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Monday’s meditation 7.12.10
On spiritual consolations [by which Francis means a palpable sense of God’s presence]:
1. God sometimes makes himself more evident to those who are young in the faith. St. Francis likens these sensory experiences to “sugarplums” – sweets which have limited nutritional value but taste great! “Let us count ourselves as little children, having need of milk, and believe that these sugarplums are only given us to lead us on to the love of God. But as a general rule, we shall do well to receive all such graces and favors humbly, making much of them, not for their own importance, but rather because it is God’s hand which fills our hearts with them, as a mother coaxes her child with one sugarplum after another.”
2. Enjoy rich sensory spiritual experiences, but do not overestimate their spiritual benefit. “No, my child, this is not the same as devotion, for you will find many persons who do experience these consolations, yet who, nevertheless, are evil-minded, and consequently are devoid of all true love of God, still more of all true devotion.”
3. Their value is that they “kindle the spiritual appetite, cheer the mind, and infuse a holy gladness into the devout life.” Yet unless they spur true devotion they may have no more lasting spiritual value than a mushroom has nutritional value: “. . . their pious emotions may be likened to spiritual fungi, as not merely falling short of real devotion, but often being so many snares of the Enemy . . .”
4. How do we know if spiritual feeling/experience is from God or not? By its fruits. What does it bring forth in our lives?
5. We must be as willing to accept suffering as we are consolations. “We should resolve to abide steadfast in God’s holy love, even if our whole life were to be devoid of all sweetness; as ready to abide on Mount Calvary [the place of Christ’s crucifixion] as on Mount Tabor [the place of Christ’s transfiguration]; to cry out, ‘It is good to be here!’ whether with our Lord on the cross or in glory.”
[adapted from Introduction to the Spiritual Life by St. Francis de Sales, pt IV, ch XIII]
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