Distinguishing the Correct Path

The spirit of beguilement deals through deception. The Staretz comments on one can distinguish the true spiritual path from a false one. He said:

Sometimes the Holy Spirit draws a man so wholly to Himself that he forgets all created things and gives himself entirely to contemplation of God. But when the soul remembers the world again, filled with love of God she feels compassion for all and prays for the whole world. In thus praying, the soul may again forget the world and repose in the One God, only to return once more to her pryaer for all mankind.

The Holy Spirit teaches us to love God and our neighbour; but the spirit that beguiles [through deception] is a proud spirit sparing neither man nor the rest of creation because it has created nothing. Its path is strewn with distraction. The spirit of beguilement cannot bestow true sweetness but merely the restless sweetness of vainglory. There is neither humility nor peace nor love in it: only a cold, indifferent pride.

The Holy Spirit teaches the love of God, and the soul yearns for God and with tears seeks Him day and night; but the enemy brings anguish, heavy and overcast, which destroys the soul.

By these tokens can the grace of God be distinguished from the beguilement of the enemy.

Logging the mountain climb is not, perhaps, as easy as the actual climb! No one can really view the climber after a certain point, but the log can be read. The log details the failures and successes. It is humbling to be read.

This morning, awaking quite early, the Catholic hermit heard the words: Keep your eyes on the road. It knew what was meant. It also wondered if it will ever achieve the summit of pure prayer, for St. Silouan and St. John of the Cross and St. Teresa and so many mystics have taught what the Startetz reminds: "...as long as man's mind is busied with reflection, with words, concepts and images, it has not attained the perfection of pure prayer."

"Such superlative, pure prayer is a rare gift of God. It depends not on human effort but on the power of the Lord, and with infinite care and tenderness transports man into the world of Divine light; or, as it would be better to say, Divine light manifests itself and lovingly encompasses man's whole being so that he is no longer able either to meditate or to remember anything."

This Catholic hermit might not receive such a rare gift. It is all right, either way, of course. Not "to each his own" but "to God, His will." The great mystics who received this rare gift of pure prayer did not mean it to be the Buddhist philosophy of self-emptying. No, rather it is the soul-filling by God, of God. We wouldn't know, anyway! Such light is transcendent.

Why one would desire pure prayer is to be in the Beloved fully, to be compassed all about! One ought remain on the given path the Lord selects for the individual soul. Any other path will yield the spirit of beguilement. And, this is not to say that the other path or paths are not the path the Lord selects for other souls. It is that [yes, in this week of Christian unity] we Christians must strive to be on the holy mountain of the Lord; and the paths are Christ's Way. The slight nuances even within the hermit life, must not cause division. Rather, they must simply be described in the travel brochure, so to speak, and the Lord then chooses the path He desires.

These paths we speak of are within the Church; we are not speaking of other mountains. But to not be on the right path, meaning the path God wills for the individual soul will not bring true sweetness. Within each vocation, there are paths. Once one has discerned rightly the path God wills, keep the eyes on that path!

This is why it is very sad that the young man, nearly a decade on the priest path (the Lord did will it!)--very sad that he is leaving that path. We do not say "left", for we pray with hope beyond hope. But already in his own mind he has left, and in his current actions has left for the path of not true sweetness, but of apparent sweetness of conjugal love.

The Catholic hermit reviewed the past nine months and can see in print, logged and visible, the confusion and restless sweetness, and perhaps thoughts of glory for itself in considering the other path. Both lead in the same direction. But now this Catholic hermit must keep eyes on its own path, the path God chose for it. And in so following this particular path, there will be logged the beauty and sweetness of the sights and sounds. On another path and another, are fellow beloved travelers, climbing the holy mountain of the Lord, enjoying the pure sweetness of the Holy Spirit.

Would this Catholic hermit have found chaos and destruction strewn along the way, and been brought into beguilement had the other path been chosen, such as a path of active apostolate or community life, or associate in an order, or the other form of the hermit vocation? One must trust that the outcome is not sweetly fruitful. There is no way of knowing other than viewing the log and noting that the Holy Spirit did not permit over the years, doors not meant to open, to open beyond a crack of glimpsing in! Praise and honor and glory to the Third Person of the Most Holy Trinity! The Holy Spirit indwells this weak and stumbling soul!

Much love and peace to all fellow travelers on their God-willed and chosen paths climbing this holy mountain of the Way, the Truth and the Life of Jesus Christ! Thanks be to God for the Sacraments of the Catholic Church which feed us! We who eat his Body and drink His Blood have life in us [now] and possess eternal life [forevermore].