Chapter 7
Certain beginners feel envious and insecure when they perceive others to be moving ahead of them on the spiritual path
Holy envy = sadness that one does not have the spiritual maturity that one’s neighbor has and joy that the neighbor has what she has
Lazy souls are addicted to spiritual sweetness and impatient when they cannot find it. The hard work is being satisfied when nothing goes my way
“The way of perfection demands a surrender of personal will and pleasure for the sake of God.” the spiritual lazy will forsake this perfection for spiritual sweetness thereby chasing their own urges rather that striving to discover the will of God.
The spiritual lazy are sad when they think of wanting what God wants. They want what they want instead.
Beginners need God to lead them into the dark night. Here God weans them off of their preferred consolations into “pure aridity and inner darkness. He removes all the gratuities and childish attachments and helps them acquire the virtues by very different means.”
