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Pray for a wise guide whom, when you have found, trust, revere
and obey
THE main reason which should lead a Christian to give himself to
God is that He is the chief and, strictly speaking, the only
director of souls. Christ is not only the Way, which He reveals to
us by His doctrine and example, He is also the inward Guide, the
Shepherd Who provides good pasture and, by secret inspirations and
suggestions, leads His sheep to find it. Nevertheless, according
to the order of His providence, He makes use of the ministry of
priests for the direction of souls. To that ministry He attaches
His grace, and through it He gives needful advice and instruction.
He is the inner Master; He and He alone can speak to the heart.
But He speaks to it most certainly when His ministers in the
exercise of their functions speak to the outward ear. He wills
that they be heard and obeyed, as His representatives.
Since, therefore, priests are the principal and usual means that
God uses for the direction of souls and by them introduces us to
the way of perfection, whoever aspires to that perfection (and all
ought to do so according to their state) should, if they are free
to choose, ask God to enlighten them in their choice in order that
they may be rightly guided. Their prayer will surely be granted,
if they ask with real faith.
In no matter, however, should one be more on one's guard against
being influenced in one's choice by human motives, or by human
prudence. We must beware of listening to the suggestions of self-
love or nature, which seek ever to be flattered and spared, or to
inspirations which are clearly not from God, and which will
inevitably lead to deceptions most difficult to retrieve. There is
no point concerning which we are more easily blinded, or more apt
to be prejudiced. We must place the matter in God's hands, simply
and honestly, and resolve to take whoever He indicates, in spite
of prejudice or aversion, or of any human feeling whatsoever.
The same caution must be observed when it is a question of
changing one's director. Such a change may be right and desirable
in certain cases; as, for example, when the director is unskilled
or careless, wanting in firmness or gentleness, unspiritual in his
direction, or for any other reasons which would seem to make him
unsuitable. Having thoroughly weighed the matter in God's
presence, we must then act firmly but impartially, putting aside
all irrelevant considerations.
And the choice is all the more difficult in that good directors
are very rare, and the external signs by which we may recognize
them most deceptive. St. Francis of Sales used to say that
scarcely could one find one in a thousand, if that! No doubt, the
expression is a little exaggerated, but none the less they are
scarce. Just think of the combination of qualities which go to
form a good director. He must be a man of an interior spirit,
experienced in spiritual things, utterly dead to himself and
intimately united to God; devoid of self-will, desiring neither to
rule nor dominate those whom he guides. He must seek in nothing
his own glory or interests but solely the glory and interests of
the Master he represents. He must be susceptible of no attachment
save that inspired by charity, exercising his ministry with
perfect independence; above all method and system, infinitely
pliable to the inspirations of grace, able to follow different
approaches to meet the different needs of souls and God's designs
in their regard. He must know when to give milk to the young, more
solid food to those more advanced in virtue, adapting himself to
each age and state of the spiritual life. He must be wise with
divine wisdom, gentle without softness, compassionate without
weakness, firm without rigidity, zealous without precipitation.
With the apostle, he must be all things to all men, [10]
condescending in a certain degree to human misery, prejudice and
frailty; ready to exercise unfailing patience and equity of mind;
reproving, consoling, urging, restraining, yielding or resisting,
as circumstances require; sustaining, encouraging, humiliating,
revealing the patient's progress or withholding the knowledge,
according to the soul's need. In a word, he must be a man who, in
directing souls, does nothing of himself but wholly seconds the
work of grace, neither hurrying nor retarding it. He follows grace
step by step, going as far, but no farther, than it leads. Are
such men common today? Were they even in the time of St. Francis
of Sales, when the interior life was more known and practised?
We cannot, therefore, ask God too earnestly to send us such a
director, for it is one of the greatest graces He can give us, one
which will be the source of many others. Rightly used it will
surely lead us to perfection. Would it not be intolerably
presumptuous to make such a choice ourselves, and would it not be
most dangerous to look upon it in any but the highest light?
The foregoing applies specially to religious communities, who need
nothing less than a saint to direct them, whether it is a question
of inciting them to fervour or maintaining them in it. Generally
speaking, it is as well for the whole community to have the same
confessor, who can maintain the same spirit throughout; but for
this, especially in the matter of regularity, union and charity,
he will need all the qualities I have enumerated above.
I am well aware that not everybody can choose his own confessor,
and that it often happens that those who decide the matter for us
may not always carry out God's intention for us. There is no doubt
that it is very unfortunate to fall, whether one knows it or not,
into the hands of a director who has not all the requisite
qualities. Nevertheless, even in this case, God supplies what is
lacking in His minister; He takes upon Himself to lead us in His
ways, and never will He fail us if we do not fail Him. It was thus
He directed St. Paul and St. Mary the Egyptian in the desert, and
thus He directs those in heathen lands who are deprived of almost
all human help. So, in country places, where priests are perhaps
less zealous, the Holy Spirit Himself will always guide holy
souls, and teach them the secrets of the interior life.
However that may be, once we have reason to believe that we have
found the director God intends for us, we must not fail to give
him our complete confidence. When we feel that his words enlighten
our darkness, disperse our doubts, awaken us from languor, warm
our heart and lead us to serve God more worthily; when we feel by
experience that such a man is the instrument of God, really
following up the secret operations of grace; above all if he leads
us in the way of recollection and prayer and interior
mortification (for that is the touchstone of true direction), we
must no longer hesitate to place ourselves entirely in his hands,
hiding nothing from him, so that he may search out and develop
what is hidden even from ourselves.
Generally speaking, God inspires us with the will to begin by
making a general confession, so as to inform the priest, not only
of our past faults, but of the graces we have received, the
dangers from which we have been preserved, the secret attractions
we have neglected or followed, and the vices and temptations to
which we are most subject. By this means, he becomes acquainted
with our whole life and character, the habitual dispositions of
our soul, the various tentatives of grace, the obstacles we meet,
and the precise point where we stand. He is thus better able to
see what God expects from us, and how he is to cooperate with His
designs.
We can never be too open with our director in all that concerns
our interior life, and, through the whole of his direction,
nothing should be kept back, whether as to the lights given us by
God, the desires and aversions felt by nature, or the suggestions
of the devil, whose artifices we shall never unravel unaided.
Anything which secret pride or the temptation of the devil leads
us to hide or disguise, is just the very thing we should mention;
however humiliating, it must never be concealed.
It is also necessary to be on our guard against suspicions or
prejudices concerning our director, and the thousand and one
imaginations that flit across our mind, or which the devil inserts
there in order to lessen our confidence and trust. For this is the
one thing he wants to do. As soon as he sees that a director is
working hard for our spiritual advancement, he seldom fails to
inspire us with feelings of distrust and repugnance. One cannot be
too watchful on this point. Almost always, the danger arises from
our allowing ourselves to be too critical of the direction given
us. 'Why has he forbidden me to do this? Why does he treat me like
this?' And so we argue with ourselves; we make judgments and
indulge in feelings of resentment, and generally our confidence is
undermined, our obedience weakened, and we think of the man
instead of seeing God in him.
Here I may remark that one of the most certain signs of a
disposition to the interior life is that candour and delightful
openness which leads us to hide nothing, neither our defects, our
faults or our motives from our director; never to make excuses,
speaking plainly even though it means that we shall be humiliated
and be thought less of. How rare, and yet how precious in God's
sight, is this humble ingenuousness.
But it is not enough to be open with our confessor. We must
receive his advice and decisions as reverently as if they came
from the lips of Our Lord Himself. There must be no arguing with
him, nor must we even mentally dispute whatever happens to be
contrary to our own ideas. In all that touches our conscience, we
must submit our way of thinking to his, believe the good or evil
he tells us of ourselves, never justify what he condemns, nor by
false humility condemn what he approves. We pretend that we have
not made ourselves clear; that he does not understand us; that he
does not see what passes within us, as well as we do. But these
are poor excuses, by which we assume the right of private
judgment. The confessor judges us better than we can judge
ourselves. Let us hide nothing knowingly, then, from him, and be
at peace.
Apart from the fact that we are blind in all that concerns
ourselves, we know very well that God wills to lead us by the way
of faith and obedience; and that we are acting in a manner
directly contrary to His intention when we make ourselves not only
our own judges but judges of those who are guiding us. The devil
tries to ruin us, through presumption or despair, by representing
us to ourselves as better or worse than we really are. These indocile and unsubmissive
judgments are always dictated by self- love. They lead the
conscience into error and its consequent blindness. They are the
beginning of scruples, anxieties and all those miseries born of
the imagination. They expose the soul to the most subtle snares of
Satan, and to the most dangerous of illusions.
The spiritual life has its dangers, and great dangers too, if it
is misunderstood. Erroneous ideas of it are not uncommon. This
evil must inevitably befall anyone who professes to judge of the
workings of God or of our enemy Satan, and to distinguish by his
own lights as to what proceeds from nature or from grace.
Therefore, when we have clearly and honestly manifested our
internal state to our director, we must humbly and quietly submit
to his decision. Should he be mistaken -- which could be the case,
for he is not infallible -- no harm will accrue to us from his
error. God will always bless submission and obedience, and hinder
or repair the effects of the mistake. He has bound Himself to do
so by His providence, because it is His will that we should see
Him in the minister who takes His place. This principle is the
sure foundation and only basis of all spiritual direction.
I allow that it requires great faith always to see God in a man,
who, after all, is subject to error and not exempt from faults;
and that it is no little sacrifice to give up our own ideas and
convictions in the very matters which concern us most deeply. But
without this sacrifice there can be no submission of judgment, and
without such submission there is no real direction.
Finally, we must faithfully and without delay perform all that the
director bids us do. If, through weakness or indolence, or for any
other reason, we have failed to do so, we must tell him so. By
this fidelity alone shall we advance. He will often prescribe
things that are very painful to nature; practices which will
humiliate us in the eyes of others; practices sometimes so
apparently petty and insignificant, that our pride will disdain
them; practices opposed to our minds, our tempers, our dearest
inclinations. But if he has the spirit of God he must act thus,
because the design of God, of which he is the interpreter, is
precisely our death to self. We must be determined, therefore, to
obey him in all things wherein we do not perceive manifest sin.
And if we think it right to offer any remonstrance, it must always
be subject to his decision.
It would be wrong to put before him such difficulties and
impossibilities as are often imaginary, or the effect of strong
prejudice or temptation. At any rate, after stating them simply,
if he pays no attention to them, we must submit and resolve to
obey. This will be easier than it seems, for nothing is impossible
to grace and obedience. And if the victory over self calls for
great efforts, it will be all the more glorious and meritorious.
Virtues are the gift of God, and He almost always bestows them as
a reward for some signal effort. Then what was formerly difficult
becomes easy. Any number of proofs of this are to be seen in the
lives of the saints.
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