Aspects of Spirituality in Blessed Preca’s Writings Mortification of the senses

    "Passions are indifferent inclinations or urgings; that is neither bad nor good. So one is neither right nor wrong when one is attracted to something, or feels compassion or hard feelings or disgust or love. The morality of the passions depends on the directions of the intellect, that is if passions are controlled according to God's will they are virtues, and when they are not controlled according to God's will they are vices.^{" 1}

    First of all, when a person is ruled by his passions, he provides the devil with ample opportunity to lure him into committing evil. Blessed Preca metaphorically warns his readers to strip away from the attachments which bind a person to his passions. !one must strip oneself of everything before a wrestling contest. If wrestlers enter the arena wearing anything, no matter how small, during the fight the opponent can easily pull them down by their clothing claming victory. Evil spirits are denude of any hindrance and so should their opponents be. And so any sentimental attachment to creature puts the soul's salvation at risk."²

    Blessed Preca also claims that whenever the attachment to the passions are at large, they are a huge burden on one's mind and every worry burdens and wearies the human being."³ We have a similar statement in Il-Cathedra tal-Museum: "How do the appetites affects the soul? They weary, darken, stain and weaken the soul."⁴

    Restlessness and lack of peace of mind is another unpleasant outcome. Blessed Preca explains that "When the intellect fails to keep passions under control of reason, your behaviour comes to resemble that of beasts with the result of an unhappy and restless life."⁵ This unhappiness and restlessness are caused because "Nature cannot find true satisfaction or true rest in created things, since man has been created exclusively for the purpose of serving God, and unless he strives to do this, he cannot achieve anything, just like a stone which rolls until it rests on its centre."⁶ Blessed Preca even goes a step further by saying that even physical health might suffer when he says "Attachments are harmful not just for the soul but also for the body since they cause diseases, unhappiness and even death since no attachment is devoid of worrying, since nature always seeks what is hers, and is unable to control herself."⁷ Who would disagree when we are living in an age when so many people are suffering ill health as a result of stress, depression and lack of peace of mind?

    Such a state of weariness and inevitably brings about another consequence, namely of leading one astray in one's experience of God. Blessed Preca writes, "Whoever is preoccupied too much with the things of this world, forgets spiritual matters. To achieve union with God one must detach himself from the love of creatures."⁸

Why mortification and denial are essential

    Having outlined the harms that disorderly attachment might cause, Blessed Preca proceeds to show that keeping the senses and passions under control is really essential and that choosing the narrow road is not an option for anyone who wants to make headway in one's pilgrimage towards God. "Denying oneself is not an advice but an explicit order which Christ gives to everyone."⁹ Just as he had made clear earlier on, it is not the possessions which hinder this with God, but rather one's clinging to them. In fact he writes, "Christ orders his scholars to deny their possessions by detaching themselves from what they have, as though they had nothing owning."¹⁰

    Why is it an imperative? Blessed Preca certainly does not fail to give quite a number of reasons why it is so. First of all he clams that it is the foundation of every spiritual life. "Deny yourself is the foundation of every spiritual edifice",¹¹ since "Whoever does not deny himself, cannot manifest faith, hope, charity, fear and contrition."¹²

    Secondly, striving to control one's senses is a characteristic which prompts God to shower his graces from above. "He expects you to fulfil your duty first to do his part. Purify yourself - the intellect, the will, the imagination, the senses, the passions, through mortification, efforts, obedience and through prayer you will see and possess his face."¹³

    Thirdly and most important of all, controlling one's senses enables one to achieve divine union. Father Preca writes, " Therefore detach yourself of everything in order that you may become one with God, now and forever."¹⁴ This seems to be reminiscence of St John of the Cross notion that unless a substance is let out of a container, it cannot be filled with another substance. Blessed Preca says " As the light from the sun finds its way into a room through an opening, so also God will surely find his way fully into a soul which is open and free of every affection and attachment."¹⁵

    Blessed Preca also claims that "The soul which denudes all its appetites and all its desires, will be clothed by God with purity, sweetness and with his own will."¹⁶ In a slightly different way, that is in his prayers to God, he declares "Whoever comes to know you will detach his heart from every created thing to be united with you,"¹⁷ and "the soul which comes to know you detaches itself from everything and from everyone."¹⁸ Detachment from things and union with God really seem to be, for Blessed Preca, complementary. Because of this, "Those who are detached from everything, actually posses everything"¹⁹.

What should the Christian detach oneself from?

    Father Preca's answer is quite radical. First of all, he shows that one should renounce and detach himself from anything which is done just for pleasure's sake and instead choose what is difficult and unpleasant. He writes "Don't do anything for the sake of satisfying your senses."²⁰ He admits that this is difficult since "It is difficult to control the drive for honour, esteem. The drive for the pleasure of the senses is even more difficult for our will to achieve."²¹ Nevertheless it is indispensable. This radicalism is also seen in "One should strive to choose what is most difficult and not what is easiest, what is most distasteful and not what is most pleasant, what is least and not what is most, what is low and despised not what is highest and most precious. One should not desire anything."²²

    Secondly, inspired certainly by the Biblical text, Blessed Preca also says that "In order to love God, the prize of victory, you must detach yourself from father, mother, wife, children, brothers, sisters and even your own life which, it goes without saying, you would not exchange for anything."²³

    Thirdly one must detach oneself from every single wish and desire. He claims "Who acquires the sweetness of the spirit? One strives and wearies himself in vain if one does not deny all his desires."²⁴

    Finally, and this is a point which Blessed Preca stressed quite a lot, is detachment from one's will, which he termed 'total abandonment.' Blessed Preca writes, "Complete abandonment to God is achieved when one unites his will to God's in everything and for everything, both in serious cases and in less important cases; in everything otherwise it wouldn't be complete abandonment, and for everything otherwise it wouldn't be complete."²⁵ This is achieved when "the soul is in complete abandonment not only when it doesn't seek satisfaction in anything and when it doesn't admire the good works it carries out, but also when ignores whatever pleases her when it cherish what is not pleasing to her, just like Christ who put aside every pleasure and embraced the cross."²⁶ He concludes that "When you succeed in surrendering your will to the extent of not seeking, demanding or wishing your likes and dislikes but only to do God's will, then there is within you the distinctive mark of holiness."²⁷

The role of Faith, Hope and Charity

    So far we have considered all those elements which the soul must strip itself pf. Nevertheless, for Blessed Preca, the Christian's role is not simply one of stripping but also that of clothing himself with the three cardinal virtues. I think it is very indicative that in his book Gymnasium for the spiritual life, Blessed Preca discusses how to combat temptations against faith, hope and charity immediately after discussing how to "combat when tempted to move away from the narrow path."²⁸

    Let's start with faith, Natalino Camilleri claims that 'The only signpost and support which, according to Dun Gorg, the Christian pilgrim should have is his stark naked faith. In one of the meditations in Arlogg Museumin²⁹ Dun Gorg considers one's feet as a metaphor for the naked faith of the interior man."³⁰ Blessed Preca in fact writes: "No one can embark upon the road leading to complete abandonment if one does not have a strong faith in God and Christ. Faith is what motivates the soul and encourages to persevere in the narrow road which entails complete denial for the will."³¹

    The virtue of hope is similar. Besides encouraging the Christian not to go extremes as far as the virtue of hope is concerned, that is to have lack of hope or to have excessive hope, Blessed Preca shows that hope enables the Christians to feel at rest and to have complete peace of mind, which is exactly the opposite which uncontrolled passions and appetites do. He writes, "Blessed is the man who puts his faith in God of Israel, blessed is he because God's works never bring about confusion since while everything is subject to change, God is always the same. Whoever puts his trust in created things is not blessed because they are insufficient and subject to uncertainty."³²

    Blessed Preca also emphasizes the role of love. He claims that the peace and rest which the soul is on the way of achieving by controlling the senses, can only be achieved by love of God: "If the human heart does not love God, it cannot experience peace and tranquillity, since it is created for God and consequently if it does not love him it will be like a fish out of water."³³ He also writes, "When you conform your will to God's will you will experience true consolation, true comfort and true tranquillity. This is sainthood."³⁴ These same notions are manifested elsewhere in a slightly different way. For example Blessed Preca often quoted St Benedict Joseph Labre as saying that "The Christian should have a heart of fire towards God, a heart of flesh towards other human beings and a heart of bronze towards oneself."³⁵ Thus it is clear that the heart of bronze, which is a metaphor for denying oneself, must be accompanied by a heart of fire towards God, that is a complete love towards Him.
 

¹    Preca George, Il-Cathedra tal-Museum, Published in early 1930s, Giovanni Muscat, Valletta, p 305
²    Preca George, Gymnasium for the spiritual life, First published in 1930, New Translated Edition Societas Doctrinae 
        Christianae, 1996. In this book Blessed Preca portrays the Christian life as a continuous struggle against evil, and in this
        passage he puts forward the allegory of ancient Greek wrestling to illustrate his point.
³    Preca George, Il-Ktieb tal-Mezzi, Published in 1945, New Edition Societas Doctrinae Christianae 1986
⁴    Preca George, Il-Cathedra tal-Museum, Published in the early 1930s, Giovanni Muscat, Valletta, p 379
⁵    Preca George, Gymnasium for the spiritual life, First published in 1930, New Translated Edition Societas Doctrinae
        Christianae 1996, p 23
⁶    Preca George, Il-Cathedra tal-Museum, Published in early 1930s, Giovanni Muscat, Valletta, p 358
⁷    Preca George, Mill-Pulptu ta' Patri Franku, First published in Kalendarju Museumin in 1957
⁸    Preca George, Il-Benedicta, First published in 1934, New Edition Societas Doctrinae Christianae, 1997, p 59
⁹    Preca George, Il-Vuci tal-Kustodju, First published in 1930s as part of a compendium of works under the title Il-pagna tax-
        xahar, p 55
¹⁰  Preca George, Id-Dixxipulat, First published in 1944, New Edition Societas Doctrinae Christianae, 1988, p 74
¹¹  Preca George, Ic-Cahda, Lux Press, Hamrun, 1974, p 1
¹²    Ibid., p 1
¹³    Preca George, Il-Benedicta, First published in 1934, New Edition Societas Doctrinae Christianae, 1997, p 58
¹⁴    Preca George, Gymnasium for the spiritual life, First published in 1930, New Translated Edition Societas Doctrinae
        Christianae 1996, p 24
¹⁵    Ibid., p 101
¹⁶    Preca George, Il-Cathedra tal-Museum, Published in early 1930s, Giovanni Muscat, Valletta, p 381
¹⁷    Preca George, Ftuh il-Qalb, Societas Doctrinae Christianae, 1998, p 26
¹⁸    Ibid., p 39
¹⁹    Preca George, Gymnasium for the spiritual life, First published in 1930, New Translated Edition Societas Doctrinae
        Christianae 1996, p 37
²⁰     Ibid., p 11
²¹    Preca George, Ic-Cahda, Published in 1947, Lux Press, Hamrun, p 5
²²    Preca George, Il-Cathedra tal-Museum, Published in early 1930s, Giovanni Muscat, Valletta, p 379
²³    Preca George, Gymnasium for the spiritual life, First published in 1930, New Translated Edition Societas Doctrinae
        Christianae 1996, p 24
²⁴    Preca George, Il-Cathedra tal-Museum, Published in early 1930s, Giovanni Muscat, Valletta, p 375
²⁵    Preca George, L-Abbandun Totali, First published in stencilled form in 1980, New Edition Societas Doctrinae Christianae,
        ^{1992, p 8
26}    Ibid., p 10
²⁷    Preca George, Gymnasium for the spiritual life, First published in 1930, New Translated Edition Societas Doctrinae
        Christianae 1996, p 83
²⁸    Ibid., p 31
²⁹    The Arlogg Museumin is a prayer-book which the Members of the Society of Christian Doctrine pray daily. In it there is a
        prayer for every fifteen minutes, from 6.00 a.m to 7.00 p.m.
³⁰    Camilleri Natalino, Metaphors of Christian Life in the writings of Dun Gorg, Thesis, University of Malta, 1997, p52
³¹    Preca George, L-Abbandun Totali, First published in stencilled form in 1980, New Edition Societas Doctrinae Christianae,
        1992, p 32
³²    Preca George, Il-Vuci tal-Kustodju, First published in 1930s as part of a compendium of works under the title Il-pagna tax-
        xahar, p 17
³³    Ibid., p 18
³⁴    Ibid., p 20
³⁵    "Il-bniedem ghandu jkollu qalb tan-nar ghal-Alla, qalb tal-laham ghall-proxxmu u qalb tal-bronz ghalih innifsu."
 

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