Vigils Reading – Office for Vocations

THE SPIRITUAL LIFE

From the writing of John Ruusbroec3

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Now you should note three things which make a person good. The first thing which a person must have in order to be good is a purified conscience, free from any reproach of mortal sin… The second thing… is the need to obey God, the holy Church, and his own conscience in all things…The third thing… is that he primarily intends God’s glory in all his works… These three things, when possessed in this way, make a person good. Whoever lacks a single one of them is not a good person and does not abide in God’s grace. But whenever a person resolves in his heart to bring about these three things in his own life, then in that very moment — regardless of how evil he was previously — he becomes a good person, open to God and full of God’s grace.

If this good person is to go on and become an interiorly fervent and spiritual person, then three further things are necessary: The first is a heart unencumbered by images; the second is spiritual freedom in his desires; and the third is an experience of interior union with God… In his exercises a person should make use of good images, such as our Lord’s passion and anything else which can stir a person to greater devotion. In possessing God, however, a person must descend to that imageless bareness which is God himself. This is the first thing necessary for a spiritual life and is its very foundation.

The second thing is interior freedom, which means that a person can be raised to God in all his interior exercises without hindrance and without the encumbrance of images. Such exercises are thanksgiving, praise, worship, devout prayers… and all the other things which longing and affection can bring about with the help of God’s grace… By means of these interior exercises a person attains the third thing necessary for a spiritual life, which is that he experiences spiritual union with God. Whoever, then, in his interior exercises ascends freely and without images to his God and intends nothing but God’s glory will savor God’s goodness and will experience true interior union with God… In this way, activity and union are constantly renewed, and this renewal in work and in union constitutes a spiritual life…

You should also know that if this spiritual person is to become a contemplative three more things are necessary: The first is that he must experience the depth of his being as having no ground and must possess it in this way; the second is that his exercises must be devoid of particular form or measure; and the third is that his turning within himself must be characterized by the enjoyment of God…

You can thus see that this Unity of God which draws all things to itself is nothing other than a love which has no ground and which lovingly draws the Father and the Son and all that lives in them into a state of eternal enjoyment. In this love we will ceaselessly burn and be consumed by fire for all eternity, for in this lies the blessedness of all spirits… Through the same love we will ascend and transcend ourselves as we rise to an incomprehensible height. In this formless love we will wander about, and it will lead us to the measureless breadth of God’s love. In it we will flow forth and flow out of ourselves into the uncomprehended abundance of God’s riches and goodness. In it we will also melt and be dissolved, revolve and be eternally whirled around in the maelstrom of God’s glory