4/29/2015

"Default Setting"

At the 2014 General Chapter, two Salesian priests whose field is communication gave an excellent presentation on the use of computers and the internet in relation to our monastic life.  There was a lively exchange on this, so it was in everyone’s mind – which is perhaps why our Abbot General used the following metaphor in his address to the assembly.  “Just as computers have a certain default setting so should we.  St Paul has provided this for us: ‘Be joyful.  Pray always.  Give thanks for everything.’”

All this came back to my mind as I reflected upon the assigned texts from St Gertrud, and I took it a few steps further.  Before having a default setting, one has to have an operating system.  Though St Gertrud obviously pre-dates computers, it seems to me that she did indeed have an operating system, namely high-quality faith, and her defaults certainly seem to have been joy and prayer and gratitude.  Over and over again she speaks of:

·         Joy at being loved by God and of being able to respond to all that ‘comes across her screen’ as a manifestation of love and an opportunity to return love for love (ii.1.2, ii.3.3, etc)

·         Prayer as the power behind her operating system, that which gives her strength, peace and joy (ii.14.1)

·         Gratitude as her program of life (ii.3.3)

And, like us, she also knew and experienced what it meant to fail in this.  To continue the simile, she had to press the re-start button again and again – to restore the default setting.  St Gertrud would not have known this terminology, but its reality is evident in her writings (ii.3.3).

Perhaps we can go even further and say that St Gertrud’s username was/is GRACE (ii.3.1), her password THANKSGIVING (ii.3.1), and her security system not McAfee or Norton but rather MERCY (ii.1.2).

I realize that the above may seem a bit fanciful and even superficial – but it is my first contribution to the Cistercian Mentors program, and it seemed suitable to make a soft entrance….and it occurred to me that all of this is just another way of expressing the reality of the title of this Chapter – “From myself into you.”

Finally, just to share the one text I would choose above all others to capture St Gertrud’s spirit in the passages we are considering– “I recognized on that hand, from which I had received the promise already mentioned, the glorious gems of those wounds which cancelled the debts of all.” (ii.1.2)

Sr Barbara Smickel, Crozet

4/25/2015

A Cistercian Lifting Up Another Cistercian

Our Cistercian Mentor, Gertrude, draws on the wisdom of her Cistercian mentor, Bernard, on page 107.  This simple fact tickles me, and it illustrates how a Cistercian mentor program such as our own can be very profitable.  Bernard mentors Gertrude by explaining how God, without shame or weariness, pursues the heart that scorns and rejects him. This piece of spiritual instruction articulated for Gertrude her perplexing experience of personal failure and put into sharp relief the overwhelming and incomprehensible love of God.  Bernard’s words affirmed her intuition and consoled her. How beautiful to see a Cistercian lifting another Cistercian up from confusion and despair to the bliss of self-knowledge and unconditional love.  What’s more is that this beautiful portrait of mentorship lives on in us as we illuminate one another with special insights and love. Thanks to all who contribute to this program for providing your mentorship and companionship as we hasten to the Kingdom. Peace and love to you, my brothers and sisters.

Br. Luis Cortes, Vina

4/24/2015

Heart Knowledge

“May all that is encompassed by the path of heaven, the circle of the earth and the deep abyss give you thanks for the extraordinary grace with which you led my soul to experience and ponder the innermost recesses of my heart.  These had been as of little concern to me before, if I may say so, as the soles of my feet!”  – St. Gertrud

Meeting a person face to face is an experience that cannot be replicated.  Through another form of communication, we may learn something of someone – perhaps by reading their writings, or speaking with them over the phone.  Maybe we have only heard about them through another person’s viewpoint.  In such cases, our understanding of the other is only partial.  If, or when, we are able to have a personal encounter with the person whom we have heard of, we then have a fuller and more complete picture of the person as a whole.  We may have envisioned the person one way and when we meet them are quite surprised! 

When I was growing up, I was taught about God and I heard His Word proclaimed in church.  I knew God on one level, and yet, I longed to know Him more intimately.  While He knew me fully, I did not yet know Him.  I truly wanted to meet God face to face, so that I could know Him in a deeper way, and know His immense love for me.

The first time I read St. Gertrud’s writings, I had not yet had such an encounter with God as described.  I did not understand her experience and could not relate to them.  Yet, being re-introduced to her this time, I now read her texts in a different light.  Through my own personal struggles, I was led into the innermost recesses of my heart.  There, having met God and experiencing His care for me, I now have a greater appreciation of her experience and the words she chooses to describe God and His attributes.  Her texts repeatedly reflect God’s great tenderness and her intimate relationship with Him.  Her powerful choice of words includes:  “sweet union,” “pleasures beyond price,” “wonderful goodness,” “home,” “embrace,” “kiss”, and “draw me to yourself.” The beauty with which she describes God’s attributes correspond now to my own experience and my newfound assurance that I, too, am cherished by God.  I have only begun to explore my own heart and God’s loving presence there.  May God grant that I continue to grow in heart knowledge.  

Sr Francesca Molino, Wrentham

4/10/2015

When we give ourselves to God, even in the midst of our knowledge of sinfulness – when we are willing to be for God – to want what God wants for us, God lifts us up, frees us beyond our imaginings and gives us joy. The Yes to God changes everything.  There is such a lightness of being, an experience of real joy and most of all a deep sense of freedom from everything but God.  It’s like floating on air with God’s love and desire for you holding you up, filling you with such joy nothing else really matters anymore. You just want to live forever in this space of freedom. 

The struggle of prayer, the struggle of finding God’s Will and saying yes to it over and over is the struggle of our life.  Thank God, God gives us such delights even though we fight it – we seem to cling to our own will, our own desires, our own sin, yet God keeps pursuing us. God stirs our hearts to want to repent. God helps us to see our faults, our selfishness and to return to Him.

I’ve come to realize that I can dwell in selfishness so easily - be so self centered.  This happens especially when God seems so distant, so hidden then I take comfort in doing my own will. Of course I don’t’ consciously decide this but on reflection I see that’s what happens. But then I remember I’m called to be poor – to be for God alone, to have nothing but desire for God.  Called to live in faith, I realize that God is calling me, is with me always in my nothingness.  So I repent again and seek to dwell in the truth that God is so faithful.  God helps me to live the life God has called me to him. Right there is my consolation.  My prayer comes from Psalm 63 – “Cling to God no matter what!”  If only……..     

3/24/2015

Encounters with Christ:  Reflections on Two Visions of St. Gertrude the Great

Two Visions

Preceding two visions St. Gertrude describes in The Herald of God’s Loving-Kindness, she is neglectful of Our Lord.  She tells us she was immersed in self-absorption; dominated by vanity, worldliness and anger.  Gertrude also writes that Christ shows two contrasting countenances; a countenance of great apparent power in the first vision, a countenance of much less apparent power in the second vision.

Christ’s Contrasting Countenances

To highlight Christ’s different stances in the two visions:

1.   In the first vision Jesus presents Himself as more powerful—He overcomes Gertrude’s self-centeredness and barriers obstructing Gertrude’s coming closer to Him.

2.   In the second vision Jesus appears less powerful—waiting for Gertrude to overcome her self-absorption by accepting graces already offered or about to be offered.

To review Gertrude’s two visions in more detail, in one vision Jesus abounds in attractive qualities.  He is young, lovely, refined, poised, charming, regal, kind, gentle and confident.  He shows He has great power by calming a storm (in Gertrude’s heart) after using the storm to pull down a tower (a metaphor for her vanity). 

In the other vision Jesus shows Himself very differently.  He is a vagrant.  He appears forlorn, weak, sick, poor, and destitute.  He does not calm a storm raging inside Gertrude.  Instead He lays low in hope that an earlier stillness will return.  He makes His home seeking shelter “amid all the squalls” of Gertrude’s heart.  He sets His course for “the calm of [her] repentance and the harbor of [her] humility.” 

It is noteworthy that Christ sets His course for Gertrude’s calm, repentance and humility.  He does not set Gertrude’s course for calm, repentance and humility.  Simply put, Jesus waits for Gertrude to freely choose these consoling graces.  In Gertrude’s account of the second vision she makes no mention of Jesus taking any direct, explicit action to lead her in this direction.  She only mentions that Jesus explains that He waits for Gertrude to set the course He desires.  Compared to Jesus’ activity toward Gertrude in the first vision, this action on His part is far less direct.  

Gertrude’s Countenances: From Neglect to Attentiveness

Gertrude’s stances in the two visions are highlighted below:

1.   In the first vision, Gertrude is self-absorbed until Jesus “quiets her storm” and draws Gertrude to Himself to console her.

2.   In the second vision, Gertrude is self-absorbed until she accepts graces offered previously (or graces about to be offered), whereupon she recognizes and responds to Jesus’ poverty and consoles Him.

Describing Gertrude’s stances more fully, we see that although the precise interior movements constituting Gertrude’s countenance differ on each occasion, Gertrude’s general stance toward Christ is initially similar in both circumstances.  She is at first absorbed with herself and neglectful of Jesus.  In both cases however, as Jesus appears to Gertrude, she quickly moves to a stance of attentiveness to Him although the form of her attentiveness is different in the two visions. 

The two visions thus involve movements that are similar in that the movement is from self-absorption to Christ-centeredness.  However, the graces prompting and the processes constituting these two movements to Christ-centeredness differ.

Different Graces Offered by Different Processes

By and large self-absorption is not a measure of maturation and is not a state willed by Jesus as an enduring trait for mature adults.  Certainly, Jesus allows Gertrude, or any of us, to experience self-absorption.  Having experienced its ill effects, we are hopefully better prepared to receive the grace to renounce self-absorption and thus better attend to Jesus’ will. 

In the first vision to overcome Gertrude’s neglect a powerful Christ appears with an almost irresistible attraction.  This attraction draws Gertrude to Him, and where barriers remain, Christ Himself removes them and literally carries her to Himself.  He acts to directly console her.

In the second vision, ignored by Gertrude, Jesus lays low.  He shows Himself as poor and in need of her.  He depends on Gertrude to accept graces previously offered or about to be offered and thereby respond to His need for her to console Him.  Jesus offers Gertrude the consolation that derives as a consequence of consoling Him. 

A simple and partial description of the consolation derived from consoling Christ can be inferred from a prayer Gertrude relates toward the end of her account of the vision.  Gertrude concludes her description of the second vision with a prayer that an increase in her humility (the actual term Gertrude uses is “the abyss of humiliation”), as developed by the love of Christ, may intensify her gratitude for Christ’s love (“the affect of your loving kindness”).  This prayer is itself an opening to Christ’s will and thus a release from self-absorption—even if only an initiation of the process.  Thus in the second vision by consoling Jesus, Gertrude receives release from self-absorption and receives consolation (or at least the process of her receiving consolation is initiated).

In the second vision there are two possibilities concerning Christ’s granting the grace Gertrude needs to overcome her self-absorption.  Either the grace needed to overcome Gertrude’s self-absorption:

1.   Is about to be offered or,

2.   Has already been offered to her while Jesus waits for Gertrude to take responsibility to recognize this and act on this grace. 

Either way, Gertrude cannot achieve humility or calm without Christ’s grace.  Either way, in the second vision, the effects on Gertrude and Our Lord are much the same.  That is, Christ waits longing for a self-absorbed Gertrude but waiting for her to recognize, accept and act on the grace He is about to give or has already offered.  Until she does so Our Lord remains forlorn, impoverished and yearning for her.

One could point out that in both visions Jesus has an obvious power.  While exercised in different manners, with different timing, and by yielding different roles and actions to the two persons involved—He and Gertrude—nevertheless in both cases the power of God’s grace produces a result that is the same—bringing Gertrude to Christ.  However in these two visions Christ’s different actions are not superfluous.  His different countenances, stances, manners, different presentations of Himself and different courses and agencies of action illustrate different processes of conversatio.  In ways however subtle, these different processes of conversatio intend different benefits for Gertrude and by extension for us.  To overlook rather than explore these different intended benefits ignores different gifts and graces God desires for our profit.

Gertrude and Christ: Two Persons, Four Kinds of Interaction

The two occasions Gertrude describes involve two persons, each person conveying their individual countenances or stances.  One of the persons is Jesus, and the other Gertrude.  Thus there total four different stances in Gertrude’s two visions (As mentioned above, Gertrude and Christ each exhibit two different stances).  These four different stances result in four different kinds of interpersonal interactions between Gertrude and Christ.  They are illustrated in Figure 1.

Figure 1: Gertrude, Christ and Four Kinds of Interaction

Figure 1 summarizes and “maps” Gertrude’s two visions.  As mentioned above and as Figure 1 illustrates a state of neglect precedes both of Gertrude’s visions.  The four quadrants represent four different stances during the two visions.  The two quadrants each representing Vision 1 and Vision 2 are separated by a solid line.  The different stances within each vision are separated by dashed lines.

Each of the visions, with their corresponding stances assumed by Gertrude and Jesus and their corresponding graces, moves   Gertrude’s stance to attentiveness to Christ.  In the different visions the means by which Christ draws Gertrude to Himself differ, as does the particular quality of Gertrude’s attentiveness to Him. 

A More General Application

Gertrude’s visions, the circumstances surrounding them and her conversatio—her closer movement to Jesus—are significant because generalizing from them we can map developmental paths common to many of us and derive questions that can be useful to keep us on track in growing with Our Lord.   

There are further lessons we can derive from these accounts that allow general applications of Gertrude’s experience. 

First, Christ seeks to draw us out of our self-absorption.  He does so one of two ways, either by:

1.   Directly overcoming our self-absorption by “pulling us” to Him or,

2.   Waiting for us to emerge from self-absorption by accepting graces already extended or about to be extended to us.

Second, Christ seeks to console us either by a:

1.   Direct process or,

2.   “Two-step” process, by first gracing us to extend consolation to Him, and by this means then to offer us the consolation derived from consoling Him. 

These two separate juxtapositions identify for four general types of interactions with Christ which grace us with consolation:

1.   Jesus directly overcomes our self-absorption by “pulling us” to Him.  Jesus “calms the storm” of our neglect and moves to directly console us.

2.   Jesus waits for us to accept grace He has already offered or is about to offer, giving us the power to emerge from self-absorption by repentance and humility.  Once we accept His grace He moves to directly console us.

3.   Jesus directly overcomes our self-absorption by “pulling us” to Him and gracing us to console Him.  He allows us to receive the consolation that derives from consoling Him.  

4.   Jesus waits for us to emerge from self-absorption by accepting graces already extended or about to be extended to us.  He first graces us to console Him.  He then offers us the consolation derived from consoling Him. 

Figure 2 illustrates four general interpersonal interactions between Christ and another, depending on how Our Lord elects to draw us from self-absorption and how He elects to extend His consolation to us. 

The dashed lines between the four quadrants indicate that there are times when the interactions illustrated may overlap and not have clean boundaries. 

Conclusion

St. Gertrude’s visions illustrate different ways Christ extends consolation.  Her account demonstrates that while grace always empowers us to emerge from self-absorption, it can do so in different forms.  Some of these forms explicitly appear in Gertrude’s account of her visions.  Analysis of her accounts allows us to infer some additional ways Our Lord may elect to extend His consolation to us.

Some Questions

Conversatio always involves responding to Christ by doing his will.  Some of the questions below may be helpful in reflecting on self-absorption:

·        Why is self-absorption more common than we might wish?   Is it always an obstacle to doing Christ’s will?  Please explain your answer.  If you agree, without mentioning names, can you give some examples?

·        Do you agree that Christ allows us to experience self-absorption so that we can learn lessons that will allow us to better avoid it in the future?  Please explain your answer.  If you agree, without mentioning names, can you give some examples?

·        Do we sometimes overlook the fact that the grace to emerge from self-absorption has already been offered?  Please explain your answer.  If you agree, without mentioning names, can you give some examples?

·        Do we sometimes dictate to Christ the grace we “need” to emerge from self-absorption when in fact He is offering a different form of grace to achieve conversatio?  Please explain your answer.  If so, without mentioning names, can you give some examples?

·        Does Christ perhaps wish to pull us out of self-absorption by showing Himself as needing our consolation?  If so, are we open to loving Him as He tells us He needs us to at a given time and in a given place?  Please explain your answer.  If you agree, without mentioning names, can you give some examples?

·        Can a “powerful and regal” Christ who “pulls us to Himself” ever desire our consolation?  Please explain your answer.  If you agree, without mentioning names, can you give some examples?

·        Do you have a preferred way to be pulled from self-absorption and consoled by Christ?  How is this strength in your spiritual life?  How might this be a limitation in your spiritual life?

Br. Mario Joseph Schemel, Conyers