Quoting InLight:
The above paragraph stands out while reading the article.
It struck me too and I smiled!
a weak human being, the knowledge in head and the emotion in heart are important to me.
They are to me too and probably to most if not all since God has gifted us with head and heart and not to be disdained as gifts of God. Also I think** St. Teresa of Avila (15thOct.)**mentions re consolations that we are not to disdain them as they are wondrous gifts of God and to be thankful for them - not to be so reflects gross ingratitude - and I would aslo state a gross overestimation of our own selves. And when our head and hearts are in accord and in consolation this is Gift. Nevertheless, Faith which is a spiritual disposition transcends them and when they fail us, Faith will not provided we correspond with the Grace of Faith. We see this in St. Therese as in my previous post and her crisis of Faith over Heaven which had been alive in her all her life until the crisis. We also see it on Calvary - Jesus who had intimately conversed with His Father often all night in prayer, exclaims on the Cross “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me”. And yet He expires with, in a state of abandonment, “into Your Hands I commend My Spirit” and this was His Act of Faith in Darkness. That very same Spirit Who is Holy is poured fourth at Pentecost into The Church. The Holy Spirit, His Promised Gift to us. “I will send The Holy Spirit to teach you all truths and remain with you forever” This is an awesome statement and fact, though I ‘sight’ it in Faith alone perhaps.
The knowledge of God that He is a loving father, He sent His only begotten son to die for me, and He cares every detail of my life is important to me. This head knowledge, and the belief of this head knowledge, is a necessity of my faith foundation.
As we know there are different stages in the spiritual life and the gift of ‘head knowledge of the articles of Faith and assenting to them’ are a gift and again, consolations…and probably one of the most wondorus gifts God can grant is the feeling that indeed we do love Him and He loves us. If He withdraws these consolations, then the Grace and Fortitude to persevere nevertheless is present for He never tries us beyond our means. The crisis of Faith can occur when we start to doubt our ‘head knowledge’…and this is a painful and difficult, exceptinally difficult, time. It could, could, even go so far as being in state of doubt over all that our Faith teaches, but nevertheless we painfully persevere in our Faith. God is Good. This was the way along which God drew Mother Teresa of Calcutta we now know.
The ‘spiritual way’ as outlined by our great classical spiritual writers and mystic saints is largely an objective matter…what you and I experience on a personal level is subjective and not necessarily following A-B-C or 1-2-3 as our great spiritual thinkers have detailed. And St. Teresa and St. John point this out in their writings.
Be all that as it may. God in His Providence may call a person by the way of consolation all their lives. God is Good. Or He may call aperson by the way of suffering and doubts. God is Good. He never tries us beyond our means to endure for He pours forth Grace into our souls to endure though suffering as Mother Teresa did. Her nuns thought her gifted with great Faith and Joy as she was always smiling and encouraging, they never knew how she suffered interiorly. This was simply God’s path for Mother Teresa not revealed until after her death. As was that of St. Therese, though their paths were entirely different. God is Good.
There of course could be a belief in all that our Faith tells us (head knowledge) and the feeling that we love God and our neighour but our inward and outward behaviour indicates a contradiction and this where our so called *** is at in the terms of the article. Out interior and exterior behaviour is in contradiction to where our heart and head is thought by one to be at. We assent to the articles of Faith and we feel that we love God and He loves us…but there is a distinct contradition present, something that is not falling into place…it means I have a way to go in the spiritual life. The head is probably, perhaps, quite legalistic and the heart loves self more than God but cannot sight these things. We must avoid judgement however because we are all coming from somewhere and the experiences that have fashioned me, may not be present in another. God is Good.
As it says in the Cloud of Unknowing - to seek the God of Consolations and not the consolations of God.
We should never despise consolation no matter their nature, nor denigrate them, they are wondrous Gifts of God - but Gifts nevertheless which we have no claim at all upon nor right to.
God’s Blessings and His Peace - Barb
…not unusual and no surprise and my apologies.