afflictions and vexations and dryness. In chapter 41, the question arises: when is it okay to want to be free of these trials and afflictions and vexations? Do we just have to suffer?

Fr. Scupoli will make a distinction.

• There is an ordinary use of means to be free of an affliction.
• There is also excessive effort.

But what happens when the ordinary means do not work? Here he advises us to be patient. And he gives us reasons why an excessive desire to be free of afflictions is spiritually detrimental to us. If we try to hard to get rid of an affliction, we run the risk of never becoming truly patient and missing out of heavenly rewards that God has for us.

What then is the best course of action? Our Lord in the garden is the model! “If it is possible, let this cup of suffering pass from me, Father; yet not my will, but your will be done.” May the Lord, ascending into heaven, obtain perfect conformity with the will of God for us. May Our Lady of Fatima show us the way to uniting our afflictions to Her Son to make amends for sins.

Episode 65 -- Spiritual Combat c40 -- Time for and Indications of Spiritual Progress

How long will it take before I see signs of spiritual progress?

In this episode we will look at some of the main indications or signs that we are making spiritual progress. Fr. Scupoli warns us, however, not to be too concerned with watching ourselves. He gives some encouragement about how long it will take to start making progress.

In the previous episode we looked at the seven daily vexations that can try us, but that can also be amazing moments of spiritual growth. We looked at five virtues: patience, humility, obedience, poverty, and charity. We saw how each virtue has a different kind of “act” or reaction. The virtues grow by acting as we should in that moment.

Episode 64 -- Spiritual Combat c39 -- Proper Responses to Daily Vexations

How can I respond virtuously to the seven command vexations that life often brings?

Fr. Scupoli lists seven vexations that we commonly face in this episode, chapter 39:

1. Being reprimanded severely for a good action.
2. Being spoken badly about by others
3. Refused a small favour in a harsh manner
4. Unjustly suspected
5. Engaged in a disagreeable/annoying activity
6. Having a meal ruined
7. Overwhelmed with illness or some greater evil

These evils can be combined. There can be greater ones. But the crucial question is our response. What Fr. Scupoli explains tonight is how we can respond differently depending on which VIRTUE (patience or humility or obedience or poverty or charity) that we are trying to work on.

Previously, in chapter 38, Fr. Scupoli gave us the background reasons for why such vexations or trials should be welcomed and patiently accepted with perfect compliance.

• Our wills have a great chance to choose the good!
• God’s Providence permitted this in his Fatherly love for us.
• They help us undermine our innate pride.
• They give us a chance to conform our will to God’s will.

Episode 63 -- Spiritual Combat c38.2 -- Embracing Challenges Permitted by God

Can I really see the harsh and even evil things people do (and I do!) as part of God’s Providence? Yes.

In this episode, we look at a 2nd consideration for why we should be eager to look for opportunities to grow in virtue. We look at how all things happen under the Providence of God.

Last episode we looked at the human will. God wants us to cooperate in our salvation. We have to will what God wills. Crosses and tribulations are valuable from the point of view of our will because they really make us work. They make us do violence to our feelings and choose to follow God. This is a kind of spiritual workout that stretches us and makes us grow in the love of God.

Episode 62 -- Spiritual Combat c38.1 -- Proper Means to Habitual Virtue

While I understand the need to accept passively difficult moments as chances for virtue, but do I need to be actively seeking opportunities to grow spiritually? Yes!

We saw in the last episode that we must not run from difficult people and irksome situations if we truly want to become a patient person. Fr. Scupoli speaks of habitual patience. He wants patience to be a HABIT, a constant READINESS to endure sadness for the sake of a greater good. Having the habit of patience, the VIRTUE of patience, is what makes someone a PATIENT PERSON. Most of us can be patience occasionally. But being patient at easy times is not the sign of HABITUAL PATIENCE.

IF we truly want to become like Christ, then we need to welcome the challenges God allows to enter our life. We cannot run and hide from the irksome events. Let us face our fears with the grace of the HOLY SPIRIT.

BUT REMEMBER — his advice in chapter 37 was not about matters of SEX. In the battle of purity, St Philip says, it is the cowards who win, those who flee. In other words, CHASTITY requires different tactics than PATIENCE.

We have to face our FEARS, not flee! But sexual desires, when at the wrong time, place, or with the wrong person need special treatment! Distraction! Fleeing! Not facing them. More on this later!

In this episode we look at the need to be ACTIVE in trying to look for opportunities to grow in virtue. Yes, we passively accept what God sends. But we must be “pro-active” as people say today.

Episode 61 -- Spiritual Combat c37 -- Seizing Difficult Moments

In trying to make constant advancement in friendship with God, what do I do when really hard things cross my path?

After explaining the tactics of the devil, Fr. Scupoli gives a series of chapters with specific admonitions, strong pieces of advice, encouragements, on how to make progress in the spiritual life. Here is where we have been:

Chapter 33 — Where to start? Identify and seek to root out predominant passion (desire, hatred, fear, pleasure, sadness, anger)

Chapter 34 — What next? Focus on slowly obtaining one virtue at a time, the virtue contrary to that passion.

Chapter 35 — Everyday? Yes. Daily practices to develop one virtue at a time.

Chapter 36 — Like constantly? Yes, or we go backwards due to our fallen nature. Constant advancement towards the summit of perfection, in which revulsion to virtue ceases, peace reigns amidst labours.

In this episode we look at chapter 37. If we must constantly seek to grow in virtue (patience, for example, or chastity, or humility), this means, it seems, that my old ways of escaping hard moments will be to be changed. Do I really need to be constant in virtue during the really hard situations? YES! This is what chapter 37 is about. We have to take advantage, SEIZE, certain opportunities that are especially difficult. Such challenges are crucial to growing in virtues. They are, in fact, a kind of shortcut!