Monday 4 February 2019

The Dangers of an Active Life without an Interior Life: Part Fourteen

Today's excerpt from Dom Chautard is rather short: 
A well-known enemy of the Church dared to say that he was unable to believe in the fidelity of certain persons to their vows and obligations, since they were forced by their works to mix freely in the life of the world. “They are walking a tightrope,” he said, “they are bound to fall.” We must answer this insult to God and His Church by replying, without hesitation, these falls can be MOST CERTAINLY avoided when one knows how to use the precious balancing pole of the interior life. It is only the abandonment of this INFALLIBLE instrument that brings dizziness and the fatal false step into space.
Friends, while the enemy of the Church was referring to those who had consecrated their lives to the Church, it can apply to us simple laymen and laywomen as well.

How often does it feel as if we were walking a tightrope between the active and interior life?

How often - due to some fault of ours - have we leaned to one side of the balancing pole and fallen off the tightrope?

Balance of the interior and active life - that is, regular mental prayer and persistent recourse to God over the course of one's daily life - is possible, but it takes time and effort to achieve and maintain. It is something that never ends once we begin it.

Why not take up that precious, infallible balancing pole today?


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