Frivolity!

"I remember when I was a postulant I sometimes used to seek my own satisfaction and enjoy a little pleasure. This longing was so strong that I was forced to hurry past your cell and clutch the balustrade to prevent myself from turning back. A thousand excuses for seeing you came into my head so that I could justify my natural impulses- excuses like asking your permission for various things. How glad I am now that I crushed such impulses fright from the start of my Religious life! I am already enjoying the reward promised to those who fight bravely. No longer so I feel that I must refuse to let my heart have any comfort, for my heart is centered on God... Because it has loved only Him, it has gradually developed until it can manifest to those dear to Him a tenderness incomparably deeper than if it had spent itself in selfish, barren love."

St. Therese, Story of a Soul

I love that even though God's grace makes us so amazingly better than we are, we are still human and our bodies develop at similar rates for everyone. Therese was 15 when she entered Carmel- most of us are in 9th grade at 15. Saving the few that are spared, most of us had those certain crushes at school that we would see when we walked to certain classes- when you saw that person coming toward you, you would start planning in your head how you were going to look at them and when you did pass them their look meant the rest of your day to you. "That was an odd smile... is he mad at me? I bet he doesn't like me anymore- maybe he had a bad morning- what's wrong?" then you would find out nothing was wrong and you obsessed over the odd way he smiles when he has gum in his mouth. God doesn't spare us from normal life, he just gives us the ability to rise above it. Therese loved her sister as her mother since their own mother died when she was very young. I love the vision of her clutching the banister to make herself not go back when she knew she was just being frivolous. Only by grace, only by the sacraments, only by God living in us can we stop doing, not just evil things, but stupid things as well! And when God lives in us and when our hearts are undivided in Him- we won't have to take dramatic measures to protect ourselves from stupidity anymore. We'll see all things as they are- we'll see that God is infinitely more valuable than that moment of satisfaction. We'll live our whole lives using all the passing things in the world instead of having them use us!

Praised be Jesus our strength!