The spiritual exercises of St. Ignatius : $b adapted to...

POINT I. A thing is good if it answers fairly well the purpose for which it is made; it is perfect if it answers that purpose as well as is desirable. Thus a pen is perfect if it is every way suitable to write with, a watch is perfect if it always keeps time. Now man is made to love God; he is therefore perfect if he devotes himself entirely to the love of God. That perfection consists formally in Charity is expressly stated by St. Paul, who writes to the Colossians: “Above all things have charity, which is the bond of perfection” (iii, 14).

To attain perfection, therefore, we must accustom ourselves to be totally taken up with God and God’s interests, for God’s sake. This is the main purpose aimed at by Father Faber in his excellent book “All for Jesus.” Read for instance, pages 48, 49. Much of this may be in many men merely sentimental, or poetical. To make it actual in us, real in our conduct and the dispositions of our will, seeking God in all things, is true sanctity. At this we must steadily aim. It is in fact the motto of our Society: Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam, “To the Greater Glory of God.” A perfect man is a man of one idea, the idea of the greater glory of God.

POINT II. Such devotedness to God requires detachment from all creatures; this detachment is not itself perfection, but it is a necessary condition to attain this entire devotedness, in which perfection consists. We must act like the man who had found a treasure hidden in a field, who to secure it went and sold all he had to buy that field; and like him who, to buy the precious pearl, went and sold all he had (St. Matth. xiii, 44-46). We must be detached. Our hearts are so narrow that we cannot give a part of them to one object without detracting from our love for another, except only if we love the former solely for the sake of the latter. Thus we should love all for God. Therefore we start on the road to perfection by leaving all things to follow Him. It must not prevent us from taking interest in many things, else we become wooden saints. With a St. Ignatius, a St. Francis Xavier, a St. Catherine of Sienna, etc., we must cherish eager desires of many projects, but only in as much as they promote God’s glory and the salvation of souls.

POINT III. In particular the study of perfection requires constant efforts: 1. To adorn our soul with more and more virtue, 2. To correct our faults, 3. For this purpose, to labor earnestly at our particular examen, our confessions, 4. To direct our spiritual readings and meditations to the purposes of the illuminative way, returning to the purgative way if there arises some special need of it. Keep weeding, planting, binding. The chief point in this triduum is to see whether we have been of late seriously laboring at the acquisition of perfection as we now understand it: in particular whether we are attached to any creature so as to retard our progress, or habituated to commit any faults, which must be corrected; also how we profit by our Holy Communions, our meditations, etc., so as to promote steady progress in virtue.