Meditation for October 14, Inordinate Attachments

St. Theresa is sternly opposed to all excessive and effeminate desires to love and be loved, whether such desires be directed to superiors or to members in the community.

"The will is thereby gradually weakened," she explains, "and prevented from employing itself entirely in loving God. It hap­pens so seldom that strong particular friendships have as their goal a mutual helpfulness in loving God, that I believe it is the demon who causes them to be born."

And the Saint, who understood woman's heart, strongly discour­aged among religious the use of endearing expressions, often as tender as caresses. "I know," she remarks, "that it is a very common language among women, but I cannot tolerate your being womanish in any respect; I want you to be as virile as the strong­est men."

To a prioress who was too eager to make herself loved, she said: "An attachment of any kind, even though it would be for the prioress, is quite foreign to the spirit of a true Carmelite," and, we might add, of any religious. "God wants free spouses, that are bound to Him alone. Act like men of heart and not like weak women."

"I promise You, O Lord, to watch jealously over the gift of my heart to creatures, especially if I have any propensity to seek the sweetness of friendship inordinately. You alone are all my love. The rest counts only so far as it brings my heart nearer to You. Should the least un­justified and inordinate human attachment get between You and me, help me to end it immediately; make the severance of these ties and the amendment of my ways easy for me."

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Adapted from Meditations for Religious
by Father Raoul Plus, S.J. (© 1939, Frederick Pustet Co.)