From Selfishness to Selflessness

If I have told you this story before, no matter, I want to tell it again. It  was such a great help to me in my own spiritual life, that I am hoping that it might be of help to you too. During a series of talks that I gave to Cistercian monks in the Cameroon, I was able to spend many hours with the holiest man I have ever met. He was in his eighties and I learned far more from him than his fellow monks learnt from me. He told me how for many years he had been in spiritual darkness where many times over he questioned the faith that led him to the monastery where he was called upon to guide others.

Then, one day he became ill and was admitted to the monastery hospital where he received Holy Communion each day. On three distinct occasions, just as he was about to receive communion, he heard these words, “Only you have been keeping me out.” He insisted that he did not hear them in his head, or through some sort of inner revelation, but, “Out loud, and as loud and as clearly as you have been speaking to us during your talks.” Simultaneously he found himself immersed in the love of God in such a way that he became continually caught up in what he could only describe as a weak ecstasy.   read on.....