Lectio et Oratio

Episode 20 -- Spiritual Combat c13.1 -- A Tactic for Training Our Emotions

How are we to deal with our sensuality, our lower powers of the soul?

In our last episode, we saw some important distinctions:

1. The human mind experiences two tensions!

• God’s will …
• The human mind…higher powers (understanding and will)
• Human sensuality/passion … lower power

The human mind (understanding and will) are pulled in two directions. God’s will summons us. But our passions, our lower sensuality, pulls us downwards. Our mission is to follow God’s will!

But we have to remember that a stable remaining in a state of grace, the overcoming of our main vice (bad habit) is not the end of the spiritual combat. The Lord wants to lead us to the heights!

2. Basic Christian conquering of main vice….versus …. full perfection

→ There are many hidden motivations that keep us from reaching the holiness God intends.

→ we cling to our own will … too great a love for ourselves

• we give us illegal things….but we still keep trying to aggrandize ourselves
• we fast...but then we eat the most exotic delicacies
• we are chaste….but we refuse to give up certain harmful amusements

→ behind so much of our activity lurks one of the followings:

• Slothfulness
• Vanity
• Human respect
• Hidden imperfections
• Conceit
• A desire for notice and approval
• Too great a love for ourselves

God knows how best to transform us and our inclinations. He wants to bring our desires into line with His Son. Let us not run from his wishes for us!

In this episode, we turn to some practices that we can do to train our emotions outside of the time of temptation!

Episode 19 -- Spiritual Combat c12 -- Twofold Battle within Us

But why is it so hard to want to love God with a pure intention?

In our previous reading, Fr Scupoli mentioned four different kinds of considerations that can help us want to please God. How do I know that Christ cares for me?

1. Gifts from Creation
2. Gifts from Redemption
3. Gifts from actual graces offered presently
4. Gifts from the Sacraments

God shows his love for us in creating us, in redeeming us, in offering us help right now, and in the sacraments, above all the Eucharist.

1. Why did God make me?
2. Why did Christ die for me?
3. Why does he fight for me now?
4. Why does he remain with us in the Eucharist?

He wants our good. He loves us. He wants to be loved in return. The path to wanting to please God is by considering how much he cares for us

In this episode, we will look at the source of tension in our human nature, a two-fold tension. Our higher part of the soul (reason + will) looks up to God. But the inferior part of the soul (our passions/sensitive nature) has its own object. Our reason and will are pulled and drawn in two directions.

Episode 18 -- Spiritual Combat c11 -- Considerations for Inspiring the Will

What other considerations can help my will be more inclined to pleasing God?

In our last episode, we finished the chapter on training the will to want to do the will of God in order to please God.

Here is a beautiful passage from our previous reading:

“Anyone who acts under the influence of divine grace and only to please God is indifferent as to his course of action. Or, if he is inclined to some particular activity, he completely submits to Providence the manner and time of doing it. He is perfectly resigned to whatever success attends his undertakings, and his heart desires nothing but the accomplishment of the divine will.”

When things go contrary to our exceptions, our reactions can reveal how far we have to go in wanting to do all for God!

In this episode, we will look at some considerations about God that will help our will want to please God.

Episode 17 -- Spiritual Combat c10.3 -- Time It Takes to Grow in Purity of Intention

What else do I need to do to gain a pure intention?

Let us keep begging God to give his a new heart with a desire to do his will, by his inspiration, and in order to please Him. In this episode, we look more closely at how this purity of intention can be gained!

Episode 16 -- Spiritual Combat c10.2 -- A Method for Gaining Purity of Intention

What is the best method for training my will to have a pure intention of seeking to please God?

In out last episode, we began reading Fr Scupoli’s chapter on the need for training our will, our higher will, so that we will not only choose things that please us. The great difficulty is our fallen tendency to want what gives us some satisfaction, some comfort. But Fr Scupoli insists that true Christian perfection involves:

1. Wanting what pleases God.
2. Carrying out what pleases him.
3. BUT ALSO — doing these good things by the inspiration of grace.
4. AND — carrying them out with a desire to please God.

And so he encourages us to turn to God as soon as any plan or idea for action is presented to us. We must bring the Lord into the picture. Do you want me to do this thing here and now? Is it pleasing to you, O Lord? What would you have me to do?

In this episode, we will continue with his advice on the best method for developing a more pure intention.

Episode 15 -- Spiritual Combat c10.1 -- Controlling Our Will

While I can see the need to regulate my understanding, why do I need to control my will?

In this episode, we move to Scupoli’s advice about controlling our will.

Understanding: higher knowing power of the soul

Will: higher accepting and desiring power of the soul.

The will enables us to love and choose. We are trying to conform our will to God’s will, to want what he wants us to want. Not my will, but yours be done, Jesus said to His Father during the Agony. 

Episode 14 -- Spiritual Combat c9.2 -- Intellectual Pride

Another Method to Prevent Deception of the Understanding.

Chapter 9 covers the need to resist curiosity of understanding. Do not try to understand more than one really needs. Do not wander after all kinds of unnecessary questions and news and business of others that does not concern us. Instead focus on the essentials: always thinking of Christ and him Crucified.

But we also have to be on guard against intellectual pride. The devil likes to trick devout people into thinking they have had the greatest spiritual experiences. He makes us think we are far advanced in God’s ways. He leads us to think that we can teach everyone else and no one can teach us. He leads us not to trust the judgements of others.

How do we prevent this intellectual pride? Get used to consulting others. Follow the suggestions of others. Get advice. Ask for prayers. As St Philip Neri teaches us: “be humble and get as many prayers as possible.”

Episode 13 -- Spiritual Combat c9.1 -- Avoiding Intellectual Curiosity

What else can I do to prevent intellectual deception?

In our last episode, we read about a rule Fr Scupoli gives for avoiding “misguided enthusiasm.” He lays out the obstacle or difficulty we experience in trying to form correct judgments about good and evil.

Obstacle

• Inordinate love and hatred for something.

• Bias of the passions (feelings of attraction or repulsion) makes things appear good or evil before we can think about them.

• Our feelings/affections disguise things as good or evil.

Advice

• Discover what things are really like (their nature) before allowing strong feelings to get attached.

• Decide if something is good to do on the basis of reason and the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

• Do nothing rashly, without careful consideration.

What is good in itself, might not be good for me, here and now. What is holiest in itself, might not be for me. Lord, enlighten our minds with what you want us to do!

In this episode, we will look at a further piece of advice Fr Scupoli offers. He warns us about excessive curiosity!

Episode 12 -- Spiritual Combat c8 -- Obstacles and Aid to Forming Correct Judgments

What keeps us from and what aids us in forming correct judgments about good and evil?

What does our understanding/intellect need? Truth. From what does it need to be freed? Ignorance.

What will take away our ignorance about how to live correctly?

1. Prayer for light to know the truth

2. Thinking a lot! Regular, serious, and diligent thinking to distinguish good from evil.

What is an intellectual judgment?

The answer to the question: is this thing that I want to do really good?

A judgment can be in three forms:

1. Yes it is good to do!

2. No, it is not good!

3. Maybe, it is good; I need advice.

Who is a model for forming good judgments? St Joseph.

-- “As he was considering these thing, behold an angel appeared to him in a dream. The angels said to him, ‘Do not be afraid, Joseph, son of David, to take Mary as your wife. For this child is conceived of the Holy Spirit.’ You shall call him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. Joseph rose from sleep and did as the angel commanded him. He took Mary, his wife” (Matthew 1:20-21).

-- We cannot base our judgments about good and evil on mere appearances, what is popular in the world, or what our senses really like.

-- We have to base them on the truth and on how the Holy Spirit directs us and the wisdom of those who are sent to us from God.

May St Joseph help each of us to grow in knowledge of the truth!

In this episode, we will read about a great obstacle to forming correct judgments: our own enthusiasms and strong desires. Before we can think properly, our wants get in the way! Scupoli gives advice on how to avoid this mistake.

Episode 11 -- Spiritual Combat c7 -- Right Use of the Understanding

What is the third weapon in the spiritual combat?

After telling us about distrust of self and confidence in God, Fr Scupoli spends a couple of chapters talking about both of these spiritual weapons together. We need them both to conquer the enemy. Who is the enemy? Primarily ourselves!

Do not fear him who can kill the body and not the soul, Jesus said, but fear him who has the power to cast body and soul into hell (Matthew 10:28). The only one who can send us to hell is ourselves, by our misuse of our freedom.

What is his final advice about trusting in God? Fr Scupoli says that we have to be convinced that the following cannot enable us to do the will of God:

1. Natural or acquired abilities

2. Supernatural gifts

3. Perfect knowledge of the Scriptures

4. A long time spent in service of God

To do the will of God, we need his help! His hand must be with us. Live with an awareness of God’s presence. Live with your hand in his hand. Stay with him.

• Are we overwhelmed with sins?
• Do we feel our inclination to evil growing daily?
• Have I been unable to break away from vice after much effort?

DO NOT LOSE CONFIDENCE in GOD. Let us abandon ourselves to His power. Do not give up on your spiritual practices.

“God can grant in a moment what we have been seeking for a long time,” - St. Philip Neri

If David could kill Goliath, if Our Lady could undo all evil at the Annunciation, if St Paul could become an Apostle, there is hope for us no matter how dark things seem.

The only way to victory is not to lay down our weapons. What is our weapon for fighting? Confidence in God. If we keep this weapon in our hands, victory will come when we least expect it! The victory will be from the Lord. “Not unto us, not unto us, O Lord, but unto your name be the praise.” (Psalm 115:1).

In this episode, we turn to the third weapon, the right use of our faculties. We begin with our mind, our understanding.

Episode 10 -- Spiritual Combat c6 -- Further Advice on Obtaining Distrust of Self and Trust in God

Does Fr Scupoli have any further advice on obtaining distrust of self and confidence in God? Yes!

In chapter 5, Fr Scupoli writes about a HIDDEN PRIDE. Pride as a sin is called SUPERBIA, in Latin. Super = above.

Pride is an unhealthy wanting of things that are above ourselves. We should want to be like Christ and to become holy.

• Pride makes us want to be like Christ by our own strength!

• Presumption makes us confident that being like Christ on our own is possible!

• Hidden pride is pride that we ourselves do not see, but which infects our actions as the secret motivation.

Let us pray for each other. The usual way that God reveals our hidden pride is by allowing us to fall, to commit sin. Our surprise and anxiety and cowardice to fight on is a sign of hidden pride.

“Excessive sadness,” St Philip used to say, “usually stems from no other source than pride.”

In this episode, we will finish reading Fr Scupoli’s advice on obtaining distrust of self and confidence or trust in God. This reading is very encouraging. He exhorts us never to give up!

Episode 9 -- Spiritual Combat c5 -- Our cowardice after sin is not a virtue

Why is my cowardice and anxiety after sinning not a virtue?

In our last episode, we talked about a method for determining whether we trust ourselves or trust in God. The method is to examine our reactions after we sin.

• Are we surprised that we sinned?

• Do we feel despair?

• Do I rush off to confession just to get rid of the bad feeling and the wounded self-love?

Or

• Do I attribute the fall to my weakness and lack of trust in God?

• Do I detest the sin above all things as an offence against God?

• Do I go to confession to be washed from the sin?

• Do I go to Holy Communion to guard myself from a relapse?

In this episode, Fr Scupoli teaches us another little way that we deceive ourselves. We consider our cowardice, our lack of courage, after a fall as something good.

Episode 8 -- Spiritual Combat c4 -- How to determine if we have confidence in God

How do I know if I actually trust in God?

Having introduced us to the first two spiritual weapons, Lorenzo Scupoli thinks that it is very important that we begin with the first weapon, distrust of self, rather than the second, trust in God.

Why?

Human beings are too presumptuous; that is, we are too overconfident, assuming more about our abilities than we should. We assume, presume, that we can do things that we cannot. Unless we start with distrust of self, we end up thinking that we trust God more than we do.

How do I actually become confident in God?

If we want to have confidence in God, there are four means to obtain it.

1. Ask for confidence humbly.

2. Contemplate (lovingly ponder) God’s power and goodness as shown in the sufferings and teachings of Christ.

3. Recall all the examples in Scripture of those who trusted in God and came out victorious.

   1. Noah, Abraham, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, David, Joshiah, Daniel, Ezekiel, Peter, Paul, St Joseph

   2. Ruth, Hannah, Esther, Judith, Mary

4. At the beginning of every action, remind oneself of both our own weakness and God’s almighty power.

In this episode, we look at a method for determining whether we trust ourselves or trust in God.

Episode 7 -- Spiritual Combat c3.2 -- The Means to Confidence in God

How can I obtain greater confidence in God?

In our last episode we read about confidence in God.

• Confidence is trust in God.
• Confidence is part of the virtue of Hope.
• We trust that God will give us the means to union with Himself. We must be confident that he wants to help us.
• We distrust our own strength, but not His.

How do we obtain confidence in God? Scupoli gives us four means. In our last episode, we read about the first two.

1. Beg God for this confidence!
2. Meditate on God’s almighty power -- nothing is too hard for Him. Meditate on his infinite goodness and mercy as shown in the sufferings and love of Christ Jesus and in the parables of Christ. Our Lord is the good shepherd who is looking for his lost sheep!

St Philip Neri knew how to combine distrust of self with trust in God. Beware of St Philip! One day he wanted to burst the bubble of two young Dominicans who lacked distrust of self.

And one day, meeting two Dominicans, he passed between them, saying, “Let me pass, I am without hope,” meaning that he had no confidence in himself or in anything he had done. The good fathers, understanding the words in their ordinary sense, stopped him and began to console him, and to ask him a multitude of questions; at last he smiled and said, “I am past all hope of myself, but I trust in God.”

Episode 6 -- Spiritual Combat c3.1 -- Confidence in God

Why is confidence in God the second weapon in the spiritual battle?

In the last episode, we finished reading Chapter 2, on Distrust of Self.

We have seen that this distrust is distrust of the self that relies on its own strength. We can call it the false self, the self that thinks its own strength is all it needs.

What is the foundation of distrust of self?

1. Self-knowledge of our own weakness and tendency to all evil, left to ourselves.
2. Humility of heart -- desire for oneself what is proper to oneself, that is, to lower ourselves before God and others.

Are there any saints who practiced such distrust of self as a foundation for their spiritual life?

St Philip shows us a great example of distrust of self. Here are some quotations from him.

• Every day St Philip used to make a protest to God with the Blessed Sacrament in his hand, saying, “Lord! beware of me to-day, lest I should betray You, and do You all the mischief in the world.”
• At other times he would say, “The Wound in Christ’s Side is large, but if God did not guard me I should make it larger;”
• When Philip was just going to receive Holy Communion, he would say, “Lord, I protest before Thee that I am good for nothing but to do evil.”
• He used to say that his only preparation for mass was to present himself to God as one who was ready, so far as he was concerned, to be guilty of any and every evil, if God did not assist him.

Why does God send us trials and even allow us to fall into terrible sins?

Scupoli says that this is God’s way of giving us distrust of self. God prefers the proper means.

What are the proper means that we can practice for obtaining this great weapon?

1) meditating on our weakness,

2) begging Christ on the Cross for this gift,

3) getting used to accepting our weakness in the face of temptations from ourselves and demons,

4) humbling ourselves after we fall.

Episode 5 -- Spiritual Combat c2.2 -- Distrust of Self

What are the four means to obtaining distrust of self?

In our last episode, we began reading about distrust of self. What does Fr Scupoli mean by this? He does not mean self-doubt or thinking oneself always in the wrong.

DISTRUST of Self = distrusting one’s own strength apart from God

• On my own strength, can I take one step towards heaven? No.
• On my own strength, can I overcome strong temptations? No.
• On my own strength, can I merit eternal life? No.

Why are we distrustful of “our own strength” apart from God’s help?

1. We are fallen human beings with a tendency to sin and an indifference to good. We are very weak in doing good.
2. We have a supernatural and divine calling for which we need grace.

What is the proper means to obtaining distrust of self? We will talk about those in this episode. But remember. Distrust of one’s own strength is a gift from God. We have to ask God for it. We have to pray.

Episode 4 -- Spiritual Combat c2.1 -- Distrust of Self

Really? What does it mean to distrust oneself?

In chapter 1 of The Spiritual Combat, Lorenzo Scupoli explains what Christian perfection is and is not. It is not a matter of external practices considered in themselves. On their own, such practices can lead to great pride and spiritual blindness.

Spiritual perfection consists in:

1. Knowing the infinite greatness and goodness of God and having a true sense of our own weakness and tendency to evil.
2. Loving God and hating ourselves (the selfish part — Romans 7)
3. Humbling ourselves not only before God, but also for His sake, before all men
4. Renouncing our own will entirely in order to follow His will.
5. Doing all for the glory of God.

Who puts these desires in our hearts? The Holy Spirit.

Who encourages us to walk this path of self-denial? Christ Jesus, the Son of God, in the Gospel. “If you want to be my disciple, pick up your cross daily and follow me.” (Luke 9:23)

Who is the one who rewards us? God the Father

Who is our main enemy? Ourselves, our passions (impulses for things that are not good), our uncontrolled desires.

What is your main passion? What do you desire as you should not? Human admiration? Food? Sex? Getting back at others? Seeing others suffer? Rest and peace? Money and things? We have a passion for these things and then other actions follow to obtain them!

What are our weapons in this spiritual combat?

1. Distrust of self
2. Confidence in God
3. Proper use of our intellect, will, imagination
4. Prayer

Episode 3 -- Spiritual Combat c1.3 -- Four Weapons in Spiritual Combat

What are the weapons I must use along this true path of perfection?

200 years ago, in 1821, the daughter of a loyalist doctor, a wife and mother of many children, the famous convert, the foundress of parochial Catholic schools in the United States, St Elizabeth Ann Seton died. After her husband’s death and her conversion to Catholicism, her educational work with the poor developed into a religious order of sisters.

At their meals, the sisters would have reading. One of the early books this new order read together in the refectory was The Spiritual Combat.

In our last episode, we read about God’s plan of goodness for making us holy, a plan that includes crosses and trials as the true path to holiness. Our Father wants us to be like His Son. But we, on our own, are so full of self-love, pride, and vanity. We prefer ourselves to others (bad self-love); we want more than we should for ourselves (pride); we love to make a display of self to win admiration (vanity). Come, Holy Spirit.

In this episode, we will aim to finish reading the famous chapter 1 and its conclusion about the four weapons in the spiritual battle against our fallen human nature, the world, and the devil. Courage!

Episode 2 -- Spiritual Combat c1.2 -- What is the True Path to Perfection

What is the true path to Christian perfection?

What did we cover in our last episode? The first third of chapter 1. In this episode, we will continue discussing the true path of Christian perfection. True perfection does not consist in external practices themselves. But how do we know if we are on the right path?

Episode 1 -- Spiritual Combat c1.1 -- What Christian perfection is not and is

How does one reach the summit of Christian perfection?

We will begin reading chapter 1 of The Spiritual Combat, a major influence of St Francis de Sales. The beginning of this book is very powerful and memorable. In this episode, we will read about Fr. Scupoli's discussion of the true nature of spiritual perfection.

The Spiritual Combat focuses on the 4 spiritual weapons that we will need to be holy: distrust of self, trust in God, spiritual exercises, and prayer. The Spiritual Combat cannot be unread, after it is read. It leaves its mark.

Join us, if you are interested in being challenged and encouraged to live not only a devout life, but a life that aims at perfection in divine love.