It could be added to yesterday’s post something about the Gifts of the Holy Spirit.
Living in our “inmost centre” and having out actions radiate outwards from there would also mean that, in the simplicity of the simplest part of us, the Holy Spirit pours forth the seven Gifts which explode into action, outwards and downwards from the innermost and uppermost part of our soul. Sort of like this:
And as we are closest to that centre, we are best able to see these added initiatives (which are the seven Gifts) and best able to not lose track of them as they pass “outwards” and “downwards” into the rest of our life. For, until now, we have been losing track of the Gifts; or we would have been losing track of them if the Spirit tried to use them more and we were not yet ready. As Father Garrigou-Lagrange says,
It is in the depths of the soul that everything ends, and in a sense it is there that everything began, without our having been aware of it.
Can we become aware of it? Yes, by going to the centre. That is where to go to not lose track of grace flowing through the rest of us, for “outwards” and “downwards” signify a complication and diversification with respect to the original source; it is like an example that Saint Francis de Sales gives in a different but closely related context:
The further water runs from its source, the more does it divide itself… perfections separate and divide themselves according as they are more remote from God their source; but approaching near him they are united, until they are lost in the abyss of that sole sovereign perfection, which is the necessary unity and the better part [Lk 10:38–42] which Magdalen chose and which shall not be taken away from her.
As waters atop a mountain flow outwards and downwards, so it is with things more remote from the centre of divine inspiration by the Gifts in our heart. They remain waters. But the complication is best understood if we can stand at the mountaintop and observe what happens to the waters as they leave the original, overflowing spring.
I say that we could not lose track of the Gifts as they pass “outwards” and “downwards” into the rest of our life. Not that we watch them attentively. That’s not possible. If we consciously and deliberately watched them attentively, we’d be sure to lose track of them, since, by definition, the added initiatives of the Gifts pass beyond our conscious grasp. But, if we sat at the centre, we would be less likely to lose track of them insofar as rejecting their inspiration. It is, of course, simpler to see them at the simple point where they converge and begin, rather than at the various complicated, spread-out points to which they expand.
To better see the expanding explosion, even when we don’t understand it, means to better not lose track of its effects.
Some related posts:
Contemplative in the Mud 