A Rosary Novice's Blog

In the second chapter of St. Teresa of Avila’s “Way of Perfection”, she refers to how St. Clare of Assisi described the Evangelical counsel of Poverty as providing tall walls around a community.

I had never thought of the Evangelical Counsels as protection. Against what can they protect? Even today Our Lord recommended the young, rich man Poverty in order to tend towards perfection (Mt 19:21). Of course, Our Lord has never recommended anything that He Himself hadn’t embraced. However, as Jesus said, following His commandments already opens the doors of Heaven to us. Yet, He proposes something extra to be perfect. Although we are creatures, the Lord, Who is all-perfect, calls us to the same perfection, as Our “Father in Heaven is perfect” (Mt 5:48), to “be holy… for I AM holy” (Lv 19:2).

In striving to be more like Jesus, it seems that St. Clare climbed a mountain where the fowler would not lay his snares so easily. As though the Evangelical Counsels set up a perimeter that the enemy dares not trespass. According to Scripture, the enemy doesn’t want to have anything with Poverty, Chastity and Obedience. Conversely, Jesus doesn’t want do have anything to do with the wealth of kingdoms, or with the lust of abundant food, or with tempting the Father (Mt 4). The Evangelical Counsels do raise a wall too tall for the enemy, as Jesus demonstrated.

But if the Evangelical Counsels perfect something, it has got to be the work of grace in us, the life in the Spirit through the infusion of the Theological Virtues of Faith, Hope and Charity at Baptism. Since the exercise of these virtues are necessary and sufficient to enter Heaven, Jesus however calls us to live Faith perfectly through Obedience, Hope through Poverty, Charity through Chastity, just like He has done since ever.

When Jesus calls us to be like Him, it certainly is not something that we can do on our own. He Himself told the young man to follow Him after embracing Poverty, because in itself it is naught. The Lord will complete the work provided that we say “yes”: “fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum” (Lk 1:38).

Jesus became man so that men can be made divine, to be welcome not only to God’s Kingdom, but before Him, face to face.

Whenever Holy Thursday comes and the Triduum starts, Lent ends with the apex of the Last Supper, immediately followed by the nadir of the removal of the Blessed Sacrament from the church. Then, the church is not the House of God anymore, our contemporary House of Bread (Bethlehem), but an empty shell immersed in darkness and drabness.

Come Good Friday and the gloom is overwhelming at the memorial of that dreaded moment when the Sun had refused to shine. Like Jesus’ disciples on that day, I am confused and afraid. Perhaps not for the same reasons as the Apostle’s , but still deeply troubled by my sinfulness that I see piercing the Lord’s hands, feet and eventually his side too.

It’s only on the Easter Vigil that everything becomes clear, as the Light of the World conquers death for ever! It takes me a while to realize how merciful the Lord is and to recognize His gifts. Now as then, He offers His body and blood as the new Manna to feed me on the road out of Egypt toward Jerusalem. By His grace, all my fears are cast aside and my heart is inundated with hope, for His body was not marred and His blood, spilled in vain, but are offered to nourish me and to wash me.

He is truly risen!

+JMJ+

There are some films and paintings that have left an impression in my imagination even after years having last seen them. I cherish to recall some of these works of art, in particular when saying the Rosary to deepen my appreciation of its Mysteries.

I must say that after the previous post I refrained from adding new ones until I could jog down my thoughts on the remaining four petitions of the Pater. But it never happened and this journal ended up neglected.

After reading Morton Kelsey’s “Adventure Inward“, I confirmed how helpful journaling is to my spiritual life. So let me get this “impediment” out of the way and resume posting.

Instead of my usual musings, I’ll let my patron saint, St. Augustine, expand on the Pater in a parallel with the Beatitudes (hat tip to Mike Aquilina of “The Way of the Fathers” for his help finding the source):

The sevenfold number of these petitions also seems to me to correspond to that sevenfold number out of which the whole sermon before us has had its rise.

For if it is the fear of God through which the poor in spirit are blessed, inasmuch as theirs is the kingdom of heaven; let us ask that the name of God may be hallowed among men through that “fear which is clean, enduring for ever” (Ps. xix. 9).

If it is piety through which the meek are blessed, inasmuch as they shall inherit the earth; let us ask that His kingdom may come, whether it be over ourselves, that we may become meek, and not resist Him, or whether it be from heaven to earth in the splendour of the Lord’s advent, in which we shall rejoice, and shall be praised, when He says, “Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” (Matt. xxv. 34). <!– initNote("fnf_v.iii.xi-p6.1"); For “in the Lord,” says the prophet, “shall my soul be praised; the meek shall hear thereof, and be glad.” (Ps. xxxiv. 2.).

If it is knowledge through which those who mourn are blessed, inasmuch as they shall be comforted; let us pray that His will may be done as in heaven so in earth, because when the body, which is as it were the earth, shall agree in a final and complete peace with the soul, which is as it were heaven, we shall not mourn: for there is no other mourning belonging to this present time, except when these contend against each other, and compel us to say, “I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind;” and to testify our grief with tearful voice, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” (Rom. vii. 23, 24).

If it is fortitude through which those are blessed who hunger and thirst after righteousness, inasmuch as they shall be filled; let us pray that our daily bread may be given to us to-day, by which, supported and sustained, we may be able to reach that most abundant fulness.

If it is prudence through which the merciful are blessed, inasmuch as they shall obtain mercy; let us forgive their debts to our debtors, and let us pray that ours may be forgiven to us.

If it is understanding through which the pure in heart are blessed, inasmuch as they shall see God; let us pray not to be led into temptation, lest we should have a double heart, in not seeking after a single good, to which we may refer all our actings, but at the same time pursuing things temporal and earthly. For temptations arising from those things which seem to men burdensome and calamitous, have no power over us, if those other temptations have no power which befall us through the enticements of such things as men count good and cause for rejoicing.

If it is wisdom through which the peacemakers are blessed, inasmuch as they shall be called the children of God; let us pray that we may be freed from evil, for that very freedom will make us free, i.e. sons of God, so that we may cry in the spirit of adoption, “Abba, Father.” (Rom. viii. 15 and Gal. iv. 6).

Nor are we indeed carelessly to pass by the circumstance, that of all those sentences in which the Lord has taught us to pray, He has judged that that one is chiefly to be commended which has reference to the forgiveness of sins: in which He would have us to be merciful, because it is the only wisdom for escaping misery. For in no other sentence do we pray in such a way that we, as it were, enter into a compact with God: for we say, “Forgive us, as we also forgive.” And if we lie in that compact, the whole prayer is fruitless. For He speaks thus: “For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”

(in St. Augustine, “Our Lord’s Sermon on the Mount“, Book II, Chapter XI)

+JMJ+

St. Thomas Aquinas refers to the first three verses of the Pater as desires. But desires for what? For things that only God can give: graces. But which graces?

The three desires that begin the Pater are:

1. Hallowed be your name.
2. Your kingdom come.
3. Your will be done.

As St. Augustine said, it is not that God’s name is not holy, but rather it expresses our recognition of God as god. In other words, it is an expression of faith in God.

God’s kingdom is where His throne resides, Heaven itself. One cannot desire that Heaven comes to him, as the subject cannot impose on the King, rather one can only desire to be brought to Heaven. Therefore, it is an expression of hope in God’s mercy.

One desires that God’s will be realized, but it already is in the whole universe since the beginning. Except in those beings which He created to love Him. As only free beings can love, one desires that the God’s will to be loved back is realized. Thus, it is an expression of love for God.

Faith, Hope and Love, the Theological Virtues, the virtues which have as object God Himself. And as such, they are gifts that only God can give: graces.

In conclusion, one starts the Pater desiring that God will give him the fundamental graces that make a creature a child of God, so that one can call Him Father.

+JMJ+

I really like the way that St. Thomas Aquinas subdivided the Pater: three desires and four petitions. In these three desires we were taught to approach God as His children, asking to live in His house according to His love.

As St. Matthew tells us, Jesus taught us the Pater from atop the Mt. of Olives. As His hour approached, He went with His friends to the garden at the foot of the same mount. There, He prayed in a way that takes us back to the three desires in the Pater. Twice He prayed that the will of God be done, not His. He desired at that grueling hour what He taught us to desire. As we carry our own crosses, Jesus taught us in the Gethsemane to embrace them and to trust in God’s will, giving Him glory as we pace on to His kingdom.

+JMJ+

St. Paul tells us that it’s necessary to pray always (1 Th 5:17) and this sentence has mesmerized me, not unlike how the Pilgrim was mesmerized by it in The Way of a Pilgrim, where I first read about it. The Pilgrim called this prayer Prayer of the Heart. But I soon found out that I’d easily fall into mechanic repetition. It wasn’t until I made aquaintance with Br. Lawrence’s Practicing the Presence of God that I realized about another way of following St. Paul’s precept. Not by the Pilgrim’s vocal prayer, but by a brief contemplation of Jesus right beside us.

Many saints have warned about the danger of praying in the expectation of being caressed by Jesus, or of receiving consolations, as St. Teresa of Avila called them. Perhaps the best remedy for such a temptation is instead to pray in order to carress Him, to take a look at Him with the heart filled of love for all His graces that He bestows on us.

The Gospel readings this past week focused on the life-giving love of Jesus and I liked particularly His image as the vine with us as branches (Jn 15:1-8). I recently watched a program on PBS which shwoed one of the earliest images of Jesus found and it depicted exactly this passage, with Him in the center as the trunk of a vine which sprouted branches with children arranged along them (I wish I could find a picture or a reproduction of it). In these passages, Jesus repeated several times that we love one another just as He loves us, in a way telling us that this is how He wants His love to be responded.

St. Francis of Sales teaches us to gather a “spiritual bouquet” in his daily meditations, and I am thinking of trying to gather a daily spiritual bouquet to offer to jesus, a bouquet of blossoming charity, loving my neighbor as I love myself.

+JMJ+

Only now I realize that it’s been about a year since I’ve started to pray the Rosary daily. A Lent later, I can say that it’s been like a new Easter for me.

Jesus calls all of us to holiness, to love Him as He loved us. He loves us first and patiently awaits us to love Him back. By grace we find out about His love and, though imperfectly, we try to correspond. We yearn to know Him intimately and to do what pleases Him. We open our ears and our hearts to His loving words and caresses. He wishes to give us so much if only we ask (1 Jn 3:22) and He himself taught us how to ask (Mt 6:9-13), by turning to Him to give Him glory and to present our petitions.

But sometimes, we have nothing to ask for, all we want to do is to be with Jesus, to caress Him with tender and loving words. And He invites us to do this more often, daily, every few hours even. This is when I guess we can say that we have a prayer life.

Without prayer, it’s virtually impossible to grow closer Jesus. It’s as though the soul is not watered and remains in the shade, away from His refreshing infusions and from His life-giving light.

+JMJ+