SPIRITUAL GUIDANCE

SPIRITUAL  GUIDANCE

Whenever you are bearing any cross, or when you have something which is not to your liking, some tribulation, suffering, or persecution, be always resigned to God's will.  However, you would not be going against His will, if you take licit means, that is, those which are not sinful, in order to free yourself from your troubles. For what is (morally) licit conforms with the will of God.  

Be always afraid of the deceits that come from your own nature, from other people, and from the devil.  Normally, deceits come in wrappings, pleasing  to our nature.  Sin is real deceit, for in that sinful action a person thinks there is goodness, whereas in fact, it contains real evil.

Beware of ever praising anyone who is still alive, for you would be putting them in danger of losing his merits.  Nature praises with a malicious intent, for whoever praises wants to be loved and to acquire whatever one wants from the person praised.  Guard yourself fearfully against the persons who praise you and flee from them, for praise is a sweet poison.       

God directs and governs everything by his Wisdom and Providence.  Nothing ever happens haphazardly.  It is true that what seems beautiful to you now, may later on seem ugly, and what seems repulsive to you now, may seem attractive later on. So always say, 'This is the work of Providence.'   

Seek advice on whatever you intend to do, so that you will not have regrets. Do this especially when you are about to do something important.  Wise persons take advice, and they pray God to enlighten them in whatever they are about to do.     

If you want your own good, keep company with those who fear God.  The lot of every person is determined by the company one keeps; with the good you will become good, and with the wicked you will become wicked.  Even the proverb has it, 'Tell me with whom you hobnob, and I will tell you what you are.'   

Pray God humbly and perseveringly, for the prayer of the humble is heard by God, and He answers it.  Christ Himself told us to knock and it will be opened to us.  Those who pray will receive; those who seek will find; and to them who knock, it will be opened.  Keep on knocking then until it will be opened to you.  

Our faith must be firm, vibrant with good works, universal, in the sense that it believes whatever the Church believes and teaches, and constant, meaning that one should profess it always.  Without faith, no one can pray, no one can repent, no one can act with the right intention, and no one can be saved.              

From the Writings of St.George Preca, the Maltese Saint.

GUIDELINES  FOR  SALVATION

Practise this prescription given by a Catholic medical doctor for your spiritual and temporal well-being.  It consists of three words: calm, diet and joy.  These are three words taken from Holy Scripture, and those who follow this presciption live a really wholesome life.     

Everything has its own time.  Consequently, set your priorities according to their proper time.  Thus, during your examination of conscience, set yourself to it and leave out all other considerations: during prayer, pray; during meals, eat; during work, work; during study, study and so on.  If you keep this order, you will avoid all confusion.             

Humility is a rare virtue.  Seek it in God's grace and you will find it. Then you will enjoy the immense goodness of God.   Humility means that one loves God to the contempt of self.  Pride consists in this:  that one loves oneself to the contempt of God.            

Self love is the cause of every sin.  We love ourselves, and so we want to do what we like, whatever pleases our nature.  This is why we sin, because we do not want what God wills, and we want what God does not will.   

Pray God to give you the grace to relish Him, to be enchanted with His grandeur, His sweetness, His goodness.  Be delighted with Him, and then He will grant you every good wish of your heart, as is written:    'be delighted with the Lord and He will give you what your heart desires'.  

God is disgusted only with those who are proud, and does not use them, just as you, his image, would not use an instrument which is tainted.  It is written that God resists the proud and gives His grace to the humble.  Be humble, and you will find your good fortune with God.     

When anybody harms you in any way, or in time of adversity, look on it only as a disposition set by God.  Christ said, 'The chalice which my Father gave me should I not drink it?'  He did not mention the jealousy of the Jews, the greediness of Judas, the malice of Satan, none of this.    

In order to serve God, one must discern His will.  Now God reveals His will to us by means of the natural law, the precepts of the Church, our legitimate superiors, his inspirations and by life's circumstances.  Pray that He does not exclude you from His service.         

Have you ever considered what you are compared to God?  What you are compared to a vast multitude of people?  What you are in comparison to the vast sea or to the immense creation?  Now, compared to God, the entire universe is a speck of a seed. So, your very self is as nothing before Him.  Hold Him in awe and give Him honour.      

To sustain your faith, keep Sacred Scripture and Holy Tradition as your firm rule. In a word, hold on to the Catholic Church, whose head is the Pope, for the Church has been instituted infallible by Christ.  Even for your moral life, keep fearlessly to the Church as your guide.  It is in the Church that the saints lived and in it that they died.     

From the writings of St.George Preca, the Maltese Saint. 

GUIDELINES  FOR  SALVATION

Your external actions show you what you are in fact: whether you are humble or proud, good or bad, sensible or not, belonging to yourself or to God.  For Christ taught us that 'one's words flow out of the heart's abundance' and that 'the tree can be told by its fruit'. (Mt.12:34)

Acting merely for pleasure, for mere delectation, is a real disorder, for in fact delectation should lead to operation and not operation to delectation.  Eat so as to live and not live so as to eat.  But our nature is motivated only by what pleases it.      

Those who teach truth and justice but do not support their words by example are like those persons who build and then demolish what they have built.  Know well what the proverb says, that it is the eye that is first impressed by an object.  Human nature is much more influenced by a good example than by mere words.              

People are pleased more by a brief instruction, and if you want to drive it home into their heart, repeat it.  For, indeed, repetition is very helpful, as are the questions that follow it.  Strengthen that instruction also by giving a good example, for from objects that fall under the senses the intellect can rise to abstract concepts.            

Whoever loves Jesus Christ seeks only that which is Christ's.  In our relation with our neighbour, we should see in ourselves and in our neighbour, God's image and the person of Christ.  Christ considers whatever we do to the Christians as done to Himself.          

In this world there are no really great people except those who strive to make sin disappear, those who bring it about that sin would not be committed any more.  This can be done by teaching, praying, making sacrifices of self-denial, and by helping others, in so far as one can,in their needs.           

Hold as witness for your good deeds, not human beings, for then you will find yourself with empty hands and with no merits at all.  But hold only God as your witness, for He sees what is in secret, and will render you your reward.  You are perfectly right to fear being deceived when motivated by a natural intention.            

These are some preservative means against sin:  thinking of God's presence and of the Last Things, praying during temptation, shunning every proximate occasion of sin, showing mercy to those in need and the frequent reception of the Sacraments of Penance and of the Eucharist.     

What actually ruins the priceless treasure of neighbourly love is:  natural sympathy, ingratitude, the exclusive love of those persons who love us, the hope for revenge on earth, and the weakness of heart which shows mercy merely to free itself from a natural heartache.              

Avoid what you yourself consider distasteful in others.  You dislike curiosity and idle talk, vengeance, vanity in dress, quarrelling, theft, lying, vainglory, ambition, avarice, jealousy, over-eating and over-drinking, and so on.  Ask for God's grace and avoid them.                

From the writings of St.George Preca, the Maltese Saint.