Liturgical memorial of the Carmelite Martyrs of the Twentieth Century in Spain
The liturgical memorial of the Carmelite Martyrs of the Twentieth Century in Spain has been established for the present, according to the Church’s General Calendar, for the 6th of November.
On that date we celebrate all the martyrs beatified up until now, that is the three groups of Blessed Angel Prat and his 16 companions, Carmelo Moyano and his 9 companions and Alberto Marco Aleman with his 8 companions.
The Order, in agreement with our provinces of the Iberian Region and the Spanish Discalced Carmelites, has asked the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments to move the memorial to another date in order to be able to celebrate a memorial shared by all these blessed Carmelites. We are awaiting the reply of the Congregation, and as soon as we receive it we will inform you.
Lectio Divina November 2013
Holy Father's Prayer Intentions for November 2013
Suffering Priests. That priests who experience difficulties may find comfort in their suffering, support in their doubts, and confirmation in their fidelity.
Latin American Churches. That as fruit of the continental mission, Latin American Churches may send missionaries to other Churches.
Lectio Divina November - Noviembre - Novembre 2013
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- Friday, November 1, 2013
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The Beatification in Tarragona of the Carmelite Martyrs of the 20th Century in Spain, Carmelo Maria Moyano Linares and 9 companions, and Alberto Marco Alemán and 8 companions.
On Sunday, October 13 last, the beatification of a group of 522 “Martyrs of the 20th Century in Spain” took place in Tarragona (Spain). The Carmelites, Blessed Carmelo Maria Moyano and 9 companions (Bética Province) and Blessed Marco Alemán and 8 companions (Province of Castile) were among the group. Cardinal Angelo Amato, Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints led the celebration. At the beginning of the ceremony Pope Frances delivered a televised message 
to all the people present, who numbered some 20,000, between religious and lay people. The Pope exhorted them to be witnesses to faith, as the martyrs were. The Spanish Bishops’ Conference in full attended, as did the Prior General of the Carmelite Order, Fr. Fernando Millán Romeral, the Postulator General, Fr. Giovanni Grosso, the Provincials of the Iberian Region and the Commissary General of Portugal, the Superiors General of the Hermanas Carmelitas del Sagrado Corazón (HCSCJ) and of the Hermanas de la Virgen Maria del Monte Carmelo (HVMMC), other religious men and women and many members of the families of the Blessed Carmelite Martyrs.
Following the Beatifications, Masses of Thanksgiving were celebrated in different places: On October 19 the bishop of Cordoba, Demetrio Fernández González led the celebration in Montoro (Cordoba), the place where the Blesseds José M.Mateos, Eliseo M. Durán, Jaime M. Carretero y Ramón M. Pérez, were martyred, and on October 20 the bishop of the diocesis led the celebration in Hinojosa del Dugue (Córdoba), the place where the Blesseds Carmelo M. Moyano, José M. González, Eliseo M. Camargo, José M. Ruiz, Antonio M. Martín y Pedro M. Velasco, were martyred. On November 6, a Mass of thanksgiving will be celebrated in the Carmelite house in Seville. Juan José Asenjo Pelegrina, the Archbishop of Seville, will lead it.
What aspect of Carmelite Spirituality do you find most helpful for your prayer?
Sister Carmen Laudis, O.C.D.
Q. What aspect of Carmelite Spirituality do you find most helpful for your prayer?
A. What thoughts have crossed your mind when you have read the Gospel narrative of Mary sitting at the feet of Jesus and Martha “stewing” in the kitchen because she was left alone to do the serving? Why didn’t Mary see the serving needs and get up and help? What she did see was the person of Jesus and that is where she began. Martha saw Jesus too but she began with what she thought He needed. She could have continued with the serving if she had used her activity as an opportunity for solitude going about her chores with a sense of adoration and peace.
Since all prayer begins with adoration, the environment surrounding my prayer must be one of solitude where my faith is rekindled as I seek Him whom my heart desires. It is only through withdrawal from the many voices that bombard us throughout the day, the endless demands made on our time and energy, the ceaseless needs of a weary world that we can gain the perspective that we need by separating out the one voice that guides our life to know the Father’s will.
Jesus was constantly sought out by the crowds for His teaching and for healing. But there were times when He disappeared and went off to lonely places to pray. In this solitude He communed with His Father and received clarity for His human life that He might perfectly fulfill the Father’s will. In the Father’s will He was given the nourishment to carry out the ministry entrusted to Him.
How else can we discern when the “good things” we are doing are coming solely from ourselves to fulfill our own needs to be of service or when they are coming from God? Without times of solitude we cannot be sure that the voice we are hearing is our own voice or that of the Holy Spirit. Times of solitude allow us to step back from situations, evaluate them more objectively, seek counsel, if needed, and seek enlightenment in prayer.
The big question is probably, “Where do I go to find this solitude?” This may take a little planning and creativity depending on where you live. Where will you establish your secret hiding place? Some may be fortunate enough to have a nearby “nature” spot or at least a “nature” getaway a few times a year. Others may make use of a few moments throughout the day where a room, a place in the yard, a nearby church, or even a commute alone in traffic, provides time spent with the Lord.
Solitude is not an empty space, a void; it is an encounter with the God who loves us, a love-space where in the mystery of this encounter so much awaits us. Many distractions fill our day, and they affect our ability to focus and distinguish between the finite and the infinite. Through solitude, we are in a better position to “let go and let God” act in our lives, to surrender control, to know God loves us and be open to the path along which God is moving us.
What do you do within this time of solitude? Simply remain quiet for a few moments to distance yourself from the busyness of your day, and allow God’s presence to permeate your being. You may then choose to rest in the beauty of God’s creation, reflect on some thought from the day’s liturgy, read a passage of Scripture, recall some act of God’s graciousness to you, etc. The opportunities are countless.
Making this an essential part of your life will enable you to grow in your relationship with God and give you new life, an eternal life begun in the here and now.
"Thy Kingdom Come" in Jesus of Nazareth and The Way of Perfection
Their Respective Reasons for Writing
It should be kept in mind that in his Foreword, Benedict XVI describes his book as his personal search “for the face of the Lord” (Ps. 27:28, and as “in no way an exercise of the magisterium,” adding, “Everyone is free, then, to contradict me.” He considers the Lord’s Prayer for what it shows about Jesus’ claim to divinity, about Jesus' claim to be one with the Father, and for what else it tells us about who Jesus is.
Teresa of Avila, on the other hand, writes to encourage her readers toward giving the complete gift of themselves to God, “the surrender of our wills to his, and detachment from creatures,” a surrender that is needed for perfection in contemplation. She draws from the Lord's Prayer more about what our response to Jesus should be.
Their different reasons for writing, as well as the difference between the theological context of our present day and that of sixteenth century Spain, are among the differences between their books about the same prayer. Of course, Pope Benedict is also a theologian and pope, while St. Teresa lived in a day in which women did not learn to read much of the Latin in which Scripture was written. However, that difference is not as important when she is writing about the Lord's Prayer, because it is a portion of Scripture that she would have known deeply from the Mass and from praying the Hours, from what she had learned from priests who were her spiritual advisers, and what she had learned from books. (See the post About St. Teresa of Avila for more background information on that.)
This series of posts will consider both similarities and differences between the two books. Given the nature of the texts, discussions of the differences should not be taken as implying that I believe one of them to be more correct than the other on any point of difference discussed in these posts. Quite often, these are differences of emphasis.
The One Who Comes Throughout the Whole of History
In discussing Jesus' prayer "Thy Kingdom come" in the Lord's Prayer, Pope Benedict states, “the deepest theme of Jesus’ preaching was his own mystery, the mystery of the Son in whom God is among us and keeps his word; he announces the Kingdom of God as coming and as having come in his person.” (pg. 188) The Sermon on the Mount, he says, was thus eschatological in a sense discussed by Charles H. Dodd in the early 20th century. Jesus, who has come, is “the One who comes throughout the whole of history” in an “eschatology in process of realization.” (pg. 188).
Such a concept of an eschatology throughout the whole of history also plays a role in St. Teresa’s understanding of the Lord's Prayer. She explains it more clearly in her discussion of “Give us this day our daily bread” than in her discussion of “Thy Kingdom come." In Chapter 34 of The Way of Perfection, she says that the word “daily” in “daily bread” “seems to mean forever.” That is so, she says, because in asking “give us this day, Lord,” we are asking him to “be ours every day.” She explains [The Way of Perfection 34:1]:
“I’ve come to think that it is because here on earth we possess him [Jesus] and also in heaven we will possess him if we profit well by his company. . . . In saying ‘this day,’ it seems to me, he is referring to one day: that which lasts as long as the world and no longer. And one day indeed!”
What Dodd saw in the early 20th century, and Pope Benedict affirms in Jesus of Nazareth, supports St. Teresa’s view of the Lord’s Prayer in its eschatological aspect, although she draws the concept from “Give us this day our daily bread,” while Dodd and Benedict XVI draw that concept from “Thy Kingdom come . . . on earth as it is in heaven.” What Pope Benedict describes as "the One who comes throughout the whole of history" is not clearly distinguishable from what St. Teresa describes as "that which lasts as long as the world and no longer."
The Kingdom of God
Benedict first addresses the meaning of the “Kingdom of God” as the subject matter of Chapter 3 of Jesus of Nazareth, beginning with Jesus’ preaching recorded in Mark 1:14-15: “The time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God is at hand.” Matthew 4:23 and 9:35 also mention that Jesus went through Galilee preaching “the Gospel of the Kingdom.” In Luke 17:20-21, we are told that Jesus told the Pharisees, “Behold, the Kingdom of God is in the midst of you.”
Pope Benedict concurs with a “growing tendency to hold that Christ uses these words to refer to himself: He, who is in our midst, is the ‘Kingdom of God,’ only we do not know him (cf. Jn 1:30).” Considering Jesus’ words in Luke 11:20 (“But if it is by the finger of God that I cast out demons, then the Kingdom of God has come upon you”), Benedict writes that “it is in his action, accomplished in the Holy Spirit. In this sense, it is in and through him that the Kingdom of God becomes present here and now, that it ‘is drawing near.’”
St. Teresa’s writing about the Kingdom of God in The Way of Perfection does not conclude that Christ himself is the Kingdom of God. She is not writing exegetically. Rather, she speaks more specifically of Jesus asking the Father for the Father’s Kingdom to come, and observes that Jesus has shown that He is one with the Father. [The Way of Perfection 27:4] Her writing about prayer describes God as a King or Emperor in his palace, and of a little heaven within each person's soul, which is His throne. Her analytical understanding of the Kingdom of God is thus drawn more from details here and there in various parts of her book, and cannot be found in a specific analysis within her chapter on the phrase "Thy Kingdom come."
Understanding something of the eschatological implications of the Kingdom of God throughout the whole of history, without drawing the specific Christological implications seen in the Holy Father’s book, she writes in Chapter 28 of The Way of Perfection:
“You already know that God is everywhere. It’s obvious, then, that where the king is, there is his court; in sum, wherever God is, there is heaven. Without a doubt you can believe that where His Majesty is present, all glory is present. . . . All one need do is go into solitude and look at him within oneself” [28:2] . . . I have the Emperor of heaven and earth in my house” [28:3] . . . within this little heaven of our soul [28:5] . . . in this palace dwells this mighty King who has been gracious enough to become your Father; and that he is seated upon an extremely valuable throne, which is your heart. [28:9]
Toward the end of Chapter 28, what she has said of the Father as King takes on Christological implications, as she writes:
“But what a marvelous thing, that he who would fill a thousand worlds and many more with his grandeur would enclose himself in something so small! (And so he wanted to enclose himself in the womb of his most Blessed Mother.) In fact, since he is Lord he is free to do what he wants, and since he loves us he adapts himself to our size.” [28:11]
That concept of God as King on the throne of our hearts becomes the basis for her discussion of the petition “Thy Kingdom Come.” In Chapter 31, rather than drawing from Jesus' preaching on the Kingdom of God as does Pope Benedict, St. Teresa mentions Simeon, who said of the child Jesus, in Luke 2:29, “my eyes have seen your salvation.” It was Jesus, she says, who made Simeon understand, and who can make our soul understand. “But it [the soul] sees it is in the kingdom, at least near the King who will give the kingdom to the soul.” [31:2]
It is in Chapter 32 of The Way of Perfection that St. Teresa takes up the phrase “Thy Kingdom Come” specifically in her discussion of The Lord's Prayer. There, connecting the coming of the Kingdom with the prayer that God's will be done on earth as it is in heaven, she writes: “For once the earth has become heaven, the possibility is there for your will to be done in me.” [32:2]. There, she connects the Kingdom of God in the present not only with the presence of God in the palace of our souls, but also with our ability to do God’s will. In prayer, similarly, she writes:
“Since your Son gave you this will of mine in the name of all, there’s no reason for any lack on my part. But grant me the favor of your kingdom that I may do your will, since he asked for this kingdom for me, and use me as you would your own possession, in conformity with your will.” [32:10]
Pope Benedict XVI, in Jesus of Nazareth, separately discusses the phrase “Thy Will Be Done on earth as it is in heaven." There is nonetheless considerable consistency between them on this point. Pope Benedict writes, “The essence of heaven is oneness with God’s will, the oneness of will and truth. Earth becomes ‘heaven when and insofar as God’s will is done there . . .” (pg. 147). As Jesus is the Kingdom of God, He is also “'heaven’ in the deepest and truest sense of the word – he in whom and through whom God’s will is wholly done.” (pg. 150). Thus, Pope Benedict concludes that what we are praying for is that we will come closer to God so that His will can make us capable of becoming just.
The Transfiguration
In Chapter 31 of The Way of Perfection, St. Teresa associates the Kingdom of God with the Transfiguration in describing the prayer of quiet. In describing those who are in prayer, happy close to God, so that in saying the “Our Father” once, an hour passes, she writes:
“They are within the palace, near the King, and they see that he is beginning to give them here his kingdom. It doesn’t seem to them that they are in the world. . . . In sum, while this prayer lasts they are so absorbed and engulfed with the satisfaction and delight they experience within themselves that they do not remember there is more to desire; they would eagerly say with St. Peter: ‘Lord, let us build three dwelling places here.’”
That reference to the Transfiguration and three dwelling places mentioned by St. Peter is interesting in the light of the Pope’s discussion of the Transfiguration in Chapter 9 of Jesus of Nazareth. Modern exegesis, considering the Gospel accounts of the Transfiguration placed within the Jewish calendar, connects the Transfiguration with the Feast of Tabernacles. Pope Benedict mentions twentieth century historian Jean Daniélou's analysis of the messianic interpretation of that feast in the Judaism of Jesus’ day. The huts of the Jewish feast of Sukkoth (Tabernacles) “were thought of, not only as a remembrance of the protection of God in the desert, but also as a prefiguration of the Sukkoth in which the just are to dwell in the age to come. Thus, it seems that a very exact eschatological symbolism was attached to the most characteristic rite of the Feast of Tabernacles, as this was celebrated in Jewish times.” [Pope Benedict, at 314-315, quoting Jean Daniélou’s book Bible and Liturgy, pp. 334f].
Thus, St. Teresa's connection of the prayer of quiet, in which the Father is "beginning to give them the Kingdom," with the Transfiguration offers an eschatological view of the Transfiguration, and recent exegesis finds such a view to be supported in the Jewish eschatological symbolism of the feast of Sukkoth in which the Transfiguration is set.
Also like St. Teresa, Pope Benedict XVI, in Jesus of Nazareth, sees the Transfiguration as “a prayer event” (pg. 310).
While not clear, it is possible that St. Teresa had some awareness that the Jewish concept of the huts of Sukkoth had implications of the Kingdom of God in the age to come. She had one Jewish grandparent, and it was not unusual for 16th century Spanish Jews to become Catholic. Although not necessary to an understanding of her text, she may have learned more as a child about the Jewish feasts mentioned in Scripture than she expressly revealed. The extent of her understanding of the Jewish implications explained by the Holy Father is thus unknown.
Conclusion
While St. Teresa was not writing exegetically, and the exegetical implications of what she wrote are found interspersed with discussions of contemplation, there is remarkable consistency between her understanding of the Kingdom of God and the understanding expressed in Pope Benedict’s book Jesus of Nazareth. Where they differ is primarily in the Holy Father's conclusion, drawing from recent exegetical scholarship, that Jesus was saying specifically that He is the Kingdom of God and that He is heaven. St. Teresa sees Jesus as having prayed that the Father would give us his Kingdom -- and she describes both God the Father and Jesus as the King of that Kingdom within us. The difference thus lies in whether Jesus and the Father, as one, are the King with our hearts, with our hearts seen as His throne, or whether He is, moreover, the Kingdom of God within us.
The Face of the Lord in Jesus of Nazareth and The Way of Perfection
Pope Benedict XVI's Foreword says this his writing in Jesus of Nazareth is “in no way an exercise of the magisterium,” adding, “Everyone is free, then, to contradict me.” These posts discuss both their similarities and differences between them.
Deliver Us From Evil
The last petition of the Lord’s Prayer is “Deliver us from evil.”
Pope Benedict XVI writes that, in this petition, we are asking God to protect us from evil in this world. In that sense, he writes, “[T]he last petition brings us back to the first three: In asking to be liberated from the power of evil, we are ultimately asking for God’s Kingdom, for union with his will, and for the sanctification of his name. Throughout the ages, though, men and women of prayer have interpreted this petition in a broader sense. In the midst of the world’s tribulations, they have also begged God to set a limit to the evils that ravage the world and our lives.” (Jesus of Nazareth, pg. 167)
St. Teresa of Avila sees this petition as asking for God’s Kingdom in eternity, more than asking God to limit the evil in this world and in this life. She does not expect to be delivered from all evil in this life, and thus prays to be delivered from evil beyond the grave. (42:2). God, she says, wants us to desire the eternal. (42:4)
She prays (42:2):
“Deliver me, Lord, from this shadow of death, deliver me from so many trials, deliver me from so many sufferings, deliver me from so many changes, from so many compliments that we are forced to receive while still living . . . .”
In the weariness of seeing that she has not lived the way she should have lived, she writes, “O my Lord and my God, deliver me now from all evil and be pleased to bring me to the place where all blessings are.”
Knowing the Mind and Will of God
While St. Teresa prays “deliver us from evil” with the expectation that this prayer will not be fully answered before eternity, she writes much about the importance of obedience in this life, and about the need for communion with Christ to make us better able to do God's will in this life.
In seeking to know “who the Master is who taught us this prayer” (St. Teresa's words), both Benedict XVI and St. Teresa seek both knowledge about the Lord and the personal encounter with the Lord that involves knowing Him.
Going back to the Pope's introduction of his discussion of the Lord’s Prayer, he writes: “God is not some distant stranger. He shows us his face in Jesus. In what Jesus does and wills, we come to know the mind and will of God himself.”
St. Teresa writes about the need to do God’s will, and about the way Jesus teaches us how to do that. Since Jesus “knows how the love of his Father can be obtained, he teaches us how and by what means we must serve him.” The more our deeds reflect Christ’s teaching, Christ “begins to commune with the soul in so intimate a friendship that he not only gives it back its own will but gives it his.” (The Way of Perfection, 32:12)
On Being Human
In his chapter on the Lord’s Prayer, Pope Benedict writes “The Lord tells us how we are to pray.” Jesus does so because “being human is essentially about relation to God,” such that speaking with, and listening to Him is “an essential part of it.”
St. Teresa, similarly, counsels, “Never seek sustenance through human schemes, for you will die of hunger—and rightly so. Your eyes on your Spouse! He will sustain you.” (2:1)
The Face of the Lord
In his Foreword to Jesus of Nazareth, Pope Benedict writes that the book is “an expression of my personal search ‘for the face of the Lord’ (cf. Ps 27:8).”
He writes, “Our sonship turns out to be identical with following Christ.” We become increasingly God’s children “by growing more and more deeply in communion with Jesus.”
St. Teresa, similarly, counsels her nuns to speak with Christ “as with a father, or a brother, or a lord, or as with a spouse” and “he will teach you what you must do in order to please him.” (28:3).
Both of them seek that longing for an increasing personal encounter with Jesus that can be expressed as seeking the face of the Lord.
Conclusion
While they do not always share the same interpretation of each petition of the Lord’s Prayer, both Pope Benedict XVI and St. Teresa of Avila write of seeking to know Christ, and not only seeking to know about Him. They seek to know and do His will, and -- in watching how Jesus prays -- to better know the mind and will of God. Above all, they both seek to “grow more and more deeply in communion with Jesus” (Pope Benedict's words). In writing for others, they both seek to share with us those things they know about prayer and about Jesus that will help us who read their work to more and more deeply know Jesus and the mind and will of the Lord.
St. Teresa of Avila on “true humility”
“Pay great attention, daughters, to this point which I shall now make, because sometimes thinking yourselves so wicked may be humility and virtue and at other times a very great temptation. I have had experience of this, so I know it is true. Humility, however deep it be, neither disquiets nor troubles nor disturbs the soul; it is accompanied by peace, joy and tranquility. Although, on realizing how wicked we are, we can see clearly that we deserve to be in hell, and are distressed by our sinfulness, and rightly think that everyone should hate us, yet, if our humility is true, this distress is accompanied by an interior peace and joy of which we should not like to be deprived. Far from disturbing or depressing the soul, it enlarges it and makes it fit to serve God better. The other kind of distress only disturbs and upsets the mind and troubles the soul, so grievous is it. I think the devil is anxious for us to believe that we are humble, and, if he can, to lead us to distrust God.
When you find yourselves in this state, cease thinking, so far as you can, of your own wretchedness, and think of the mercy of God and of His love and His sufferings for us. If your state of mind is the result of temptation, you will be unable to do even this, for it will not allow you to quiet your thoughts or to fix them on anything but will only weary you the more: it will be a great thing if you can recognize it as a temptation. This is what happens when we perform excessive penances in order to make ourselves believe that, because of what we are doing, we are more penitent than others. If we conceal our penances from our confessor or superior, or if we are told to give them up and do not obey, that is a clear case of temptation. Always try to obey, however much it may hurt you to do so, for that is the greatest possible perfection.” (Way of Perfection, Ch. 39, para. 3).
Saints Alive! Teresa of Avila - Segment
A short segment from the popular EWTN series "Saints Alive!" St. Teresa speaks about her life of prayer and the importance of the interior life.
Beatification in Tarragona, Spain
Next Sunday, 13th October, in Tarragona, in the Catalonian region of Spain, the pope’s representative, Cardinal Angelo Amato SDB will celebrate a Mass during which 522 martyrs of 20th century Spain will be beatified. Among these there are two groups of Carmelites: first, that of Fr. Alberto Marco Alemán, who was killed on 24th November 1936 and 8 companions from the present province of Castille, killed in Madrid 18th August. Secondly, there is the group of Fr. Carmelo Maria Moyano and another nine friars from the Baetica province killed at Hinojosa del Duque and at Montoro between July and September 1936. The Prior General, Fr Fernando Millan Romeral and the Postulator General, Fr Giovanni Grosso, will take part in the celebrations.
Holy Saturday: Place of Waiting, Place of Hope
Stephanie-Therese
Suspended between two worlds
Holy Saturday is suspended between two worlds: that of the darkness and death of Good Friday, and that of the Resurrection and restoration of the Light of Christ on Easter Sunday. Holy Saturday is essentially a day of solemn vigil, prayer and meditation. It focuses on the grave, but Christ's tomb is not a place of corruption, decay or defeat. He is life-giving and a source of power and victory. Joy and sadness are intermingled.
The emptiness of this day is reflected in the Church's prayer. There is no Mass celebrated on Holy Saturday, and here at the convent where the Paschal Vigil is kept at 4.30 am on Easter Sunday, the evening of Holy Saturday is still and vacant. The Divine Office is pared down and simplified — no hymns, just simple chanting. Everything seems to be taken away, and we are left alone in the Great Silence of the Triduum. This vacuum follows the celebratory Eucharist of Maundy Thursday and the intense Liturgy of Good Friday. We are bereft. God, who cannot die, lies dead in a tomb.
On the first Holy Saturday, the disciples did not know the end of the story as we do. Their Sabbath was a day of confusion, desolation, failure, fear and loss. But even though we know the events of Easter Sunday, we too can experience these things in our own lives. And when we do, we must strive to make this place that is Holy Saturday a place of waiting and a place of hope.
A PLACE OF WAITING
Expectant in The Gloom
Waiting is what Isaiah did when God was absent. 'I will wait for the Lord, who is hiding his face from the house of Jacob, and I will hope in him' (Is 8:17). Isaiah also says:
They who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary,
they shall walk and not faint. (Is 40:31)
So, this waiting on the Lord embodies power and strength in the face of God's hiddenness.
Holy Saturday is a place of expectant waiting. It is not a passive waiting where time merely passes, the danger of drifting in the darkness. One must be active and vigilant. 'Let your loins be girded and your lamps burning, and be like people who are waiting for their master to come home from the marriage feast, so that they may open to him at once when he comes and knocks' (Lk 12:35-36). When it feels as if God is hiding, 'we look for light, and behold, darkness, and for brightness, but we walk in gloom' (Is 59:9). How do we maintain expectant waiting in the gloom? There are, I find, three things we can do to seek God who is momentarily hidden from us. It is sometimes salutary to remember that it is not God who is absent, but often it is we absenting ourselves from God by our passive waiting and gloomy dispositions. So we must actively seek God.
Transcending the place where we are
The first thing we can do is to seek God in the Scriptures. To stay 'in touch', to stay close to him, there are few ways better than the Scriptures, especially the Gospels. It is the place where God reveals himself through the life and teaching of his Son Jesus, and where the apostles share their insight into the living of the Good News. Tor whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that by steadfastness and by the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope' (Rm 15:4).
Secondly, there is the Holy Eucharist which is a very tangible sacrament — a touching, tasting, sometimes smelling, sacrament — that can ground us in the Presence even if we are numb. The story of our salvation is revealed in the Mass, the passion and death of Jesus and his Resurrection. The ritual and familiarity of the Mass allows us to transcend the place where we are, to come to a newer closeness to God. And the Mass is a corporate offering which brings us to the third point, which is community.
We must not shun community when we are in a dark and lonely place. Thomas fled the company of the disciples on Holy Saturday and missed the first Resurrection appearance to the group. Darkness, fear, unknowing and confusion can be alleviated and tempered by the presence of others. We are the Body of Christ, not individuals going it alone.
Praying into the great silence
Christ's repose in the tomb is an active repose, for he descends into hell to set the captives free and unloose the bonds of death. Our waiting, too, must be active. We must continue to seek God. We must pray through the emptiness that is Holy Saturday, We must pray into the great silence of Christ asleep in the tomb. Let not the silence and the absence lull us to sleep. 'Awake, 0 sleeper, and arise from the dead...”[1] Our waiting has an end, and Christ is risen.
It is good that we should wait quietly for the Lord, as we read in Lamentations (cf. Lm 3:25-26). And the Psalms bid us to wait in silence: Tor God alone my soul in silence waits; truly, my hope is in him' (Ps 62:6 161:6).[2] We must not let the time of spiritual desolation be a barrier to coming closer to God; rather, in the active waiting through it, we should let desolation become a means of closer union with God.
A PLACE OF HOPE
Access to Grace
We know the end of the story — what follows Holy Saturday. We know that Christ has been harrowing hell, releasing the dead from death, and then rising on Easter morning, death vanquished. This knowledge brings us to a place of hope. So we live Holy Saturday amid its confusion and fear, its absence and waiting — and we live it in hope. When grounded in God and believing his promises, we have a hope which provides the incentive to live out our faith even in the face of trouble. This requires a total fixing of our confidence on God's goodness. Through our faith comes a hope which brings a confident expectation for our future.
Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in our hope of sharing the glory of God. More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which has been given to us. (Rm 5:1-5)
Sure of God's presence
Even though we often do not feel anything when we are in a Holy Saturday place, our hope, girded up by faith, will give us a certain assurance of God's faithfulness and of his presence. Therefore, our waiting should be shot through with hope. Setting God before our eyes, and hoping in the promise of his Resurrection, we will find 'pleasures for evermore':
I have set the Lord always before me;
because he is at my right hand I shall not fall.
My heart, therefore, is glad, and my spirit rejoices, my body also shall rest in hope.
For you will not abandon me to the grave,
nor let your holy one see the Pit.
You will show me the path of life;
in your presence there is fullness of joy,
and in your right hand are pleasures for evermore.
(Ps 16:8-111 15:8-11)
A spring welling up inside
Hope is a spring welling up inside to counter the gloom of God's hiddenness. The powerful combination of faith and hope lightens our spirit and brings us joy, because we know and trust the truth of his Resurrection and the new life which this brings to the believer. `For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience' (Rm 8:24-25), And it is in the patient waiting in the darkness that hope can come fully alive and flood our souls with confidence and trust in God's goodness. Hope is essential. The absence of hope leads to a sense of despondency and ultimately to despair, which is counter to the Resurrection-life in Christ Jesus. 'May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope' (Rm 15:13).
THE END OF THE STORY
Nurturing hope
As has already been said, the disciples did not know how that first Holy Saturday would end. But we do. And it is in this knowledge of Christ's Resurrection from the dead that we are enabled to live through our own 'holy saturdays' with patience and hope. This enabling comes through the power of the Holy Spirit. We seek and claim this power through a constant vigil of self, while ever directing our attention and energies towards God. We wait patiently in the darkness and confusion, the fear and unknowing that can engulf us at times. We nurture hope in this place while seeking the presence of God in the Scriptures, in the Mass, and in our neighbour.
A hidden action in our lives
In Holy Saturday, we encounter Christ's hiddenness in our lives. Holy Saturday can help us understand that God works out of sight in the depths of our life and with a love glides lower than death and the dark'' in the world as well. We may sense absence or void, but in truth Christ is very near to us and longing to do what he did on that first Holy Saturday: to harrow our hell and raise us to new life. So we must yield to him, through prayer and discipline, the dead wood of our lives — that it may be transformed in the new flames of the Paschal fire. Holy Saturday speaks of the completed sacrifice; but paradoxically, it is a place where we can come to know the incomplete nature of God's loving: the Love that never stops, for there is always more.
Since we know the story, the waiting becomes a place of hope and anticipation of God's action in our lives. He can break through the barriers of our feelings and blankness, bringing the Easter fire's Light into our lives. We may feel dead, but we wait in the knowledge that on Holy Saturday Christ was in hell raising the dead to new life. Holy Saturday is a place of waiting in anticipation of God's action in our lives.
Rejoice in your hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. (Rm 12:12)
The author, a regular contributor to Mount Carmel with her articles and poems, is a member of the Community of the Sisters of the Love of God, an Anglican contemplative Order at Fairacres, Oxford, which is steeped in Carmelite spirituality. In this profound article, which will give hope to many, she enters into the bleakness of our own 'holy Saturdays’ — a place of semi-darkness where we wait, turned towards Christ, confident that his Light will break into our lives.
[1] From an ancient homily for Holy Saturday: see Divine Office, vol. II, p. 321.
[2] The second number for each of the Psalms quoted in this article refers to the Grail edition used in the Catholic liturgy.
