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Vanity of Vanities

Some have been asking me about the purifications natural to the three stages of the interior life. Perhaps the following poem may help in their prayer and discernment.

For God purifies us

1.      first from sin,

2.      then from the love of the natural goods of this world,

3.      and then from the disordered attachment to the passing spiritual goods of this world even when they come from Himself directly.

            How sad it makes me feel to see so many souls – even those raised to the various degrees of Holy Orders! – saturated with love of money, of sex, of power, of self-will, of ambition, of their own judgment and of diversion. Vanity of vanities, says Qoholeth, and all things are vanity!

            May God help us never fall for any deception, and love only him, never putting love of any, any, any creature before love of our Creator, who is our Father. And if God gives you such a gift, that you find nothing in this world makes you happy except God himself, amid your tears consider yourself the most blessed of men.

Longing for the higher things

I cannot and I fail to get,

Those who love the world,

For they are full of regret

Of frustration and whirl.

May freedom grace beget

For my heart from love of this world.

Kyrie, eleison.

So sayeth the sinner:

Gluttony makes me hungry,

Greed makes me want,

Lust makes me burn,

Anger makes me estranged,

Envy make me sad,

Arrogance makes me pathetic,

Sloth exhausts me.

All of the evils of this world are full of hate.

Woe to those whose hearts,

Are bent on evil gain,

For frustration and whirl

Are born from the evil womb of this world.

Christe, eleison.

When I see the beauty of the sunset,

            I need to keep looking and see again,

            For I need more beauty.

When I hear the majesty and meekness of the wind,

            I need to keep listening,

            For I need more nobility.

When I learn but one single truth,

            I need to keep learning, hearing reading,

            For I need more truth.

All of the goods of this world are but promises.

Woe to those whose hearts

Search for fulfillment in promise.

For frustration and whirl

Are born from the passing nature of this world.

Kyrie, eleison.

My strength is given fortitude, yet I’m never strong enough.

My passions are given temperance, yet nothing worldly satisfies me.

My judgment is given justice, yet I still have not resurrected.

My seeming is given prudence, yet who is like unto God?

My mind is given faith, yet I want to see!

My heart is given hope, yet I ever risk loosing it to sin.

Woe to those whose hearts

long for heaven on earth.

For love alone is the pearl

Alike both in heaven and in this world.

I cannot, I fail to get,

Those who love the world,

For they are full of regret

Of frustration and whirl.

May freedom grace beget

For my heart from love of this world.

Misereatur Nostri.