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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20230612
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DTSTAMP:20260428T043035
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UID:10595-1686528000-1686614399@laycisterciansofgethsemani.org
SUMMARY:St. Alice
DESCRIPTION:PURITY OF HEART\nFrom a sermon by Isaac of Stella2\n◊◊◊\n“HAPPY are the pure in heart\, they shall see God.” Once love is present there\ntoo is longing to see what is loved… Those alone who have purified their hearts shall\nsee him\, because it is solely by a pure heart that God can be seen. And I ask you\nfrankly\, brothers\, of what use are all our years of such effort if we have not made our\nhearts clean? Perhaps we have indeed purified our hearts for the sake of virtue?\nWell\, now they must be purified for the sake of truth. And if we have already\ncleansed them for loving\, now they must be made clean for seeing…\nWhen the Lord purifies the eye of a man’s mind\, enabling him to perceive\ntruth\, he is indeed giving a blind man his sight. It must be clearly understood\, then\,\nthat when we speak of purity of heart\, we do not mean simply that the heart is to be\npurified from vices\, call them disordered desire or perverted love\, but that it must\nbe purified from the phantasies that are absorbed by the corporeal senses and\nremain in the imagination\, for these become an obstruction that prevents our seeing\nthe sun’s clear light. They either cut us off from that solar body\, the very source of\nlight itself (they are so unlike it) or at least they reduce the sun’s brightness…\nDon’t let this discourage you! Once you have passed through all these clouds\nby vigilance of mind and purity of heart\, once your every thought is silent\, or\, rather\,\nleft far behind then\, at last\, brothers\, there will appear before you a shining cloud\, “a\ncloud filled with light”\, not stormy now nor dense\, a cloud of wisdom\, not of\nignorance. \nFor there is darkness in light\, darkness all the deeper in much light\, until\nfinally\, when the light reaches the threshold of its own incomprehensibility and\nenters that unapproachability in which dwells “ that peace which passes all\nunderstanding\,” it is taken from our eyes so that any further knowledge of the Light\nis obtained not through speculation but through revelation\, just as the apostles\ngazing heavenward\, learned from the men who stood beside them in white\ngarments…\nSo now you know from what things the heart must be purified and to what\nextent\, and for what purpose\, namely\, to be able to gaze upon the Being who is\nPerfection unlimited\, who is Beauty without quality\, Greatness without extension\,\nPresence uncircumscribed by place\, Existence beyond time. But without this\npurification it is impossible to see God and so he tells us: “Happy are the pure in\nheart\, they shall see God.” Here\, “a confused reflection; there\, as he is.”…\nTo speak plainly\, brothers\, no man can be fully and perfectly spiritual nor can\nhe be ready to go out with tranquil mind from his tent in the leisure of\ncontemplation\, unless he has first rid his home of vice\, that is\, of all perverted and\ndisordered love\, and has furnished and decorated it with good habits\, and left it\nfortified with a strong guard of virtues. Otherwise\, the adulterous unclean spirit… if\nhe find “the house swept clean and put in order\,” but empty of virtues\, may make his\nway in by force or favor and take possession\, protecting himself with a bodyguard of\nseven associates more evil than himself… Then indeed\, “the last state of this type of\nspiritual a man is worse than the first”. He who began in the Spirit is now ending\nwith the flesh\, or rather\, is ended by the flesh.\nIf a man desires to be truly spiritual\, let him first pay attention to his desires\nrather than to his ideas\, to his way of life rather than his form of meditation. For he\nmust first use his feet to walk before soaring into flight. And since he cannot always\nbe in flight\, let him go about sensibly on foot lest he suddenly crash down. \n2 Isaac of Stella. Sermons on the Christian Year: Volume One. CF 11. Trans. Hugh McCaffery.\nKalamazoo\, MI: Cistercian Publications\, 1979. 29-34.
URL:https://laycisterciansofgethsemani.org/event/st-alice/
CATEGORIES:Vigils Readings
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