'drawing perfectly straight lines on the large
blackboard' .... 'it works the same way in the spiritual life: it is not yourself you ought to look at while acting, but God,' (Fr. Robert Thomas - two memories).
Passing From Self To God:
A Cistercian Retreat (Monastic Wisdom Series) Paperback– 1 Jun
2006
 |
| Putt straight to hole Golf lesson: not example of drawing perfectly straight lines as above. |
Passing from Self to God: A
Cistercian
Retreat
Passing from Self
to God
Cistercian Retreat by Robert Thomas
ocso
review them four times a day (upon waking, before the office of Tierce, before the morning work, before the afternoon work) in my spirit, in my head, without imposing formulas on myself, just something spontaneous, more or less brief or developed:
My God, I don't want to be occupied with anything but you, Beauty, Goodness'
I come to you like a small child: I will do my best, but it is laughable; you alone can get me where I'm going.
I believe
in your love for me, in your tenderness! I am your beloved ...
Well, it was a passage from me (even though it was for God that I wanted perfection) to God (without being concerned even with my perfection, but with Him!).
That lasted during many months; I don't say that I did not commit some sins, but I saw them right away and, instead of being cast down, or even made sad about turning back in upon myself, I saw things from the other side, the side of God. For the
rest, completely, naturally, I developed a habit of often saying, "My God, how does it look from your side?" (to appreciate everything or live everything; how to attend Mass, how to judge a brother or behave myself with him, etc.); even how to look at myself and how to know myself; no introspection, but truly, I believe, as William of Saint- Thierry says: "For the limits of human imperfection are never better realized than in the light of God's countenance.:"
No one should believe that this spirituality is easy and requires no effort; it is more apt to make the self die, to accept not making self your centre, to walk always at God's side. You no longer know very much about yourself, but you know that God is good, that He, He is worthy of being loved, and you say the first part of the Our Father with fervour.
6. William, Ep frat ILl8; CF 12:97.
2)....
I will
end this second point with two memories.
Two memories
In our third year in high school, we had
a professor who had a particular talent for drawing perfectly straight lines on
the large
blackboard. One day he said to us,
"You ask yourselves how I can draw such straight lines? It's very simple! I
put my chalk at point A, at the extreme lower left of the blackboard. Then, I
no longer look at my fingers or at the chalk, but at the destination point B, at
the top of the other end of the board, and the line is automatically straight."
He was right, and it works the same way in the spiritual life:
it is not yourself you ought to look at while acting, but God, and while we concern ourselves with him, he concerns himself with us.
it is not yourself you ought to look at while acting, but God, and while we concern ourselves with him, he concerns himself with us.
Besides, has he not said in the gospel,
"You shall live in me and I in you"?
One evening, I was in conversation with my Father Abbot, Dom Chautard, when the warning sounded for Compline. We descended, and I followed him down the staircase. Turning back and prolonging the conversation, he said, "You see, my child, it's as it says in the psalm: 'My eyes are always turned toward the Lord, because he himself draws my feet from the net.' We must look at God, and he will make himself responsible for putting our feet where they ought to be, and for pulling them out of the net when needed."
Contemplation is looking at God and not at ourselves; contemplation makes us leave ourselves and not turn in upon ourselves.
3) Passages from Cistercian authors on this subject
Our Fathers love to trace spiritual itineraries, and they note this passage from self to God. One could arrange their texts fairly well under these three rubrics:
Being happy with God You, not me Disinterested love
Being happy with God
This expression is not opposed to
"being
happy with self," but to "trying to make God happy with me." Obviously, it is normal and often praiseworthy that we seek to please God. Jesus always did what was pleasing to his Father. But there can be, and
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