We all know the Bible and saints put the interior life far ahead of the exterior life. However, the enemy of human nature often convinces us that we’re the exception. Like fools, we take the bait. But then something befalls us (eithr good or bad) to remind us how dependent we are on the Blessed Trinity. We see it’s exactly as Jesus told the Apostles: Without Me, you can do nothing.—John 15:5. Nothing is nothing is nothing. Every drop of a successful apostolate (even online or on the streets) is dependent on union with Christ.
In light of this, I’ve taken on some new resolutions of mental prayer and exercise because I’ve (yet again, as I never learn my lesson) become convinced of the interior life above the exterior life. One thing that helped me is this simple paragraph put in a bulletin in a parish near me that immediately calls the soul to deeper intimacy:
“It is for you alone, beloved soul, that the Lord draws you to the desert to speak to your heart; for He has chosen you as unique; to make you better: you whom He has chosen as a host of praise forever! Do you wish to burn before His adorable face like the purest wax? Do you, like the seraphim, like the cherubim, wish to be irradiated with His clarity, enflamed with His love, to be for Him, in turn, only light and charity? Consent to forget the world, the universe, and yourself. If you hesitate to lose your life in Him and for Him, go no further. What follows will not enlighten you. If the abyss tempts you, beg the Lord to envelop you in solitude; to cast you into the silence He inhabits, fills, where He manifests Himself. For you, force yourself to live thus. As much as it is possible for you, in exact obedience and perfect charity, you must avoid four things which are major obstacles to interior silence, and which render habitual contemplation impossible: interior noise, interior discussions, obsession, and worries about yourself. This being done, you will have passed through the doors of silence. God created your soul silent and keeps it inviolate at baptism. He filled it with Himself, nothing other than Himself. It is later, little by little, that the world bursts in. Noise invades, covering the soft voice of God. Since then, the racket amplifies itself. Return to your baptismal silence, my brother! Noise has three generators: memories, curiosity, and worries. Paralyze their action. Do not call to mind or relive any bad memory. Regretted evil is pardoned. The generosity of present love repairs the past. Forget those concrete details. It is enough to hold yourself a sinner before God, a beneficiary of His infinite mercy. Evil is ‘nothing’: what good would it do to remember it? Think only of the grace that has saved you; of its eternal re-freshments. God has destroyed all evils. He doesn’t collect the ‘nothings.’ Keep for Him a filially contrite heart, peaceful and tender: this is compunction.”—The Doors of Silence, pp. 2-5, by an anonymous Carthusian Monk.
Thanks to all those who have decided to donate. I hope to build a real hermitage in the next five years.