THE SECOND ROOM
Are You the Goal or Is God?
You can lose your focus on the spiritual path making yourslf the goal instead of mystical illumination. This happens, understandably, because you are in your body and in your life and your body can become weak and your life can become overwhelming. But your body and your life are in service to your soul - that is the vision you must strive to animate. When you lose your focus and are taken in by an earthly concern that causes you suffering, enter into a dialogue with your soul in which you ask to see the symbolic meaning of your suffering.
Soul Work: Let your soul reveal the deeper meaning of the suffering you are temporarily enduring. Detach from the grip it now has on your life. Rise above the suffering; see it from high above. Ask your soul to illuminate your interior, to transform your suffering into insight and purpose. Pray for this profound act of transformation.
THE THIRD ROOM:
How Do You Embrace Grace?
Grace is divine fire, cosmic power, that runs through your being, calming your body, inspiring your thoughts, healing your physical pain, preventing you from an accident, guiding your inner journey. Grace is the indescribable breath of God entering into your being while you pray. Grace is the energy you call upon to help another person in need of comfort, healing, or inspiration. To embrace grace, become aware of its presence in your life, mindful of the reality of this divine substance.
Soul Work: Ask your soul how you can know grace as an essential force in your life. Pray and be still so that you become aware of what your charism-your special grace-feels like when it inters your system. Practice consciously embracing grace with your soul. Come back to this room. As you practice, your capacity to contain grace for others expands.
BE MINDFUL OF EVIL
Evil was a genuine adversar tor Teresa and had many manifestations. She was not physically chasing demons down the halls of her convent, but she saw evil as ever present, a force against which you must be on your guard. Doubs and fears qualify as the workins of evil; for example, doubting your inner experiences of God is evil. The force of evil finds a weakness in your psyche and takes advantage of it at every possible opportunity. If you have a fear of being rejected, for example, evil would animate that fear every time you felt insecure. You would interpret everything you heard in every conversation through your fear of rejection, drowning out all other reasonable interpretations. This noise in your head would then lead you to make poor choices in your relationships and other areas of your life.
Prayer and faith are your protection. I ance asked a very blessed mystic for advice about some matter that would require that I meet with a person whom I considered harmful. His counsel to me was tho prepare for that meeting by spending a couple of hours in prayer. He said, "You must always prepare to meet evil by building a field of grace with prayer. Evil cannot penetrate grace. " I understood then that the individual I was meeting was not evil; a psycic field of evil had gathered around him and was taking advantage of his fears; as a result he was making decisions that harmed many people. But I built a field of grace that allowed me to be near him and not lose my center.
Evil is a very real force, just as goodness is a real presence in the world. Never be so proud as to believe that because we live in a modern world with electrical lights and plumbing and computers, darkness and the devil have vanished.
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Copying out the above has given me a peaceful spirit which I hope with prayer will stay with me throughout the day. I pray that it will bring you something positive. With love from your brother in Christ, Peter.
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