Walking the Labyrinth in Chartres Cathedral
I. PRAYER OF THE NAME
1. "The Still Small Voice"
Literally, “voice of murmuring silence” qol d’mama d’aqah (Hebrew, story of Elijah, 1 Kings)
Christian mystics have loved this passage describing the "still small voice of calm" within.
2. New Testament Period
'Hallowed be thy Name..." (Mat 6)
"Keep them in your Name that they may be one, as we are one... I have revealed your Name to them... so that the love with which you loved me may be in them, and I may be in them." (John 17)
"No one enters the Kingdom of God except through the Name of his Son... The Name of the Son of God is great and boundless, and it is this Name that upholds the entire world." (Shepherd of Hermes, 3.9.12-14)
"He who possesses the Word of Jesus can hear his very silence and become perfect." (St. Ignatius to the Ephesians 3:21)
"Jesus is a secret Name... For that reason Jesus does not exist in any other language... There is only one Name which one does not speak out in the world, the Name which the Father gave to the Son. It is above everything."
(Gnostic Gospel of Philip)
"The Name which is above every Name..." (Philippians 2:9)
"Sons of the Name... in whom the Name of the Father is at rest, and they are at rest in his Name." (Gospel of Truth)
3. Eastern Orthodoxy: 'Prayer of the Heart' & the Name of Jesus
"Sinai Tradition" (4th - 6th C.)
* 430 AD - St. Niles of Ancyra speaks of the "Invocation of the Name of Jesus."
6th C. - "LIfe of Abba Philemon"
• Though recognizing shorter variants, this work gives for the first time the complete formula of the 'Jesus prayer': Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me.
7th C St John Climacus ('The Divine Ladder')
•"(Prayer is) constant remembrance of our Lord Jesus Christ, quietly led into the heart by way of breathing and again led out, without any extraneous thought or imagining." (45)
• Monologistos eucharistos, "one-word prayer"; Iesou euche: "Jesus Prayer" (terms first used)
8th C. - St. Hesychius of Jerusalem, "On Watchfulness and Holiness"
• "Constantly breathing Jesus Christ..."
• ...The heart's silence, unbroken by any thought. In this silence the heart breathes and invokes without ceasing only Jesus Christ, Son of God." (5)
• "The light of God begins to illumine the mind when it is freed of everything and totally empty of form. For this illumination is manifested in a mind that is pure, on condition that it is freed of all thoughts." (89)
13th C. - Nichodemus of the Holy Mountain (Mt. Athos)
• "Let Jesus be your breath."
14th C. - Philotheus, Mt. Athos, "Texts on Watchfulness"
• "Invoked in prayer, Jesus draws near and fills the heart with light." (29)
• "We must ceaselessly breathe God." (30)
14th C. - The Monks Callistus and Ignatius, Mt. Athos "Directions to Hesychasts"
• "After sunset, having asked the help of the all-merciful and all-powerful Lord Jesus Christ, sit you down on a low stool in your quiet and dimly lit cell; collect your mind from its customary circling and wandering outside, and quietly lead it into the heart by way of breathing, keeping the prayer, 'Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me,' connected with the breath." (25)
• "(Prayer is) constant remembrance of our Lord Jesus Christ, quietly led into the heart by way of breathing and again led out, without any extraneous thought or imagining." (45)
• "As regards the words, 'have mercy on me', added to the salvation-working words of the prayer, 'Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God', it was added by the holy fathers chiefly for those who are still infants in the work of virtue, the beginners... For the advanced and the holy in Christ are content with any of the shorter forms, 'Lord Jesus', 'Jesus Christ', 'Christ Son of God', or even with one word, 'Jesus', which they kiss and embrace as the complete doing of prayer, sufficient to fill them with ineffable bliss and joy exceeding all mind, all vision and all hearing." (50)
19th C: "The Way of a Pilgrim" (anonymous Russian classic)
• "Sink down in silence into the depths of your heart and call more and more upon the radiant Name of Jesus. Everyone who does this will experience, at last, the Inward Light."
20th C: "Breath of the Mystic," (Fa. George Maloney, S.J.)
• "Ephesians 1:23 describes, 'The fullness of Him who fills all in all." By pronouncing the Holy Name of Jesus, we release this transfiguring power. We call Him into being to touch our suffering world groaning in travail. We ask Him to transform the universe."
• "God was meant to be man's breath. Man was meant to be healthy and full of life by breathing in the loving power of God."
4. Medieval Roman Catholic Mystics of the Divine Name
14th C. - "Cloud of Unknowing" (anonymous)
"Take but one short word of a single syllable and clasp it tightly to your heart."
16th C. - St. Theresa of Avila, "Way of Perfection"
• "The most we should do is occasionally and quite gently to utter a single word, like a person giving a little puff to a candle when it is almost gone out, so as to make it burn again."
_________________________
II. OTHER CHRISTIAN MYSTICS
Finding God In the Midst of Daily Life
From the Confessions of St. Augustine...
Our life came down to this our earth and took away our death... He came forth first into the Virgin’s womb, where humanity was wedded to him, our mortal flesh... Then he called to us to return to him into that secret place from which he came forth. By what he said and what he did, he called to us. By his birth, his life, his death, his descent and ascension, he called to us to return to him. Then he withdrew from our eyes, that we might return to our own heart and find him. For he went away and, behold, he is still here. He would not be with us long, yet he did not leave us. He went back to that place which he had never left, for the world was made by him... O children of men, how long will ye be faint of heart? Even now, when life has come down to you, will you not ascend and live?
Jean Pierre de Caussade (18th C.):
God in the Present Moment
'Each moment brings with it a duty to be faithfully fulfilled. On that duty the whole of our attention is fixed at each successive moment, like the hand of a clock which marks each moment of the hour. Under God's unceasing guidance, our spirit turns without conscious effort to each new duty as it is presented to us by God each hour of the day.... Everything is reduced to the complete and utter self-abandonment of the soul to God's will under whatever form it is manifested.
"There is no secret. The treasure is everywhere. It is offered to us at every moment and in every place... Divine activity floods the whole universe. It pervades all creatures. It flows over them. Wherever they are, it is there: it precedes, accompanies and follows them. We have but to allow ourselves to be carried forward on the crest of its waves.
"O bread of angels, heavenly manna, the pearl of the Gospels, the sacrament of the present moment!"
St. Bernard of Clairvaux (11th C.)
"You will find something greater in woods than in books. Trees and stones will teach you what you can never learn from schoolmasters."
Meister Eckhart (14th C.)
"Every creature is full of God, and is a book about God. Every creature is a word of God. If I spent enough time with the tiniest creature, even a caterpillar, I would never have to prepare a sermon. So full of God is every creature."
“If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, 'thank you,' that would suffice.”
Hildegard of Bingen (11th C.)
"Holy souls draw to themselves all that is earthy."
"God hugs you. You are encircled by the arms of the mystery of God."
Teilhard de Chardin, The Divine Milieau....
God presents himself to us through the very work that we do. He does not blot out in his intense light the detail of our earthly aims, since the closeness of our union with him is in fact determined by the exact fulfilment of the least of our tasks... God incarnate is not far away from us, apart from the world we see, touch, hear, smell and taste. Rather, he awaits us every instant in our action, in the work of the moment. There is a sense in which God is at the tip of my pen, my spade, my brush, my needle - of my heart and my thought.... Try with God’s help to perceive the connection, even physical and natural, which binds your labour with the building of the Kingdom of Heaven; try to realise that heaven smiles upon you here and through your works draws you to itself; then, as you leave church for the noisy streets, you will remain with only one feeling: that of continual immersion in God!
SILENCE: FINDING GOD WITHIN
Dionysius the Aereopogyte, 'Mystical Theology' (5th C.)
'We pray that we may come unto that divine darkness which is beyond light, and without seeing or knowing, to see and to know what is above vision and knowledge, that we may know by Unknowing."
The Power of Silence: St Isaac of Ninevah (6th C.)
"Above all things, love silence. Out of your silence will arise something that will draw you into deeper silence. If you practice this, inexpressible Light will dawn upon you."
St. Maximus Confessor (9th C.)
"The only thing we can know about God is his infinity: and to know this No-thing is to pass beyond the knowledge of the thinking mind."
St. John of the Cross, 'Living Flame of Love' (16th C.)
"In true prayer, the soul must be attached to nothing, not even to any kind of sweetness, whether of sense or of spirit. For any thought or desire which the soul might have, or any pleasure to which it may be attached, would disturb it and introduce noise into the deep silence."
St. Paul
"If we think we are something, when in fact we are nothing, then we deceive ourselves."
Fa. Thomas Keating (Trappist Priest. founder of the Centering Prayer Movement)
"The spiritual journey is to go deeper and deeper into ourselves in order to make room for God... When we surrender our own desires, world view, self-image, and all that goes to make up the false self, we are truly participating in Christ's Kinosis (self-emptying) described by St. Paul in chapter 2 of Philippians. We are emptying ourselves or the false self so that our true self, which is Christ's life in us, may express itself through our humanity.
"Jesus said, If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. What is this 'self' we must deny? It is our thoughts, feelings, self-image, and world-view. Jesus added, Whoever would save his life will lose it, and whoever will lose his life for me will find it. That is, you will find eternal life, Christ's life, welling up within you."
ECSTASY
St. Theresa of Avila (Autobiography)...
"It pleased the Lord that I should… see beside me, on my left hand, an angel in bodily form… He was not tall, but short, and very beautiful, his face so aflame that he appeared to be one of the highest types of angel who seem to be all afire. They must be those who are called cherubim: they do not tell me their names but I am well aware that there is a great difference between certain angels and others… In his hands I saw a long golden spear and at the end of the iron tip I seemed to see a point of fire. With this he seemed to pierce my heart several times so that it penetrated to my entrails. When he drew it out, I thought he was drawing them out with it and he left me completely afire with a great love for God. The pain was so sharp that it made me utter several moans; and so excessive was the sweetness caused me by this intense pain that one can never wish to lose it, nor will one's soul be content with anything less…
if anyone thinks I am lying I beseech God, in His goodness, to give him the same experience.
