Since the end of March, 2020, I have been hosting online weekly prayer group meetings in Chinese and English. And starting at Easter this year, I am giving the participants a series of weekly talks on the spiritual life. Please visit my blog (fatheranthonyho.ca) for information about the prayer groups and the weekly talks. I am happy to share the essential contents of these weekly talks in this new series of articles for The B.C. Catholic. Hopefully, through reflections on the spiritual life we can all grow interiorly during this time of forced inactivity.
During this time of restrictions due to COVID, I find encouragement in the following quote of St. Josemaría Escrivá: “The plants were hidden under the snow. And the farmer, the owner of the land, remarked with satisfaction: ‘Now they’re growing on the inside.’ I thought of you, of your forced inactivity.”
Silent reflection is very important for our spiritual growth. Father Patrick J. Gearon, O. Carm., wrote, “Business men balance their books monthly to see if they are prospering or losing. But the business of our progress in spirituality is the most important of all our concerns. So we too must make a calm judgment of the Profit and Loss of our spiritual lives.”
Father Gearon lamented that “there are not many truly wise men in the world today, and this for the simple reason that few men use to the fullest extent the God-given gift of reflection.” He pointed out that “it is in solitude that we are given time to ponder upon the things of God and of eternity, and time so spent is the foundation stone of all true wisdom.”
Prayerful and sincere reflection enhances knowledge of God and knowledge of self. Father Gearon wrote, “Our own past is, indeed, the best guide to our knowledge of ourselves.”
According to Dom Lorenzo Scupoli, the essence of the spiritual life “consists in nothing else but the knowledge of the Divine Goodness and Greatness, of our own nothingness, and proneness to all evil …. in giving up our own will, and in completely resigning ourselves to the Divine Pleasure.”
To reflect properly on the spiritual life, it is important to know its aim. St. Therese of Lisieux said, “Sanctity does not consist in this or that practice but in a disposition of heart which makes us humble and small in the arms of God.”
Father Gearon wrote, “The best sign that anyone has made progress is that she thinks herself the last of all …. This is the true test …. not sweetness (spiritual tastes) in prayer (of quiet) ecstasies, visions, and other divine favours of the same kind. The value of these latter we cannot estimate rightly until the next life, but the former are current coin, a constant revenue and a perpetual inheritance …. I speak of great humility.”
Moreover, Father Gearon pointed out that to be holy it is not enough to do things our own way. It must be God’s way. We are really holy when we do those things which are pleasing to God.
Father Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalen, OCD, wrote, “After St. Teresa of Jesus had experienced the most sublime mystical communications she did not hesitate to declare ‘the highest perfection consists not in interior favors or in great raptures or in visions or in the spirit of prophecy, but in the bringing of our wills so closely into conformity with the will of God that, as soon as we realize he wills anything, we desire it ourselves with all our might, and take the bitter with the sweet’. St. Therese of the Child Jesus echoes this: ‘Perfection consists in doing his will, in being what he wills us to be.’”
Pope Benedict XV stated: “Sanctity properly consists only in conformity to God’s will, expressed in a constant and exact fulfillment of the duties of our state in life.”
Hence, the foundation of the spiritual life is humility, and the aim of the spiritual life is union with God through conformity with the holy will of God.
反省促進靈修的成長
自2020年3月我在網上帶領英文和中文祈禱會。今年復活節開始，我會給參與者一系列靈性生命的每週談話。請在我的網誌(www.fatheranthonyho.ca)查閱有關祈禱會的訊息和每週的談話。我樂意在BC Catholic這新的系列中，分享我每週談話的要領。期望我們在禁制於不能活躍的環境下，能夠以靈性生命的反省，可以內在成長。
因著新冠疫情的禁制期中的，我在聖施禮華的話語中找到鼓勵：『植物隱藏在白雪底下。農夫和地主都滿意地談論說「現在他們在內裡成長中。」我想起你，你那禁制於不能活躍之中。』
靜默的反思為我們靈性的成長是十分重要的。加爾默羅會的Patrick J. Gearon神父寫道：『商家每月平衡賬目去看生意興旺或虧損。但我們靈魂上生意的進度才是我們所有事物中最為重要的。所以我們應該做個冷靜的判斷，我們靈性生命的利得和虧損。』
Gearon神父慨嘆：『這世上現在沒有很多真正明智的人，就只是一個簡單的理由，很少人盡用天主給予的反思的恩賜。』Gearon神父指出：『在獨處中我們得到時間來思索天主和永恆的事，這樣用時間是所有真智慧的基石。』
虔誠和真誠的反思增強對天主和對自己的認識。Gearon神父寫道：『我們的過去，真的是我們認識自己的最佳嚮導。』
根據Dom Lorenzo Scupoli，靈性生命的要素只在於認識至聖的善和偉大，認識自己的虛無…在於放棄我們的意志，和完全將自己順從於天主所喜歡的。
要能適當地作靈性的反思，重要的是，我們要知道靈性的目標。聖女小德蘭修女說：『神聖並不在於這樣或那樣的神業中，但在於內心的意向使我們在天主手臂上變得謙遜和微小。』Gearon神父寫道：『一個人有進步的最好標記是她想自己是最末的一個…這是個真的測試…不是祈禱中的甜蜜，神魂超拔，神視，和其他相似的神聖恩惠。它們的價值，直到我們的來生，我們不能正確地估計，但前者是現時的貨值，一個穩定的收入和一個永恆的產業…我說的是大的謙遜。』
Gearon神父指出要成聖，要按我們自己方法做事是不足夠的。必須是天主的方法。當我們做天主悅樂的事，我們便真的聖化了。
聖衣會，瑪利亞、瑪達肋納的佳播神父寫道：『聖女大德蘭經驗了最崇高的神秘交往後，她絕不猶豫地宣稱「最大的完美所包含的並不在於內在的恩惠或盛大的超拔或神視或先知之恩，卻在推近我們的心意脗合與天主意願，當我們明白祂的意向，我們自己以我們所有的能力去追求，甜蜜與苦澀都接納。」聖女小德蘭回響說：「成全在於承行祂的旨意，要成為祂所願意我們所成為的。」
教宗本篤十五世稱：『聖化應該只包含脗合於天主的旨意，表現於恆久地滿全我們身份上的責任。』
所以靈性生命的基楚是謙遜，靈性生命的目標是以通過脗合天主聖意與天主結合。
