Some Encouragement To Stick With Our Spiritual Life on This 13th Sunday after Pentecost

One of our favorite spiritual guides provides some encouragement for us on this 13th Sunday after Pentecost. 

Any of us who have made the important decision to take our spiritual life seriously may very well have run into periods of discouragement. We think we're doing all we can to grow closer to Our Lord. But as time passes, we don't really notice any improvement. Life seems to go on much as it did before we embraced the spiritual discipline we thought would kick us up a notch on the spiritual scale.

Always an issue throughout history, it very well may be even more so in our current age. We've all gotten used to "instant everything": instant communication, virtually instant delivery of packages ordered online, and - for those of us trapped in the mean machinations of the secular world and its lures - instant gratification. Our attention spans have suffered, of course, along with any semblance of patience. 

For better or for worse (more the latter than the former), it's simply the way of the world these days.

So Father Willie's words should help us here. He's writing to a "spiritual child" of his. He had many such correspondences over the course of his war-shortened life. Many of these were nuns with whom he struck up an acquaintance when he gave the plethora of spiritual retreats at their convents over the years. They would request his spiritual direction and he would conduct much of this via mail. (No phones or email or texting around then!) 

Indeed, there are records of his copious correspondence with his spiritual children. And considering just how busy he was in so many endeavors on behalf of Our Lord, His Holy Church, and Catholics both clergy and lay, it's mind-boggling how he could find the time for it all. 

But he did.

So with that background, here's an excerpt from one such piece of correspondence. The individual to whom it's directed appears to have reached a point of despondency. It would seem that despite their efforts to pursue their spiritual discipline, the lack of palpable results has begun to wear down their ability to continue with their initial enthusiasm. 

“I noticed a tone of despondency in your letter, a yielding to that commonest of all the evil suggestions of the tempter, Cui Bono? (To what good?) What is the use of all this struggling without any result, and so much prayer followed by no apparent improvement? It is a clever temptation, and a successful one with most souls, resulting in the giving up of the very things which are slowly but surely making them saints. If only one could grasp this fact: Every tiny thing (aspiration, self-denial, etc.), makes us holier than we were. Just think of the thousands of tiny things done each day for God (e.g. each step we take); all is done for Him, every one of them has added to our merit, making us more pleasing in His sight, and each moment holier. No one can see this gradual spiritual growth, though sometimes when we have gained a big victory, such as the secret one you won recently over yourself, we wonder where the strength came from to do it. I have watched your steady progress in perfection with the greatest joy and gratitude for your generosity, and so I want to warn you not to listen to such a suggestion that your efforts have been in vain. Your biggest fault at present, my child, is that you have not yet completely bent your will to God’s designs. I think it would please Him immensely to have no wishes of our own, apart from holy ones, so that He could bend and twist and fashion us just as He pleases, knowing well that we will not even murmur. Remember, this does not mean that our feelings will die also.” (Fr. William Doyle, S.J., 1873-1917)

Notice how Father Willie breaks down the spiritual efforts here into little bite-sized pieces. Frankly, that's pretty much how the spiritual life goes. When we're doing what we ought, it's little things we do each day for love of God. There's nothing dramatic involved. But each little thing adds up over a lifetime.

Note especially that each adds to our "merit." In the theological sense, a supernatural merit can only be a salutary act (actus salutaris), to which God in consequence of his infallible promise owes a supernatural reward, consisting ultimately in eternal life, which is the beatific vision in heaven.

Knowing this alone might serve as a sufficient motivator to keep at it, if discouragement sets in. But if not, just read the passage carefully and you'll find some thing or things that will help.

As we've noted, Sundays should provide a bit of space and time in the flow of our busy lives to "get spiritual." Perhaps we take some time before or after Mass. Consider the timing here, since in our secularized world, Sundays can get away from us pretty quickly, unless we're really spiritually disciplined - hence the before or after suggestion.

But whatever works for you, do make Sundays what it was designed to be: The Lord's Day.

Happy Sunday!