A strong spiritual life involves prayer, detachment from the world and union with God.   The world attempts to block this union through illusions and distractions.   Grace from the Holy Spirit helps produce virtue within our lives that lead towards better habits in developing union with God.

Virtue is a good quality, or internal disposition towards good.  It is habitual in nature and becomes part of one’s character.  It guides one’s actions and leads one to a closer spiritual life with God.  Virtue rejects the vices of the world and focuses on the good.   In many cases, virtue are supernatural in nature or moral.  Some virtues deal with one’s relationship with God while others direct one in proper relationship with others. (1)

The three theological virtues are faith, hope and love and direct one to God.  The four moral virtues are prudence, justice, temperance and fortitude.   While virtue can exist naturally in humanity, grace alone infuses them at a supernaturally level and allows one to utilize virtue towards the action of good.  Without grace, one cannot earn virtuous merit.  So while, one may cultivate virtue in one’s daily lives, it is only through co-operation with the grace of the Holy Spirit, that such endeavors can ever produce the fruit of a healthy spiritual life.  (2)

Hence, it is critical to in spiritual life to cultivate virtue.  Virtue and its natural disposition and habitual nature, allows the person to maintain a constant relationship with God and a healthy relationship with one’s neighbor.  Grace is essential in feeding virtue.  In this, one must cooperate with grace and indulge in spiritual practices that allow virtue to grow.  One’s spiritual garden can become neglected without the Word of God, the sacramental life, and daily prayer.

The devil and the world have a way of eroding one’s spiritual garden with a variety of weeds and drought when one does not cooperate with grace and feed the soul the many graces the Holy Spirit affords the soul.   Too many times, individuals become distracted from what matters most and the temporal illusions of this world and their false promises of happiness, lead good Christians away from God.

St Teresa of Avila refers to this in and out of one’s spiritual life as the first mansion with God.  In this mansion, the individual discovers God and realizes there is more to this world than temporal things.  While this is only an invitation to spiritual life, it is an essential mindset.  In this mindset, the individual begins to seek out God. So many individuals walk and in and out of this mansion, regaining fervor only to lose it months later.   Many spiritually are in this mud of the temporal world, escaping, only again to fall. (3)

This constant tug of the war of the soul between the world and God is a natural state of humanity’s broken nature.  The scars of Original Sin, lead one to one’s lower flesh.  The will identifies lesser goods as superior and in some cases, bad consciences identify evil ends as good.   Without prayer, virtue and grace, the soul sputters into bad habits, or vices.  The soul falls to the seven capital sins, of pride, envy, anger, lust, greed, gluttony, and sloth.  (4)

In some cases, the spiritual war that leaves individuals in between the first and second mansions of spiritual union is a back and forth conflict, until one master emerges victorious over dominion of the soul.  In this struggle, the soul eventually chooses a life of virtue or vice, God or the world, good or evil.

While Christ the Good Shepherd, will always run after the stray lamb, the lamb still must wish to be found.  In this, Christian Counselors, pastors, spiritual advisers and confessors find the most common soul.   This type of soul is neither truly saintly or evil, but is inherently good, but lost.  These souls wish entrance into the first mansion of spiritual life, but falter.  Virtue is far from a habit, prayer life is inconsistent, and the love of the world is still too high of a priority.  Yet, the desire to be saved remains.

It is important in developing spiritual development in one’s spiritual children to help direct these souls to sources of grace and better habits.   A confessor or spiritual mentor must be patient with the conflict.  Habits, especially bad habits are difficult to break and one must gradually move from them and seek God.   More frequent prayer, scripture and for Catholics, sacramental participation are essential to opening oneself to the graces needed to convert to a more spiritual orientated life.

As a spiritual mentor, one does not merely direct the soul to better choices and habits, but also teaches the soul how to better discern.  Forming a good conscience that is based on the absolute moral law of God.  One’s conscience must reflect the Ten Commandments and mirror virtue.  It cannot be subjective, or worldly, but must be aligned firmly with God’s law. Only through this can a conscience be of any service to a soul and help it find a more healthy and balanced spiritual life.

What spiritual directors, mentors and pastors must also present is the image of God as a loving father.  In this, God’s love is so intense, so passionate, that he seeks out the soul.  Even beyond this analogy, God’s love is so strong, it even bypasses any of our most intense relationships.   God is so passionate, He awaits our call, our time.  It pleases Him so greatly to receive even the smallest token of our love or even our smallest effort to do good.  As Christ taught, the Father rewards ten fold for even the soul’s smallest endeavors.

However, there is a very thin line a spiritual director must walk with a troubled soul when preaching God’s mercy and love.  While it is infinite, one cannot over emphasize it at the expense of God’s justice.  God demands change from the soul.  Christ Himself forgave the sinners but also instructed them to sin no more.  While the soul may falter, it still must look towards perfection.  It must try despite the struggle and understand that change is necessary for union and salvation.    Only a spiritual director who knows the soul in question can truly discern if mercy or justice needs to be emphasized at a given time.

In conclusion, spiritual life and union with God is a conscious decision.  It is habitual and its ultimate end is God for the sake of loving Him.  Grace fuels the soul’s broken ability to enter into this union.  Prayer is the language and virtue is the map.  The soul is fed through the Word of God and the sacraments in maintaining a healthy relationship.  Through these tools given to the soul by God and the direction of a spiritual adviser, a soul is able to enter beyond the initial mansions and begin to enter into true union with God in the later stages of spiritual life.

If you would like to learn more about AIHCP’s Christian Counseling Certification or would like to become a certified Christian Counselor, then please review the program and see if it matches your academic and professional goals.  For other spiritual traditions, please also review our Spiritual Counseling Certification

References

1. https://bible.org/seriespage/8-virtues-leading-christlikeness
2. https://www.loyolapress.com/our-catholic-faith/scripture-and-tradition/catholic-basics/catholic-beliefs-and-practices/theological-and-cardinal-virtues
3. https://www.sacred-texts.com/chr/tic/tic05.htm
4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_deadly_sins

St. Teresa’s Interior Castle

I find the First Mansions St. Teresa talks about interesting because I believe they are the most difficult to enter as one begins a spiritual life, with all the distractions in the world that keep us from fully entering into a life with God.  St. Teresa describes snakes, vipers and poisonous creatures, which could be analogous with technology, secularism, and the constant barrage of noise created by television and radio.

It is heartening to know that God has created within us, this beautiful castle that is ours to explore if we make the conscious choice to do so.  It does not come without being vigilant to our own failures and constantly striving to do good so as not to offend God.  He created us in his image and so we have the ability, love and support we need to become One with Him.  Why then, do we not do what we need to do in order to obey him?

We have fallen short of the task God has set before us – to know ourselves through Him.  We don’t take the time to understand and know God, so we do not understand ourselves.  We are like zombies walking through life – without life.  We don’t understand that God is an ever-lasting river flowing through us.  We thirst for Him, but through our own ineptness, we don’t know that we thirst and we wouldn’t know how to quench that thirst even if we did.  Only through Him can we hope to have life.

In our darkness we cannot see the beauty that lies within us.  We look outside of ourselves to satisfy the need that resides within us, but it cannot be filled by outside influences, people or things.  Only God can feed our souls and nourish us.  The food of which I am speaking is in Scripture and in praising God for his goodness, for the blessings He grants us, and for the mercy He shows us.

By understanding ourselves, through God’s eyes, we see where we fall short and are able to enter the Mansion with hope and a will to succeed.  Through prayer and meditation and an understanding of who we are praying to, we come to know God’s will for us and we strive to release ourselves from the ways of the world in order to please Him.  This is not a one-time event.  We must continually come into communion with Him so we are prepared as we move through the First Mansion and into the other mansions.

Unless we have the understanding that our soul belongs to God, and we always strive to please Him, we can, through our ignorance, fall into the darkness of mortal sin.  We believe we are separated from God and because we are distant from Him, it gives the devil pleasure to do evil works through us.  We must be constantly vigilant and discerning that our thoughts and actions are pleasing to God, and in all humility realize that He is our one and only source of good.

Through self-knowledge and our desire to know God, we realize our true nature and strive more every day to be in alignment with that.  We put aside worldly concerns, even for just a little while, and commune with God.  We come back to our true source and we live better lives in accordance with God’s will for us.

By Teresa Martens

“It is necessary in every state of life for our help to come from God.

May His Majesty grant us this through His mercy.  Amen.”

~ St. Teresa of Avila ~

Please also review our Christian Counseling Certification Program and see if it meets your academic and professional goals.  The program is online and independent study.  After completing the four core courses, one can apply for a four year certification.  Most individuals who apply for this certification are counselors, ministers or pastoral care givers.  If you would like to learn more, then please review.

Also please review our Meditation Instructor Program.  It is also online and independent study and focuses on mindfullness meditation and other stress reducing strategies in meditation.   Various schools of meditation are identified and reviewed as well.

Ministry presents a multitude of challenges.  Pastoral care from caring for the sick, dying, as well as the grieving can strain any minister.  The time and energy it also takes to spiritually guide a flock can be demanding.

The article, “10 common pastoral care challenges” by Thom Rainer explores ten common challenges in pastoral care and ministry.  He states,

“So, for the most part, the challenges are not the members themselves, but the capacity to meet all the pastoral needs members have. Here are how the pastors expressed ten of their greatest pastoral care challenges.”

To read the entire article, please click here

Please also review our Christian Counseling Certification and see if it meets your goals.

Discipline and a good Christian upbringing for children is difficult in this secular society.  Christian parents must work hard to preserve the faith and also raise good, moral, and respectful children.  Discipline is important

The article, “Christian parents, you’re not alone in discipling your kids” by Lyndsey Koh states,

“In America’s post-Christian society, it can be daunting to make sure your kids have a strong foundation of faith. Today’s Generation Z kids tend to be less religious and more relativistic than the generations before them.”

To read the entire article, please click here

Please also review our Christian Counseling Certification and see if it matches your academic and professional needs.

Suicide is a very stigmatizing act.  Fortunately, it is being more and more seen from a pastoral way than a condemning way.  While it can contain elements of the sin of despair, modern psychology is showing more than not, it is a mental issue revolving around a deep depression.  In essence, it is a sickness.

The article, “What does the Bible say about suicide?” by Jim Denison takes a closer and theological look at the sinful history and nature it can have but also its inherent relation to pathological state of mind.  In this, Christianity is less harsh on this “unforgivable” sin as maybe in the past.  This is not only good news for the deceased but also for the state of the mind of the family who endures this horrible cross.  The article states,

“More people die from suicide than from homicide in America. Suicide is the third leading cause of death for those aged fifteen to twenty-four and is most common among those aged sixty-five and older. Suicide rates among the elderly are highest for those who are divorced or widowed. In the last half-century, the suicide rate among adolescents and young adults has nearly tripled.”

To read the entire article, please click here

Hence a theological as well as a pastoral standard are needed when dealing with suicide and the family.  Grief Counseling, Crisis Counseling, as well as Christian Counseling are all important disciplines in helping those facing suicide or families who have been hurt by the act itself

Please also review our Christian Counseling Certification