Book 4, Chapter 15: That the Grace of Devotion is Acquired by Humility and Self-Denial.

Chapter Focus: Seeking the grace needed for devotion is a task requiring patience as well as faith. When we wait on God, it is easy to lose heart and feel abandoned. But God chooses the time, place, and manner of his revelation to us, often to achieve maximum impact. His timing is perfect. Our seeking is imperfect. Our need for being filled is clear by the many empty vessels we carry with us: dry and empty.His anointing is overflowing with abundance.

Often, we are not ready for such grace, as Thomas points out. God won’t pour His oil on us when we have broken jars. Or perhaps we foolishly leave the lids on our jars even while we ask Him to fill us. So He waits for us to realize this. In our pride, we blame God. Until He shows us that we need to remove the lid, or repair the jar. In that humility, He comes to us, as He Himself condescends to become Bread for our consumption.

When we remove the obstacles to God’s blessing, the oil of grace pours in unabated, overflowing. Receiving Him in Holy Communion is like that: Union with the Divine, made possible by setting aside our pride and selfishness.

Chapter 15, In Short.

1. Seek the grace of devotion, and leave it up to God the time and manner of heavenly visitation.
2. If grace is always given immediately, it would hardly be bearable.
3. Immediately after you have given yourself to God, you will be united and at peace in the Divine will.
4. The disciple shall see his heart enlarged, because the hand of the Lord is with him.

Question: How are you seeking the grace of devotion?

Key Quote: Where the Lord finds empty vessels, there He gives His blessing.

The Text of Chapter 15: That the Grace of Devotion is Acquired by Humility and Self-Denial.

The Voice of Christ:

You ought to seek earnestly the grace of devotion, to ask for it fervently, to wait for it patiently and faithfully, to receive it gratefully, to preserve it humbly, to work with it diligently, and to leave to God the time and manner of heavenly visitation until it comes. Chiefly you ought to humble yourself when you feel inwardly little or no devotion, yet do not be too much cast down, nor grieve out of measure. God often gives in one short moment what He has long denied. He sometimes gives at the end of prayer what at the beginning of prayer He has deferred to give to you.

2. If grace were always given immediately, and were at hand at your wish, it would be hardly bearable to one so weak. The grace of devotion is to be waited for with a good hope and with humble patience. Yet when it is not given, or when it is mysteriously taken away, impute it to yourself and to your sins. It is sometimes a small thing which hinders and hides grace (if indeed that ought to be called small and not rather great, which hinders so great a good). But if you remove this thing, be it small or great, and perfectly overcome it, you will have what you have asked for.

3. For immediately after you have given yourself to God with all your heart, and have sought neither this nor that according to your own will and pleasure, but have altogether settled yourself in Him, you shall find yourself united and at peace: nothing shall give you so sweet relish and delight, as the good pleasure of the Divine will. Whoever therefore has lifted up his will to God with singleness of heart, and has delivered himself from every inordinate love or dislike of any created thing will be the most fit for receiving grace, and worthy of the gift of devotion. For where the Lord finds empty vessels, there He gives His blessing (2 Kgs 4:1-7). And the more perfectly a disciple forsakes things which are not beneficial, and the more he dies to himself, the more quickly grace comes, the more plentifully grace enters in, and the higher grace lifts up the free heart.

4. The disciple shall then see, and flow together, and wonder, and his heart shall be enlarged within him (Is 60:5), because the hand of the Lord is with him, and he has put himself wholly in His hands, even for ever. Lo, thus shall the disciple be blessed that seeks God with all his heart, and receives not his soul in vain. This disciple in receiving the Holy Eucharist obtains the great grace of Divine Union, because he has no regard for his own devotion and comfort, but, above all devotion and comfort, to the glory and honor of God.