aeternus

I am so very happy to learn that my favorite Podcast, Meditations from Carmel, was just nominated as one of the best 2007 Podcasts in the Religion Inspiration category at the Peoples Choice Podcast awards. This is actually a very big deal because this is the BIG podcast award giver on the Internet. Last year Fr. Rodrick (from the Netherlands who is a technology geek and started the SQPN network) won as the overall peoples choice beating out dozens and dozens of secular podcasts (and many of which are on horrible and vile topics). It was a great affirmation for those who are Podcasting for the Lord!

The SQPN network is filled with some rather Catholic light bantering and I’m not too sure you will find it very prayerful except for the PrayerCast (which only has 4 episodes) and Verbum Domini (daily scripture readings from the Liturgical Calendar). I pray that the network will become more evangelistic in teaching our faith to the world. They are not very “EWTN” at all (if I am to use EWTN as a adjective). There is a nice podcast on their network though called the SaintCast which can be quite interesting.

There is also a very large group of Protestant podcasting going on and they can be found on the Godcast Network. You will find a few Catholic’s amongst the very large group, but you’ll have to scroll around a bit to find them.

Anyway, I am, obviously, quite partial to this Carmelite podcast. It is so wonderful to “hear the voice of Teresa of Avila” and I like Therese’s voice too. But, it is their words about prayer and devotion and love of our Lord through the Garden of Carmel which help to elevate my mind and heart… ahhhhh…..

The contest will run for the next 2 weeks and you can vote daily. I am SURE the Carmelites would value the support. Also, it would be a strong voice to the Catholic community what a great tool the Internet can be in being the voice of good and love in the world. –AMEN!

Here is a news release about the contest:

The Meditations from Carmel Podcast has been voted into the final round of the 2007 Podcast Awards in the “People’s Choice Religion Inspiration” category. In this year’s nomination procedure a count of over 335,000 people submitted, 6 million plus shows! Voting for each Podcast category begins today and you may vote 1 time per day for your favorite podcast. We hope the faithful will support Catholic media by casting their daily ballot!

About the Podcast:

Meditations from Carmel podcast is produced by the Secular Carmelite Community at the Carmel of St. Joseph in St. Louis, Missouri. The meditations come directly from the treasury of writings of the great Carmelite Saints including St. Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross, St. Therese of Lisieux, Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity, St. Teresa of the Andes, Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection, St. Teresa Benedicta and many others. As Carmelites living in the world, we listen to hear the whisper of God in the silence of our hearts. We seek Him, who we know loves us, and contemplate His wonders. We hope these short reflections will inspire you to take up the practice of prayer in your life. As St. Teresa of Avila reminds us is:

“Prayer is nothing else than an
intimate sharing between friends;
it means taking time
frequently
to be alone with Him
who we know loves us.”

Voting:

You can vote each day between July 28 and August 11, 2007 for your favorite shows at www.PodcastAwards.com. Voters may select one or all categories to vote for and a verification email with a clickable link will be emailed to you so that the vote can be verified.

About the 2007 Podcast Awards
The People’s Choice:

We have taken great care in the design and launching of this site to give all podcasters an equal chance in the opportunity to win a People’s Choice Podcasting Award in their specific category.

This is the third annual event that will recognize the best podcasters in the world by allowing the people (Listeners and Podcasters) to nominate, and then vote for their favorite podcast. This will culminate with awards and prizes being given during the 2007 Awards ceremony that take place during Podcast Expo in Ontario California on September 28, 2007. The website will see over 250,000 hits per day based upon 2006 levels.

Other Catholic Podcast Nominations:

People’s Choice
- Catholic Insider

Best Mobile Phone Formated Podcast
- Praystation Portable

Cultural/Arts
- Secrets of Harry Potter

Health/Fitness
- Healthy Catholic

PodSafe Music
- Catholic Rockers

Religion Inspiration
- Catholic Insider
- Daily Breakfast
- iPadre
- Meditations from Carmel
- The Hands and Feet Show

I wonder how long it will be before anyone guesses why I love this podcast so much?…..

Greetings from Bethelehem, the town of a twice yearly pilgrimage of our family! I must admit it is fun to say I am in Bethlehem, but really, it is my hometown and it is not in Isreal, but in Pennsylvania. The news is that my Nana is well and happy but tied to her house as her disability has really prevented this amazing 92 year old woman from treking around town as she used to do. However, she is one determined spirit and if she thinks she can make it out for a walk, she just darts out the door and goes. This causes some panic when the rest of the family can not find her, but I am always happy to see her outside and enjoying the good weather. That said, however, she almost never misses walking over a mile (uphill) to mass each morning. You could NEVER prevent her from doing that!

So, this little vacation to visit family is the reason I have not been updating the blog. We will be back late next week and I shall get back into my habit again. But for today, I pray for peace and love in all families.

This is a nice and short little look at the new Monastery in Wyoming (you know, the monks who are brewing their own special brand of coffee.) Here is a flash movie of the Carmelites in Wyoming. It comes from the Salt Lake Tribune newspaper…

It has been quite the busy busy these past nine days, but before the clock strikes midnight, I want to write a quick little summary of this final night of the Novena to Our Lady of Mount Carmel at the Carmelite Monastery in St. Louis.

Tonight we were so very blessed to have our very own Archbishop Raymond Burke preside over Holy Mass. He could not have been more wonderful. His homily was so very thoughtful as he spoke to the congregation about the great gift of the Brown Scapular that our Heavenly Mother gave to the Order as a sign of her maternal protection and love. Some, well perhaps lots, of people think our dear Archbishop Burke to be a stern man, a business man, and just another cleric in our church. But what they fail to notice about him, and what is truly most remarkable about this man, is that he is a deeply spiritual man. His soul is united to our Lord in deep devotion to His most Sacred Heart and it is most indeed evident when he speaks just how much this devotion animates his life. A great shepherd is he, a beautiful and most humble soul teaching us by example and with a brilliant mind inspired through the great grace of God.

The first reading from mass was from the Book of Kings when Elijah is upon Mount Carmel instructing his companion to look into the sky. When the first little cloud appears like a “hand” or in other translations “the heel of the foot”, Elijah knows this to be the sign from above. This formation in the clouds is symbolic of our Mother of Mount Carmel and how she would help to stamp out the evil one as she bears the Son of God on high. As the first reading was being recited my son looked up into the sky and saw the clouds forming above with a beautiful light from the setting sun adding glory to our holy mass. He quickly snapped this photograph which I am dubbing Elijah’s Cloud.

May we spend our lives in imitation of our humble and most perfect Mother of Mount Carmel. It is she who draws us up to her as our dearest Mother so she can introduce us to her most beloved Son, our Savior and our King.

Happy Feast day to all!!

— ooops the time just past beyond the stroke of 12!

I have said before that St. Teresa de los Andes is one of my particular favorite Saints. One can never say why certain souls feel connected, but it is certain that her spirituality in the Order of Our Lady of Mount Carmel has a definite magnetism for me. I have her on my iPod via Meditations from Carmel Podcast and loaded up on CDs in my car while driving. My children like to hum along to the Queen and Beauty of Mount Carmel theme song at the beginnings of each meditation! It is great then that they have the chance to sing this beautiful hymn (which comes via the Carmel in Boston I believe) during our Novena at the Monastery this week.

Here is a little bit of writing from Teresa. It comes from the Carmelite Proper…

July 13
St. Teresa of Jesus “of the Andes”, Virgin

OC: Optional Memorial
OCD: Memorial

Juanita Fernandez Solar was born at Santiago, Chile, on July 13, 1900. From
her adolescence she was devoted to Christ. She entered the monastery of the
Discalced Carmelite Nuns at Los Andes on May 7, 1919, where she was given
the name of Teresa of Jesus. She died on April 12, of the following year
after having made her religious profession. She was beatified on April 3,
1987, at Santiago, Chile, and canonized on March 21, 1993 by Pope John Paul
II and proposed as a model for young people. She is the first Chilean and
the first member of the Teresian Carmel in Latin America to be canonized.

From the Spiritual writings of St. Teresa of Jesus, of the Andes

“Jesus alone is beautiful; He is my only joy. I call for Him,
I cry after Him, I search for Him within my heart. I long for
Jesus to grind me interiorly so that I may become a pure
host where He can find His rest. I want to be athrist with
love so that other souls may possess this love. I would die
to creatures and to myself, so that He may live in me.

Is there anything good, beautiful or true that we can
think of that would not be in Jesus? Wisdom, from which
nothing would be secret. Power, for which nothing would
be impossible. Justice, which made Him take on flesh in
order to make satisfaction for sin. Providence, which
always watches over and sustains us. Mercy, which never
ceases to pardon. Goodness, which forgets the offenses of
His creatures. Love, which unites all the tendernesses of a
mother, of a brother, of a spouse, and which, drawing Him
out of the abyss of His greatness, binds Him closely to His
creatures. Beauty which enraptures…what can you think
of that would not be found in this Man-God?

Are you perhaps afraid that the abyss of the greatness
of God and that of your nothingness cannot be united?
There is love in Him. His passionate love made Him take
flesh in order that by seeing a Man-God, we would not be
afraid to draw near Him. This passionate love made Him
become bread in order to assimilate our nothingness and
make it disappear into His infinite being. This passionate
love made Him give His life by dying on the cross.

Are you perhaps afraid to draw near Him? Look at Him,
surrounded by little children. He caresses them, He presses
them to His heart. Look at Him in the midst of His faithful
flock, bearing the faithless lamb on His shoulders. Look at
Him at the tomb of Lazarus. And listen to what He says of
the Magdalene: “Much has been forgiven her, because she
has loved much.” What do you discover in these flashes
from the Gospel except a heart that is good, gentle, tender,
compassionate; in other words, the heart of a God?

He is my unending wealth, my bliss, my heaven.”

top photos: Teresa’s cell at the Carmel in the Andes Mountains. Also, Pope John Paul II blesses the statue of St. Teresa de los Andes at St. Peters Basilica in Rome.

My Desires Near Jesus Hidden in His Prison of Love

“Little Key, oh, I envy you!
For each day you can open
The prison of the Eucharist
Where the God of Love resides.
But, O what a sweet miracle!
By just an effort of my faith
I can also open the tabernacle
To hide near the Divine King…

Being consumed near my God
In the sanctuary, I would like
To burn forever with mystery
Like the Lamp of the Holy Place…
Oh! what happiness… I have flames within me,
And each day I can win
A great number of souls for Jesus,
Inflaming them with his love…”

–Therese of Lisieux 1895

The happiest face at the Novena last evening was definitely Sr. Paula Marie, the Extern at the Carmel of St. Joseph. I also really like this photo of the seminarians from Kenrick-Glennon. It is with a long shutter speed taken with just candle light and gives a very impressionistic view of the beauty of this novena to Our Lady of Mount Carmel…

Mystical Theology part III (final bits)

CHAPTER IV

That it that is the pre-eminent Cause of all things sensibly perceived is not itself any of those things.

We therefore maintain that the universal and transcendent Cause of all things is neither without being nor without life, nor without reason or intelligence; nor is it a body, nor has it form or shape, quality, quantity or weight; nor has it any localized, visible or tangible existence; it is not sensible or perceptible; nor is it subject to any disorder or inordination nor influenced by any earthly passion; neither is it rendered impotent through the effects of material causes and events; it needs no light; it suffers no change, corruption, division, privation or flux; none of these things can either be identified with or attributed unto it.

CHAPTER V
That it that is the pre-eminent Cause of all things intelligibly perceived is not itself any of those things.

Again, ascending yet higher, we maintain that it is neither soul nor intellect; nor has it imagination, opinion reason or understanding; nor can it be expressed or conceived, since it is neither number nor order; nor greatness nor smallness; nor equality nor inequality; nor similarity nor dissimilarity; neither is it standing, nor moving, nor at rest; neither has it power nor is power, nor is light; neither does it live nor is it life; neither is it essence, nor eternity nor time; nor is it subject to intelligible contact; nor is it science nor truth, nor kingship nor wisdom; neither one nor oneness, nor godhead nor goodness; nor is it spirit according to our understanding, nor filiation, nor paternity; nor anything else known to us or to any other beings of the things that are or the things that are not; neither does anything that is know it as it is; nor does it know existing things according to existing knowledge; neither can the reason attain to it, nor name it, nor know it; neither is it darkness nor light, nor the false nor the true; nor can any affirmation or negation be applied to it, for although we may affirm or deny the things below it, we can neither affirm nor deny it, inasmuch as the all-perfect and unique Cause of all things transcends all affirmation, and the simple pre-eminence of Its absolute nature is outside of every negation- free from every limitation and beyond them all.

–Dionysius the Areopagite

The outdoor Shrine to Our Heavenly Mother is radiant after the 2nd night of the Novena to Our Lady of Mount Carmel. We were blessed to have the Carmelite Sisters of the Divine Heart of Jesus with us as the guest choir. Their lovely voices lifted us all up in prayer (and many frogs, toads, birds and cicadas decided to chirp in too!)

The Carmelite Sisters are from St. Louis too and as part of their active apostolate, run the St. Agnes Home which they say is a “Home away from Home for children and the elderly”. Their foundress was recently beatified by the Holy Father in Rome. Her name is now Blessed Maria Teresa of St. Joseph. I will include a prayer for her below.

PRAYER for Blessed Maria Teresa:

O, God, Our Father, You purified Your Servant Maria Teresa of St. Joseph through suffering and afflictions. Her great faith, her firm trust and unselfish love made her, through Your grace, a pure instrument in Your hand with which You could do great things.

Encouraged by her example and her trust in Your help we ask, through her intercession (name your intention here)

May Your holy Will be done Lord.
Make our hearts ready to accept what You send. Then we know that we pray in the spirit of Mother Mary Teresa.
This we ask through Our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

(With ecclesiastical approval, Roermond, March 19, 1988, Msgr. A.H.L. Meertens, Vic. Gen.)

Please communicate all favors granted
though Blessed Maria Teresa’s intercession to:

Carmelite Sisters DCJ
10431 Manchester Rd.
Kirkwood, MO 63122

Last night began our 9 days of loving praise to our Lord for His great gift to us in Our Lady of Mount Carmel. Through her intercession we ask the Lord for pardon from our great sin and unite unite our souls with those great souls of purgatory who are undergoing their purification and awaiting to be taken into their eternity with a perfect love of our Creator. How wonderful it must be to know they will see God in His ultimate glory, but how painful it must be to be stranded in this land of purification. To wait and wait and wait… the ultimate in patience!

It is not without some significance to me personally that yesterday was also the anniversary of my “PopPop”, that great and most humble soul who taught me to pray. I don’t mean that my own Mother did not teach me my vocal prayers and send me off to a nice Catholic school. Indeed, I memorized my catechism and always went to mass, but there is certainly a higher prayer than vocal prayer as I was to learn from PopPop.

As a youngster I was always escaping my own home to be with him and my Nana. I think I learned to dial the phone (as in rotary actual “dialing”) before I was 3 and beg for them to come and pick me up so I could be with them. They were my “escape house” where I would go as a pilgrim in search of solitude and respite. And, you should know, there was always a certain trip to McDonald’s on the way from my home to theirs!

Their home was old and sat at the top of “Spring” street where in the dirt cellar could still be seen the rocks and rubble of the old spring which gushed down to the little city in a valley below. It was here, for the many most important learning years of my life, that I would begin my “unknowning”, that paradox of prayer which leads us from the visible world to the invisible eternity. My PopPop would sit in a chair by the window. Silently, quietly, without word or movement, he would pray. He never said he was praying, and probably to the casual viewer from the street he would just seem to be “maxing and relaxing”, but for those who actually were in the room, they would glimpse the unseen beauty of a man in deep meditation.

And so as I observed, I too was absorbed in a curiosity of this life. It was a mystery to me, but the peace I felt as I sat with him was so intoxicating that I could not ignore it. Its attraction was stronger than any magnet and yet my little mind (so young and so very ignorant — and still is mind you!) would not stop working on this problem. How could a little girl, then a young woman with ants in her pants (to put it mildly) be able to sit quietly and feel this peace.

Well, I am certainly giving my story the “quick overview” with little attention to detail. So many beautiful golden threads make up the tapestry which has led me to love our Lord and to seek Him in all the parts of my life. In the beauty of daily life, in the beauty of children in the beauty of the suffering of the cross. He is in the good and the difficult and I struggle to see Him in all these places. Most times I am as blind as a bat, but then again, bats rely on their “radar” and so a soul must rely on this invisible pull towards the eternity.

—-

The photo above is from the Novena last night. It is the 59th annual outdoor novena at the Carmel of St. Joseph. The other photograph is my PopPop. Eternal rest grant onto them O Lord and let perpetual light shine upon them.

CHAPTER II

“The necessity of being united with and of rendering praise to it that is the Cause of all and above all.

We pray that we may come unto this Darkness which is beyond light, and, without seeing and without knowing, to see and to know that which is above vision and knowledge through the realization that by not-seeing and by unknowing we attain to true vision and knowledge; and thus praise, superessentially, it that is superessential, by the transcendence of all things; even as those who, carving a statue out of marble, abstract or remove all the surrounding material that hinders the vision which the marble conceals and, by that abstraction, bring to light the hidden beauty.(5)
It is necessary to distinguish this negative method of abstraction from the positive method of affirmation, in which we deal with the Divine Attributes. For with these latter we begin with the universal and primary, and pass through the intermediate and secondary to the particular and ultimate attributes; but now we ascend from the particular to the universal conceptions, abstracting all attributes in order that, without veil, we may know that Unknowing which is enshrouded under all that is known and all that can be known, and that we may begin to contemplate the superessential Darkness which is hidden by all the light that is in existing things.

CHAPTER III

What are the affirmations and the negations concerning God?

In the Theological Outlines (6) we have set forth the principal affirmative expressions concerning God, and have shown in what sense God’s Holy Nature is One, and in what sense Three; what is within It which is called Paternity, what Filiation, and what is signified by the name Spirit; how from the uncreated and indivisible Good, the blessed and perfect Rays of its Goodness proceed, and yet abide immutably one both within their Origin and within themselves and each other, co-eternal with the act by which they spring from it; how the superessential Jesus enters in essential state in which the truths of human nature meet; and other matters made known by the Oracles are expounded in the same place.
Again, in the treatise on Divine Names, we have considered the meaning, as concerning God, of the titles of Good, of Being, of Life, of Wisdom, of Power, and of such other names as are applied to it; further, in Symbolical Theology we have considered what are the metaphorical titles drawn from the world of sense and applied to the nature of God; what is meant by the material and intellectual images we form of it, or the functions and instruments of activity attributed to it; what are the places where it dwells and the raiment in which it is adorned; what is meant by God’s anger, grief and indignation, or the divine inebriation; what is meant by God’s oaths and threats, by Its slumber and waking; and all sacred and symbolical representations. And it will be observed how far more copious and diffused are the last terms than the first, for the theological doctrine and the exposition of the Divine Names are necessarily more brief than the Symbolical Theology.

For the higher we soar in contemplation the more limited become our expressions of that which is purely intelligible; even as now, when plunging into the Darkness that is above the intellect, we pass not merely into brevity of speech, but even into absolute silence of thoughts and of words. Thus, in the former discourse, our contemplations descended from the highest to the lowest, embracing an ever-widening number of conceptions, which increased at each stage of the descent; but in the present discourse we mount upwards from below to that which is the highest, and, according to the degree of transcendence, so our speech is restrained until, the entire ascent being accomplished, we become wholly voiceless, inasmuch as we are absorbed in it that is totally ineffable. But why, you will ask, does the affirmative method begin from the highest attributions, and the negative method with the lowest abstractions?’ The reason is because, when affirming the subsistence of That which transcends all affirmation, we necessarily start from the attributes most closely related to It and upon which the remaining affirmations depend; but when pursuing the negative method to reach That which is beyond all abstraction, we must begin by applying our negations to things which are most remote from It. For is it not more true to affirm that God is Life and Goodness than that God is air or stone; and must we not deny to God more emphatically the attributes of inebriation and wrath than the applications of human speech and thought?”

 – Dionysius the Areopagite

Notes:

(5) Compare the well-known analogy of Plotinus:
‘Withdraw into yourself and look; and if you do not find yourself beautiful as yet, do as does the sculptor of a statue … cut away all that is excessive, straighten all that is crooked, bring light to all that is shadowed … do not cease until there shall shine out on you the Godlike Splendour of Beauty; until you see temperance surely established in the stainless shrine-(Ennead, 1, 6, 9).

(6) Dionysius refers to several of his treatises, but besides the Mystical Theology the other extant works of his are Divine Names, The Celestial Hierarchies, Ecclesiastical Hierarchy, and various epistles. See The Complete Works, Colm Luibheid, trs., (Paulist Press: 1987), now, unfortunately, out of print.

About Dionysius
Dionysius the Areopagite was the Bishop of Athens in the first century. An eminent Athenian by birth, Dionysius converted to Christianity through the preaching of Paul up on Mar’s Hill. Areopagus is Greek for Mars’ Hill. Acts 17:34

Dionysius first studied at Athens and a member of the court of the Areopagus. He then travelled at Helipolis in Egypt to study astronomy where he made very particular observations on the great and supernatural eclipse, which happened at the time of Jesus’ crucifixion. Dionysius was educated in all the useful and ornamental literature of Greece. The sanctity of his conversion and the purity of his manners recommended him so strongly to the Christians in general, that he was appointed the first Bishop of Athens. At the request of Paul, Dionysius left Athens to meet him there at Rome, for the purpose of being sent by him to Gaul. After many labors and trials, Dionysius suffered martyrdom by fire in Paris. His Feast day is October 9th in the west and October 3rd in the east.

During the Middle Ages Dionysius was credited with writing some philosophical material that may have been actually from the 5th or 6th century. They are the “Celestial Hierarchy, The Ecclesiastical Hierarchy, The Divine Names, Mystical Theology” among others, written in Greek from perhaps Palestine. Whatever the source, they were taken serious and had an effect on the mystical philosophy of the Medieval period. They are now known as the writings of Pseudo-Dionysius.

(Downloaded from the St. Pachomius Orthodox Library)

This prayer is recited daily and does not change from day to day.

O God, Who has deigned to honor the Order of Carmel with the glorious title
of Your Virgin Mother grant the grace of Your protection to all who
celebrate this Solemn Novena so that, throught her, we may attain eternal
happiness. Amen.

(Our Father, Hail Mary, Gloria—3 times)

Let us pray. Under your protection we take our refuge, O holy Virgin Mary
of Mt. Carmel, despise not out petitions in our necessities but deliver us
from all dangers, O ever glorious and most blessed Virgin. Amen.

Pray for us, O Holy Mother of God, that we may be made worthy of the
promises of Christ.

Flower of Carmel,
Vine, blossom-laden,
Splendor of Heaven,
Child-bearing Maiden,
None is like you;

O Mother benign,
Whom no man did know,
On all Carmel’s children
Your favors bestow.
Star of the Sea!

Vouchsafe, O Sacred Virgin, to accept my praises. Give me strength against
your enemies.

Let us pray. Grant we bessech you O Lord, that we your servants, may enjoy
health of body and mind, and be delivered from all temporal afflictions, and
enjoy eternal bliss, through Jesus Christ, Our Lord. Amen.

Queen, Beauty of Carmel, pray for us.

Take me away, and in the lowest deep
There let me be,
And there in hope the lone night-watches keep,
Told out for me.
There, motionless and happy in my pain,
Lone, not forlorn–
There will I sing my sad perpetual strain,
Until the morn.
There will I sing, and soothe my stricken breast,
Which ne’er can cease
To throb, and pine, and languish, till possest
Of its Sole Peace.
There will I sing my absent Lord and Love:–
Take me away,
That sooner I may rise, and go above,
And see Him in the truth of everlasting day.

- John Henry Cardinal Newman

One last picture from the 4th of July (you gotta love sparklers!)

It reminds me of the letter of St. Paul to the Corinthians, Chapter 13:

13:12. We see now through a glass in a dark manner: but then face to face. Now I know in part: but then I shall know even as I am known.

Videmus nunc per speculum in enigmate tunc autem facie ad faciem nunc cognosco ex parte tunc autem cognoscam sicut et cognitus sum

13:13. And now there remain faith, hope, and charity, these three: but the greatest of these is charity.

Nunc autem manet fides spes caritas tria haec maior autem his est caritas

I can not believe that I had the ambition (nay craziness) to take 12 boys (ages 4 to 13) to see the fireworks launch across the Mississippi River last night. There were two beautiful girls along for the ride, but they were as good as little mothers helping the boys to stay together and even carrying the youngest when he started to stray from us.

With a giant St. Louis crowd, the Riverfront was quite packed. Luckily I had other moms with me (and those little moms), but I was quite nervous for the boys to remain in “formation of a human chain” as we found our way to a nice piece of grass directly in the middle of that glowing stainless steel wonder- the St. Louis Arch. We timed our arrival pretty well so there was not much time for “wrestling” and “grass throwing” before the actual pyrotechnics began.

I was not ready for a “spiritual” experience to say the least, I was far too worried I would loose one of those precious children to think of anything else. I was so amazed then that when the fireworks began to burst forth through the blackened sky, to be immediately thinking of the writings of Saints Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross. It was though John’s description of the wooden fire in which when we blow on it, is ignited to burst fourth and grow in intensity. As those fireworks erupted in force of beauty and splendor it was though my heart was swelling too. I asked our Lord to know that this is how my heart years for Him and indeed hope that all humanity may know this same love as they watch their local fireworks on this 4th of July holiday. I pray that the excitement of children and adults when they see this mid-summer light show will somehow speak to them on many levels. To know that excitement for prayer and union with the Eternity as they witness each physical burst of spark and flame.

We all manged to get home safely, rather late for sure, but safe and sound. And today, on the real American festival of the 4th of July, as we began our day by celebrating mass at the Carmelite Monastery, it was wonderful to have the Sisters sing to us all the verses of “God Bless America”. They sung with fervent heart as I know they pray each day for not only our country but our world and the souls of eternity. How glorious a life they give to our Lord, loving Him in lives of quiet contemplation and loving supplication. May those who may be discerning their vocation at this time be inspired by their beautiful witness.

Peace and Love to America and the world this day…

p.s. Here are Pope Benedict’s Prayer Intentions for July:
His general intention is: “That all citizens, individually and in groups, may be enabled to participate actively in the life and management of the common good.”

His mission intention is: “That, aware of their own missionary duty, all Christians may actively help all those engaged in the evangelization of peoples.”

(Part 1)

This is a rather short treatise on mystical theology which examines the “Divine Darkness” which comes with a soul who is lifted to this type of prayer. I will not get into examining how this particular explanation is the same or different from others, I am just going to post it for edification and inspiration. This is only chapter 1 of 5.

THE MYSTICAL THEOLOGY
CHAPTER I

What is the Divine Darkness?

Supernal Triad, Deity above all essence, knowledge and goodness; Guide of Christians to Divine Wisdom; direct our path to the ultimate summit of your mystical knowledge, most incomprehensible, most luminous and most exalted, where the pure, absolute and immutable mysteries of theology are veiled in the dazzling obscurity of the secret Silence, outshining all brilliance with the intensity of their Darkness, and surcharging our blinded intellects with the utterly impalpable and invisible fairness of glories surpassing all beauty.

Let this be my prayer; but do, dear Timothy, in the diligent exercise of mystical contemplation, leave behind the senses and the operations of the intellect, and all things sensible and intellectual, and all things in the world of being and nonbeing, that you may arise by unknowing towards the union, as far as is attainable, with it that transcends all being and all knowledge.(1) For by the unceasing and absolute renunciation of yourself and of all things you may be borne on high, through pure and entire self-abnegation, into the superessential Radiance of the Divine Darkness.(2)

But these things are not to be disclosed to the uninitiated, by whom I mean those attached to the objects of human thought, and who believe there is no superessential Reality beyond, and who imagine that by their own understanding they know it that has made Darkness Its secret place. And if the principles of the divine Mysteries are beyond the understanding of these, what is to be said of others still more incapable thereof, who describe the transcendental First Cause of all by characteristics drawn from the lowest order of beings, while they deny that it is in any way above the images which they fashion after various designs; whereas they should affirm that, while it possesses all the positive attributes of the universe (being the Universal Cause) yet, in a more strict sense, it does not possess them, since it transcends them all; wherefore there is no contradiction between the affirmations and the negations, inasmuch as it infinitely precedes all conceptions of deprivation, being beyond all positive and negative distinctions.

Thus the blessed Bartholomew asserts that the divine science is both vast and minute, and that the Gospel is great and broad, yet concise and short; signifying by this, that the beneficent Cause of all is most eloquent, yet utters few words, or rather is altogether silent, as having neither (human) speech nor (human) understanding, because it is super-essentially exalted above created things, and reveals itself in Its naked Truth to those alone who pass beyond all that is pure or impure, and ascend above the topmost altitudes of holy things, and who, leaving behind them all divine light and sound and heavenly utterances, plunge into the Darkness where truly dwells, as the Oracles declare, that ONE who is beyond all.(3)

It was not without reason that the blessed Moses was commanded first to purify himself and them to separate himself from those who had not undergone purifcation; and after the entire purification heard many trumpets and saw many lights streaming forth with pure and manifold rays; and that he was thereafter separated from the multitude, with the elect priests, and pressed forward to the summit of the divine ascent. Nevertheless, he did not attain to the Presence of God itself; he saw not it (for it cannot be looked upon) but the Place where it dwells. And this I take to signify that the divinest and highest things seen by the eyes or contemplated by the mind are but the symbolical expressions of those that are immediately beneath it that is above all. Through these, Its incomprehensible Presence is manifested upon those heights of Its Holy Places; that then It breaks forth, even from that which is seen and that which sees, and plunges the mystic into the Darkness of Unknowing, whence all perfection of understanding is excluded, and he is enwrapped in that which is altogether intangible, wholly absorbed in it that is beyond all, and in none else (whether himself or another); and through the inactivity of all his reasoning powers is united by his highest faculty to it that is wholly unknowable; thus by knowing nothing he knows That which is beyond his knowledge. (4)

NOTES
(1) Unknowing, or agnosia, is not ignorance or nescience as ordinarily understood, but rather the realization that no finite knowledge can fully know the Infinite One, and that therefore it is only truly to be approached by agnosia, or by that which is beyond and above knowledge. There are two main kinds of darkness: the subdarkness and the super-darkness, between which lies, as it were, an octave of light. But the nether-darkness and the Divine Darkness are not the same darkness, for the former is absence of light, while the latter is excess of light. The one symbolizes mere ignorance, and the other a transcendent unknowing – a superknowledge not obtained by means of the discursive reason.

(2)‘Of the First Principle,’ says Damascius, ‘the ancient Egyptians said nothing, but celebrated it as a Darkness beyond all intellectual or spiritual perception – a Thrice-unknown Darkness.’ This is for ever about the Pavilions of that great Light Unapproachable. It is caused by the superabundance of Light and not by the absence of lumination: it is ‘a deep but dazzling Darkness’ (Henry Vaughan). ‘The light shineth in the darkness’ (St. John, 1, 5). ‘In Thy light we shall see light’ (Psalm 36, 9).

(3)St. John of the Cross, for instance, wrote of other kinds of darkness; for example, the darkness of the night of purgation, and the dark night of the soul, but the Divine Darkness is in a different category from these.

(4) Particularly important here is the concept of beyond-being, the recognition that what is known in the unknowing is beyond the realm of being and cannot be adequately described, although negation comes closer than affirmation.

About Dionysius
Dionysius the Areopagite was the Bishop of Athens in the first century. An eminent Athenian by birth, Dionysius converted to Christianity through the preaching of Paul up on Mar’s Hill. Areopagus is Greek for Mars’ Hill. Acts 17:34

Dionysius first studied at Athens and a member of the court of the Areopagus. He then travelled at Helipolis in Egypt to study astronomy where he made very particular observations on the great and supernatural eclipse, which happened at the time of Jesus’ crucifixion. Dionysius was educated in all the useful and ornamental literature of Greece. The sanctity of his conversion and the purity of his manners recommended him so strongly to the Christians in general, that he was appointed the first Bishop of Athens. At the request of Paul, Dionysius left Athens to meet him there at Rome, for the purpose of being sent by him to Gaul. After many labors and trials, Dionysius suffered martyrdom by fire in Paris. His Feast day is October 9th in the west and October 3rd in the east.

During the Middle Ages Dionysius was credited with writing some philosophical material that may have been actually from the 5th or 6th century. They are the “Celestial Hierarchy, The Ecclesiastical Hierarchy, The Divine Names, Mystical Theology” among others, written in Greek from perhaps Palestine. Whatever the source, they were taken serious and had an effect on the mystical philosophy of the Medieval period. They are now known as the writings of Pseudo-Dionysius.

(Downloaded from the St. Pachomius Orthodox Library)

James Gilmour (1843-1891) was a Scottish Protestant missionary to Mongolia who made lonely, heroic efforts to preach the gospel to a people steeped in Lamaist forms of Buddhism; spending summers with nomadic Mongols on the plains of Mongolia and winters with Mongols in Peking. After his wife died in 1885, he labored in eastern Mongolia until his death at age 47, after 21 years of missionary service.

Here is a wonderful little quote from him about the importance of prayer. I think that it is quite wonderful…

“My Creed leads me to think that prayer is efficacious, and surely a day’s asking God to overrule all events for good is not lost. Still there is a great feeling that when a man is praying he’s doing nothing, and this feeling makes us give undue importance to work, sometimes even to the hurrying over or even to the neglect of prayer.

Do not we rest in our day too much on the arm of flesh? Cannot the same wonders be done now as of old? Do not the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth still to show Himself strong on behalf of those who put their trust in Him? Oh that God would give me more practical faith in Him! Where is now the Lord God of Elijah? He is waiting for Elijah to call on Him.”

—James Gilmour of Mongolia

Read more about James Gilmour