Contemplative Prayer Retreat: "Intro to the Mystics"
INSTRUCTIONS FOR LECTIO DIVINA
Lectio (reading)
Read the text for the first time, all the way through. Chose a word, phrase, or sentence that stands out to you. Let it settle into your mind and heart.
Meditatio (meditation)
Read the passage again, reflecting on the words of the text. Pay attention to the word or phrase that stood out to you, and be curious about why that particular piece caught your attention.
Oratio (prayer)
Read the passage a third time, and respond in prayer. This is an opportunity to enter into a conversation with God. You can ask questions, write your thoughts down, or offer a prayer of thanksgiving or petition.
Contemplatio (contemplation)
This is a moment of rest. Allow your mind to become quiet, avoiding the temptation to overanalyze the text or your response to it. If it’s helpful, read the text a final time.
MYSTIC EXCERPTS
Julian of Norwich - “God our Mother” from Chapters 59-60 of Revelations of Divine Love
“It is a characteristic of God to overcome evil with good.
Jesus Christ therefore, who himself overcame evil with good, is our true Mother. We received our being from Him and this is where His Maternity starts. And with it comes the gentle Protection and Guard of Love which will never ceases to surround us.
Just as God is our Father, so God is also our Mother.
And He showed me this truth in all things, but especially in those sweet words when He says: “It is I.”
As if to say, “I am the power and the Goodness of the Father, I am the Wisdom of the Mother, I am the Light and the Grace which is blessed love, I am the Trinity, I am the Unity, I am the supreme Goodness of all kind of things, I am the One who makes you love, I am the One who makes you desire, I am the never-ending fulfilment of all true desires.”
I then saw with complete certainty that God, before creating us, loved us, and His love never lessened and never will. In this love he accomplished all his works, and in this love he oriented all things to our good and in this love our life is eternal.”
Catherine of Siena - “Neighbourly Love” from Chapter 64 of The Dialogue
"I would have you know that every good, whether perfect or imperfect, is acquired and made manifest in me. And it is acquired and made manifest by means of your neighbour. Even simple folk know this, for they often love others with spiritual love. If you have received my love sincerely without self interest, you will drink your neighbour’s love sincerely. It is just like a vessel that you fill at the fountain. If you take it out of the fountain to drink, the vessel is soon empty. But if you hold your vessel to the fountain while you drink, it will not get empty: Indeed, it will always be full. So the love of your neighbour, whether spiritual or temporal, is meant to be drunk in me, without any self interest.”
John of the Cross - “Oh, Living Flame of Love”
Oh, living flame of love
That tenderly woundest my soul in its deepest centre,
Since thou art no longer oppressive, perfect me now if it be thy will,
Break the web of this sweet encounter.
Oh, sweet burn! Oh, delectable wound!
Oh, soft hand! Oh, delicate touch
That savours of eternal life and pays every debt!
In slaying, thou hast changed death into life.
Oh, lamps of fire,
In whose splendours the deep caverns of sense
Which were dark and blind with strange brightness
Give heat and light together to their Beloved!
How gently and lovingly thou awakenest in my bosom,
Where thou dwellest secretly and alone!
And in thy sweet breathing, full of blessing and glory,
How delicately thou inspirist my love!
Teresa of Avila - “Your Will Be Done”, from The Way of Perfection
“We can do nothing of ourselves, either by working hard or by making plans, nor is it needful that we should. For everything else hinders and prevents us from saying [with real resolution], “Fiat voluntas tua”: that is, may the Lord fulfil His will in me, in every way and manner with Thou, my Lord, desirest. If Thou wilt do this by means of trials, give me strength and let them come. If by means of persecutions and sickness and dishonour and need, here I am, my Father, I will not turn my face from Thee.
“We can only learn to know ourselves and do what we can namely, surrender our will and fulfill God’s will in us. Anything else must be a hindrance to the soul which the Lord has brought to this state. It causes it, not profit, but harm, for nothing but humility is of any use here, and this is not acquired by the understanding but by a clear perception of the truth, which comprehends in one moment what could not be attained over a long period by the labour of the imagination— namely, that we are nothing and that God is infinitely great.”
Thomas Merton, “On Christian Peacemaking” from The Nonviolent Alternative
“It must however be stated quite clearly and without compromise that the duty of the Christian as a peacemaker is not to be confused with a kind of quiestic inertia that is indifferent to injustice, accepts any kind of disorder, compromises with error and with evil, and gives in to every pressure in order to maintain “peace at any price”. The Christian knows well, or should know well, that peace is not possible on such terms. It demands greater heroism than war. It demands greater fidelity to the truth and a much more perfect purity of conscience. The Christian fight for peace is not to be confused with defeatism.”
Scott Cairns - “Possible Answers to Prayer”
Your petitions—though they continue to bear
just the one signature—have been duly recorded.
Your anxieties—despite their constant,
relatively narrow scope and inadvertent
entertainment value—nonetheless serve
to bring your person vividly to mind.
Your repentance—all but obscured beneath
a burgeoning, yellow fog of frankly more
conspicuous resentment—is sufficient.
Your intermittent concern for the sick,
the suffering, the needy poor is sometimes
recognizable to me, if not to them.
Your angers, your zeal, your lipsmackingly
righteous indignation toward the many
whose habits and sympathies offend you—
these must burn away before you’ll apprehend
how near I am, with what fervour I adore
precisely these, the several who rouse your passions.
Scott Cairns - “A Word”
She said God. He seems to be there
when I call on Him but calling
has been difficult too. Painful.
And as she quieted to find
another word, I was delivered
once more to my own long grappling
with that very angel here — still
here — at the base of the ancient
ladder of ascent, in foul dust
languishing yet at the very
bottom rung, letting go my grip
long before the blessing.
