On Premature Grasping, a Counsel from Francis de Sales, and the Grace of Noticing

A Note from Me

Looking back on my early days of training in the Purgative Way, I can see how it was juvenile:

• I wanted immediate union

• I wanted to be holy, now

• I wanted divine-likeness, quick

Again, who doesn’t look at the fruit of the Spirit, the virtues of Christ’s life, the beauty and radiance of God and grab for it? Like Mary in the garden—or Eve and Adam in Eden, we grasp.

It’s not all that bad, just premature.

I think what surprised me most about those early days is that I was still living out of my old transactional mindset even though I thought I left it behind.

What’s worse is I thought a mindset could be left behind. I guess I thought of it like a raincoat or a baseball cap, something I could take off after a thunderstorm. But, of course, a mindset doesn’t work like that—it was embedded within me, woven into the way I viewed the world, and it wasn’t going to disappear because I wanted it to...

...There was a silver lining though, I was noticing it.

And noticing, the spiritual masters say, is actually a kind of growth in itself—a kind of advance, a first step in the Illuminative Way.*

*From Chapter 2 of my first book Dwelling in Christ: Discover the Threefold Path of Spiritual Transformation

A Voice from the Christian Tradition

In a letter to a married woman, Francis de Sales offers counsel to someone eager to advance too quickly...

“I approve the idea that in your prayer you remain with the beginners’ method a little longer, preparing your mind by reading and arranging the points, using your imagination only as needed in order to focus your thoughts...Persevere in overcoming yourself in the little everyday frustrations that bother you: let your best efforts be directed there. God wishes nothing else of you at present, so don’t waste time doing anything else...I beg you, moderate your spiritual exercises, and in this regard give a good deal of weight to how your husband feels about them.”

—Letters of Spiritual Direction

A Question to Carry

When have you caught yourself grasping for growth too quickly?

Keep noticing,

—Jon