St. Alphonsus Liguori on the Love of God v Self Esteem

He that loves God does not desire to be esteemed and loved by his fellow-men: the single desire of his heart is to enjoy the favor of Almighty God, who alone forms the object of his love.

[...]  St. James writes, that as God confers his graces with open hands upon the humble, so does he close them against the proud, whom he resists. God resists the proud, and gives His grace to the humble.

[...] The saying of St. Francis of Assisi is most true: “What I am before God, that I am.” Of what use is it to pass for great in the eyes of the world, if before God we be vile and worthless?

And on the contrary, what matters it to be despised by the world, provided we be dear and acceptable in the eyes of God? St. Augustine thus writes: “The approbation of him who praises neither heals a bad conscience, nor does the reproach of one who blames wound a good conscience.”

[...]  “What does it matter,” says St. Teresa, “though we be condemned and reviled by creatures, if before Thee, O God! we are great and without blame?”

The saints had no other desire than to live unknown, and to pass for contemptible in the estimation of all.

Thus writes St. Francis de Sales: “But what wrong do we suffer when people have a bad opinion of us, since we ought to have such of ourselves? Perhaps we know that we are bad, and yet wish to pass off for good in the estimation of others.”

Oh, what security is found in the hidden life for such as wish cordially to love Jesus Christ! Jesus Christ himself set us the example, by living hidden and despised for thirty years in a workshop.

And with the same view of escaping the esteem of men, the saints went and hid themselves in deserts and in caves.

It was said by St. Vincent of Paul that a love of appearing in public, and of being spoken of in terms of praise, and of hearing our conduct commended, or that people should say that we succeed admirably and work wonders, is an evil which, while it makes us unmindful of God, contaminates our best actions, and proves the most fatal drawback to the spiritual life.

Whoever, therefore, would make progress in the love of Jesus Christ, must absolutely give a death-blow to the love of self-esteem.

[...] In order, then, to be pleasing in the sight of God, we must avoid all ambition of appearing and of making a parade in the eyes of men. And we must shun with still greater caution the ambition of governing others.

Alphonsus Liguori (1696-1787): Practice of the Love of Jesus Christ, 6

Spiritual Direction

The need for spiritual direction in our world today which is utterly confused has never been greater.  To find a Priest spiritual director is not easy, even the Saints found it difficult.  But to have a good Priest to guide one's soul is a great grace and a gift.  A learned and prayerful Priest can lead a soul closer to God and help to develop and find one's true vocation in life.  There are many people in need of spiritual direction who desire to give their lives to Jesus and they find it difficult to find someone who is willing to help them, but the Lord knows the desire of their hearts and shall not abandon them once they remain faithful to the Sacraments, to prayer and works of mercy.  How many vocations are lost perhaps because of the lack of good spiritual direction ?  Let us pray for more Priests to become open to this task and learn to guide souls on the way of holiness. 

St. Alphonsus Liguori believed confessors could do great good by applying the “bit of diligence” necessary to direct souls that are ready for guidance in the spiritual life. “And what an accounting of it they must render to God,’ he exclaims, “If they are slack about it”; for confessors are bound to achieve the good of their penitents “as much as they can.”  By directing these souls in the way of prayer and then ‘asking them at least in the beginning of the spiritual life, whether they made their prayer or not,” confessors could prevent many “relapses into grave sin” and “put many on the road to perfection.”

St. Alphonsus also has this to say: ‘As soon as a good confessor sees a soul shrinking from mortal sin and desiring to advance in divine love, he ought to... guide it to the making of mental prayer, that is, meditation on the eternal truths and the goodness of God;” (13) and the Saint then proposes a follow up. Moreover, one will at times find it desirable to persuade penitents who come burdened with mortal sin, even habitual, to receive his guidance in the ways of mental prayer; (14) and this easily leads the conscientious priest to full responsibilities of direction.

Some penitents seem to expect, before they would submit to anyone as their director, that he display the heroic virtue one expects in a canonized Saint. St. Alphonsus treats them as over-demanding. (33) Yet he warns that one should not choose his spiritual father “haphazardly nor through predilection,” but should pick the “one he deems best suited in relation to the profit” of his soul, a man of “learning and experience... and prayer” who “walks in the way of perfection.” If he reproves one’s faults, “that is no reason for leaving him, but rather for never separating from his guidance.” He adds that there “is no worse confessor than one who does little rebuking and shows too much sympathy for his penitent’s faults;” for in this way he “will cause the penitent to think lightly of them.” (34)

St. Teresa of Avila said

She believed that if a person who practices prayer consults good, learned men, “the devil will not deceive him if he does not wish to be deceived.”(50)

Favoring recourse to a doctrinally sound, learned director, St. Teresa judges that if one finds one, and he is not advanced enough in the spiritual life to understand certain things needful in the guidance of advanced souls, but is virtuous, it is not presumptuous to hope that God will enlighten him about what he should teach and even make him advance in the spiritual life himself in order that he may provide better help. “I do not say this without experience,” she remarks. “It has happened to me at least in two cases.”

A lay person who “can choose whom he is to submit to, should praise God and not lose” this liberty, but rather “let him be without” a director until he finds a qualified one whom, “if he is fully grounded in humility and has the desire to succeed, the Lord will give him.”

What to look for in a spiritual director -

1. Knowledge of the spiritual life

A good director must have a sound knowledge of the science of the soul – he or she must know the various spiritualities of the Church’s tradition and, more importantly, must have a firm grasp of the fundamental principles of the spiritual life. In this regard, St. Teresa is famed for having advised that, if we must choose, it is better to have a learned director than a holy one – since one who is learned will be able to advise the safest course to take in the spiritual life, but one who is holy (without being learned) will not know of any spirituality beyond his own.

2.  Faithfulness to the Church

Since the primary way in which God’s guides his holy people is through the pastors of the Church, a good director must be orthodox – faithful to the Church in every point upon which she has pronounced her judgment. Even in those matters of faith and morals upon which the Church has spoken only in her ordinary (and not infallible) Magisterium, the spiritual director must submit to the Church’s wisdom with a spirit of religious obedience and must never contradict her judgment. A spiritual director who lacks a love for the Church and her pastors (and especially for the Pope) will serve only to lead souls astray – such a director is a thief or a robber and has not entered the sheepfold through the gate.

3.  Prayer and mortification

The principle means of progress towards spiritual perfection consist in the exercise of prayer and mortification. Within these two principle works, there are many and varied directions in which the Holy Spirit might lead the soul. However, without a true commitment to prayer and mortification, the spiritual life will be dry and barren – a desert wasteland without water. Prayer provides the primary matter to be discussed in spiritual direction. Without contemplation, without at least a movement toward the interior life, there can be no true

direction. Thus, any good spiritual director will advocate the life of prayer (and even contemplation). Moreover, in order to grow in prayer, mortification is needed. Thus, these two – prayer and mortification – must be an essential part of the program of direction