His Presence and His Absence Sermon 56 on The Song of Songs Behold, there he stands behind our wall, gazing in at the windows, looking through the lattices. As the words stand, they seem to say that he who was seen coming by leaps and bounds has arrived at the Bride's dwelling and, standing behind the wall, peeps inquisitively through the windows and chinks, because he is too modest to presume to enter. According to the spiritual meaning, however, he is understood to have drawn near, but in a different way, as it befits the heavenly Bridegroom to behave and the Holy Spirit to describe it. A true spiritual understanding will not condone what ill becomes either the one who acts or the one who describes the action. He drew near the wall, therefore, when he joined himself to our flesh. Our flesh is the wall, and the Bridegroom's approach is the incarnation of the Word. The windows and lattices through which he is said to gaze can be understood, I think, as the bodily senses and human feelings by which he began to experience all our human needs. For 'he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows'. On being made man, therefore, he has used our bodily feelings and senses as openings or windows, so that he would know by experience the miseries of men and might become merciful. These were things he already knew but in a different way. As Lord of the virtues he knew the virtue of obedience, and yet the apostle bears witness that 'he learned obedience through what he suffered'. By this means he also learned mercy, although the mercy of the Lord is from eternity. This same teacher of the Gentiles teaches this again when he states that He was tempted in all things as we are without sin, in order to become merciful. Do you see him becoming what he [already] was, and learning what he [already] knew, seeking in our midst openings and windows by which to search more attentively into our misfortunes? He found as many openings in our tumbling down and fissured wall as he experienced proofs of our weakness and corruption in his own body. 2. This then is how the Bridegroom stands behind the wall and looks through the windows and lattices. 'Stands' is the right word, because he alone who never experienced the sin of the flesh, truly stood in the flesh. This we can duly discern, because he who sank down through the weakness of the flesh stood erect by the power of divinity, as he said himself: 'The spirit indeed is willing but the flesh is weak.' I think too that this interpretation is supported by what David said of Christ with regard to this mystery; for he prophesied as the Lord's prophet, and though speaking of Moses was contemplating Christ. For [Christ] is the true Moses who came indeed by water, though 'not by water only but by water and blood'. Hence the aforementioned prophet says, referring to God the Father: 'He said he would destroy them, had not Moses his chosen one stood in the breach before his gaze, to turn away his wrath lest He destroy them.' How, I ask, did Moses stand in the breach? How, I repeat, could he stand if he were broken down or, if he stood, how could he have been broken down?' But I'll let you see, if you wish, who really stood in the breach. I know of no one else who could achieve this except my Lord Jesus, who certainly lived in death, who while broken in body on the cross stood erect with the Father in his divinity: petitioning with us in the one, appeasing the Father in the other. His standing behind the wall then means that his prostrate weakness was revealed in the flesh, while that which stood erect in him was hidden by the flesh: the man revealed and the hidden God are one and the same. And for each one of us who desire his coming he also stands behind the wall as long as this body of ours, which is certainly sinful, hides his face from us and shuts out his presence. For 'so long as we are in this body we are exiles from the Lord'. Not because we are embodied, but because we are in this body which has a sinful lineage, and is never without sin. So you may know that it is not our bodies but our sins that stand in the way, listen to what Scripture says: 'it is our sins that raise a barrier between us and God.' How I wish that the body's wall were the only obstacle, that I should suffer only that single barrier of fleshly sin and not the many fences of vice that intervene! I am afraid that through my own weakness I have added a host of sins to that which my nature inherits, and by them I set the Bridegroom at too great a distance from me, so that if I am to speak the truth I must confess that to me he stands not behind a wall but behind walls.
4. Let me say it more plainly. Through the immediacy of his divine majesty and the greatness of his power the Bridegroom is present, equally and without distinction, in every place. But with regard to rational creatures, angels and men, he is said to be near to some and far from others by holding out or withholding grace. For 'salvation is far from the wicked'. And yet the holy man says: 'why do you stand so far off, Lord?' Indeed he sometimes, by a loving arrangement, withdraws far from his saints for a time, not entirely but in part. From sinners, however, he is always very far removed, and that in anger, not in mercy. Of them it is said: 'Their pride rises up continually'; and again: 'his ways are filthy at all times.' Hence the holy man prays to the Lord and says: 'Turn not away in anger from your servant,' knowing that he can also turn away in mercy. And so the Lord is close to his saints and chosen ones even when he seems far away, though not at an equal distance from all, but farther from some, less far from others according to their varying merits. Although the Lord is near to all who call upon him in truth, and though he is near to the brokenhearted, he is not perhaps so close to all that they can say he stands behind the wall. Yet how close he is to the bride who is separated by one wall only! On this account she longs that the dividing wall be broken down, that she may die and be with him who, she trusts, is behind the wall. 5. But I, because I am a sinful man, I have no wish to be dissolved. Instead I am afraid, knowing that the death of the wicked is very evil. How can death not be very evil where Life brings no help? I am afraid to go forth. I tremble at the very entrance of the haven, because I have no assurance that he is standing by to receive me at my exit. And why? Do I go forth securely if the Lord does not guard my going forth? Alas! Unless he who redeems and saves is standing by I shall be the laughing-stock of the devils who intercept me. Nothing like this troubled the soul of Paul, whom one wall only separated from the vision and embrace of his beloved, that is, the law of sin that he discovered in his members. This is that sensuality of the body that he could not possibly avoid while living on earth. But despite the obtrusion of this wall he did not wander far from the Lord. Therefore he cried out longingly: 'who will deliver me from this body of death?' He knew that by the short passage of death he would at once attain life. So Paul averred that he was in bonds to this one law, sensual desire, which he unwillingly endured because it was rooted in his flesh. As for the rest he could say: 'I am not aware of anything against myself.' 6. But is there anyone like Paul, anyone who does not consent at times to this sensual desire and so submits to sin? Let him who yields to sin take note that he has raised another wall against himself by that wicked and unlawful consent. A man of this kind cannot boast that for him the Bridegroom stands behind the wall, because not one wall but walls now intervene. Much less still if the consent has passed into action, for then a third wall, the sinful act itself, wards off and bars the Bridegroom's approach. But what if the repetition of sins becomes a habit, or the habit induces contempt, as Scripture says: 'When wickedness comes, contempt comes also'? If you die like this, will you not be devoured a thousand times by those that roar as they await their food, before you can reach the Bridegroom now shut off from you not merely by one, but by a succession of walls? The first is sensual desire; the second, consent; the third, the action; the fourth, habit; the fifth, contempt. Take care then to resist with all your strength the first movements of sensual desire lest they lure you to consent, and then the whole fabric of wickedness will vanish. Then there will be but the wall of the body to hinder the Bridegroom's approach to you, so that you may proclaim with gladness: 'behold, there he stands behind our wall.' 7. But there is one thing you must attend to with total vigilance: that you always open the windows and lattices of your confessions. Through them his kindly gaze may penetrate to your inward life, because his discerning is your learning. They say that lattices are narrow windows, similar to what writers of books provide for themselves to direct light on to the page. I think this is why those whose work is the drawing up of official documents are called chancellors. Since therefore there are two kinds of compunction—the one in sorrow for our deviations, the other in rejoicing for God's gifts—as often as I make that confession of my sins which is always accompanied by anguish of heart, I seem to open for myself a lattice or narrow window. Nor do I doubt that the devoted examiner who stands behind the wall looks through it with pleasure, because God will not despise a humble and contrite heart. One is even exhorted to do this: confess your iniquities that you may be made righteous. But if at times, when the heart expands in love at the thought of God's graciousness and mercy, it is all right to surrender our mind, to let it go in songs of praise and gratitude, I feel that I have opened up to the Bridegroom who stands behind the wall not a narrow lattice but a wide-open window. Through it, unless I am mistaken, he will look in with greater pleasure the more he is honored by the sacrifice of praise. I can easily show from Scripture that he approves of both these confessions; but I am speaking to those who are aware of this, and I must not burden with superfluities men whose time scarce suffices to pursue the essentials: the great mysteries of this love-song and the praises it proclaims to the Church and her Bridegroom, Jesus Christ our Lord, who is God over all, blessed for ever. Amen. St Bernard of Clairvaux
Did anyone notice this article up at spiritdaily.com? How To Hear God Speaking To You mentions some facts already noted in this thread. http://catholicexchange.com/how-to-hear-god-speaking-to-you/ Posting a bit of the article, an excerpt... "God does not have to use external words and signs to attract our attention and convey ideas to us. He enters our minds directly. He speaks secretly, noiselessly, as befits the Divinity. It is only by faith that we know He is working in us. For example, God once spoke in a special, hidden way to St. Peter, who then confessed Jesus to be the Son of God. “Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jona,” said our Lord. “For flesh and blood hath not revealed this to thee, but my Father in Heaven.”
Prayer life has so many levels. The weakest level is when we only pray with others once in a great while when we go to Mass on Sunday's.... been there, done that! Another level is when prayer starts to take on a little more meaning, maybe before meals or an occasional night prayer. Then maybe your faith is excited about something you learned, such as Fatima and so you start to say an occasional rosary. Up until this point you are responding to some grace, but it is yet to come from the heart (at least from my experience). At this point you can remain at for a long time it seems. To get to the next level it seems to me that one needs to enter into the life of the Church much more faithfully to progress further. It seems to me that one needs to make a serious attempt to remove all major sins from ones life to go further. I mean you need to frequent the sacrament of confession and take up some ongoing penances to move further into the life of Christ. Perhaps the daily rosary or bible reading will allow one to progress (for me I think it was reading St. Bridget's 15 prayers every day for one whole year), along with the daily rosary. The next phase I am now experiencing is an unceasing desire for God, love for God, thirst for God throughout my whole day from the depths of the heart. Being fully aware of my sinfulness and unworthiness to say to God all day long "I love you", yet knowing I must die more to myself in order to love him even more. One can feel like an island at this point, with few around who experience this. This morning I listened to one of Vassula's youtube videos' and she said this is the contemplative prayer that our Lord desires most. To keep him in your presence all day long is very pleasing to him. I don't know where prayer goes from here and I know there is far more prayerful people on this forum than myself, so perhaps anyone else can expand on how to grow deeper from this point??? Love to hear what your thoughts are on this.
In prayer, you don't always experience God's presence. Read on in this Protestant message from Heaven, it is consoling. The poster did not say who received this message. ~ ~ ~ 1/4/2014 My dearest one, why do you labor trying to please Me? To truly please Me you must spend time with Me. You must believe that I Am. Do not busy yourself with the things of this world any longer. Come to Me and wait before Me. Let Me be the one to fill your cup daily. So many times you have sought the world and what it has to offer. No longer My child. The time has come to rely on Me daily to fill you with My purpose and vision. Try waiting on Me. No agenda, no time limits, really waiting on Me. Serving Me with your thoughts. Loving Me with your whole being. Do not become disappointed if you don’t experience My presence. Know that each time you wait upon Me you will receive a part of Me that your senses cannot pickup on just yet. Learn to wait upon Me knowing you will receive from Me. Diligently seek Me and you will find Me. Connecting with Me should be the most important part of your day. Seek Me before you start your day just as Jesus did. He awoke early to spend time with Me. He made Me the 1st priority of His day. You really can commune with Me throughout the day if you choose to... Will you start your day with Me? Matthew 22:37-40 “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” http://the-christians-forum.com/forum/1699869/
Another similar Protestant message, I thought about sharing it in the Protestant Details Locution about the Warning thread because it is Protestant. Our Lord speaks of the ways we hear His voice. The aim is contemplative prayer which can mean to actually hear Jesus in our heart. Until one experiences this and maybe we won't ever, there are other ways. A message given to our brothers and sisters in Christ, notice it says "my written Word", perhaps a help to see there is more than the written Word. Put away your plans and flow in the Spirit 2/28/14 ...My people hear in part and prophesy in part, so it takes trusting me, and trusting me in the lives of others. Some want to be still and listen, as there is a hunger in hear to my voice in their inner most being. I am declaring my voice does not come only one way, it is not only in your heart, but my voice is in others, in their prophetic words, it prophetic acts, it is also in my written Word, it is in the music, the worship, and the praise, it is in the acts of kindness, the giving of help and charity, and it is also prayers spoken. ... http://www.openheaven.com/forums/forum_posts.asp?TID=45775&PN=1
I wonder if, in a certain way, it is possible to reach a stage in the routine of contemplative prayer in which we definitively overcome thoughts of doubt and disbelief in the word, and our mind works only in favor of meditating on the divine word, the purposes of God and grow in grace. Luke 2:15-20 15 When the angels went away from them to heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go, then, to Bethlehem to see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us.” 16 So they went in haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the infant lying in the manger. 17 When they saw this, they made known the message that had been told them about this child. 18 All who heard it were amazed by what had been told them by the shepherds. 19 And Mary kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart. 20 Then the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, just as it had been told to them.
For me, it was realizing that I am a complete disaster and the only thing that keeps me steady is God.
My Spiritual Director used to say to me that the Spiritual Life is a Marathon , not a sprint and that we have to pace ourselves. I often notice with Spiritual Writers, especially Protestant ones that they often explicitly or implicitly believe that were they are on the Journey is an end point, that they have, 'Made it so to speak'. One good thing of growing a little older is to understand that we are on a constant pilgrimage, a journey that never ceases. Even in heaven, I believe we will be on the journey towards God forever and ever. Hell is fixed and above all boring and the same. Heaven is about dynamism and growth. I suspect that this is a great difficulty with Protestantism, or Judaism or Islam that the starting point is the end point so to speak. That there is no or very little allowance made for journey or change or growth. How very,very sad. As far as Faith is concerned St These of Liseaux is a very good example to look at, She has sometimes been called the Patron of Saint of Atheists. Her journey to death was marked by a very great darkness, no light at all. Her Faith was an act of will. On her journey she reminds me of someone who had wandered far off the safe stone mountain roads into an endless misty bog. Like Jesus she shouted out from the 'Depths of her young saintly heart, 'My God , my God why have you forsaken me?' She gave her assent in Faith even when she had nothing at all to cling to. A great cry of hope even in what should have been complete despair. Can we then speak of someone like St Therese growing in Faith even when it appeared totally absent? Not if we define Faith as feelings or intellectual certainty. But Faith is at bottom not about feelings or intellectual certainty it is about giving, gift of oneself. We see this with Father Abraham when asked to sacrifice his only son. He would not have been feeling good, he would have had no intellectual certainty that what he was doing was any good. But he walked ahead and did it anyway. This to me is the final test of Faith. We may not feel good about things, we may not have any great intellectual certainties but we walk forward step by faltering step, often bloodied, up the mountain anyway. We do what Faith demands even if we neither feel or think like it anyway. We walk forward in Great Darkness even though we often do not see the way. Sometimes on utube I see wonderful ,very modern Protestant Evangelical Services were thousands of young people praise God in Joy and Great excitement. There is if you like a huge shout of Faith. But life is not really like that in the long term. It is not a constant great shout of Faith. It seems to me that the Catholic Mass, the Eternal Sacrifice mirrors far more closely this inner journey which we often walk in the deepest Night and in Deepest Inner Winter.
Faith for me ,at the moment, reminds me of a carpet of flowers in a May Forest. Rain, wind and frost may beat them down darkness and mist fall and hide them. But still the little flowers Spring up again to shine in the dusky forest. Their very littleness and fragility is their salvation.
Not quite the same thing but reminds me of Our Lord's words to Sr. Josefa: I work in the dark yet I am the Light.
How beautiful! Some of the most brilliant people that ever lived believed in God, some of the most brilliant did not. I always thought that there were some excellent arguments on both sides. For myself the Mystery that most speaks to me about Faith is the Ascension. Every time I say it on the rosary beads I think to myself, 'Jesus there/ Jesus not'. Jesus remains even more present than He was when alive but it is an indwelling presence. He has made our hearts His Tabernacle. As to Faith becoming stronger in the Spiritual Pilgrimage I think to myself that in a funny way, yes, it does become stronger, but also in a funny way yes, it does become more fragile. People have Faith in so many things, they may have great Faith in their Government, which can even be a kind of God replacement, they may believe in a false religion, they may believe in their money and career and fame and all kinds of material things. Faith in ideas, science a million things. But Faith in God is not like any of these things. Faith in order to be truly strong must be truly fragile. It must be constantly dying and being reborn in order to live. Just as we die with Christ so we live with Christ and so our Faith must be in a long constant Good Friday in order that it may enter a permanent Easter. I heard a Carmelite Prioress describe her vocation as, 'Hanging on the Cross with Jesus'. So too with our Faith. Part of us must always say, 'My God , my God why have you forsaken me!' So that another part may say with confidence, 'Into your hands oh Lord I commend my Spirit'. But the bottom line with Faith is rather like a railroad company that encounters all kinds of issues and crisis. The bottom line is, 'Do the trains still run on time?' So with us, do our trains still run on time? Do we get to Mass each day, do we pray? Do we read Scripture? . Do we love each other? So no matter how fragile and hurting our Faith may seem , in no matter what deep, deep dark so long as the trains in our lives keep running on time we are fine, even though we may far from feeling it. No matter how darksome it may seem, it is well, it is well with my soul. If God wants to hold me like a little baby close to His heart in the night; well then, let it be night. If Faith were based on feelings , or even on failing human thinking, at the close of day, would any of us be saved? But Faith is not based on feelings but on the Holocaust of a true heart that burns and immolates itself for Christ. A little heart on fire with love and hope, often in utter Darkness.
Love this ~ my go to lately has been the Annunciation. Just imagine the great explosion of JOY in the Heavenly Realm when Our Lady said those words, "Let it be done according to your word"! Pure blind Faith. Jesus not there/suddenly He is there, in His first and greatest Tabernacle. All because the most wonderful of all God's creatures said yes!! And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us.
I have often wonder about the Arcangel Gabriel saying to Mary, 'Do not be afraid!' Afraid of what? I don;t think it was the obvious, that she not be afraid of the angel himself. The angel would have been a source of joy and wonder, Gabriel being one of the seven spirits that sits constantly in the presence of God. A source of joy and delight to look upon. No I believe what might have instilled fear was the message itself, that she was to be a Virgin and the Mother of the Messiah. The Theotokos, the Mother of God. It's just so totally overwhelming. But she carried the ball very simply and humbly and moved forward with it. That's quite something. For over a year now, since my retirement I have been reading a chapter of the bible, saying a rosary and doing the stations of the cross after Mass and throwing in a few rosaries when out walking and looking back on it it has been such a joy. Being retired I never had the time for it but I always promised myself that when I had time I would give it. so glad I did. Sometimes I think modern writers think of Contemplative Prayer is different from and does not sit alongside Traditional Catholic devotional practices like the rosary or the Stations but I have found they go together like apple pie and cream. I could simply have dedicated myself to an hour in front of the Blessed Sacrament, but I am so glad I took this route. Have I learnt anything this past year in prayer? I think my big takeaway is that reflection on the Passion is central, for the Western Catholic at any rate. It is said that thoughts of the Passion were never out of the thoughts of Mary. Clearly then were she goes, we follow. My biggest Spiritual wish at the moment is to have a compassionate heart as she does. Ezekiel 36:26-27 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.
My take on the Angel telling Mary not to be afraid....That Mary regularly saw Angels perhaps, and it was his greeting "Hail Full Of Grace", that bothered her and made her fearful that this was a demon posing as an angel. Never before this time had an Angel spoke to a human with those kind of words. These words were previously used only for God. And to those who think the "Hail" was just a form of greeting, like Hello, remember it is the same word that the soldiers used to mock Jesus later when they dressed Him as a King before the crucifixion. Also Hitler insisted that this word of worship was used when addressing himself. So Mary, who knew her scripture very well and was very familiar with Angels, was very afraid and confused when Gabriel said this greeting to her.
