The Practice of the Presence of God
by Fr. Kilian Lynch, O.Carm.
The modern mind is no longer the Greek or medieval mind; it is inductive in its approach to things and its starting point is the actual world about us. It is also dynamic, geared to change and bent on finding the stuff of its thinking in the existential order of things. In practice, this means that if the spiritual life is to be relevant today, it must be a dimension of real life. The earthly path is the one to heaven and one must find God in the works of his hands, especially in persons.
This new outlook seems to be very much in line with biblical spirituality. The best days of Old Testament spirituality were passed in the desert when life was a Passage from the slavery of Egypt to the Promised Land. It was then that the Living God was felt to be close to his people. They depended entirely upon him for food and guidance and were led by a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. The felt presence of God in their midst was the greatest factor in their history. He was their God and they were his people. The Tent was where they met him. We make a clear distinction between the first and secondary causes. The chosen people overlooked this distinction and attributed everything to God. His intervention was their history. They saw everything in his light and their best days were passed in the radiance of his Face.
One cannot read the Old Testament without being struck by the vivid consciousness of God which his people had. In the first Book of Revelation we read how God said to Abram: “I am God Almighty, walk before me and be blameless” (Gen. 17:1). The chosen people did not always obey this command. Sin often led them to hide from the Face of God as sinful Adam did but they were conscious of it.
When Tobit was carried away captive, all his brethren ate the food of the Gentiles but Tobit “remembered God” with all his heart. He gave the same solid advice to his son and asked him to keep God in his mind all his days.
The great figures of the Old Covenant were keenly aware of the eye of God upon them. Job asked in desperation: “How long wilt thou not look away from me, nor let me alone till I swallow my spittle?” (Job 7:19). And the Psalmist: “Look away that I may breathe again” (Ps. 38).
The prophets were all men filled with the divine presence. Elijah (Elias) is typical of them all. He rose up like a fire and his word burned like a torch (Sirach 48:1) because his soul was full of God in whose presence he stood, always ready to do his bidding.
The Book of Psalms is the supreme expression of the spirituality of the Old Covenant and from beginning to end the presence of God to his people is its basic theme. Psalm 139 is typical:
“Whither shall I go from thy Spirit?
Or whither shall I flee from thy presence?
If I ascend to heaven thou art there!
If I make my bed in Sheol, thou art there!
If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
Even there thy hand shall lead me and thy right hand shall hold me.”
Their constant prayer is that God might lift up the light of his Face upon them and be a lamp to their feet and a light to their path.
The Exodus spirituality is a necessary introduction to our own. Its basic facts are, of course, the Creation and the Redemption. Both are not just events that took place in the past. The Creation continues and we are co-operators with God in bringing it to perfection. The Redemption is also a continuing process that will end only when all the members of the mystical body are glorified in Christ in the consummation of the paschal mystery. We are pilgrims of eternity on our way in Christ from the slavery of sin to the full freedom of our Promised Land.
God entered our lives and our history to re-create us in his own image. As Gunter Bornkaum puts it: “To make the reality of God present: this is the essential mystery of Jesus”. Through Baptism our lives are hidden away in Christ; we become members of his mystical body that we may grow to the fullness of age in him. “He (Christ) is the image of the invisible God” (Col. 15). He is God with us in a far more intimate way than He was present to his people of old. It is in him we live and move and have our spiritual being. He is our sphere of existence, our environment.
Where Creation is there is God; where Redemption is there is Christ. And so we are living parts of a great on-going process in which we are nearer to God than we are to ourselves.
“God is at work everywhere carrying out the designs of his will” (Eph. 1:2).
“In him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28).
Christ ascended into heaven “to fill creation with his presence” (Eph. 4:10).
In keeping with modern thought present-day theology stresses the fact that God is present in the world to build a new heaven and a new earth; in other words He is the God of the future. His transcendence, properly understood, embraces immanence. The creature is completely permeated by God's unceasing action and yet God is totally Other.
The modern mind shows a bent towards the future and is vitally interested in building a better world for humankind. A true Christian outlook should see that humanity is not alone in this great work; that it is the very reason for the Incarnation and that we are co-operators with the cosmic Christ. “For He has made known to us in all wisdom and insight the mystery of his will, according to his purpose which He set forth in Christ, as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth” (Eph. 1:10).
Down to the rise of modern science God was seen at work in the world and in the works of his hands. “My Father is working still and I am working” (Jn. 5:17). The mind of Christ that saw everything here below as a symbol of something above was a part of the Christian outlook. The world was a great monstrance showing us the Face of God and everything was clothed in the beauty of his countenance. St. Hilary asks “Who can look on nature and not see God?” The whole of nature was a divine milieu; the visible was the footprint of the Invisible and as the poet expressed it “Earth's crammed with heaven.”
The rise of science and technology has brought about a growing alienation from God. Things have become forces, monads and cells: they are no longer words God has spoken and that speak of him and his presence. As Cardinal Danielou writes: “Nature sings the glory of God; the machine sings the glory of man.” The modern ear is attuned only to the machine.
The extraordinary progress of science has given humanity a false sense of independence: man has declared himself God and usurped the place of God in human life. Over a century ago Dostoevsky foretold this state of things: “The old morality will disappear. Men will strive to extract every kind of pleasure from life. The human spirit will be puffed up with satanical pride: man will be his own God. With his conquest of nature man will experience a joy that will replace his hopes of happiness in a future world.” [1]
This describes the actual state of things. Humanity has begun to live from below and spurns any light from above. The trust humanity placed in God has been transferred to science and the miracles of technology have replaced the miracles of the Gospel. All this, however, is on the instrumental, existential level and there are signs that the basic problems of the meaning of life still bother man. As Gerard Philips writes: “Never has man had such a surfeit of good things, and never has he hungered as he does today. Never has he been able to exploit the energies of nature as he can today and yet his anguish is of cosmic dimensions. His insolence is a cover-up for the distress he refuses to acknowledge. He laughs that he may not weep. With all his blusterings he cannot stifle the incessant clamouring within. Each time the fundamental questions are dismissed, they leap back to the forefront.” [2]
The wave of religious emotion that is sweeping the world and that finds expression in the anti-culture movement has been provoked by the rank materialism of the West. As Schillebeeckx writes: “All kinds of ‘spiritual movements’ are emerging and they are most in evidence where secularization has taken effect most completely. The process of secularization has been accompanied by an increase in all kinds of neuroses and psychoses and of phenomena such as the consulting of horoscopes.” [3]
One is reminded of the words of the prophet Amos: “Behold the days are coming, says the Lord God, when I will send a famine on the land; not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord.” (8:11).
This hunger for God is our opportunity, as Carmelites – sons and daughters of the Prophet – to present the Practice of the Presence of God to our age in such a way that it will be relevant. It is our duty to re-vitalize this old Exercise that has been the very substance of Carmelite spirituality.
The time seems to be opportune. Fr. Dalrymple, who is a man of wide experience in England, holds that young people today find the beginnings of their prayer in things about them, especially in people, and from there they rise to God. He adds that “The idea of presence is an increasingly meaningful one to describe prayer and contemplation. By considering the different ways we are present to a stranger, a friend and a lover, we can see how prayer develops beyond the stage of saying prayers to an abiding sense of being with God in all the multifarious activities of the day till an enduring relationship (I-Thou) to God is achieved.” [4]
There are also many indications that the Practice of the Presence of God is growing in adult circles as one of the new forms of prayer.
Perhaps the best exponent of this exercise is Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection (c.1611-1691). His little work entitled The Practice of the Presence of God [5] has been translated into many languages and is very popular among non-Catholics. It is found in many Protestant church racks and bookshops. The sight of a dry, leafless tree in midwinter led him to reflect on the divine power that would transform it in springtime. He left the world where he was a coachman and entered Carmel where he became cook in the convent of Paris. His greatest desire was to spread this devotion: “If I were a preacher I would preach the Practice of the Presence of God before everything else; if I were a director of souls, I would advise the world to follow it, so necessary and so easy is it.” (Second Letter, p. 16). When he discovered that the purpose of all spiritual exercises is union with God, he wrote: “I have given up all devotions and pieties which are not of obligation, and instead try to keep myself always in God's presence by simple attentiveness and a loving gaze upon him.” (Fifth Letter, p. 20). “To be with God it is not necessary to be always in church. We may make a chapel of our hearts whereto to escape from time to time to talk with him quietly, humbly and lovingly. Everyone is capable of such close communion with God, some more, some less; He knows what we can do.” (Fourth Letter, p. 18). “There is no life in the world happier or more full of delight than one of continual communion with God – they only can realize it who have practised and experienced it.” (Second Letter, p. 16).
The actual practice of the Presence of God has many forms. Since it is in God, the Creator, that we live and move and have our being (Acts 17:28), we can all say with St. Catherine of Genoa: “My Me is God”; or with St. Augustine: “He is nearer to me than I am to myself.” Where God acts, there He is present and this presence transcends the whole of his creation. Our dependence on him is absolute.
Cardinal Newman treats of this form of divine presence when he writes: “If I looked into a mirror and did not see my own face I should have the sort of feeling which actually comes upon me when I look into this living, busy world and see no reflection of its Creator … Were it not for this voice speaking so clearly in my conscience and my heart, I should be an atheist, or a pantheist, or a polytheist when I looked into the world.” [6]
This presence of God in things is the basis of Eastern Mysticism that is so prevalent in the West due to the influence of Zen-Buddhism. The Romantic poets have always felt a divine presence in nature and those who look upon God as “the ground of Being” find him there. However, one must avoid a form of immanence unrelieved by transcendence.
It is in human beings that God is present in a special way for men and women are the living images of God and a revelation of him. As St. Irenaeus of Lyons observed: “Gloria Dei vivens homo; vita autem hominis est visio Dei” (the glory of God is men and women fully alive). [7]
Love, according to St. Thomas Aquinas, did not permit God to remain alone but urged him to share his life and love with us. By creation humanity is a visible projection of the invisible God: a vision of him. This image is dim but real and “the root reason for human dignity lies in man's call to communion with God.” [8] Our whole being is immersed in the infinite love of God and we were made to hold dialogue with him. It is in humanity and through humanity that God has revealed himself. Christ, the Man, is the living Image of the God we cannot see.
The human heart seeks God and is hungry for him even when it is completely unconscious of the fact.
However, God is present to the Christian in a special way. We who were far off have been brought near through the grace of divine adoption. We are daughters and sons in the Son and “oned” to him in a most intimate way. He is the Vine; we are the branches. He is the Head and we are his members. We are born into Christ to reach a fullness of age in him and become his loving images.
Grace, according to St. Thomas Aquinas, is an assimilation to Christ in mind and heart and spirit. And the more we strive to live in him, the more He lives in us to become the great living Reality of our lives.
According to an old Roman saying friendship finds or makes equality. God has made us lovable that we may share kinship with Christ and be able to live in the sweet companionship of his love and friendship.
In one of his Letters Seneca gives a word of advice to a friend: “My dear friend, I wish to end by giving you a useful piece of advice which I beg you to take to heart. It is that we should select some really good man whom we will constantly bear in mind, and under whose eye we will imagine ourselves to be always living and acting. For most of the faults that are committed would be prevented if a witness had been present when they were about to be perpetrated. Therefore, let us call to mind someone we greatly respect and let the thought of him sanctify the most secret of our actions.”
Surely for Christians the Someone is Christ for who is Friend like him? He proved his love by dying for us and there is no greater love than this. And if we live in his presence He will sanctify our most secret thoughts. The apostles, martyrs and saints all met the challenge of Paul: “Who will separate us from the love of Christ?” (Rom. 8:35).
St. Teresa of Jesus (of Avila) explains why we need the friendship of Christ: “We are not angels for we have a body. To attempt to play the angel on this earth is foolish. Ordinarily, we need a leaning-staff for our thoughts. When occupations, persecutions, pain, trouble and repose – when dryness comes to me – Jesus Christ is our very good friend. He becomes a companion for us; and when we accustom ourselves to the thought, it is very easy to find him standing close beside us … If you accustom yourselves to having him at your side, and if He sees that you love him to be there and that you are always trying to please him, you will never be able, as we put it, to send him away nor will He ever fail you … Do you think it is a small thing to have such a friend as that beside you?” [9]
Since Christ is the “Mighty Word upholding all things” (Heb. 1:3), we ought to find him in the world made in his image and likeness and redeemed by him. “The creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God.” (Rom. 8:19). And the final Sentence He will pronounce upon humankind shows that He wishes to be found, loved and served in his fellow - men. St. Francis de Sales asks us to see the neighbour in the heart of Christ. It is there where he was when Christ suffered on Calvary and it is there where he still is. Faith should lead us to see the neighbour as the sacrament of Christ, and we could be everyone on whom the eyes of Christ rested. Each and every one of us is the traveller who was robbed, beaten and left to die, into whose wounds Christ poured the wine and oil of divine love and compassion. Each one of us is the Lazarus He called from the tomb, the blind man to whom he gave sight and the deaf and dumb to whom He gave the power to hear and bear witness. Faith should reveal Christ working among men.
From the redeeming Christ in our midst, we should find our way in to the Christ at the centre of our being where we are rooted and founded in him. We ought to live for the day when we are able to repeat St. Paul's words: “I live, now not I, Christ lives in me.” (Gal. 2:30).
Down the ages the saints have found their way in to the Indwelling Spirit, but to the great majority the Holy Spirit remains the Unknown God. How true what Courtois writes: “It is not our age which is poor but the men who live in it that are dwarfs, because they no longer have with them and in them the Spirit of the Living God. What is lacking in our time is nothing else but the guidance of the Holy Spirit. We lack men who, in their daily lives, depend upon the Holy Spirit, men who, day after day, strive to walk in the presence of the living Christ.” [10]
The difficulty is that we interpret grace as a Thing while, in reality, it is Someone. As Rahner puts it: “The first thing we must do is to listen simply to what Scripture tells us about the Spirit. That accepted, believed, lived, embraced and loved in the depths of one's being … that is the Holy Spirit! There He encounters us as He is and not as a mere abstract appropriation. In any event our true supernatural life consists in the communication of the Divine Spirit and everything one can say about the essence, glory and end of the Christian can be summed up by saying that he has received the Spirit of the Father, and in this way has been filled with the divine life.” [11]
When the saints discovered this Someone in the depths of their souls, it changed their whole life and was the beginning of what they called their conversion. The early martyrs were full of the Holy Spirit and looked upon themselves as Godbearers. And for the early Fathers we are composed of body, soul and Holy Spirit. What the soul is to body, the Holy Spirit is to the soul.
Eusebius tells us how Leonidas, the father of Origen, used to kneel down and kiss the breast of his sleeping child because he believed it was inhabited by the Holy Spirit. St. Augustine looked everywhere for God and found him in his own heart: “Return to your own heart and find him.” And again: “0 Beauty ever ancient, ever new, too late have I known thee, too late have I loved thee. And behold thou wast within me whilst I was without seeking thee … Thou wast with me but I was not with thee.” [12]
St. Teresa of Jesus also regretted the time during which she neglected the great king dwelling in the little palace of her soul. And she adds: “Remember how St. Augustine tells us about how he sought God in many places and eventually found him within himself … We need no wings to go in search of him but have only to find a place where we can be alone and look upon him present within us … Remember how important it is for you to have understood this truth – that the Lord is within us and that we should be there with him.” [13]
When Elizabeth of the Trinity “discovered” the “In-dwelling Trinity” all became clear to her: “It seems to me that I have found my heaven on earth since heaven is God and God is in my soul. The day I understood that, everything became clear to me.” [14]
“Lo, you were Someone all of a sudden." In his “Magnificat” Paul Claudel, who grew up an agnostic, describes how one Christmas Day he went to Notre-Dame where Vespers were being chanted. All in a moment God became Someone for him and from that time his entire life was dominated by the presence of God.
Cardinal Newman would define the Christian as one with a ruling sense of God's presence: “A true Christian, then, may almost be defined as one who has a ruling sense of God's presence within him … In all circumstances of joy or sorrow, hope or fear, let us aim at having him in our inmost hearts; let us have no secret apart from him. Let us acknowledge him as enthroned within us at the very spring of thought and affection … This is the true life of the saints. This is to have the Spirit witnessing with our spirit that we are the sons of God.” [15]
The Holy Spirit is not just the sweet Guest of our souls. As St. Gregory the Great says: “God is love and love is never idle.” He is the Living Spring that never ceases to flow; the Living Fire that never ceases to consume and inflame and diffuse the life of God into our souls. He is the Finger of God moulding, forming and shaping us into the living images of Christ and leading us along the way that is Christ.
St. Paul reveals the action of the Holy Spirit in our lives when he writes to the Corinthians: “Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, with unveiled faces, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being changed into his likeness from one degree of glory to another; this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.” (2 Cor. 3:17-18).
The life that is being transfigured by the Holy Spirit is the life we live day-in and day-out in our daily occupations. It was in the framework of daily toil that Christ accomplished the work of our redemption: it is in the same setting that we sanctify ourselves and redeem the world about us.
“And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself.” (Jn. 12:32). It is through the power of his Spirit that Christ is drawing us into himself. He revealed the basic attitude of his life when He said: “I live for the Father.” The Indwelling Spirit is drawing us into the current of loving surrender that still fills the heart of Christ. If we accept life as it comes in the spirit of loving surrender to the Father's will we are surely co-operating with the Holy Spirit and our life is going, moment by moment, into the Father in Christ. The living stream of divine life is bearing us back to its Source.
St. John tells us that “He who says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.” (1 Jn. 2:6).
It requires a living faith to live and walk in the light of the Indwelling Spirit. Faith is the medium through which we see God; the deeper it is the keener is our sense of his Reality and of his all-pervading presence. And since prayer is the oil in the lamp of faith there is no awakening to the divine presence within us without persevering prayer. The more our life becomes prayerful, the clearer is our vision of God. A certain measure of detachment is required for the Practice of the Presence of God. We are the pilgrims of eternity; we do not have here a lasting city; we must live in two worlds at the same time. It is when the light from above meets the light from below that we can build the Kingdom of Christ and a better world for humankind at the same time.
By approaching daily the twofold table of the Word and the Eucharist we can make Christ a living reality in our daily lives. The word of God is life and spirit: it is the Word re-creating the world in his own image. St. Jerome writes about a friend who, by prayer and study, made his heart the living library of the words of Christ. A heart of this kind is full of the Holy Spirit.
Mary is the supreme example of one who knows how to ponder the word of God. She kept all the things that were said to her about her Son and pondered them lovingly in her heart. This is how She became the perfect disciple of Christ.
The Eucharist is Christ himself coming to renew his presence in us and to make us more alive to his presence in the mystical body. We receive the Body of Christ to become his Body, the Church. As Schillebeeckx writes: “In the new approach to the distinctively Eucharistic presence of Christ, an attempt is made above all to situate this presence within the sphere of Christ's real presence in the believer and in the whole believing community. In this way, the early Christian view can be recovered in its full dimensions – the distinctively eucharistic presence is directed towards bringing about Christ's more intimate presence in each individual believer and in the community of believers as a whole. The eucharistic presence is thus no longer isolated.” [16]
“Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.” (James 3:8). God is seeking us with a love infinitely greater than we could ever imagine. It is a haunting love which found expression in the words from the Cross: “I thirst”. The love that reduced him to the utter weakness of the Cross is still seeking us. As De Caussade writes: “He is offering himself to me at every moment, in every place. When I see this … everything becomes bread to feed me, fire to purify me, a chisel to shape me according to the heavenly pattern. Everything becomes an instrument of grace for my necessities. Now I see that the One I used to seek in other directions is himself seeking me incessantly, and giving himself to me in everything that happens.” [17]
“Come and see.” (Jn. 1:39). Christ's invitation to Andrew to come and abide with him goes out to all. It was in his divine presence that Andrew found the love that lifted him to the Cross and united him so closely to his Master. Draw near to me and I will draw near to you; this is a promise of tremendous spiritual value. If we open our hearts to him in the spirit of faith and loving surrender, He will take full possession of our souls and make them all his own.
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REFERENCES:
[1] Demons.
[2] Achieving Christian Maturity.
[3] God, the Future of Man, p. 63; Sheed and Ward, 1969.
[4] The Christian Affirmation, p. 65; Libra Book, 1971.
[5] The Practice of the Presence of God; Paternoster Series; translated by Donald Attwater; London, Burns and Gates, 1957.
[6] Apologia, p. 319; Doubleday, 1956.
[7] 4 Contra Haer.
[8] The Church Today; Vat. II; 19.
[9] Way of Perfection, Ch. 28.
[10] Before his Face; Vol. I, p. 90; Herder, 1962.
[11] Spiritual Exercises, p. 252; Sheed and Ward, London, 1956.
[12] Confessions, Book 10, Ch. 27.
[13] Way of Perfection; Ch. 28; Peers, London.
[14] The Spiritual Doctrine of Sr. Elizabeth; Ch. The In-dwelling of the B. Trinity, pp. 46-80; Quoted by Philipon; Mercier Press, 1947.
[15] Parochial and Plain Sermons, pp. 225-226.
[16] The Eucharist, p. 104; Sheed and Ward, London.
[17] Self-Abandonment to Divine Providence; p. 130 (Fontana Library Theology and Philosophy).
Brother Lawrence - The Practice of the Presence of God ( Audio Book Reading )
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Brother Lawrence - (ca. 1614 -1691), Carmelite lay brother
Brother Lawrence was born Nicholas Herman in the region of Lorraine, located in modern day eastern France. He received a revelation of the providence and power of God at the age of 18, but it would be another six years before he joined the Discalced Carmelite Prior in Paris. In this intervening period he fought in the Thirty Years' War and later served as a valet.
Nicholas entered the priory in Paris as a lay brother, not having the education necessary to become a cleric, and took the religious name, "Lawrence of the Resurrection". He spent almost all of the rest of his life within the walls of the priory, working in the kitchen for most of his life and as a repairer of sandals in his later years.
Yet despite, or perhaps because of, his somewhat lowly position, his character attracted many to him. He was known for his profound peace and many came to seek spiritual guidance from him. The wisdom that he passed on to them, in conversations and in letters, would later become the basis for the book, The Practice of the Presence of God. This work was compiled after Brother Lawrence died by one of those whom he inspired, Father Joseph de Beaufort, later vicar general to the Archbishop of Paris. It became popular among Catholics and Protestants alike, with John Wesley and A. W. Tozer being among those who recommended it.
As a young man, Herman's poverty forced him into joining the army, and thus he was guaranteed meals and a small stipend. During this period, Herman had an experience that set him on a unique spiritual journey; it wasn't, characteristically, a supernatural vision, but a supernatural clarity into a common sight.
In the deep of winter, Herman looked at a barren tree, stripped of leaves and fruit, waiting silently and patiently for the sure hope of summer abundance. Gazing at the tree, Herman grasped for the first time the extravagance of God's grace and the unfailing sovereignty of divine providence. Like the tree, he himself was seemingly dead, but God had life waiting for him, and the turn of seasons would bring fullness. At that moment, he said, that leafless tree "first flashed in upon my soul the fact of God," and a love for God that never after ceased to burn. Sometime later, an injury forced his retirement from the army, and after a stint as a footman, he sought a place where he could suffer for his failures. He thus entered the Discalced Carmelite monastery in Paris as Brother Lawrence.
He was assigned to the monastery kitchen where, amidst the tedious chores of cooking and cleaning at the constant bidding of his superiors, he developed his rule of spirituality and work. In his Maxims, Lawrence writes, "Men invent means and methods of coming at God's love, they learn rules and set up devices to remind them of that love, and it seems like a world of trouble to bring oneself into the consciousness of God's presence. Yet it might be so simple. Is it not quicker and easier just to do our common business wholly for the love of him?"
For Brother Lawrence, "common business," no matter how mundane or routine, was the medium of God's love. The issue was not the sacredness or worldly status of the task but the motivation behind it. "Nor is it needful that we should have great things to do. . . We can do little things for God; I turn the cake that is frying on the pan for love of him, and that done, if there is nothing else to call me, I prostrate myself in worship before him, who has given me grace to work; afterwards I rise happier than a king. It is enough for me to pick up but a straw from the ground for the love of God."
Brother Lawrence retreated to a place in his heart where the love of God made every detail of his life of surpassing value. "I began to live as if there were no one save God and me in the world." Together, God and Brother Lawrence cooked meals, ran errands, scrubbed pots, and endured the scorn of the world.
He admitted that the path to this perfect union was not easy. He spent years disciplining his heart and mind to yield to God's presence. "As often as I could, I placed myself as a worshiper before him, fixing my mind upon his holy presence, recalling it when I found it wandering from him. This proved to be an exercise frequently painful, yet I persisted through all difficulties."
Only when he reconciled himself to the thought that this struggle and longing was his destiny did he find a new peace: his soul "had come to its own home and place of rest." There he spent the rest of his 80 years, dying in relative obscurity and pain and perfect joy.
Nine Themes in Carmelite Spirituality - 4. Carmel is in harmony with the teaching office of the Pope and the bishops
by Fr. Patrick Thomas McMahon, O.Carm.
Lay Carmelites seek God's presence in prayer while living an active life in the world. This duality of contemplative prayer and active ministry was modeled by the first Carmelites who lived as hermits on Mount Carmel, then later became mendicants in the cities of Europe.
Carmel is in harmony with the teaching office of the Pope and the bishops
Carmel is a family within the hierarchical Church. This is very necessary, I think, for us to reiterate today. We are not a Church unto ourselves but we’re one part of a Church that stretches around our globe, the Catholic Church. Our Prior General, Father Fernando Millán Romeral, is directly accountable to the Holy See. And every Carmelite friar, sister, and nun is answerable to the Bishop – not in matters of Carmelite observance, there we answer to the Order – but in our ministries to the People of God and the ways in which we relate pastorally to the bishop’s flock. And so, too, with Lay Carmelites; in matters strictly Carmelite you take direction from the Order. For example, it is the Carmelite Family that determines the rules about prayers to be said daily or at community meetings, or the fasts and the feasts that we celebrate as Carmelites. But in matters pertaining to your participation in the larger Church you take direction from your pastors and your bishops. The Church is in crisis today because people are setting themselves up in place of rightful teachers. The teaching office of the Church belongs to the bishops in a unique way and yet it is being usurped both by ‘liberals’ and ‘conservatives’ who are teaching in contradistinction to the legitimate pastors of souls. Everyone seems to think that they are the authority on what the Church holds, but you and I are not interpreters of the Church’s teaching. It is not for you to judge if your bishop or parish priest is being faithful to the Church. If a priest is working contrary to your bishop and his directives, it is up to your bishop to take the necessary steps to address the problem, not for you or your community to act on your own in rejecting his authority. And if you think your bishop is working contrary to the teaching of the universal Church, it is up to the Holy See to take the necessary steps, not for you or your community to sit in judgment on the bishop.
Until and unless they are removed from their positions, we are to show our bishops, priests and deacons obedience and respect.
The Church today is in great danger of being divided, even of being pushed into schism and this is not just because of ‘liberals’. In fact, history shows us that schism is more likely to come from the right than from the left. There are some who claim that the current Mass text is heretical or deficient or invalid. Others reject the Second Vatican Council because of its teachings regarding Protestant Churches and non-Christian religions. Still others support the Church’s teaching on abortion, but reject its teachings on war, on capital punishment, or on the rights of immigrants. Some of these people profess a great loyalty to the pope, but they think they can be disloyal to the bishop that the Holy Father has appointed to be their pastor. In the United States some years ago we saw the shocking scandal of one prominent American Catholic nun tell the people of Los Angeles that their Cardinal Archbishop is a heretic and should not be obeyed. There is no room for that sort of open rebellion in Carmel. The only way we can be sure that we are with the Church is to give obedience and respect to our bishops, and to trust the Holy See to keep the bishops in line. Our task is not to be ‘liberal’ or ‘conservative.’ It is to be faithful. And faithful means to be obedient to legitimate authority. And the bishop, whether we agree with him or not, is the legitimate authority. And it is for the Holy See, not for you or for me, to decide if he uses that authority wrongly. Right now the unity of the Church depends on our adherence to that authority.
This does not mean, of course, that we cannot think for ourselves. We need to read and study our faith and that means that we should not only be familiar with papal statements, but read good Catholic books and periodicals. God gave us intelligence and expects that we will use it. We need informed obedience to the Church, not blind obedience. There are many things which we can question. Issues of Church discipline, as opposed to Church doctrine, are not defined truths and we can have our opinions. The Church would be healthier if a well-informed laity asked the right questions—and expected thorough answers – about matters of administration and finances. Priests should get helpful feedback to their homilies and about the quality of parish liturgies. A healthy parish and diocese will have laity as full and well-informed participants in all their programs – and directing many of those programs, not just carrying out ‘Father’s orders.’ Moreover, priests and bishops need to hear the life-experiences of the faithful. Many of our teachings on the role of our Christian faith in economic and political life, as well as family life and human sexuality seem yet to be incompletely formulated because while the input has been there from the bishops and the theologians, the experience of the faithful, the consensus fidelium, has not yet been given voice. Yet, in all these matters, while we may have our various thoughts and ideas, they must always find their voice in ways that build the unity of the Church and not undermine it. We question, we discuss, we even argue, but always with respect, with a willingness to submit to the authority of the Church, and with a passion to preserve the unity in charity which the Body of Christ requires.
Carmel’s vocation, St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus tells us, is to be charity in the heart of the Church. And we cannot do that if we are involved in the frays that are tearing our Church apart. You and I do not need to go slugging on in these battles. Our task is to pray for the Church, to work for the Church, to build up the Church through charity. While others go and fight the battle, let us withdraw in prayer for them and for the Church. Let us devote ourselves to meeting all with charity. Let us devote ourselves to the simple background work that makes the Church work. Let us devote ourselves to feeding the hungry, visiting the sick, comforting the elderly, working with the youth in our parishes. The mission and ministry of Carmel is to be charity in the heart of the Church, to be a contemplative centre for the Church. If you have a passion to defend orthodoxy, join the Dominican Third Order; that’s their charism. Our task is to be charity in the heart of the Church. Let us build up the Church. Let us only say good things about people. Let us wage war for the truth not by our efforts by our fights and our quarrels, but by quiet prayer and unfailing charity. Related to this need to be in harmony with the Pope and bishops is the next characteristic we will examine: remembering that Carmel stands in the classic theological tradition of the Church.
Lectio Divina August 2012
Daily Lectio Divina for August
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- Wednesday, August 1, 2012
- Thursday, August 2, 2012
- Friday, August 3, 2012
- Saturday, August 4, 2012
- Sunday, August 5, 2012
- Monday, August 6, 2012
- Tuesday, August 7, 2012
- Wednesday, August 8, 2012
- Thursday, August 9, 2012
- Friday, August 10, 2012
- Saturday, August 11, 2012
- Sunday, August 12, 2012
- Monday, August 13, 2012
- Tuesday, August 14, 2012
- Wednesday, August 15, 2012
- Thursday, August 16, 2012
- Friday, August 17, 2012
- Saturday, August 18, 2012
- Sunday, August 19, 2012
- Monday, August 20, 2012
- Tuesday, August 21, 2012
- Wednesday, August 22, 2012
- Thursday, August 23, 2012
- Friday, August 24, 2012
- Saturday, August 25, 2012
- Sunday, August 26, 2012
- Monday, August 27, 2012
- Tuesday, August 28, 2012
- Wednesday, August 29, 2012
- Thursday, August 30, 2012
- Friday, August 31, 2012
Message of His Holiness Benedict XVI to The Bishop of Avila (Spain) on The Occasion of The 450th Anniversary of The Monastery of San José In Avila And The Beginning of The Reform of Carmel
BENEDICTUS PP. XV
To my Venerable Brother
Bishop Jesús García Burillo of Avila
1. Resplendens stella: “a star shining in great splendour” (Libro de la Vida, [The Book of My Life] 32, 11). With these words the Lord encouraged St Teresa of Jesús to found the Monastery of San José in Avila. This was the beginning of the Reform of Carmel which will be celebrating its 450th anniversary next 24 August. On this happy occasion I would like to join in the rejoicing of the beloved Diocese of Avila, of the Order of Discalced Carmelites and of the People of God on pilgrimage in Spain, as well as of all those in the universal Church who have found in Teresian spirituality a sure light for men and women to attain a true renewal of their life through Christ. In love with the Lord, this illustrious woman did not want anything other than to please him in all things. Indeed, it is not those who do great things based on the excellence of their human qualities who are holy; on the contrary, holy people are those who humbly let Christ penetrate their soul and act through them, who truly allow him to play the lead in all their actions and aspirations, inspiring every project and sustaining every silence.
2. Only those who have an intense prayer life are able to let Christ lead them in this manner. The Saint of Avila says that a life of prayer consists in “being on terms of friendship with God, frequently conversing in secret with him who, we know, loves us” (Libro de la Vida 8, 5). The reform of Carmel whose anniversary fills us with inner joy was born from prayer and is inclined to prayer. By distancing herself from the Mitigated Rule in order to further a radical return to the primitive Rule, St Teresa de Jesús wished to encourage a form of life that would favour the personal encounter with the Lord, for which “we have only to find a place where we can be alone and look upon him present within us. Nor need we feel strange in the presence of so kind a Guest” (Camino de perfección [the Way of Perfection] 28, 2). The Monastery of San José came into being precisely in order that all its daughters might have the best possible conditions for speaking to God and establishing a profound and intimate relationship with him.
3. St Teresa proposed a new way of being a Carmelite in a world that was also new. The “times were dangerous” (Libro de la Vida 33, 5) and in these times, as this spiritual teacher said, “the friends of God should be strong, in order that they may support the weak” (ibid., 15, 5). And she eloquently insists: “the world is on fire. Men try to condemn Christ once again, as it were, for they bring a thousand false witnesses against him. They would raze his Church to the ground.... No, my sisters, this is no time to treat with God for things of little importance" (Camino de perfección, 1, 5). Does not this most luminous and challenging reflection made by the holy mystic more than four centuries ago seem familiar to us in the situation in which we are living?
The ultimate aim of the Teresian Reform and of the creation of new monasteries in the midst of a world devoid of spiritual values was to strengthen apostolic work with prayer; and to propose an evangelical lifestyle that might serve as a model to those in quest of a way of perfection, based on the conviction that every authentic personal and ecclesial reform passes through reproducing, ever more faithfully, the “form” of Christ (cf. Gal 4:19) within us. The Saint and her daughters strove to do exactly this and this was the exact commitment of her Carmelite sons who endeavoured solely to “advance in virtue” (Libro de la vida, 31, 18). In this regard Teresa writes: “He [Our Lord] prizes one soul which of his mercy we have gained for him by our prayer and labour more than all the service we may render him” (Libro de las Fundaciones [The Book of the Foundations] 1, 7). In the face of forgetfulness of God the Holy Doctor encourages prayerful communities that protect with their fervour those who proclaim Christ’s name everywhere, so that they may pray for the Church’s needs and bring the cry of all the peoples to the Saviour’s heart.
4. Today too, as in the 16th century and also among rapid changes, trusting prayer must be the soul of the apostolate so that the redemptive message of Jesus Christ rings out with deep clarity and vigorous dynamism. It is urgently necessary that the Word of life be harmoniously vibrant in souls, with resonant and attractive tones.
Teresa of Avila’s example is a great help to us in this exciting task. We can say that in her time the Saint evangelized without mincing her words, with unfailing ardour, with methods foreign to inertia and with expressions haloed with light. Her example keeps all its freshness at the crossroads of our time. It is here that we feel the urgent need for the baptized to renew their hearts through personal prayer which, in accordance with the dictates of the Mystic of Avila, is also centred on contemplation of the Most Holy Humanity of Christ as the only way on which to find God’s glory (cf. Libro de la Vida, 22, 1; Las Moradas [Interior Castle] 6, 7). Thus they will be able to form authentic families which discover in the Gospel the fire of their hearths; lively and united Christian communities, cemented on Christ as their corner-stone and which thirst after a life of generous and brotherly service. It should also be hoped that ceaseless prayer will foster priority attention to the vocations ministry, emphasizing in particular the beauty of the consecrated life which, as a treasure of the Church and an outpouring of graces, must be duly accompanied in both its active and contemplative dimensions.
The power of Christ will likewise lead to the multiplication of projects to enable the People of God to recover its strength in the only possible way: by making room within us for the sentiments of the Lord Jesus (cf. Phil 2:5), seeking in every circumstance a radical experience of his Gospel. This means, first of all, allowing the Holy Spirit to make us friends of the Teacher and to conform us to him. It also means accepting his mandates in all things and adopting such criteria as humility in behaviour, the renunciation of the superfluous and giving no offence to others or proceeding with simplicity and a docile heart. Those who surround us will thus perceive the joy that is born from our adherence to the Lord and see that we put nothing before his love, being ever ready to account for our hope (cf. 1 Pet 3:15) and, like Teresa of Jesus, living in filial obedience to our Holy Mother, the Church.
5. Today, this most illustrious daughter of the Diocese of Avila invites us to this radicalism and faithfulness. Accepting her beautiful legacy at this moment in history, the Pope asks all the members of this particular Church, and especially youth, to take seriously the common vocation to holiness. Following in the footsteps of Teresa of Jesus, allow me to say to all who have their future before them: may you too, aspire to belong totally to Jesus, only to Jesus and always to Jesus. Do not be afraid to say to Our Lord, as she did, “I am yours; I was born for you, what do you want to do with me?” (Poem 2). And I ask him to obtain that you may also be able to respond to his call, illuminated by divine grace with “determined resolve” in order to offer “that little” which is in you, trusting in the fact that God never abandons those who leave everything for his glory (cf. Camino di perfección 21, 2; 1, 2).
6. St Teresa knew how to honour with deep devotion the Most Holy Virgin, whom she invoked with the sweet name of Carmel. I place under her motherly protection the apostolic aspiration of the Church of Avila so that rejuvenated by the Holy Spirit she may find appropriate ways for proclaiming the Gospel with enthusiasm and courage. May Mary, Star of Evangelization, and her chaste spouse, St Joseph, intercede so that this “star” which the Lord set alight in the universe of the Church with the Teresian Reform, may continue to shine with the great splendour of the love and truth of Christ for all humankind. With this wish, Venerable Brother in the Episcopate, I send you this message. I ask you to make it known to the flock entrusted to your pastoral care and, especially, to the beloved Discalced Carmelites of the Convent of San José in Avila so that they may perpetuate in time the spirit of their Foundress. I am ever grateful to them for their fervent prayers for the Successor of Peter. To them, to you and to all the faithful of Avila I impart the Apostolic Blessing as a pledge of abundant heavenly favours.
From the Vatican, 16 July 2012
Provincial Chapter of the Province of Indonesia
During the Provincial Chapter of the Province of Indonesia held on 20-27 July 2012 were elected:
- Prior Provincial: Fr. Ignatius Joko Purnomo, O.Carm.
- Vice Prior Provincial: Fr. Dionysius Kosasih, O.Carm.
- First Councilor: Fr. Henricus Pidyarto Gunawan, O.Carm.
- Second Councilor: Fr. Antonius Maria Kristiyanto Gunawan, O.Carm.
- Third Councilor: Fr. Henricus Edison Tinambunan, O.Carm.
- Fourth Councilor: Fr. Lucianus Simon Rande, O.Carm.
70th Anniversary of the Martyrdom of Blessed Titus Brandsma
The 26th of July of this year, 2012, will be the 70th anniversary of the martyrdom of Blessed Titus Brandsma. His life was an example of a very close relationship between a mystical life and a firm commitment in the world to the dignity of the human person. He was noted for his readiness to receive anyone in difficulty and to help in whatever way he could.
In the period leading up to and during the Nazi occupation in Holland, he argued passionately against the National Socialist ideology, basing his stand on the Gospels, and he defended the right to freedom, in education and for the Catholic Press. This led to his imprisonment. So began his Calvary, which brought him great personal suffering and degradation whilst, at the same time, he himself brought solace and comfort to the other internees and begged God's blessing on his jailers. In the midst of such inhuman suffering, he possessed the precious ability to bring an awareness of goodness, love and peace. He passed from one prison or camp to another until finally he arrived in Dachau where he was killed on 26th July 1942. He was beatified as a martyr by Pope John Paul II on the 3rd of November, 1985.
Nine Themes in Carmelite Spirituality 3. Carmel is spiritual
by Fr. Patrick Thomas McMahon, O.Carm.
Lay Carmelites seek God's presence in prayer while living an active life in the world. This duality of contemplative prayer and active ministry was modeled by the first Carmelites who lived as hermits on Mount Carmel, then later became mendicants in the cities of Europe.
Carmel is spiritual
We are a community centred on the word of God. The prayer book of the Carmelite is the Bible. Lectio Divina is a prayer form that the whole Order is rediscovering. Lectio Divina means the “Sacred Reading,” the prayerful, prayer filled, attentive reading of the word of God. This takes place certainly in the liturgy, both in the Liturgy of the Hours and the Liturgy of the Word at Mass. But as we go about our day we continue to feed off the liturgy and in particular to feed off the scripture which we pray both in the Liturgy of the Hours and the Mass.
Our vocation is outlined in our Rule, The Rule of St. Albert, and that is a text which echoes and re-echoes the Sacred Scripture. It is a pastiche of texts that are drawn from the Bible. The Rule of St. Albert is a brief text. It’s about three pages typewritten and yet in those three pages there are at least forty-two direct references to scripture and an uncountable number of indirect references. This Rule of St. Albert encourages, in fact it demands, that we be a people of the Word. It says in one of my favourite quotes: “The sword of the spirit, the Word of God must abound in your mouths and hearts. Let all that you do have the Lord’s Word for accompaniment”.
What is the heart of Carmelite life? Traditionally, following St. Teresa of Avila, we’ve always said that it is the part of The Rule of St. Albert that says: “Each one of you is to stay in your own cell or nearby, pondering the Lord’s law (that is the Lord’s Word), day and night, and keeping watch at your prayer unless attending to some other duty”. How do we Carmelites pray? Well, The Rule of St. Albert tells us those who know their letters and how to read, that they should read the Psalms appointed for each of the Hours of the Divine Office according to what “our holy predecessors laid down, in the approved custom of the Church appoints for that hour.” In the revision of the Rule by Pope Innocent IV in 1247 this was changed to the recitation not only of the psalms but of the entire Divine Office. In other words, the reading of The Psalms and, in particular, the Divine Office, is at the very heart of our Carmelite prayer Life and all Carmelites should begin to use The Liturgy of the Hours.
The early Carmelites had a life that was impregnated with the Word of God. They interrupted their day seven times to pray the Psalms. After the revision of the Rule in 1247 they listened to the Sacred Scripture as they ate their meals. They listened to the readings for Mass each day, and throughout the day and into the night whenever they were not busy at some other task they pondered this Word of God. They reflected on it. They searched out its meanings. Furthermore, subsequent Carmelite spiritual authors were totally dependent on the Word of God. We can look at these documents, The Fiery Arrow or The Institute of the First Monks. We can look at the writings of St. Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross. We can look at the writings of St. Therese, who practically knew the Gospels by heart, or Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity, whose writings are drawn from St. Paul’s epistles. And we can see just how this entire Carmelite tradition has been shaped by knowledge of and an immersion into the Word of God. And so the Carmelite today must be a person who is impregnated with the Word of God. This is perhaps why Carmel has never much been given to devotional prayer. The sort of devotions that characterized some other Orders, especially those from the 18th and 19th centuries never took hold in Carmel. The prayer life of Carmel has always been simple: The Mass, the Liturgy of the Hours, and meditation on the sacred text of Scripture.
Over the past two years I have given parish missions or other renewal programs in various churches around the United States. And in each of about ten Churches I asked the congregation to stand. Then, when they were all standing, I told those who had read the Scripture in the last twenty-four hours that they should be seated. Then I asked those who had read the scripture in the last forty-eight hours please be seated; after that, the last seventy-two hours, and finally those who had read the scriptures any time in the previous week. At this point in seven out of the ten congregations, more than fifty percent were still standing. That is to say, more than fifty percent had not looked at the scripture in the last week. In the remaining three congregations, almost half sat down on the first cut. Almost half had read the scriptures in the last 24 hours! Those three audiences were Lay Carmelite communities. I often tell Lay Carmelite communities that I do not want to see them with shiny and new bibles. Bibles are meant to be worn out.
Nine Themes in Carmelite Spirituality 2. Carmel is Eucharistic
Patrick Thomas McMahon, O.Carm.
Lay Carmelites seek God's presence in prayer while living an active life in the world. This duality of contemplative prayer and active ministry was modeled by the first Carmelites who lived as hermits on Mount Carmel, then later became mendicants in the cities of Europe.
Carmel is Eucharistic
The second characteristic I’d like to talk about is that Carmel is Eucharistic. Carmelite life has always been centred around the Eucharistic celebration. The first hermits on Mount Carmel gathered daily for the Eucharist. The Eucharist was their one, daily community exercise. That first generation of Carmelites prayed the Psalms alone in their cells. They ate their meals alone in their cells. The one time each day they came together was for Mass. We think of monks and nuns and friars as always having had daily Mass as part of their lives. But this is not so. Many Orders such as the Benedictines initially only celebrated mass on Sundays and major feasts and introduced the practice of a daily mass later in their history. But the Carmelites chose to be together for daily Mass from their first days on Mt. Carmel. Now, notice that they were together for Mass every day, but unfortunately, in those days, people usually received the Eucharist rarely. And the first Carmelites most likely did not receive Holy Communion each day. Indeed they probably only received it several times a year as that was the custom of the time. It was only at the beginning of the last century that Pope St. Pius X authorized daily Communion. We are certainly glad of that practice because we know how important receiving the Eucharist has always been for Carmelites. We see it in St. Teresa, St. John of the Cross, the Little Flower, St. Edith Stein, Blessed Titus Brandsma. They all write about the importance of receiving the Eucharist.
In our Carmelite tradition the emphasis has always been on participating in the Eucharistic liturgy, that is in the Mass. While Carmelites believe that Christ’s presence continues in the Eucharist, reserved after Mass in the tabernacle, Eucharistic worship outside of Mass has never been a central part of Carmelite spirituality. We know that those hermits on Mount Carmel did not go to the chapel and pray to the Blessed Sacrament outside of Mass time. Their Rule explicitly commanded them to stay in their cells and to meditate there, in their cell, day and night, on the law of the Lord. In Carmelite convents and monasteries in Europe before Vatican II, it was most often impossible for the friars or the cloistered nuns to even see the Blessed Sacrament on the altar of the Church because their choir was most often located on the far side of a wall behind the altar. Among the Franciscans and the Dominicans the custom arose of communities dedicated to perpetual adoration. Thus we have Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration, or Dominican Nuns of Perpetual Adoration. But this custom never arose in Carmel, primarily because the Carmelite has always prayed in the solitude of his or her cell and not in the oratory. Perhaps I should put the idea this way: the principal oratory of the Carmelite is his or her cell, not the community chapel. The Carmelite certainly can participate in all the rites and ceremonies of the Church including Perpetual Adoration. But this devotion is not of itself part of our Carmelite tradition. The Carmelite finds his or her Eucharistic centre to be the celebration of the Eucharistic Liturgy of the Mass. And if called by the Church, one wonderful ministry that the Lay Carmelite can offer his or her parish is to be willing to bring the Eucharist from the Mass to shut-ins to enable them to receive the Lord more often. Bringing the Eucharist to the sick we also come to them with the Word of God in Sacred Scripture which is another characteristic of our Carmelite life and spirituality.
