The perfect soul is the one whose affective drive is wholly directed to God.
Saint Maximus the Confessor
Perfection and Affection
1–2 minutes
One response to “Perfection and Affection”
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I wonder if our modern world has corrupted the meaning of perfection. The perfection of these writers, it seems to me, is not so much an ‘I can do this!’ out of sheer bloody-mindedness, aka ‘perfectionism’, but of a complete and unconditional surrender of self. Also, there’s no immediacy about it… it’s not a ‘thing’ to obtain as much as a moving toward something and away from other things. Am I making any sense? I find these things so difficult to put into words… being a weak and feeble-minded woman, as St. Teresa of Avila says…
One thing I have learned: I can’t read these sorts of books quickly. I usually read books quickly. I devour them. But spiritual books, I’ve learned, have to be read slowly, and that’s ok. Maybe there’s a blog post in that :-)
Contemplative in the Mud 