Intercession

Chapter 4 The Way of the Mystics

The Cloud of Unknowing and The Epistle of Privy Counsel - a fourteenth century monk.
I first read this book in the eighties, it had a compelling quality. Did I want to go this way? It would be costly in time. From it I learned that we could hammer away at this dark cloud of love, i.e. God himself, ours needed to be a "naked intent directed at God" The origin of thoughts, clearly good was the reasoning power of the soul, but they could become evil through pride - perhaps in book learning. We are warned of the dangers of worldly attainment and the coveting of the positions of others.

There are two ways of life in the Holy Church, one Active, the other Contemplative, both ways have two levels, a higher and a lower. These two ways are linked but different and dependent on each other. The Contemplative must remain partly active whilst on earth, whereas the Active life ends in this life. The lower part of an Active life is made up of straightforward acts of mercy and charity, whereas the higher part takes one into spiritual activities, such as meditation, an awareness of sin, sorrow and contrition, Christ's passion, the suffering of his servants but also of gratitude which brings praise and joy. This is the way too in the lower part of a Contemplative's way of life. But the higher part of the Contemplative life, on this earth, is caught up in the darkness of the Cloud of Unknowing, with an outreaching love and blind groping after the Being of God and Him only. Here thoughts and imagination must be suppressed, pictures and music are hindrances. "Let God draw you and strive by his grace to forget all else."

Humility is the way but it is only perfect when given by God, our imperfect humility shows in an awareness of self. We are told to "strain every nerve to know and experience self as we really are" - i.e. the wretchedness and weakness of man, then we might get some knowledge and experience of God. We can note the examples of Moses and Paul in Chapter 1. It is a seeking after true holiness.

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St.Bernard of Clairvaux -1190
He knew the needs of the soul and sought them in the Word. "For once the soul has reformed it comes close to contemplate Christ and enjoys the sweetness of his presence". This sounds like another approach but Bernard wrote many sermons on the Song of Songs, the quote is from number 85, and he only got as far as Chapter 3.[i] He knew the erotic, jealous love that God had for his people, (the wife of the O.T.) and knew the attention God required was to be one of lovingly waiting on him. The result:

"we should seek to become reservoirs rather than canals. For a canal just allows the water to flow through it, but a reservoir waits until it is filled before overflowing, then it can communicate without loss to itself. In the church today(i.e. twelfth century), we have many canals but few reservoirs.

St. Teresa of Avila 1515 - 1582
Teresa spoke of an Interior Castle, and saw spiritual growth as a journey into the centre of one's being. The soul is a celestial building with God in the centre, but we are at best only in the outer courts. The mansions that she describes only come into existence as they are entered. Man has a capacity for God but may never be filled.

St. John of the Cross 1542-1591
John sought a union with God through a spiritual journey of withdrawal and abstinence from joy and pleasure. As a Carmelite monk and working with Teresa of Avila, he reformed the rule and set up the discalced Carmelites. He wrote "The soul that desires God to surrender Himself to it wholly, must surrender itself to Him wholly leaving nothing for itself...........Walk in solitude with God" [ii] Writing mainly for the Carmelite Nuns, he showed how God alone was necessary in order to reach Him. Because of his disapproval of the way the nuns were kept ignorant and dependent on incompetent priests as directors, he sought to communicate the "science of love". He taught that we are created for union of love with God, and we need to recognise that God is already within. It is easy to say that we want God, that we will hand ourselves over to Him but John reveals that we scarcely know what we are talking about. He exposes our selfishness and shows what spirituality really is by reference to Philippians 3:8.

The purpose of asceticism was to release one from the tyranny of the ego. Living in community gave the opportunity to think of others more highly than self, to let go of one's own will, be without choice and wait on God. It was not a passive way lacking initiative, but one of faith in the Lord's revelations through others, and through events. This love and acceptance of others would set one free of the ego.

John made demands because of his certainty of the presence of God within, He would bring one through. His journey is one of suffering the "Dark Night of Sense" when the Fire of God consumes all that is not of Him. The divine gaze imprints its own image, painfully revealing one's own unworthiness. It can be a time of sickness and great suffering. This leads eventually to a mystical knowledge of God, and prayer becomes God giving himself to us, we are there to receive Him, but that too must be surrendered to God, we can have no control over it. This is infused contemplation and few make progress here probably because we seek to understand what is happening, preoccupation with such and our position is selfishness. It is a matter of living our lives by faith in Christ after the crucifixion of self.[iii]

God is a Consuming Fire[iv] and John sees essential prayer as standing unprotected before God. Our only activity is faith that God realises in us so that we "know"; "....anything you ask the Father in My name....."[v]

The Carthusians Founded by St. Bruno in 1127
This contemplative order also seeks Union with God. Being Roman Catholic they draw on strength from the prayer of St.Bruno who showed the way, and of the Virgin Mary. Nevertheless it is from their recent writings that I have understood more of the nature of this prayer. They desire the dark night with its turmoil and manifestations and the various possible states of union. These are Ecstatic Union, Union of Will and Transforming Union, the final state being "the full development on earth of sanctifying grace, that is the fullness of the life of Christ within us". Sadly it is a state which is rarely reached for it implies "a plenitude of love"[vi] This fullness of Christ within is prayed for us by St.Paul,[vii] so it is not so naive to believe it possible.

The Illuminative Way where there is a purification of the senses - Mixed prayer, Prayer of simplicity

The Unitive Way leading through purification of the spirit to Contemplation and Transforming union.

Conversion is not a hurried or sudden thing, but discipleship and preparation for what is to follow. It is a separation from the world and a turning to God. Their prayer life is based on the fact that God comes to us and reveals Himself; they do not rely on reasoning but open the heart to the Love of God. They receive the Word through lectio divina;[viii] . They class vocal prayer, meditation, affective mental prayer and prayer of simplicity as degrees of ordinary prayer. We must not under-estimate the value of these prayers but during the passage we realise that the intellect must not have priority over the heart, it is the prayer of the heart that leads most directly to contemplation i.e. mystical prayer. But we must pass through the prayer of simplicity, a silent prayer of love. It has many variations and is described by different authors in many ways. Some examples are, prayer of the heart, prayer of simple presence, prayer of simple surrender, quietude, acquired contemplation but all are described as "active" as opposed to more mystical prayer. This prayer can be achieved as a result of our intelligence, beyond this we rely on the grace of God to prepare us for infused contemplation.

Union of Will is what we all desire and it is easy to be deceived into believing that we have reached this point, it depends on Love being within us, not human love but God himself. We may have brief glimpses but sadly to live in this state is not for many. It can be achieved through a mystical grace but more likely it is a slow process by way of the dark night.[ix]

[i] “Song of Songs: A collection of Sermons by St.Bernard of Clairvaux” Hodder and Stoughton 1990
[ii]    Spiritual Sentences and Maxims: Points of Love, Nos. 49, 57 ( St. John of the Cross and other Lectures and Addresses 1920-45   E.Allison Peers Faber and Faber)
[iii]   Gal.2:20
[iv]    Hebrews 12:29
[v]    John 14:13; 15:7;16:23
[vi]    Interior Prayer Carthusian Novice Conferences by A Carthusian 1996    D.L.T.
[vii]    Ephesians 3:19
[viii]    a method of meditation on scripture, but to them a profound attitude in which they conduct all their activities
[ix]    Further consideration of the Dark Night will detract from the purpose of this dissertation.    Suffice it to say that I do not believe that all the saints have journeyed this way.