Leaving self Behind:
Day 1. Intro to the self
Day 2. Leaving behind
Day 3. Self/self, Ego
Day 4. Shadow self
‘Where love reigns there is no will to power; and where the will to power is paramount, love is lacking. The one is but the shadow of the other.’
C. G. Jung
Day 5.
Day 6.
CS Lewis, Surprised by Joy.
“You might sum up the gains of this whole period by saying that henceforward the Flesh and the Devil, though they could still tempt, could no longer offer me the supreme bribe. l had learned that it was not in their gift. And the World had never even pretended to have it.”
Our MSC mission ? Or the mission of the Kingdom?
Our daily contemplation takes the fear away.
The Potter and the Clay
18 The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: 2 “Arise, and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will let you hear my words.” 3 So I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was working at his wheel. 4 And the vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter’s hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to do. Then the word of the Lord came to me: 6 “O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter has done? declares the Lord. Behold, like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel. 7 If at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom, that I will
Unknowing a Way to God:
Day 1. INTRO: prayer and spiritual journey: questions we ask and places we find ourselves in. Where is God? What does God want of me?
For both Teresa and St Paul, intimacy with the Indwelling God can do nothing other than issue in personal sanctity.
Contemplative prayer is so different from the Discursive prayer that has gone before and we need to learn how to avoid placing obstacles in God’s way.
We must learn receptivity
Letting go of CONTROL
Allowing all the initiative to be God’s.
This is difficult in our consumer/productive culture.
This example: Baby at the breast.
In dealing with distractions, temptations or counter movements, be GENTLE. All authors from Anthony of Desert to Thomas Keating “Come back to the present/presence > GENTLY.”
Lots of Vocal prayers is like big logs in the fire which extinguish the small spark.
Day 2. KNOWING:
Day 3. IMAGES OF GOD:
compulsions driving need to know: underlying fears: resistance to the unknown
Day 4. HUMILITY: Invitation to allow God to be God
HUMILITY.
“What I have come to understand is the whole groundwork of prayer is based on humility. I don’t recall God’s ever having granted me one of his notable favours if not at a time when I was brought to nothing at the sight of my wretchedness.”
Life Ch 22.“The foundation of this whole edifice (prayer as spelt out in the 7th Mansion) is humility.”
Interior Castle Mansion 7.‘Where love reigns there is no will to power; and where the will to power is paramount, love is lacking. The one is but the shadow of the other.’
C. G. Jung
Day 5. TRANSFORMATION OF UNKNOWING INTO A PLACE OF TRUE KNOWING:
The truest and most horrible claim made for modern transport is that it ” annihilates space.” It does. It annihilates one of the most glorious gifts we have been given. It is a vile inflation which lowers the value of distance, so that a modern boy travels a hundred miles with less sense of liberation and pilgrimage and adventure than his grandfather got from travel- ling ten. Of course if a man hates space and wants it to be annihilated, that is another matter. Why not creep into his coffin at once? There is little enough space there.
CS Lewis, Surprised by Joy
Day 6. HERE AND NOW – ALL IS ONE:
St Teresa teaches that a person is brought into the 7th Mansion by an “Intellectual” vision of the Trinity. What we hold by Faith the Soul may be said here, to grasp by sight, although nothing is seen by the eyes for it is no ordinary vision.
It is good to keep our awareness of this vision because it will help us to be prepared to pay the indispensable price for reaching this summit.
This union of the soul and the humanity of Jesus > like the Risen Jesus appearing to His disciples through closed doors.
Teresa uses two comparisons in her struggle to explain this union;
Raindrops on a pond.
Shafts of light meeting in a room.
In the 7th Mansion, there is what we may call Dual Awareness and Operation. A person is able to attend to the indwelling Trinity and yet carry out the business of daily life.
St Teresa articulated this from her own experience. “The person can be both Mary and Martha at once, engaged in the Contemplative and Active life together.” In the 7th Mansion, one’s life is not just improved – it is NEW.
There is complete self forgetfulness and an entire seeking after God’s Will.