Fr. Placid shares on afflictions to our interior life: “We can be interiorly afflicted in two ways: lack of discernment and lack of interior recollection in prayer. Lack of discernment is a kind of darkness of ignorance. It is a form of not knowing right from wrong. It sounds straightforward. We can say it is truly a lack of discernment. What does it mean to praise what is blameworthy? Such confusion is a lack of sobriety in thinking and behavior. We have all experienced correcting someone who does not understand they have done anything wrong. There is also a subtlety about clarity of mind when dealing with situations that are not clear. We might say choosing what is better over another good. The more we grow in self-knowledge and discernment of the best action of the moment, the more adept we can be to step out of this type of darkness.
The second type of ignorance is lack of interior recollection or prayerfulness. Saint Paul describes this ignorance in Romans 8:26 as not “praying as we ought.” It is praying as if trying to find the way out of a cave. We can experience our time of Lectio Divina as fumbling through a passage and not knowing where God is taking us. The remedy for both afflictions is striving to experience God’s illumination exteriorly and interiorly.”
Blessings,
Your brothers of New Clairvaux
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