XII. Wise Counsel is needed for unexpected problems. Spiritual director, good and holy friends, confessor. Honest assessment. Moderate expectations and abilities. Enlist more help than expected. To get to heaven, Jesus us gave us the sacraments, Church, His Mother, beauty, reason, etc…..
Having set boundaries, honest assessment of own abilities. Cautious of our petty jealous. Might be others who can manage a larger garden. Some receive larger talents than others.
Not cheap, not easy, knowing that for fallen man who was born with double darkness of sin and ignorance to change his behavior is truly an arduous task.
Over the Memorial Weekend 4,000 were baptized in CA[1]. A wonderful thing, but that is most assuredly the beginning and with a robust Church, these early delights will give way to the heat of summer.
Each soul at some point will encounter the question, is this worth the effort. Jesus was serious when He said consider the cost before embarking. He also said it is the pearl of great price, worth everything to possess it.
No cheap grace. No cheap gardens. Both require sacrifice and facing the question, was I deceived? Is it worth the effort?
Dark Night of the Soul if this questioning is profound enough.
Studied lives of those in DNS, during these times of suffering, their own interior personal struggles were radiant on the outside. They themselves did not see clearly but those around saw it.
Dark Night of the Soul, St John of the Cross, Institute of Catholic Studies trans Kieran Kavanaugh O.C.D., Otilio Rodriguez O.C.D. 1991
Prologue
Before embarking on an explanation of these stanzas, we should remember that the soul recites them when it has already reached the state of perfection – that is, union with God through love – and has now passed through severe trials and conflicts by means of the spiritual exercise that leads one along the constricted way to eternal life, of which our Savior speaks in the Gospel [Mt. 7:14]. The soul must ordinarily walk this path to reach that sublime and joyous union with God. Recognizing the narrowness of the path and the fact that so very few tread it – as the Lord himself says [Mt. 7:14] – the soul’s song in this first stanza is one of happiness in having advanced along it to this perfection of love. Appropriately, this constricted road is called a dark night, as we shall explain in later verses of this stanza. The soul, therefore, happy at having trod this narrow road from which it derived so much good, speaks in this manner:
One dark night,
fired with love’s urgent longings – ah, the sheer grace! –
I went out unseen,
my house being now all stilled.
To be continued…..
The paradox Socrates pleasure/pain shackle on ankle. Satan use pain to despise shackle or pleasure to put it on.
Pain long for shackle to be removed, pleasure from being free. DNS, Lord permits type of spiritual drought, pass through it to joy on other side. Not hold tight within it.
Summer a burden for the gardener, running risk drought, pests, deer. While summer does not seem it should fit there.
Go through summer, suffer through those things, reward is either large or great depending o=n suffering endured for beauty.
[1] https://vineyardln.com/testimonies/2023/5/31/baptize-socal-4000-baptized accessed June 1, 2023
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