aeternus

As we are getting ready for Pentecost, I remembered to dig out one of my favorite poems from a dear Carmelite, St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross. It was a poem that was never completed and one of her last writings before she was taken off to Auschwitz and killed during  August of 1942. The manuscript itself remains in the Carmel in Echt and was probably written in the Summertime of 1942.

By St. Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein)

Who are you, sweet light, that fills me
And illumines the darkness of my heart?
You lead me like a mother’s hand,
And should you let go of me,
I would not know how to take another step.
You are the space
That embraces my being and buries it in yourself.
Away from you it sinks into the abyss
Of nothingness, from which you raised it to the light.
You, nearer to me than I to myself
And more interior than my most interior
And still impalpable and intangible
And beyond any name:
Holy Spirit eternal love!

Are you not the sweet manna
That from the Son’s heart
Overflows into my heart,
The food of angels and the blessed?
He who raised himself from death to life,
He has also awakened me to new life
From the sleep of death.
And he gives me new life from day to day,
And at some time his fullness is to stream through me,
Life of your life indeed, you yourself:
Holy Spirit eternal life!

Are you the ray
That flashes down from the eternal Judge’s throne
And breaks into the night of the soul
That had never known itself?
Mercifully relentlessly
It penetrates hidden folds.
Alarmed at seeing itself,
The self makes space for holy fear,
The beginning of that wisdom
That comes from on high
And anchors us firmly in the heights,
Your action,
That creates us anew:
Holy Spirit ray that penetrates everything!

Are you the spirit’s fullness and the power
By which the Lamb releases the seal
Of God’s eternal decree?
Driven by you
The messengers of judgment ride through the world
And separate with a sharp sword
The kingdom of light from the kingdom of night.
Then heaven becomes new and new the earth,
And all finds its proper place
Through your breath:
Holy Spirit victorious power!

Are you the master who builds the eternal cathedral,
Which towers from the earth through the heavens?
Animated by you, the columns are raised high
And stand immovably firm.
Marked with the eternal name of God,
They stretch up to the light,
Bearing the dome,
Which crowns the holy cathedral,
Your work that encircles the world:
Holy Spirit God’s molding hand!

Are you the one who created the unclouded mirror
Next to the Almighty’s throne,
Like a crystal sea,
In which Divinity lovingly looks at itself?
You bend over the fairest work of your creation,
And radiantly your own gaze
Is illumined in return.
And of all creatures the pure beauty
Is joined in one in the dear form
Of the Virgin, your immaculate bride:
Holy Spirit Creator of all!

Are you the sweet song of love
And of holy awe
That eternally resounds around the triune throne,
That weds in itself the clear chimes of each and every being?
The harmony,
That joins together the members to the Head,
In which each one
Finds the mysterious meaning of his being blessed
And joyously surges forth,
Freely dissolved in your surging:
Holy Spirit eternal jubilation!

image above: Les Très Riches Heures du duc de Berry, Folio 79r - Pentecost the Musée Condé, Chantilly.

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“God alone is he, who, by his infinite wisdom, sees, knows and penetrates all the turnings and windings of our hearts: he understands our thoughts from afar, he finds out our traces, doubles and turnings; his knowledge therein is admirable, surpassing our capacity and reach.”


This is a statement by Saint Francis de Sales in Chapter I of book VI of his “Treatise on the Love of God”. Saint Francis is talking about love and prayer and how it becomes a secret language between our heart and the heart of our Beloved. I appreciated how Saint Francis took the opportunity to explain the mystical side of prayer as he considered it along with the poetry of the Song of Songs (Canticles). I thought it might be something to share. Here he begins on mystical theology (the theme of Book VI) which he says is “No other thing than prayer”.


“Now it is called mystical, because its conversation is altogether secret, and there is nothing said in it between God and the soul save only from heart to heart, by a communication incommunicable to all but those who make it. Lovers’ language is so peculiar to themselves that none but themselves understand it. I sleep, said the holy spouse, and my heart watcheth. Ah! hark! The voice of my beloved knocking. [Cant. v. 2. ] Who would have guessed that this spouse being asleep could yet talk with her beloved? But where love reigns, the sound of exterior words is not necessary, nor the help of sense to entertain and to hear one another. In fine, prayer and mystical theology is nothing else but a conversation in which the soul amorously entertains herself with God concerning his most amiable goodness, to unite and join herself thereto.

Prayer is a manna, for the infinity of delicious tastes and precious sweetnesses which it gives to such as use it, but it is hidden, [Revelation 2:17] because it falls before the light of any science, in the mental solitude where the soul alone treats with her God alone. Who is she, might one say of her, that goeth up by the desert, as a pillar of smoke of aromatical spices, of myrrh, and frankincense, and of all the powders of the perfumer? [Cant. 3: 6]. And it was the desire of secrecy that moved her to make this petition to her love: Come, my beloved, let us go forth into the field, let us abide in the villages. [Cant. 7: 11.] For this reason the heavenly spouse is styled a turtle, a bird which is delighted in shady and solitary places, where she makes no other use of her song but for her only mate, either in life wooing him or after his death plaining him. For this reason, in the Canticles, the divine lover and the heavenly spouse describe their loves by a continual conversing together; and if their friends sometimes speak during their conference, it is but casually, and without interrupting their colloquy. Hence the Blessed Mother Saint Teresa of Jesus found at first more profit in the mysteries where our Saviour was most alone; as in the Garden of Olives, and where he was awaiting the Samaritan woman, for she fancied that he being alone would more readily admit her into his company.

Love desires secrecy; yea, though lovers may have nothing secret to say, yet they love to say it secretly: and this is partly, if I am not mistaken, because they would speak only for themselves, whereas when they speak out loud it seems no longer to be for themselves alone; partly because they do not say common things in a common manner, but with touches which are particular, and which manifest the special affection with which they speak. The language of love is common, as to the words, but in manner and pronunciation it is so special that none but lovers understand it.”

– St. Francis de Sales (1567-1622) : Treatise on the Love of God

There is still some snow around thought the sun shone so brightly yesterday that we did get a lot of melting. Here is the outdoor shrine at the Carmel of St. Joseph.

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Determination.

It is perhaps this singular word which makes me love Saint Teresa of Avila so much. Though I appreciate her great witty style of prose, her humble, self-deprecating demeanor and her obvious intelligence of soul, it is Teresa’s ability to practice a determined spirit of life which attracts me so much to her. For she knew, in keen awareness of her own human nature, that it is no easy road which we climb as we set our journey upwards and home-wards to our eternity.

Teresa does not teach us about things which can not be attained for through determination she attained them. (And by the way, I am not talking about the effects of mystical prayer which ONLY God can bestow upon a soul. I am talking about the determined effort we can use for ourselves in ordering and centering our lives on prayer and adoration of our Lord and God.)

Teresa teaches us how to leave the daily grind and superfluous chatter behind us, to allow it only to be a “white noise” in the background. She teaches us to focus our spiritual capacities on Him and only Him. To do ALL for Him and whatever is not of Him and only of ourselves to fall away. We become impoverished souls emptying our self-centered worth to become rich in Him.

I thought to present as an example of this determination, a passage from Teresa’s autobiography (The Book of Her Life). Here she talks of a soul who has begun this life of dedicated prayer and who must now remain faithful through a determined spirit so they are not lost. And, please, you gotta love this woman who is so humble as to compliment herself as a “vile worm!” - what a hoot! I LOVE HER! She makes my sides hurt from laughter!

Notice how strong the soul feels in this stage after prayer. It is would gladly give itself up a thousand times for God for it is feeling a heroic determination of spirit. But when it is again placed in this world, it sees itself plainly (warts and all as they say!). This is how God teaches us. To know Him and to see ourselves and how desperately far from perfection we are! But His mercy and love is so great that if a soul loves God, God can not help but love it. For God is love and He can not deny Himself…

Let us listen to dear Teresa’s words…

CHAPTER XIX. The effects of this Fourth State of Prayer. Earnest exhortations to those who have attained to it not to go back, nor to cease from prayer, even if they fall. The great calamity of going back…

There remains in the soul, when the prayer of
union is over, an exceedingly great tenderness ; so
much so, that it would undo itself not from pain, but
through tears of joy : it finds itself bathed therein,
without being aware of it, and it knows not how or
when it wept them. But to behold the violence of the
fire subdued by the water, which yet makes it burn the
more, gives it great delight. It seems as if I were
speaking an unknown language. So it is, however.

It has happened to me occasionally, when this
prayer was over, to be so beside myself as not to know
whether I had been dreaming, or whether the bliss I
felt had really been mine ; and, on finding myself in a
flood of tears which had painlessly flowed, with such
violence and rapidity that it seemed as if a cloud from
heaven 1 had shed them to perceive that it was no
dream. Thus it was with me in the beginning, when
it passed quickly away. The soul remains possessed
of so much courage, that if it were now hewn in pieces
for God, it would be a great consolation to it. This is
the time of resolutions, of heroic determinations, of the
living energy of good desires, of the beginning of hatred
of the world, and of the most clear perception of its
vanity. The soul makes greater and higher progress
than it ever made before in the previous states of
prayer ; and grows in humility more and more, because
it sees clearly that neither for obtaining nor for re
taining this grace, great beyond all measure, has it ever
done, or ever been able to do, anything of itself. It
looks upon itself as most unworthy for in a room into
which the sunlight enters strongly, not a cobweb can be
hid ; it sees its own misery ; self-conceit is so far away,
that it seems as if it never could have had any for
now its own eyes behold how very little it could ever
do, or rather, that it never did anything, that it hardly
gave even its own consent, but that it rather seemed as
if the doors of the senses were closed against its will
in order that it might have more abundantly the
fruition of our Lord. It is abiding alone with Him :
what has it to do but to love Him ? It neither sees nor
hears, unless on compulsion : no thanks to it. Its past
life stands before it then, together with the great mercy
of God, in great distinctness ; and it is not necessary
for it to go forth to hunt with the understanding,
because what it has to eat and ruminate upon, it sees
now ready prepared. It sees, so far as itself is con
cerned, that it has deserved hell, and that its punish
ment is bliss. It undoes itself in the praises of God,
and I would gladly undo myself now.

Blessed be Thou, O my Lord, who, out of a pool
so filthy as I am, bringest forth water so clean as to be
meet for Thy table ! Praised be Thou, O Joy of the
Angels, who hast been thus pleased to exalt so vile a
worm !

The Life of ST. TERESA OF JESUS, OF THE ORDER OF OUR LADY OF CARMEL. WRITTEN BY HERSELF TRANSLATED FROM THE SPANISH BY DAVID LEWIS. Third Edition Enlarged. “With additional Notes and an Introduction by REV. FR. BENEDICT ZIMMERMAN, O.C.D. LONDON : THOMAS BAKER. MCMIV. THE COPYRIGHT OF MR. LEWIS TRANSLATION IS THE PROPERTY OF THE ” ST. ANSELM SOCIETY.” ALL OTHER MA1TER CONTAINED IN THIS VOLUME IS THE PROPERTY OF THE PRESENT PUBLISHER.

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If you have not yet seen Our Lady of America in New York City, you will be lifted up to see her amongst the people there by watching this video at Air Maria. The pictures are wonderful and the video is worth a million words!

The following is a wonderful reflection I found to meditate on before communion (before you even get to the church even) that I would like to share. The meditation comes from a book translated by the late Henry Cardinal Manning of Westminster Cathedral in London. Cardinal Manning was a convert from Anglicanism and apparently had a great influence over the mind and philosophy of the great British writer Hilaire Belloc. This is the 13th Meditation in the book and is entitled, “The Prelude to Heaven”.

Ask Him that Holy Communion may deliver you
from having the misfortune to offend Him, and may
support you in the trials which are inherent in every
situation in life.

Preparation.

ENTER the church with as much joy as if you knew
that you were going there to behold Jesus in His
glory. For although He is obliged to hide His visible
majesty and glory from our feeble sense, He is none
the less truly in the tabernacle, in all His beauty and
grandeur, and as fully deserves the respect and love
which you would show to Him if He were to appear
visibly before our mortal eyes.

This idea is so truly Catholic, that the entrance of
the church was formerly called Paradise (now abbre-
viated to farvis) because by it we really enter the
presence of God. As soon as you have chosen your
place, prostrate yourself as if Jesus were about to
appear to you. He does more than that in giving
Himself to you.

I. Earth Heaven.

When we remember that the whole world was
created for the use of man, we may imagine the
admiration, the transports of love into which saints
would be thrown by the sight of an exquisite flower,
when they said, God created this flower for me. This
thought applied to all the noble and lovely works of
God that met their eye, filled them with lively and
uninterrupted gratitude. But compared to Jesus in
the Blessed Sacrament, the most magnificent works
of creation sink into insignificance; and my heart is
more deeply affected when I consider the tabernacle,
which was also erected for me, than when I look at
all the marvellous works that the Almighty Hand of
God has created out of nothing. For then all the
beauties of earth dwindle into insignificance in the
presence of their Creator. When I look abroad I
say, My God, how beautiful are Thy works ! They
incline my soul to love Thee ; but I feel more strongly
inclined by far to forget all besides in the contempla-
tion of the Sacred Host, in which I adore and love
the Eternal Creator of all perishable things.

In permitting me to receive Holy Communion, our
Lord bestows upon me the most wonderful gift, except
the Incarnation, that the power of God has made.

It is a marvel which surpasses the Creation as much
as heaven surpasses earth; and this marvellous thing
is but the prelude to heaven.

But if you wish to enjoy celestial things, you must
impose silence upon your thoughts; repress every
word which is contrary to charity ; refrain from scru-
tinizing the intentions of your neighbour; fix the eyes
of your heart upon heaven alone; and you will then
find it easy to let earthly things pass away from your
mind without causing you any further distraction or
agitation. Look steadfastly at heaven and at the
tabernacle. In these two directions you are certain
to find Jesus, and when you fix your eyes upon Him
let them be accompanied by your heart.

In everything you do, Sursum corda, So will you
find peace; and peace in this world is equivalent to
happiness.

Yes, you should lift up your eyes to heaven, your
country, your everlasting resting-place. There you
will shed no more tears ; you will feel no more sad-
ness. God will be known, loved, possessed eternally
by you. Is not this hope satisfying enough to make
you forget yourself and fix your heart on things
above?

How glorious are Thy tabernacles; how dear are
they to me, O my God! If I find such happiness in
them upon earth, what shall I feel when I enter Thine
abode in heaven? My soul rejoices to enter into
the house of the Lord ; it rejoices still more in the
assurance that it will not quit His abode until it has
itself become His sanctuary and dwelling-place. Thy
tabernacle, O my Jesus, is the place of my repose.
I come to ask Thee for grace to forget myself in
thinking of Thee alone; for grace to love Thee only,
like the saints in heaven, who can never cease to
think of Thee and to love Thee for ever.

II. The Eucharistic joys are mingled with our tears.

Eternal happiness is but a transfiguration of our
souls in an ever-increasing glory: it is the eternal
flight of created love towards the Infinite. Heaven
is its glorious region above ; but we must not forget
that love must first commence its flight upon earth
before it can reach those blessed abodes where sorrow
shall be no more. Before we attain the heights of
heaven we must traverse the * valley of tears/ With-
out reckoning the adversities of life, the pious soul can
find in its ordinary occurrences abundant cause for
tears. The instinct derived from that infinite love of
which we are the objects causes us to feel the utter
impossibility of finding any affection upon earth which
is able to give full satisfaction to the soul. Sadness
arises in every soul that feels an unsatisfied craving
for the love of God. It finds itself pent in and cir-
cumscribed upon earth without knowing the true
cause of its uneasiness and longing desires. For on Y

the other side, our Lord presses our hearts in order
to wear out the life of nature in them and lead them
to seek the higher life of grace. We then feel deprived
of all outward or inward support, and attribute to
ordinary causes or chance events that distress of mind
which should be the first step to our spiritual trans-
formation. Out of Jesus we can find no rest. Our
sufferings, although they are severe, are yet not entirely
without sweetness, because God brings with Him a
feeling of celestial happiness, which the soul enjoys
without knowing from whence it derives it. This
feeling appears strange at first, because nothing upon
earth resembles it. We experience a sudden thrill of
happiness, strong as love, rapid as lightning, which
passes through the soul, leaving an impression of
sadness behind, because it is the remembrance of a
happiness which has passed away.

The soul that loves Jesus Christ only, finds no
difficulty in praying, humiliating itself, renouncing
worldly pleasures, and suffering patiently. The more
it acts, wearies itself, or suffers for Him, the more it
desires to act and suffer. Nothing can satisfy its
ardour, because love is a consuming fire that grows
by the sacrifices upon which it feeds, and it never
thinks it can do enough or devote itself sufficiently.
It is by love that Jesus rules the heart

O Jesus ! sorrow is one of the conditions of my
union with Thee. Receive, then, all that I suffer in
my heart, and my senses, as my preparation
for receiving Thee.

My cup of life is filled with bitterness. I might,
like many others, have only touched it with my lips,
and turned away without ever draining the bitter
dregs, or receiving the fullness of Thy heavenly con-
solations. But such was not Thy will, O my God.
The mournful shadows which have darkened my life
have always been brightened by the soft rays of the
Holy Eucharist. It is not in a complaining spirit that
I now speak of my trials; it is only in hopes of
receiving a little consolation. And yet I prefer the
grace of suffering to all the joys of earth, and I would
not exchange my tears for any worldly happiness.
O Jesus ! leave the sadness which oppresses me
always at the surface of my heart, and may its depths
be stirred only by the joy of Holy Communion,
mingled with perfect resignation to Thy will.

III. Preparing our souls to receive grace from God.

Lord Jesus, behold me before the Altar as if in the
porch of heaven and divided from Thy presence only
by a veil. Send Thine angels to purify my heart,
which is soon to be Thy abode, and to adorn it as
they invisibly adorn the Altar upon which Thou art
going to descend. On the day of my first Commu-
nion I was permitted to obtain a glimpse of heaven,
and the beatitude which my heart then first enjoyed
has been prolonged since then by successive Com-
munions, so that it has now only the intuitive vision
and perpetuity of enjoyment to expect in heaven.
But that I may really enjoy this beatitude, I must
faithfully preserve the graces of each succeeding
Communion.

What praise and blessings do I owe Thee, O my
God, for so mercifully admitting me to partake by
anticipation of the happiness of angels and saints !
But as a perfect union must embrace all our outward
and inward acts, I beseech Thee to enable me to
live in the purity of true love. Transform my whole
life by the uprightness of my desires, by the veracity
of my acts of love, into a succession of preparations
for Communion, followed by continual acts of thanks-
giving. Deign to establish my soul in such an union
with Thee as shall make it in some measure a partaker
of the lot of those blessed ones above, who enjoy the
unclouded sight of Thy Divine Essence.

O Jesus ! give my heart grace to love Thy house
upon earth. Its doors are always open to my desires.
I can go in and out freely; but grant also that nothing
may prevent me from enjoying to the full the infinite
good that I go thither to seek.

Reflections & prayers for Holy Communion by His Eminence, Cardinal Archiep. Westmon.

translated from the French by His Eminence, Cardinal Manning, Henry Edward

1876

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It was very joyful this morning at mass. On this feast of the Triumph of the Cross the Carmelite Sisters traditionally renew their holy vows. These vows bind them to their own crosses as they intercede contemplatively to God on our behalf. Each of them quietly abandoning themselves to physical poverty and lives of prayerful penance because their love for God supersedes any other desire imaginable.

In thinking about this abandonment and poverty I was reading a very old book containing meditations of St. Teresa of Avila. While most of her writing has been translated into modern language, it was very interesting to read a book where every letter “s” was represented by a “f”. It took a little while for my brain to work it out, but it was worth it. Saint Teresa is speaking about her own littleness and poverty of spirit.

Here is a sample which I have replaced the f’s and s’s for you…

How does this life of mine subsist, at a distance from him who is my true life ? What am I doing ? What am I capable of doing, in this (late of separation from my God? Alas! I can do nothing but what is made up of sin and imperfection.

What rest can my soul find in the tempestuous sea of this world? I bewail my present misery, but I bewail still more my former condition when I lived exempt from sorrow. O Lord, how sweet are thy ways ! yet who can walk in them without fearful anxiety ? I dare not live without endeavoring to serve thee, and when I attempt to acquit myself of this duty, overpowered by the immensity of my obligations to thee, I find nothing that is worthy of thy acceptance. I am desirous of spending myself in thy service; but when I look well to the miserable state I am in, I feel myself incapable of all that is good, unless thou art pleased — to bestow it upon me.

O my gracious and most merciful God, what mall I do to correspond with the great things thou hast wrought in my behalf! All thy works are holy, just, infinitely important, and full of heavenly wisdom, since thou art who performed them, art the Essential Wisdom nevertheless I experience that while my understanding employs itself in contemplating these works, my affections are restrained from indulging themselves in the unconfined manner they desire in the sweet exercise of loving thee: In this slate, the former strives in vain to reach thee in thy inaccessible grandeur, and the latter to enjoy thee in the straight prison of this mortal body. Hence every exterior object becomes irksome and painful to me soul, although at a former period, O my God, I am forced to acknowledge, that the federation of thy greatness, by which she was enabled to estimate her own littleness and imperfection, was of signal service to her.

But why do I repeat all this, O my God ? Whom am I complaining to, or who else hears me except thou my Father and my Creator? And what need is there of words to thee, who so manifestly resident in the centre of my soul? Such is my weakness.

But alas, O my God, how am I assured of this ? How do I know that I am not at this moment deprived of thy grace? O this life of mine, which must necessarily continue in uncertainty, concerning a thing of such infinite importance, as the possession of God’s favor. What is there desirable in it, since the only advantage it possesses, that of pleasing God in all things, is in itself of so uncertain and precarious a nature?

EXCLAMATIONS OF THE SOUL TO GOD OR THE MEDITATIONS OF St. Teresa AFTER COMMUNION. By the Rev. John Milnew, Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries. LONDON; Printed by J P. COGHLAN, No. 37. Duke-Sire?;-, Grosvenor-Square ; and Sold by Meilrs. Pater-Nostcr Row. M,DCC,A-C. 1790 Public Domain Work.

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This is an excerpt from a book, “Carmel in England: A History of the English Mission of the Discalced Carmelites, 1615 to 1849″ by Fr. Bernardinus of St. Teresa, OCD which was published in 1899. There are some dandy stories in this book, but I like this introduction on the Carmelite mission. The best part is at the end…

“Notwithstanding the wide scope of the missionary spirit, the chief object of the Carmelite Order is not active but contemplative life. There can be no doubt that while it was confined to the East alone it was altogether contemplative; the Rule, confirmed by the lives of our early saints, says so. On being transplanted to Europe, the Carmelites added the duties of the active to those of the contemplative life. St. Teresa, while encouraging active work among the friars (the nuns always led an entirely contemplative life), desired that even with them contemplation should occupy the first place. In fact the labours of the apostolic ministry, whatever form they may assume, are merely the outcome of a life of prayer, and the more intense this spirit, the more efficacious the ministry.

Throughout the history of the Church we find that the greatest contemplatives ever have been the most zealous men. Instance the example of St.. Augustine, St. Bernanrd, St. Francis of Assisi, St. Francis de Sales, and in our own Order, St. Teresa and St. John of the Cross themselves, Ven. Father Dominic of Jesus Mary, Thomas of Jesus, John of Jesus Mary 1, and many others.

Contemplation is the grand attribute of Almighty God, who derives infinite beatitude from the knowledge and love of Himself; it forms the felicity of the blessed in heaven, who by the light of glory gaze on the perfections of the Most High. But upon earth it can only be attained in a limited degree. The knowledge of God obtained by meditation rather than by study, and the “Charity of God poured forth in our hearts by the Holy Ghost who is given to us,” together with the mortification of our unruly passions, bring the soul within reach of the Godhead, and not seldom give it a foretaste of the joys of heaven. Thus, all those who one day will be saved are called to the contemplative life in its most perfect form; what wonder, then, that many, impressed by the sublime dignity of their supernatural destiny, should aspire to it as it may be enjoyed on earth, when the soul is in closest union with its Creator? It is a matter of deep concern that, of the countless souls called to the contemplative life, few only heed the voice of Him who calls…”




1. Ven. Father John of Jesus Mary, born a Calahora in Spain in 1564, entered the Order about 1582. He was sent to Genoa for his studies, and became one of the first members of the Italian Congregation, in which he occupied almost every dignity, even that of General (1611-14). His death occurred on 28th May 1615, and his body remains incorrupt to the present day. A most renowned writer, he has left numerous works on Mystical Theology, as also Instructions for Superiors, Novices and Students, which latter have be incorporated in the Constitutions and are still in vigor.

Carmel in England: A History of the English Mission of the Discalced Carmelites, 1615 to 1849

By Fr. Bernardinus of St. Theresia
Published 1899
Burns & Oates

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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.

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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)

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(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)

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TO THE SACRED HEART.

Beside the tomb wept Magdalen at dawn, —

She sought to find the dead and buried Christ;

Nothing could fill the void now He was gone,

No one to soothe her burning grief sufficed.

Not even you, Archangels heaven-assigned!

To her could bring content that dreary day.

Your buried King, alone, she longed to find,

And bear His lifeless body far away.

Beside His tomb she there the last remained,

And there again was she before the sun;

There, too, to come to her the Saviour deigned, —

He would not be, by her, in love outdone.

Gently He showed her then His blessed Face,

And one word sprang from His deep Heart’s recess:

Mary! Hisvoice she knew, she knew its grace;

It came with perfect peace her heart to bless.

One day, my God! I, too, like Magdalen,

Desired to find Thee, to draw near to Thee;

So, over earth’s immense, wide-stretching plain,

I sought its Master and its King to see.

Then cried I, though I saw the flowers bloom

In beauty ‘neath green trees and azure skies:

O brilliant Nature! thou art one vast tomb,

Unless God’s Face shall greet my longing eyes.”

A heart I need, to soothe me and to bless, —

A strong support that can not pass away, —

To love me wholly, e’en my feebleness,

And never leave me through the night or day.

There is not one created thing below,

Can love me truly, and can never die.

God become man — none else my needs can know;

He, He alone, can understand my cry.

Thou comprehendest all I need, dear Lord!

To win my heart, from heaven Thou didst come;

For me Thy blood didst shed, O King adored!

And on our altars makest Thy home.

So, if I may not here behold Thy Face,

Or catch the heav’nly music of Thy Voice,

I still can live, each moment, by Thy grace,

And in Thy Sacred Heart I can rejoice.

O Heart of Jesus, wealth of tenderness!

My joy Thou art, in Thee I safely hide.

Thou, Who my earliest youth didst charm and bless,

Till my last evening, oh! with me abide,

All that I had, to Thee I wholly gave,

To Thee each deep desire of mine is known.

Whoso his life shall lose, that life shall save; —

Let mine be ever lost in Thine alone!

I know it well, — no righteousness of mine

Hath any value in Thy searching eyes;

Its every breath my heart must draw from Thine,

To make of worth my life’s long sacrifice.

Thou hast not found Thine angels without taint;

Thy Law amid the thunderbolts was given;

And yet, my Jesus! I nor fear nor faint.

For me, on Calvary, Thy Heart was riven.

To see Thee in Thy glory face to face, —

I know it well, — the soul must pass through fires.

Choose I on earth mypurgatorial place, —

The flaming love of Thy great Heart’s desires!

So shall my exiled soul, to death’s command,

Make answer with one cry of perfect love;

Then flying straight to heaven its Fatherland,

Shall reach with no delay that home above.

Therese Martin, October, 1895.

Photograph:
Nr. 65 • Herz-Jesu-Symbol (Kloster Maria Medingen)
Foto und Text: Sr. Gerlinde Fehr OSF
Bruder-Firminus-Stiftung • Postfach 24 01 41 • 4000 Düsseldorf 1

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I have the Carmelite Podcast, Meditations from Carmel, liked on my Blogroll, but want to say how WONDERFUL their latest podcast is! It is from Pere Jacques Bunel who is most famous from the movie “Au revoir, les enfants” about his role in World War II.

As history records, when the Nazis occupied France in 1940, Père Jacques joined the French Resistance. As part of the resistance, he hid three Jewish boys in the Petit-College, protecting them by giving them Christian names. Eventually the boys identities were discovered and the three boys were immediately deported to Auschwitz and executed. Following detainment at Fontainebleau, Compiègne, and Neue Bremm, Père Jacques was finally sent to the concentration camp at Mauthausen/Gusen in Austria. He remained there for a year until the American forces liberated the camp. A month after obtaining his freedom, however, he died in St. Elizabeth’s Hospital in Linz, emaciated and exhausted from sixteen months of cruel suffering at the hands of the Nazis.

This particular Podcast on the Meditations from Carmel website is from a conference he gave to the Carmelite nuns at Pontoise in September 1943, four months before the Nazis arrested him. He councils the nuns to search for the “quiet uninterrupted conversation with God”. He says:

“We can neither find nor embrace God, just as we cannot sit at his feet in order to gaze lovingly upon him, if we are immersed in noise and activity. We cannot hear the voice of God, who speaks without words, except in silence. ”

I really love this episode of the podcast. The voice of Pere Jacques is so soothing and I really feel as though the saint was speaking just to me… maybe I am to nutty, but I do think this! Give it a listen yourself and tell me what you think!

The conference in the Podcast comes from the book, Listen to the Silence A Retreat with Pere Jacques Translated and Edited by Francis J. Murphy.  It is published by ICS Publications Institute of Carmelite Studies Washington, D.C. 2005.  I have read this book and would really reccomend it as a wonderful little book full of the conferences Pere Jacques gave to the Carmelite Nuns.  They are short enough for quick reading and meditation afterwards.

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This is a wonderful discription of the virtues of contemplative prayer!

Whoever has been permitted to escape by reason and contemplation from matter and this fleshly cloud or veil (whichever it should be called) and to hold communion with God, and be associated, as far as man’s nature can attain, with the purest Light, blessed is he, both from his ascent from hence, and for his deification there, which is conferred by true philosophy, and by rising superior to the dualism of matter, through the unity which is perceived in the Trinity. And whosoever has been depraved by being knit to the flesh, and so far oppressed by the clay that he cannot look at the rays of truth, nor rise above things below, though he is born from above, and called to things above, I hold him to be miserable in his blindness, even though he may abound in things of this world; and all the more, because he is the sport of his abundance, and is persuaded by it that something else is beautiful instead of that which is really beautiful, reaping, as the poor fruit of his poor opinion, the sentence of darkness, or the seeing Him to be fire, Whom he did not recognize as light.

– Gregory Nazianzus: Oration 21: On Athanasius of Alexandria

Later in the passage Saint Gregory says of Athanasius:

… using life as the guide of contemplation, contemplation as the seal of life. For the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and, so to say, its first swathing band; but, when wisdom has burst the bonds of fear and risen up to love, it makes us friends of God, and sons instead of bondsmen.

[from Gregory Nazianzus, Select Orations, Sermons, Letters; Dogmatic Treatises , trans in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, 2nd Series, ed. P. Schaff and H. Wace, (repr. Grand Rapids MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1955), VII, pp. 269-280]

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Who was Saint Norbert? I know there is a church in St. Louis dedicated to him, but otherwise, I do not know much. However, that means there is lots to learn and that is fun!

A quick summery of him would be that Norbert led a worldly lifestyle. Galavanting around the countryside of Gernmany with the Kings Court, Norbert was thrown from his horse and nearly killed in a thunderstorm. He interpreted this as an invitation to repent and immediately began to lead the life of a penitent, barefoot and dressed in sheepskin.

Norbert was a friend of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux and he was largely influenced by the Cistercian ideals as to both the manner of life and the government of his order. But as the Premonstratensians were not monks but canons regular, their work was preaching and the exercise of the pastoral office, and they served a large number of parishes incorporated in their monasteries.

Now, that is the most very basic outline of Norbert to be had, surely, but the most interesting part is coming…

According to the Office of Readings today, which is taken from a Life of Saint Norbert written by one of his Premonstratensian Canons, we are able to learn of the contemplative aspects of this Saint. I will quote from it…

Norbert did all these things with a steadfast faith: “Faith was the outstanding virtue of Norbert’s life, as charity had been the hallmark of Bernard of Clairvaux’s.” Affable and charming, amiable to one and all, “he was at ease in the company of the humble and the great alike.” Finally, he was a most eloquent preacher; after long meditation “he would preach the word of God” and with his fiery eloquence purged vices, refined virtues and filled souls of good will with the warmth of wisdom.” He spent many hours in contemplation of the divine mysteries and fearlessly spread the spiritual insights which were the fruit of his meditation.

How beautiful that Norbert became a Saint by meditating on God’s laws, , keeping it in his own heart, and then preaching its holy wisdom to the masses! That is contemplation in action!
Read more about St. Norbert’s life in Vita “A” Sacnti Norberti Translated from the Latin, and