7 Degrees of Self-Renunciation
From Butler’s Lives of the Saints, Saint Antoninus: The venerable Achard, bishop of Avaranche, in his excellent treatise, O self-denial, reduces the means and practice of Christian perfection to seven degrees of self-renunciation, by which he is disposed for the reign of love in his soul. These degrees he otherwise calls seven deserts of the soul.
1.
The first is the desert of penance.
The first is the desert of penance.2.The second of solitude, at least of the heart.
The second of solitude, at least of the heart.3.The third of mortification.
The third of mortification.4.The fourth of simplicity of faith.
The fourth of simplicity of faith.5.The fifth of obedience.
The fifth of obedience.6.The sixth of the pure love of God.
The sixth of the pure love of God.7.The seventh of zeal for his honor in the salvation of our neighbor.
The seventh of zeal for his honor in the salvation of our neighbor. For a man must first renounce sin by sincere repentance. Secondly, the world by solitude. Thirdly, the flesh by mortification of his senses. Fourthly, though reason is man’s most noble excellency, this being obscured and often blinded by the passions, easily becomes the seat of pride, and leads into the most dangerous precipice and errors. Man is therefore bound to humble his reason by keeping it is due subordination, and in a certain degree to renounce it by simplicity of heart and sincere humility. And this is so far from being against reason, that it is the sovereign use of reason. Fifthly, a man is moreover obliged to renounce his own will by perfect obedience. Sixthly, he must moreover renounce all that he is by the pure love of God, which ought to have no bounds. Seventhly, none but one who has tasted the sweetness of heavenly contemplation, knows how incomparable an advantage he renounces who deprives himself of it. Yet zeal for our neighbor’s salvation, and tender compassion for his spiritual miseries, move the saints sometimes to prefer toils and sufferings to its pure delights and charms. By these rules we see by what degrees of means pious pastors attain to the apostolic spirit of their state, and how heroic their sacrifice is.
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