Carthusian school of contemplation

  • Thread starter Thread starter Inge_Torquemada
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
I

Inge_Torquemada

Guest
Contemplation is nothing more than a constant, loving, looking at God.
Exteriorly, the life of a contemplative is like that of any other person. There is no need to imagine states which would necessitate a change of condition. A contemplative is subject to the same difficulties, the same troubles, the same anxities, discouragement, feelings and helplessness, imperfections and even faults, as anyone else.
The great point is that in all things the contemplative knows how is to find God, for He goes to the heart of things. For Him, the veil represented by the creature is raised just a little, and He sees only the love of God in everything!!!
Hence his peace after committing a fault. To arrive at such a state one must endeavour not to stop at the thing itsself, nor to let oneself become too absorbed by it, but pass beyond by a loving faith. We should make a habit of seeing God in everything. Our occupations must not-they should not-mean more to us than they are: that is to say, just means.
We must accept them, take delight in them, only in so far as they come from God, and lead us back to Him! God gives us the means to sanctify ourselves by everything, but above all by those things which are contrary to our nature and our tastes.

Contemplation is the disposition of being all for God: receiving everuthing from Him, allowing Him to act in us, overcoming all difficulties which are opposed to His action.
 
Thank You, Michael Mayo. I have this in DVD in my home. So beautiful video!
Yes, for the divine action is far higher than that of the highest of our human faculties. Already in this life is this an end: everything else constitutes the means. Even the highest theological speculation remains in the cathegory of means…Our ideal is to know to co.ordinate everything by the total gift of self, towards direct union with God!!!
Finally, contemplation is the plenitude of God in the present moment. It is receiving moment by moment the full action of God, who gives himself to us continuously.
 
“Contemplation is the highest expression of our intellectual and spiritual life. It is that life itself, fully awake, fully active, fully aware that it is alive. It is spiritual wonder. It is spontaneous awe at the sacredness of life, of being. It is gratitude for life, for awareness, and for being. It is a vivid realization of the fact that life and being in us proceed from an invisible, transcendent and infinitely abundant Source. Contemplation is, above all, an awareness of the reality of that Source. It knows the Source, obscurely, inexplicably, but with a certitude that goes beyond reason and beyond simple faith…It is a more profound depth of faith, a knowledge too deep to be grasped in images, in words, or even in clear concepts…”

-Thomas Merton New Seeds of Contemplation
 
Yes, but seek God in Your acts, since He is behind them all, and we are sanctified by the acts He wants from us. Do not speak Him in your ideas, by an effort of the head, but only where He is-for You. We so often seek Him where is He not, and naturally we do not find Him. Thus, when You are tired, for exemple, do not try to things out, by abstracting from the present moment. Seek Him in the tiredsness itself, by accepting whole-heartedly the sitaution as it is. God is there, He wants just that, and that is enough!
It is the same with difficulties, with feelings of helplessness and the like. Otherwise, You will be making huge efforts, and You will accomplish nothing.
And thus everything becomes an occasion for progress everything becomes living-and lived-a full , inner life.
 
Although I’m a Benedictine oblate, I’m quite impressed with Carthusian spirituality, having watched the film “Into Great Silence” a couple of times. I also have a great recording of the liturgy of the monks of Parkminster.

Both allow glimpses into an ancient mode of life that is very difficult for those of us on the outside to know.

I believe there’s a former Carthusian monastery in France where one can go to Sélignac (sorry, website in French only).

It’s on my to-do list for some day, since I’m a native French-speaker (the liturgy is in French).
 
I have problem, I am after Postulat in Marnhagues et Latour in France, but I am little bit old, I am 41 years old. Life in Finnland after the Charterhouse is difficult. I am hermit, but Is very difficult in this Godless country.
But place Yourself as much as possible in the presence of the God of love, and be calm so that You can receive His impressions.
Any kind of anxiety distors the mirror of our Soul, and it no longer records God s action.
Calm allows us to occupy ourselves with that we have to do without becoming preoccupied.
Our intentions are directed to God, and we keep in touch with Him whilst all the time doing whatever we have to do.
Yet to detach oneself for the sake of being detached, or in order to det away from creatures, is of very little value. That is Stoicism.
What we have to do is to turn bacj to God: it is this that is so important!
This should be our constant aim. We leave creatures solely , because they can be an obstacle between us an God.
Never argue with yourself, with temptations.
That would only be a waste of time which should be given to God.
So, too, the devil can beguile us into making minute and useless examinations of conscience, which only means turning back to ourselves.
It is enough, with regard to creatures, to see if they have any hold on us.
In they have, turn a once back to God.
Make positive acts of love: that is great point: that is what we must do!
 
Dear Inge: As an Urban Hermit ( as much as possible) I have found the following VERY helpful sites.google.com/site/trinityprioryinternational/hermit-rules . It is the Rules for Hermits written I think by Padre Fray Justo O.P. - I read all or part of it nearly every day to help me focus away from “me” and “stuff” faced in my urban environment ( Namely Los Angeles, Ca. U.S.A.) And I PROMISE you there ARE serious distractions here. I am fortunate to have my “cave” (our travel trailer) to retire to for prayer.

I hope this helps.
Marvin:)
 
Laudetur Iesus Christus!!
And thank You very much,my dear Friend, Marvin!
I dont know this blog.
We must never forget that, in spite of all our methodes and all our efforts, we are and shall always be different from others. It in foolish to compare ourselves with others, and want to be like them. When we do that, we are going the very thing that will make us apparently perfect, and yet perfectly inadequate.
I do beg of you: do not try to be above or below the golden mean. Try to be yourself, and to realize the fullness of your own life, without thinking than you are obliged to become a paragon of perfection.
Calmly weight up your qualities and defectes, your inclinations and potentiales, and with the means at your disposal and in the condition of mind and will, of aptitude and study , of the ups and downs of life-according to all these forces and circumstances, realize your talents fully.
It is not the result that counts, but the effort. I may as well add right away that , taking a more or less long view, the result will almost always compensate for the effort. I would add, above all, that, taking the highest and real point of view, the result always equals the effort< and God, who moment by moment keeps an account of our efforts, will one day strikea perfect balance between the two!!!

There is one aspect of this problem we sometimes forget, and that is, the diversity of our natures, and the corresponding effort required to develop and co-ordinate them according to that diversity…
We are too apt to look at one another and make comparsions. We must take ourselves as develop as much and as well as we can: but it will always be along the line of our personality, which is unique and must always remain so.
It must even become more and more unique.
The more we are ourselves, the more we shall be different from everyone else!
Thank You very much, my Friends!
Your Inger from Finnland.
 
My dear Inge: should you want to continue this discussion off line, you may find my address on my website www.photobyschmidt.zenfolio.com in the comments section. I find your comments fascinating, would very much like, from time to time, to be able to listen to you, and offer my very humble opinions.

The address I gave is not a blog, rather a link to the writings of Fray Justo. As I said, I find his comments very helpful. You see, Inge, I recently discovered that all my life I have been running from God, even though I said I was not. Recently, I have turned 180 degrees and now run toward God. It is a new approach for me - my life has been long, but I think I am starting to figure it out.

thank you for your comments, the depth of which it will take me a while to unravel.

Marvin, the Blunt ( as my Pastor has called me)
 
Laudetur Iesus Christus!
I am not suprised that You find de Caussade s Abandonment to Divine Providence a help.
It is an excellent work, and one cannot read it too much or meditate on it enough.
I have one fault to find with it, however, not so much with the autor himself, as with the way in which He present the development on the spiritual life.
He speaks so little of Our Lord. He keeps us always in the presence of the divine perfections. Such a doctrine leads to the prayer of quiet, acquired or infused.
That is all right, but it is not on end. Our Lord is indispensable if the soul is to reach the supreme heigts of true abandonment, which is the apex od union with God!!!
Without Him, we can remain in the presence of a Master, but union with God od necessity means being in the presence of a Father. And it is Jesus, the Son made man, who puts us there.
Pray very much for the poor world, which is more and more heading for the abyss… but the good God is waiting for it at the bottom of the abyss.
 
I agree with your criticism of that writing. However, I feel that the author is trying to redirect our attention from “us” to “others” , from the insubstantial of this world to the eternal of the next. If we can accomplish this, God will reveal himself to us. I wish I could make such a claim, but my prayers remain dry. In good time God will reveal himself to me, at least that is my hope.

The blog you linked is wonderful. Thank you for that.

Marv
 
It can be noted that there is acquired contemplation…and infused contemplation.

And to confuse things (unintentionally) there are various authors and various schools who use term “contemplation” differently…in their writings (over the centuries)

(and I am meaning here even only those who writers and schools that do not depart from faithfulness to the Church or who are not Christians to begin with -the term gets used in various ways among them as well).

Though a basic outline that I use to explain things is that it can be said that there is acquired contemplation --which can be on a philosophical level (read Josef Pieper on “natural contempation”) or on the theological level …and there can be even the ordinary kind like that of a mother “contemplating” her sleeping child or our contemplating nature. These are a true contemplation.

And there can be “acquired contemplation” in the sense of a kind of contemplation in prayer where things become more of a intuitive gaze (to look and love) etc (such as prayer of simplicity). (within which too God might begin to give infused contemplation as well)

And then there is “infused contemplation”…infused by God. Which also involves looking and loving.
 
Yes, the loneliness is the possibility to become a saint or a sinner to die.
The desert is desolate and empty, cruel- we think today only at flowering deserts. This is wrong.
Think of St. Anthony of Egypt.
He went in the beginning of His monastic life deeper and deeper into the desert, the solitude.
He was lived in abandoned graves. He ran away. But again He was found God in the desert. Remember, God lives in desert. In the solitude of man. Jesus was in the desert. We remain Jesus. That is appeal of the Carthusian: stay with Jesus!
 
WOW!!! I’m not sure how I can understand all this and integrate it into my life. With age comes wisdom??!! Not usually, mostly dead brain cells. What I have thankfully found in this one thread (is that the correct term?), is it will take me a long time just to truly understand. I’m really a simple guy, who tries to understand what is happening. I don’t look in my rear view mirror to see where I’ve been, ( God forgives sin, but then they never existed - no rear view mirror for Him), nor do I spend much time looking to the future, except to be sure I don’t bump into anything, like sin. I have my hands full with the moment, the present, the gift from God of still being useful here on earth. When the time comes, I hope I won’t complain about death, I’ll try not to, yet this place, most of it at least, is so gorgeous, so wonderful, that to think that Heaven could be more is hard to comprehend.

I REALLY appreciate your comments, and guidance. Thank you.

Peace and all good to you all.
Marv
 
Laudetur Iesus Christus!
I thank You very much,my dear Friend!
I have nothing special to add as regards Your first question.
In God d good time , He himself will provide the answer, and You will be amazed and delighted as His sotution, which will quite possibly be the very opposite of that You imagine now:
God gives You now the grace to study the question and work out the answer. Later on He will give You the grace to act.
Nothing is more important in life than to know how doing into line with what He wants, moment by moment.
Times of great stress are generally speaking , not the times to make decisions.
We do not see clearly enough: we know not what the morrow will bring: indeed, we barely know the message of today.
Await the calm, and the light that the calm brings. It is an effort imposed on our too eager zeal, which is always one of the most redoubtable enemies of supernatural activity!
Yet it is precisely in that effort that God finds His glory!

Draw much profit from Your contacts whith those with whom are You in touch by word or letter-
There is a great deal to be learned and gained thereby. You will see how, and how much, God is at work: but also, alas!
…how , and how little, we respond to His advances.
Souls that are truly docile and persevering are very rare.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top