In this final presentation on embracing suffering as part of the Flame of Love Devotion, we quickly recap the previous sessions and continue by examining the value of sufferings as expressed by Jesus to Elizabeth Kindelmann in the Spiritual Diary. We see how it is not an optional part of the devotion but essential for achieving the goals of the devotion and is how we partake in Jesus' work of redemption. We next explore the parallels between this message to Elizabeth and Saint John of the Cross' Ascent to Mount Carmel and consider what this path to great grace looks like. This leads to the topic of Spiritual Detachment.
We then move to a description of what it is like when we arrive at a state of great grace, of how it becomes our nature to pour ourselves out for others in a living or white martyrdom. We see that the perfection of love through suffering becomes our desire. We see this from both the Diary and Saint Teresa of Avila's description of such a state in The Interior Castle. We note that this must always be our free choice and see that this life of embracing suffering is our life from now on but that this leads not to morbidity but great joy. We conclude by reiterating that, for love to be perfect, it must be perfectly free, and the freedom of love is forged in the crucible of suffering — that we joyfully let Jesus live His redemptive life in us.
We then move to a description of what it is like when we arrive at a state of great grace, of how it becomes our nature to pour ourselves out for others in a living or white martyrdom. We see that the perfection of love through suffering becomes our desire. We see this from both the Diary and Saint Teresa of Avila's description of such a state in The Interior Castle. We note that this must always be our free choice and see that this life of embracing suffering is our life from now on but that this leads not to morbidity but great joy. We conclude by reiterating that, for love to be perfect, it must be perfectly free, and the freedom of love is forged in the crucible of suffering — that we joyfully let Jesus live His redemptive life in us.