October 1

Eleventh Tuesday after Trinity

They will go from strength to strength. Psalms 84:7.

IT is not that in spiritual life one stage of progress ceases as the other begins. They run into each other, and neither the one nor the other in this life is ever perfect. We are but imperfect disciples in each stage of amendment. There is a progress in the order in which the one succeeds the other. It commences as we first arise to struggle out of sin. The striving against evil thoughts, the purifying of unclean affections, the restraining of undisciplined tempers, the mortification of intemperate appetites, the extinction of jealousies, of selfishness, of covetousness. As the inward strugglings subside, the renewed spirit, strong in its recovered purity, stretching forward, gives itself to the study of virtue, of the graces in their different kinds, and to the increase of spiritual holiness. Obedience to rule, patience under pain, peacefulness under humiliation, thankfulness under trial, the balanced discipline of the will, a life of recollection and heavenly-mindedness, are being formed. Then there rises the further height, when the soul is set to fulfil all its service in unison with God, to bring each thought into obedience to Christ, to think as God thinks, to work as God works, to have the same designs, the same ends, to have His glory so constantly before the mind, so to see Him in everything, so to refer everything to Him, and unite the will so closely to His that life becomes more and more lost in God.

Christ in their heart, and on their brow His sign,

Loving their God, and ever loved by Him.