In a previous extensive article, we studied the spiritual journey, which is a transformative one. We detailed the various stages and clarified the key turning points. It remains a general presentation, however, as there are many further details and clarifications required throughout the journey of growth.
The form proposed can be summarised as an ascent followed by a descent. Ascent is a widely used image to express spiritual growth—climbing a mountain, the mountain of holiness, where God alone dwells, the mountain of union with God. Many masters throughout the twenty centuries of rich spiritual teaching have used this image (John Climacus, Gregory of Nyssa, John of the Cross,…). The descent, on the other hand, is much less commonly used to express the progression that follows union with God. Yet it remains a valid image. It does not mean in any way that one loses union with God. Rather, it is within this union, in imitation of the Lord—who now lives and acts in the person, with the person, and through the person—that one descends: “Who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” (Philippians 2:6–8, ESV)
We see here the successive stages of the Lord’s descent. It is truly a descent: being God, he takes on human nature and becomes incarnate, then he becomes a servant (a slave), and does so to the point of death. It is, indeed, a descent. When a person becomes united to him, they are invited to follow him in his descent. Therefore, it is entirely appropriate to use the image of “descent” following the “ascent”. The Lord is our example, our guide, and we follow him to the end. (See this article re the Lord’s Descent and the following ones (see at the bottom of the article))
The Lord, within us, continues to apply salvation—the one and only salvation he obtained on the Cross through his death and resurrection. He continues to apply it to the Church and to the world through those united to him. In this sense, the work of salvation—or more precisely, the work of the application of salvation to the world—is still ongoing. This is why St Paul says: “Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I complete what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church.” (Colossians 1:24, ESV)
On the Cross, the Lord performs mysterious acts. Through the Holy Spirit, he is mystically united to each of u —“the people who walked in darkness” and “who dwelt in a land of deep darkness” (Isaiah 9:2, ESV). He seeks to unite himself to us, and this is a work of love (for love unites the lover with the beloved). This action is carried out by the Holy Spirit in him, mystically (that is, invisibly to the naked eye) while he is suspended on the Cross. It is as though he offers his love to each of us, “pushing” his love towards us. He cannot impose it; he offers it.
Note: Blessed Marie-Eugene, in one of his talks, spoke of these mysterious acts. (see here)
Let us see what St. Therese says about the relationship between this love and the members of the Church:
“Considering the mystical body of the Church, I had not recognised myself in any of the members described by St Paul, or rather I wanted to recognise myself in all of them… Charity gave me the key to my vocation. I understood that if the Church had a body, composed of different members, the most necessary, the noblest of all was not missing; I understood that the Church had a Heart, and that this Heart was burning with love. I understood that Love alone made the members of the Church act; that if Love were extinguished, the Apostles would no longer preach the Gospel, the Martyrs would refuse to shed their blood. I understood that Love contained all vocations, that Love was everything, that it embraced all times and all places… in a word, that it is eternal!… So in the excess of my delirious joy, I cried out: O Jesus, my Love… my vocation, at last I have found it—my vocation is Love! Yes, I have found my place in the Church and this place, O my God, you have given it to me… in the Heart of the Church, my Mother, I will be Love… thus I will be everything… thus my dream will be fulfilled!!!…” (Manuscript B, 3v°)
“I will be Love” says Therese. “Love” means God. “Love” is the Holy Spirit. “Love” is an eternal impulse—like a heartbeat—that pulses through the different organs of the Body. God pours forth the Holy Spirit into the entire Body of the Church. Yet he needs the saints to cooperate in transmitting this Love, in “pumping” it into the rest of the Body.
The question is: when is a person able to “pump” the Holy Spirit? What is this mysterious act that enables the person to offer—or rather to infuse—the Holy Spirit into the Body in need of him? To penetrate the depths of the human person, the darkest recesses that require this divine Water that purifies, heals, and transforms?
To answer these questions, we shall examine several spiritual points and conclude with “The Act”.
The Goal of Spiritual Life
When the Christian tradition seeks to indicate the goal of the spiritual life, it speaks of “the acquisition of the Holy Spirit”. For Anthony, Symeon Metaphrastes, Symeon the New Theologian, Seraphim of Sarov, Silvanus, and many others, the goal of the Christian life is to acquire the Holy Spirit.
“– What is the will of God?” asks Symeon Metaphrastes; he replies:
“– It is the perfect purification from sin, the deliverance from dishonourable passions, and the acquisition of supreme virtue, that is to say, the purification and sanctification of the heart, which is fully and truly accomplished through the participation in the perfect and divine Spirit.” (See Philokalia of the Neptic Fathers)
Or again, we have this response from Seraphim of Sarov (1754–1833) to his disciple Motovilov, which we find in their famous dialogue: “Prayer, fasting, vigils, and all the other works of a disciple of Christ, excellent though they may be, do not in themselves constitute the goal of the Christian life, although they are indispensable means for attaining it. The true goal is the acquisition of the Holy Spirit of God.” (“Собственною целью жизни христианской есть стяжание Духа Святаго Божия.”) — St. Seraphim of Sarov, Conversation with Motovilov (1831) He further explained that while practices like prayer, fasting, and almsgiving are virtuous, they serve as means to this ultimate goal: “Prayer, vigil, fasting, almsgiving and other good works done for Christ’s sake are merely means for acquiring the Spirit of God.” (This conversation is detailed in the document “On the Acquisition of the Holy Spirit,” available here).
Another well-known saying attributed to Saint Seraphim is: “Acquire the Spirit of Peace, and thousands around you will be saved.” This emphasises the transformative impact of inner spiritual peace on others (see below).
The concept of acquiring the Holy Spirit is central to Eastern Christian monasticism, emphasised by both the Desert Fathers and later Russian monasticism.
Acquisition of the Holy Spirit
The expression “acquisition of the Holy Spirit” (ktema tou Hagíou Pneúmatos in Greek, or stiazhanie Sviatago Dukha in Church Slavonic) is a key technical term in Eastern Christian spirituality, particularly in the Eastern Orthodox tradition. It refers not simply to receiving the Holy Spirit once at baptism or confirmation, but to a dynamic, transformative, and often gradual personal assimilation of the Spirit through ascetic struggle, prayer, repentance, and communion with God. The term implies that the Spirit becomes the person’s enduring possession or indwelling presence—not as something owned, but as a lived communion. This expression, “acquire the Holy Spirit”, expresses a goal in the Eastern Christian spiritual path: deification (theosis), where the believer becomes by grace what God is by nature (cf. 2 Peter 1:4).
This concept is found particularly in the writings of St. Seraphim of Sarov as seen above, and also:
St. Symeon the New Theologian
A major forerunner of personalist and experiential mysticism in the East, St. Symeon (949–1022) spoke vividly of the necessity of experiencing the Holy Spirit: “He who has truly received the Holy Spirit feels His indwelling and knows it… the Spirit testifies in his soul to his salvation.”— Hymns of Divine Love, various. He often equated salvation with illumination or divinisation through the Spirit, and his writings insist that every Christian is called to this living contact, not just monks. “It is impossible to be saved without the Holy Spirit. The whole of our striving must be toward being clothed with Him.” [A primary English source: Symeon the New Theologian, Hymns of Divine Love, trans. George Maloney, Paulist Press, 1980.]
St. Antony the Great
In Letter 8 (as cited by Fr. Matthew the Poor), Antony emphasises the sanctification of the heart by the Holy Spirit. He does not yet use the term “acquisition,” but already speaks in the language of being “led by” or “transformed by” the Spirit. “The will of God is the perfect purification from sin, the deliverance from dishonourable passions, and the acquisition of the supreme virtue—that is, the purification and sanctification of the heart, accomplished in full reality through participation in the perfect and divine Spirit.” — Letter 8, in Matta el-Maskine, Saint Antoine Ascète selon l’Évangile, Spiritualité Orientale 57, Bellefontaine, 1993, pp. 122–124.
Terminological Notes in Translation
In the original passage (Arabic) quoted by Fr. Matthew the Poor, the verb used is “تنالوا” (tanalū) – “that you may receive”. In French, Seraphim’s language is “l’acquisition de l’Esprit Saint”, and in Russian it is “стяжание Духа Святого”, which carries the nuance of gaining as a lasting possession (akin to attainment or appropriation, not mere receipt). Thus, the English translation should preserve this technical vocabulary. A more precise rendering might be: “The true goal is the acquisition of the Holy Spirit of God,” rather than simply, “The goal is to receive the Holy Spirit.”
Theological Significance
In the Eastern tradition, this acquisition is:
- Progressive, not once-for-all.
- Synergistic, involving cooperation with grace through ascetical effort.
- Experiential, leading to illumination and divine intimacy.
- Transformative, culminating in theosis.
The Holy Spirit is Fire
We must remember that the Holy Spirit is fire. God Himself is a consuming fire (cf. Hebrews 12:29; Dt. 4:24). When we speak of acquiring the Holy Spirit, we mean that the person is transformed into the fire of the Spirit, and that the person’s prayer is also transformed. St John of the Cross develops this reality extensively in his book Living Flame of Love. He dares to affirm that, having acquired the Holy Spirit—possessing the Spirit as something that now belongs to the person—the individual gives the Holy Spirit back to God as a divine gift, worthy of who God is, one which satisfies the desire to love as the person is loved by God (See Living Flame of Love III,79). Not only that, but he goes even further: he declares that the person gives the Holy Spirit to whomever they choose (Living Flame of Love III,78)!
This idea brings us very close to the fiery prayer of St. Thérèse, as expressed at the end of her Manuscript C, where she speaks of a burning prayer capable of lifting the entire world. This is possible because its fulcrum is God and God alone—the person has become pure and transformed in Him—and its lever is the fiery prayer of one who has been transformed into the Holy Spirit, who is Fire (see Ms C, 36v°).
“This is no doubt why the Holy Spirit, before the birth of Jesus, dictated this prophetic prayer: “Draw me, we will run” (Song of Songs). What is it then to ask to be Attracted, if not to unite oneself in an intimate way with the object which captivates the heart? If the fire and the iron were right and the latter said to the other: Draw me, would he not prove that he wishes to identify himself with the fire so that it penetrates it? and imbues it with its burning substance and seems to become one with it. Beloved mother, this is my prayer, I ask Jesus to draw me into the flames of his love, to unite me so closely to him, that he may live and act in me. I feel that the more the fire of love ignites my heart, the more I will say: “Attract me”, the more the souls who will approach me (poor little scrap of useless iron, if I move away from the divine brazier), the more these souls will run with speed at the scent of the perfumes of the Beloved, for a soul aflame with love cannot remain inactive; […] All the saints have understood this and more particularly perhaps those who filled the universe with the illumination of the gospel doctrine. Is it not in prayer that Sts Paul, Augustine, John of the Cross, Thomas Aquinas, Francis, Dominic and so many other illustrious Friends of God have drawn this Divine science which delights the greatest geniuses?” (Ms C 35v°-36r°)
An important note. The seventh July 1897, Therese says to one of her sisters, Mary of the Trinity: “From the age of 14, I also had assaults of love; ah! how I loved the good God! But it was not at all like after my offering to Love, it was not a true flame that burned within me” (Yellow Notebook 7.7.2). “A true flame,” she says! “my offering to Love” alludes to her Act of Oblation.
Isaac, Priest of the Cells, gives us this quote: Abba Joseph said to Abba Lot, “You cannot be a monk unless you become like a consuming fire.” (Εἶπεν ὁ ἀββᾶς Ἰωσὴφ τῷ ἀββᾷ Λώτ· Οὐ δύνα σαι γενέσθαι μοναχὸς, ἐὰν μὴ γένῃ ὡς πῦρ φλογιζό μενος ὅλος) (Joseph of Panephysis, Saying 6, Page 103)
Abba Lot went to see Abba Joseph and said to him, “Abba, as far as I can I say my little office, I fast a little, I pray and meditate, I live in peace and as far as I can, I purify my thoughts. What else can I do?” Then the old man stood up and stretched his hands towards heaven. His fingers became like ten lamps of fire and he said to him, “If you will, you can become all flame.” (Παρέβαλεν ὁ ἀββᾶς Λὼτ τῷ ἀββᾷ Ἰωσὴφ, καὶ λέγει αὐτῷ· Ἀββᾶ κατὰ δύναμίν μου ποιῶ τὴν μι κράν μου σύναξιν, καὶ τὴν μικρὰν νηστείαν μου, καὶ τὴν εὐχὴν, καὶ τὴν μελέτην, καὶ τὴν ἡσυχίαν, καὶ τὸ κατὰ δύναμίν μου καθαρεύω τοῖς λογισμοῖς. Τί οὖν ἔχω ποιῆσαι λοιπόν; Ἀναστὰς οὖν ὁ γέρων, ἥπλωσε τὰς χεῖρας εἰς τὸν οὐρανόν· καὶ γεγόνασιν οἱ δάκτυ λοι αὐτοῦ, ὡς δέκα λαμπάδες πυρός· καὶ λέγει αὐ τῷ· Εἰ θέλεις, γενοῦ ὅλος ὡς πῦρ) Joseph of Panephysis, Saying 7, Page 103.
The Act According to Saint John of the Cross and Thérèse
By adding some detail and making a slight adjustment in the presentation of the spiritual journey, it is preferable, before addressing the descent, to concentrate on the culmination of the journey: the fruit of the Act of Oblation and the beginning of transformative union. At this point, the person becomes capable of sending flares of the Holy Spirit—with the Holy Spirit, by the Holy Spirit—as described by St John of the Cross in The Living Flame of Love.
The diagram is slightly modified to focus entirely on the new capacity to produce these interior, mysterious acts of love. The person was not able to produce them before this stage. In St Thérèse of the Child Jesus, this stage is marked by the immense grace she receives—an immense grace God grants to the Church through her: the discovery of how God desires to be loved. This, in turn, leads her to offer herself to the Merciful Love of God, that is, to the Holy Spirit (see article here).
This offering enables Thérèse to perform those mysterious acts which can only be truly described, in their purity and power, by the short text in which she explains the lifting of the world through such acts:
“A scholar said, ‘Give me a lever and a fulcrum, and I will lift the world.’ What Archimedes was unable to obtain, because his request was not addressed to God and was only made from a material point of view, the Saints obtained in all its fullness. The Almighty gave them, as a point of support: Himself and Him alone; for a lever: prayer, which ignites with the fire of love, and thus they lifted the world. Thus do the Saints still on the battlefield lift it, and thus will the Saints to come lift it, until the end of the world.” (Ms C 36r°–v°)
It is only with the help of St John of the Cross that one can begin to understand these acts of “lifting the world”—their purity, their power. As he states:
“A little of this pure love is more precious to God and to the soul and more beneficial to the Church—even though it may seem that one is doing nothing—than all these other works put together.” (Spiritual Canticle B, stanza 29, Introduction)
Here follows the quote from the introduction to stanza 29:
“1. The soul, indeed, lost to all things and won over to love, no longer occupies her spirit in anything else. She even withdraws in matters pertinent to the active life and other exterior exercises for the sake of fulfilling the one thing the Bridegroom said was necessary [Lk. 10:42], and that is: attentiveness to God and the continual exercise of love in him. This the Lord values and esteems so highly that he reproved Martha when she tried to call Mary away from her place at his feet in order to busy her with other active things in his service; and Martha thought that she herself was doing all the work and Mary, because she was enjoying the Lord’s presence, was doing nothing [Lk. 10:39-41]. Yet, since there is no greater or more necessary work than love, the contrary is true. The Lord also defends the bride in the Song of Songs, conjuring all creatures of the world, referred to by the daughters of Jerusalem, not to hinder the bride’s spiritual sleep of love or cause her to awaken or open her eyes to anything else until she desire [Sg. 3:5].
2. It should be noted that until the soul reaches this state of union of love, she should practice love in both the active and contemplative life. Yet once she arrives she should not become involved in other works and exterior exercises that might be of the slightest hindrance to the attentiveness of love toward God, even though the work be of great service to God. For a little of this pure love is more precious to God and the soul and more beneficial to the Church, even though it seems one is doing nothing, than all these other works put together.
Because of her determined desire to please her Bridegroom and benefit the Church, Mary Magdalene, even though she was accomplishing great good by her preaching and would have continued doing so, hid in the desert for 30 years in order to surrender herself truly to this love. It seemed to her, after all, that by such retirement she would obtain much more because of the notable benefit and gain that a little of this love brings to the Church.
3. Great wrong would be done to a soul who possesses some degree of this solitary love, as well as to the Church, if we were to urge her to become occupied in exterior or active things, even if the works were very important and required only a short time. Since God has solemnly entreated that no one awaken a soul from this love [Sg. 3:5], who will dare do so and remain without reproof? After all, this love is the end for which we were created.
Let those, then, who are singularly active, who think they can win the world with their preaching and exterior works, observe here that they would profit the Church and please God much more, not to mention the good example they would give, were they to spend at least half of this time with God in prayer, even though they might not have reached a prayer as sublime as this. They would then certainly accomplish more, and with less labor, by one work than they otherwise would by a thousand. For through their prayer they would merit this result, and themselves be spiritually strengthened. Without prayer they would do a great deal of hammering but accomplish little, and sometimes nothing, and even at times cause harm. God forbid that the salt should begin to lose its savor [Mt. 5:13]. However much they may appear to achieve externally, they will in substance be accomplishing nothing; it is beyond doubt that good works can be performed only by the power of God.
4. Oh, how much could be written here on this subject! But this is not the place.”
On the diagram, we have a long red arrow that takes us from the very beginning of the spiritual journey to the Act itself, showing that this is the true goal. The Lord indeed desires to unite us to Himself, but at the same time, the work of salvation is ongoing. He is inviting us to a loving participation in His redemptive mission. What a mystery.
To be capable of producing such acts is indeed a marvel. They rely entirely on God, on Jesus the Stone, the Altar, and they possess this mysterious and incredible lifting power of the Holy Spirit—or rather, the power of the Lord Jesus, the High Priest, who, holding the entire world in His hands, lifts it to the Father, in the Spirit. The person, being capable of making such acts, is able to participate in the pure priestly action of the Lord High Priest, in the Holy Spirit.
What a mystery!
We begin to understand more clearly why our prayer needs to become fire – because it is necessary and immensely fruitful. Through Jesus and with the Holy Spirit, we are enabled to offer the Holy Spirit to the Mystical Body (the Church and the World – the Church yet to be; in purple on the diagram), which is in desperate need of salvation and the light of Jesus. By entering into the “Body” and penetrating into the depths of its darkness, we bring Jesus’ Light. What a mystery!
This is depicted in the diagram above by the Act at the threshold of the Body, in light purple… and it is a descent, reaching out to those far from God (darker purple).
St. Teresa of Avila, in the seventh mansion of her Interior Castle, reminds us to pray for those in the first mansions. Suddenly, by understanding this new dimension of the Act, we realise that what is needed in this “prayer” for those in the first mansions is something profoundly deep and mysterious. Here is what she says, but now we can read her recommendation with a deeper understanding:
“When Our Lord is pleased to have pity upon this soul, which suffers and has suffered so much out of desire for Him, and which He has now taken spiritually to be His bride, He brings her into this Mansion of His, which is the seventh, before consummating the Spiritual Marriage. For He must needs have an abiding-place in the soul, just as He has one in Heaven, where His Majesty alone dwells: so let us call this a second Heaven. It is very important, sisters, that we should not think of the soul as of something dark. It must seem dark to most of us, as we cannot see it, for we forget that there is not only a light which we can see, but also an interior light, and so we think that within our soul there is some kind of darkness. Of the soul that is not in grace, I grant you, that is true — not, however, from any defect in the Sun of Justice, Who is within it and is giving it being, but because, as I think I said in describing the first Mansion, this soul is not capable of receiving the light. A certain person came to see that these unhappy souls are, as it were, in a dark prison, with their feet and hands bound so that they can do no good thing which will help them to win merit; they are both blind and dumb. We do well to take pity on them, realising that there was a time when we were ourselves like them and that the Lord may have mercy on them also.
Let us take especial care, sisters, to pray to Him for them, and not be negligent. To pray for those who are in mortal sin is the best kind of almsgiving — a much better thing than it would be to loose a Christian whom we saw with his hands tied behind him, bound with a stout chain, made fast to a post and dying of hunger, not for lack of food, since he has beside him the most delicious things to eat, but because he cannot take them and put them into his mouth although he is weary to death and actually knows that he is on the point of dying, and not merely a death of the body, but one which is eternal. Would it not be extremely cruel to stand looking at such a man and not give him this food to eat? And supposing you could loose his chains by means of your prayers? You see now what I mean. For the love of God, I beg you always to remember such souls when you pray.” (Interior Castle, Seventh Mansion, chapter 1)
Note: Two Important Radical Changes
This additional note highlights two significant and radical changes in the spiritual journey. As humans, we often view things through a limited, human perspective, which tends to reduce the depth of God’s work within us. However, the great masters of the spiritual life caution us about two key transformations that mark profound shifts in our journey. In the diagram below, two segments of the path are depicted almost vertically, 6 to 9 and 12 to 13a. The choice of vertical lines here is intentional, symbolising a profound change that cannot be achieved through small, human steps (even with the normal help of the grace of God) but requires a new different and direct intervention from God. These two phases are highlighted in yellow with the infinite sign ∞ in red .
In the first phase (6 to 9) God intervenes directly within us, placing His Hand upon us and radically purifying us. This transformation alters our ability to know and love Him, shifting our human understanding to a divine one. We may begin to label our actions and life as “spiritual,” which is true because the object of these actions is God, and the Holy Spirit is working in us. However, we may fail to realize that initially, the Holy Spirit works in us in a “human modality” (as St. John of the Cross calls it) or “imperfectly spiritual” (as St. Teresa of Avila puts it in Way of Perfection). This is why God’s intervention is necessary at the root of our actions, to purify and elevate them. This phase corresponds to what St. John of the Cross describes as the “Dark Night of the Spirit.”
The second vertical phase of growth (12 to 13a) follows the spiritual marriage or union with God (10). After this union, a time of celebration ensues (10 to 11), but it also marks the intensification of God’s fire within us (11 to 12). Our spirit, now (13a) transformed in the Holy Spirit, becomes capable—through the Holy Spirit—of sending flares or flames of fire. These mysterious new acts are the essence of this phase. How long does this phase last? It may be as swift as the lighting of a candle. Consider what happened to Thérèse when she offered herself to the Merciful Love of God. Even if brief, this moment is of the utmost importance: it marks the decisive transition from a wick that is still extinguished to one that is suddenly set ablaze and capable of sending flares (flames of Love). St Thérèse was deeply marked by this passage from St John of the Cross: ‘It is of the utmost importance to practise love intensely, so that the soul, being quickly consumed in it, may not linger long here below and may swiftly come to behold its God face to face.’ (Living Flame of Love) Elsewhere as well—in the Living Flame of Love—the saint affirms that it is important to desire to attain this quality of love.
Note: It is crucial to emphasise that we do not wait until this point to exercise charity! That would be a grave mistake. It is through the practice of charity, loving our neighbor to perfection, that we grow spiritually. This is consistently emphasised by St. Teresa of Avila (in her Interior Castle, Mansions 5, and Way of Perfection) and St. John of the Cross (in Spiritual Canticle, Stanza 12,11).
The increase in our capacity to love—manifested as these new interior acts of love—is of utmost importance. The distinction between our previous acts and the new ones is enormous. At this stage, the person realises that it is God who must come into us and assist us in making these acts. This insight forms the core of St. Therese’s Act of Oblation. She wisely states:
“In order to live in an act of perfect love, I OFFER MYSELF AS A VICTIM OF HOLOCAUST TO YOUR MERCIFUL LOVE, asking You to consume me incessantly, allowing the waves of infinite tenderness shut up within You to overflow into my soul, and that thus I may become a martyr of Your Love, O my God! […] I want, O my Beloved, at each beat of my heart to renew this offering to You an infinite number of times, until the shadows having disappeared, I may be able to tell You of my Love in an Eternal Face to Face!”
She understands that all our righteous acts are tainted in some way, and that all our actions—whether perceived as “perfect” in our eyes, or flawed—need to be offered to the Holy Spirit (the Merciful Love of God). Everything that is good in us, and everything that is not, must be surrendered to the Holy Spirit. He takes it, transforms it, purifies it, and presents it to God, making it pleasing to Him. What pleases God comes from God: the Holy Spirit.
Here, our weakness is not an obstacle; it is simply a reminder to offer everything to God and refrain from judging our actions, entrusting everything, and ourselves, to Him.
This radical change, and the sudden outpouring of fiery charity, reaches an entirely new level.
How Does This Fiery Prayer Work?
Question:
So this “fiery charity” is the entrusting of everything — including both our good and bad parts — to God. By “entrusting everything” is meant offering prayers for all that we become aware of as needing God’s love in their lives, so as to be transformed: the “needy”, as Mother Teresa of Calcutta put it. The needy are those in spiritual, emotional, or physical distress — enslaved by various forms of sin.
In other words, “fiery love” is to love our neighbour through a life of intense prayer, as Jesus loves us. It is to become a flame of love that will warm (that is, transform in some way) others along their path of purification towards God.
The “acquisition” of this fire of the Holy Spirit will grow in us as we journey towards spiritual marriage, through the practice of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving (both spiritual and material).
Answer:
Your question is: how do we do this, how does this fiery prayer work?
Firstly, it is important to understand that we are not necessarily aware of the fiery aspect of our prayer. Our Prayer of the Heart may seem dull or uneventful. Nevertheless, it is important to remember to hold our Rosary (see the article) and engage in the Prayer of the Heart in this way.
To answer your question, it is helpful to approach it from a simple perspective — from above, so to speak. In my humble view, it works by praying the Rosary in the mode of the Prayer of the Heart (see the article). For the Rosary is Mary’s prayer, Mary’s fire. Do we not say: “Pray for us sinners”? Her prayer is the most powerful charity — a beam of divine love directed towards the needy. Yet we do not know who the needy are. We stay “in the obscurity of Faith”.
Of course, this presupposes that the person has made the Act of Oblation to the merciful love of God (offering everything, good and bad, including themselves) and repeats it from time to time, in the simplest form as explained by St Thérèse herself: “Draw me, and we shall run” (see Thérèse’s explanation at the end of Manuscript C in Story of a Soul) (see “Mary’s Fiery Prayer”).
Each “Hail Mary” is like an act of love, a divine charity being infused into the “body” for whom we are praying. There is no need to be specific, to visualise or aim toward a particular person, or even to expect to see any results. It is God Himself who orchestrates the meeting between the Charity of our acts (Mary’s acts) and the needs of the Church and the world.
We need only to say the “Hail Marys”, peacefully. It is the most powerful “weapon” of attack and victory.
More is explained in the following articles: “A Mysterious Warfare” and also the article/book “Mary’s Fiery Prayer”.
Now, you asked the question about growth and reaching this level or quality of fiery charity. One might ask: do I need to wait until I reach this level before I can be “busy” carrying out ordinary acts of charity? The answer is twofold:
- We never cease performing exterior acts of charity — and you are right in saying that they help us grow.
- Should we wait until we reach that point? Firstly, we cannot necessarily know whether we have reached it or not. My preference leans once again towards the Rosary. Why? Because, as I mentioned above, it is Mary’s prayer that we are invoking when we say: “pray for us sinners” — and Mary responds. Our duty is to say the Hail Mary, and in saying it, we are in fact asking for her intercession, to which she always responds in her own way, with her prayer.
So, in a way — and paradoxically (I seem to contradict what I said earlier) — we reach, in faith, in the obscurity of faith, the purity of Mary’s prayer, her fiery charity, from the very moment we pray the Rosary in the form of the Prayer of the Heart (see the article).
Read Also
– The Spiritual Journey and Spiritual Formation
– The Spiritual Journey in 11 Diagrams
– The Act of Oblation of St. Therese
– The Perfect Contemplative Prayer of Christ
– On the Acquisition of the Holy Spirit, Dialogue of St. Seraphim of Sarov and Motovilov
– St. Anthony the Great, Letter 8 (On the Holy Spirit)