📚Interior Castle - Third Mansions 📚
Third Mansions: Exemplary Life
(Sorry not sure what's up with fonts and auto-correct!)
Three Main Takeaways:
- What matters most is completely surrendering the will to God – so not thy will but His be done.
- The soul knows there is nothing it can do to earn God’s love and understands that God owes it nothing either. It’s simply content to serve and to love Him without expecting anything in return.
- Even here it is not exempt from suffering and dryness in prayer, but understands that God can use this too!
A soul residing here: Realises there is nothing they can do to earn God’s love and instead works to repay it. It does not shy away from suffering or dryness in prayer, but trusts in God’s plan and timing.
To progress: Surrender.
Chapter 1
We can never reach security in this life, apart from in seeking to always do the will of God. Then we know that even if life is miserable, at least we can rest in the knowledge that God is still at work through us!
“It is really a perfect misery to be alive when we have always to be going about like men with enemies at their gates, who cannot lay aside their arms even when sleeping or eating, and are always afraid of being surprised by a breaching of their fortress in some weak spot. Oh, my Lord and my God! How canst thou wish us to desire such a miserable life as that? It would be impossible to refrain from wishing and begging thee to take us from it, were it not for our hope that we might lose it for Thy sake, or spend it wholly in Thy service – and above all, for the realisation that it is Thy will for us....
Saint Thomas said, “for life without Thee is nothing but death many times over, and constant dread at the possibility of losing Thee forever.” So I think, daughters, that the happiness we should pray for is to enjoy the complete security of the blessed, for what pleasure can anyone have when beset by these fears if his only pleasure consists in pleasing God?”
We can do nothing to earn His love, and He does not owe us anything. In fact by serving Him, by relying on His graces, we are actually becoming even more indebted to Him – not vice-versa!
“It may seem to us that we have done everything – we who wear the religious habit, having taken it of our own will and left all the things of the world and all that we had for His sake [Matthew 19:16-22]. But it must be on this condition...that we consider ourselves unprofitable servants...and realise that we have in no way obliged Our Lord to grant us such favours; but rather that, the more we have received from Him, the more deeply do we remain in His debt.
“However faithfully we serve Him, it should never enter our heads that we can deserve anything.”
“Whenever I think of myself I feel like a bird with a broken wing and I can say nothing of any value.
“...the reward which He is to give us must of necessity be proportionate with the love we bear Him. And this love, daughters, must not be wrought in our imagination but must be provoked by works. Yet do not suppose God has any need of our works; what He needs is the resoluteness of our will.”
Be prepared for dryness in prayer – the crosses rather than the sweetness. Again, God does not owe us any favours and so we should not expect any!
“...those periods of aridity may teach you to be humble, and not make you restless, which is the aim of the devil.”
“...Where there is true humility, even if God never grants the soul favours, He will give it peace and resignation to His will, with which it may be more content than others are with favours. For often, as you have read, it is to the weakest that His Divine Majesty gives favours, which I believe they would not exchange for all the fortitude given to those who go forward in aridity. We are fonder of spiritual sweetness than of crosses.
Chapter 2
Even souls residing in these Mansions are not exempt from suffering. Instead of ‘blaming’ God they should realise that this is an opportunity to grow and overcome some of their own imperfections.
“For often it is God’s will that His elect should be conscious of their misery and so He withdraws His help from them a little – and no more than that is needed to make us recognise our limitations very quickly.” This even happens to souls who have resided in this mansion for a while. They “cannot be surprised if they suffer.”
“...trifling incidents arise...which give you the opportunity to test yourselves and discover you have obtained the mastery over your passions.”
“AND BELIVE ME, WHAT MATTERS MOST IS NOT WHETHER OR NOT WE WEAR A RELGIOUS HABIT; it is whether we try to practise the virtues, and MAKE A COMPLETE SURRENDER OF OUR WILLS TO GOD and order our lives as His Majesty ordains: LET US DESIRE THAT NOT OUR WILLS, BUT HIS WILL, BE DONE.”
Any progress we make towards the innermost mansions has nothing to do with perfecting the body, but with surrendering everything, including reason!
Their love is not yet ardent enough to overwhelm their reason. How I wish ours would make us dissatisfied with this habit of always serving God at a snails pace!”
“...When we proceed with all this caution, we find stumbling blocks everywhere; for we are afraid of everything...Let us make a real effort: let us leave our reason and our fears in His hands and let us forget the weakness of our nature which is so apt to cause us so much worry. “
“Our progress has nothing to do with our body...without complete self-renunciation, the state is very arduous and oppressive, because, as we go along, we are labouring under the burden of our miserable nature, which is like a great load of earth and has not to be borne by those who reach the later Mansions.”
And He will reward us by giving us exactly what we need (not necessarily consolation) when we need it.
“He always gives us much more than we deserve by granting us a spiritual sweetness much greater than we can obtain from the pleasures and distractions of this life”
“Perfection consists not in consolations, but in the increase of love”
“His secrets are hidden deep, but all that He does will be best for us, without the slightest doubt.”
It is good to journey alongside another, more seasoned traveller (e.g. In Spiritual Direction).
“It is a great advantage for us to be able to consult someone who knows us, so that we may learn to know ourselves. And it is a great encouragement to see that things which we thought impossible are possible to others, and how easily these others do them. It makes us feel that we may emulate their flights and venture to fly ourselves...”
“...built upon solid ground like that of the souls who are already practised in suffering. These last are familiar with the storms of the world, and realise how little need there is to fear them or to desire worldly pleasures.”
“Let us look are our own shortcoming and leave other people’s alone.
Thoughts on the Third Mansions:
Again very timely! I really struggle with forgetting the bodily aspect when I spend time with the Lord. I’m only human, and I tend to focus on my own weaknesses and insecurities rather than letting that go and trusting that God loves me regardless. I get frustrated with my ‘snail’s pace’ progress and think it is God who is taking His time, but maybe it’s me letting reason get in the way!
I love St Teresa’s reminder that we can do nothing to earn God’s love, and He does not owe us anything. I should serve Him because I love Him, not because I need something from Him. And all He requires from me (that’s not really the best word to use) is SURRENDER. It doesn’t matter if I’m the Pope, a Carmelite, a parent, or a drug addict etc...I don’t have to reach a certain level to be holy. I just need to surrender and seek to do God’s will everyday. Easy right??! 😅
I love Fr Don Dolindo’s ‘Surrender Novena’ which I discovered during a Young Adult’s group meeting. Check it out!
Comments
Post a Comment