Love, Sanctity, Portions & Wishful Thinking

[thepiaheart]

Hi all!

I've been musing a lot about sanctity. I'm having a hard time grasping it conceptually, which makes it difficult to discuss with others. Any help, especially from the saints & from Scripture, is most appreciated in assimilating this mess.

What we know (simply):

God is love. God is perfect. God is infinite. 

 

We are called to be perfect, as our Heavenly Father is perfect, and thus to share in his divinite, infinite love. We are also called to love Him with everything we are & have, because He is love, and goodness, and mercy, and to extend that love to our neighbors.

Sanctity = humility & love, with love as the standard by which we'll be judged. The least, the most humble, shall be the greatest, for great humility is true reality, and in leaving God to do the work of love, we love more than we could ever love alone.

 

The earth, Heaven, etc. = a garden of souls; for each soul God is both portion and cup.

 

What would we consider wishful thinking in this context? Is it proud for a soul to want to love more and more and more? To be a great saint by being granted the capacity to love the most? To, for example, pray that she might receive all of God, that she might love him most completely? To be dissatisfied until she can?

 

Where in this journey do we draw the line between accepting our reality, as created beings, as broken beings, as sinful beings, beings who in a purely juridical way do not deserve any of God's love & goodness, and the reality of mercy and a desire to just enter into God & his love so completely?

If we are all a certain flower in the garden, is it not possible that a soul may desire to love God more, but that it may not be granted her? Or does Therese's garden have more to do with the ways in which those souls are known in the world, the ways those souls are recognized, rather than their pure capacity for love?

 

Does my conundrum make any sense? Perhaps I'm asking the wrong questions.

 

I'm going through a period right now in which I'm seeing I have to leave behind everything that I've learned about the Church & relationship, and live it out first -- to love, before anything else -- but this is a question that I just don't know how to dismiss.

Pax! & thank you.

[Julie de Sales]

It is not pride to wish to love God more and more each day, even to love Him more than some other saints in the Church. I believe St Therese of the Child Jesus desired to love God more than St Therese of Avila, the reformer of Carmel. Even if we are broken beings, the Lord can expand our hearts and our capacity of loving Him and our neighbor. I think we have to be humble (realize that all that we are is a gift from above and that God is the source of all sanctity), but humility doesn't put us down on our way towards perfection, but it makes us desire more and more, because we don't rely on our own power, but on what God can do in our lives.

 

Hoping that I don't disgress from your topic, I also have some questions regarding sanctity; some of you get concerned about how advanced they are in sanctity? Can you mesure or monitorize your progress in this matter? I know it sounds silly, but sometimes I think about this.

[AccountDeleted]

I used to wish that I could love God more than anyone else, but then I realized that by comparing myself to others, I was allowing there to be a third party in my relationship with Him, and for my focus to be taken off Him.

 

So I changed that wish and asked Him if He would allow me to love Him as much as is humanly possible for me to love Him, and then to make up what is lacking in my love for Him, by His love for me. Now there is no one else between us for comparisons - only Him and me. :love:

 

Don't turn loving God into a competition but also don't be afraid to ask Him for Himself. He will give Himself to you in the amount that you are able to accept. And in order to make you able to accept even more of Himself, He will help you to empty yourself completely. But remember that what you ask isn't a walk in the park - to ask God for Himself is to give Him permission to prepare you to receive Him. Loving Him can be very painful at times. His love burns hotter than any fire when it starts to purify and there may be times when you wonder what you let yourself in for! :)

 

God will love us whether we love Him or not, so the great gift is in being allowed to love Him back. Yes, be dissatisfied until you are loving Him as much as you possibly can, and then ask Him to let you love Him more. But refer it all back to Him, not to how others feel or what they do. Their relationships with God are perfect for them. Yours is perfect for you.

[thepiaheart]

It is not pride to wish to love God more and more each day, even to love Him more than some other saints in the Church. I believe St Therese of the Child Jesus desired to love God more than St Therese of Avila, the reformer of Carmel. Even if we are broken beings, the Lord can expand our hearts and our capacity of loving Him and our neighbor. I think we have to be humble (realize that all that we are is a gift from above and that God is the source of all sanctity), but humility doesn't put us down on our way towards perfection, but it makes us desire more and more, because we don't rely on our own power, but on what God can do in our lives.

 

I love this. Thank you.

 

 

 

Hoping that I don't disgress from your topic, I also have some questions regarding sanctity; some of you get concerned about how advanced they are in sanctity? Can you mesure or monitorize your progress in this matter? I know it sounds silly, but sometimes I think about this.

 

I don't consider myself one who thinks about progress very often. I'm scrupulously-minded sometimes, when it comes to things like desires--a subtle desire to love more could, potentially, have a hidden self-love or pride at its root, and I'm terrified of those little things that we cannot see, so I ask questions like this one.

As for measuring or monitoring your progress? Well, the thing is that God is infinite, so there is no real way to measure progress, because the scale is infinite -- we can love infinitely; we can love with Christ's heart, with Mary's heart. What we can determine is whether there is any substantial growth in the fruit we bear, or in virtues; whether wit time our love increases at all, for our neighbor, for God. But I don't think we can ever speak to how much more we could love, since that has no bounds on it. I like your first comment in this context: it's always a gift, and the Lord wishes to be asked, and to give more. Beautiful. We mustn't separate ourselves from Him, from keeping our gaze on Him, always.

 

So I changed that wish and asked Him if He would allow me to love Him as much as is humanly possible for me to love Him, and then to make up what is lacking in my love for Him, by His love for me. Now there is no one else between us for comparisons - only Him and me. :love:

 

That's beautiful. It's a prayer he'll definitely answer.

 

Don't turn loving God into a competition but also don't be afraid to ask Him for Himself. He will give Himself to you in the amount that you are able to accept. And in order to make you able to accept even more of Himself, He will help you to empty yourself completely. But remember that what you ask isn't a walk in the park - to ask God for Himself is to give Him permission to prepare you to receive Him. Loving Him can be very painful at times. His love burns hotter than any fire when it starts to purify and there may be times when you wonder what you let yourself in for!  :)

 

God will love us whether we love Him or not, so the great gift is in being allowed to love Him back. Yes, be dissatisfied until you are loving Him as much as you possibly can, and then ask Him to let you love Him more. But refer it all back to Him, not to how others feel or what they do. Their relationships with God are perfect for them. Yours is perfect for you.

 

 

Terrific advice. Thank you. This speaks very much to the heart of my questions.