Light and Peace: Instructions for Devout Souls to Dispel Their Doubts
Blessed is the man whom Thou shalt instruct, O Lord, and shalt teach him out of Thy Law. (Ps. XCIII, v. 12.)
All scripture divinely inspired, is profitable to teach, to reprove, to correct, to instruct in justice. (S. P. Timothy., Ep. II, iii, 16.)
Spiritual reading is to the soul what food is to the body. Be careful, therefore, to select such books as will furnish your soul with the best nourishment. I would recommend you to become familiar especially with the works of Saint Francis de Sales.
When the choice of reading matter is made by the advice of a spiritual director the teaching it contains should be looked upon as coming from the mouth of God.
Do not affect those lives of the Saints in which the supernatural and marvelous predominate. The devout imagination becomes inflamed by such reading and is imbued with vain and useless desires: it leads some to aspire to the revelations of Saint Bridget or the raptures of Saint Joseph of Cupertino, others to imitate the mortifications of the Stylites; and thus by losing time in desiring extraordinary graces, they neglect, to their great detriment, ordinary duties and real obligations.
Take great care, then, not to allow yourself to be absorbed in those wonderful characteristics of the saints which we should be content to admire; give preference rather to their simple and interior virtues, for these alone are imitable for us.
We ought not to wish for extraordinary things, as, for example, that God would take away our heart, as He did with Saint Catherine of Sienna’s, and give us His in return.
But we should desire that our poor hearts no longer live save in subjection to the Heart of our loving Savior, and this will be the best way of imitating Saint Catherine, for we shall thus become meek, humble and charitable….
True holiness consists in love of God, and not in foolish imaginations and dreamings that nourish self-love whilst they undermine obedience and humility. The desire to have ecstasies and visions is a deception.
Let us turn rather to the practice of true meekness and submissiveness, of self-renunciation and docility, of ready compliance with the wishes of others. Thus we shall emulate the saints in what is more real and more admirable for us than ecstasies.”—St. Francis de Sales.
Use still greater precautions in regard to ascetical works. Many of these are carelessly written, confound precepts with counsels, badly define the virtues by not showing the limits beyond which they become extravagances, and entertain the reader with trifling and purely exterior practices that are more apt to flatter self-love than to reform the heart.
It has been remarked very justly by a learned theologian that the ignorance and indiscreet zeal of certain writers of ascetical books have furnished the heretics of later times with arms to attack our holy religion and to turn it into ridicule.
A judicious author expresses himself thus on the same subject: “In order to write on spiritual matters it is not enough to have great piety,—great learning is also necessary. A man actuated by the best motives in the world may yet have strange delusions, and feed his imagination with devout extravagances.”
An author should be equally well versed in theory and experienced in practice, otherwise he will err either in regard to principles or to their application.
There is a well-known saying generally attributed to Saint Thomas: “If a man be good and holy let him pray for us; if he be learned too, then let him teach us.”
It is essential, in matters of religion especially, to give none but true and precise ideas, or else they will do more harm than good. Doctrines that are not exact create scruples in weak souls and invite the criticisms of intelligent Christians, whilst they excite the railleries of free-thinkers and furnish arguments to unbelievers.
Almost every day we find ascetical works published which contain many inaccuracies of the kind described. Exercise great care, therefore, in the selection of this kind of reading or you may injure your soul instead of sanctifying it. The safest course is to consult your director on the subject.
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- The Children of Fatima and Our Lady’s Message to the World
- The Cure of Ars – The Story of Saint John Vianney
- The Little Flower – The Story of Saint Therese of the Child Jesus
- Saint of First Communicants – The Story of Blessed Imelda Lamertini
- The Miraculous Medal – The Story of Our Lady’s Appearances to St. Catherine Laboure
- St. Louis De Montfort – The Story of Our Lady’s Slave
- Saint Thomas Aquinas – The Story of the Dumb Ox
- Saint Catherine of Siena – The Story of the Girl Who Saw Saints in the Sky
- Saint Hyacinth of Poland – The Story of the Apostle of the North
- Saint Martin De Porres – The Story of the Little Doctor of Lima, Peru
- Saint Rose of Lima – The Story of the First Canonized Saint of the Americas
- The Children of La Salette
- Saint Paul the Apostle – The Story of the Apostle to the Gentiles
- Saint Benedict – The Story of the Father of the Western Monks
- Saint Margaret Mary and the Promises of the Sacred Heart of Jesus
- Saint Dominic – Preacher of the Rosary and Founder of the Dominican Order
- King David and His Songs – A Story of the Psalms
- Saint Francis Solano – Wonder-Worker of the New World
- Saint John Masias – Marvelous Dominican Gatekeeper of Lima, Peru
- Blessed Marie of New France – The Story of the First Missionary Sisters in Canada
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Very true, books and internet, anything you read, needs to be a good source.
Thank you! 😁