Be, Don't Strive! 📚 Interior Castle - Fourth Mansions (Pt. 2) 📚

 Chapter 2

Spiritual Sweetness vs. Spiritual Consolation

Sweetness

• Source in us, ends in God
• Like a basin filled by our own action “the water…comes from a long distance, by means of numerous conduits and through human skill…”
• “…produced by meditation. It reaches us by way of the thoughts; and when at last, by means of our own efforts, it comes, the satisfaction which it brings to the soul fills the basin, but in doing so makes a noise…”

Consolation

• Source in God, ends in us 
• Like a basin made at the source “…has been constructed at the very source of the water and fills without making any noise…the water is flowing all time.”
• “..the source, which is God, and, when it is His Majesty’s will and He is pleased to grant us some supernatural favour, it’s coming is accompanied by the greatest peace and quietness and sweetness within ourselves." 
• Water (consolation) overflows through every mansion until it can’t help but affect the body too (which is why we say consolation 'ends in us'). 
• Like a fire, although we can’t see the source or it’s light, it’s smell/smoke and heat ‘penetrate the entire soul.’

Humility

We can work to gain spiritual sweetness, but no matter how hard we try, we can’t by our own merits, achieve spiritual consolation. 

Yet because it is so great, we might still desire and strive to gain consolation. 

According to St Teresa, the only way to ‘obtain this favour’ is by having humility. 

‘And the first way in which you will see if you have humility is that if you have it you will not think you merit these favours and consolations of the Lord or are likely to get them as long as you live. 

“But how,” you will ask, “are we to gain them if we do not strive for them?” I reply that there is no better way than that which I have described. 

We shouldn't strive for consolation because:

1. We should love God without expecting anything in return.“…the most essential thing is that we should love God without any motive of self-interest…true preparation for receiving these gifts is a desire to suffer and to imitate the Lord, not to receive consolations."
2. It’s un-humble to think that by our ‘miserable services’ we deserve anything
3. ‘He knows better than we what is good for us.’
4. If the basin is built at the source, it is actually right for us to be "…labouring in vain; for this water does not flow through conduits, as the other does, and so we gain nothing by fatiguing ourselves if it cannot be had at the source.”
5. No matter how hard we try we can’t squeeze a single drop of water out ourselves! "It is given only to those whom God wills to give it and often when the soul is not thinking of it at all."

My Thoughts

Again very timely 🙂

St Teresa’s question regarding consolation rings true with me; 

“But how are we to gain them if we do not strive for them?”

I’m in a season of learning to wait well. 

After Hearts Aflame this January, I was quite set on visiting the MGL’s in Australia, and then all going well, moving there to join them next year! I had my purpose, I had something to aim for, and I was pretty certain of what God was calling me to do with my life.

Then something happened (which I’m sure will eventually come up in another blog post!) that took away that certainty. 

I feel that God is asking me to simply be. To wait. To trust He knows what He is doing, this season has a purpose, and that He is doing something even if I can’t see what right now. 

OK, that’s all well and good, but what now? What do I do? How do I live? Sure God is doing something, but what? How do I wait well, how do I make the most of this season of life when I’m not even sure what I’m moving towards anymore? How can I be moving towards what the Lord is asking of me when He isn’t even revealing what it is He wants of me?

How am I to gain clarity about my future if I am simply to trust and not strive for it? 

Just as St Teresa wrote; “But how are we to gain them if we do not strive for them?”

How? According to St Teresa, by simply being humble. By loving the Lord simply because He is good, and not expecting anything or any answers in return. By trusting that He knows me better than I know myself, and He knows what is best for me. To not strive, to not exhaust myself looking for answers or doing all I can to try and ‘squeeze’ them out of Him. But to simply sit in the source, allowing Him to fill me up, at His own pace, in His own perfect timing. 

Meanwhile, I can just live. 

I’ve been discovering the blessings in simply being, and not striving for anything. The simplicity that surrender brings. As Fr Don Dolindo’s Surrender Novena mentions, it’s like being a child again, relying on your parents for everything and not having a care in the world because you know that they will provide. It’s like resting securely in the Father’s arms, completely at peace. It’s seeing the blessings and wonders each day brings because your mind isn’t cluttered with worries and anxieties about the future.   

“But how are we to gain…if we do not strive?” With humility and surrender. 

Sometimes, when I don't know how to express myself or what is going on in my head and my heart, I sing it out instead.

Here's my heart's current cry (you'll have to just imagine I'm singing it!):

How can I be when I don't know what You want me to do?  

How can I follow when I don't know where you go?

How can I live, how can I love rightly,

When I don't know, when I can't see where You're calling me to be.

How can I move when I don't know what I'm stepping toward?

How can I live when I don't know what I'm living for?

How can I live, how can I love rightly,

When I don't know, when I can't see where You're calling me to be.

You say: Be, don't strive.

Just live, don't try to understand why.

My arms are open wide, 

Surrender all, 

Trust that I know why.

I'll step out in faith,

I'll walk on the unknown of the waves.

Though I can't see my destination,

I trust you know the way. 

St Teresa ends this chapter with a beautiful prayer:

“We are His…may He do with us as He will and lead us along whatever way He pleases. I am sure that if any of us achieve true humility and detachment…the Lord will not fail to grant us this favour, and many others which we shall not even know how to desire. May He be for ever praised and blessed. Amen”