Education of the Heart : Fr. Yves le Roux

Dear friends and benefactors,

We must always be certain of the love of God for us. This love is not a utopia, but a reality which must be deeply impressed in our hearts. God is at the center of our souls and there He waits to converse as a friend with us. Let us go beyond our impressions and the illusions conjured up by our imagination. The tenderness of God transcends our senses; it resides in the most intimate part of our being, that which is not affected by our emotions.

Let us remain faithful to this Love, because all our other loves must be rooted in it. The depth and the truth of any love are to be judged by making reference to God. Does this love bring us closer to God? It is worthy to be considered. Does it take us away from God? We must reject it pitilessly, even in spite of being sometimes strongly attracted to it. Love is such a high and noble reality that only God can be its measure. Otherwise, love becomes a terrible snare that locks us into a world of pride and sensuality from which it is almost impossible to break free.

Subjecting all our loves to the Love of God leads inexorably to a life of sacrifices. But these sacrifices, inherent in all true love, prevent us from sinking into selfishness. Selfishness always leads to sensuality, which is anything but a proof of love!

So many ambiguities slip under the word “love”. It is not surprising that our degenerate times only retain the more material consequences of love. These are also the less noble because they are not ordained to a higher reality.

We must also acknowledge that our own notion of love is the consequence of the principles that have guided our education. If, during our formation, we have been instructed about the true and the beautiful, our intelligence has been formed to be able to judge and to choose in function of the end. Bringing all realities into the perspective of eternity, we are able to reject the vain loves that flatter our senses but are an obstacle for our ascension towards God.

It is certain that the intelligence alone cannot react against certain appeals of the heart. For this reason it is essential that we receive also in the course of our education a formation that strengthens our will. It is not enough to see what is true; it is further necessary to embrace it with our whole soul, even against our own inclinations.

We must surround our children with a strong affection. It must be strong because only rigor strengthens the will for the harsh combat of life. Our Lord has praised this exercise of violence against ourselves and against our inclinations as the condition for attaining the palm of victory in heaven. Let us for a moment look around us and see how few today are faithful to their duties.

The excessive love that they have for self is the cause of their failure. Nobody has ever taught them to overcome themselves. They are unhappy and they make everyone around them miserable.

It must be a strong affection because our will is the faculty that makes us capable of loving and it must be formed to love in the right manner. Unfortunately today, parents do not give to their children this necessary affection. A will that is not nourished and formed turns towards the first illusion that appears and leads man to a behavior that satisfies his unruly passions but does not nourish his will. The will rapidly becomes the slave of the senses.

Life is a serious matter. It implies a vigorous engagement in the combat to make our intelligence and will triumph. These are the two noble faculties of our soul and the ground for the incarnation of grace. He who does not live in conformity to the dictates of his intelligence and will is unable to follow the directions of grace – he is incapable of truly loving because he no longer has the Love of God.

We are forced to acknowledge that far too often love chokes souls instead of making them blossom. Love is presented to us under its most abject form. Even if we reject this unhealthy spirit, we live in a world that exalts this animal instinct as the normal way of human life and we suffer its perverse influence. The man that today no longer knows the path of renouncement and is pleased with himself is nothing more than a mutilated being. If he re-mains such he will never know the nobility of that human love that is a mirror of the Divine Love and that carries in itself the stigmata of sacrifice.

My words are grave. Please, do not attribute this gravity to my age – it is only the manifestation of a love that is paternal because it is priestly. Knowing how sensitive our generation is, I cannot help trembling for the future. I fear that so much sensibility will deceive us and lead us into the snares of the Enemy.

Let us learn to love in truth under the gaze of God, understanding that love is above all a union of wills and not a grotesque show of sentimentality. One day we must rid our-selves of this nefarious influence of sentimentality. Then, we will be able to understand better the foundations of the modern world and overcome its snares. We will be able to love in truth by allowing ourselves to be loved by Christ, Who wants to impress His countenance in our souls and in our lives.

In Christo Sacerdote et Maria,

Fr. Yves le Roux

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Education of the Heart : Fr. Yves le Roux

Education of the Heart

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