I'm not sure about you, but I really like to be challenged by the saints. The saints are our Lord's Gospel lived, par excellence, so they leave us with many practical and concrete words and examples through their lives and writings. I realize some people may become discouraged when reading about the saints, thinking how they could never possibly attain to that degree of holiness or repeat the acts of which they read. But for one, you are you; you have your own unique path to holiness to which God has planned for you. You are called to holiness nonetheless, but not by the same exact means the saints have been sanctified. Two, we need not become discouraged or afraid to "become little" like our Lord asks, and realize how feeble and weak and frail we are, like little dependent children. Our work of sanctification is God's doing, not ours. We have but to do our best to cooperate with His grace. When we fall, we simply get back up, keeping our gaze directed at God. Discouragement comes from a lack of hope in God's grace and a hidden, prideful reliance on our own efforts. I just want to make a brief note of this before delving into St. John Vianney's cautions against lukewarmness!
But now, on to the post...
I know thy works, that thou art neither cold, nor hot. I would thou wert cold, or hot. But because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold, nor hot, I will begin to vomit thee out of my mouth. [Revelation 3:14-16, Douay Rheims]
In reference to the Scripture quoted above, the Lord knows the church is of Laodicea neither "hot" for Him ("on fire" or "zealous" for Him) and neither cold for Him ("hating" or "despising" Him). The rebuke to the church of Laodicea is that they are lukewarm.
It's kind of interesting when you think about it. Our lukewarmness is what causes us to be vomited out of His mouth - not even being "cold" merits that! This should tell us something about the disgust toward tepidity we ought to have and the vigilance we should have with regard to allowing lukewarmness to creep into our spiritual lives.
St. John Vianney, in his sermon "The State of a Lukewarm Soul," echoes this caution of our Lord and draws out the practicality of what lukewarmness might look like in one's daily spiritual life. Here, I am going to pull out the excerpts that focus on the prayer life of such a soul.
The Lukewarm Soul
But first, what is a lukewarm soul? St. John Vianney tells us:
A lukewarm soul is not quite dead in the eyes of God because the faith, the hope, and the charity which are its spiritual life are not altogether extinct. But it is a faith without zeal, a hope without resolution, a charity without ardour.
According to St. John Vianney, a lukewarm soul moves like a tortoise or a snail, dragging itself along the ground, getting from one place to the next with great difficulty. It is filled with an air of frigid indifference while maintaining a rather empty love - a love without tenderness, without action towards holiness, and without energy to barely sustain it in difficult things pretaining to all that's essential to salvation. The lukewarm soul believes but compromises with the world so it isn't too uncomfortable - so it isn't viewed as "too religious" or "too weird."
Rather, it hopes to be a "fool for Christ's sake"...
"We are fools for Christ's sake, but you are wise in Christ; we are weak, but you are strong; you are honourable, but we without honour." [1 Corinthians 4:10, Douay Rheims]
A soul in love with God matters not about these perceptions or the opinions of others. Its sole focus is God alone.
And with regards to prayer?
"Nothing touches this soul: it hears the word of God, yes, that is true; but often it just bores it. Its possessor hears it with difficulty, more or less by habit, like someone who thinks that he knows enough about it and does enough of what he should."
This lukewarm soul hears the Word of God read or proclaimed but without the heart being touched. "I already know what this Scripture passage is about," this soul unconsciously thinks. Yet it forgets the Word of God is living. Or, it may hear this familiar passage and become bored by it because he knows what it's about and thinks he already does what he should, so therefore he glazes over it. When this person meditates upon Scripture, he likely does not read through it slowly, prayerfully and attentively, but probably reads it more like any other book; or he treats it as a study rather than a transformation of one's heart and mind.
"Any prayers which are a bit long are distasteful to him. This soul is so full of whatever is has just been doing or what it is going to do next, its boredom so great, that this poor unfortunate thing is almost in agony. It is still alive, but it is not capable of doing anything to gain Heaven..."
Yes, any litanies - especially sung or chanted - any longer prayers of the Church be it the Divine Office or the Sacrifice of the Mass is too long for a lukewarm soul; this includes especially the Church's liturgies for the much-longer Easter Vigil, Palm Sunday and the like. This soul probably finds the Rosary boring and is either pained throughout it or avoids developing a devotion to it altogether. Often, anyway, this soul who is supposed to be in prayer is thinking back on some past thing that happened or thinking in anticipation of activities and duties it has yet to do, rather than filling its heart and mind with God. It is full of things and matters of the created order, rather than the Creator Himself.
"To say his prayers, he gets down on his knees, undoubtedly, but he does not know what he wants to ask God, nor what he needs, nor even before Whom he is kneeling. His careless demeanor shows this very clearly."
When he goes to pray, he will kneel for sure, but he does not consider before Whom he is kneeling. He carries a rather careless and lax demeanor.
Or, perhaps, he carries out activity during his time of prayer. To use St. John Vianney's words:
"He will not even stop working. If the possessor of a lukewarm soul is a man, he will turn his cap or his hat around in his hands to see whether it is good or bad, as though he had some idea of selling it. If it is a woman, she will say her prayers while slicing bread into her soup, or putting wood on the fire, or calling out to her children. If you like, such distraction are not exactly deliberate..."
Now, I'd like to clarify something here. It is good and right that we ought to be praying always! For St. Paul says,
"...pray without ceasing..." [1 Thessalonians 5:16]
But there are times of activity accompanied by prayer and then, distinct and even more important, there should be a time of stillness, solitude and silence for prayer carved into our day. It can easily become a temptation to "say my prayers" ("prayers" referring to this daily time of quiet intimacy) while doing laundry, driving, and the like. I wrote a post on inconstancy in prayer a couple years ago if you'd like to read it. Maybe it will help give you a right and balanced understanding on the necessity of this time of prayer in our busy days. It deals with motherhood but can easily be applied to ANY busy person! Nothing replaces intimate silence, stillness and solitude with the Lord!
To continue St. John Vianney's above-quote:
"....People would rather not have them [distractions], but because it is necessary to go to so much trouble and expend so much energy to get rid of them, they let them alone and allow them [the distractions] to come as they will."
What does he mean? Yes, distractions are unavoidable. But what kind of circumstances is one setting themselves up in to be interrupted so much? And, are they making efforts to find better times and places? It takes effort, self-discipline and even creativity to find intimate time in one's day with the Lord. But these lukewarm souls don't want to go through such trouble, says St. John Vianney.
8 Signs of Lukewarmness in Prayer
In essence, what is a lukewarm soul with regards to prayer, according to St. John Vianney? It...
Is not touched by the hearing of Scripture
Makes no intense effort, daily, towards holiness and conquering its sins and vices
Exteriorly fulfills the Divine precepts, but interiorly, the heart is not with the Lord
Finds longer prayers and the Mass a bit boring
Fills its mind and heart with things and matters of the created world rather than God Himself during times of prayer
Does not make a constant effort to carve out daily, intimate time with God
Does not recollect itself before prayer, to first pause and consider with Whom it is speaking
Allows distractions in prayer, making no effort to avoid them
Let us be on guard against lukewarmness, which tends to subtly and gradually take over our souls, making it sleeping and drowsy in the service of our Lord. And just a note, to be sure, distractions and the tendency to think on other things during our time of prayer will be constant sources of temptation and diversion away from attending to God and the things of God. When you're in prayer and you recognized this, just simply turn your mind back to the Lord. St. Teresa of Avila compared it to watching a beautiful sunset on the horizon. Occasionally, you may notice a sailboat making its way across that landscape. You need just let it pass while you turn your eyes back upon the beautiful sunset that you originally set about to gaze upon. Place it in God's hands.
St. John Vianney pray for us, that we may be vigilant and humble against this deadening tepidity!
Do you find you struggle with any of these "signs" of lukewarmness in your prayer life? What can you do, today, to overcome one of these things?
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