Thomas à Kempis, in his classic “The Imitation of Christ,” has this interesting line: “Few are improved by sickness; so also they that go much on pilgrimage seldom grow in sanctity.” (Book 1, ch. 23)
Read morehold on for now
“You cannot imagine a new space fully until you have been taken there. I make this point strongly to help you understand why almost all spiritual teachers tell you to ‘believe’ or ‘trust’ or ‘hold on.’ They are not just telling you to believe silly or irrational things. They are telling you to hold on until you can go on the further journey for yourself, and they are telling you that the whole spiritual journey is, in fact, for real–which you cannot possibly know yet.”
Rohr, Richard. Falling Upward: a Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life. (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2011), page xxvii.
There were so, so many places along the Appalachian Trail which I’d read about for decades and had very clear pictures of in my mind that turned out–when I finally got there–to be nothing at all like I’d pictured them. The inner journey of the spiritual life has been surprising me like that. Heaven will no doubt turn out the same way.
the Holy Spirit is given in faith
“Faith creates godliness and drives out all sin, grants strength in sickness, enlightens in all blindness, heals all evil inclinations, guards against sin, and performs every good deed. In brief, the fruit of such faith is that never can there remain any frailty; for in faith the Holy Spirit is given, and thereby a man loves God because of the abundant goodness received from him. A man becomes cheerful and glad to do all that is good without the compulsion of the law and command.” (page 175)
Luther, Martin. “Sermon on the Worthy Reception of the Sacrament” (1521) Luther’s Works Vol. 42. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1969.
growth in Christ
“We increase and deepen our participation in the life of the Body by the activity of our minds and wills, illuminated and guided by the Holy Ghost. We must therefore keep growing in our knowledge and love of God and in our love for other men. The power of good operative habits must take ever greater and greater hold upon us. The Truth we believe in must work itself more and more fully into the very substance of our lives until our whole existence is nothing but vision and love.
“What this means in practice is summed up by one word that most men are afraid of: asceticism.” (pp. 9-10)
Merton, Thomas. “The White Pebble.” (1950) in Selected Essays. Edited with an introduction by Patrick F. O’Connell. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2013.
source of personal holiness
“True sanctity is not the work of man purifying himself; it is God Himself present in His own transcendent light, which to us is emptiness.” (p. 59)
Merton, Thomas. “The Recovery of Paradise.” (1959) in Selected Essays. Edited with an introduction by Patrick F. O’Connell. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2013.
ongoing sanctification
Note:
Sanctification, the ongoing process of becoming holy, is assuredly not an instantaneous once-and-done event. It is a lifelong process, a quest, a journey, a seeking, a falling down and getting up again. It is, of course, driven by God. God cultivates the desire for holiness, sows the seeds in us, gives the growth, prunes the unhelpful and irregular, season after season after season.
Quote:
“We may, indeed, be sure that perfect chastity — like perfect charity — will not be attained by any merely human efforts. You must ask for God’s help. Even when you have done so, it may seem to you for a long time that no help, or less help than you need, is being given. Never mind. After each failure, ask forgiveness, pick yourself up, and try again. Very often what God first helps us towards is not the virtue itself but just this power of always trying again. … It cures our illusions about ourselves and teaches us to depend on God. We learn, on the one hand, that we cannot trust ourselves even in our best moments, and, on the other, that we need not despair even in our worst, for our failures are forgiven.” (p. 93-94)
Source: Lewis, C.S. Mere Christianity. New York: Macmillan, 1960.
Pathology: the Study of a Path 