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 foolishDivine 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 your 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 such and such 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 the 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 and whatever is displeasing to you, and never again turn my thoughts away from you.
This said, in a similar way think of both particular and general benefits, 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 brought 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 worldBaruch 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. At last, you endured a most bitter death for me. 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 killed by a most bitter death.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 upon me. 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 delightfully 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!
Translation in Progress
On Monday
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On Tuesday
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On Wednesday
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On Thursday
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On Friday
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On Saturday
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Conclusion
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