When to be Silent

What should one do when blamed for something that is not your fault? St. Teresa of Jesus counsels us to avoid giving self-defense, since it is not good for one to make excuses a habit. She says that “not making excuses for oneself is a habit characteristic of high perfection, and very meritorious.” (Way, Ch 15:1)

Ever so in tuned with human nature, she notes that even she at times reasons that it is a greater virtue to make an excuse for oneself and at other times it is lawful to do so. However, humility and discretion are both necessary to determine when it calls for one to be silent and when one should speak up. This is especially so when one is being accused without fault. There is no reason to excuse oneself when being accused of something that is not your fault, that is, unless the case is “where not telling the truth would cause anger or scandal”. (Way, Ch 15:1)

When to excuse oneself or not needs discretion. Discretion requires thought about the situation.

Will I cause offense if I speak? Is what I am about to reveal private information? Does this person really need to know? 

Discretion requires one to think about the situation and decide what should be done. Humility is also needed in order to refrain from making excuses. The truly humble do not have any desires to be held in high esteem by anyone. Neither do they care if they are “condemned without fault even in serious matters”. (Way, Ch 15:2) 

For St. Teresa this is the way for one who desires to imitate the Lord and to receive strength from no one but God. She sees this action as a a great interior virtue and as a penance that doesn’t do any harm to the body. Though the practice of this type of mortification can be difficult at first, especially if one has a sensitive nature, but with practice, and grace, this self-denial and detachment from oneself can be attained. 

St. Teresa said that she was “always happier that they speak about what is not true” of her than of what was true. (Way, Ch 15:3)  She goes on to say the if we really think about things, we are never totally without fault. Only Jesus can make that claim. Therefore she states, “even though we are blamed for faults we haven’t committed, we are never entirely without fault.” (Way, Ch 15:4)

St. Teresa also reminds us that we should “never think that the good or evil you do will remain a secret.” (Way, Ch 15:7) She says that if it is needed, there will be someone to come and defend you. She tells us to “observe how the Lord answered for the Magdalene both in the house of the Pharisee and when her sister accused her.” (Way, Ch 15:7) So, too, will he do so for us. Someone will come to our defense, if it is necessary. And if no one comes to do so, we shouldn’t  think about being defended because it wasn’t necessary. Instead we should rejoice in the freedom we are obtaining when we don’t care what others are saying about us. 

“It calls for great humility to be silent at seeing one condemned without fault.”

 St. Teresa of Avila

Charity Must Not Consist in Feelings

St. Therese of Lisieux was born on January 2, 1873 in Alencon, Normandy. She was the youngest of eight children born to Louis Martin and Zelie Guerin. Of the eight children, three died, and the surviving five girls all became religious. After Zelie’s death, when St. Therese was four years old, the family moved to Lisieux. St. Therese entered the Carmelite monastery of Lisieux at the age of fifteen. She died on September 30, 1897, at the young age of twenty-four.

St. Therese, of course, is most famous for her autobiography, Story of a Soul. In this story she describes her famous “little way” of spiritual childhood –a way of trust and surrender. It is well know how she would do “little” things with great love and how this is proposed to us to imitate.

What is little known or spoken of are the ways she would practice mortification. She never had any attraction to perform great acts of penance. She felt she was too cowardly. Her serious and mortified life consisted “in breaking my will always so ready to impose itself on others, in holding back a reply, in rendering little services without any recognition, in not leaning my back against a support when seated, etc.”

St. Therese made it a habit of always acting in a way opposite of the way she was feeling. There was s Sister in the community that she found quite displeasing to her in everything. She writes, “Each time I met her I prayed to God for her, offering Him all her virtues and merits, I felt this was pleasing to Jesus …and when I was tempted to answer her back in a disagreeable manner, I was content with giving her my most friendly smile, and changing the subject of the conversation.”

This saintly woman would resist the urge to give self-defense, to judge others, and to make claims to ‘her rights’. She would give what others asked of her and allowed others to take what belonged to her without asking for it back. These mortifications are heroic and are at the disposal for all of us to practice in our daily lives as well.

“I told myself that charity must not consist in feelings but in works.”

“And it isn’t enough to love; we must prove it.”

(Story of a Soul, ICS Publications)

Come Have Breakfast

The celebration of the Resurrection continues on for fifty days and with great solemnity during the octave, these eight days following Easter Sunday. This week the readings at Mass have been about the different ways that Christ has revealed himself to his disciples after He had risen from the dead. First we read about how He revealed himself to Mary who was weeping at the tomb, then to the travelers on the road to Emmaus in the Scriptures and in the breaking of the bread. Then He appears in the locked room, and in today’s readings He appears on the beach.

The disciples had all turned back to what they had been doing before all this drama had taken place with Jesus. Now that Easter Sunday has come and gone, we too, like the disciples, have already turned back to our usual routines. We may have attended Mass during Lent as our Lenten sacrifice, but now that Lent is over we say home and sleep in. Or maybe we spent more time at prayer or did some mortification, but now that Lent is over we have set it all aside. We are not so unlike the disciples. Christ had died and is gone; now it is time to turn back to what they did before. “I am going fishing.” says Peter. “We also will come with you.” the disciples said to him. (Jn 21: 3)

“But that night they caught nothing.” – the fruits of any of our efforts without Jesus. But at Christ’s prompting they do catch some fish – a great number of fish!

It does seem like at times that our efforts for Christ are all in vain and that the consummation of all is at hand in these turbulent times, but we must turn our minds to Jesus, because without Him we can do nothing. However, we often do not realize Jesus’s presence among us, much like the disciples on this particular morning at dawn.

Jesus mets the disciples on the beach “with a charcoal fire with fish and bread on it” (Jn 21: 9). In the same way as He did with the disciples, the Lord invites us to “come have breakfast” with Him and to realize that “it is the Lord” (vs 7) in the bread He gives.

As resurrection people we need to let the Lord reveal Himself to us. By being open to His presence and revelation at any time or place – on the road traveling, by the tomb weeping, alone in the room, or while having breakfast on the beach – and by keeping our minds turned towards Jesus, we can recognize His Resurrected Presence among us.

Modesty

The virtue that “moderates and regulates all our actions, both interior and exterior, according to our vocation. St. Paul recommends this virtue to all Christians: “Let your modesty be know to all men” (Phil 4: 5). (Divine Intimacy, # 89, by Fr. Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalen, OCD)

The Blessed Mother teaches us how we should live. We should live a life modeled after her conduct which was a life of mortification where the senses were kept in check and her soul was always sober and alert. Her conduct was imbued with modesty: in her countenance, the way she walked, her manners, gestures and even her speech. “Be modest in every action or conversation” St. Teresa of Jesus would instruct her daughters.

Modesty of our senses will aid recollection and help us to live an interior life of intimacy with God using our senses to His glory. The senses will need to be regulated and guarded, particularly to curiosity, if the soul is to remain recollected with God. Many images and impressions come to us which are not pure or wholly directed to God; therefore, since all these enter by means of the senses, custody of the senses will be necessary.  Due to our fallen nature our senses tend to sensible pleasures and will have to be regulated and mastered.

Charity covers a multitude of sins. (2 Cor 12:5)

St. Therese of Lisieux was born on January 2, 1873 in Alencon, Normandy. She was the youngest of eight children born to Louis Martin and Zelie Guerin. Of the eight children, three died, and the surviving five girls all became religious. After Zelie’s death, when St. Therese was four years old, the family moved to Lisieux. St. Therese entered the Carmelite monastery of Lisieux at the age of fifteen. She died on September 30, 1897, at the young age of twenty-four.

St. Therese, of course, is most famous for her autobiography, Story of a Soul. In this story she describes her famous “little way” of spiritual childhood –a way of trust and surrender. It is well know how she would do “little” things with great love and how this is proposed to us to imitate.

What is little known or spoken of are the ways she would practice mortification. She never had any attraction to perform great acts of penance. She felt she was too cowardly. Her serious and mortified life consisted “in breaking my will always so ready to impose itself on others, in holding back a reply, in rendering little services without any recognition, in not leaning my back against a support when seated, etc.”

St. Therese made it a habit of always acting in a way opposite of the way she was feeling. There was s Sister in the community that she found quite displeasing to her in everything. She writes, “Each time I met her I prayed to God for her, offering Him all her virtues and merits, I felt this was pleasing to Jesus …and when I was tempted to answer her back in a disagreeable manner, I was content with giving her my most friendly smile, and changing the subject of the conversation.”

This saintly woman would resist the urge to give self-defense, to judge others, and to make claims to ‘her rights’. She would give what others asked of her and allowed others to take what belonged to her without asking for it back. These mortifications are heroic and are at the disposal for all of us to practice in our daily lives as well.

“I told myself that charity must not consist in feelings but in works.”

“And it isn’t enough to love; we must prove it.”

(Story of a Soul, ICS Publications)