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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20250131
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UID:13073-1738281600-1738367999@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:Vigils Reading
DESCRIPTION:SIMPLICITY AND OPENNESS \nFrom the Collected Works of Saint Rafael Arnaiz \n◊◊◊ \nOne must walk so many tortured paths to arrive at simplicity. Complication \nis such an uncomfortable thing…and we human beings like to complicate \neverything for ourselves. Often\, if we fail to practice virtue\, it’s because our \ncomplicated nature rejects what is simple. Often\, we fail to appreciate the \nmagnificence hidden within an act of simplicity\, because we look for greatness in \ncomplicated things; we judge the magnificence of things based on their difficulty… \nI clearly see that what seemed dark and complicated to me before is actually \nrather simple and straightforward. Virtue…God…the interior life\, how difficult I \nthought it was to live that! It’s not that I’m virtuous now\, or that I have a \ncompletely clear knowledge of God and spiritual life\, but I’ve realized that you get \nthere without complications or complexities\, without clever philosophy\, without \ntechnical challenges. I’ve come to see that you reach God in precisely the opposite \nmanner. You come to know Him through simplicity of heart and being \nuncomplicated. There’s nothing difficult about acts of love… What’s truly difficult \nis wanting to know God by searching out His mysteries. The former leads us to \nGod\, and the latter does not… \nSo\, then\, why do we lack virtue at times? Because we aren’t simple; because \nwe complicate our desires; because everything we want is made difficult by our \nweak will\, which gets carried away by whatever is pleasing\, comfortable\, and \nunnecessary\, and often by its passions. We lack virtue not because it is difficult\, but \nbecause we don’t want it. We lack patience…because we don’t want it. We lack \ntemperance…because we don’t want it. We lack chastity…for the same reason. We \nwould be saints if we wanted to be…it’s much harder to become an engineer than it \nis to become a saint. If only we had faith! \nThe interior life…the spiritual life\, a life of prayer. “My God! That must be \ndifficult!” But it’s not at all. Get rid of everything in your heart that’s in the way\, \nand you’ll find God there. That’s it. Often we look for things that aren’t there\, and \non the other hand we’ll walk right by a treasure without seeing it…We look for Him \nin a whole tangled mess of things\, and to us\, the more complicated they are\, the \nbetter. And all the while\, we are carrying God around inside of us\, yet we don’t look \nfor Him there. Collect yourself within…gaze upon your nothingness\, gaze upon the \nnothingness of the world\, place yourself at the foot of the cross\, and if you are \nsimple\, you will see God… All we have to do is want Him\, and God will fill the soul \nagain in such a way that you’d have to be blind not to see it. \nIf a soul wants to live according to God’s ways…it must be rid of everything \nthat is not Him…and that is it. It’s quite easy. If we wanted to\, and if we asked God \nwith simplicity\, we would make great progress in the spiritual life. If we wanted to \nbe saints\, we would be… But we’re such fools that we don’t want to…We prefer to \nwaste time on stupid vanities. We’ll regret that someday. \nBut I am very happy\, because I have come to see that everything is simple \nand straightforward…and this is within my reach.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-260/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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