False Spiritual Peace
Just as children who are ignorant of the realities of dirt and disease will resist bathing, those who reject the realities of being subconsciously enslaved through one’s own past will most likely resist spiritual purification. When one is faced with personal tribulations (as we surely all will be), a golden opportunity will be lost by those of us whose only focus is to, “get rid of the problem.” If only more of us would be willing and able to look deep within our selves to critically recognize and remedy psychological ailments/emotional conflicts which are responsible for so many of our problems, we would recognize these trials as God’s way of calling us to overcome old weaknesses and develop new virtues.
An excerpt from the teachings of the sixth century abbot, St. Dorotheus:
Certainly if someone examines himself carefully and with fear of God, he will never find himself completely innocent. He will see that he has given some provocation by an action, a word or by his manner. If he does find that he is not guilty in any of these ways, certainly he must have injured that brother somehow at some other time. Or perhaps he has been a source of annoyance to some other brother. For this reason he deserves to endure the injury because of many other sins that he has committed on other occasions.
The man who thinks that he is quiet and peaceful has within him a passion that he does not see. A brother comes up, utters some unkind word and immediately all the venom and mire that lie hidden within him are spewed out. If he wishes mercy, he must do penance, purify himself and strive to become perfect. He will see that he should have returned thanks to his brother instead of returning the injury, because his brother has proven to be an occasion of profit to him. It will not be long before he will no longer be bothered by these temptations. The more perfect he grows, the less these temptations will affect him. For the more the soul advances, the stronger and more powerful it becomes in bearing the difficulties that it meets.
“It does not matter how many virtues a man may have, even if they are beyond number and limit. If he has turned from the path of self-scrutiny, he will never find peace. He will always be troubled himself, or else he will be a source of trouble for others, and all his labors will be wasted.” —from the teachings of Saint Dorotheus, abbot, Office of Readings, Monday, Ninth Week in Ordinary Time
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Much to ponder there..thankyou…
Comment by mrs jackie parkes — January 30, 2008 @ 3:29 am
Overcome old weaknesses–and until you overcome them–they remain–good post shelray!
Taking up my oil painting again, after years of abandoning it–when I was practicing–not a problem–fun, everything was okay. Then I decided to paint a picture to give as a gift–and all of a sudden–I couldn’t paint. My priest also asked me to do a painting for him–of his beloved dog–and now I’m totally froze–unable to even open the paints.
Upon close examination–I think I’ve come to the root of the problem–but, now the hard part–overcoming the subconscious enslavement of my past. So this is, “God’s way of calling me to overcome old weaknesses and develop new virtues.” Thanks shelray
Comment by tara — January 30, 2008 @ 5:06 pm
Wow, these are great thoughts — thank you for sharing.
A while back I saw a sign on a church that said “Don’t make your mistakes your value,” but I initially misread it to say “Don’t make your mistakes your values,” which I thought was actually a more common problem: people don’t want to shine light on the mistakes they’ve made and just gloss over it by convincing themselves that they didn’t do anything wrong in the first place (that used to be a life philosophy for me).
Anyway, great thoughts. I’ll have to remember to link to this.
Comment by Jennifer F. — January 30, 2008 @ 9:54 pm
Jackie - Thanks for your kind words.
Tara - thanks for the compliment and comment. Please remember I’m no kind of therapist or advanced degreed mental health professional, but have only learned through my personal experience with mental health professionals. God bless.
Jennifer - I’m with you. For some of us, it’s really painful coming to the realization that we are not as perfect as we once thought we were.
Comment by shelray — January 31, 2008 @ 9:30 am