The Catholic Hermit Desires Pure Prayer

To desire pure prayer and to receive the grace and achieve it: God's will be done.

Last night a couple came to Agnus Dei, and we viewed the DVD Into Great Silence. This was the third viewing for the hermit. The couple are of active apostolate, and the silence of the film needed to be broken with discussion. The hermit realizes that silence is not comfortable for most people, and that is all right. Charity allows discussion for guests. So we discussed the Carthusians, the film's artistry, the beauty, some of the Scriptures posted on the film (for there were minimal words utilized).

Aha! This statement caught the hermit's eyes once again: I became man. If you would become God with Me, I would not be disappointed.

Later, the Catholic hermit considered some of what St. Silouan teaches about pure prayer. Perhaps the hermit will never achieve this state of prayer, although it is desired due to the means of helping souls all the more from the center of pure prayer. Perhaps the Lord will not grant it, for His will must be accomplished. Perhaps the Lord requires the hermit to remain lower on the mountainside, in the range of words.

For pure prayer arrives on the pathway through mental stillness. Let the Staretz be quoted!

"The ascent to pure prayer begins with the struggle with the passions. As the mind becomes cleansed of passion it grows stronger in the fight against intrusive thoughts, and more steadfast in prayer and meditation; while the heart, in liberating itself from the darkening effects of passion, begins to see spiritual things more clearly and more purely, and finally acquires an intuitive certitude about them.

"The theologian-thinker aims at contemplation by one means, the [hermit] by another. the main object of the [hermit] is to achieve the stillness of prayer in the heart, with the mind, free from reflections, keeping quiet watch like a sentry to make sure that nothing enters into the heart from without. Where this state of sacred silence exists, heart and mind feed on the Name of Christ and His commandments. They live as one, controlling all happenings within, not by logical investigation but intuitively, by a specific spiritual sense.

"As soon as the mind unites with the heart it can see every movement in the sphere of the [subconscious]....The energy of this or that spirit makes itself manifest in the form of thought-suggestion roused by this or that image. The attack of intrusive thoughts is fierce; to weaken their onset the [hermit] is constrained the livelong day not to admit a single passionate consideration, not to allow himself a predilection of any kind. His constant aim is to reduce the number of outside impressions to its very minimum."

This is none other than what St. John of the Cross and St. Teresa of Avila write in their attempts to help souls to achieve the living flame of love or the seventh mansion!

"Experience has proved that in the hour of prayer, one must not linger even on an apparently good thought, for it is sure to bring with it other intrusive thoughts, so that, as the Staretz said, the mind will not emerge pure. And nothing can make up for the loss of pure prayer.

"The end the [hermit] strives after is a state of uninterrupted mental attention in the heart--a state in which prayer becomes constant, imbued with a clear, robust knowing of God present and active, and the mind from much weeping becomes strong enough to push back every attack by passionate intrusive thoughts."

Why desire pure prayer? It is said that one can do much good for souls and for God by this sacred silence. Again, one day in His courts is worth a thousand elsewhere. This is the deeper meaning of the psalmist's words. A moment of pure prayer can achieve the will of God for thy neighbor and for thyself; it is a sacrifice of praise wrought from the silent lips of the heart.

Practice is involved. The Catholic hermit's mind has so many thoughts, and the reading recently has stirred the thoughts. Spiritual thoughts are good; the readings are good. However, self-possession, control over the passions, and recollectedness are better. It is a process. One continues the climb.

In practical considerations, whether God will grant pure prayer and to what if any degree, remains in God's prerogative. It is not for the human to do any particular techniques or exercises, but simply to place the mind and heart before the Lord, and to exercise the virtues, especially love. God may use individual souls with their many good thoughts and words, such as St. Francis de Sales who preached and wrote voluminously--considered to be a later St. Thomas Aquinas, but of mystical writings. One can look to souls God has utilized in active ministry, who may or may not have been given pure prayer in the sense of inner quiet but had prayer in holy action. The Catholic hermit merely ponders these possibilities.

But for a hermit, the pure prayer seems in the job description. The degree and level remains known by God alone. It doesn't matter to the hermit. The admonition to control the passions and the advice of so many mystic saints to keep out instrusive thoughts, brings the point to the fore. There is some effort involved here. One must be willing to give up those activities which seem so good, and tempt to pride that one is helping even one soul by the many good thoughts and words.

Perhaps two souls would be helped by pure prayer! Perhaps a hundred more souls would be helped all the more by even one moment of pure prayer. The Carthusians seem to pray in the heart.

Should not a genderless soul, in nothingness, learn to be silent when nesting within the Sacred Heart of Jesus? He became man. Should we not delight Him by becoming [as] God with Him?