The dangers of not observing the Rule

Religious Orders and Consecrated Life:

The dangers of not observing the Rule...

"Jesus the Lord, your Lord, my sisters and brothers, has made the rule. You cannot change it to suit yourselves. You have been blinded by satan. The liberation in your hearts has been placed there by satan. You gain nothing but your own destruction. Nuns, those who have accepted the rule and taken the habit, must remain in the habit." - St. Theresa, October 2, 1975

The following is taken from the book, The Practice of the Rule by Louis Colin, C.SS.R.

     The theological virtue of hope is certitude mixed with fear. It means being sure of God’s power and goodness and faithfulness, being sure of the merits of Christ, and still trembling at the sight of laxity and passion setting up an invincible front against the work of salvation. The proper degree of hope will always have in it something of fear. Trusting in God, being mistrustful of the weakness of human nature, placing great hope in the Redeemer and no hope in self: this is the one great antidote for presumption.

     Confidence in the rule is always made up by both assurance and fear. Every blessing will come from keeping the rule faithfully. And still we shudder at the thought that this rule could—like the law of the Jews—become a stumblingblock and the cause of our ruin. If it is mistreated and violated, the rule will turn upon us to strike us down. Just as the practicing of observance is the source of life, a failure to recognize its importance is the beginning of decay and death. It is the first step along the road that leads to spiritual poverty, to lukewarmness, to downfall, to loss of vocation, and finally to damnation.

     This is not to say that every failure to practice the rule, even if it is frequent and voluntary, necessarily leads to such extremes. That would be a dangerous exaggeration and would easily lead to error. The truth of the matter is simply this—and it has been frequently mentioned by the saints and is also well attested by experience: A lax religious, depending upon the degree of his laxity, is always exposed to greater or lesser moral evils, not excluding final catastrophe. Always he is in danger: frequently he falls.

Spiritual poverty of life

     The first result of failure to observe the rule—and it is as sure as it is unfortunate—is the fact that the exceptional graces of holiness will come less frequently or cease altogether. God treats souls the same way that souls treat Him. Half-hearted service to His cause is not likely to merit liberality on His part. If He is neglected, He counters with neglect. When He wants to, He can measure out His graces with an eyedropper.

If it is mistreated and violated, the rule will turn upon us to strike us down. Just as the practicing of observance is the source of life, a failure to recognize its importance is the beginning of decay and death.

Diminution of graces. To flee from the rule is to take a stand outside the order of Providence and to withdraw from the influence of the Holy Ghost. This is the advice given by Father Passerat: “Let us hold fast to the rule in big things as well as in little things—to the best of our ability. That is the path that leads straight to the blessings of heaven.

     “Our holy rules are the conditions upon which the Church promises us her favors. And it is only when we fulfill this condition that we have the right to expect help and blessings from on high.”

     Speaking about souls who are less concerned with the fine points of the rule, St. Alphonsus say:

Because they are heedless of small faults, these miserable souls experience nothing but aridity and irksomeness in their prayer, their Communions, and in all their exercises of devotion. In punishment for one look of curiosity, contrary to the inspiration of the Holy Ghost not to indulge her eyes, St. Gertrude was afflicted with spiritual dryness for eleven days. It is only just that whoever sows little should gather but little fruit. “He who sows sparingly also reaps sparingly” (2 Cor. 9:6). How can the Lord be generous with His graces and consolations to a religious who serves Him with neither generosity nor zeal? Had she faithfully observed each point of the rule, God would perhaps have bestowed upon her great graces; but in punishment for her negligence he justly withheld them from her. St. Giles used to say: “By a small neglect a great grace may be lost.”

     And St. Vincent has much the same thing to say:

God’s relations with such a religious are the same as His relations with the Church. Just as He does not give any grace to His Church except by means of the Sacraments, even so He does not give His graces to a soul in religion except through the means of observing the rules. Not only that, but all the graces that communities receive are given to them in virtue of their faithfulness to observance of the rules, and the more exact the members are, the more abundant are the graces of God. But on the other hand, the further they withdraw from the observance of the rules, the further the graces of God withdraw from them.

     Bourdaloue has this to say about the religious who does not practice his rule: “God is not satisfied with a soul, and He should not be. That means no more particular favors for her such as He gives to exact souls as a recompense for their faithfulness. No more delight in prayer, no more progress in meditation, no spiritual enjoyment in Communion, less fervor in all the religious exercises: dryness, aridity, complete lack of zeal."

Spiritual blight. The inescapable consequence of such a negative course of action is that the soul will languish, virtues will be dissipated, and the spiritual life itself will grow sickly. There will be few graces, less life-giving sap, and consequently fewer blossoms and less fruit.

     Every unjustifiable failing in regularity is a fault of omission, a gap. It is a broken link, a missing stitch; it makes a hole in the fabric of spirituality.

     Deprived of water and sun, the soul becomes barren ground with only sparse and meager growth. No longer will it provide abundant harvests or full ripe ears of grain. This is the explanation of many religious lives which are neither really bad nor yet really excellent—merely commonplace, a triumph of moral platitude. They have lost all their enthusiasm, and all their efforts towards an ideal has turned into a ceaseless drudgery in the well-worn track of mediocrity. They are in a listless spiritual half-slumber. You might say that they are souls with sleeping sickness.

     Frequent negligence in the observance of the rule has the same devastating effect on religious fervor that moths have on garments or worms on flowers.

     St. Catherine of Siena sang of this: “How broad, how happy, how sweet is the religious rule of St. Dominic: it is a garden of delights…” Then she stopped and thought of the religious who were violators of the rule: “But the unhappy souls who disobey, the transgressors of all discipline, make a wild and uncultivated field out of this garden. There is hardly any sweetness of virtue left, and hardly any light of understanding in those who live in the Order… That is not the way it was in the beginning. It was a flower then. There were men of great perfection, equal to St. Paul in the brilliance of their light. The darkness of every error disappeared before them.”

  Lukewarmness

Habitual violation of the rule leads to still worse effects than spiritual blight. It is almost always accompanied by the deadly germ of lukewarmness.

Every unjustifiable failing in regularity is a fault of omission, a gap. It is a broken link, a missing stitch; it makes a hole in the fabric of spirituality.

The habit of venial sin. This lukewarmness is all the more dangerous when it is working out its evil effects unnoticed like a tiny larva hidden deep within the diseased soul. Most lukewarm religious are not conscious of their malady. This is a logical consequence of the teaching on the authority of the rule. The great majority of religious constitutions do not bind under pain of sin, and still it is difficult to fail in practicing them voluntary and without good reason and not be guilty of at least a venial fault. Every repeated violation, if it is not justified and not resisted, implies a habit of venial sin, that is, lukewarmness. The religious who is deliberately somewhat free about regular observance, who deliberately and frequently makes a mockery of the silence that is prescribed, dispenses himself from the common exercises, judges and criticizes the authorities, sows discord by malicious or imprudent gossip, neglects the fine points of the rules that govern poverty and modesty, is obviously a lukewarm religious or at least well on his way towards becoming one.

      St. Catherine of Siena is said to have written the following to certain religious brothers who were not at all regular in the practice of the rule: “Think of yourselves as novices who had just entered the order to observe the rule with real devotion… Whoever bears the efforts sand obligations with impatience… is like a flower that is infected with disease: it spreads the evil odor of its rottenness before God and angels and men.”

     And St. Alphonsus writes: “No matter how great her penances, how numerous her prayers and other spiritual works, a religious who habitually violates any, even the most unimportant, rule, will never advance a single step towards perfection. She will labor, but without fruit, verifying herself the words of the Holy Ghost: ‘He that rejecteth … discipline is unhappy; and their hope is vain, and their labors without fruit, and their works unprofitable’” (Wisdom 3:11).

     Elsewhere he says that the really fervent religious is not the one who does extraordinary things, such as fasting on bread and water, taking the discipline until he draws blood, frequenting the Sacraments, and then committing some fault in something that is prescribed by the rules. The fervent religious is the one who keeps the rules perfectly. We must guard against self-love, which makes the little things seem hard for us because they are displeasing to our self-will, whereas hard things seem easy and slight for us because they are accord with what we desire.

Abandonment by God. St. Vincent says much the same thing:

Take care: if you neglect the practice of one point of the rule today, tomorrow you will fail in two, then in three, and finally God will withdraw His graces. That is what frequently results in lukewarmness and disgust with the religious vocation. God finally refuses to look upon us and we deserve it only too well.

He takes up the same thought again:

You can see from that that the more faithful a religious is to his rules, the more virtues he will have, and that the further he withdraws from regularity, the further he withdraws from God as well. His soul returns to the dwellings it knew before and takes up the appetites of flesh and blood and becomes worse than it was in the world. Why is this? God had called this soul into the religious life in order that it might be the object of His pleasure and that it might keep the rules which God had given it. Then He sees the soul growing negligent and paying no attention to the rules. He withdraws His graces and abandons that soul after all he has suffered for it. That is punishment for disregarding the rules. God says: “This soul whom I honored with a call from out of the corrupt mass of the world to make it lead a life quite different from its former one by practicing the rules which I had given to it—this soul is now doing just the opposite. Now I see that this soul is living as if I had never even shown her how to live. I will abandon her: Go, do what you please.” This poor creature, left desolate by God, quickly falls into a deplorable state, often much worse than the state in which it was before its call. So you see … that you are happy or unhappy depending upon whether you observe or neglect the rule.

Moral consumption. To be abandoned by God is a terrifying sanction, threatened to lukewarm, habitual violators of the rule. It means darkness instead of the light of faith, withering of the conscience, weakening of the will, hardening of the heart, disgust for the interior life, and the reawakening of all the passions and faults. From this point the fall into mortal sin is only one step away and few can overcome the danger. This is a new and powerful motive for being on constant guard against indifference.

Mortal sin

Indifference and lukewarmness lead to mortal sin in five different ways: spiritual anemia, contempt for the rule, false security, scandal, divine punishment.

     For any Christian, mortal sin is a great evil; but for the religious it is a catastrophe. Fundamentally, it is a catastrophe that is brought on by neglect or disregard of the religious rule.

     It is true that no one is entirely free from sin; but it is almost impossible that a really fervent religious should ever fall into serious sin. And if he should have the misfortune of falling, he will rise again at once and draw from the bitter memory of his error an increase and strengthening of humility and penance and trust, of prudence and of love. Seen is this light, it will have been a happy fault—felix culpa. But it must never be forgotten that this is an exception and not the general rule. In the moral order, just as in the physical order, sudden deaths are always accidental phenomena. The general rule is that a person dies from a disease or from the ravages of old age. And a soul will not die unless it is a victim of lukewarmness.

     St. Alphonsus puts it this way: “When you see a religious of exemplary conduct fall suddenly over the precipice into sin, do not imagine that the devil, by the first attack, succeeded in effecting her ruin. No, he first induced her to neglect her rule and to despise small things, and then drew her into grievous faults.”

    And Tannoia says: “When the devil wants to make us fall into some grave sin against the law of God, he first leads us to disregard the rule. Many religious are now outside the congregation and quite likely in sin because they have been negligent in the observance of their rule.”

     The spirit of indifference is like a steep declivity; there is always the danger of rolling rapidly all the way to the bottom of an abyss and, sometimes, of never recovering.

     Indifference and lukewarmness lead to mortal sin in five different ways: spiritual anemia, contempt for the rule, false security, scandal, divine punishment.

Spiritual anemia. Habitual violation of the rule causes lukewarmness, which can well be called the tuberculosis of the soul. It preys upon the organism, dissipating its strength and turning life into a slow agony. When a violent temptation or an unforeseen crisis arises, the anemic souls gives in without resistance, carried away like a twig in an angry current. It is a boat built of poorly fitted planks and overloaded, which is capsized by the first big wave. It is a cracked and dilapidated and tumbling wall, which a sudden storm lays low with a single gust of wind. It is a tree whose roots are grown rotten, and which the tempest tears up quickly.

     St. Catherine describes the malady thus: “If these lukewarm religious do not introduce the observances of their order into their lives, they are in grave peril. They need much attention in order not to continue slumbering. Otherwise they are very close to a fall.”

Contempt for the Rule. Contempt results from looking upon the yoke that religious life imposes as a burden to be borne with vexation and to be stubbornly resisted. Frequent failures in regularity lead the way to contempt, even to open contempt, which is a very grave sin.

     St. Francis de Sales warns against the things that lead to contempt: “May it please God that none of the Daughters of the Visitation ever stray so far from the path of love of God that she should actually perish through this disregard for the rules, out of disobedience, hard-heartedness, and obstinacy.   For what could happen to her that would be worse, what could be more unfortunate?”

A false conscience. Lukewarmness clouds the judgment and perverts the conscience. From slight infractions the way is short to serious failings, and leads bit by bit, almost unconsciously, to grave sins of infidelity... The line of demarcation between mortal and venial sin grows indistinct and the judgment wavers dangerously from one side of the question to the other. Doubtful principles regarding chastity and broad interpretations of the virtue of poverty smother the authority of the rule and put the troubled conscience at ease. The fine points of observance of the rule seem to become more and more a matter of narrowness of view or a case of scruples. Bit by bit, in the course of time, loose and dangerous habits grow up. From fault to fault, from failing to failing, and the end will almost always be a serious violation of the religious vows.

     St. Alphonsus is very clear on this point:

Not to advance in perfection is but a small part of the evils that arise from the violation of light rules. According to St. Bernard, the worse consequence of such transgressions is that it becomes very difficult for such a religious to observe the most important rules, and even the vows…

     But God grant … that the disregard of small rules may not lead [this religious] one day to the violation of her vow, and to eternal perdition. “He that breaketh a hedge,” says the Holy Ghost, “a serpent shall bite him” (Eccles. 10:8). Whoever breaks down the hedge of the rule stands in great danger of being one day bitten by the infernal serpent.

Scandal. The most frequent occasion of scandal in the religious community, says St. Alphonsus, is the public violation of the religious rule:

For when the violation of rule produces serious injury or great scandal in the convent, it may be a mortal sin. For example, to disturb habitually the general silence, to enter the cells of your companions, to break publicly the fast prescribed by the rule, and to practice similar irregularities, sometimes rob the soul of sanctifying grace.

This scandal is always more serious when it is a question of superiors or veteran religious being guilty of the violation.

Divine punishment. The rule is a sort of cloister. To set it aside means to allow the world and the devil free entry into your life. The rule is a rampart. To tear it down means to make your soul an open city or an abandoned stronghold. In the book of constitutions and in the directory can be found an immense number of spiritual prescriptions and prohibitions concerning modesty, correspondence, visits in the parlor and visits outside the monastery, relations with the world, the exercise of the apostolate. All these laws are inspired by a remarkable prudence. Often the religious has only to pass over a single one of these prescripts in order to find himself in the occasion of grave sin or overwhelmed by temptation so powerful that—through the just punishment of God—he is unable to resist them. In the shelter of the rule many serious and very scandalous faults can be avoided, especially the loss of a religious vocation.

"My child, I wish you also to make note in your heart and the hearts of all mankind that I am much despaired, as Theresa, Our Little Flower, is much despaired at the lack of numbers in the nunneries. Vocations are needed for the priesthood, and also for the nunneries.
     "Are there not any who care to come forward and dedicate their lives to save Our young children? Please, My children, surely among you, those who hear My voice or will read this written word, can you not give your life to win your reward forever in Heaven? And perhaps also, those you love you can bring with you. So many little souls are crying. They thirst for the knowledge of Jesus and all of Heaven. Will you not solace them and comfort them in their loneliness? They are like sheep out in the wilderness, astray with no leaders. They are wandering. And what do they feast upon but weeds. No good nourishment is being given them. Will you not, My children, you who are children of the light, come forward and become nuns, nuns with good hearts, with a good foundation of the Faith and the truth, and nourish Our sheep?” - Our Lady of the Roses, June 18, 1982

Our Lady of the Roses awesome Bayside Prophecies... https://www.tldm.org/../Bayside/
These prophecies came from Jesus, Mary, and the saints to Veronica Lueken at Bayside, NY, from 1968 to 1995.

PURPOSE OF LIFE
"While you are upon earth you are there to do honor and glory to your God in Heaven. You must know Him, love Him, and serve Him in this world, so that you will be happy with Him forever in the next." - Our Lady, June 1, 1978

THE DEDICATED ARE LEAVING
"My child, We watch and see the houses of My Son crumbling, being destroyed throughout your world. Doors are closing, convents are emptying, and the dedicated are leaving and falling into all manner of sin and abominations. Who shall be in the remnant? Only a few will be saved." - Our Lady, May 26, 1976

INFILTRATED
"Yes, My child, I spoke to you of the evil ones who have infiltrated into the clergy. They are not entering with dedication and spirits of light, but they are bringing in the spirit of darkness. By their fruits will you know them, My child. I have asked you to be not fooled by those who wear the garments of the dedicated but have fouled their garments. You must pray more for the light and recognize the faces of evil about you, My child." - Jesus, June 5, 1975

OBEDIENCE
"In the cause of obedience, pastors and Our dedicated nuns, remember this: you cannot be obedient to one who has defamed his habit, to one who has cast aside his Faith, to one who goes forward as a destroyer of souls. The rabat is the teacher of life, but do not be fooled by those who foul these habits." - Our Lady, August 5, 1976

COME FORWARD
"Will you not, My children, you who are children of the light, come forward and become nuns, nuns with good hearts, with a good foundation of the Faith and the truth, and nourish Our sheep?" - Our Lady, June 18, 1982

JESUS MADE THE RULE
"Jesus the Lord, your Lord, my sisters and brothers, has made the rule. You cannot change it to suit yourselves. You have been blinded by satan. The liberation in your hearts has been placed there by satan. You gain nothing but your own destruction. Nuns, those who have accepted the rule and taken the habit, must remain in the habit." - St. Theresa, October 2, 1975

GARMENT OF PURITY
"Holiness and piety! Man—men of God, you must wear your garment of purity, dedication, and piety. What manner of foul deeds do you perform for the destruction of your sheep! For what? Material gain and pride and arrogance? You shall be cast into the abyss! Rank shall give you no advantage when you come over the veil." - St. Michael, December 24, 1975

WOE
"And woe to the clergy who has given himself over to worldliness and sin! Woe to the clergy who rejects his vocation and chooses a life upon earth after he has taken his vows! I say unto him: the judgment will fall great upon him." - Jesus, August 4, 1979

MOCKED
"Know now, my brothers and sisters of religious orders, you will be mocked, you will be scorned, but you will please the Eternal Father and receive your reward in the Kingdom." - St. Francis, May 28, 1975

THE "BUCK-PASSER"
"I see, My children, a great evil transpiring upon earth. Those who have the power to stop the evil have chosen to go downstream like ducks upon water, letting everything slide off their backs, neither caring nor visualizing the future. And why? Because they have given themselves to the world.
     "Just as My Son stood before Pilate and he washed his hands and said: 'This man is innocent; I see no wrong in him,' however, in his heart he knew of innocence but he feared reprisal from the crowd, My children; he valued his life, he loved his sin, and he was too much involved with the pleasures of this life and the world.
     "You see, My children, it is taking place all over again for those in command in rule. They go along 'passing,' as you say, 'the buck,' each one not willing to admit his error or his participation in evil, but only too willingly allowing others to take the blame or the responsibility. And I assure you, My children, if evil is being allowed, the 'buck passer' is just as guilty as the original one who had started the evil.
     "If you know in your hearts, O pastors, that souls are in danger of being corrupted, misled, and even destroyed, and you do nothing about it, because you do not wish to offend your superiors, because you value your life in this world too much and your good living; I assure you, O pastors, you shall stand before My Son and He shall not know you. You will be disowned, banished from eternal life in Heaven, and you shall join your father who is the father of all liars, satan, and the prince of darkness." - Our Lady, March 18, 1977

DO NOT LEAVE
"Do not leave when you are discouraged by those who satan has sent into your convents. Stand forth as an example of purity and godliness. You will not be cast aside by your God, as you will by man, as you stand to defend your God. Pick up your cross and carry it." - St. Theresa, November 20, 1972

TELEVISION / RADIOS
"Modernism must not be a way of life for Our dedicated. Our nuns have to have discipline, My children. Do not bring the world into the convents. I ask that the convents remain free of all television and radios, and return to their prayer life." - Our Lady, June 18, 1990

FOR GOOD
"Pastors, you shall be called and shall you stand before, in judgment, the Eternal Father and say that your teaching has been pure in His sight? Better that you fear your God than man! Obedience? Obedience is commanded by the Eternal Father for good, not for evil!" - Our Lady, May 26, 1976

Directives from Heaven... https://www.tldm.org/directives/directives.htm

D31 - Love of God PDF
D32 - Love of Neighbor PDF
D78 - Charity PDF
D159 - Religious Orders and the Dedicated: Part 1 PDF
D160 - Religious Orders and the Dedicated: Part 2 PDF
D233 - Vocations, Part 1 PDF
D234 - Vocations, Part 2 PDF

Articles...

The sources of growth and decline in religious orders
https://www.tldm.org/news7/Foley1.htm

Pope Pius XI warned religious orders to maintain rigorous discipline
https://www.tldm.org/news7/Foley2.htm

The new Commandment of Jesus
https://www.tldm.org/News7/Colin1.htm

Love of God and love of neighbor
https://www.tldm.org/News7/Colin2.htm

Beware of groups forming that have alienated themselves from their hierarchy
https://www.tldm.org/News7/AlienatedFromHierarchy.htm

We have dialogued enough! We have experimented enough!
https://www.tldm.org/news7/Timlin.htm

"What is a priest?" by St. Theresa the Little Flower
https://www.tldm.org/News7/WhatIsAPriest.htm

We encourage everyone to print or email copies of this web page to all the Bishops and all the clergy. Also, email or send this web page to the news media and as many people as possible.

"My children, My little humble children, I appeal to you as your Mother, go forward on foot, knock on the doors; bring the light to your brothers and sisters. For those who have been given great grace, much is expected of them." - Our Lady of the Roses, May 26, 1976

"As disciples of the latter days, My children, much shall be asked of you, but I assure you: all that you give in faith and charity shall be returned to you threefold." - Jesus, June 1, 1978

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