
PATHS TO HOLINESS
There are more differences
between people’s souls than between people’s faces. Each person’s relationship with
God is unique, and therefore each person’s prayer is
unique. No one can map out a path or method that applies
to everyone, because that would mean disregarding
people’s freedom and the diversity of their spiritual
journeys. It is up to each believer to discover, in response to the
Spirit’s movement and in the freedom of the Spirit, the path
along which God wishes to lead him or her.
— Time for God, p.44
For
God, each person is absolutely unique.
Holiness is not the realization of a given model of perfection
that is identical for everyone. It is the emergence of an
absolutely unique reality that God alone knows,
and that he alone brings to fruition. No individual knows
what his own holiness consists of. Holiness is only revealed
to us by degrees, as we journey on, and it is often something
very different from what we imagine, so much so
that the greatest obstacle on the path to holiness may be to
cling too closely to the image we have of our own perfection.
— In the School of
the Holy Spirit, p.18
It is impossible to attain
holiness by our own power. The whole of Scripture teaches us
that it can only be the fruit of God’s grace. Jesus tells us:
“Apart from me, you can do nothing.” And St. Paul says: “I
can will what is right, but I cannot do it.”
— In the School of the Holy Spirit, p.14