By Love

"Lord... let me preach You without preaching, not by words but by my example, by the catching force, the sympathetic influence of what I do, the evident fullness of the love my heart bears to You."  

                                                                                         - John Henry Cardinal Newman

"Miss no single opportunity of making some small sacrifice, here by a smiling look, there by a kindly word; always doing the smallest right and doing it all for love."  

                                                                                         - St. Therese of Lisieux

"Love has a hem to her garment, that reaches the very dust.  It sweeps the stains from the streets and lanes, and because it can, it must."

                                                                                         - Blessed Mother Teresa

"At the end of our life, we shall be judged by love."  

                                                                                        - St. John of the Cross

Full Truth and Nothing But..

As we look at "contemplative renewal," we do well to remember that all authentic renewal will line up with Scripture and Church teaching.  Anything falling short of this is not truth.  Oh, it may have some elements of truth embedded in it, but anything falling short of full truth is not the God-given contemplative renewal to which we are referring.

I mention this because, as most of us know all too painfully, the world holds forth a lot of "artificial light" at present.  It can be tough, at times, to discern.  For anyone wondering what I mean, I will include a few links at the end of this post.  

And as for me, for years I've engaged in discussions of real vs. artificial "light." The following are excerpts from a few of my letters:

1993:  I think people get into pseudo mysticism because they are literally starved for genuine contact with God.  But there are "systems of mysticism" that do not require God to be God.  They allow us to feel "mystical" without having to be accountable to Another and to surrender to Him unconditionally.  They allow us to do things our way rather than His way, and that is why a key element in the cloistered heart way of life is the acceptance of God's right to be God.  The only door into enclosure of the heart is the doorway of surrender to God.  And this surrender must be to the Person of God, to the Real God Who is revealed to us in Scripture and Church teaching.

1994:  What falls under the heading "new age" promises much without asking much of us.  We are urged to look into self.  We are encouraged to improve self.  We are not asked to die to self.  There is no exhortation to take up one's cross daily and follow Jesus.  And so there is the promise of the supernatural realm without the cost Jesus asks of us:  that of our very lives.  It is why the convenience of artificial light, light which shows the ingenuity of man, can be more appealing than fire that invites one to sacrifice self in the flame.

1995:  The contemplative renewal is about souls that proclaim Jesus Christ as our only Lord.  We do this proclaiming in prayer, in word, in deeds of love and mercy.  We adore the Lord and we "stand in the gap" for those who do not adore Him.  We speak of Truth to those who may not hear it from anyone else.  We stand in the midst of artificial light, carrying our humble flames of God's love and truth and mercy, and we cannot exchange them for anything less no matter how much the less may glitter.  May the renewal of contemplative love and truth and fire springing up here and there throughout the world continue on; may it light a world that does not even know it's steeped in darkness.

May our zeal to carry this flame never be drowned in compromise in all the years to come.. this is our prayer.  To pray for this and to work for it with every fiber of our being - this is our call.

Links:  

Dangers of New Age Movement  

Jesus Christ, the Bearer of the Water of Life

Text not in quotes © 2012 Nancy Shuman.  All Rights Reserved.
thecloisteredheart.org      

Contemplative Renewal

I have long believed there is a kind of contemplative renewal occurring in the Church.  From where I sit, I see an ever growing body of evidence that this is indeed the case.  An increase of Eucharistic adoration... a re-focus on the Hearts of Jesus and Mary... an emphasis on Divine Mercy... interests in contemplative prayer and silent retreats.  So many things make me think this all has been growing, hidden, right in the midst of a world that seems increasingly more confused about the Truth of God.

This has not arrived with the fire and exuberance of some other renewal movements.  It grew in a quieter, more hidden way.  Like contemplative prayer itself, this is "infused."

One cannot make this sort of thing happen here or there or anywhere; one can only be a yes to God and make oneself available.  And one "yes" - one unconditional, unqualified yes to the will of God - can reverberate throughout the whole earth.  I believe we are seeing fruits of some of these yeses, this very day.

Tough times produce tough yeses. These yeses may not be spoken in the midst of great emotion.  They may be uttered in the pain of darkness, or with the sting of aridity, or with the apprehension of knowing that those who stand for the Truth of Christ are often scorned and looked down upon.  This in itself makes the yeses unconditional.

I think the blooms of contemplative renewal are being spotted here, and there... across the earth.  They have been growing hidden, their roots spreading under the soil.  The gentle grace of contemplative renewal does not receive notice from many; only from those who have eyes to see and patience to wait upon God.

It is a struggle to get these words down, for I suspect they sound a bit dramatic.  But in 1995 I made an attempt to speak of this to a priest, a man (now deceased) who traveled the world teaching the Truth of Christ.  He responded:  "you write of a 'contemplative renewal.'  Yes.  We are shoots of a larger growth - of the Spirit - coming up everywhere.  There is hope.  It is He."  

Those looking for fanfare and accolades for their opinions don't pay much attention to little clumps of flowers here and there.  But little clumps of pray-ers, rooted securely in the Church, are the ones God has ALWAYS used to hold the fertile soil of His world together.    

There is indeed hope.  It is He.

Text not in quotes © 2012 Nancy Shuman.  All Rights Reserved.
thecloisteredheart.org      

Illustration: Dendrobium anosmum Blanco, in US public domain due to age

The Monastery

As someone desiring to live as a "cloistered heart," I look at my life as a monastery.  After all, a monastery is a place consecrated to God, a place of prayer, a place where God is loved and served.  I can certainly be all of these things.  I can be a place for God.  

This is more than a nice daydream.  It is simply truth.   

"Even now we are called to be a dwelling for the Most Holy Trinity.  'If a man loves Me,' says the Lord, 'he will keep My word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him, and make our home with him.' (John 14:23)"  (Catechism of the Catholic Church #260)

"O my God.... grant my soul peace.  Make it Your heaven, Your beloved dwelling, and Your place of rest.  May I never abandon You there, but may I be there, whole and entire, completely vigilant in my faith, entirely adoring, and wholly given over to Your creative action."  (St. Elizabeth of the Trinity, quoted in Catechism of the Catholic Church # 260)

Looking for a picture to put with this post, I was stopped in my tracks by the one I wound up choosing.  It was not my favorite from among the possibilities, but I could not ignore the Scripture that immediately sprang to mind....

"Anyone who hears My words and puts them into practice is like the wise man who built his house on rock.  When the rainy season set in, the torrents came and the winds blew and buffeted his house.  It did not collapse; it has been solidly set on rock."  (Matthew 7:24-25) 

I look at the painting and envision floodwaters surging all around, washing away vegetation and turning soil into oozing brown rivulets.  I think of waters rising, rising, carrying within them all sorts of trash and polution... yet the house stands firm, for it is built upon a massive rock.

"He alone is my Rock and my salvation, my stronghold; I shall not be disturbed at all."  (Psalm 62:2-3)

I pray that we may stand firm and strong upon Our Lord Himself.  As imperfect as we are, He actually desires to live within us.  

Imagine. 

"Humility and charity are the two main parts of the spiritual edifice.  One is the lowest and the other the highest, and all the others depend on them.  Hence, we must keep ourselves well founded in these two, because the preservation of the entire edifice depends on the foundation and the roof."  (St. Francis de Sales)

(Andrea Mantegna painting, public domain) 

Text © 2012 Nancy Shuman. 
thecloisteredheart.org   

Just What IS a Cloistered Heart?

Today I came across one of the earlier papers I wrote on the subject of the Cloistered Heart.  It was put together at the request of a priest, who asked me for something "concise" for sharing with others.  "Concise" was not one of my strong suits.  Therefore, I was grateful to Father Andrew for encouraging me to get the very basics of this down on paper.

With a few minor adaptations, here is what I wrote in the 1990s:

My call is to be in the world but not of the world.   This is not a new or different idea; rather, it is an emphasizing, a kind of "underlining," of every Christian's call.  The uniqueness of this emphasis is in its monastic imagery.  I find it helpful to recognize that within me is a "place" set apart for and consecrated to God.  This place of consecration is sacred and inviolate, for the God of all dwells therein.

The word "cloister" speaks of total consecration.  Those who enter a traditional physical cloister make a tangible break from the world.  Compromise does not fit well in a cloister, nor does lukewarmness, nor does complacency.  The cloistered life is meant to be absolute.  A nun living in a cloister has made a decision to live for God.  She has made a break.

A Christian living in the world is also called to make a decision to live for God, but the break is not so clean.  The world is persistent in its tugs on the heart trying to live for God.  Therefore, we need support in our struggles to surrender our lives to God and to resist the world's allurements.  This is where the imagery of the cloistered heart can be of help.

"It is best not to consider whether or not one is called to the cloister; that is not the point.  If the cloister is in a man's heart, it is immaterial whether the building is actually there.  The cloister in a man's heart means only this:  God and the soul."  (from Warriors of God by Walter Nigg, NY, Alfred A. Knopf, 1959, p. 13)

A cloistered heart may be married or single, nurse or engineer or homemaker, yet the heart can be cloistered.  My cloister is not made of bricks and stones, but of God's holy will in which I have chosen to live.  The will of God forms for me a "cloister grille," through which I may view and respond to all people, all circumstances, all things that make up the world in which I live.  My commitment to God does not conflict with family life, but rather enhances and empowers it.

Many years ago, another had this same kind of vision.  St. Jane de Chantal, when she was yet a laywoman (widowed with four chldren), imaged her spiritual world with monastic imagery, and took the Virgin Mary as the Abbess of the cloister of her own heart.

I ask for her intercession and for that of St. Francis de Sales, who encouraged Jane in her monastic imagery.  May they pray for all of us who wish to live in the world as "cloistered hearts."

Text © 2012 Nancy Shuman.  All Rights Reserved.
thecloisteredheart.org   

(painting of Kloster by Eduard von Kallee, US public domain)