Here are ‘Spiritual Counsels for a good Christian, interior life of holiness. Taken from the compilation of Dominic’s Literature, Essays and Manuscripts.
Table of Contents
Get above a too natural way of thinking
The Christian who would be spiritual must see more than the mere exterior goings on of the world around him. There is always more to see and discover with the eyes of Faith. How you see the world will affect how you interact with it and how you spend your time in it.
Don’t depend on external things for happiness
Man wants to have things. He wants more than he already has and feels a need to gather more and more outward things about him. Surrounded by material goods, he wants also to have external circumstances and individuals always turning to his favour. His lower nature seeks its own things without regard to his higher nature; that is the rational man, the man according to grace and free will. The more a man seeks to satisfy the cravings of his lower nature; that is the man according to flesh and blood, the man infected with the darkness and disorder of sin, the less he finds what his higher nature, or his better self, is craving for.
Get rid of what burdens your conscience
Reflect on all the things that are unhelpful to your higher self, the person you are before God. The way to find your true self is to get away from the downward pull of fleshly and earthly satisfactions. But we speak here only of those that constitute an excess, a burden on the spirit. It is a good thing to keep the body in good health and strength. So don’t think that many frightening penances are necessary to become holy. What is necessary is to let go as many harmful hobbits and attachments as you can. For you can’t relate much to God, Who is at the heart of your being, if the clutter of guilty attachments fills your interior, that is your mind and affections.
If things go against you, it’s not the end of the world
A lot seems to goes wrong and a great deal of things come to hit us in this life. It’s alright, it’s just God trying to break through and get a better hold on you. Often, there’s no other way He can get to you, other than by the hard felt lessons of adversity and trial. If He speaks, often you don’t listen because you are listening the whole time to yourself and to the world. So He has recourse to blows and if this angers you and turns you even more resolutely against Him, you are further than ever from the goal of real happiness.
Don’t be so hard on others; blame yourself a bit more
Man has a self-made view of himself. He lives a lifelong illusion. If something annoys him, it must be someone else’s fault; there must be someone to blame. If he is at fault himself, he excuses himself. But if another is at fault, he desires to see him strictly corrected and brought into line. Anything that contradicts the self-made image of himself, is enough to rouse his temper against another. But the man who sees himself in the light of grace is never too quick to lay the blame on someone else. Knowing himself to be full of defects and weaknesses, and always having an eye to the good that God has brought about in the souls of others, he is more inclined to forgive his neighbour and to accuse himself. And if his neighbour is clearly at fault, he feels compassion for him and longs for him to get onto better terms with God.
Little things are important
God tries us, instructs us and sees what we are made of in all those countless little things of our ordinary, daily lives. Often it is easier to overcome ourselves in the greater difficulties and calamities that come our way, because we are armed and ready as it were for the sacrifice it costs us, and we more clearly see the need to resign ourselves to the will of God in order to cope with the trial. But while we find strength for big sufferings and temptations, we are often vanquished in the small and monotonous conflicts of everyday. So direct your energies towards not letting small things get you down, or cause you to commit sins, faults and imperfections. Why do you dream of doing great things for God, if you constantly prove unfaithful to Him in so many little demands of daily living? Be faithful to God in small things and then you will be made strong and powerful for all other greater things.
Don’t be so afraid of people; they are very changeable
Often a harsh word, a sarcastic remark or a display of short-temperedness can kick up a whirlwind of fear, dejection and agitation in our frail human hearts. One minute our day was going fine and well and then suddenly, a black cloud came overhead and throw us into a most grievous and terrible turmoil of spirit. Thus do men change like the weather which today is sunny and calm and tomorrow is a tempest. But if you are wise, you will overlook that indignant remark, that act of rudeness, that display of unkindness, that outburst of passion, that jest of impatience and that groundless complaint or insult logged against you. You will often have the good sense to let it blow over with a smile or a meek and reasonable reply. Then, no sooner have you acted thus, the sun will show its face once again and you will experience the sweet peace of having been faithful to grace and of not having acted through the fleeting passion of the moment.
Lots of work won’t kill you; the day is short anyway
Many say that they are up to their neck in work and that this leaves them little or no time to themselves. Indeed it is conducive to spiritual, mental and bodily health to have sufficient time for leisure, time to be alone and not under constant pressure. Often however, a very tight schedule won’t last forever and hardly for more than a few days. The hours of a day pass quickly and soon night comes once again. Our imagination tells us that the day ahead will be insupportable, but this is always a misconception. If we were intent on God’s will, and were not always trying to do our own will, we wouldn’t mind much about what happens, about what needs to be done or how to go about our daily work load. All things are easy to one who has his heart in what he is doing. One who loves building, can build all day long! An awful lot depends on how your heart is disposed. Pray each day to love what you have to do, and ultimately to love God’s holy will. For it is not so much the work itself that hurts you, as the ill-feeling and the opposition of will with which you give yourself to it.
If another corrects you, don’t be sad
If a superior, parent, teacher or spiritual guide admonishes you, perhaps unexpectedly and perhaps in front of other people, you may easily experience a temptation to get deeply upset about it. He may even be angry with you and seem as passionate about it as a roaring, furious lion. But instantly turn your eye to that which lies behind the angry face and stand before God, under Whose divine control all external things are held. God never acts through passion, but always through love and the fatherly desire of our amendment. So learn to look at the One Who directs the admonition, and not so much at the human person who serves as God’s instrument. Whoever corrects you, always see God in them and see the desire they have of setting you on the right track. Show that you are grateful for their charity in attempting to reform you, even if they go about it in a way that you find very painful. This humble submission will be much to your credit and spiritual advantage. But to get sad, will only aggravate the pain and your own bitterness over it will be a lot worse than the rebuke or correction itself.
You can and should merit by everything
Life on earth is all about merit. What you don’t do or use as a means of supernatural merit is a waste. All God is interested in is your sanctification. This is brought about by uniformity with His holy will. That has great merit that is done through great love; through charity, grace, disinterestedness, self-giving, ready submission to the divine will and desire of its accomplishment. But what is done simply because it has to be done or through selfish interest is neither meritorious nor sanctifying. Make your morning offering well, really intending to unite yourself with God’s will which overall is your personal sanctification and the good of your neighbour. Everything can turn to your spiritual profit if you are careful to please God both in prosperity and in adversity, by the intention of submitting to his will and doing it from the heart.
Prayer is the safeguard against discouragement
“We ought always to pray and not to faint” (Luke 18:1). Sometimes the bitter things that happen in our lives get the better of us and we feel discouraged. But as when we talk with a friend, we leave with a lighter heart, so when we converse with God as a child to its father, as a friend to a friend or as a spouse to the beloved, the same result, and so much more, will be ours. So be open hearted with God and don’t assume too much of an adult like attitude with Him. For so He says by His Divine Son; “unless you be converted and become as little children, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 18:3).