Spiritual Growth and Holiness
The conversation focused on the journey to spiritual growth and holiness, emphasizing the importance of understanding the stages of spiritual life: purgative, illuminative, and unitive ways. The speaker highlighted the need to move beyond comfort and seek growth by spending time with holy individuals and divine persons. Practical steps included spending time in prayer, praying the rosary, and building relationships with saints. The speaker encouraged attendees to identify and reach out to three men they admire for their pursuit of holiness.
MC: Jonathan Larsen
Presenter: Joseph Gruber
Deacon: Rick Freedberg
Brought to you By: The Knights of Columbus
Jackson Michigan & Surrounding Area Catholic Parishes
Queen of the Miraculous Medal: https://queenschurch.com/
St John the Evangelist: https://saintjohnjackson.org/
St Mary Star of the Sea: https://stmaryjackson.com/
St Joseph Oratory: https://saintjohnjackson.org/new-here/st-joseph-the-worker-oratory/
Our Lady of Fatima: http://www.fatimaparish.net/
St Rita: http://www.stritacatholicparish.com/
St Catherine: https://stcatherinelaboureconcord.org/
Audio Trasnscription
Joseph Gruber: Good morning, gentlemen. Deacon Rick, would you open us up in prayer?
Sure. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Father, truly how great thou art. And we ask you to be with us and guide us today as we contemplate the direction you wish us to go. Be with us. Strengthen us. Open our minds and our hearts, and help us to listen to the thoughts you plant in us and let them guide our work and our direction this week. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Thank you, Deacon Rick. Good morning.
Good morning, John. I don't have a microphone, so I'm not tethered to any one spot. I am Joseph Gruber. You may call me Joseph. Joseph. Joseph. Joseph.
I still think it's a funny bit.
Gentlemen, CORE exists to bring men together so we have a chance to gather for prayer, for formation, and for fraternity. These respond to basic desires of the human heart. We desire a relationship with God. We desire a relationship with our neighbor. And we desire a better relationship with ourselves.
These three dimensions of the human heart are what CORE is here to help with. And as I've said maybe a few times, we have very simple aims here at CORE. One, for all of us to become saints. And then two, for the conversion of all of Jackson. That's it. Very simple. Very straightforward.
We will know that CORE is doing what we set out to do when we are all canonized saints, and when Jackson, every church in it, is Catholic, and everybody is going to a Catholic church. That's it. That's what we're aiming for.
And we've been doing this for two years, and I realized something — that maybe, just maybe, it's worth unpacking a little bit about what it means to become a saint. Because if we don't know where we're going, right? Deacon Rick just prayed that we would be attentive to where God is leading us. If we don't know what that journey is, we're probably not going to move.
So this morning, we're going to talk about what that journey is, and some reasons why we don't move, and then maybe something that will get us to move.
This is not to shame anyone. I was joking with Jonathan earlier that the goal is to shame everyone. The goal is not to shame anyone. Raise your hand if you know what I mean when I say the three stages of the spiritual life.
Okay, we've got a couple of hands. That's okay. This is not something that's talked about very much. It's probably not preached about. It's probably not talked about very much. But this is really important.
If the goal is to become a saint, we should have an idea not only of what that looks like, but the journey to get there. Last week, if you were here, you were meditating a little bit about the call to repent, because that's the beginning of the spiritual life, without which there is no spiritual life. You cannot enter the kingdom of God without repentance.
So there are three stages of the spiritual life.
The first stage is called the purgative way. Purgative meaning to purge, to purify. The first stage of the spiritual life is all about our purification. That means we stop doing the dumb stuff that we do. And in a lot of respects it's sort of a negative thing. It's what we don't do. It's about stopping.
The next stage is called the illuminative way. Because it illuminates. It is about the growth in the spiritual life. The purgative way is about not doing the dumb stuff that we've been doing. And the illuminative way is growing in virtue, becoming the men that we're called to be — growing in a life of prayer, of holiness, of service.
And then there's this third stage, which is called the unitive way. The unitive way is when our hearts are totally transformed spiritually, and we actually want what God wants.
Right now, most of us, I dare say, do not want what God wants. If we did, we wouldn't go to confession as often as we do. But we don't want what God wants.
This is the crazy thing about the Christian life: the claim is, if you follow this Jesus guy long enough, you will have his heart. That is the claim — that you will be united to him, that when people see you, they will see Christ. That that is the goal.
Saint Teresa of Avila talked about how our heart is like a castle — an interior castle — with seven rooms, each one deeper in. And the innermost chamber is the spousal chamber. And she says most people don't even go inside their castle. Most people are hanging out in the moat filled with scorpions and snakes.
And the goal is not to hang out with scorpions and snakes. The goal is to traverse the interior castle and be united to our Lord.
If we don't know that that's possible — if we don't even know that that's the aim — it's really no surprise that none of us are the saints we are called to be yet.
Another reason we don't grow: comfort. Most of us want to stay as comfortable as possible. If we can find a status quo that we can bear, we will stick with it.
If I seek comfort, I'm not going to grow. So there has to be something more appealing than comfort.
So here's a kind of hack for the spiritual life: spend time with people who want you to be holy.
Three kinds of persons:
- The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit
- The canonized saints, beginning with the Blessed Mother
- Three living men who are pursuing holiness better than you are
Because again, the goal is very simple: all of us becoming saints, and Jackson becoming Catholic.
