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Brookline Carmel Bulletin J M J T
March 27, 1960
Cogitatio Sancta
(Holy
Meditation)
Purity of Intention
(This is the text of a
conference by Fr. Gregory, O.C.D.,
given to the New York and
Schenectady Third Orders.)
In St. Paul’s Epistle to the Colossians we read: “Whatever you do or say, let it
always be in the name of the Lord Jesus.” St. Paul was clearly telling the first
Christians that all their actions, even those that are not of a spiritual
nature, should be done in the name of Christ.
The Old Testament tells us that Enoch walked beside God all the days of
his life. This, of course, cannot mean
that we walked physically beside God, but that he always had God in mind in the
midst of his various actions. One of
the best means of attaining to the perfection to which we have been called is
by walking through the world at God’s heels, so close and alive to Him, that we
share everything with Him, refer every moment of happiness, every shadow of
uncertainty to Him, accept everything He sends with conscious gratitude, and
obey the least whisper of His call.
This can be brought about only by striving to acquire purity of
intention in all our actions.
In order to fully understand purity of intention, it is important to
consider why it is necessary. We know
that Almighty God created all things for His greater honor and glory. Unfortunately, much of God’s honor on this
earth is lost, and it is lost in two ways.
First of all, the various sins of men ruin God’s glory. Our souls were made to share in God’s glory,
and deliberate sin robs the soul of one of the things it was created for. Secondly, some of God’s glory on this earth
is lost by men’s forgetfulness of God.
Even good people and those who are called to live a life dedicated to
the Master can, consciously or unconsciously, give God second place.
We can see very clearly in the New Testament that all during His life
on earth Christ labored for the honor and glory of His Father. When Mary and Joseph found Him in the Temple
after He had been lost, Christ said to them:
“Did you not know that I must be about my Father’s business?” All the
labors of Christ for souls during His public life and all the sufferings of His
passion were directed to the honor and glory of His Father. Tertiaries especially are called to a life
of close imitation of Christ. You also
have to labor constantly for the honor and glory of God, and the only way you
can be sure you are doing this is by having a certain purity of intention.
Purity of intention consists in performing all our actions, even the
most trifling ones, for the greater honor and glory of God. We might say there are three types of
actions that we must perform each day.
First, there are the spiritual actions, such as mental prayer, the
Office, spiritual reading, the recitation of the rosary, and any action that is
of a religious nature. If we do not
offer these actions to God, they lose all their value. The mere fact that an action is of a
religious nature does not mean that it is acceptable to God.
Then there are the necessary actions that are not religious. We can say that these are connected with our
work and everyday living, such as walking, talking, cleaning the house,
working, and so forth. These actions
may not seem important, and some of them may even seem trivial, because they
are performed so often, but if we offer them up to God, they do become
important. God is more interested in
what is in our hearts than what is in our hands. The success of the action is not too important either, for even
if some of our actions are failures in the worldly sense of the word, they may
still be successful in the spiritual life, provided we have offered them up to
God. It will also make us perform our
routine actions in a better way. St.
Ignatius once saw a Novice sweeping the Chapel and asked him if he had offered
the work to God. The Novice replied
that he had. Ignatius than told him he
should be ashamed to offer such sloppy work to God.
The Third type of action we perform can be called pleasant actions,
such as eating, relaxing taking recreation, and so forth. Even though these actions are not of a
spiritual nature and are even enjoyable, they can be very important in the
spiritual life, if we do not forget God in the midst of them, and if we perform
them with right intention.
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