All Souls: Commemoration of the Faithful Departed: Customary of Our Lady of Walsingham

 

All Souls: Commemoration of the Faithful Departed: Customary of Our Lady of Walsingham

 

A reading from Saint Thomas More, The Supplication of Souls

 

Consider you our pains, and pity them in your hearts, and help us with pilgrimages, and other alms deeds: and of all things in special procure us the suffrages and blessed oblation of the Holy Mass, whereof no man living so well can tell the fruit, as we that here feel it. The comfort that we have here, except our continual hope in Our Lord God, comes at season from Our Lady, with such glorious saints, as either ourselves with our own devotion while we lived or ye with yours for us since our decease and departing have made intercessors for us.

 

And among other right especially be we beholden to the blessed spirits our own proper good angels, whom, when we behold coming with comfort to us, albeit that we take great pleasure and greatly rejoice therein, yet is it not without much confusion and shame fastness, to consider how little we regarded our good angels, and how seldom we thought upon them while we lived. They carry up our prayers to God and good saints for us, and they bring down from them the comfort and consolation to us with which, when they come and comfort us, only we and God know the joy it is to our hearts and how heartily we pray for you. And therefore, if God accept the prayer after his own favor borne towards him that prays, and the affection that he prays With, our prayer must needs be profitable, for we stand sure of his grace. And our prayer for you is so fervent, that ye can nowhere find any such affection on earth.

And therefore since we lie sore in pains and have in our great necessity so great need of your help, and that ye may so well do it whereby shall also rebound upon yourself an inestimable profit: let never any slothful oblivion raze us out of your remembrance, Of malicious enemy of ours cause you to be careless of us, or any greedy mind upon your good withdraw your gracious alms from us. Think how soon ye shall come hither to us; think what great grief and rebuke would then your unkindness be to you, what comfort on the contrary part when all we shall thank you, what help ye shall have here of your good sent hither.

 

Remember what kin ye and we be together, what familiar friendship has ere this been between us, what sweet words ye have spoken and what promise ye have made us. Let now your words appear and your fair promise be kept. Now, dear friends, remember how nature and Christendom binds you to remember us. If any point of your old favor, any piece of your old love, any kindness of kindred, any care of acquaintance, any favor of old friendship, any spark of charity, any tender point of pity, any regard of charity, any respect Of Christendom, be left in your breasts: let never the malice of a few fond fellows, a few pestilent persons borne towards priesthood, religion, and your Christian Faith raze out of your heart the care of all your kindred, all force of your old friends, and all remembrance of all Christian souls.

 

Remember our thirst while ye sit and drink, our hunger while ye be feasting, our restless watch while ye be sleeping, our sore and grievous pain while ye be playing, our hot burning fire while ye be in pleasure and sporting. So must God make your offspring after remember you: so God keep you hence, or not long here, but bring you shortly to that bliss, to which for Our Lord's love help you to bring us, and we shall set hand to help you thither to us.

St. Peter Damian: “The Poetry of Asceticism” (Raby)

 

St. Peter Damian: “The Poetry of Asceticism” (Raby)

 

In the Liturgical Horarum there are ten hymns by Prudentius, nine by St. Peter Damian, and eight by St. Ambrose (Gabriel Diaz Patri in The Genius of the Roman Rite p. 80), which makes the 11^th Century Camoldolese hermit one of the major traditional contributors to the hymnody of the reformed office. To the extent that the Liturgy of the Hours represents a lessening of the burden of the Office on the clergy St. Peter Damian would have little sympathy with the project. He was not one to lessen burdens but rather to increase them.  Hellen Waddell writes that like Calvin Peter could be called “The Accusative Case” (The Wandering Scholars p. 94). St. Peter was oppressed by "the terror of Judgement…             the flames of the last day seemed to be already kindled against a world of sinners…        He lived in a world of phantasms, where the natural order did not exist, where the devil went forth as a raging lion, and the wickedness of men was ripe for judgment” (Raby) Of course it is the quality of his poetry which earned Peter his place in Liturgica Horarum, not his invective. But how do we get this strange combination of elegant charm and opprobrium? A hideous childhood and a first rate education! In From Judgment to Passion Rachel Fulton (like Miss Waddell another Presbyterian medievalist) explains:

 

“The certainty of doom and the need to answer for one's sinfulness hung over Peter from the very moment of his birth, or so at least he (apparently) recalled in later life in conversations with his close friend, devoted disciple and fellow  hermit John of Lodi .  This is Peter's story as John tells it in the Vita that he wrote of his saintly master soon after his death. At his birth, one of Peter's brothers had berated his mother, "For shame! Look, there are already so many of us that the house is scarcely able to hold us, and see, how badly matched are the crowd of heirs and the straitened inheritance!" This outburst so enraged Peter's mother that, "inflamed by a fit of feminine malice" (possibly a post-partum depression, possibly a determined attempt at infanticide), she refused to feed the infant and, wringing her hands, declared herself unfit to live. Thus disinherited from the maternal breast that was then his only possession, the baby was on the verge of wasting away with hunger and cold, when one of the serving women (ironically, given Peter’s later career, the wife of a priest) intervened and rebuking his mother for risking her soul with the sin of infanticide, coaxed her into caring for him by nursing the baby herself. Thereafter, Peter's mother, restored to her maternal self, cared for the child lovingly, until her own death and that of his father left Peter at the mercy of his siblings.

 

Orphaned almost as soon as he was weaned, Peter was grudgingly raised by one his brothers (apparently the same one who had been so angered by his birth) and that brother's wife, who fed him with slops, clothed him with rags, kicked him and beat him, and eventually turned him out as a swineherd to live with the pigs. Peter’s  foster parents likewise seem to have raised him with the story of his unfortunate birth, thus reinforcing the sense of unworthiness and debt with which he would remember his childhood, He was rescued from this life of involuntary austerity at age twelve when he was placed in the care of another of his brothers, who lavished upon him such affection "that it seemed to exceed a father's”.  This brother provided generously for his education in the best schools of the day, thus launching Peter on a promising secular career as a master of rhetoric. owing to the excellence of his teaching, Peter soon attracted many students and earned from their fees an abundance of money.  And yet he could not, it seems, shake the conviction that he was unworthy of the life of elegance and comfort that he now enjoyed, nor the certainty that judgment was near.”

 

It should go without saying that Dr. Fulton did not intend that any of this should reduce the sanctity of St. Peter Damian to childhood trauma. It is just another example of the Holy Spirit’s action: gratia non tollit naturam sed perficit.

 

 

 

St. Bernard: Apologia: The Last of the Fathers: M. Basil Pennington: pp. 53-54

 

St. Bernard: Apologia: The Last of the Fathers: M. Basil Pennington: pp. 53-54

 

Balance and Discretion

 

There are people who go clad in tunics and have nothing to do with furs, who nevertheless are lacking in humility. Surely humility in furs is better than pride in tunics. After all, God himself made clothes for the first man out of animal skins, John the Baptist in the desert wore a leather girdle round his waist, and Benedict himself, in his hermit days, wore animal skins instead of a tunic. We condemn rich food as though it were not better to take delicate fare in moderation than to bloat ourselves to the belching point with vegetables. Remember that Esau was censured because of lentils, not meat; Adam was condemned for eating fruit, not meat; and Jonathan was under sentence of death for tasting honey, not meat. On the other hand, Elijah ate meat without coming to grief, Abraham set a delicious meat dish before the angels, and God himself ordered sacrifices of the flesh of animals.

 

Surely it is more satisfactory to take a little wine on account of weakness than to down greedy draughts of water, since Paul counsels Timothy to take a little wine. The Lord himself drank wine and was called a wine bibber because of it. He gave it to his Apostles to drink and from it was established the sacrament of his Blood. On the other hand, he would not countenance the drinking of water at a marriage feast, and it was at the waters of Meribah that he punished the people severely for their complaining. David, too, was afraid to drink the water that he desired, and those of Gideon's men who in their eagerness to drink from the stream, fell on their faces, were considered unworthy of the fight.

 

Manual Work

 

And what have you to boast about in your manual work? Martha worked as you do and was rebuked, whereas Mary remained at rest and was praised. Paul says quite plainly that "bodily work is of some value but spirituality is valuable in every way”.

 

If you think that all those who make profession of the Rule are obliged to keep it literally (ad literam) without any possibility of dispensation, then I dare say you yourself fail as much as the Cluniac. It may be that he is deficient in many points of external observance but even you cannot avoid occasional faults and you know of course that anyone who fails in single point is guilty of everything. If, on the other hand, you admit that some things can be changed by dispensation, then it must be true that both you and the Cluniac are keeping the Rule, though each in his own way. You keep it strictly; he, perhaps, keeps it more reasonably.

 

Not Comprise and Unwarranted Mitigation

 

I would hate to think that the holy Fathers would have commended or allowed the many foolish excesses I have noticed in several monasteries. I am astonished that monks could be so lacking in moderation in matters of food and drink and in respect to clothing and bedding, carriages and buildings. . . . Abstemiousness is accounted miserliness; sobriety, strictness; silence, gloom. On the other hand, laxity is labeled discretion; extravagance, generosity; talkativeness, sociability; and laughter, joy. Fine clothes and costly caparisons are regarded as mere respectability, and being fussy about bedding is hygiene. When we lavish these things on one another we call it love. Such love undermines true love. Such discretion disgraces real discretion. This sort of kindness is full of cruelty, for it so looks after the body that the soul is strangled.

The Pastoral Guide, by Pope St Gregory the Great

 

  The Pastoral Guide, by Pope St Gregory the Great

E Régula pastoráli sancti Gregórii Magni papæ

 

Sit rector discrétus in siléntio, útilis in verbo, ne aut tacénda próferat aut proferénda reticéscat. Nam sicut incáuta locútio in errórem pértrahit, ita indiscrétum siléntium hos qui erudíri póterant, in erróre derelínquit. Sæpe namque rectóres impróvidi humánam amíttere grátiam formidántes, loqui líbere recta pertiméscunt; et iuxta Veritátis vocem, nequáquam iam gregis custódiæ pastórum stúdio, sed mercenariórum vice desérviunt, quia veniénte lupo fúgiunt, dum se sub siléntio abscóndunt.

Hinc namque eos per Prophétam Dóminus íncrepat, dicens: Canes muti non valéntes latráre.

 

The Pastoral Guide, by Pope St Gregory the Great

 

A spiritual guide should be silent when discretion requires and speak when words are of service. Otherwise he may say what he should not or be silent when he should speak. Indiscreet speech may lead men into error and an imprudent silence may leave in error those who could have been taught. Pastors who lack foresight hesitate to say openly what is right because they fear losing the favor of men. As the voice of truth tells us, such leaders are not zealous pastors who protect their flocks, rather they are like mercenaries who flee by taking refuge in silence when the wolf appears. The Lord reproaches them through the prophet: They are dumb dogs that cannot bark.

 

 

The mother of St. Dominic also had a dream about a barking dog in her wom

 

St. Gregory the Great wrote in his Exposition on the Canticle of Canticles: “[H]oly preachers are at times referred to as dogs because their assiduous preaching, like troublesome barking, forces the adversaries to abandon the flock of sheep.” St. Augustine of Hippo, considered a father-figure in the Order due to his monastic rule being one of our founding documents, also wrote famously: “Good watch dogs keep guard and give tongue for the house and master, for the flock and shepherd.”

S. IOSEPH, SPONSI BEATÆ MARIÆ VIRGINIS

 

S. IOSEPH, SPONSI BEATÆ MARIÆ VIRGINIS

 

Ad I & II Vesperas: Hieronymus Casanate

 

Te, Ioseph, célebrent ágmina cælitum,

te cuncti résonent christíanum chori,

qui, clarus méritis, iunctus es ínclitæ

  casto fœdere Vírgini.

 

Almo cum túmidam gérmine cóniugem

admírans, dúbio tángeris ánxius,

afflátu súperi Fláminis ángelus

  concéptum púerum docet.

 

Tu natum Dóminum stringis, ad éxteras

Ægýpti prófugum tu séqueris plagas;

amíssum Sólymis quæris et ínvenis,

  miscens gáudia flétibus.

 

Eléctos réliquos mors pia cónsecrat

palmámque eméritos glória súscipit;

tu vivens, súperis par, frúeris Deo,

  mira sorte beátior.

 

Nobis, summa Trias, parce precántibus;

da Ioseph méritis sídera scándere,

ut tandem líceat nos tibi pérpetim

  gratum prómere cánticum. Amen.

 

O Joseph, the heavenly hosts celebrate you, and all the choirs of Christendom resound the praise, you who with merits bright are joined in a chaste bound with the glorious Virgin. When you were amazed at your wife pregnant with her loving child, anxiously you were seized by doubt, an angel told you that the child was conceived by the breath of the heavenly Spirit.  You took the newborn Lord that you might follow him on the journey to the far-off land of Egypt; you searched for and found him, when he was lost in Jerusalem, your joy mingled with weeping.  A holy death consecrates other chosen men and glory and palms of victory greet the deserving; but you living had a more blessed and wondrous lot, you were here with God like those in heaven. Highest Trinity, grant to us by the merits of Joseph to reach the stars that at last we may sing forever to you a canticle of thanks. Amen.

 

 

Ad Officium lectionis: Hieronymus Casanate

 

Iste, quem læti cólimus, fidéles,

cuius excélsos cánimus triúmphos,

hac die Ioseph méruit perénnis

  gáudia vitæ.

 

O nimis felix, nimis o beátus,

cuius extrémam vígiles ad horam

Christus et Virgo simul astitérunt

  ore seréno.

 

Iustus insígnis, láqueo solútus

carnis, ad sedes plácido sopóre

migrat ætérnas, rutilísque cingit

  témpora sertis.

 

Ergo regnántem flagitémus omnes,

adsit ut nobis, veniámque nostris

óbtinens culpis, tríbuat supérnæ

  múnera pacis.

 

Sint tibi plausus, tibi sint honóres,

trine qui regnas Deus, et corónas

áureas servo tríbuis fidéli

  omne per ævum. Amen.

 

Joseph, whom we, the faithful, joyfully praise for his great triumphs, today was worthy of the joys of eternal life. O how happy, O how blessed, was he who at his last hour had Christ and the Virgin with peaceful countenance standing by and keeping watch. Great in justice, freed from the snare of the body, calmly and in repose he departs this world for his heavenly home, crowned with brilliant garlands. Therefore let us all implore him now ruling above that he be with us, obtain pardon for our sins, and grant us the gifts of heavenly peace. To you be praise, to you honors, O Triune God, who rules and grants a golden crown to your faithful servant, throughout the ages. Amen.

 

Ad Laudes matutinas: Hieronymus Casanate

 

 Caelitum Joseph decus, atque nostrae

certa spes vitæ columénque mundi,

quas tibi læti cánimus, benígnus

  súscipe laudes.

 

Te, satum David, státuit Creátor

Vírginis sponsum, voluítque Verbi

te patrem dici, dedit et minístrum

  esse salútis.

 

Tu Redemptórem stábulo iacéntem,

quem chorus vatum cécinit futúrum,

áspicis gaudens, sociúsque matris

  primus adóras.

 

Rex Deus regum, dominátor orbis,

cuius ad nutum tremit inferórum

turba, cui pronus famulátur æther,

  se tibi subdit.

 

Laus sit excélsæ Tríadi perénnis,

quæ, tibi insígnes tríbuens honóres,

det tuis nobis méritis beátæ

  gáudia vitæ. Amen.

 

O Joseph, the honor of those in heaven and our sure hope of life and the support of the world, kindly receive  the praises we sing joyfully sing to you. The Creator appointed you, offspring of David, as husband of the Virgin, and willed that you be called the father of the Word and made you a minister of salvation. You rejoicing looked upon the Redeemer, whom the choir of prophets sang as the one to come, laid in the stable, and with his Mother first adored. God, the King of kings, Ruler of the world, at whose word the crowd of hell trembles, whom heaven humbly serves, submits himself to you. Eternal praise be to the most high Trinity, that gives to you great honors and give to us through your merits the joys of a blessed life. Amen.

St Cyril of Alexandria’s Homiletic Commentary on Luke 20:27-38 IGNORANCE is constantly, so to speak, accompanied by rashness, and leads men on to attach great importance to their wretched fancies; and thus, those who are the victims of this malady entertain a great idea of themselves, and imagine themselves possessed of such knowledge as no man can gainsay. For they forget, as it seems, Solomon, who says, “Be not wise in your own eyes,” that is, according to your own single judgment: and again, that “wisdom not put to the proof goes astray.” For we do not necessarily possess true opinions upon every individual doctrine that we hold, but often perhaps abandoning the right path, we err, and fall into that which is not fitting. But I think it right, that exercising an impartial and unprejudiced judgment, and not rendered rash by passion, we should love the truth, and eagerly pursue it. But the foolish Sadducees had no great regard for such considerations. They were a sect of the Jews, and what was the nature of the opinion which they entertained concerning the resurrection of the dead, Luke has explained to us in the Acts of the Apostles, thus writing, “For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, neither angel, nor spirit: but the Pharisees confess all.” They draw near therefore to Christ our common Savior, Who is the Life and Resurrection, and endeavor to disprove the resurrection: and being men contemptuous and unbelieving, they invent a story replete with ignorance, and by a string of frigid suppositions wickedly endeavor violently to shake into nothingness the hope of the whole world. For we affirm, that the hope of the whole world is the resurrection from the dead, of whom Christ was the first-born and first-fruits: and therefore the wise Paul also, making our resurrection to depend upon His, says, “If the dead rise not, neither did Christ rise:” and again adds thereto, as if urging the converse thought to its conclusion, “But if Christ rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection from the dead?” And those who said this were the Sadducees, of whom we are now speaking. But let us examine, if you will, this senseless fiction of their framing. They say then that there were seven brethren, who successively became the husbands of one wife, according to the requirements of the law of Moses; and she died without children: at the resurrection therefore whose wife will she be? The enquiry however was but a senseless one, nor did the question at all accord with the inspired Scriptures: and the answer of our Savior amply suffices to prove the folly of their narrative, and make us reject both their fiction, and the idea upon which it was founded. Still I think it right to convict them plainly of foolishly resisting the inspired Scriptures, and to show that they completely mistook the sense of what the sacred writings teach. For come and let us see what the company of the holy prophets has spoken to us upon this point, and what are the declarations which the Lord of hosts has made by their means. He said therefore of those that sleep, “I will deliver them from the hand of the grave; I will redeem them from death: Where is your condemnation, O death? O grave, where is your sting?” Now what is meant by the condemnation of death, and by its sting also, the blessed Paul has taught us, saying, “But the sting of death is sin: and the strength of sin is the law.” For he compares death to a scorpion, the sting of which is sin: for by its poison it slays the soul. And the law, he says, was the strength of sin: for so he himself again elsewhere protests, saying, “I had not known sin but by the law:” “for where there is no law, there is no transgression of the law.” For this reason Christ has removed those who believe in Him from the jurisdiction of the law that condemns: and has also abolished the sting of death, even sin: and sin being taken away, death, as a necessary consequence, departed with it; for it was from it, and because of it, that death came into the world. As God therefore gives the promise, “I will deliver them from the hand of the grave, and from death I will redeem them;” so the blessed prophets also accord with the decrees from on high: for they speak to us, “not of their own heart, nor of the will of man, but from the mouth of God,” as it is written; inasmuch as it is the Holy Spirit which speaking within them declares upon every matter, what is the sentence of God, and His almighty and unalterable will. The prophet Isaiah therefore has said to us, “Your dead men shall arise: and those in the graves shall be raised; and they who are in the earth shall rejoice: for the dew from You is healing to them.” And by the dew I imagine he means the life-giving power of the Holy Spirit, and that influence which abolishes death, as being that of God and of life.

Teresan Prayer

 

Let us attempt at this point to name the major methods and activities of meditative prayer that St. Teresa discusses for our instruction. First on our list is vocal prayer. This is an important subject. Teresa clearly sees that vocal prayer can sustain any kind of meditative effort. And in this she joins company with the monastic centuries that based prayer on biblical texts, as Teresa does on the Lord s Prayer in the Way of Perfection. The first lesson in prayer for Teresa is learning to say vocal prayers well with attention, and identifying with their sentiments. We shall see that the rediscovery of monastic lectio would reinstate the biblical word as the basis of Christian meditation. Somehow Teresa remains in touch with that basic methodology. She is clear that vocal prayer serves not only meditation but contemplation as well: I know that there are many persons who while praying vocally...are raised by God to sublime contemplation . It's because of this that I insist so much, daughters, upon your reciting vocal prayer well (Way, 30, 7; cf. Way, 24, passim).

Reading.

 

Second, we list reading. Apart from the practice of following a book with meditation outlines, Teresa also treats of praying with a book for the whole time of prayer. She asserts that it is a great help to take a good book written in the vernacular in order to recollect one s thoughts and pray well vocally (Way, 26, 10). But she goes even further, reaffirming again the whole monastic tradition of prayer: I have always been fond of the words of the Gospels and found more recollection in them than in very cleverly written books (Way, 21, 3).[5]

It is the Bible that provides the best book for private prayer. The best way to feed prayer is to ponder the words of Scripture. Carmelites (in fact, all Christians) make a great mistake in trying to practice the presence of God without sustaining it by the word of God. We need to learn to pray over God s word. Let s not miss the relation between Teresa's teaching on vocal prayer and her thoughts on praying over a book. St. Teresa uses the words of Scripture for vocal prayer. The Our Father is given as one example, not to limit the use of other passages. Any sentence or phrase or word of scripture, repeated over and over or recited very carefully, is vocal prayer; and that word or vocal prayer is drawn from her favorite book, the Gospels. In short, Teresa's teachings on vocal prayer and on the use of the Gospels come together in the practice of praying over the Scriptures. This makes for a most substantial prayer life.

Images.

 

The recollected use of sacred images comes next on our list of prayer methods. Teresa encourages us to look at an image or painting of this Lord that is to our liking so as to speak often to Him (Way, 26, 9). Here we have a helpful method for practicing the presence of God. The use of good images and icons (which the Orthodox venerate so devoutly) is an excellent practice. Fortified by the word of Scripture and the image of Christ we are ready to pray. Our senses must learn to serve our prayer rather than distract from it. In her Life (ch. 9) we see how images were especially helpful to Teresa because of her difficulty in picturing what she had never seen. The principle, however, is very broad. Sacred images are good for people with poor imaginations or good imaginations. But images must have an appeal to the person before they can be of inspirational value; some people do not profit from images, or do not need them. Sacred images can most certainly serve individual prayer, just as they serve liturgical prayer in our churches.

Imaginative representations must be named on our list. I strove to picture Christ within me, and it did me greater good in my opinion to picture Him in those scenes where I saw Him more alone (Life, 9, 4). A holy imagination enables us to really identify with scriptural scenes, as Teresa did. A playful but disciplined imagination is essential to the classical prayer tradition. Interior images can serve prayer as effectively as exterior ones. But images, like discursive reflections, must nourish affection. Images are means, and good ones when they feed the heart and the will. We would do well to allow images and feelings mature expression within us as we encounter them in the Scriptures and in other books and pious exercises that serve our prayer. Images can put us in touch with ourselves as few other things can. Biblical images have special power for this, and we need to trust our own spontaneous images triggered by the biblical images. Images help us to get in touch with feelings; our feelings need to be redeemed, purified, and elevated by the word of God. The prudent and inspired use of our faculties is enhanced and facilitated immensely when we are in touch with our images, memories, and feelings. We certainly have the impression that St. Teresa was in touch with hers. Mature images of nature and grace easily mediate the presence of God.

Reflection, Intuition, and Self-Knowledge.

 

Reflection has already been named as an element of Teresian meditation. We briefly include it here, and associate thinking, understanding, and evaluating with it.

There is a more right-brain kind of knowing called intuition that we must also mention; briefly, it involves dwelling on a biblical text or image with a loving gaze, gently looking at God, rather than studying or working with the analytical mind. The ability to dwell rather than dig is the heart of affective prayer, so characteristically Teresian. Simple intuition breeds the simplicity of love. Teresa explains herself very clearly here; she advises us to stop working so hard, to take a Sabbath, some time off. She tells us not to tire the intellect, but just to speak with and delight in Him and not wear ourselves out in composing syllogisms. Such acts, she assures us, contain a great amount of sustenance (Life, 13, 11). In this sense she leads us to simply look at him who looks at us: I m not asking that you draw out a lot of concepts or make long and subtle reflections with your intellect. I m not asking you to do anything more than look at Him (Way, 26, 3). This looking is intuitive.

While speaking of thinking and intuiting, we ought to include reference to the meditative asceticism of self-knowledge, to which Teresa devotes so many pages. She clearly perceives the importance of walking in self-knowledge all the days of our life (see Castle, 1, 2, 8). Teresa does not advocate self-consciousness, but she most assuredly wants self-awareness; not self-centeredness, but transcendent self-presence (to steal a notion from Father Adrian van Kaam). This is but a matter of humility for Teresa; otherwise we cannot walk in the truth (Castle, 6, 10). We need to understand our own inner powers (see her interest in the natural workings of the imagination in Castle, 4, 1), as well as our own temperament (see what she says about the melancholy person in Foundations, 7). We need to compare the inner darkness (the demonic or shadow self) with the light and brightness of our Lord (see Castle, 1, 2). Humility and self-knowledge are one and the same for Teresa (see Castle, 1, 2). Unless we walk in the radical truth about ourselves we will not know the truth about God either. And unless we walk in truth we are not pleasing to God. With a precision like that of Thomas Aquinas, Teresa perceives that unless we cultivate self-knowledge (which again is humility) we will never really be charitable persons. She writes: I cannot understand how there can be humility without love or love without humility (Way, 16, 2). Mature prayer and self-knowledge enable us to see that truth in charity and charity in the truth must constitute a life program. Charity of any depth at all requires that we know ourselves.

An important point about Teresian self-knowledge is that it is not introspective or centered in the incomplete self; rather it is God- and Christ-centered. From learning to look at God in truth we discover the truth about the self. By gazing at [God s] grandeur, we get in touch with our own lowliness; by looking at His purity, we shall see our own filth; by pondering His humility, we shall see how far we are from being humble (Castle, 1, 2, 9). Only in the benevolent presence of the redeeming Lord can we safely descend into the compulsive, wounded, and sinful self. In humility we then find healing, for the Lord is the Master of both the conscious and the unconscious self and can touch the very core of the person, drawing us up into salvation and liberation from all that is contrary to truth and charity. Love of God and love of neighbor both radically depend on authentic self-knowledge. Self-knowledge sees through behavior to its deeper motivation. The genuine desire for such insight leads us to pray to the God of light and to seek out spiritual directors, confessors, and good friends who will tell us the truth about ourselves and keep our prayer life in the light (see Life, 13, last part).

Thus self-knowledge is an integral dimension of prayer. We cannot know God without knowing the self and we cannot know the self without knowing God. The fallen self cannot acquire authentic self-knowledge by its own unaided powers. Seeing ourselves in the truth is an aspect of liberation from the fallen self. Again, we need to roam the mansions of self-knowledge all the days of our prayerful lives. Teresian prayer is self-knowing in the light of Christ.

Briefly we should also mention existential reflection, i.e., prayerful reflection on life-situations so that we can see and cope with them in the light and love of God. We learn to take our more pronounced states of mind to prayer with us, whether they be due to external or internal causes. It is not that we are encouraging problem-solving at prayer; rather, we learn from Teresa how to draw the presence of Christ into our states of mind and heart. We go to prayer as we are. If you are experiencing trials or are sad, behold Him on the way to the garden . He will look at you with those eyes so beautiful and compassionate, filled with tears; He will forget His sorrows so as to console you in yours (Way, 26, 6).

Affective Prayer and Resolutions.

 

Affective activity is characteristic of Teresian meditation, as we have seen. In the Teresian system, affective prayer is meditation, and all meditation feeds affectivity. Teresa wants the will to desire God, to resolve to serve him, to move toward union with him. Together with ready- made prayers, she wants us to learn to freely express ourselves with words that come from our own heart (Way, 26, 6). Stronger and stronger becomes Teresa's emphasis on affective prayer as she outlines the spiritual journey. For those in the first three dwelling-places she writes: They would be right if they engaged for a while in making acts of love, praising God, rejoicing in His goodness, that He is who He is, and in desiring His honor and glory. These acts are great awakeners of the will and are more important than just following one s usual meditation (see Castle, 4, 1, 6).

Teresa wants us to move progressively toward affective simplicity because it best prepares for contemplation. (And since in the Interior Castle we find no warning about the passive night of the senses, it may be that Teresian simple affectivity cuts through into initial contemplation without the great adjustment treated by St. John of the Cross.) Teresian affectivity is one of the greatest strengths of her doctrine on meditation.

Let us not neglect resolutions as we construct our list of Teresian methods. Resolutions are very clearly meditative acts that she highly valued. Though Carmelites sometimes spurn this seemingly more Ignatian emphasis, Teresa herself is a woman of will. She wants a very determined determination to keep on praying all of one s years (see Way, 13). And she wants as strong a resolve to grow and pursue virtue as we can manage. We need to cultivate great desires for God, and a strong will, a will that will not give up prayer for absolutely anything and that will pursue virtue at all costs. Certainly, Teresian prayer does not require a resolution at each prayer session. But we need to realize that resolutions are a dimension of Teresian affectivity that very concretely relate prayer to real life.

Recollection.

 

Last of all we list the prayer of recollection. We refer here to the active prayer of recollection, i.e., recollection or rapport with the inner presence of God due to our own meditative efforts. (Important references include Life, 4, 7; 40, 5 6; Way, 28 29; Castle, 4, 3.) Teresa confesses that until she learned to find the presence of Christ within herself she never knew satisfaction at prayer (see Way, 29, 7). This prayer is called recollection because the soul collects its faculties together and enters within itself to be with its God. And its divine Master comes more quickly to teach it and give it the prayer of quiet than He would through any other method it might use. For centered there within itself it can think about the Passion and represent the Son and offer Him to the Father and not tire the intellect by going to look for Him on Mount Calvary or in the garden or at the pillar (Way, 28, 4). This inward focus is Teresa's favorite orientation for the work of meditation.

So far, then, we have placed Teresian meditation within the larger tradition of monastic prayer, called lectio divina, and have looked at some basic Teresian notions: mental prayer, vocal prayer, and meditation. We noted that meditation in a broad sense is the first category of prayer for Teresa, an active or ascetical stage of prayer just short of contemplation. We have also reviewed the basic characteristics and attitudes underlying Teresian prayer (attentiveness, affectivity, Christ-centeredness, the contemplative orientation of her prayer, the importance of self-knowledge) as well as various Teresian methods of praying (e.g., vocal prayer, meditative reading, the use of sacred images for focusing, the employment of interior images, reflection and intuition, affective prayer, resolutions, and active recollection). Now we are ready to apply all these things to the actual practice of prayer, in the context of the rediscovery of Western monastic lectio divina.