XVIII. Charity 146 XIX. Zeal 153 XX. Meekness 162 XXI. Conversation 165 XXII. Dress 173 XXIII. Human Respect 176 XXIV. Resolutions 178 XXV. Conclusion 182 Additions 186
INSTRUCTIONS FOR DEVOUT SOULS TO DISPEL THEIR DOUBTS AND ALLAY THEIR FEARS.
For it is not you who speak, but the Holy Ghost. (S. Mark, xiii, 11.)
1. It is absolutely true that in matters of conscience obedience to a spiritual director is obedience to God, for Christ has said to His ministers on earth: “He that heareth you, heareth Me.” (St. Luke, x, 16.)
2. A soul possessed of this spirit of obedience can not be lost: a soul devoid of this spirit can not be saved. (St. Philip Neri.)
3. Saint Bernard says there is no need for the devil to tempt those who ignore obedience and permit themselves to be guided by their own light and deterred by their fears, for they act the devil’s part towards themselves.
4. Do not fear that your director may be mistaken in what he prescribes for your guidance, or that he does not fully understand the state of your conscience because you did not explain it clearly enough to him. Such doubts cause obedience to be eluded or postponed and thus frustrate the designs of God in placing you under the direction of a prudent guide. It was the priest’s duty to have questioned you further had he not fully understood you, and that he did not do so is a positive proof that he knew enough to enable him to pronounce a safe judgment. God has promised his special help to those who represent Him in the direction of souls. Is not this assurance enough to induce you to obey with promptness and simplicity as the Holy Scripture commands?
5. God does not show the state of our souls as clearly to us as he does to him who is to guide us in his place. You should be quite satisfied, then, if your director tells you the course you follow is the right one and that the mercy and grace of your Heavenly Father are guiding you in it. You should believe and obey him in this as in all else, for as St. John of the Cross tells us, “it betrays pride and lack of faith not to put entire confidence in what our confessor says.”
6. Spiritual obedience is most needful for a Christian. Ignore, therefore, the groundless suspicion that you sin by obeying, and walk confidently in this path exempt from danger. “You sometimes fear,” says St. Bonaventure, “that in obeying you act against the dictates of your conscience, whereas, on the contrary, far from incurring guilt, you really increase your merit before God.”