The Desire for Sanctity

He who is actuated by any other motive than that of pleasing God, regardless of what he may do or the extent to which he may go, will avail little or nothing. This is the "most excellent way" (1 Cor. 12:31) of which St. Paul speaks, and which consists simply in the practice of the love of God or charity.

However, in order to follow this course it is necessary to abandon oneself to God entirely and without reserve and to have a blind faith and confidence in the designs of His infinite love. [...] It will always be true that without trials and crosses it is impossible to enter the kingdom of God: that His grace, by whatever means it may come, will never fail us; and that our intentions, aspirations, desires, and efforts ought always to tend toward one and the same thing: union with and the possession of God. [...]

It is important not to intimidate [souls], not to confine them within narrow limits or suppress their most noble aspirations, but to animate and encourage them to rise ever higher toward God by making them aware of the infinite riches of His love and of His desire to find hearts disposed to receive them. The important thing, finally, is to teach them to overcome and detach themselves totally from self in order to receive these spiritual treasures. They must be made to understand that one does not reach this goal by way of high-flown notions or aspirations to extraordinary things, but through profound humility and the annihilation of every desire that does not proceed from a pure and holy love of God. In brief, they must be made to realize that they will love God in exact proportion as they die to self. What danger can there be in this? What danger can there be in inculcating in souls the desire to be nothing in order that God may become their all? [...]

If [souls] know that the normal or ordinary characteristics of progress toward the mystical life are not sweetness and ecstasies, but trials and crosses which are sometimes so severe that the master of mysticism, St. John of the Cross, compares them to hell itself (Dark Night, Bk. II, chap. 6), then they will not lose heart, but will be greatly encouraged to pass through the terrible desert which leads to the promised land. [...]

As long as they come to love God ardently and unite themselves closely to Him, what does anything else matter? Only one thing is necessary: to love God as He should be loved.

If souls are taught to ask, not for the extraordinary, but for the ordinary elements of the mystical life, that is, the substance and reality of these graces which give it its sanctifying efficacy; if they are taught to ask fervently and perseveringly for the perfect possession of the Holy Ghost and all His gifts and fruits, then we shall see His marvelous effects of perfection and sanctification. [...]

Ardent desires and aspirations for sanctity, then, should be fomented and encouraged. After all, how do we know that God does not call us to greater things simply because we have not experienced them? Did the saints, perchance, begin their spiritual life at the heights? What danger can there be in desiring to ascend with them to the summits they attained? These fervent desires are inspired by the Holy Ghost Himself [....]

There is no better prayer than that which rises from the depths of our humility and misery and from the desire to receive the Holy Ghost and be sanctified by Him, putting ourselves in His hands entirely and without reserve, so that He may do with us whatever He wishes and that we may be consumed by the fire of His love.

If we proceed in this way, there is no danger of being deceived. Deception consists in believing that we possess the divine gifts when we do not, or in thinking that we can acquire them by our own industry and effort; but to desire and ask for them with all our heart is not in itself a source of self-deception. On the contrary, it is the best means of freeing ourselves from all error and deception, for it is these gifts that "sanctify us in truth" (Jn. 17:17). This is precisely one of the signs of a right spirit: the ardent desire to know that one is not being deceived and to be sanctified in truth. Therefore, good souls are always fearful and uncertain, regardless of how great the graces and gifts they have received [....]

Let us not, then, suppress the ardent desires for sanctity in souls. [...] Let us foment them by every means possible, being careful only that they be real and sincere. [...] Let us be guided in prayer by faith and the impulses of our heart and let us constantly and ardently ask for a boundless love of God and the gifts of His Holy Spirit, for He himself has promised them to us and seeks only to find a heart upon which to lavish them. Nor let us forget the saying of the saints: The more God wants to give of Himself, the more does He cause HImself to be desired, and the more we desire Him the more does He give Himself to us, because the hope of heaven attains as much as it hopes for.

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Source: Fr. Victorino Osende, Fruits of Contemplation, trans. by a Dominican Sister (St. Louis, MO: B. Herder Book Co., 1963), 9-10, 23, 27-30