Holy desire or hollow routine?

[Michie]

Today is August 10, the Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time.

We read at today’s Mass, “Be sure of this: if the master of the house had known the hour when the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into. You also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come” (Lk 12:39-40).

Happy Sunday, friends. Today, as we continue reflecting on the theme of thirst, I want to shift our focus slightly. So far, we’ve meditated on what it means to long for God. But what is it that hinders that longing? What is the great enemy of spiritual thirst?

One word: complacency.

It may not be a classic term from the tradition, but I think it names the spiritual condition that dulls our desire for God. Complacency is a kind of interior apathy — a voice that whispers, “I’ve done enough. I’m fine where I am.”

Continued below.

Holy desire or hollow routine?

When faith becomes routine, we lose our thirst for God, yet simple practices can rekindle holy longing and spiritual life.

www.oursundayvisitor.com

 

[fide]

Today is August 10, the Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time.

We read at today’s Mass, “Be sure of this: if the master of the house had known the hour when the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into. You also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come” (Lk 12:39-40).

Happy Sunday, friends. Today, as we continue reflecting on the theme of thirst, I want to shift our focus slightly. So far, we’ve meditated on what it means to long for God. But what is it that hinders that longing? What is the great enemy of spiritual thirst?

One word: complacency.

It may not be a classic term from the tradition, but I think it names the spiritual condition that dulls our desire for God. Complacency is a kind of interior apathy — a voice that whispers, “I’ve done enough. I’m fine where I am.”

Continued below.

Holy desire or hollow routine?

When faith becomes routine, we lose our thirst for God, yet simple practices can rekindle holy longing and spiritual life.

www.oursundayvisitor.com

A fellow Dominican - Rev. R. Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P. - has a very rich, indeed complete, spirituality to speak to this problem.

Complacency does describe the slow spiritual suicide that prevents the soul from ever attaining holy Thirst for God. This supernatural thirst is never experienced by the "retarded souls" who cling to the shallow pleasures of this world, and remain asleep to the needed saving Gifts of God. Dr. Taylor Marshall gives a brief description of the unhappy state of these spiritually impoverished souls, citing:

Some souls, because of their negligence or spiritual sloth, do not pass from the age of beginners to that of proficients. These are retarded souls; in the spiritual life they are like abnormal children, who do not happily pass through the crisis of adolescence and who, though they do not remain children, never reach the full development of maturity. Thus these retarded souls belong neither among beginners nor among proficients. Unfortunately they are numerous.

The more complete description of this condition is found HERE, in vol 1 of Garrigou-Lagrange's great work, The Three Ages of the Interior Life. The point is, without the Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit to activate and begin to perfect the Virtues, the soul is left bounded within the "natural man", a chasm separating him from the supernatural Life for which we are intended.