“I say that anyone who wishes to serve God in an outstanding way must suffer outstanding anguish and outstanding afflictions. The temptations you write about are the tests from God to see whether you are faithful. Therefore, fight manfully, for after the battle peace will come. In all truth there are good signs, so in these horrible fantasies flee to Calvary and hide in the pure side of Jesus. Make a fool of the devil there. Above all, do not abandon prayer, even if you are forced to keep yourself there with the pain of hell. Jesus persevered in agony and sweat blood. You have not come to that as yet, so you are wrong to be crying. If you ever leave prayer, mortification, and the practice of the holy virtues, you will find yourself in a hopeless abyss of ruins. Remain in the Presence of God and rouse your spirit with ejaculatory prayers, with darts of love toward God, and repose in the divine bosom like an infant on the bosom of its mother, but with supreme confidence….Proceed with the upright intention of the pure love of God, and let the devil roar as much as he wants. Stay withdrawn and speak a little. God bless you, and I am always, your true servant, Paul of the Holy.” – St. Paul of the Cross, Letter 185
“For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls. You have not yet resisted to bloodshed, striving against sin.”
– Hebrews 12: 3-4
In this letter, St. Paul of the Cross gives the most important advice when he states: “If you ever leave prayer, mortification, and the practice of the holy virtues, you will find yourself in a hopeless abyss of ruins.” Conversation with God is the pathway to intimacy with God and is foundational to following God and doing His will. If the soul is not conversing with God and interacting with Him daily, even every moment, how will the soul know the path of the Lord? What Jesus suffered on the cross makes this path open to us. If He did not die on the cross and bridge this gap between God and man, then this relationship would not be possible. Since He has done this out of His extravagant love, all is possible in Christ.
God is about the transformation of each soul. He doesn’t take the soul out of the world after salvation, but leaves the soul in a broken, demon-ridden world in order that the soul would walk out the life of Christ living in him, working out His life again through the soul. This path is the way of the cross, the way of suffering, the way of love poured out as an offering. Each soul is to become a little Christ, a manifestation of Him in the earth. This life as an offering, an outpouring, is a life of prayer and mortification and practice of the holy virtues as St. Paul of the Cross urges his followers in this letter.
The practice of these virtues and mortifications is not something the soul can do apart from the power of the Holy Spirit. Mortification is saying no to the flesh, denying it of what it wants to do, and then saying yes to God’s way, which often feels the exact opposite of what the flesh wants. This practice is a supernatural venture, and even an adventure when you know He is with you. The beginning of this way is great poverty of spirit, knowing the complete bankruptcy and requires “leaning on the Beloved”[1] in total dependency.
When trials and tribulations come, they bring about the flowering of the virtues of Christ in the soul. If the soul would embrace each trial, difficulty, and trouble that comes his way, and present these difficulties as an offering to Him, and turn these trials into an opportunity to gaze on Christ crucified, then the virtues will bloom and come forth as a beautiful, fruitful garden of love. They become a bouquet that can be given to the God-man as a gift of thankfulness of what He endured for the sake of the soul. Every suffering trial can become an offering and a pathway to deep love and union with God, for the way of the cross, of suffering, is the way of deep union with the Trinity.
Prayer:
Dear Jesus, thank you for the cross. Thank you for opening a door that no man can shut and shutting a door that no man can open.[2] You have become the bridge, the way to the Father. Let each trial and tribulation be seen as an opportunity for love to be birthed unto union with God at the highest level of love. Let the practice of virtues go from developing a good habit into infused virtues whereby supernatural abilities of the God-man reside in and manifest outward to the world. In Jesus Name, Amen.
For Meditation:
What trial or tribulation in your life could you make into a bouquet of love to give to Jesus? Since prayer is conversing with God, and this conversation is the pathway to intimacy with Him, how can you make space in your life to cultivate this holy conversation?
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[1] Song of Songs 8:5
[2] Isaiah 22:22, Revelation 3:7
Image: Unsplash
This post is taken from the book, Meditations on the Letters of Saint Paul of the Cross by Amy Knight, available to order here.
