the first condition of growth in the spiritual life is just say more novenas work harder no hand
Father Mark Mary with the Franciscan friars of the renewal and this is Ascension presents we're
continuing again talking about going deep in the interior life deep in life of prayer
inspired by my recent reading of Fire Within by father Thomas Dube this guy again um we did
an eight-part series on it uh on our podcast the polka podcast by the Friars and it really
a little fire in my heart pray for me that fire continues to be protected and nourished and that
I really just kind of go deep on it praying for this gift for you too what I want to talk about
taking from uh father dube's treatment of Saint Teresa of Avila doctor of the church and her
writings on prayers talking about the conditions of growth the first condition for growth in prayer
in the spiritual life is do the will of God do the will of God the most important thing for
us to grow in prayer the best thing that you can do for your holy hours to really go deep in your
time of lectio Divina and praying the rosary the best thing that you can do to really set you up
for success in these times of intentional prayer are to do the will of God all day every day this
is one of the most important takeaways from Saint Teresa of Avalon it's just the gospel it's like is
um growth and prayer and growth and sanctity growth and Community with God
growth in doing the will of God cannot be separated the conditions the work
prerequisite for really deep contemplation is going to be sanctity it's going to be growing
in our ability to say yes to the Lord and to do his will in all things and so if we're saying no
to the Lord if we are attached to the created world if we're attached disorderly attached to
Santo venial sin to Serious sin these things these attachments these sinful inclinations
these ways in which we're saying no to the will of God are going to affect our ability to have
deep communion with him in the life of Prayer it's not just more Stillness it's not just more
deeper breathing it's not just more emptying of ourselves it's more of the will of God talking
about contemplation CIS contemplation cannot be had unless one is serious about living the gospel
generously the king doesn't give himself the king how she referred to the Lord the king doesn't give
himself but to those who give themselves entirely to him so the less of us the more of him right
I must decrease so that he may increase John the Baptist pray for us all right so growth and
prayer does not depend on a person's immediate situation this is great news for all of you new
parents out there right or all of you who are just like like parents of many kids and you're
tired and you're like man I just I can't really meditate I can't really focus the way I want to
I can't really carve out the time and have it in an uninterrupted as I want to or or I'm sick and
so these things are happening and so it feels like like I'm not set up for prayer and what
Saint Teresa is saying is like hey if you're doing the will of God like God can break through and to
give himself to you no matter what else is going on the good news is that it's not all about us
it's about us doing the Lord's will yeah and it's about us asking for the grace to do as well yeah
um but it's not about us sort of curating a perfectly comfortable uh distraction free life
in many ways right which is not a possibility for the busy Mom and Dad um but that if we're
dying to ourselves if we're totally given to him in any time situation he can give himself
up to us if you're young if you're old if you're a college student if you're an athlete if you're
retired if you're in the nursing home if you're a doctor if you're whatever like if we're doing the
Lord's will growing in Holiness we can also grow in prayer all right if we really want to go for it
right if we really want to go for it like we can't this number three you
can't just reduce the spiritual life to doing the bare minimum
like we have like the more generous we are with the Lord the more we are predisposed to receive
him and the more generously he will be able to give himself to us and as I said last week this
is a love story and and God is the Lord is our beloved and he wants to espouse us to himself
and and sometimes we treat him just as like uh the rule maker and and we can like reduce our
interior life and our spiritual life to like doing the bare minimum and just trying to stay out of
mortal sin and just trying to sneak our way into purgatory there's like something inconsistent
with an authentic understanding of who we are and who God is if we so spiritually we will
reap sparingly but if we so like generously we will reap generously as the scriptures tell us
so so this is just all Saint Teresa's saying number four there's going to be purification
some of this is going to be like intentional purification like a little bit of fasting a little
bit of this or that but also just the things that are happening in your life like the busy mom and
who's not sleeping well or the dad is kind of stressed out and like really has to trust the
Lord when finances don't feel that good like all of these things are purifying and for us to really
grow in sanctity to grow in contemplation Infuse contemplation mystical prayer radical Holiness
communion with the Lord purification is going to happen so we just want to accept that and ask for
the Lord's Grace to do so this is not the best one uh the most fun one retrogression is possible
it's possible to go backwards so you know as we're going to prayer like we gotta keep going we got to
keep giving and once we've given the Lord like our yes and give and give him everything like we don't
want to start saying no um because as we close those doors right we will distance ourselves from
him and it's possible to go backwards so we want to have a certain sobriety about the spiritual
life again there is a correlation between virtue and prayer like growing sanctity growing in virtue
is going to um sort of benefit us in growing in prayer growing in prayer is going to help us in
growing in um in virtue and last is this it's like you got to be determined you need determination
one of the conditions of growth is you need to be determined like Jesus who set his face is
Flint like like these great Saints like we okay I am beginning this journey I'm gonna follow the
Lord I'm gonna give him everything I'm gonna go deep in the spiritual life it's not always going
to be easy it's not always going to be fun I'm not always going to have the same sort of like
excitement about it but with the Lord's help we need to have this determination and this is
what Saint Teresa says it is most important all important indeed that they should begin well by
making an Earnest and most determined resolve not to Halt until they reach their goal so my friends
Saint Therese of Avila she's got me convinced I want to go for it I want to go for it I've been
trying to go for it and and I've made some changes in my life and I can feel already wanting to like
oh no like this isn't that bad isn't that bad but we got to stay determined so pray for me that I
may have determination that I may continue to grow in the interior life and really really try and say
yes to the Lord with everything and to be generous in loving him as he is so generous in loving us
and my friends like let's do it again like let's go for it let's be the Saints the Lord needs let's
go deep in prayer and um let's grow in virtue let's be determined let's stay faithful let's
do his will and let's ask for help from all the saints especially our lady Saint Teresa of Avila
St John lacrosse thanks for being with me on this journey remember we are pilgrims on the earth so
miss peregrinos poco poco little by little Obama say again we're gonna make it God bless y'all
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