Good Morning Disciples of Jesus Christ. In the previous post we talked about Father Chad Ripperger’s explanation of suffering and how to prepare Spiritually for the coming Chastisements. In his video we posted, Father Ripperger explained that to be willing to suffer for Jesus for the Salvation of Souls, we have to get towards the end of the Purgative Way of the Spiritual Life. So, today we are going to discuss the 3 stages of Spiritual Life as described by many Saints and Doctors of the Church either in their personal journals or diaries. Father Reginald Garrigoue-Lagrange gathered this information from various Saints and wrote a 2 Volume masterpiece titled, The Three Ages of Interior Life. In these next 3 videos we are going to post today, Father Quan Tran explains these stages so that we have a better understanding of how to proceed through each stage of holiness, like the Saints did, and we don’t remain stuck in one stage, or give up on advancing our Spiritual lives altogether. As we have said in this blog many times, that the prophets today and Our Blessed Mother in past Prophetic Messages have been telling us that we must become more Spiritual and have a deeper, closer, and personal Relationship with Jesus to prepare for what is coming. Studying the lives of the Saints and then putting this Spiritual growth progression into context and action is what helps us gain ground so that we can keep moving forward and do what Our Lord is asking us to do to prepare Spiritually. Some people can just move naturally from stage to stage in their Spiritual life without even being aware if they are progressing, but if you are like me, it helps to have a little direction and something concrete to distinguish what else I need to do to keep moving towards Our Lord Jesus Christ. We know God is the one that gives us these graces, but there is also effort on our part and these videos are what identifies the efforts we need to accomplish to keep receiving the graces from God.
The first stage is the Purgative Way and this is the stage that Father Chad Ripperger mentioned in his video about being willing to suffer for Jesus. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqHbPgk-1N8. Notice, in this beginning stage, God shows us our sins and we become very acutely aware of how sinful we have been and because God has given us a glimpse of Himself and His Love, we willingly choose to follow Him and begin to eradicate all sin from our lives. We begin dying to ourselves through mortification and our attachment to things of this world. This is very important to understand at this time because if we have been chosen by Jesus to be led to a Permanent Refuge, then we will no longer have the luxuries of this life that we have been accustomed to such as electronics, microwaves, quick food items, entertainment, indulgences, etc… Jesus said we will actually regress for a period of time of at least 100 or more years as we are brought into the Era of Peace because of the renewed transformation of the Earth.
So, we have to die to our self indulgences and vices we have been accustomed to living in this time and all of those things that may attach us to sin. Father Quan explains this is the active purgation that we must make in order to learn how to put God first in our day, everyday and enter into His Divine Will. Then, Father Quan explains how we advance in our prayer life from vocal prayer to meditative prayer and then just learning the value of active listening for God’s voice, or sitting in quiet time with Jesus. Father Quan explains that as we move further into the Purgative Stage, God begins to take away our Consolations that He has graced us with so that we move into a an increased Faith in Him. We begin to feel like our prayer is dry and that we are not doing something right to please Him. God replaces His Consolation with a respectful fear of knowing Him as the Creator of all things. God also begins to grace us with His gifts of the Holy Spirit, such as an infused gift of understanding, knowledge and wisdom. This is called the dark knight of the senses, and I can recognize this stage in myself right now. This is a very difficult stage because if we didn’t know this information left to us by the Saints, that by God pulling back a little bit to help us grow, we would believe that we have done something wrong in offending Him. This is where a lot of us get stuck in trying to figure out where we went wrong, but as Father Quan explains, this is where we must increase our Faith and patience in God that He is in the process of Transforming us. Because some people don’t continue to receive those beautiful Spiritual Consolations that they received in the beginning, resort back to Spiritual Sloth, which can lead them into Luke warmness. Also, we have to remember to never develop a spiritual pride if we have received a gift of the Holy Spirit because God will take that gift away if we do not remain humble and give Him the glory for that gift. We must pray for the graces of humility everyday in this stage and always give glory to the Blessed Trinity for everything we have received in our lives, especially a Spiritual gift.
Next, is the Illuminative Way, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6m-Z_gmomRM. Notice in this stage, God does not allow us to move forward until we have reached a level of humility that He knows reflects that everything is relative to Our Creator and the gifts He has blessed us with in our lives. There will be no sense of Pride at this level, but only the infused knowledge that everything we have, know, think and do are given and allowed by God. Disciples, this will be the stage that will be “the Baptism by Fire of the Holy Spirit”, that everyone will receive during the Warning. For those that did not know God Our Father or Jesus Christ, they will after the Warning! For those of us that are currently working on our personal Relationship with Jesus and advancing in holiness, we will have an increased boldness and desire to please Him even more to the point of Sacrificing ourselves if necessary in Service to Him. This is how the Apostles felt at Pentecost. We will know that we Must fulfill God’s Divine Will, which will be the Salvation of Souls!
Also, Father Quan explains that we may get an occasional consolation from Our Lord at this stage, just to let us know that God is always with us, but He doesn’t want us to depend on His Consolations, but continue to rely and trust in Him for everything. This will also be how we are to live in the Permanent Refuges, because we will not be able to rely on ourselves for protection, food, water, and shelter. God will provide all of these things, just like He did with the Israelites 40 years in the desert. This is also why we will have a 24 hour prayer room and Adoration set up in each Refuge, because we must all continue to pray for God’s graces and blessings every day to be able to survive. We will become totally dependent on Him for everything. Father Quan also goes into detail about focusing on quiet prayer and learning to hear and be guided by the Holy Spirit. We must spend time with Jesus in prayer to be able to focus on what are our own thoughts, and what are promptings and the voice of the Holy Spirit. I love how Father Quan explains that as our Zeal and Love of God increases in this stage, our Love of neighbor also increases and the desire for Salvation of Souls. So, at this stage, we begin to overlook all of the bad things that people do, and we pray for them because we know that their Soul is as precious to Our Lord as the Soul that is on Fire for Him! Disciples, we are witnessing this now in Our Church, and we must no longer get angry at what is happening because this will stop our Spiritual growth dead in it’s tracks. We must understand that this is God’s battle that He is controlling and He is going to win in the end. We just have to persevere in assisting Him with the Salvation of as many Souls as possible because that is our Service to Him in these times.
Lastly, is the Unitive Way, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4iDIoazPYU. In this stage, Father Quan explains that this is the most difficult stage for us to achieve because of our weaknesses, and our fear of suffering, or of the cross that we will have to bear for Jesus. There is no fear of suffering for the soul that is in this stage. In fact, the soul recognizes the benefit of suffering not only for Spiritual growth, but as a service to Jesus to assist in saving other souls and is grateful to Jesus for this opportunity to Serve Him! This is the virtue we need to strive for Jesus as His Disciple, and this is what Father Chad Ripperger was referring to in his video we posted yesterday, that we must achieve to be prepared for the Chastisements. Not an easy task, but achievable with the graces from God that we must pray for everyday. Remember, all things are possible with Christ Our King and His graces, and this is what makes us Saints! In this stage, a Soul goes through what is explained as the “Dark night of the Soul”, and this is where an advanced Soul feels totally abandoned by God. If God is teaching us at this stage how to participate in the suffering of Our Lord Jesus that He experienced on the cross, then our suffering time will be experienced in the Permanent Refuge. Both Father Michel Rodrigue and John Leary tell us that we will have to endure suffering in the Refuges because it will be the remainder of our purgation on Earth before the New Heaven and New Earth are transformed. From the messages they received from the Lord, there will no longer be a Purgatory during the Era of Peace. So, we must go through the rest of our purgation to become Saints in the Refuges. Not sure what this suffering will entail, but we must continue to pray for the graces of God to be able to endure this suffering, especially if we are going endure a dark night of the soul.
Father Quan also speaks about heroic virtue at this stage and how a soul will not only accomplish heroic action frequently and easily, but with extreme joy. I do believe there will be many Saints that will accomplish this stage when they are martyred for the sake of Jesus Christ. We are seeing it now, but we will see it more during the Persecution of God’s Church, which is most likely coming very soon. Father Quan also speaks about the soul at this level that will make a life of reparation for the Salvation of Souls. These are the victim souls, like Luisa Piccarretta or Saint Padre Pio. Then there is ecstatic union where the soul is so engrossed in God, that they lose their exterior senses. This is witnessed mostly when a prophet, or visionary is receiving an apparition or message and is so engrossed with God, they don’t feel pain, or are distracted. Then finally, there is the transforming union of the soul with the Blessed Trinity interiorly, in the depths of his or her soul. This is a soul’s total marriage to God and confirmation in grace where his or her soul is so transformed into His image, God has protected them from Mortal sin! Wow, what an honor and blessing!
Father Quan reminds us that these are the normal stages of Spiritual growth that God intended for all of us, but we have to keep persevering in Faith in God and make diligent efforts to keep striving to obtain this total union with God. We must continue to pray for God to Transform us and ask the Holy Spirit to guide us in what we need to do to continue to grow Spiritually to become a Disciple for Jesus Christ, especially as the Remnant of His Church.
Emmanuel – “God is with Us”. Jesus, We Trust in You. Have a blessed day.
Live and Love for JESUS - Surrender, Relationship, Transformation, and Discipleship 