Yes... Much better to mature the Faith through an unwavering devotion of the mind than to leave one's soul all at sea, to be tossed about by the fickle and violent waves of the heart.

Or to very roughly paraphrase the words of a wise bishop:

He said (roughly) Sometimes God gives us consolations, like candy... But ... 'When you were a child you thought as a child, and acted like a child, (etc.) ... and I gave you candy... (God could say) but you're not a child anymore and I'm not going to give you any more candy!'

Well, too many of us who are no longer 8 years old, are still looking for "candy," when we should have done at least some growing up spiritually. If faith depends upon "candy" it's not really faith, is it? That which you are trying to have faith in, is being proven by something like a tangible reward. But the real test of faith is what happens in our minds and in our hearts when, as grown ups, God doesn't any longer (or at least not nearly as often) give us any spiritual "candy."

Rather, we have to have a faith that walks through darkness, through the times when there is no sensible sign of God with us, and through the worst of times, unwavering, and be as thankful to God and as much at peace in Him during those times, as during the height of our consolations.


Thanks for posting about this. Always something good for us to keep in mind, especially during hard trials. Real faith is something far more than feelings, and certainly cannot depend on them, but is constant not only in spite of feelings, but even in spite of all purely human appearances of our circuмstances... believing in and having peace in God when everything looks, by all appearances, purely black and desolate, knowing that God's hand orders ALL things, and in ALL times. Sometimes ESPECIALLY by trails and crosses.

And just as real candy kills the body and makes it ill in excess, spiritual candy in excess can rather rot out real faith and make the soul lethargic.

A friend of mine who converted from protestantism said that even though intellectually she understands the faith, she still misses the "personal God" of Protestantism.  I suppose that she meant the "candy."   Certainly the faith is no easy thing when one has hardships, especially when one does not know or relate in any way to Blessed Mother and the Saints, as is the case with her.  So if whoever reads wouldn't mind offering up a little Hail Mary for her that she receive some sort of grace from God to understand I would appreciate it.  And thanks for the book recommendation - it sounds like it would be an interesting read on the subject.

my post was directed to St.John Bosco.not to the one who posted just before me.