Spiritual Friendship: Learning to Be Friends with God and One Another

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Spiritual Friendship

and to pour himself totally into my heart. 17 So also I made a test of his freedom to speak, and he tested my patience as well. 124. I also, repaying my friend in kind thought that he should be corrected rather severely on one occasion; and although I did not spare the blame, as it were, I found him to be neither impatient of my liberty nor ungrateful. I began then to reveal to him the secrets of my counsels, and he proved himself faithful. So love increased between us, our affection grew warmer, and our Christian love was strengthened until it got to the point that there was in us “one heart and soul, agreement in likes and dislikes” (Acts 4:32), 18 and this love was free of fear ( 1 John 4:18 ), ignorant of offense, utterly lacking in suspicion, recoiling from flattery ( 1 Cor 13:4–7 ). 125. Between us there was nothing faked, there was no simulation, no disgraceful fawning, no unbecoming hardness of heart, no beating around the bush, no furtiveness, but we were open and aboveboard in everything. After a fashion, I considered my own heart to be his, and his to be mine, and he himself felt likewise. So as we progressed in our friendship as though in a straight line, neither of us felt indignation when corrected, and neither blamed the other when yielding to his friend. And proving himself a friend in all things, he looked out for my peace and quiet, as far as he could: for my sake he opposed himself to dangers, and he turned aside scandals as they emerged. 126. When he was already growing weak I once wanted to offer him some relief from his temporal duties but he

17 Ibid., 8.45. 18 See Spiritual Friendship , 1.40.