A Weekly Devotional on the Purgative Way

Preface

As the Apostle says, God has made foolish the wisdom of this world.⊕1 Corinthians 1:20. For the world considers the wisdom of God to be foolish. Thus the Apostle says: He who wants to become wise should become a fool, that he may be wise.⊕1 Corinthians 3:18. That is, whoever wants to obtain true wisdom from God should become foolish according to the estimation of men by pursuing, embracing, doing, and suffering that which seems foolish to the world. Hence St. Dionysius calls Christian wisdom insane, irrational, and foolish⊕Divine Names, ch. 7.—not because it truly is, but because it appears so to those holding to the spirit of the world instead of the spirit of Christ. Furthermore, it is beyond all natural intellect and reason. For that reason, God's elect want to be mocked and despised by the world in order to please God.

Therefore, if you desire to become truly wise and to please God, you should reject the wisdom of the world and not wish to earn its approval. No rational creature, not even the angels, can be saved without abandoning their own will—conforming and subjecting it to the divine will. The more fully someone does this, the greater the grace they will obtain. For that reason, the more fully and completely you abandon yourself to the love of God, and the more perfectly you subjugate your will to the direction of that more suitable will, the more beloved you will be to God and the higher the perfection you will reach. The proud are compared to mountains while the humble are compared to valleys, but the grace of God is like rain. For just as rain does not collect or remain at the top of mountains, but in the hollows, and the lower the valleys the greater the rain that collects in them—thus the Holy Spirit and his grace remains not in the proud but in the humble of heart, and even more abundantly the more humble the heart. And since man in his sins prefers his own will and his fleeting good to the divine will and the unchangeable, uncreated, highest good (which leads to contempt for the Godhead)—on account of that contempt, it is therefore necessary that the sinner should first hold himself in contempt with his whole heart, and consider himself deserving of all hardship and trouble. Likewise, since man, who should delight in nothing except the Creator, may excessively and wickedly delight in sin, a sinner ought to take up heartfelt sorrow for such delight and endure the hardships they are owed according to their faults.

The Practice of the Purgative Way

Once each day and once each night, or when you wake up and when you go to bed, go to a quiet and private place. And raising your thoughts and face to God, say:

O almighty and eternal God, Lord Jesus Christ, Creator and Savior of my soul, I am a most wretched sinner, completely worthless and detestable, entirely contemptible and miserable. I have dishonored your majesty so often and so gravely, I have ignored your commands, I have offended your goodness, holiness, and charity, and I have turned my face from you my Lord. I have committed various sins, I have neglected so many good things, and I have wasted your gifts.

Then think of some of the more serious sins you remember. For any in particular, and for all of them in general, you should sigh from the heart, grieve, beat your chest, repent, and shed tears if God should pour out such grace.

Then genuflect on both knees or lie prostrate, with hands folded or extended like a cross, and pray to God for the full remission of your sins, saying:

O most merciful God, most worthy of love, most desirable, and most infinitely delightful, on account of your boundless goodness, holiness, and charity, by all that you have done and suffered for my salvation, and through the most blessed Virgin Mary and the merits and prayers of all the Saints, pardon my most serious and shameful sins, and pour out your most holy grace, through which I may avoid all other sins, flee from whatever is displeasing to you, and never again turn my thoughts away from you.

This said, think of both particular and general benefits in a similar way, and thus say:

O almighty and eternal God, Lord Jesus Christ, infinite and indescribable are the benefits which you have given to me. For you created me to your image and likeness;⊕Genesis 1:26. you made me not just any kind of creature, but a rational one; you have granted to me a body and soul, an intellect and senses, and other natural gifts. You did not abandon me from infancy in the darkness of ignorance, but you guided me to schools and taught me, so that I might serve you faithfully. Up to this point you have continually spared me, a sinner, although many are now eternally damned who sinned less than I have. You have given me the goods of the Church; and whatever good I am and I have, I know that I have received it from you. Furthermore, for my sake you were made man,⊕John 1:14. and conversed in the world⊕Baruch 3:38. in the greatest poverty, persecution, temptation, and derision; and likewise in all patience, humility, obedience, and meekness; in all perfection, charity, and holiness. In the end, you endured a most bitter death for me. You were in anguish, afflicted, sorrowful even unto death, soaked with bloody sweat, seized, bound, struck with blows, spit upon, blindfolded, mocked with a white garment and a purple robe, crowned with thorns, struck with a reed, your holy face wet with blessed blood, wounded by scourges, held in contempt, mocked, blasphemed, sentenced to a most shameful death, led to the place of death carrying the cross on your own shoulders, hands and feet pierced with rough nails, hanged between thieves, reputed with the wicked,⊕Isaiah 53:12. given vinegar and gall to drink, pierced by a lance, and destroyed by a most bitter death for me.⊕Matthew 26, 27; Luke 22, 23; John 19. Moreover, you have promised and secured for me the kingdom of heaven. And I, a most unworthy and despicable sinner, was most ungrateful to you for all these things, returned evil for good, and turned my back to your presence. Indeed, I have shown myself to be so ungrateful and perverse that the whole world and all creation should rightly rise up against me, and should avenge the offense of its Creator in my case. But now, O Lord Jesus Christ, through your blessed incarnation, through your most holy life on this earth, through your passion and your cross and your blood, be kind to me in all my ungratefulness and perversity, and make me from now on more and more devoted and grateful to you each day. Amen.

These things pertain to the purgative way, which is needed to reach the illuminative and perfective ways. Therefore, a student of this practice should first train himself in this purgative way for a few months.

On Sunday

A reflection on the eternal joys of the heavenly kingdom.

You will reflect on the joys of the heavenly kingdom, addressing your soul with these words:

O my soul, how great and priceless will your blessedness and glory be, to clearly and directly see the God of infinite beauty; to delight in the vast sweetness of God; to eternally possess that highest and unchangeable good, the most high God, and also to happily have and possess by inheritance in him an overflowing abundance of all good and beautiful and desirable things; to eternally have whatever satisfies free from care; to taste the most delightful sweetness of divine and uncreated peace and charity; to be completely submerged in the love of the Creator; to be most delicately transformed according to the most delightful God; to embrace God from within most closely and affectionately; to never want or be able to be separated from his most glorious and delightful countenance, love, and embrace! And consider also, O my soul, how inconceivable a happiness it will be to see with a most clear and eager mind the uncreated blessedness, magnificence, glory, and holiness of the most blessed Trinity—namely how the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit love each other most sweetly with an infinite passion, how they regard each other most clearly and delightfully; furthermore, to see how our nature is united in Christ to the divine nature or to the eternal Word in the unity of a person, and how it is exalted above all creation; to see all his brightness and glory in soul and body; likewise, to see the most blessed and sweet Virgin Mary and all her glory and beauty; to see also the company of all the elect or Saints in the homeland, the hierarchies and orders of the angelic spirits, the holy Patriarchs and Prophets, the most glorious choir of Apostles, the army of martyrs, of confessors and virgins. And how miserable are those who deprive themselves of so great a happiness for the sake of momentary and worthless pleasures of the flesh, for profits and success, and do not yearn for it unceasingly.

O my soul, how infinite the joy in these things! And how delightful it will be to unceasingly praise Almighty God in the homeland with all the Saints! Do not allow yourself to be deprived of such glory on account of the spectacle, vanity, and riches of this world. Do not be held back from this heavenly blessedness by earthly successes and temporal honors. You should not expose yourself and risk losing this glory. Rather, boldly undertake whatever helps you attain it, for the sufferings of this time are not worthy to be compared with so great a glory.⊕Romans 8:18.

On Monday

A reflection on death.

O my soul, carefully consider how quickly the hour will come in which you will be forced to leave this mortal flesh, this world and everything in it which you now inordinately love, and enter into an unknown place to stand before the most fearful judgment seat of Christ. The most bitter day of death will come quickly, when you will not be able to regain the unproductive time you carelessly neglected. Then none of those things which you now wickedly love or do will be able to help or console you, then your works and your carelessness will follow you, then you will be sorry that you have lived so carelessly and worldly, then terror will strike and anxiety will ravage you, then the remorse of your conscience will likewise torment you. Now consider, O my soul, how this mortal body will be which you now love so carnally, nourish tenderly, and carefully dress and adorn. Now think how your weak hands will darken, your face will grow pale, your mouth will draw in, your eyes will cloud and roll back, your pulse and your breath will fade away. Then the most bitter labor and pangs of death will arrive, showing your physical nature has been defeated. Then too the most foul demons will appear, recalling all your past sins to memory so that they may lead you to despair. Therefore, O my soul, lest you should then be found unprepared—do penance, amend your life, prepare every day for your death, wisely consider the brevity and the deceit and the uncertainty of this life now, lest you should uselessly seek a single hour stay from God when it is too late.

On Tuesday

A reflection on the benefits of God.

O my soul, carefully consider the particular benefits given to you, who are most unworthy, by that most high patron and benefactor—the boundless and almighty God. From him you have being, motion, sensation, and understanding; and whatever perfection you have in yourself or in your body, he himself has given you. If you were lacking a single member or a single sense, especially sight, how greatly you would love him who restored that member or sense to you! Why then are you ungrateful and disobedient to him who has granted you so many great things, who ceaselessly preserves you in being, who makes the sun to rise for you every day,⊕Matthew 5:45. who ceaselessly provides you with food and drink and clothing, who has generously given you so many spiritual benefits and does not cease to bless you, who invites you to repentance every day and waits for you, who is ready to fill you with the gifts of the Holy Spirit and all spiritual grace and has promised himself to you as a reward? O my soul, how much greater and more worthy is that benefactor, and the more plentiful and frequent his benefits, the greater the fault of ingratitude. Therefore, from now on give thanks to him with complete affection, and avoid with all care whatever is offensive in the eyes of this benefactor, and likewise act courageously in whatever you can do to honor him.

On Wednesday

A reflection on the dreadful final judgment.

O my soul, consider how dreadful that final judgment will be, when the whole world will be set in a blaze of fire which will be fifteen cubits higher than the peaks of the highest mountains;⊕Genesis 7:20. when that terrible Judge, namely Christ, will descend from heaven with the whole company of angels and Saints, and all the dead will be raised and presented before Christ. Then the bodies of the wicked will lie down upon the earth which they loved, heavier than lead, even more horrible and foul than they were when they were in their graves—half-consumed by worms. And then the blazing fire will burn them as well. O my soul, what will be the anguish of those wretches, when above them they see an angry and implacable Judge, below them the chaos of the underworld exposed and manifest, and around them demons accusing them; and indeed even the angels, all the elect, and the whole world raised up against them? Then the sins of each person will be made known to all. At that time the Judge will rebuke them for their sins, then he will pronounce their sentence: Go, you cursed, into everlasting fire.⊕Matthew 25:41. O, how troubled they will be with horrible fear when the Judge declares their sentence, when they see the earth opening its mouth to swallow them, when they see themselves about to fall into the everlasting fire and to be eternally confined to an infernal prison with the demons, and also when they see the elect ascending to the heights of the heavens with such immense and inconceivable joy! O my soul, imagine too your own judgment, how immediately when you leave the body, you will be drawn to the judgment seat of Christ and will be justly judged by him. Therefore, fear these trials, and in the presence of that terrible all-seeing Judge, walk with care and devotion, and continually pray that on the day of judgment you not be counted among the wicked, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.⊕Matthew 8:12.

On Thursday

A reflection on the damnation of the wicked.

O my soul, consider how great the misery of the eternally damned could be. Think of hell as being a very wide field, a most tortuous and horrible place, dreadful with the deepest of pits, full of sulfurous lakes. Picture a land that is dark and covered with the mist of death—a land of misery and darkness, where the shadow of death, and no order, but an everlasting horror dwells.⊕Job 10:21, 22. In that place is a vengeful and loathsome society of the most wicked and atrocious demons, terrifying in appearance, despising their common dwelling. In that place is a perpetual and irreparable turning away of the mind from God, an utter loathing of all good and honorable things, certain damnation, a most bitter despair, the hottest fire, the foulest flame, unbearable cold, immortal worms, palpable darkness, the weightiest hatred of God, and a continual and hateful blasphemy of the divine name. In that place is gnashing of teeth, weeping, sobbing, wailing, and moaning. Those who are intimate and living together in sin here will instead hate each other there, and in torment the more complete and unhappy their companionship will be. If you ponder these things carefully, you will wholeheartedly despise the world and all its vanity, you will always be fearful of offending God and incurring these torments. For all who expose themselves to the danger of such infinite loss and punishment for any human concern, or for anything carnal, earthly, or temporal, are utterly foolish.

On Friday

A reflection on the Passion of the Lord.

O my soul, consider then and be mindful of how much Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, loved you—who for your sake was made man and suffered a most bitter death, whose passion was so much more painful given the tenderness of his outward appearance.

See how those most ruthless men, out of extreme hatred and cruelty, captured, bound, and led away Jesus Christ, the most innocent and holy Son of God. See how they pulled out his hair and beard, blindfolded his most clear eyes, spit on his most serene face, and struck his ruddy cheeks and most sacred mouth.⊕cf. Isaiah 50:6. And mocking and blaspheming him, they said: Prophesy to us, O Christ, who is he that struck you? Then consider how the Holy of Holies, the only Son of God, was presented to Pilate bound like a thief and falsely accused; how he was sent to Herod, sent back to Pilate, humiliatingly stripped before all the people, bound to a pillar, most savagely scourged to the point of revealing his ribs, his most holy head deeply pierced with a crown of the sharpest thorns, and mockingly clothed in a purple garment. See how they struck his crowned head with a reed such that the blood flowing from his head would have soaked his whole face, filled his eyes, and entered his mouth and ears. And genuflecting, they mocked him, saying: Hail, king of the Jews.

Consider also, O my soul, how Jesus was brought out by Pilate to the people arrayed in such a way, bearing the crown of thorns and clothed in a purple garment, his face wet with blood, as if he were a most vile and wicked man. And consider how the most savage and frenzied people then cried: Away with him, away with him, crucify him. Observe how he stood silent before Pilate and Herod with a bowed head, truly most mild and patient as a lamb; how he was condemned to death by Pilate and led out with the thieves carrying his own cross; how they hung him between the guilty criminals, his whole body violently stretched apart up to the point of breaking his limbs, severing veins and exposing bones. They gave him vinegar and gall to drink, and most unmercifully mocked him, saying: Let Christ the King of Israel come down now from the cross. If he is the Son of God, let him come down. He saved others, he cannot save himself.

Remember how Christ offered seven words while hanging on the cross in most terrible pain, saying: Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do; and to the thief: This day you shall be with me in paradise; and to his most sweet Mother: Woman, behold your son; and to the disciple John: Behold your mother; and to the Father: Eli, Eli, lamma sabacthani? That is, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And afterwards: I thirst. And when he had taken the vinegar, he said: It is consummated; and at last: Father, into your hands I commend my spirit. And thus, bowing his head, he gave up the ghost. O how much he grieved for his dearest Mother! O how most patiently and lovingly he prayed for his crucifiers! And as much as he intensely thirsted in a physical way, he thirsted even more for our salvation—such that he suffered more painfully from compassion in his soul than from the physical suffering in his body.⊕Matthew 26, 27; Mark 15; Luke 22, 23; John 19.

Therefore, O my soul, do not be heedless and ungrateful for these things. See the kind of man who endured them for you, how great he is. Try to follow in his footsteps. Learn patience, rejoice in adversity. In every temptation, return to the memory of these things. Inscribe them indelibly on your heart, and be continually mindful of them.

On Saturday

A reflection on one's own sins.

Consider and reflect on, O my soul, each and every one of your sins, both venial and mortal. See how often and how seriously, indeed how enormously and innumerably, you have sinned, from the time you began to use reason up to the present, through all your external and internal senses: through sight—by looking inquisitively, fastidiously, and wantonly at spectacles, games, plays, or women and their adornments, even on feast days and in the divine Office; similarly through hearing—by listening to secular songs, slanderous or other wicked words; likewise through taste—in food and drink; especially through touch; also through internal senses, especially through both intellect and will; similarly through speech—by swearing in various and serious ways, making false statements, disparaging, lying, speaking unkindly, threatening, sowing discord, revealing secrets; and also through the members of your body. Look at the seven deadly sinsPride, Greed, Lust, Envy, Gluttony, Wrath, and Sloth. and consider how you might be guilty of them: to what degree have you stumbled through pride in your heart, in your words, in your bearing, in your clothes, by praising yourself, boasting, presuming, seeking after honors and positions of authority, by dressing ornately and excessively. Reflect in this way about each of the deadly sins. Reflect and consider how poorly you have kept the divine precepts, indeed how dishonorably you have violated both them and also the laws of the Church; how often and how seriously you have caused others to stumble; how many good things you have neglected every day; how imperfectly and carelessly you have served God and fulfilled your duties.

Think how greatly you may have been contaminated by both mortal and spiritual sins, how badly you have fulfilled the precepts of fraternal correction, how poorly and perversely you may have used the things granted to you, how often you have drawn others into vices. Consider how often and how seriously you sin every day by both omission and commission; how long and how many times you have shared in the sins of others, applauding and praising, not resisting, not rebuking; how often you may have confessed imperfectly; how you have approached Holy Communion unworthily (as you should fear); how every day, and indeed every hour, you have conducted yourself irreverently and disrespectfully before God. Observe how frequently you sin by thinking; by desiring; by not resisting temptations firmly and quickly enough; by useless chatter; by fearing and caring about men more than God; by eating and drinking wantonly, excessively, and for too long; by laughing and cultivating various other vanities; by not praying with devotion; by passing time unproductively; and by having little value for the patience of God with you.

Conclusion

Now then, for each and every one of these things, as much as is possible for you, groan from your heart, grieve—indeed incomparably more than for any temporal and criminal evil, as true contrition requires. Confess them separately and with all sorrow and shame, strive to make effective amends, and truly amend your life. From now on be careful in all things, devout and pleasing to God—humble, patient, exemplary, pure and sober, chastising your body, discreet, quiet, mature and productive, bearing yourself worthily, promoting virtue in all things, living and acting properly according to the demands of your vocation—for the praise of the Almighty, who is God on high and blessed forever. Amen.