For A Friend, Two

When Elizabeth of the Trinity had only three months of life to live, she was ordered to write on her retreat towards death. Part of this treatise created in the throes of pain and suffering, was a section for her sister, Guite, who was married and had two children at the time.

Elizabeth wrote that the life of the contemplative formed the call of all Catholics, as I have noted in the long perfection series, using the Doctors of the Church and Garrigou-Lagrange.

But, the key to being open to the graces of both active and passive contemplation, as explained by Elizabeth, in keeping with those great saints who went before her, is the key of death to the self.

Here are some bullet points from one of Elizabeth's treatises.

• All are called to be in union with Christ.
• But, this involves a stripping of all things, people, attachments, as well as a withdrawal from all things.
• Even though one is married with children, one must learn to live in a solitude during the day, to forget the self, even in the midst of the cares of the world.
• Becoming perfect must accompany this solitude, this yearning for God in love and the yearning for perfection.
• Finding heaven on earth can only happen through the acceptance of self-forgetfulness.
• This finding of heaven has nothing to do with consolations, either in prayer or in life.
• Quoting St. John of the Cross, Elizabeth writes that the Kingdom of God is within one, in a place beyond the temptings of the world and the devil.
• One's will must be in perfect harmony with the will of God, and as long as one has "fancies" contrary to God's will, one cannot grow in either love or holiness.
• Purification must be part of prayer and the choices of daily life.
• To attain union with God, the soul must be "entirely surrendered" and the will"must be calmly lost in God's will."
• Simplicity of intention means that one seeks God alone, and not anything or anyone else.
• One must desire the likeness of God. "Without the likeness which comes from grace, eternal damnation awaits us."
• As we are made in the image and likeness of God, the image of God must be the focus of the imagination, memory and reason, (notice--the emotions do not count, period).

All of these points, and there are more, refer back to the long perfection series as well as to the mini-series on Elizabeth of the Trinity.

Remember this simple chart to union with God:

First step: orthodoxy

Second step: oral prayer; surrendering the will

Third step: meditation, which is the beginning of mental prayer--based on Scripture and life of Christ

Fourth step: dark night of the senses-beginning of purgation

Fifth step: dark night of the soul-continuation of purgation, including demise of the predominant fault

Sixth step: active or acquired contemplation-during purgation and into the illuminative state

Seventh step: illuminative state

Eighth step: infused contemplation

Ninth step: union.

Follow the tags. Go back and read Garrigou-Lagrange again and again and again...definitions are important.

Day of Prayer and Mortification

Calling for Day of Prayer and Penance on July 4th

Will you readers join me, please?

Nothing to celebrate but many things for which to pray and mourn. 

A suggestion for reading today..................

Conformity To God's Will

St. Alphonsus Mary Liguori Translated by Thomas W. Tobin, C.SS.R.

“Perfection is founded entirely on the love of God: ‘Charity is the bond of perfection;’ and perfect love of God means the complete union of our will with God’s.”

While I am praying and doing penance today, if you cannot join me, please read St. Alphonsus Liguori on persecution and resignation. Also, I had so many posts this past week, take time to go back and read them all. 

St. Alphonsus provides us with meat, not milk.

Here are a few tidbits.

Furthermore, we must unite ourselves to God’s will not only in things that come to us directly from his hands, such as sickness, desolation, poverty, death of relatives, but likewise in those we suffer from man -- for example, contempt, injustice, loss of reputation, loss of temporal goods and all kinds of persecution. On these occasions we must remember that whilst God does not will the sin, he does will our humiliation, our poverty, or our mortification, as the case may be. It is certain and of faith, that whatever happens, happens by the will of God: “I am the Lord forming the light and creating the darkness, making peace and creating evil[21].” From God come all things, good as well as evil. We call adversities evil; actually they are good and meritorious, when we receive them as coming from God’s hands: “Shall there be evil in a city which the Lord hath not done[22]?” “Good things and evil, life and death, poverty and riches are from God[23].”

The devout Father John Tauler[45] relates this personal experience: For years he had prayed God to send him someone who would teach him the real spiritual life. 

One day, at prayer, he heard a voice saying: “Go to such and such a church and you will have the answer to your prayers.” He went and at the door of the church he found a beggar, barefooted and in rags. He greeted the mendicant saying: “Good day, my friend.”

“Thank you, sir, for your kind wishes, but I do not recall ever having had a ‘bad’ day.”

“Then God has certainly given you a very happy life.”

“That is very true, sir. I have never been unhappy. In saying this I am not making any rash statement either. This is the reason: When I have nothing to eat, I give thanks to God; when it rains or snows, I bless God’s providence; when someone insults me, drives me away, or otherwise mistreats me, I give glory to God. I said I’ve never had an unhappy day, and it’s the truth, because I am accustomed to will unreservedly what God wills. Whatever happens to me, sweet or bitter, I gladly receive from his hands as what is best for me. Hence my unvarying happiness.”

“Where did you find God?”

“I found him where I left creatures.”

“Who are you anyway?”

“I am a king.”

“And where is your kingdom?”

“In my soul, where everything is in good order; where the passions obey reason, and reason obeys God.”

“How have you come to such a state of perfection?”

“By silence. I practice silence towards men, while I cultivate the habit of speaking with God. 

Conversing with God is the way I found and maintain my peace of soul.”

Union with God brought this poor beggar to the very heights of perfection. In his poverty he was richer than the mightiest monarch; in his sufferings, he was vastly happier than worldlings amid their worldly delights. 

http://www.stalphonsusbalt.org/conformity.htm

Pray for these graces now...we shall all need to be like these good examples of complete peace in the face of adversity.

We ought to view in the light of God’s holy will, the loss of persons who are helpful to us in a spiritual or material way. Pious souls often fail in this respect by not being resigned to the dispositions of God’s holy will. Our sanctification comes fundamentally and essentially from God, not from spiritual directors. When God sends us a spiritual director, he wishes us to use him for our spiritual profit; but if he takes him away, he wants us to remain calm and unperturbed and to increase our confidence in his goodness by saying to him: “Lord, thou hast given me this help and now thou dost take it away. Blessed be thy holy will! I beg thee, teach me what I must do to serve thee.”

In this manner too, we should receive whatever other crosses God sends us. “But,” you reply, “these sufferings are really punishments.” The answer to that remark is: Are not the punishments God sends us in this life also graces and benefits? Our offenses against God must be atoned for somehow, either in this life or in the next. Hence we should all make St. Augustine’s prayer our own: “Lord, here cut, here burn and spare me not, but spare me in eternity!” Let us say with Job: “Let this be my comfort, that afflicting me with sorrow, he spare not[67].” Having merited hell for our sins, we should be consoled that God chastises us in this life, and animate ourselves to look upon such treatment as a pledge that God wishes to spare us in the next. When God sends us punishments let us say with the high-priest Heli: “It is the Lord, let him do what is good in his sight[68].”

The time of spiritual desolation is also a time for being resigned. When a soul begins to cultivate the spiritual life, God usually showers his consolations upon her to wean her away from the world; but when he sees her making solid progress, he withdraws his hand to test her and to see if she will love and serve him without the reward of sensible consolations. “In this life,” as St. Teresa used to say, “our lot is not to enjoy God, but to do his holy will.” And again, “Love of God does not consist in experiencing his tendernesses, but in serving him with resolution and humility.” And in yet another place, “God’s true lovers are discovered in times of aridity and temptation.”

Knowledge of Divine Things Twenty

A genius friend of mine noted that we in the Church must discuss ignorance as well as grace.

Pointing out St. Thomas Aquinas on ignorance, I thought this would be a good inclusion in this discussion on "divine things".

St. Thomas notes in the Summa I:11; Q 6; A 8 that there are three different kinds of ignorance. I have written many times on this blog that I do not believe that in the West there is inculpable ignorance or invincible ignorance. Much teaching in seminaries and catechetical courses have distorted Church teaching on this point.
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The three kinds of ignorance are concomitant, consequent, and antecedent. My comments are in blue.

If ignorance causes involuntariness, it is in so far as it deprives one of knowledge, which is anecessary condition of voluntariness, as was declared above (Article 1). But it is not every ignorance that deprives one of this knowledge. Accordingly, we must take note that ignorance has a threefold relationship to the act of the will: in one way, "concomitantly"; in another, "consequently"; in a third way, "antecedently." "Concomitantly," when there is ignorance of what is done; but, so that even if it were known, it would be done. For then, ignorance does not induce one to wish this to be done, but it just happens that a thing is at the same time done, and not known: thus in the example given (Objection 3) a man did indeed wish to kill his foe, but killed him in ignorance, thinking to kill a stag. And ignorance of this kind, as the Philosopher states (Ethic. iii, 1), does not cause involuntariness, since it is not the cause of anything that is repugnant to the will: but it causes"non-voluntariness," since that which is unknown cannot be actually willed. 

The key to understanding this is the relationship between the will and the intellect (I do not like the word "mind" as it has been so misued in pyschology). Concomitant ignorance does not cause something, but is in the realm of the unknown consequence. But, if the end was known, one would still act.

Ignorance is "consequent" to the act of the will, in so far as ignorance itself is voluntary: and this happens in two ways, in accordance with the two aforesaid modes of voluntary (3). First, because the act of the will is brought to bear on the ignorance: as when a man wishes not to know, that he may have an excuse for sin, or that he may not be withheld from sin; according to Job 21:14: "We desire not the knowledge of Thy ways." And this is called "affected ignorance." 

Many people think that affected ignorance is invincible ignorance. But, when one freely does not pursue knowledge because one wants to continue in sin, this is not invincible but caused ignorance. This intellectual attitude may be seen in St. Augustine's famous phrase, "...da mihi castitatem et continentam, sed noli modo", "Lord give me chastity and continence, but not yet." He was not yet willling repentance and holiness.

Secondly,ignorance is said to be voluntary, when it regards that which one can and ought to know: for in this sense "not to act" and "not to will" are said to be voluntary, as stated above (Article 3). And ignorance of this kind happens, either when one does not actually consider what one can and ought to consider; this is called "ignorance of evil choice," and arises from some passion or habit: or when one does not take the trouble to acquire the knowledge which one ought to have; in which sense, ignorance of the general principles of law, which one to know, is voluntary, as being due to negligence. Accordingly, if in either of these ways, ignorance is voluntary, it cannot cause involuntariness simply. 

The first point here is that one must learn and, also, pay attention to natural law, which is denied today. Passions and habits are our faults. We fall into these through repeated sin. Ignorance of this type is voluntary and causes voluntary actions. So many people excuse others by saying, "They are deceived." No, these who live in sin have chosen deception. This type of ignorance is consequent ignorance.

Nevertheless it causes involuntariness in a certain respect, inasmuch as it precedes the movement of the will towards the act, which movement would not be, if there were knowledge. Ignorance is "antecedent" to the act of the will, when it is not voluntary, and yet is the cause of man's willing what he would not will otherwise. Thus a man may be ignorant of some circumstance of his act, which he was not bound to know, the result being that he does that which he would not do, if he knew of that circumstance; for instance, a man, after taking proper precaution, may not know that someone is coming along the road, so that he shoots an arrow and slays a passer-by. 

Now remember the previous posts this week on the movement of the will towards action and the movement of the intellect which informs the will.  Antecedent ignorance is that which involves a person acting in such a way as not to know the consequences, spiritual or physical, of his action. 

One may question, as I do, whether there are people who really live in antecedent ignorance in 2015. Natural law is in the souls of all men, because they are human. No one is exempt from natural law. The Ten Commandments are based on natural law.

Such ignorance causes involuntariness simply.

Those who chose not to reflect either on natural law, ignoring the instincts which make us human, and those who refuse to study, or be obedient, as responsible for their actions. Most problems with ignorance are owing to sin. To keep stating people are deceived is to forget the fact that these people allowed satan to deceive they by choosing sin over and over, thus destroying knowledge of the good and discernment. Those living in mortal sin are in darkness by choice.

From this may be gathered the solution of the objections. For the first objection deals with ignorance of what a man is bound to know. The second, with ignorance of choice, which is voluntary to a certain extent, as stated above. The third, with that ignorance which is concomitant with the act of the will.

Recall what I wrote days ago in this series, that the intellect moves the will. A person is responsible for those choices, even though this person has habitually turned against grace and knowledge, and has followed his passions.

Readers might want to review these older posts.

More Reposts on Free Will, Virtues, Rectitude of the Will

12 Sep 2014

3) Self-discipline. After concentration will come perseverance . ... And I add; virtues of perseverance, honesty, diligence, temperance, justice, prudence, obedience, purity, courage (bravery), self-control, rectitude, integrity, love.

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Etheldredasplace: Rectitude of the Will Two

22 Sep 2012

Perfect Rectitude of the Will from the Master, St. Thomas Aquinas. If God allows me to do so, I just want to study St. Thomas for the rest of my life. There is so much in his work to ponder.

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Rectitude of the Will in Thomas Aquinas-One

22 Sep 2012

Rectitude of the Will in Thomas Aquinas-One. Posted by Supertradmum. The entire reason why we are here is to come to know, love and serve God in this world and to praise Him in the next. That is right out of my childhood ...

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Etheldredasplace: More on Natural Law

12 Sep 2014

That some people cannot see goodness is others may be because they have been subjected to so much evil that they no longer believe in rectitude of the will. One of the greatest heresies is the denial of free will. Another ...

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To be continued...

Father Xavier One More Time

The reference to memory involves the purification of the imagination, which I have written into the perfection series.

First of all, stop putting things into your imagination which are evil. Remember, things are either good or bad, there is no neutral in the spiritual life.

Second, use custody of the eyes and ears.

Third, control curiosity and see my posts on this and some reposts.

Fourth, ask God to enter into your memory to purify it and take away images. Images are used by demons to tempt us and remind us of past sins.

Today's Gospel refers to not even committing venial sins, which also feed our imagination as well.

Matthew 5 DR

17 Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.

18 For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.

19 Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

Eden and Gethsemane Part Four

The Pope Emeritus in the mentioned book shares an important insight bringing Eden and Gethsemane together.

In the Agony in the Garden, Christ submitted His human will to His Divine will according to both the Pope Emeritus and the origin of the insight, Maximus the Confessor, one of my favorites.

Maximus understood that Christ's natural will submitted to His filial will, His Will as the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity.

Amazing insight that the human will is ordered to the Divine Will.

Adam and Eve were given that order as well, being made in the image and likeness of God, but, as St Bernard writes, keeping the image but losing the likeness, sanctifying grace.

Their human wills were ordered to submit to God's Will. And, they both turned against this created order. They willed disorder. I repeat, they willed disorder.

Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane, I can extrapolate, shows us that we can re-order our wills through His Sacrifice, His Passion, His Redemptive Act.

In other words, what Christ did in the Garden of Gethsemane undid the curse of Adam and Eve, the curse of the disordered will.

Therefore, we, too, with Christ's help and grace, can submit our human wills to God's Will.

"Thy Will be done, " in all things.

The loss of Eden becomes the gain in Gethsemane.

Gethsemane returns the lost grace to the sons and daughters of Adam and Eve with the "Fiat" of Christ.

Luke 22:42Douay-Rheims 

42 Saying: Father, if thou wilt, remove this chalice from me: but yet not my will, but thine be done.

Christ shows us the way back to Eden, to heaven, to perfection by stating "thine be done."

But, for us, in sin and the tendencies to sin, the way back is through the darkness of facing our predominant faults, our habitual venial sins. all which must be cast into the fire of purgation, with Christ standing by us, leading us through the pain to victory of self and sin.

I remind you of the postings on the rectitude of the will.

To be continued....

Repost of Reposts on Predominant Fault

Wednesday, 13 August 2014

Thoughts from The Dark Night-Reviewing the Predominant Fault Posts

Posted by Supertradmum

Everyone has a predominant fault. Some have more than one. I have been thinking of how some vices come in pairs or even triplets.

The knowledge of self and one's sins is one of the reasons for purification. If one is attempting to cooperate with grace regarding the destruction of the predominant faults, one may find that the fault is connected to another and another.

For example, pride can morph into vainglory and presumption. Sloth may be easily attached to Gluttony and Greed. Envy, Anger and Lust sometimes "work together". One sees a pattern.

Now, because of concupiscence, we shall be tempted all our lived until the moment of death. Even the greatest of saints experienced trials in the last months of their lives. St. Therese the Little Flower is only one example.

One must learn to avoid temptations as these occur immediately. Here is a reminder from Garrigou-Lagrange on the predominant fault. I have already written on the predominant fault, but this truth bears repeating. My highlights....

DEFINITION OF THE PREDOMINANT FAULT
The predominant fault is the defect in us that tends to prevail over the others, and thereby over our manner of feeling, judging, sympathizing, willing, and acting. It is a defect that has in each of us an intimate relation to our individual temperament.(1) There are temperaments inclined to effeminacy, indolence, sloth, gluttony, and sensuality. Others are inclined especially to anger and pride. We do not all climb the same slope toward the summit of perfection: those who are effeminate by temperament must by prayer, grace, and virtue become strong; and those who are naturally strong, to the point of easily becoming severe, must, by working at themselves and by grace, become gentle.
Before this progressive transformation of our temperament, the predominant defect in the soul often makes itself felt. It is our domestic enemy, dwelling in our interior; for, if it develops, it may succeed in completely ruining the work of grace or the interior life. At times it is like a crack in a wall that seems to be solid but is not so; like a crevice, imperceptible at times but deep, in the beautiful facade of a building, which a vigorous jolt may shake to the foundations. For example, an antipathy, an instinctive aversion to someone, may, if it is not watched over and corrected by right reason, the spirit of faith, and charity, produce disasters in the soul and lead it to grave injustice. By yielding to such an antipathy, it does itself far more harm than it does its neighbor, for it is much more harmful to commit injustice than to be the object of it.
The predominant fault is so much the more dangerous as it often compromises our principal good point, which is a happy inclination of our nature that ought to develop and to be increased by grace. For example, a man is naturally inclined to gentleness; but if by reason of his predominant fault, which may be effeminacy, his gentleness degenerates into weakness, into excessive indulgence, he may even reach the complete loss of energy. Another, on the contrary, is naturally inclined to fortitude, but if he gives free rein to his irascible temperament, fortitude in him degenerates into unreasonable violence, the cause of every type of disorder.
In every man there is a mixture of good and bad inclinations; there is a predominant fault and also a natural quality. If we are in the state of grace, we have a special attraction of grace, which generally perfects first of all what is best in our nature, and then radiates over that which is less good. Some are thus more inclined toward contemplation, others toward action. Particular care must be taken that the predominant fault does not snuff out our principal natural quality or our special attraction of grace. Otherwise our soul would resemble a field of wheat invaded by tares or cockle, of which the Gospel speaks. And we have an adversary, the devil, who seeks to foster the growth of our predominant fault that he may place us in conflict with those who work with us in the Lord's field. Christ Himself tells us: "The kingdom of heaven is likened to a man that sowed good seed in his field. But while men were asleep, his enemy came and oversowed cockle among the wheat and went his way." (2)
Christ explains that the enemy is the devil,(3) who seeks to destroy the work of God by creating disunion among those who, in a holy manner, ought to collaborate in the same work for eternity. He is skillful in exaggerating in our eyes the defects of our neighbor, in transforming a grain of sand into a mountain, in setting up, as it were, a magnifying glass in our imagination, that we may become irritated at our brethren instead of working with them. Considering all this, we can see what evil may spring up in each of us from our principal fault if we are not most attentive to it. At times it is like a devouring worm in a beautiful fruit.

When one is attempting to live in community, the devil attacks by putting the predominant faults of others "in one's face" constantly. If one is aware of what is happening, one can avoid this deception and turn to prayer and compassion for the other.


to be continued...

Etheldredasplace: Predominant Fault Series Continued

08 Apr 2014

Firstly, St. Alphonsus reveals that anyone who gets upset with sin in one's own life is not humble, but proud, and may be exhibiting the predominant fault of anger. Anger is not merely focused on other or events, but one can ...

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Etheldredasplace: Predominant Fault Posts

07 Apr 2014

Use the tags and labels to read the posts on one's predominant fault, if you have not done so already. Hard stuff, but necessary for the road to perfection. There are 45 posts dealing with that topic directly. And, speaking of ...

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Etheldredasplace: More on the predominant fault

27 Nov 2013

But later the predominant fault is less apparent, for it tries to hide itself and to put on the appearances of a virtue: pride clothes itself in the outward appearances of magnanimity, and pusillanimity seeks to cover itself with those ...

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Why People Follow False Seers-Their Predominant Fault ...

18 Sep 2013

The predominant fault is the defect in us that tends to prevail over the others, and thereby over our manner of feeling, judging, sympathizing, willing, and acting. It is a defect that has in each of us an intimate relation to our ...

http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com

Perfection Series: Our Predominant Fault Two

21 Jul 2012

Garrigou-Lagrange states that "it is of primary importance that we recognize our predominant fault and have no illusions about it. This is is so much the more necessary as our adversary, the enemy of our soul, knows it quite ...

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Perfection Series continued-the predominant fault--four

23 Jul 2012

Perfection Series continued-the predominant fault--four. Posted by Supertradmum. St. Augustine tells us, using Garrigou-Lagrange, that God never asks us to do the impossible. If God desires us to be one with Him and He ...

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Etheldredasplace: A Predominant Fault in Some Men

25 Sep 2013

Youth can spot a hypocrite a mile away and the bad priests and neglectful husbands and fathers will have to face God as to why they did not work on their predominant fault. Being a Catholic man, like being a Catholic woman, ...

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Etheldredasplace: Last Summer - Blogger

20 May 2014

In Chapter 22, the great Dominican writes of "The Predominant Fault".The holy priest lists most of the obvious sins, but I want to highlight one, but in a different manner. We know that Pride is most likely the worst of all sins and .

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Part Three-Tackling The Predominant Fault and False ...

18 Sep 2013

The greatest fault is pride. Thinking that one knows better than a bishop or that one can judge a liberal bishop as unauthorized to make a statement on a visionary is pride. Period. But, those with a predominant fault of sloth or ...

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Etheldredasplace: Part five-predominant fault and false ...

18 Sep 2013

Garrigou-Lagrange helps us on our way. The graph at the very end of this post indicates how to break the sins of the predominant fault. This is hard work. This takes time and reflection. One must be ruthless with one's self to a ...

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Following False Visions And The Predominant Fault part two

18 Sep 2013

For without dealing with our predominant fault, there is no moving on into the Dark Night, Illumnative and Unitive states. Later on, I can show how the predominant fault, unless dealt with in this life, is the reason we go to ...

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Etheldredasplace: The Predominant Fault of Some Women

26 Sep 2013

The Predominant Fault of Some Women. Posted by Supertradmum. Just to be fair, I have been talking with lovely, good Catholic women who want to become saints. They would be in the category of the really beautiful women ...

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The Predominant Fault of Some Women Two

26 Sep 2013

The second most common predominant fault of women could be pride. This is the primordial sin and one easy to fall into. But, if this is the main, underlining fault of all faults, it must be rooted out through serious attention, ...

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Etheldredasplace: Predominant Fault Three-perfection series

21 Jul 2012

Predominant Fault Three-perfection series. Posted by Supertradmum. Promptness of will and intolerance of our faults are part of the battle against our predominant faults. This is a battle from which we cannot escape if we ...

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More on The Predominant Fault AND Many Links

05 Dec 2013

For those interested in most of the postings on the predominant fault, I have tried to find most of the links on this subject, which is a Catholic idea, btw, and not a protestant one. As one who is being dragged into looking at my ...

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St. Francis de Sales on His Predominant Faults-Two

08 Apr 2014

St. Francis de Sales on His Predominant Faults-Two. Posted by Supertradmum. After being greatly insulted by a Knight of Malta for not giving a benefice to one of his servants, “the bishop‟s brother …asked him how it was he ...

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The Dominant Passion Part Three on The Emotions

03 Aug 2014

As we have already spoken of the predominant fault, we here insist on precipitation to be avoided or, as the expression goes, on impulsiveness, which inclines one to act without sufficient reflection. With rash haste many ...

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Etheldredasplace: Important Addition to Perfection Series

13 Jul 2014

It is very good to find a devotion which specifically leads to the removal of our predominant fault. We all need to crack the deep sin, deep weakness which keeps us from God, stops virtue, hinders grace. I now belong to a third ...

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Etheldredasplace: Suffering Again

28 Jul 2014

However, some physical and mental pain is given by God for our purification, for the removal of the predominant fault. Too often I hear people say, "Oh, she is a suffering soul, or a victim soul" when in reality, the person is ...

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Etheldredasplace: I hate to break this to you all, but

29 Sep 2013

one can have more than one predominant fault. A good priest and I were discussing this today. He said that if the faults are close in nature, it is easy to have two. This makes it much harder to cooperate with grace and burn the ...

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Etheldredasplace: Parents Giving in to Peer Pressure ...

27 Sep 2013

Obviously, a mother may have the same predominant fault as her girls or girls. When the Bible states that a woman is saved by child-bearing, one of the meanings of that pregnant (pun intended) phrase is that one sees one's ...

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Etheldredasplace: Prayers in the Dark Night

06 Feb 2014

The Dark Night is the time of purgation of the predominant fault or faults. I have written about these here and one can follow the tags. The call is to cooperate with grace so that one can move into the Illuminative State, which is ...

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Etheldredasplace: Repost on prayer

05 Nov 2013

Unless one has had spiritual director for years, one who can tell one the predominant fault, one needs to do this on one's own. A sign of the movement towards the Dark Night is the movement into regular meditation, ...

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Etheldredasplace: Thank you, Jesus Christ and Michael ...

30 Jan 2013

More than fear as a great evil, the state of living in a hidden sin, allowing one to keep on sinning and not dealing with the predominant fault, keeps people from the Truth, Who is a Person. Garrigou-Lagrange makes it clear in ...

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Review of Thomas Aquinas Series and More on Sloth

31 Jan 2014

But, sloth is the great sin which is hidden in our society. It is "too ok" to have a lot of down time these days. . For my friend who is working to get rid of this predominant fault, God bless you. Remember, a lukewarm Catholic is ...

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Etheldredasplace: The Dark Night Part 49

02 Sep 2013

Want to overcome the predominant fault and be brutally honest with one's self. Want to become love for the sake of Love, not for one's own sake, but for God's alone, Want all who one meets to experience not the "me" but the ...

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Etheldredasplace: Perfection Series Again-Pride

20 Jul 2012

In Chapter 22, the great Dominican writes of "The Predominant Fault".The holy priest lists most of the obvious sins, but I want to highlight one, but in a different manner. We know that Pride is most likely the worst of all sins and ...

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Etheldredasplace: On Temptations

17 Sep 2013

Subtle temptations are connected to our predominant fault, about which I have written many times. If we know what are main fault is, we can catch the temptations and stop the process which leads to sin. Satan, as St. Ignatius ...

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Etheldredasplace: Again on Egoism Ruining The Church

25 May 2014

This could be a predominant fault for some. The old phrase, "Let go and let God" applies to the egoist, if he wants to attain heaven. Egoism is like a cancer of the will, which ravages it more and more, whereas sanctifying grace ...

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Etheldredasplace: Dealing with suffering

12 Apr 2014

beg God to reveal your predominant fault beg God to take the suffering for repararton of your sins offer the suffering for the sins of others, especially family members be patient be calm be resigned read the lives of the saints

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Etheldredasplace: What is Purgatory?

10 Feb 2014

The predominant fault is discussed at length on my blog, when I did an unpacking of Garrigou-Lagrange and other writers on perfection and in the Doctors of the Church series on perfection. Over 600, more than 10% of my ...

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Signs of The Illuminative State: Perfection Series II: lxi

21 Mar 2014

Eight, the predominant fault has been utterly destroyed. Nine, the person walks in light, and is no longer affected by the dark, but transcends the darkness with the awareness that God is always with him. Ten, good works, great ...

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On Natural Law And The Predominant Fault

Most of these posts today have been by request of a friend. Now, the discussion of natural law can lead one to ask this question, "Is there a connection between natural law, written on the hearts of man, and people's predominant fault?"

Let me backtrack a bit.  Here is Garrigou-Lagrange's definition of the predominant fault.

The predominant fault is the defect in us that tends to prevail over the others, and thereby over our manner of feeling, judging, sympathizing, willing, and acting. It is a defect that has in each of us an intimate relation to our individual temperament.(1) There are temperaments inclined to effeminacy, indolence, sloth, gluttony, and sensuality. Others are inclined especially to anger and pride. We do not all climb the same slope toward the summit of perfection: those who are effeminate by temperament must by prayer, grace, and virtue become strong; and those who are naturally strong, to the point of easily becoming severe, must, by working at themselves and by grace, become gentle.

Before this progressive transformation of our temperament, the predominant defect in the soul often makes itself felt. It is our domestic enemy, dwelling in our interior; for, if it develops, it may succeed in completely ruining the work of grace or the interior life. At times it is like a crack in a wall that seems to be solid but is not so; like a crevice, imperceptible at times but deep, in the beautiful facade of a building, which a vigorous jolt may shake to the foundations. For example, an antipathy, an instinctive aversion to someone, may, if it is not watched over and corrected by right reason, the spirit of faith, and charity, produce disasters in the soul and lead it to grave injustice. By yielding to such an antipathy, it does itself far more harm than it does its neighbor, for it is much more harmful to commit injustice than to be the object of it.

Now Fr. Ripperger does write about the four temperaments. He writes that "Temperament is principally hereditary or natural endowment insofar as we inherit our bodily dispositions from our parents, although environmental factors can also affect disposition or temperament." 

So, as Ripperger notes, one's temperament leads one to certain, different vices and virtues. But, a temperament is changeable, and the more holy one becomes, one may find that one changes in temperament.

But, usually, each person has a predominant temperament lending itself to a predominant fault. So, if a person is of a phlegmatic temperament, one has good and bad aspects. Here is Father Aumann quoted by Ripperger.

"The good characteristics of the phlegmatic persons are that they work slowly but assiduously; they are not easily insulted by insults, misfortunes or sickness they usually remain tranquil, discreet, sober; they have a great deal of common sense and mental balance."

Of course, the downside of these patient, hardworking and amiable people is that they "tend to be inclined toward ease and comfort and they tend to be unambitious, procrastinators and disinterested. The predominant faults of phlegmatics are dullness and sloth, " writes Ripperger.

Now, the one thing which temperaments and predominant faults have in common with natural law is that all are "natural".  But, is there a connection?

In so far as natural law is given by God to all persons by the fact that they are human, so too, temperaments can be from nature. But, dispositions to both virtue and the predominant faults are proper to the person himself and not to a group, a race or all humans. Herein is a major difference between natural law, which is the same for a persons and temperament, along with the predominant faults, which are unique to a person.

Humans develop their personalities according to their temperaments, and sadly, until purgation, according to the predominant faults.

But, natural law is common to all personalities, underlining the fact that we are all human. The only connection would be that if one is going against natural law by sinning, one is being influenced by the predominant faults in one's person. But, natural law is not affected per se. It is universal, as the Ten Commandments are universal. However, one's predominant faults may turn one against natural law, against revealed law, against grace.

As noted in the perfection series, one must attack one's predominant fault and allow God to purge it from one's temperament, one's personality. Only then can one follow natural law and supernatural law freely.

I hope this answers my friend's question on this subject.