"Faith is not a thing of the mind; it is not an intellectual certainty or a felt conviction of the heart. It is a sustained decision to take God with utter seriousness as the God of my life. It is to live out each hour in a practical, concrete affirmation that God is Father and he is 'in heaven'. It is a decision to shift the centre of our lives from ourselves to him, to forego self-interest and make his interests, his will, our sole concern. This is what it means to hallow his name as Father in heaven." Sister Ruth Burrows, O.C.D.I am indebted to "Leafyschroder" who comments on this blog for introducing me to Ruth Burrows, a Carmelite nun, who wrote the Archbishop of Canterbury's Lent book last year. In particular she recommended Before the Living God. I found this in an on-line review: "Her other books demonstrate the way God used even her worst experiences in the convent for her (and other's) spiritual benefit. It seems one purpose of the book might have been to encourage the reader to realize that God will take the most traumatic, or unfair circumstances if we turn to Him and transform it into one of our greatest blessings that brings spiritual peace and personal intimacy with God."
Leafyschroder then sent me this beautiful extract from a review of Ruth Burrows' latest book, Love Unknown:
"She has been trying to pray as a nun for 65 years. And what has she to show for it? Darkness, by her own account, and the feeling that God does not exist. As a young woman, when she prayed, nothing 'happened', and she soon realised it would always be like this. 'It is impossible to understand my life unless it is seen all the time against the background of black depression,' she wrote 36 years ago, in one of the great autobiographies of the twentieth century, Before the Living God.
"Her depression did not stem from any 'Dark Night of the Soul'. It came not from her vocation as a nun, but happened to be something that she brought to it with her, as part of her disposition. Those who have met her find her a sharp, intelligent, amusing interlocutor, but things are no easier for her in her spiritual life today. The difference is that now she is 'happy to be poor'. This attitude of poverty is the underlying, human theme of Love Unknown. The two themes go together: the objective reality of a loving God, and on the other side a radical human poverty on the part of the Christian loved by him.
"In this lies the answer to the person who finds that he or she is 'not getting anywhere' with prayer. Ruth Burrows challenges any such judgement based on subjective experience. Since it is God who prays in us, what would we expect to see and feel? Only by focusing on what is revealed by the risen Christ can we be sure that our God is real and not just a projection. We can only know the true, living God through his incarnate image."
Forgive me if you've already read my conversation with Leafyschroder, but I thought that last quotation really merited being a main blog entry. I'm ordering some of Ruth Burrows' books.
"Her depression did not stem from any 'Dark Night of the Soul'. It came not from her vocation as a nun, but happened to be something that she brought to it with her, as part of her disposition. Those who have met her find her a sharp, intelligent, amusing interlocutor, but things are no easier for her in her spiritual life today. The difference is that now she is 'happy to be poor'. This attitude of poverty is the underlying, human theme of Love Unknown. The two themes go together: the objective reality of a loving God, and on the other side a radical human poverty on the part of the Christian loved by him.
"In this lies the answer to the person who finds that he or she is 'not getting anywhere' with prayer. Ruth Burrows challenges any such judgement based on subjective experience. Since it is God who prays in us, what would we expect to see and feel? Only by focusing on what is revealed by the risen Christ can we be sure that our God is real and not just a projection. We can only know the true, living God through his incarnate image."
Forgive me if you've already read my conversation with Leafyschroder, but I thought that last quotation really merited being a main blog entry. I'm ordering some of Ruth Burrows' books.
5 comments:
Isn't it strange, but somehow, reading Ruth Burrows words quoted here on this blog, they seem to carry far more potency.
They cause me to feel deeply ashamed of my 'spiritual behaviour' and to realise that I need to become more hollowed out so that God may have space to pray in me, and I may stop blocking Him at every turn. Thank-you for quoting the extract on the blog Michael. As I said, it seems to have far more potency somehow. Maybe thanks to your prayers, dedication and suffering. May you be blessed.
Do you mind if I offer here something said by Pope Francis.
I find it hugely relevant to some of the problems I 'face/create' and thereffore found his words very apposite.
Christians must resist 'dark joy' of gossiping, pope says
By Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Gossiping about someone is a "dark joy" that Christians must resist because it is a betrayal like Judas' betrayal of Jesus, Pope Francis said.
Celebrating Mass at 7 a.m. in the Domus Sanctae Marthae, the pope offered a brief homily on the Gospel, which included Jesus' prediction that Judas would betray him.
The pope said that for Judas, who negotiated a price for handing Jesus over to the authorities, "Jesus is like merchandise: He's sold."
"In the market of history, in the market of our own lives, when we choose 30 pieces of silver and cast Jesus aside, the Lord has been sold," Pope Francis said.
But people also do the same to each other, including "when we gossip about each other," he said.
"I don't know why, but there is a dark joy in gossiping," he said. Sometimes we begin by saying nice things about another, but then we slip into gossip, making the object of our chatter merchandise to be bartered.
"Let us ask forgiveness because when we do this to a friend, we do it to Jesus, because Jesus is in this friend," he said.
If one notices a defect in another, Pope Francis said, the Christian response is pray that God will help him or her.
I am feeling blessed at the moment, Leafyschroder. I think people are praying. I have a friend who, although she won't know it, has made me realise how spiritually "flabby" I've become, and has also given me inspiration of what to do about it. Pray that my good intentions don't evaporate like steam. :)
As you may realise, I'm a fan of the new pope (I liked the old one too!) and he's quite right about the dark joy of gossip, not least among Christians. I used to pray, "Set a guard over my mouth, O Lord."
We had the enormous blessing of being offered a Sheltered Housing Assoc flat ( 20 mins drive away from our daughhter)almost 3 years ago. It's not sheltered housing any more as there is now no warden. We try hard to help each other.
We have settled well and become active members of the Parish and Community.
The bit which I have found eormously difficult is trying not to get sucked into the 'dark joy'
mentioned by Pope Francis. It's like an IED..in a place like this it's so easy to tread badly. I'm ashamed of the fact that I am in the danger zone before I even realise it. THat's why Pope Francis words meant so much to me.
This prayer of Cardinal Newman's called the 'Fragrance Prayer' means a great deal to me but I would appeal to anyone reading this to pray that I may avoid the 'dark joys'; not easy in semi communal living.
Thank-you.
Prayer of Blessed John Henry Newman
Dear Jesus
Help me to spread Thy fragrance everywhere I go.
Flood my soul with Thy Spirit and Life.
Penetrate and possess my whole being so utterly
That all my life may only be a radiance of Thine.
Shine through me,
And so be in me that every soul I come in contact with
May feel Thy presence in my soul.
Let them look up and see no longer me
But only Jesus.
Stay with me
And then I shall begin to shine
As Thou shinest,
So to shine as to be a light to others;
The light O Jesus will be all from Thee;
None of it will be mine;
It will be Thou shining on others through me.
Let me thus praise Thee in the way Thou dost love best
By shining on those around me.
Let me preach Thee without preaching,
Not by words but by my example,
By the catching force of the sympathetic influence
Of what I do,
The evident fullness of the love my heart bears to Thee.
Amen
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