Excerpts from "You." Rev. M. Raymond 1957If you have not been called to become a great saint- a Dominic, a Bernard, an Ignatius of Loyola -you have undeniably been called to become a saint -and that is greatness enough for any man, woman or child.
Time will make you acquainted with your supernatural limitations, just as it did, and yet does, with your natural ones. It is highly probable, that you will never be able to pray as did Teresa of Avila, as Catherine of Sienna or Gemma Galgani. Yet, so long as you have a mind and a will, you can always to your particular kind of praying- and that, indeed, is the only kind by which you can praise your God! Perhaps it already seems quite evident to you that you will never love God as did the Poor Man of Assisi, and bear in your body the five wounds of Christ; or love him as did St. Bernard, the man of Clairvaux who loved the Crucified so ardently that one day Christ unfixed Himself from a cross in order to hug His loving monk. Perhaps you already know that you will never be so aflame with love for God that your body, like that of St. Francis Xavier, will not be able to hold the fire. But so long as you live you will be able to love your God exactly as He wishes to be loved by you.
Perhaps the pithiest and best advice that can be given on this point is: Pray as you can; don't try to pray as you can't! Love your God as you can; don't try to love Him with somebody else's heart! Live with your loving God as you can.
Obviously Christ always acted under the promptings of the Holy Spirit...What keeps you from doing the same? Does not every dictate of reason and demand of decency prompt you to like docility? Since you are His member are you not obliged to follow the lead of your Head? It is the very same Spirit who worked in Christ who works in you. But He must have your cooperation!
Fear not, then, if the Spirit should lead you into the desert to be tempted. Yield yourself to His promptings and you come out of every desert as did the Christ- magnificently triumphant.
