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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20260427
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SUMMARY:Vigils Reading -St Rafael Arnaiz Baron
DESCRIPTION:From the writing of \nST RAFAEL ARNAIZ BARON \n◊◊◊ \nI see\, Brother\, that the path you follow is the simple life. God does not \nrequire more of us than simplicity without and love within. The truth is that the \nreal pathways of God are very easy and very simple when we walk along them \nfull of the spirit of trust and with free hearts fixed on God. Happy\, indeed\, is the \nTrappist who is not merely a Trappist externally\, but whose interior life is \nmarked by the simplicity that makes the real Trappist. People of the world could \nthink us somewhat complicated. I do not know how to explain myself\, but I \nhave come to realize what Jesus means when he says: “Unless you become as \nlittle children…” \nThe ways of the Lord are simplicity; his yoke is easy and his burden is \nlight. We die to the world in order to be born to God. The self-denial of a life of \nsilence and solitude blossoms into the exuberant joy of a heart which counts its \nblessings in terms of simplicity and integrity. Those who follow Christ\, do so \nalong the way of the Cross. I think that when we love the Cross all is gained. \nGod always lets his light shine on anyone who loves and seeks him in \nsimplicity. We have to find our way along many winding paths before we arrive \nat the simple straight one. What causes us more distress than complicating \nthings! How we human beings love to complicate everything for ourselves! \nUnless we keep ourselves under control by the practice of virtue\, repeatedly\, \nwith our complicated way of existing we drive far from us everything that is \nsimple. \nTime and again\, we fail to grasp the greatness hidden deep down in an act \nof simplicity. We want to seek greatness in complexity and think that only when \nthings are difficult have they anything worthwhile to offer… Virtue\, God\, \nInterior Life – difficult values to live out! It is not that I have attained virtue\, nor \nthat my knowledge of God and my life in the spirit are totally clear\, but that I \nhave seen that to achieve something in these matters I need to be free from \ncomplexity and contortion\, from clever speculation and technicalities. \nI have seen that we reach God by just the opposite. True knowledge of \nHim comes through simplicity of heart and integrity. An act of love is not \ndifficult at all. What is really hard is the effort to attain knowledge of God by \npenetrating his mysteries. The act of love brings us to God; the other way leads \nus nowhere… Because we are not simple; because we complicate our objectives\, \nbecause the weakness of our will makes everything we desire seem difficult. We \npander to this weakness when we let our will satisfy itself with what is pleasant\, \nconsoling\, distracting and\, oftentimes\, plain passion… \nWith Jesus at my side nothing seems difficult to me\, and the path to \nholiness seems simpler every time I look at it. Better it seems to consist in going \nforward and leaving things behind rather than in acquiring anything new\, \nstripping back to simplicity rather than adding things on. In so far as we go \nforward turning our back on so much inordinate love of creatures and of \nourselves\, it seems to me that we are drawing closer to that one real love\, that \nsole desire\, that unique aspiration of this life: the true holiness which is God.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/vigils-reading-st-rafael-arnaiz-baron-2/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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