24 Important Take-Aways from 12 Years of Spiritual Reading

For the New Year, I decided to compile a list of all the spiritual reading that I’ve ever done. That might sound daunting, but it wasn’t really that hard — I didn’t start until I was 25, and I kept track of most of my reading on my Goodreads account. But as I was shifting through all the books, noting my favorites, what I learned, and what made the greatest impact on me, this list emerged, which seemed to be an off shoot that needed its own post.

After all my years of spiritual reading, I think these are some of the most important things I’ve gleaned about the spiritual life, things I’ve noticed that almost every single saint and theologian insists and repeats.

---

1. The ultimate and absolute end of the Christian Life is the glory of God. The glorification of God by His creatures is the ultimate reason and supreme finality of all creation. The soul that aspires to sanctify itself must place the glory of God as the goal of all its striving. The reason we are here in this world is to become part of His glory; we were made for the glory of God. To know and love God: there is no other reason for us being here.
   

2. After the glory of God, the Christian Life has for its end the sanctification of one’s own soul. Man’s sanctification and perfection are a participation in the Divine sanctity and perfection; therefore a man’s sanctity and perfection is measured out by the degree of his union with God.
   

3. The very essence of perfection is the love of God unto the immolation of self. Perfection consists in charity, which is the love by which we cleave to God. The more we love God, the more perfect we shall consequently be. You will have as much sanctity as you have charity, and no more.
   

4. All the sanctity and all the perfection of a Christian consists in conforming ourselves entirely to His holy will. The greater this conformity is, the greater will be our perfection. God is the source of all sanctity, therefore making our will one with God’s will cannot but sanctify us. Obedience to His will is the normal means of attaining perfection. The only road that takes us to heaven is the will of God. We must seek it, live on it, and make it the great motive of all our actions.
   
   “Conform your will in all things to the Divine Will. This is what God demands. Do this, and the love wherewith you love God will be the love of your whole soul.” - St. Bonaventure
   

5. All of our actions must be motivated by the pure intention of pleasing God. Acting purely for God is the foundation of the goodness of all actions; the greatness of any action is the purity of intention with which it is performed. Jesus Christ did not praise Mary Magdalene for having done much but for having loved much. Works are only virtuous and meritorious when the soul is motivated by love of God. If pride is mingled in our motivation, then there is no virtue, and we lose the merit. If we lack love of God or rightly ordered intention, then all our works are vain and fruitless. If you do not offer everything to God, you will lose the reward of your actions. Do and suffer for the pure love of God only.
   

6. You gain nothing if your actions aren’t performed in a state of grace. A soul in a state of moral sin is dead. Just as a dead body cannot receive nourishment from food, a dead soul cannot receive nourishment from grace. Stay in a state of grace by frequenting the Sacraments and avoiding all occasions of sin.
   

7. Fidelity to our daily labors is the means of our sanctification. By being faithful to the duties of one’s state, one resigns and conforms himself to the Divine will, and thus he offers to God his whole and entire self (not just part) and allows God to dispose of him as He pleases. Your duties are the material of your sanctification. To be perfect is nothing else than to perform the duties to which one is obliged, solely for the honor and love of God.
   

8. God alone can make us happy. There is a void in our heart which all the creatures in the world would be unable to fill, for God alone can fill it. He is our beginning and our end, and only the possession of God can fill this void and make us happy. It is the privation of God that causes this void. Created things desire to fill this void, claiming that they will satisfy us, but these promises are lies. We can never be satisfied when we attach ourselves to created things. God alone is the sovereign good who can make us happy and satisfy all our desires.
   

9. We can only please God to the degree that we reflect His Son, Jesus Christ. All Christian tradition declares that the way to attain sanctity is to imitate Christ. Christ is the way to the Father. Our goal is to assimilate ourselves to Our Lord. To be a Christian is to be another Christ, to have the same will, the same desires, the same burning zeal to accomplish the will of the Father. His life and teachings show us exactly what our conduct should be in order to resemble Him. Holiness is conforming ourselves to Our Lord Jesus Christ. We only be holy to the degree that we resemble Jesus.
   
   “First, let us have a habitual desire to imitate Christ in everything we do, conforming ourselves to His life; upon which life we must meditate, so that we may know how to imitate it and to behave in all things as Christ would behave.” - St. John of the Cross.
   

10. We must perform our actions in union with Jesus Christ. The actions that we perform of ourselves and for ourselves are defective. We must renounce our own intentions and unite ourselves to the intentions of Jesus Christ.
    

11. Mortification is a necessary means for us to acquire a real conformity to the will of God. To live in a state of complete abandonment to the will of God and to all that He decrees, we must sacrifice all of our own human aspirations and hopes. Mortification cuts off that which may hinder us from uniting with God; therefore, the more we renounce ourselves and oppress our own appetites, the more we can unite and conform ourselves to the Divine will. Our task is to fight and annihilate the old Adam within us, so that the new Adam, Jesus Christ, may live in us. Our Lord made this renunciation and denying of ourselves an essential condition of our salvation. Never shall we attain unto God until we have corrected, cut off, and destroyed everything that is contrary to God. The divine life can flow into your soul only in the measure in which your soul is emptied of selfishness and sin. Your heart must be purified before it can live a life of intimate union with God. The grain of wheat must die in order to bring forth fruit. Sin must be conquered before Christ can reign supreme in the soul.
    

12. We cannot overcome our carnal appetites if God does not help us, and this help will not come without prayer. In this way, our eternal safety consists in prayer. When we cease to pray, we are lost. A life of prayer is the road to perfection that is open to all.
    
    “Believe me, my dear friends, believe an experience ripened by thirty years in the sacred ministry. I do here affirm that all deceptions, all spiritual deficiencies, all miseries, all falls, all faults, and even the most serious wanderings off of the right path, all proceed from a single source: a want of constancy in prayer. Live the life of prayer, learn to bring everything, to change everything into prayer. Pray, for prayer is our salvation.” -Fr. de Ravignan (1795-1858).
    

13. We must convert our whole life into prayer. All of our ordinary actions, our meals, even our rest, must become a hymn of praise unto God’s glory.
    
    “Let the harmony of your life ever rise as a song so that you may never cease to praise.” - St. Augustine.
    

14. To be saints, we have only to be what God made us to be and to do what God made us to do. Therefore, do not burden yourself with irrelevant occupations. Think only of what touches your immediate duty. This is sufficient, for this is all God requires of you. We are to fix our eyes on our duty alone, with the desire of pleasing Him. Cooperate with Divine Providence by doing the work that is yours to do. God is content if you do all you can to love Him in your sphere of life, and He asks nothing more. In all humility and modesty, stay in your lane and don’t strive to do things that God never intended for you to do. You will gain nothing if you depart from God’s particular will for you. God has, in His wisdom, assigned to all a certain path. He has marked out our way, and this way is always the best for each of us. It is the only way we can sanctify ourselves. Some souls desire for perfection in an unhealthy way by rejecting God’s will to turn to something else that they decided was better. Faced with the monotony of their daily duties, they dream of something else. But God wants to see them sanctifying themselves in the state in which they are, and wants them to stop running after illusions.
    
    “What good is it for you to give God one thing when He asks for something else? Discover what God wants and do it. Your heart will be happier than if your own desire had been fulfilled.” - St. John of the Cross
    

15. The first step toward perfection is the sincere, ardent, and constant desire to attain it. The desire to be perfect is the first step toward God and toward holiness. Desire for perfection is an act of the will which, under the influence of grace, seeks after spiritual progress. If you want to become a saint, you must desire it. If you want to love God, you must desire it. It all starts with desire. And if we place no obstacle in the way, this desire will grow constantly. This desire is necessary because the road to perfection is arduous; it requires sacrifice and struggle, and no one is going to enter on that steep, rugged path unless they have an ardent desire to do so; nor will they persevere on the way of perfection unless they are sustained by a strong desire to reach the end.
    

16. The motto of perfection is to go ever forward and aim ever higher. It is a truth of the spiritual life that one cannot stay still; if one is not progressing forward, they are necessarily falling backward. To prevent ourselves from descending, we must always strive to ascend. The life of a Christian is nothing more or less than a courageous journey onward to the place destined for him by His Creator.
    

17. True devotion consists not in feelings, but in the desire and resolution to embrace promptly all that God wills. Never be bothered or discouraged by times of aridity or lack of emotions. The prayer of Jesus Christ in the Garden of Olives: was full of aridity, but it was the most meritorious prayer that had ever been offered because it consisted in these words: "Not my will, but Thine be done." Love is an act of the will, not a feeling. It is more meritorious to serve God in the absence of warm feelings than in the midst of sweet consolations. Aridity is designed by God to play an important part in the sanctification of souls. It is a trial that can help us grow, if we know how to use it to our advantage. Among its advantages are the growth and strengthening in the virtues of detachment, humility, faith, and charity; it provides a source of suffering which we can use as a means of expiation and atonement; it teaches us to persevere in prayer; and it gives us an opportunity to be generous to God.
    

18. Sufferings and trials are the normal way in which God prunes us, that we may bear more fruit. We must embrace the fact that God turns everything to our profit and to the advancement of our soul. Even our hardships, trials, and sufferings are for our ultimate good. If you feel yourself troubled, consider that it has come from God and say at once, “Thus God wills,” and remain in peace.
    

19. The worldling cannot be a saint, and a saint cannot be a worlding, for no man can serve two masters. The worldling attends to the world’s business and neglects their soul, meanwhile the saints seek only the salvation of their souls. Despise the things of this earth and love heavenly things; disregard the world and aspire for heaven. The fundamental rule of Christian life, as almost every page of the Gospel tells us, is that we should live out of the world, separate ourselves from the world, hate the world. There is no being neutral, we must either be its enemies or else its slaves.
    
    “Love not the world, nor the things which are in the world. If any man love the world, the charity of the Father is not in him.” - 1 John 2:15
    
    “Put to death therefore what is earthly in you.” - Col 3:5-10
    

20. The indispensable Ss of the spiritual life: Simplicity, Stillness, Silence, Solitude. We will never arrive at perfection if we neglect our interior life. The Kingdom of God is within you. This inner life is the treasure hidden in a field; few there are who discover it, and few who realize there is such a treasure within them, but peace cannot be found except in this interior life. There is a great danger in neglecting the interior in favor of exterior activity, because he who does not withdraw from external things, does not penetrate the inner ones. It is necessary to withdraw within oneself, to remove from visible things, in order to perceive and contemplate the invisible. Abandoning the care of the interior life for a purely exterior life will suffer incalculable losses of grace and merit. We will make no progress in the ways of perfection unless we give ourselves to the interior life. It is in the interior, in the depth of the heart, where God gives the light of His grace, and we must listen attentively and converse familiarly with Him there. Build within yourself an interior cell, a place of refuge where the Divine Guest dwells within you as the living spring that alone can quench your thirst. Stillness and silence are needed to direct the heart to God. We have to be willing to pursue silence while the rest of the world is being noisy. A simple life will allow for the stillness, silence, and solitude necessary for intimate prayer with God.
    

21. Keep the perishable goods of this world in their proper place. Everything created is a means to an end. They are meant to help us go to heaven. If a created good is not helping us attain everlasting life, then it is a hindrance to union with God; therefore, get rid of it. Ensure that the things of this world do not delay or halt you, serving as a screen to hide God from you. They are supposed to serve as a pedestal to raise you up to the all-highest.
    

22. Remember your death. Remember that in the end, nothing will remain except God and eternity. Life is short and death will one day separate you from everything. You must have the abiding conviction that you have no lasting city here, you are but an exile here on earth, and every day you are advancing closer to your true country.
    

23. You are a steward. God will one day say to you, “Give an account of thy stewardship.” God will ask you what you have done with His possessions and wealth that He confided to your care. God will ask you what you have done with the intelligence He gave you; did you apply it to the things which were useful and in accord with your duties, or did you waste it in idleness, or pervert it with sin? What did you do with your body? with your time? with His graces? You will give Him an account of all you have done, the good and the evil.
    

24. Sanctity is within reach of all. God calls the whole human race to sanctity; therefore, sanctity is possible for every soul. Sanctity is not reserved for a few chosen people. Jesus merited the means for salvation and sanctification for all who believe in Him, and Baptism has deposited the seed of sanctity within us- a seed which is capable of blossoming into the precious fruits of eternal life. Sanctity is nothing more than accomplishing God’s holy will in everything; it is simply the fulfillment of one’s duty, therefore it is possible for all. Your duty of state and your crosses are your path to sanctity, because they are the infallible will of God in your regard. They are His plan of grace for you. Do your duty and consent to God’s will: this is the shortest path to sanctity.