What Most People Get WRONG About Spiritual Growth | Devil in The Castle

Are you proud of how holy you are? How do you know if you’re holy? Are you in danger of falling into pride? How else can you do to get closer to God?

In this episode of The Devil Is in the Details, Dan and Jordan Burke continue their journey through The Devil in the Castle, exploring the most misunderstood aspect of spiritual growth: where you actually are in the journey. Drawing from St. Teresa of Avila's Interior Castle and the wisdom of St. John of the Cross, they walk through the entire roadmap of spiritual progress, from the purgative way to the illuminative way to the unitive way, showing why most Catholics dramatically overestimate their spiritual maturity and miss the radical transformation God is calling them toward.

This is the stage where most practicing Catholics get stuck. They attend Mass regularly, pray the rosary, go to confession occasionally, and think they're doing well. And comparatively, they are. But what they don't realize is that they're still in the beginner stages of the spiritual life, and the vast majority of the journey, the liberation, the joy, the deep union with God, is still ahead of them. The problem is self satisfaction. The higher you climb, the fewer people are around you, and the easier it is to look down and think you've arrived.

Dan and Jordan discuss why the engaged Catholic often doesn't even know what sin is, how the devout Catholic without habitual sin faces even greater danger from pride, and why understanding the full structure of spiritual progress is essential for humility and continued growth. They explore what imperfections are and why they matter, how suffering becomes joyfully embraced in the unitive way, and what complete sanctity actually looks like according to the saints.

In this episode:

* Why most Catholics dramatically overestimate their spiritual maturity

* The full roadmap of spiritual progress: purgative, illuminative, and unitive ways

* What imperfections are and why they matter in advanced stages

* The difference between noticing beauty and lingering in lust

* Why internal irritation is an imperfection invisible to everyone but God

* How suffering becomes joyfully embraced in the unitive way

* What supernatural graces of contemplation look like