Is the Relationship With God a Paradigm?

Thank you everyone who participated in the study of The Ladder of Divine Ascent tonight. Your questions were both beautiful and challenging. 

Synopsis:

As we continued our reflection upon Step One “On Renunciation” St. John makes it very clear that we must enter into the spiritual battle with a zeal and desire for God; we must leap into the fire if we really expect the celestial fire to dwell within us. None of our ascetical practices, or the renunciation of the world that John speaks of in this step, can be abstracted from our relationship with God and what he desires to give us. The firm foundation upon which the spiritual life is laid is innocence, fasting, and temperance. Like a child, a babe, we are to have a simple trust in the care of our heavenly father, we must allow him to nourish us upon that which we need. Our love can know nothing of calculation or sly deceit. This is essential John tells us. We must begin the spiritual life with clarity about who we are before God and what it is that we seek. 

Likewise, we must enter into the spiritual life not lagging in the fight.  A firm beginning, John tells us, is useful when we later grow slack. We will all face trials and turmoil in the spiritual life and it is our first love, our first desire and zeal for the Lord, we must remember in order to set our hearts aflame once again.

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Text of chat during the group: 

00:11:22 Cathy: Now thats Divine Providence!   00:11:36 FrDavid Abernethy, CO: Yes.  I thought so.   00:16:19 Sr Mary of our Divine Savior solt: Where can you find the text Father is reading from?   00:16:53 Sean: Paragraph 9 at the bottom page 55   00:17:57 Sr Mary of our Divine Savior solt: Thanks but is there a pdf file one can get this from? I do not have the book. Just started with you all.  Thanks.   00:18:40 Sean: I don’t think so   00:18:44 Ren: There is no PDF that we have access to. The book can be purchased at: https://www.bostonmonks.com/product_info.php/cPath/75_105/products_id/569   00:19:16 Sr Mary of our Divine Savior solt: OK Thank you.   00:20:56 Anthony: I have a problem with laying off all things.  For example, although Christ went into the desert for 40 says and was often in prayer, He _did not_ utterly cast off His family.  His Mother was with Him.  He had friends.  He had family mentioned in the Gospels and Epistles.   00:28:55 Sr Mary of our Divine Savior solt: http://www.prudencetrue.com/images/TheLadderofDivineAscent.pdf  found a PDF   00:29:36 Cathy: Great!  Saint John Climacus is looking our for you!!   00:29:50 Sr Mary of our Divine Savior solt: 😇   00:30:30 Anthony: And this is where a spiritual father, an elder / staretz, and Catholic Culture come in.  They can regulate us to be neither puritanical nor lax   00:41:31 Ambrose: fortitude maybe   00:42:19 Rachel: that is a wonderful chapter!!   00:45:14 Anthony: YOU ARE RIGHT   00:59:56 Anthony: Synergy.  This is fundamentally opposed to the monergism which is the heart of the Calvinist American culture.   01:05:40 Michael Shuman: This is a really good question.   01:09:47 Joseph Caro: sheen talk: https://youtu.be/5e5oPIHnHQs   01:16:41 Carol Nypaver: Thank you, Joseph!  I love Ven. Archbishop Fulton Sheen!🙏🏻   01:17:18 Anthony: The more one loves, the more one suffers when the love is offended.  That is how I see Our Lady suffering at the foot of the Cross most closely with the suffering and loving Christ   01:19:37 Sr Mary of our Divine Savior solt: colossians 1:24-26   01:19:58 Ashley Kaschl: “God has created me to do Him some definite service. He has committed some work to me which He has not committed to another. I have my mission. I may never know it in this life, but I shall be told it in the next. I am a link in a chain, a bond of connection between persons.   He has not created me for naught. I shall do good; I shall do His work. I shall be an angel of peace, a preacher of truth in my own place, while not intending it if I do but keep His commandments.   Therefore, I will trust Him, whatever I am, I can never be thrown away. If I am in sickness, my sickness may serve Him, in perplexity, my perplexity may serve Him. If I am in sorrow, my sorrow may serve Him. He does nothing in vain. He knows what He is about. He may take away my friends. He may throw me among strangers. He may make me feel desolate, make my spirits sink, hide my future from me. Still, He knows what He is about.”   - St. John Henry Newman   01:20:38 Cindy Moran: Thank you!   01:20:56 Jos: thank you   01:21:24 Cathy: My favorite night! Happy Feast Day!