Monthly Archives: November 2016

Nov072016

Going beyond the Absolute

The discovery of mediocrity first in others and then in oneself is a step towards an even more disconcerting discovery. Holiness, perfection and virtue — all these qualities which, without realizing it, we believed to be reflections of the Absolute within ourselves — begin to vanish. Everything which tends to make the ego a point of reference or an autonomous centre must disappear in order to conform with the resurrected Christ who is but pure relation to the Father. Even his humanity is now endowed with divine names. All created riches have been stripped away in order to be nothing but pure relation.  —Carthusians embleme-simple

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Nov062016

Where sin abounds, grace abounds much more.

Perhaps we can understand Her action and what impelled her to so bold a deed (Mary Magdalen standing at the foot of the Cross).  She has been raised up from her unworthy life.  Her “seven devils” have fled, leaving her with the soul of a child, save that it is more ardent and filled with boundless understanding.  Through Jesus she has at last come to know true happiness.  Through Him she has learned not to desecrate love, and the love in her, now cleansed from defilement, wells up the stronger because it has so many mad follies to redeem.

After her blatant sins, must she not show a blatant sorrow?  Having in all else braved the eyes of the world, she will brave them now in humility, in greatness of soul, and in faith.  So magnificent will she be in her role that she will become a symbol of spiritual resurrection, a patroness of repentant sinners.  –Father A.G. Sertillanges ‘What Jesus Saw From the Cross’

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Nov052016

Purity of heart

And so, one day we finally succeed in establishing silence within ourselves. But it is too early to proclaim victory, for we still find ourselves in the presence of that inexhaustible source that I spoke of earlier. We have to experience the painful reality of our impure hearts: even if our ímagination has fallen silent and our thoughts become stilled, we shall find in the depths of ourselves a kind of fundamental instability, an inexhaustible fount of anxiety, a seedbed of judgements, condemnations and fear. If we are truly to have a strong desire to purify this heart, we must first experience its impurity and feel the radical need to transform it, if we are one day to see God.  —Carthusians of North America, Vermont 

carthusianmonaserycell

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Nov042016

The good fight

….a good soul greatly tempted. Let it be exceedingly humbled, but not astonished: the lilies that grow among thorns are the whitest. What does he know, who has not been tempted? It may change the bodily exercise, if the pain lie in the thoughts; if it cannot conveniently change the occupation, let it change the posture; by this diversity, it will find relief. If the pain fill the imagination, it is good to sing, to join the company of others, or to pass from one spiritual exercise to another. Above all, let the soul not be astonished, but frequently renew its vows, and be humbled before God. Let it promise itself victory through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin. –Saint Francis de Sales

lilly-thorns

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Nov032016

Inner-victory

We know that it (silence) amounts to introducing a sword in ourselves: peace will come up only when those who were opposing it will be thrown out.  —Carthusians

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Nov032016

Silence: the foundation of civility

First of all, we have the responsibility to observe silence towards others. “Love for our brothers should show itself firstly in respect for their solitude” (St 4.4) Each and every one of us is entrusted with the exterior and even interior silence of those he associates with. Silence is rarely a purely personal affair. Our role towards our brothers is firstly concerned with exterior silence; whether the places where we are help recollection or induce dissipation depends on a careful attitude on our part that radiates a genuine concern for peace and silence. “The places where they work, like those where they live, should be so arranged as to be conducive to interior recollection… it should be quite apparent that they are a home where God dwells and not mere secular buildings.” We can make a difference also by the number of words we utter, and first of all the quality of these words, so that these words coming from us contribute to recollection and not to dissipation. “if, by chance, we come to know something of events in the world, we must be careful not to pass it on to others; news of the world should rather be left where it is heard.”  Carthusians of North America–Vermont.

clocher-600_web

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Nov022016

Fullness

Reposing within my own life.
The watcher observes the one who acts.
During Mass, a voice speaks:

Be gentle and kind,
Be caring and compassionate,
In all things.
I provide the treasure of mystery,
The blessings of space,
Allowing the healing of time.

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