[1418 East 63d St., Seattle]
IHale, Emilyreligious beliefs and practices;x1admits suffering spiritual crisis;a2 must omit any account of myself – not that there is much to tell – from this letter, in order to answer your letter of July 27th.
YouChristianityspiritual progress and direction;d6EH's crisis;a2 have evidently been going through an acute spiritual crisis; and I think I know from my own experience, so far as another person can know, a little of what it has been like. Such crises do happen to one from time to time – it will happen again – but the point is to make the most of it – I mean to take it as a symptom and as a means of spiritual growth – and above all, not to be crushed by it. It all depends on how you take it afterwards. I hope that by now you can review it more calmly.
Now, I am not going to pooh-pooh your feelings about yourself; and in this letter I am not even going to try to persuade you that you are as I see you, and not as you see yourself. Your experience of yourself is perfectly valid so far as it goes. What I want to remind you is that you might, in consequence, be in danger of missing theChristianityvirtues heavenly and capital;e1greatest of the virtues;b8 twoChristianityvirtues heavenly and capital;e1hope, a duty;b4 great Christian virtues: Humility and Hope; and if you did you would be wandering in the wilderness indeed. ForChristianityvirtues heavenly and capital;e1beneath humility;a9 inChristianityvirtues heavenly and capital;e1beneath humility;e5 Catholic ethics Humility is the highest of the virtues, which only the saints achieve completely – greater and more important than Chastity or Temperance – the more I brood over it the more sure I am; and Hope too, is not only a blessed gift but a duty. AndChristianitysins, vices, faults;d5despair;b4 Despair is really a sin.
I suppose it will surprise you to think that perhaps you are not humble enough; and in the ordinary sense I am sure that you are. But indeed, to be over-anxious about the state of one’s soul, over-anxious about one’s faults is a defect of humility. You are right to want to strive towards spiritual perfection, but who are you, that you should have the right to be exasperated with yourself for being merely human? Think, for one thing, what poor creatures we all are. And then try for a moment to get the Catholic way of looking at sin and faults. SinChristianitysins, vices, faults;d5how to invigilate;a1 and faults are particular acts – that is to say, they consist of thought, word and deed which is wrong; and one should examine oneself, or rather get into the habit of having a critical consciousness always at work, to spot the particular wrong thought, word or deed as it occurs (sometimes only a tiny fleeting thought) and immediately reject it – that is to separate it from oneself – to cast out continually everything which is not right, so that one’s pure self shall become stronger and stronger. But the moment I condemn, and sincerely repent, any fault, it ceases to be a part of me. The lack of humility comes in in this way: that it is a disrespect to oneself, and therefore to one’s Creator, to condemn oneself; it is not true that I am bad, but that I have committed many sins.
I know that it is difficult to arrive at the perception of forgiveness. Even for me, with the benefits of confession and absolution, it is very hard not to let my mind dwell on past faults which I have sincerely repented, particularly when I cannot help seeing always the consequences of these faults and sins still going on, in damage to the lives of others. But the best I can do is to accept this as part of my penance.
Now, I doubt, from the way you write, whether you had in mind definite thoughts, words and deeds, occurring at particular moments of time; but rather I suspect, a general diffused sense of insufficiency, and of the drought of spiritual Grace. Is that not so? This is of course a state of mind which all the saints – or rather, many saints and all mystics – have known, sometimes for years on end, and in itself it is a sign of spiritual vocation. But never, never, allow yourself to despair; for that is the greatest temptation which the devil holds out to those whose aims are higher than those of the common lot. So Hope really is a duty.
Try to think calmly and detachedly of your definite moments of fault, separate them from yourself – don’t think of what you are, for you are changing from moment to moment anyway – but of the things that you have thought, and felt and said and done that you disapprove of; and gradually, my dear, what you are will become what you want to be. OfChristianityconfession;b3helps to objectify sin;a1 course confession does help greatly to objectify one’s faults and sins; the telling of them helps one to repudiate them and to distinguish the definite from the vague, the real from the delusory. But even if there are things which you could not tell me or anyone else, you can still practise this separation of yourself from your faults.
I wonder if this is at all the sort of letter that you expected, or that you can use. I want too to remind you that I believe and always shall believe in you more than in the whole world beside; and that it is your duty to all who care for you, and particularly to me, to be humble about your faults and not be too proud to be an ordinary erring human being, and to be hopeful – because there is so much you give and have to give; and if you despaired you would be withdrawing from others, and especially from me, needed food. But O dear, it is so hard to having [sc. have] nothing but written words to comfort you with; when I feel I could do it so much better if I could lift you up in my arms in a quite undignified way and make you laugh at yourself a little.