stamp 202403021729
Teresa, and Lucinda Vardey. A simple path. London: Rider, 1995.
Teréz, Lucinda Vardey. Az egyszerű ösvény. Budapest: Szent Gellért Egyházi Kiadó, 1996.
Summary of concept
In her book with the same title St. Teresa of Calcutta, more commonly know as Mother Teresa laid out this “simple path” of spirituality:
“The fruit of silence is prayer, the fruit of prayer is faith, the fruit of faith is love, the fruit of love is service, the fruit of service is peace.”
“A csend gyümölcse az ima, az ima gyümölcse a hit, a hit gyümölcse a szeretet, a szeretet gyümölcse a szolgálat, a szolgálat gyümölcse a béke.”
This is how the simple path works:
(Note: this description is from vague memory and is heavily influenced by other sources. It’s true to the original intent of the simple path, but it’s my understanding of it, supplemented with other learnings.)
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You create silence.
- You don’t have to wait to be in a silent environment or (inner our outer) silence to happen for you.
- You need to go forward and create a space where you can be quiet for a bit (even if it’s during a bus ride or locking yourself into the bathroom for a few minutes at work)
- Silence means you turn away your attention from distractions and the need to be engaged. It doesn’t necessarily mean the lack of noise.
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In the silence, you turn to prayer.
- When you turn away from distractions and the outer world, you automatically start to connect with your inner world.
- Prayer can be formal or informal.
- As Fr. James Martin Jesuit priest illustrates in his book, Learning to Pray, prayer has an endless list of forms. So we don’t need to get hung up on the way we pray, the words we use, or if we use words at all.
- Notable that Mother Teresa identifies faith as the fruit of prayer, not a prerequisit of it.
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The experiences during prayer start to form our faith.
- Whichever form we choose or find for prayer, sooner or later, during at least some forms of prayer, we will have some spiritual experiences.
- Spiritual experiences strengthen our prayer practice and our spiritual path.
- If we attribute these experiences (maybe experiences of a calmer nervous system, or getting an insight regarding a problem, etc.) to God, it strengthens our faith in God.
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Faith (spiritual experience) births love
- See Michael Ferguson’s research titled “Your Brain on God” - spiritual practices tend to make us more inclusive, more forgiving, kinder and more well-disposed
- Spiritual experiences tend to sooth our ego and help us feel more connected.
- These experiences strengthen our love toward others.
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Love for others creates acts of service
- When we feel connected to others and feel love for our fellow men (“our neighbors”), we more easily recognize their suffering, their needs, injustices committed towards them.
- When we see the needs of people we feel connected to, we are moved to do something about it - to serve them.
- “A szeretet sikere maga a szeretet, amely a legjobbat kívánja a másiknak.” 202403021252 ref Teréz Az egyszerű ösvény 1995 p96
- “Az elhangzó ima szeretet, s a működésbe lépő szeretet szolgálat.” 202403021252 ref Teréz Az egyszerű ösvény 1995 p108
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Service leads to peace
- When you turn your focus to others and focus on the suffering of others instead of your own, you find peace.
- I have and argument with this stance: A szolgálat gyümölcse a béke vs először önmagadat kell szeretned