Archives

Dec102022

A Different Life

Most glorious Father,
in whose School
I live and hope to die,
God grant I may observe thy Rule,
For in that all doth lie.
For no perfection can be named,
Which us it doth not teach.
O happy she, who in her soul,
The sense thereof doth reach!
But many praise Obedience
And thy humility,
And yet conceive not as they should,
What either of them be.
The simple humble loving souls
Only the sense find out
Of any discreet, obedient Rule,
And these are void of doubt.
Yea, under shadow of thy wings
They up to heaven fly,
And taste here in this vale of tears
What perfect peace doth lie,
Hid in performance of thy Rule
That leadeth unto heaven;
O happy souls who it perform,
The ways so sweet and even!
By Prayer and Patience it’s fulfilled,
Charity, Obedience,
By seeking after God alone,
And giving none offense.
The more I look upon thy Rule,
The more in it I find;
O do to me the sense unfold,
For letter makes us blind!
And blessed, yea, a thousand times,
Be thou who it hast writ,
And thy sweet blessing give to them,
Who truly perform it.
For those are they which will conserve
This house in perfect peace,
Without which all we do is lost,
And all that’s good will cease.
And praised be our glorious God,
Who gave to thee such grace,
Not only him thyself to seek,
But also out to trace
A way so easy and secure,
If we will but thee hear,
To have relation to our God,
Who is to us so near.
For at this thou dost chiefly aim:
That our souls God do teach.
O if we did truly obey,
He would by all things preach
His will to us by everything
That did to us befall;
And then as thou desir’st it should
He would be all in all
pray dear Father that he ever be,
our only love and all eternally. Amen.

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Dec092022

Stanzas from the Spiritual Canticle

What cure for my disease?
Give up, give up in earnest; make an ending.
These foreign deputies,
I implore you, stop sending.
They cannot touch my heart with their pretending.

All those that come and go
Bring news of you and many a dazzling rumor.
I feel each like a blow;
Sink stricken at the glimmer
Of something I can’t catch they stand and stammer.

How manage to draw breath
So long, my soul, not living where life is?
Brought low and so near death
By those bowmen of his –
To each inroad of love sharp witnesses.

Why not come and undo
The trouble in this heart? – you know you broke it.
You know you stole it too –
Just to forsake it?

St John of the Cross

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Dec062022

Spiritual pride

“They (spiritual aspirants) develop a somewhat vain at times very vain-desire to speak of spiritual things in others’ presence, and sometime even to instruct rather than be instructed; in their hearts they condemn others who do not seem to have the kind of devotion they would like them to have” (DN 1.2.1).

Interestingly, the devil is observant of such matters and is intent not to see a soul enter more genuinely on the spiritual path of humble self understanding. Saint John of the Cross says that at times the devil may inspire a person to an increased fervor of devotion and a greater readiness to perform good works precisely to swell and expand the pride of the soul. This is certainly not our usual expectation. In these souls, as well, relations with authority, whether in religious life or in spiritual direction or with the Church herself, begin possibly to show tensions. The persons want approval and esteem for their apparent spiritual quality. They assume that this elevated quality must be seen by others, for it is quite visible to themselves, and so should be acknowledged and respected. And with that respect, writes Saint John of the Cross, should come permissions and encouragement to pursue their own preferential path to God. They have sharp opinions on what they think is best for their own spiritual advancement and, perhaps, strong opinions about areas of spiritual concern in a congregation or in the Church. If this encouragement is not forthcoming to confirm them in their preferences or their opinions, “they quickly search for some other spiritual advisor more to their liking, someone who will congratulate them and be impressed by their deeds; and they flee, as they would death, those who attempt to place them on the safe road by forbidding these things and sometimes they even become hostile toward such spiritual directors” (DN 1.1.2.3). “Saint John of the Cross: Master of Contemplation” by Father Donald Haggerty

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Dec042022

Detachment, centre of indifference

By the time the ship happens to sail by and pick up Pip “by merest chance,” the ocean has “jeeringly kept his finite body up” but has “drowned the infinite of his soul.” Pip has lost himself. He has come to feel “indifferent as his God” (Melville had been reading in Carlyle’s Sartor Resartus about the “centre of indifference” as a stage to wisdom), and “from that hour the little negro went about the deck an idiot,” or “such, at least they said he was.” Pip stands before the gold doubloon that Ahab has nailed to the mast and, to the puzzlement of his shipmates (“Upon my soul, he’s been studying Murray’s Grammar!”), he conjugates the verb “to look”: “I look, you look, he looks; we look, ye look, they look.” He has been emptied of self-consciousness, and protected by his evident idiocy against his white masters-whom he calls, knowing their propensity to rage, “white squalls”-he speaks the candid truth that they all see the world as a reflection of themselves. Even to the most explosive of them, Ahab, he dares to say: “Will ye do
one little errand for me? Seek out one Pip, who’s now been missing long.” As for Ahab, touched for the first time by the suffering of another human being, he questions Pip gently in an exchange worthy of Lear and his Fool:

“Where sayest thou Pip was, boy?”

“Astern there, sir, astern Lo! lo!”

“And who art thou, boy? I see not my reflection in the vacant pupils
of thy eyes. Oh God! That man should be a thing for immortal souls to sieve through! Who art thou boy?”

In answer, Pip can only parrot the language of an advertisement for the return of a fugitive slave:

“Pip! Pip! Pip! Reward for Pip! One hundred pounds of clay-five feet
high-looks cowardly-quickest known by that! Ding, dong, ding!
Who’s seen Pip the coward?”

“Melville: His World and Works” Andrew Delbanco

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Dec042022

Prophet Isaiah amidst Christmas preparation

On that day, a shoot shall sprout from the stump of Jesse,
and from his roots a bud shall blossom.
The spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him:
a spirit of wisdom and of understanding,
a spirit of counsel and of strength,
a spirit of knowledge and of fear of the LORD,
and his delight shall be the fear of the LORD.
Not by appearance shall he judge,
nor by hearsay shall he decide,
but he shall judge the poor with justice,
and decide aright for the land’s afflicted.
He shall strike the ruthless with the rod of his mouth,
and with the breath of his lips he shall slay the wicked.
Justice shall be the band around his waist,
and faithfulness a belt upon his hips.
Then the wolf shall be a guest of the lamb,
and the leopard shall lie down with the kid;
the calf and the young lion shall browse together,
with a little child to guide them.
The cow and the bear shall be neighbors,
together their young shall rest;
the lion shall eat hay like the ox.
The baby shall play by the cobra’s den,
and the child lay his hand on the adder’s lair.
There shall be no harm or ruin on all my holy mountain;
for the earth shall be filled with knowledge of the LORD,
as water covers the sea.
On that day, the root of Jesse,
set up as a signal for the nations,
the Gentiles shall seek out,
for his dwelling shall be glorious.

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