I am dividing the exercises we discuss into two categories:
private and public. According to Jesus,
there are two commands, reflections of each other, we should follow to have a
spiritual life. The first is to love the
Divine. The second is to love those
around us. These loves are not the same,
but to enact one love has an immediate effect on the other love.
The love of the Divine is primarily private. Jesus spoke of praying in a closet, of giving
to the poor in secret. This is not
because there is any value in secrecy, except that we are not doing these
actions for anyone else but the Divine.
We are not trying to impress anyone, we are not trying to get people to
tell us how spiritual we are. Even so,
there are some actions that are best done without anyone else observing.
In a sense, the core of our spiritual life is private. We may rest in the Spirit and be completely
open and relaxed, knowing that the Spirit loves us and has complete mercy on
us. It is in that place that the Spirit builds up our core, and makes us a
transformed, renewed person.
However, if we do not spend time with others, then we cannot
love them and so we are not fulfilled spiritually. The life in the Spirit is taking time to spend
meditation in him, in solitude, and taking time to allow others to lead us to
the Spirit through their graces and irritations, through their glories and
their horrors. We must take care to
choose some exercises which gets us alone with the Divine and to choose others
which cause us to be among others, seeking opportunities to love.
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