Confessions of a Cooperator
JPII's last book, Memory and Identity was the first place I read about the Purgative, Illuminative, and unitive ways. Made so much sense to me.
Kind of humbling to think that as I'm pushing 50, I'm still stuck in the purgative way in a lot of areas in my life though.
Humbling, maybe, but you are in good company. Mother Teresa was in her forties when she left her life as a teacher to upper class Catholic girls to go to India. My own spiritual mentor, Sister Mary Edmunda Farley of the Visitation Monastery, was fifty when she entered the order.
If life is a preparation for eternity, Joanne, perhaps youth is a preparation for realizing our true selves on this earth. "Life begins at 50!", I have been jokingly saying to my friends. But there's a kernel of truth to that. Now, perhaps, we have enough perspective and enough experience to aspire to the illuminative and unitive ways. For St. Therese of Lisieux, the learning curve was shorter and she traveled faster in far less time. But then, she died at age 24 while you and I are still laboring in the vineyards of earth as fifty-somethings. God knows what He's doing with each soul.
Purg, purg, purging along... hoping for illumination.
Perhaps it's time for the quiet contemplative types to quietly secede from St. Blog's and leave it to the snarks.
St. Blog's SCHISM! A new parish, what would we call it, Our Lady of the Blogosphere?
Thanks, Rae, for this thoughtful post and the words of Alberione. You put it very well in saying that Christ has entered into relationship even with his enemies.
One thing I've often wondered about is if I sometimes see certain others as enemies in a wrong way. Yet there is real evil in the world. I'm thinking, for example, of people who seriously promote abortion and have almost made it their life's cause. Abortion is a great evil, and by promoting it deliberately they are making evil choices, and those choices have an effect on the person they become. Yet, God still pursues them with grace and they can't be written off, as if they're beyond the pale of grace.
I too have noticed at times a certain negativity in St. Blog's, sometimes strident criticism of others. It doesn't seem to promote greater understanding.
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