Dear brothers and sisters:
Hello again from Rome! Here are a few ideas this month on following our feelings.
Human feelings come and go. Sometimes they match what is reasonable, sometimes they oppose it. But we must train ourselves to direct our decisions according to faith and reason, which many times means doing things that we don't feel like doing. Only in this way is it possible to be decent apostles. Our feelings may sometimes encourage or support our faith, or sometimes tempt and attack it. When they help our devotion, do not fight against them but rejoice and give thanks to God. When our feelings call us to stray from a reasonable path, ignore them. We must be guided by faith and reason and accept that God is beyond our feelings. We must serve and follow Him, not our feelings.
Sometimes our feelings give us a false picture of reality. But remember that feelings are not facts. The way we feel does not always reflect reality. If i feel either ignored and unloved or invincible and resolved, it doesn't mean that reality is truly reflected in those feelings. Feelings are just feelings, not facts. The facts are things in my life that i should consider and deal with, not feelings. I should act in such a way that my feelings do not hold me back from doing what i ought to do. Give priority to the facts and let the feelings come and go as they please, like the wind.
When our lives are dictated by feelings, whims and impulses, we actually train ourselves to be their slaves. We quickly begin to follow every impulse, and losing our power to say no to them, they lead us to where we do not want to go. Inability to act against our feelings in the end limits our freedom to do what we ought to do. If everytime i feel hungry i eat, I train myself to give in to every feeling of hunger. If everytime i feel tempted i give in to sin, i form myself into a weak sinner who quickly abandons himself to every suggestion and impulse. By always following my feelings i become a slave. I can't do the good i really want to do. When our moods lead us around blindly wherever they want us to go, forcing us to follow as their victims, we must counter with action and a conscious effort to change our thoughts. Because feelings and actions both ultimately proceed from thoughts.
The flip side to this is that by regulating the action which is under the more direct control of the will we can indirectly regulate our feelings. Thus the voluntary path to cheerfulness, if our spontaneous cheerfulness be lost, is to act and speak as if cheerfulness were already there. Doing this may indeed eventually bring the feelings of cheerfulness. But even if it doesn't, being cheerful for the good of the others is practicing virtue, which both forms good habits and gains (for those in the state of grace) eternal merit for ourselves and others.
Another important point is that God is independent of our feelings. We should be careful that our emotions and feelings do not distort the real God. The real God is much bigger than our feelings about Him.
I again promise you my prayers and beg the Lord come to you in your needs.
God Bless,
Father Andrew Sullivan, MJ
To obtain more information on Miles Jesu and the Miles Jesu Seminary Program, please write: Dan Osborn.
Note: the use of the lowercase i for the first person personal pronoun is common in Miles Jesu writing. It is intended to be an expression of humility.
