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The Excellence of This Virtue
not His will. This might prompt the question “How,
then, can we know which good things we should do?”
This question reveals that some confusion remains. A
better question is “How can I come to know and love
God and thus know how to honor Him with my life?”
Authentic love is a challenge — it demands much of us.
Knowing another, truly knowing them, is hard. It takes
time and self-sacrifice. Jesus said, “My sheep know my
voice, and I know them, and they follow me” (see John
10:27). How do we come to know this love and truly
know His voice?
The first step is to cry out to God, as Martha did —
to completely abandon our project of self-justification,
the worship of our preferences and our desires, even if
they are objectively good. The second step is to begin
to immerse ourselves in the One whom we love little
but want to love much. In the Ascent of Mount Carmel,
St. John of the Cross gives a simple formula but one
that is revolutionary in the souls who choose it: we
must fall in love with Jesus. This love emerges in the
soul through the loving discipline of mental prayer — a
kind of pursuit of the heart that seeks to know Jesus, to
follow Jesus, and to remain with Jesus every moment of
our lives. (I will give you more specific help with this in
the appendix “What Next?”) St. Alphonsus knew this
love well, and he wants us to know that same love. He
reveals the right direction regarding how to hear God’s
voice as he points us to the great Doctor of prayer, St.
Teresa of Ávila.
Teresa, of course, would call our attention to two
life-altering spiritual disciplines. First, we must give
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